Storts Family

Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.

List Your Website Here!

Bounce – Website annotation is a great way of sharing websites when you want to say something about specific parts of a site. You can leave comments anywhere on a webpage through website annotation thereby fully expressing yourself. Bounce is one site that lets you easily perform this task. Read more: Bounce: Tool For Marking & Annotating Websites.

		FamilyShield – is a great free service that provides protection from phishing schemes. But that is only its secondary object; the primary objective is to block all types of adults websites and save your children from viewing them online. Read more: FamilyShield: Block Adults Websites & Other Malware.
		Anti-Theft For Mobile – There are a number of phone apps that provide great security for iPhones and Android based smartphones. There are 3 basic features these security apps offer: the ability to know where your phone is when lost, the ability to remotely lock your phone and the ability to remotely wipe all of your phone’s data. Read more: Anti Theft For Mobile: Recover Lost/Stolen Cellphone & Protect Your Data.
		Wordgames – If you love smart online games, then you should check out Wordgames. This website is a collection of fun word games and puzzles including popular ones such as Crossword, Sudoku, Hangman, and Typing. There are also more complicated word challenges that you can play here. Wordgames features a new game every week. Read more: Wordgames: Comprehensive Collection Of Fun Word Games online.
		MyJobChart – If you are a working parent then you’ll agree that managing daily household chores and getting kids to do simple tasks is not easy. Before you give up, you might want to try My Job Chart. It’s a nice online tool that introduces a reward-based chore tracking system for kids to get them involved in some daily household work. Read more: MyJobChart: Manage Daily Household Chores With Family.

List Your Website Here!

These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

• makeuseof extra #27 (171 comments)
• Finally Stick To Your Resolutions With StickK (107 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 9] (51 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 7] (62 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 6] (72 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 5] (4 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 30] (3 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 29] (3 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 28] (5 comments)
• Cool Websites and Tools [September 27] (7 comments)

Are you constantly on the move? Do you like finding new, interesting places to eat or hang out at, or do you welcome the familiar? Regardless of your routine, Foursquare can enhance your traveling and make wandering around your own town fun. Do it enough, and you could become the Mayor of a Foursquare location.

Foursquare – much like Gowalla – is a geolocation app for your phone, which means it uses your geographical location to work. Foursquare can tell you what’s all around you and can let you share what you’re doing with your friends. If you’re a Twitter user, you’ve probably seen an increasing amount of Foursquare tweets in your stream as of late.

Geolocation apps are becoming a popular trend fast, especially as businesses learn how to use them for their benefit.  Being that Foursquare is one of the most popular geolocation games in town, allow me to share with you everything you can do with this app.

Where Do I Get Foursquare?

First thing’s first, let me briefly cover where you can get this app. You can use Foursquare on any phone. If you have an iPhone, or one with Android, Blackberry, or Palm you’re in luck, because Foursquare has supported apps for those phones.

Don’t have a fancy phone? That’s alright, because you can simply go to the mobile site to use it with your phone’s web browser. If you have a phone that doesn’t have a web browser, you can check in by sending messages to 50500 (only available in the US).

Lastly, anyone can check into Foursquare from the regular website. To make this easier, you can try the Firefox and Chrome extensions.

Checking In With Foursquare

The main idea behind Foursquare is to check into the places you visit (e.g. restaurants, bars). You access the app on your phone (by one of the many ways I’ve discussed) and check into the venue you’re at (e.g. Cafe 210, State College).

Upon checking in, you will receive points and (eventually) badges – like being the Mayor of a Foursquare location. These ‘accomplishments’ will be added to your profile for all to see. Add friends (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook) to compete against. Once you’ve added a friend, you can then see all of their check ins and total points accumulated.

Because you can check in from anywhere and there are points involved, you may want to consult the rules. Also, you can find a list of all the available Foursquare badges here.

How To Become The Mayor of Foursquare

If you’ve been to a place more than anyone else, Foursquare will crown you “The Mayor” of that Foursquare spot. According to their website, they calculate ‘mayorships’ based on the most days with check ins in the past 60 days (so 2 check ins to the same place in one day just count 1 time).

If someone else comes along who has checked in more days than you, they will steal the “Mayor” title from you. A lot of bars and cafes now offer “Mayor Specials”, which is usually something like a free coffee or appetizer, or a discount of some kind. Some places offer specials to everyone who checks in. Watch for the yellow “Special Nearby” icon in your app.

