The following post is broken up into two mini walk-throughs that will show you how to easily convert and import optimised iPhone-ready videos onto your device using a free program called “Evom”, and also how to import just about any video format to your iPhone without first having to convert them to iPhone’s mp4 format using a great, free iPhone/iPod Touch application called “VLC Media Player”.

Converting & uploading video using Evom

1. Download & install Evom

Download “Evom” for free from “The Little App Factory” website.

2. Install Evom on your Mac

Install the application on your Mac and crank it up. You may be met with a message asking if you would like to “Download and install video components?”.

DO IT – the application is next to useless without them.

3. Select your video to convert/import

This is perhaps the easiest part of the whole process, but you may need to be a little patient depending on how big the video file is.

Simply drag your video file from the desktop into the Evom application window where prompted. Alternatively, you can simply “right click” on the video file and choose to open it using “Evom”.

NOTE: It’s also possible to drag in URLs from the location bar in your web browser for videos on popular video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo – very convenient!

4. Choose where your video should be sent

Next, you’ll be prompted to select where to save the converted video file. For the purposes of this walk-through, we obviously want to send the file to our iPhone/iPod Touch, so select that option and hit the “Convert” button.

The window you are presented with next will show the progress of the conversion. Depending on how large and long your video file is, this process may take up to an hour or longer for full-length feature films etc.

Once the conversion has completed, Evom will launch into the second phase of the process by sending the converted file to iTunes. You can note this action in iTunes’ status pane.

When the transfer process is complete, you need only do an iPhone/iPod Touch sync to get the video onto your device and you’re good to go. The completion of the conversion and transfer will be reflected in Evom’s transfer window.

Adding video to iPhone’s VLC Media Player app

While the Evom video conversion and transfer process listed above is simple and effective, there is a dead simple way you can cut out the need to convert the video altogether using VLC Media Player and iTunes’ File Sharing feature. Sounds like it could be complicated, but trust me on this one – it’s EASY, EASY, EASY!

1. Install the free VLC Media Player app on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

At the time of me writing out this walk-through, VLC Media Player is compatible with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and the most recent iPod Touches.

2. Add your videos to the VLC File Sharing section in iTunes

Connect your iPhone or iPod Touch to your computer and wait for the device icon to appear in iTunes’ source pane. Click on the device and on the screen that appears, look for the “Apps” menu option. Click it.

Scroll down until you find the “File Sharing” section on the Apps page and click on the VLC icon. You’re now ready to start adding any video file you like to the VLC Media Player application.

Click on the “Add” button and navigate to the video(s) you wish to add. Select as many as you wish to upload to your device and hit the “Choose” option.

If you take a look back up in iTunes’ status pane, you will see your selected videos being transferred across to your device.

3. Start watching your videos using VLC Media Player

Nothing tricky about this part at all. Simply, find and start your VLC Media Player application, select the video you wish to watch and there you go.

I sincerely hope that any and all of the above steps and instructions have been clear and simple enough for you to follow. If you’ve come across any hiccups along the way, by all means shoot me a message in the comments section below and I’ll do my level best to help you out!

Go on… you know you want to!

Step One – Open The Blog in Safari

Launch the Safari browser app on your iPhone, or iPod Touch, and type “www.masey.com.au” or “www.masey.ca” into the address bar.

Step Two – Send the Blog to the Home Screen

With my Blog loaded in the browser, click on the plus icon in the bottom toolbar (shown below left), which will bring up a menu that presents you with three options (below right). Select the “Add to Home Screen” option.

Step Three – Name & Add

All that’s left to do is to name your icon (below left), hit the “Add” button to send it to your home screen, and then move it into a desired position on your series of home screens (below right).

It’s as easy as that!

Of course, this same method can be used to save ANY website to your home screen.

• Multiple accounts
• Multiple social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare etc)
• Scheduled Tweets
• Built in link shortening
• Customisable interface (easily change column orders)
• Tabbed layout to maximise usable columns
• Analytics & link stats tracking
• Ability to view user info in a neat way
• Message Drafts
• Visual and audible update notifications

It’s a fairly large shopping list, but one that is easily covered by what I now believe to be the “best app on the block” – Hootsuite.

Why Hootsuite as opposed to the various alternatives?

I’ll give you a couple of examples of why I’m sold on using Hootsuite as my primary Twitter application, but first make sure you check out a great blog post titled, “10 Reasons I’m Switching from Tweetdeck to Hootsuite” from the guys over at “Web App Storm”.

For me, two of the best features of the Hootsuite service are the ability to track statistical information regarding your Tweets and the specific links that you post within (using Hootsuite’s default URL shortening service options), and also the user profile information panels that appear (shown below) each time you click on a user name.

Setting up Hootsuite as a Mac Twitter desktop application

You’re probably wondering how you can make a web-based service into a desktop application without some kind of installer or application environment like Adobe AIR (used by applications like Tweetdeck)? Well it’s actually quite simple using a neat, free program for the Mac called “Fluid”. The following is a quick step-by-step look at how you can be up and running with Hootsuite as your primary Mac desktop accessed by a neat customised dock icon, in no time.

