After an hour trawl of the internet, I’ve found a few interesting products, ranging from a couple of online libraries – one on sounds, the other on knitting – to an app that allows control of video speed, to another that controls the multitude of tabs we open as we browse and even a program that encourages its users to create or drop personal habits.
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Way of Life
www.wayoflifeapp.com
Are you trying to create new positive habits, like getting up early enough to have time for a good walk before breakfast? Or are you trying to break an old habit like smoking? Check out the Way of Life mobile phone app which allows you to track and view your progress. Unsure what habits? The app offers suggestions but for those users who know what they want to achieve, the app allows users to create their own categories. The basic app is free.
Tab Snooze
www.tabsnooze.com
Are you like me and find that you regularly have multiple browser tabs open at once, making it difficult to stay organised and on task. Well, Tab Snooze might well be a solution. This tool "snoozes" open tabs so that they pop-up at later scheduled times and by doing this, it helps me to focus on what I’m working on. Tab Snooze is currently only available as a web-based Google chrome extension, however, Tab Snooze for iPhone, Android, Safari, and Firefox will be coming out soon.
Freesound
www.freesound.org/browse
How exciting! For my next powerpoint presentation I can easily add appropriate sounds. Freesound is a collection of audio snippets, samples, recordings, bleeps available to the public under Creative Commons licenses. Sounds range from short instrumentals to the sound of heavy rain or windy farmland. Of course, musicians and sound artists may find it a particularly useful library.
Knitting Reference Library
archive.org/details/knittingreferencelibrary&tab=collection
And for a different library, check out this knitting site. You’ll find a wealth of materials about knitting across time and geography, courtesy of the UK University of Southampton's Library Digitisation Unit. Many of the digitised knitting patterns are available, though it seems that the more modern patterns, particularly Sirdar patterns, are governed by copyright and only the covers are available. Still, for the growing band of knitting enthusiasts, this library will provide hours of fun.
Lapse-It
www.lapseit.com
Perhaps you have a video of a butterfly approaching a flower that you'd like to slow down in order to view each wing flap in full detail. Alternatively, you may have footage of your growing herb garden and you want to speed it up. Lapse-It is a free mobile application that allows users to create "astonishing time-lapse videos." Available for iOS and Android devices, the basic version is free; the purchasable Pro version takes higher resolution videos.