[Note]: If you want to become mayor of Foursquare, you will need to have uploaded a profile photo.

I Can’t Find My Venue. Now What?

If the venue you’re looking for isn’t there, don’t sweat it. Foursquare gives you the ability to add venues. You can do this from your phone or the website. All you have to do is click on Add venue and add the necessary information.

Just type in the name of the venue, along with its address and phone number (if you know it), and you’re all set. Foursquare will add the location to their database, along with a Google map and all of the information you provided. It’s a great way to get local venues discovered!

While entering information, you can also pick the category of the venue (e.g. Bar, Wings) and add tags and tips.

Wait, What Are Tips?

Ah, yes. Foursquare lets you leave tips for your friends to discover when they check into places. You can leave tips to let people know about your favorite experiences (e.g. favorite foods, things to try) or anything you like.

You can add tips to your To Dos list on your profile. Once you’ve completed an action, it will be added to your activity stream. Tips are currently tied to places, so you will need to type in the name of a place in order to leave a tip.

Still Don’t Know What Foursquare Is?

Check out this video for a visual recap of everything I’ve just covered:

Conclusion

Foursquare can be a lot of fun once you get into it. It’s a good way to compete with your friends and it helps you get out more. As more and more businesses get on board, I’m sure we will be seeing some interesting and creative ways to use such geolocation apps. Since Foursquare is one of the more popular apps out there, it will be particularly interesting to see where it is headed.

If you still have any questions about Foursquare that I did not address, you should check out their in-depth FAQ page.

Do you use Foursquare or any other geolocation apps? Where do you see this technology headed?  What have you become the Mayor of? Please leave your thoughts, ideas, and comments below!

Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

• Check.in To Multiple Your Location Tracker Apps At Once [Android, iPhone, iPad] (10 comments)
• Map Your Adventures With a Free GPS Mobile Tracker for Android (13 comments)
• BrightKite On The iPhone Tears Up The Location-Based Ballgame (10 comments)
• 5 Mobile Social Networks That Know When Your Friend Is Near (4 comments)
• 5 Best Location-Based Alternatives to Foursquare (7 comments)
• 10 More Websites To Show You The Hottest Twitter Topics Now (11 comments)
• What Is Geocaching And How To Have Fun With It (17 comments)
• WAYN: Social Networking For The International Adventurers (15 comments)
• Using An All-In-One PDA & GPS For Geocaching [Android] (24 comments)
• Use Google Maps Navigation For Turn-By-Turn GPS [Android] (23 comments)

Who hasn’t dropped by a webcam or two to waste some time?  I’m not sure what is so fascinating about them but people just like webcams.  Maybe it’s the real-time aspect of it all.

There are a lot of free online webcams out there that are good at being interesting.  For instance, check out the article about the best free webcams to watch when you are bored.  As you can see, many webcams are very interesting to watch, for some reason.

On the other side of the equation, some webcams just make us stop and wonder what people were thinking of when they set them up.  Check out some of them most boring webcams on the net.

Watch Paint Peel

Watch paint peel?  Like I said, sometimes I don’t know what people are thinking.  People watch it though.  I wonder how long someone has to watch this one before they get some kind of on screen action.  As for me and my house, we will keep the peeling to ourselves.

Watch Grass Grow

Seriously?  People actually go through the bother to set up cameras to watch their grass grow?  And they expect people to watch?  I know we’ve all had days when we didn’t feel up to doing much more than watching grass grow but come on!  From the person who mows the grass around this house, let’s find a cam where we can watch grass NOT grow.  Now that would be a feat.

Watch The Traffic

Did you know that you can actually log on and watch traffic cameras?  I can look out my window if I want to watch traffic – and the frame rate is even better.  On this site you have a map marking off all of the traffic cams you can look at.  Many hours of joyous fun can be spent here, I’m sure of it.

Watch Cheese

OK, the cheddarvision makes watching paint peel interesting.  Normally watching food would make me hungry but for some reason not in this case.  The only redeeming part to this is that they have also recorded a 12-month time lapse video of the whole thing.  I guess that makes it all OK.

Watch A Garden

What can be more interesting than watching grass grow?  Watching a whole garden grow, of course.  The frame rate is good and the plants look nice, but what’s the point?  Sure, it’s fun watching the plants flowing in the breeze but I can do that in my own back yard.

One cool part is that you can make their bubble machine blow bubbles.  Not sure why you’d want to but have fun with it.