Step 1 – Find a suitable dock icon for your application

It’s hard to go past a more suitable icon than that adorable little Hootsuite Owl we see all around the place these days.

Finding suitable dock icons for all the applications I have set up in the past using Fluid has been a cinch when using “Deviantart” as my search engine. Simply navigate to the “Dock Icons” category section of the site and search for the web application in question – in this case “Hootsuite”. The icon I found for this project you can download from here.

Unzip the icon resource file and place it somewhere where Fluid will be able to find it every time you open your new “Hootsuite” application.

Step 2 – Download and install Fluid for Mac

As long as you are running OSX 10.5 or greater, jump over to http://fluidapp.com/ and download the free Fluid installer.

Note: A similar program called Mozilla Prism is available for those of you on a Windows PC or Linux that will help you achieve a similar result.

Install the application on your Mac and crank it up.

Step 3 – Create your application

Once Fluid starts up, you’ll be presented with a window prompting you to “Create a Site Specific Browser”. Simply fill out the requested details as shown below. When it comes to the “Icon” field, select “Other…” (as shown) and navigate to wherever you ended up placing your Hootsuite Owl icon.

Once you have your icon selected, hit the create button to create your new Hootsuite desktop application.

Step 4 – Add the new Hootsuite application to the dock

You will now be presented with a success message and a few options for progressing. We want to add the new application to the dock, so select the “Reveal in Finder” option.

Find the Hootsuite application you just created by looking for the distinctive Owl icon, and drag the icon to your dock. Drop it in the appropriate spot on your dock and click the icon to open Hootsuite!

If you are asked to log in to your Hootsuite account the first time you start up the application, and when you do you get kicked out to your default browser (Firefox etc):

1. Close the Hootsuite application
2. Open Safari
3. Log into Hootsuite selecting the “Remember Me” option
4. Close Safari
5. Open your Hootsuite application from your dock once again.

This time you should be taken directly into your Hootsuite account screen.

From there it’s just a matter of setting up your accounts and columns the way you want them and exploring the Hootsuite service to find all the amazing features and options that you have for managing your Twitter account(s).

Good luck!

As a continuation to that introduction entry, today I’d like to cover how you can easily share files like photos, movies and more with friends and family using this awesome service. It’s understandable that not everyone is going to have a Dropbox account with which to easily share files with you, so I’m going to cover how you can get files to non-account holders as well with just a few easy steps.

Sharing files with another Dropbox user

Say I want to share a selection of photos with my mate Ryan. I know he has a Dropbox account as well, so opening a folder that we can both have access to and share files within is dead easy. All I need to do is add a new folder to my Dropbox account and set the sharing permissions to allow Ryan access. Here’s how you do it.

1. Log into your Dropbox account

To begin with, go to your online account on the Dropbox website: http://www.dropbox.com. Once you have logged in, look for the “Sharing” tab. Click it.

2. Create a new Share folder

In the dialogue box that appears select the “I’d like to create and share a new folder” option. Give your folder an appropriate name in the field provided and hit the “Next” button.

On the next screen simply insert your friend’s email address in the field provided and if you like write them a quick message to let them know what the new shared folder is for.

3. Approving the new shared folder

Ryan will now receive an email letting him know that he has been invited to share my folder. Next time he logs into his online account, he should notice a small numerical indicator on his “Sharing” tab letting him know there’s a new sharing request he needs to approve. In doing so, your new shared folder is now set up.

4. Start sharing files

All you need to do now is start dragging files you wish to share into your shared folder and away you go.

Sharing files with users without a Dropbox account

What if you want to share a ZIP file, for example, with someone who doesn’t have a Dropbox account? Well it’s still ultra easy to do this using the “Public” folder that is allocated to you when your account is set up. Here’s what you do:

1. Add the file you want to share to your “Public” folder using your desktop Dropbox application.

2. Once the loading indicator disappears and a green tick appears indicating that the file is successfully in your account, right click on the file icon.

3. Select “Copy Public Link” from the Dropbox submenu list to add the URL you need to your clipboard.

4. Paste the URL into an email or whatever you are going to use to send the link to your contact.

And that’s about all there is to it. I hope that helps some of you out a little. If you have any questions at all, throw them in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.

Chances are you’ve heard a little about Twitter here and there and, like me (at first anyway), you can’t imagine Twitter being useful to anyone other than the hard core geeks and web nuts out there. A closer examination under the surface, however, reveals an ultra handy service that can save you an immense amount of time in your endless pursuit of entertainment and enlightenment online, or a savvy business tool that can help you unleash viral promotional messages to a devoted fan base.

It’s real easy to get started on Twitter. All you have to do is follow these few easy steps.

1. Go to www.twitter.com and click on the “Get Started Now” button.
2. Sign up making sure you come up with a username that is applicable to you.
3. Click on the “Settings” link in the menu at the top right of the page and make your way through each tab of options. If nothing else, be sure to click on the “Picture” tab and upload an image to represent yourself with.
4. Read through the following tute and arm yourself with all you need to know to…
5. …START TWEETING!

So what is Twitter?

