mysms SMS application seems to be very promising, brings many useful features over Whatsapp.

A few days ago I've presented you Whatsapp (here), a great messaging app available for a lot of mobile platforms which gives you the possibility to send free messages over the internet to all the users who have Whatsapp installed on their device. One of the disadvantages of Whatsapp is that you must be on your phone to send the messages, so you can't register on your phone and then send the messages from your computer or anything like that.

However, with mysms SMS application, it becomes possible to send messages from your computer to all of your friends from all the other platforms, using the mobile phone number you register with before. Moreover, mysms comes also as a standard SMS client, having the ability to handle all the SMS functionality of your phone's default SMS application. More specifically, you can send and receive standard SMS messages directly through mysms, without having to open the stock application separately (you'll have the option to send messages via mobile carrier or via mysms, in case your friends have it). I don't know whether this works or not on iOS because of Apple's restrictions, but on Android it works quite well.

One problem which I found is that I can't send messages through mysms from the browser (Chrome), maybe this functionality is currently unavailable, but it's still a great product. At 700 messages a month from my carrier contract, I think that it's still worth using it, considering that I don't even need to access my phone in order to view or send messages. And the ICS/JB design is a big plus over Whatsapp.

Visit the official website for more information http://www.mysms.com/, or search directly in App Store/ Google Play for "mysms".

Chrome 20 might be the most unreliable browser to use on Ubuntu.

I'm a big fan of Google's products, and of course that this includes Chrome, but Google's lightweight browser is not worth being considered as the best one from all the available ones, at least on Linux. Ubuntu (because that's the OS I use most of the time) comes with Firefox for this: even though it is not as fast as Chrome, it is rocket-stable and fully usable (free of bugs). But Chrome has been having bugs since a long time ago and it has some even now. And what's worse, Chrome 20 "features" more bugs than ever.

First of all, there are huge issues with Flash. Most of the content from YouTube still uses Flash (please note that YouTube is also owned by Google), and one of the most used ways make a video start again is to refresh the page. And I have to do this because I simply can't click on anything that's Flash related, for I-don't-know-what reason. Moreover, Samsung's Chromebook computer, which runs on Chrome (there's nothing else to choose) has the same problems with Flash.

Then, there is the Blogger platform. You can write everything you want (just like I do now), but you can't put a title in the article (note: the article is going to have a title put on Firefox, just because Chrome can't do it for a reason or another). And here we are talking about two Google products. Blogger, a Google product, can't be properly used on Chrome, Google's browser. I am sorry, but this is something incredible, and Google should have taken action long time ago on this subject.

And there are other, not so serious, but still annoying bugs. On 9gag, portions of the bar from the top of the screen spread across the entire screen while scrolling. On YouTube, the same thing happens with the bar located just below the videos. And more that this, while watching something, you can't see what you type when you search for something else (on YouTube), it just displays what was searched before (it still searches, if you write something and tap enter you'll see it will return what you wanted, but it's annoying).

Of course that these aren't the only bugs, but with these I have to deal day by day. My girlfriend complains that she can't enter full screen while watching some TV series on the internet (don't know whether it's Flash or not), but there clearly are some issues Google have to take care about.

I can't simply give up using Chrome because, as I've told, I'm a big fan of Google's products, and I have more computers, so I need sync across all of them (bookmarks and stuff). Owning a Galaxy Nexus is also a strong reason for using Google's products. And I don't even want to give up using them, because they make the life a lot easier (Gmail, Picasa, Drive, Contacts, Calendar, Maps etc), I use them a lot and they help me everyday, but the idea is that some of the bugs really have to be fixed sooner or later.

I don't know if they are present only on Linux, because I rarely use Windows, and when I do it, I don't usually have a lot of time to spend on YouTube, 9gag or such websites. 

New YouTube mobile interface.

YouTube launched a new interface for their mobile site, one which is more complex and more touch-friendly, making it easier and faster to access both videos and all other stuff (subscribes, favorites, like and unlike for comments, and even a possibility to play videos in HQ). The interface is designed to bring users a very similar experience compared to the desktop version of YouTube.

Here is a video from YouTube showing the features of the mobile version (I don't know what was in their mind when they put the Nexus One and the iPhone together).


This website surely is a fresh breath of air for the iPhone users, but is it worth on the Android? I mean, YouTube says that it is fast and with many options, but the YouTube app from Android is just the same. Moreover, the app looks better on the dark interface.

Which one are you going to use? m.youtube.com or YouTube app from your device?

Using social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or LinkedIn? Then, try HootSuite.

HootSuite is a professional social client, featuring various platforms: Twitter, Facebook, Facebook Page, LinkedIn, Ping.fm, WordPress, MySpace and  Foursquare. I presented you some time ago Seesmic's web service (here), and the main difference between them is that HootSuite is much more complex and supports other platforms, not just Twitter.

There are many things you can do with HootSuite: track results of your websites (only for WordPress), add contributors to your account (who can post from your account), schedule posting at certain time/date, monitor mentions or assign tasks to your contributors. All those in a well organized screen, with a theme of your choice (you have 3 themes to choose from).

Posting is done easily with a large number of options, and with the option of selecting the network on which to post. If you are confused about changing settings, viewing your stats or managing plugins, just hit that owl on the upper left corner of the window.

Go now on http://hootsuite.com/, create an account, and start using all of your social networks from one single place.

Cloudo - Your virtual desktop OS.

Cloudo is a free internet application, which allows you to take everything from your computer with your, wherever you go, without carrying physically anything with you. It's practically a virtual PC. You access it via a username and a password, and you can upload, download and view different files on it.

It has basically a few applications and games available, but its secret consists into a XML editor. If you known XML, you can make anything using this markup language. Additionally, Cloudo offers an word editor, text editor, mail client, calendar, and even a contact manger. So, you can use it even you don't know XML at all. You can upload any file from your PC, and view them or download them anywhere on the earth. It's really simple. And free.

Try it: http://cloudo.com/

Compiz effects for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is capable of impressionable desktop effects, which are usually activated automatically from the first boot. If not, you can activate them by going on System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Visual Effect and selecting "Extra".

This will work if your computer started with 3D Accelerated drivers, and if not, when you select the "Extra" effects, you will be asked if you want to activate the drivers. This is done very simple, you don't need to know anything about Linux, don't worry.

If you want advanced desktop effects, I will recommend you to install two applications. I'm using them on my computers with Linux, and I am recommending them to you because I know that they are simple to be configured and won't create conflicts.

Go to Synaptic Package Manager (System -> Preferences) and there search for the following two applications, and mark them both for installation (the search will return two applications, mark them both):

• compizconfig-settings-manager

After they have been installed, go again to System-> Preferences -> Appearance-> Visual Effects, and select "Custom". Now go to the applications you have just installed (found on System -> Preferences and one of them is called "CompizConfig Settings Manager", and the other one is called "Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager") and start customizing the way your computer moves and behaves.

Please note that this will work on 3D Accelerated drivers, which are either automatically activated, or are manually activated by you). If you can't find the driver for your graphic card, try to search on manufacturer's website (you will need advanced knowledge for configuration).

Enjoy you 3D Ubuntu desktop effects !