OK, so you’d have to be pretty bored to want to check some of these free online webcams out.  I don’t know, maybe it’s the level of boring-ness that makes them irresistible to take a peek at.  Check them out, tell us what you think and share some more boring webcams in the comments.

Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

• Spoiler Warning: 10 Spoiler Websites That Can Ruin A Movie Ending (25 comments)
• 5 Websites With Things To Make You Smile & Light Up Your Day (9 comments)
• 5 Fun Mobile Apps To Entertain Your Party Guests [Android] (6 comments)
• 3 Fun Programs For Free Fortune And Tarot Readings (7 comments)
• ZOMGies! – An Addictive Zombie Survival Game (32 comments)
• Watch CollegeHumor, Browse Flickr and Read Digg News On Your TV with Boxee’s Apps (18 comments)
• Turn Your Android Phone Into A Real Star Trek Tricorder (21 comments)
• Top 5 Spooky Websites That Will Keep You Awake At Night (12 comments)
• Top 5 Sites With Scary Stuff That Makes You Jump (7 comments)
• Top 5 Sites With Future Predictions About The World (18 comments)

There’s probably more game apps in the iTunes store than any other kind of app, and while most of them are in the 0.99 cent range, there are some great choices out there that will cost you absolutely nothing.

The following is a list of 8 iPhone games you won’t believe are free. They’ve either got great graphics and sound effects, or are just a great gaming experience overall.

Most importantly, none of these apps have any limitations on the actual gameplay, but a couple of of them are ad-supported free versions of paid apps. In the big scheme of things, that’s a pretty small price to pay to get a great app for free.

Scramboni

For all the word nerds out there, Scramboni [iTunes link] is a great multiplayer online game. Each game consists of 20 rounds, where you have to unscramble letters to form a word. There are three levels, and you can only progress to the higher levels after you’ve played, and scored, enough.

For each round, you will find out how fast you were in comparison to your opponents, and overall you will be ranked by the number of points you score.

Texas Hold’em Live

The graphics on Texas Hold’em Live [iTunes link], a huge online multiplayer game are pretty impressive, and it’s surprising that the it’s free.

Play the Texas Hold ‘Em version of poker against opponents from around the world, or if you don’t want to go online, you can also play a quick round against as many AI (Artificial Intelligence) opponents as you like.

Backgammon Lite

If you are a fan of backgammon, Backgammon Lite [iTunes link] will definitely appeal to you with its great graphics and sound effects. And if you don’t know how to play backgammon, this is a great way to learn.

You can either play a single player game against an AI, play in peer to peer mode using Bluetooth to connect to another iPhone or in pass-and-play mode.

Topple

Topple [iTunes link] is a game in which you have to stack as many wacky shapes on top of each other to reach a specific goal. As you finish each level, the next level is unlocked, where the target line gets higher and higher. Just make sure you don’t drop too many of the shapes into the abyss, because once you lose 5 blocks, the game ends.

Froggy Jump

Froggy Jump [iTunes link] is a highly addictive game. Guide your frog by tilting your phone, jumping onto little patches of grass that give him a boost to jump higher. As you jump around, try to collect all the letters of the goal word, collect crystals, and unlock new levels and features.

Words With Friends Free

Scrabble fans can have all the free fun they want with the ad-supported version of Words with Friends [iTunes link]. You can either have the game match you up with a random opponent from anywhere in the world, or you can invite your friends to play against you. You can also play and pass with a friend using one iPhone.

Words with Friends also makes use of the iPhone’s push notification feature so you don’t have to keep the app open to know when it’s your turn.

Crazy Chipmunks

Crazy Chipmunks [iTunes link] is a highly addictive game that has three modes of play. In Classic mode you have 30 seconds to tap all of the little brown chipmunks popping out of their holes, avoiding the pinks ones. In challenge mode, there is no time limit, but rather the game ends once you have hit three of the pink chipmunks.

The final mode is quite different from the first two, using the same graphics for a memory game.

Kung Fu Touch

Kung Fu Touch [iTunes link] is a cute game with really good graphics. Get in touch with your inner Kung Fu Master, and chop flying sushi (amongst other objects) before they hit you.

The graphics and sounds effects are excellent, but if you’re planning on playing this game in a quiet room – you should be warned that the splash intro cannot be muted. There are two modes of play – single player, or online duel gaming with a random opponent.