Well the easiest way to think of Twitter is as a micro-blogging, messaging, alert system that allows you to send and receive text-based posts up to 140 characters in length. If you’re thinking that Facebook already provides you with the same thing with its “Status Update” feature, then you’re quite right. The difference is in the fact that Twitter cuts out all the surrounding fluff and provides a platform from which you can extract so much more than it’s FB cousin.

How do I use Twitter?

Twitter can be used in any number of ways depending on the needs and desires of its users. You can use it to post deep philosophical gems that you dream up, post links to weird and wonderful content you find on the web, or simply use it as a quick and easy way to send short succinct messages to particular contacts. It’s totally up to you!

Who am I in the Twittersphere?

You would have been asked for a username when you signed up. In the world of Twitter, your identity is governed by this username along with a little “@” symbol placed at the front. For example, my Twitter identity is “@masey“. If you want to post something to me publicly, or mention me in a Tweet for whatever reason, all you need to do is include @masey in your post. But I’ll touch on this a little more in a minute or two.

What’s a follower?

This is a pretty easy concept to grasp once you think of Followers in the right manner. Followers are not the same thing as friends. “Followers” may indeed be people you know on or off the web, but in a broader sense, followers are individuals who sign up to be notified when you post a Tweet. Why? Because for whatever reason they find your musings entertaining, helpful or otherwise. Likewise, the list of people you choose to follow can be found when you click on the “Following” link in your profile.

A QUICK TIP:
Although there are Twits out there who suggest that it’s good etiquette to always follow those who choose to follow you, DO NOT! It’s this kind of culture that will generate a healthy community of spammers who have nothing better to do than to bombard you with absolute crap. Only follow those who you find interesting, entertaining and helpful, those who provide you with some value in your Twitter schedule each day. Simple.

Who or what should I follow?

Here’s some examples of who you should follow:

• Close friends. Twitter can provide you with a neat alternative to emailing and even text messaging, especially when one of the many mobile Twitter applications available out there are used.
• Bloggers you follow. As an alternative and/or supplement to your RSS reader, you can use Twitter to track the release of Blog posts released by your favourite Bloggers. The Bloggers in question must be signed up to Twitter, of course, but this is a pretty common practice these days.
• News services. There’s no quicker way to receive breaking news than by following the Tweets of news services like @news_com_au or @cnnbrk.
• Latest celebrity news. Many celebrities, bands and solo artists out there are finding that Twitter is the ideal way to deliver tour and other news items to their fans. check out www.celebritytweet.com for a realtime list of Tweets being released by celebrities from all over the world.
• Product updates and releases. There’s plenty of web services and software applications out there that have their own Twitter accounts to communicate updates, bugs etc to their users.

With all that being said, here’s a few of my favourite Tweeters to follow:

• http://twitter.com/macappstorm
• http://twitter.com/oliviamunn
• http://twitter.com/news_com_au
• http://twitter.com/jordanbehan
• http://twitter.com/cnnbrk
• http://twitter.com/lancearmstrong
• http://twitter.com/mostlylisa

How do I post correctly on Twitter?

Once you have the few options available to you locked away in your cranium, you’ll be Twittering up a storm. Here’s what you need to know.

1. You have 140 characters to communicate your message. DO NOT, if you can help it, resort to that moronic text messaging shorthand crap. “LOL – 2morro will b 2 gd!” There’s a time and place for that kind of thing, so use sparingly.
2. If you wish to publicly reply to someone’s Tweet or post a Tweet that includes someone you follow, simply type in their username preceded by the “@” symbol. eg. @masey I agree with you totally, I can’t wait to see that movie next month as well!
3. If you wish to send a private, or direct message to another Twit, simply place a “D” at the start of your Tweet. eg. D masey, can you meet me at the cinema at 7pm on Saturday?
4. If you wish to forward on a great Tweet that you received, onto to your own list of followers, it’s good practice to reference the original Tweeter by simply placing the letters “RT” at the start of their Tweet. eg. RT @masey: Woot! Canucks score to go ahead 5-2 against the Flames at GM Place!
5. There’s going to be multiple occasions when you’ll want to Tweet a link from the web. As you know, some URL’s are rather lengthy and will swallow up your character count if you don’t use a URL shortening service like http://bit.ly or http://is.gd. Those two are very popular and will easily do the job for you. eg. http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25042176-1243,00.html can be shortened to http://is.gd/jfgx.

What’s an example Twitter conversation look like?

To illustrate some of the points I have made so far, here’s a quick example of how a typical “conversation” may go:

• masey posts a tweet to cuda33:
  @cuda33 Check out this fantastic 360 panoramic of the Blackcomb Glacier – http://is.gd/ki5S
• cuda33 posts a tweet replying to masey:
  @masey That’s awesome. Do you know the people in the pic? I’m going to forward this on.
• cuda reTweets (forwards to her followers) masey’s original tweet:
  RT @masey: @cuda33 Check out this fantastic 360 panoramic of the Blackcomb Glacier – http://is.gd/ki5S
• masey sends a private message to cuda33:
  D cuda33 I promise to take you up there next time we get up to Whistler! xx

How do I easily post music, video, and images to Twitter?

• Video is pretty easy. Find the video you like on YouTube, get the URL, shorten it using http://is.gd and post.
• Music is dead easy too using the http://twt.fm/ or Twisten.fm services.
• Like music, there’s a quick and simple service available for images too. Simply go to http://www.twitpic.com, login using your Twitter login, upload your pic and share away!

Twitter bird icons by Gopal Raju.

Developed by Laura Brunow Miner, an editor, blogger, designer, photography lover and, given the popularity and uniqueness of the Pictory site, a bit of a visionary.

In her own words, the Pictory website was born out of the desire to create a, “showcase for people around the world to document their lives and cultures.”

Anyone can submit one large, captioned image to each of Pictory’s editorial themes. I’m editor, designer, and founder Laura Brunow Miner, and I will select a few dozen of the best items from each theme to appear in each showcase.

Why just one photo? I want you to pick your best image — and, it’s really interesting to compare work from different contributors on the same topic. Other sites offer photo essays and bodies of work from one photographer, but I want to help a diverse group of people put together collaborative photo essays.

As well as featuring a number of completed ‘essays’ such as:

• San Francisco – 29 Portraits, 1 City
• Life Before Your Eyes
• Overseas and Overwhelmed – 25 Stories of Culture Shock

there are currently a number of showcases open for submissions including “The One Who Got Away”, “Local Delicacy” and the one that peaked my interest “Portrait of a Place: London”.

Diving into my own personal collection of images, I looked for one that I could throw a solid couple of sentences behind, and one where my words would really shine through in the photo itself. Rather than simply post the image I finally settled on, I thought I’d walk you through the process I took to submit my photo and story – my ‘Pictory’.

STEP ONE: Register

Registering was pretty simple. Select a username and password, and provide a few simple details.

STEP TWO: Submit your image and story

Sounds easy enough. And it is. Upload an image that’s 1,000 pixels wide and less than 10MB in size, give your image a title, and write 2 or more sentences about the topic that is supported by your submitted image. Add a few more details about yourself (that’s where you get to give your website etc a bit of a plug), and you’re all set to go.

STEP THREE: Preview your submission

Like all good submission engines of this nature, you get the opportunity to have a gander at the final product before you commit to hitting the “Submit” button. That way, you can go back and make changes if necessary.

STEP FOUR: Submit your submission

Once you’re happy with your image and story, there’s only one thing left to do. Hit the “Submit” button. In doing so, you’re presented with both a “successful submission” message and an email notifying you of the receipt of your material.

STEP FIVE: Cross your fingers and sit tight

The email you receive suggests that it may be a couple of weeks before you hear if your “Pictory” has been chosen to appear in the relevant showcase. My fingers are crossed in the hope that my submitted image gets a run in the upcoming “London” showcase. In the meantime, I’m going to soak in with interest, all that my fellow photographers have to offer on this great site that I’m really glad to have found!

Laura, who clearly has a real gift when it comes to clean, attractive online design and layout, has created a beautiful creative environment for any photographer out there looking for something different from the likes of Flickr and the hoards of online photographic communities available nowadays.

If you’re interested in getting involved on ‘Pictory’, here’s the list of upcoming submission deadlines:

• Local Delicacy (JAN. 27TH, 2010)
• The One Who Got Away (FEB. 10TH, 2010)
• Portrait of a Place: London (FEB. 24TH, 2010)
• Learning from Our Elders (MARCH 10TH, 2010)
• Spring Break Stories (MARCH 10TH, 2010)

1. Select a great location

Selecting the best vantage point for your shots is always going to be a bit of a gamble. The best way to find out that “special” location to set up in is, of course, by word of mouth. However, I have found “Flickr” to be a pretty good source of inspiration of late. Pick your event, view the great photos that others have shot from the event and try and work out where they set up to capture their “rocket-goes-boom” moments.

The photo at the top of this post which I took during Riverfire a good few years ago during my first ever attempt at photographing fireworks. Sure, it’s a little overexposed, more on that in a minute, but I think it’s a good example of being in a great spot for a potentially great photo.

I can’t remember the name of the park I set up in upon advice from a co-worker at the time, but I can show you on a map (see right). It’s on Moray Street just off Bowen Terrace – that much I can tell you. You certainly don’t get to see all the fireworks on the Southbank branch of the river, but you certainly have the best vantage point in the city for the Story Bridge and the explosions that are let off from the tops of the CBD buildings.

Regardless how you choose to find your inspiration, I always keep a couple of rules in mind. Number one, if you can’t get into the PRIME location that you are after, then aim for somewhere really different – somewhere you’ve never seen photos taken from before. And secondly, wherever you choose to plant your tripod, ALWAYS ARRIVE EARLY. If you’ve got a hot tip of a great spot to set up in, chances are there will be about 4-5 other photographers who have received the same tip jostling for the same spot.

2. Take the right equipment with you

Selection of lenses is completely dependent on how far you are away from the fireworks themselves and therefore is not something I can provide guidance on in this instance. What I can say is that you will want to be using a lens that will provide you with a focal length that will enable you to capture explosions at all heights. Additionally, if the source of the fireworks is on water, it’s a good idea to allow for an amount of water in the bottom of your frame as it usually provides colourful reflections that always add to any good photo.