Traffic Rush

Traffic Rush [iTunes link] is actually a paid app, but it’s available for free for a limited time. In Traffic Rush you have to keep the traffic going at an intersection. Speed cars up by swiping them across the screen, and stop them at the intersection by tapping them. How long can you keep traffic going without a collision?

Traffic Rush’s graphics are simple and are more reminiscent of older games of this sort, but that is part of its charm.

Another great free iPhone game that definitely deserves a mention is Tap Tap Revenge.

What are your favourite free iPhone games? Let us know in the comments.

Image Credit: David Goehring

Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

• The Top 5 iPhone Applications For Killing Time (11 comments)
• MakeUseOf Your iPhone: Tap Tap Revenge (6 comments)
• How To Play Console Games On The iPhone (19 comments)
• The Best iPhone Tower Defense Games 2009 + Giveaway (36 comments)
• How To Make A Kid Friendly iPod Touch Or iPhone (17 comments)
• Celebrating TriDefense’s 1st Birthday [MakeUseOf Giveaway] (10 comments)
• Aurora Feint (iPhone App) Brings Role Play to Bejeweled (11 comments)
• 10 Fun Challenging Time Management Games [iPhone & iTouch] (10 comments)
• WhatsApp – The Perfect iPhone Messenger App (8 comments)
• We Have 3 Copies Of McAfee Total Protection 2010 [MakeUseOf Giveaway] (168 comments)

If browsing and consuming media is what you do on your iPad, you probably want to check out Thinking Screen Media’s iPad application [iTunes Store link] and website, FrameChannel.

FrameChannel is like having a 1000+ applications or widgets stuffed and available in a single application or website. It sort of works like iGoogle in which you build a personal collection of feeds and widgets for all types of media you consume on your ipad.

Categories for channels include social networking sites, news and weather, education, sports and entertainment, photography, and custom RSS feeds—all supported by platforms including Flash, Android, iPhone OS, Linux, HTML 5 and more.

As Thinking Screen Media points out, “Content comes from top brands in every category, from major national and international sports scores, news and standings to breaking news headlines, entertainment updates, stock quotes, traffic, trivia and much more. We also keep users up-to-date on their favorite blogs and websites.” Literally thousands of channels are already configured for you on FrameChannel. They include sites like Facebook, Picasa, the Boston Red Sox, Time Magazine, and Woot Wine. The more you dig, the more channels you discover with media available for ipad.

All you have to do is pick and choose the channels you want on your personal channel home page. You can make these selections via your account on your computer or on your iPad. Since your account is the cloud so to speak, whatever additions and deletions you make on you computer will automatically be applied to the application on your iPad, and visa versa.

The interface of FrameChannel is clean and fairly easy to use—only requiring you to make a few configurations, such as adding log-in information if needed, and then tapping the add to my channel button.

For example, you can add say, your Flickr account and download selected galleries. The same goes for your Twitter and Facebook accounts.

You can also quickly add photo files to your account via your computer, which when uploaded will appear on your iPad device. This is just another way to add and view your photos on your iPad without having to connect the device to our computer.

The only drawback to this photo sync feature is that you can’t download and add photos from your FrameChannel account to your iPad photo library.

There are also some limited customization features in FrameChannel.

For example, you can of course add and remove channels from your home page. You can customize the day and time that you want content downloaded, and you can prioritize the amount of content you want for a selected channel relative to other channels.

Unfortunately, however, you can‘t move channels around. They are placed in the order you added them.

Add Your Own Channel

While you can add your own custom RSS feeds to your channels, you can also submit a form to add your own RSS-based content channel to the service platform that will then be available to other users.

FrameChannel and its iPad companion are really useful apps for media consumers and content providers. Let us know if you use it and what you think of them.

Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!

Similar MakeUseOf Articles

• How To Read RSS Feeds on Your iPad Even When You’re Offline (13 comments)
• Two Awesome Free iPad Twitter Clients (9 comments)
• Top 8 Great Alternatives To Mobile Safari [iPhone / iPod] (13 comments)
• Three Useful Free Photography Apps For The iPad [Mac] (8 comments)
• The 4 Best Free Wallpaper Apps for Your iPad (4 comments)
• The 10 Top Free Apps For The iPad (29 comments)
• Getting Writing Done With SimpleNote On The iPad (15 comments)
• Filterstorm- Awesome, Free Photography Companion for the iPad (11 comments)
• Dropbox – The Best Finder App For The iPad (10 comments)
• Browse Stunning Photos on Your iPad with Eyewitness App (0 comments)