The two most important pieces of equipment I would suggest would be in your “must-have” basket for photographing fireworks effectively are a tripod and a cable release or remote shutter control. Together these two essential pieces of equipment are going to set you back around $200+ bones, but the fact that combined they will allow you to not even touch your camera once during the fireworks performance (an essential factor when dealing with long exposure photography) means they will be worth every cent in the long run.

3. Be flexible with your settings

FOCUSING

You can argue either way in regards to automatic or manual focusing. With manual, so long as you get the focusing right from the get-go and nothing happens that would potentially bump your camera out of place or mess with your focusing ring then you’re all good. If you just leave it to your cameras expert devices when it comes to focusing, however, I find it does a pretty good job as it always tends to focus on the brightest part of the frame which, what do you know, is generally the subject of your photo anyway.

SHUTTER SPEED

The only way to capture those great bursts of colour with long trails of sparkling goodness is by allowing your shutter to remain open for longer than the human hand can hold a camera still for, hence the reason for the tripod and cable release or remote. Zero contact with the camera body while taking photos equals zero vibrations and therefore sharp long-exposed shots. When I say long-exposed, however, I’m talking somewhere between 1″ and 3″. It all really depends on the given light in the atmosphere when the fireworks are going off. If there’s still sunset colour in the sky then you’ll obviously want to go for something more around the 1″ range. Any more than that and your photos will potentially over-expose and at the very least you will lose colour depth.

On the flip side, if it’s already pitch black then you can by all means look at 3″ exposures and if you do it right, anything up to 6″. In order to do this without your pictures blowing out due to the intense light given off by initial explosions, you will need to toggle your exposure compensation settings as well.

EXPOSURE COMPENSATION

By dialing in a negative exposure setting (eg. -1.0ev) into your camera before taking your shots, you can effectively tell your camera to let in a little less light than it wants to given the shutter speed setting you have selected and the corresponding aperture setting your camera chooses to use. This has the effect of reducing the intensity of flashes of light given off when the fireworks shells explode initially. This, in turn, gives you a better chance of obtaining deeper, richer colours from the resultant firework.

It all sounds a tad complicated at first, but you need only experiment for the first two minutes or so of the display and you will find a setting that works for you.

4. Cheese, olives and wine

Last, but certainly not least, ensure that you have a ready supply of soft cheeses, plump, ripe olives and a damn good bottle of plonk to get you through the event. I’ve NEVER diverted from this strategy and it seems to work a charm for me, and indeed those who I have photographed with before (right Jenny)?

If you’d like to view a few samples of my fireworks shots from the last couple of years (shot in Vancouver), then click on the links below.
Happy snapping!

• Festival of Light 2006 – Part I
• Festival of Light 2006 – Part II
• And the Winner is Mexico
• Summer Has Arrived – Celebration of Light 2007
• Team China Were Smokin’
• 2008 Canada Day Fireworks

Hope it helps…

1. Privacy is Paramount

The very first thing you ALL should have done when you signed up was click on the “privacy” link at the top right of screen and gone through each category of settings. This will allow you to specify who is able to see your profile, what they are able to see when they arrive at your profile etc.

2. Facebook Toolbar

If you are a regular Facebook user like me, then the Facebook Toolbar, if you don’t have it already, will become your new best friend. It gives you quick one-click access to the main areas of the site as well as adding cool pop-up notifications to your screen letting you know immediately when you have:

• received a new message
• been poked
• received a message on your wall
• received comments on your images or notes
• one of your friends changes their status

Here’s the catch: the toolbar is for Firefox 2.0 only. I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would be using any other kind of browser anyway! The pop-ups are really cool though – a bit like when you receive a new message in Outlook, or a friend logs on when you’re using MSN Messenger.

3. Join a Network

It’s still a little lost on me exactly what the major benefits are of being part of specific network be it a school, workplace or geographical location, but it looks terrible having (No Network) next to your name so why not right?

To “Join a Network” simply click on the little trianlge next to the “Networks” menu item at the top and select “Join a Network”.

To join a school or workplace network, you will need to have an email address designated by that institution. That being said, the geographical network type is most appropriate for most people.

4. Find People You Already Know

The quickest way to find all your friends and other people you know on Facebook is via the “Find Friends” function accessible when you click on the little triangle next to the “Friends” menu option at the top of the screen. Simply select the type of email address you have (Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail etc) and “virtually” log into your mail account. Facebook will find the people within your address book who already have accounts on Facebook and provide you with an easy one-click way of adding them to your friends list.

This function also provides you with the opportunity to send a Facebook account invite to all those in your address book who do not already have account. My advice is to skip this bit and just send out individual invites later to specific friends if required.

5. Clean up Your Profile Pics

Most people seem to be blissfully unaware that each time you upload a new profile pic, it is added to a library along with all the others you have used previously – a library that is not connected to your “Photos” in any way.

“How do you get to my profile pic library?”, I hear you ask? Simple. Click on your profile pic on your profile page and your library will appear. There’s a bunch of you that will see the same photo repeated 2 or more times. It makes sense to clean up your library by deleting the extraneous repeated images does it not?

By clicking on any of these images you will be presented with a list of options including tagging, deleting and applying as your profile pic.

That’s probably enough for a start. If you have any other tips you’d like to share with anyone, feel free to leave them below in the comments section.

Happy Facebooking!

I LOVE this service so much! I love it to the point that I have put in a few long hours compiling a dead simple tutorial covering the basic steps you need to take to ensure a rich “Netvibes” experience for yourself.

If you find this tutorial helpful, please share it with others via Facebook or Twitter using the buttons provided above.

Where to Begin:

1. Create an Account »
2. Customise »
3. Adding RSS Feeds »
4. Adding Other Content Modules »

1. Create an Account

A. Navigate to the Netvibes.com website to get started:

• Open your web browser (preferably Firefox)
• Go to http://www.netvibes.com.

B. Register your details to create an account:

• Click on the”Sign In” link at the top right of the screen
• Under the "New User" heading click the “Sign Up Now!” link
• Fill out the fields as required and click “Sign Up” to continue.

C. Check your email for confirmation of your login details:

• Save this email in a folder where you will find it again in case you forget your login details

Please Note: If you do not receive this email, make sure you check that your SPAM filter has not diverted the email to your SPAM folder or trash.

2. Customising Your Netvibes Account

You will notice that once logged into your new account, you are presented with a single tab “General” containing a number of default modules (Gmail, Kelkoo, Techcrunch etc). Get used to these two terms (tab & module) as I will use them extensively throughout the rest of this tutorial.

You will also notice a number in brackets next to the “General” tab title. This number indicates the number of news items on this tab that remain unread by you. In fact, any red numbers in brackets like the “(7)” next to the”Techcrunch” module heading indicates the number of unread items in that module too. These numbers will decrease when you view items within the module and be reflected in the number in the tab accordingly.

It’s now time to start customising your Netvibes account so it becomes filled with content relevant to you. Following I will cover how you go about doing the following:

A. How to change your page name:

• Simply click on the text “Type your page title here”, and do just that!
• Click anywhere outside the page title area to save.

B. How to change the title of a tab:

• Click directly on the the title to make it editable
• Enter in your new tab title and click anywhere outside of the tab to save.

C. How to create a new tab:

• Click on the “New Tab” link
• Enter in the title of your new tab, for example “Shopping”
• Click anywhere outside of the tab to save
• Change the position of your new tab by clicking and dragging.

D. How to add an icon to a tab:

• Hover over a tab until the tab option icons appear
• Click on the “down arrow” to open the tab options menu
• Select an icon
• Save your selection by closing the tab options menu by clicking on the "x" at the top right of the menu.

E. How to change the column layouts of your tabs:

• Hover over a tab until the tab option icons appear
• Click on the “down arrow” to open the tab options menu
• Click on the “Number of Columns” option heading to reveal your column options
• Make your selection
• Save your selection by closing the tab options menu by clicking on the “x” at the top right of the menu.

F. How to move modules between tabs:

• Hover over a coloured module heading until a cross directional cursor appears
• Click and drag the module over the top of the tab you wish to move it to until the tab outline turns red
• Drop the module on the tab.

G. How to edit module options:

All modules have editing options of some kind that can be accessed and manipulated in the following way:

• Hover over a coloured module heading until the module option icons appear
• Click on the "Edit" link
• Play around with the editable options, clicking any "Save" buttons when required, until you have the desired module orientation
• Click on the "Close Edit" link to save your changes.

H. How to delete modules:

• Hover over a coloured module heading until the module option icons appear
• Click on the “x” to delete the module.

Be warned, once a module is deleted, any edits you have made to it will be lost.

3. Adding RSS Feeds

The real power of your Netvibes account comes in the ability to deliver you headlines from all of your favourite news sites and blogs through the magic of RSS feeds.

If you’ve never heard about RSS, thanks to the “Back in Skinny Jeans Blog” here’s a quick “Oprah Definition”:

In Oprah speak, RSS stands for: “Ready for Some Stories”. It is a way online for you to get a quick list of the latest story headlines from all your favorite websites and blogs all in one place. How cool is that?

Suppose you have 50 sites and blogs that you like to visit regularly. Going to visit each website and blog everyday could take you hours. With RSS, you can “subscribe” to a website or blog, and get “fed” all the new headlines from all of these 50 sites and blogs in one list, and see what’s going on in minutes instead of hours. What a time saver!

But how do you find a feed on a website and how then do you add it to your Netvibes account?

A. How to find an RSS feed on your favourite websites:

• Look for any of the symbols featured in the graphic on the right RSS Feeds are generally indicated by orange symbols or text links featuring the words “RSS”, “XML” or “ATOM”
• Right click on the link and select “Copy Link Location” (in Firefox) or “Properties” and copy the “Address (URL):” in Internet Explorer.

B. What if my favourite site doesn’t have an RSS feed:

You will no doubt come across sites from time-to-time that don’t provide RSS feeds enabling you to keep up-to-date with latest news stories or site updates. In these instances, it is possible to create your own feeds for these websites by using web-based RSS feed-builders such as the following:

• Ponyfish RSS Feed Builder – I use this service ALL THE TIME cause it’s intuitive, simple to use and most importantly it works! Visit the site, create an account and start building!
• Dapper: The Data Mapper – A more powerful and therefore slightly more complicated development environment than Ponfish, Dapper allows you to extract information from just about any website in a variety of ways including creating RSS feeds. The best place to start with Dapper is with their informative flash demo.

C. How to add an RSS feed to Netvibes:

You will add RSS feeds to your Netvibes account in individual new modules. These are easily created in the following way:

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your new RSS feed module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Click on the “Add My Feed” link to open the feed addition form
• Paste or type in the RSS feed address of your site obtained using the method explained above
• Click on the “Add” button
• When Netvibes has finished verifying the feed, your new feed module will be created.

Please note: If you have been unable to locate a feed icon/address on one of your favourite sites and you aren’t confident enough to use a site like “Ponyfish” or “Dapper” (see above), try entering in the URL of the actual site in the feed addition form and Netvibes will attempt to find (autodiscovery) the feed for you.

D. Netvibes Firefox Extension:

By far the easiest and BEST ways to add feeds to your account is by using Netvibes’ “Add2Netvibes Firefox Extension”.

Check out the Netvibes “tools” page for full instructions on how to install the extension. Obviously, you will need to be using the unbeatable Firefox browser to take advantage of the extension.

If you’re an IE user and haven’t yet tried Firefox as an alternative browser, I can’t encourage you enough to give it a go and allow yourself to experience a completely new browsing experience. Simply click on the button below to download Firefox to your system and you’ll be “Netvibing” like a pro in no time!

4. Adding Other Content Modules

As well as RSS feeds from your favourite websites, you can also add a whole host of different content modules to your Netvibes account from Flickr albums, to weather trackers, bookmarks, to-do lists, iCal/Gmail calendars, sticky notes, search tools and more!

I’ll let you explore all the modules on offer on your own through it’s partner selection or the community driven “Netvibes Ecosystem”, but I will cover a select few below to illustrate just how easy it is for you to add them to your account. I’ll look at the following in order:

A. How to add a Flickr module:

It’s great being able to stay up to date with additions to the Flickr accounts of friends and family you keep an eye on, without having to visit the site looking for changes all the time. Here’s how you can do it:

• Visit your desired Flickr page/album and find the RSS feed link at the bottom right – COPY IT
  
  For example:

  http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=33264358@N00&format=rss_200

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your new module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Flickr photos” link – CLICK IT
• Click on the “Edit” link
• Paste the Flickr RSS feed address into the “Feed or Tag” box provided
• Click the “Save” button
• Set the other options as desired
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

Alternatively, instead of adding in the URL of a Flickr page, you can choose to view images relating to a particular tag. For example, we might like to view images of “puppies”.

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your new module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Flickr photos” link – CLICK IT
• Click on the “Edit” link
• Enter the tag “puppy” into the “Feed or Tag” box provided
• Click the “Save” button
• Set the other options as desired
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

Please Note: You can add as many Flickr modules for as many cities as you want. Simply repeat the process above for each new module.

B. How to add a Podcast module:

Netvibes has a great inbuilt podcast player that makes it REAL easy to listen to your favourite podcasts. In a simliar fashion to adding normal RSS feed modules, here’s what you need to do:

• Find your desited RSS podcast link on iTunes or the web – COPY IT
  
  For example: http://podcasts.b105.com.au/hamish_and_andy.xml

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your new podcast module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Click on the “Add My Feed” link to open the feed addition form
• Paste or type in the RSS feed address of your podcast
• Click on the “Add” button
• When Netvibes has finished verifying the feed, your new feed module will be created.

C. How to add a Weather module:

This one is simple. It gives you a nice current conditions and 3-day weather forecast for whatever location you specify.

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your new podcast module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Weather” link – CLICK IT

• Click on the “Edit” link in the window that appears
• Enter in the name of your desired town, for example “Vancouver”
• Click the “Save” button
• If a list of town options appears, click on the desired location
• Click on the “Edit” link again
• Set the other options as desired
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

Please Note: You can add as many Weather modules for as many cities as you want. Simply repeat the process above for each new module.

D. How to add a Bookmarks module:

Storing your boomarks within your Netvibes account using this module allows you to access them from any computer with an internet connection at any time.

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your bookmarks module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Bookmarks” link – CLICK IT
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

Adding bookmarks to your list is essentially the same as adding them to your browser except for the addition of the “Tags” field. Adding tags that describe each link you add makes them easy to find in the future. Here’s how you add bookmarks:

• Hover over the coloured Bookmarks module heading until the “Edit” link appears – CLICK IT
• Add in the title of your bookmark (eg. Masey’s Blog)
• Type or paste in the URL of your bookmark (eg. http://www.masey.com.au)
• Enter in one or more “tags” that describe the bookmark you are entering (eg. “blog”, “tutorials”)
• Click the “Add” button to save
• Click the “Close Edit” link to exit.

E. How to add a To-Do List module:

A great way to keep track of things you need to do online like specific emails you need to send, or bills you need to pay via your online banking facility, is through the use of a to-do list. Here’s how you add one to your account:

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your to-do list module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Bookmarks” link – CLICK IT
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

You should be able to work out quite easily how to add, edit and delete items on your list. I’ll get you started on adding an item:

• Click on the “New To Do” link
• Enter in an item description
• Click anywhere outside the module to save.

Please Note:

• You can edit or delete each item on your list by hovering over the item and revealing the editing icons on the right
• Check the boxes to the left of each item when you have completed it
• You can add as many to-do list modules for as many cities as you want. Simply repeat the process above for each new module.

F. How to add a Sticky Note module:

For all those little notes you need to leave yourself for whatever reason:

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your to-do list module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Webnotes” link – CLICK IT
• Click the “Add to my page” link to save and exit. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.
• To add your note, click on “Type your text here” and go for it!

• Hover over the coloured Bookmarks module heading until the “Edit” link appears – CLICK IT
• Give your sticky note an appropriate title and select a note colour
• Click anywhere outside the module to save.

Please Note: You can add as many sticky notes as you want. Simply repeat the process above for each new note.

G. How to add a Calendar module:

For those of you with Gmail Calendar or other types of iCal accounts, you can place an attractive reminder module containing your appointments and dates on your Netvibes account as follows:

• Visit your Gmail Calendar/iCal account and find the iCal feed address
• Right click on the link and select “Copy Link Location” (in Firefox) or “Properties” and copy the “Address (URL):” in Internet Explorer.
• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your calendar module to
• Click on the “Add Content” link at the top left of the page
• Browse through the content menu until you find the “Calendar” link – CLICK IT
• Fill out the calendar options fields including pasting your iCal feed address into the “Ical URL” field
• Click the “Close Edit” link to save and exit.

Please Note: Click on the “Agenda”, “Week” and “Month” links to change your calendar views.

That covers some of the more useful of Netvibe’s partner modules. As mentioned in the introduction to this tutorial section, there also exists an ever growing collection of community developed modules on the “Netvibes Ecosystem”. You can browse through and add any number of these modules at your leisure, but here’s a couple of examples to get you started.

H. How to add a Garfield of the Day module:

Please Note: Because of it’s dimensions, it is suggested that you add this Garfield comic strip module to a tab that has been set-up with a 2 column layout.

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your calendar module to
• Click on the “Get more modules” link at the top left of the page.

The Netvibes Ecosystem site will load.

• In the search box at the top of the right hand column, perform a search for “garfield”
• In the search result that appears, click on the “Add Garfield of the Day” button to add the module to your Netvibes account. If you would like to know more about the module first (including user reviews), click on the module title.
• Select “OK” for any confirmation alerts that appear. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

I. How to add a Stock Ticker module:

For the entrepreneurs amongst you, here’s a great little module that will help you keep track of your investments. It covers many of the world’s major stock markets, indices and currencies.

• Find the code of the stock you wish to monitor. You can use the Yahoo! stock symbol lookup tool if required.

  For example:
  Google (US Market): GOOG
  Billabong (AUS MARKET): BBG.AX

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your calendar module to
• Click on the "Get more modules " link at the top left of the page.

The Netvibes Ecosystem site will load.

• In the search box at the top of the right hand column, perform a search for “finance”
• In the search result that appears, click on the “Add Finance” button to add the module to your Netvibes account. If you would like to know more about the module first (including user reviews), click on the module title.
• Select “OK” for any confirmation alerts that appear. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

The following explains how to add a stock to your module:

• Hover over the coloured Finance module heading until the “Edit” link appears – CLICK IT
• Enter your stock code into the given field, example “GOOG”
• Select the corresponding market the stock is listed on, example “USA”
• Click “Add” to save
• Click the “Close Edit” link when you’re finshed adding your stocks etc. to exit.

J. How to add a Webcam module:

The “Image Module” is one of my favourite modules. Not only can you use it to display a favourite photo, if you are clever enough, you can use it to display dynamically updated webcams, traffic cams or even random galleries.

Personally I use it to display a fantastic webcam of Vancouver’s Burrard Bridge and English Bay. Here’s how I do it:

• Find the URL of the image you wish to feature in your image module.

  For example: http://www.katkam.ca/p.asp?what=currentjpg

• Log into your Netvibes account
• Click on the tab you wish to add your image module to
• Click on the “Get more modules” link at the top left of the page.

The Netvibes Ecosystem site will load.

• In the search box at the top of the right hand column, perform a search for “image”
• Browse through the search results that appear until you find “The Image Module”
• Click on the “Add The Image Module” button to add the module to your Netvibes account. If you would like to know more about the module first (including user reviews), click on the module title.
• Select “OK” for any confirmation alerts that appear. This will add the new module to your account which you can then move around to the most appropriate location.

The following explains how to add your own image to the module:

• Hover over the coloured image module heading until the "Edit" link appears – CLICK IT
• You will notice a URL already positioned within the given text field:

  http://www.paris.free.fr/netvibes/img.php

• At THE END of this URL, add in the text “?url=” THEN your image URL:

  
  For example:
  http://www.paris.free.fr/netvibes/img.php?url=http://www.katkam.ca/p.asp?what=currentjpg

• Click on the”Go” button to save and your image will appear
• Click the “Close Edit” link to save and exit.