Best iPhone Applications

On this page, you will find the best 100+ iPhone apps for all your needs. We’ve taken the effort to categorize the apps and picked only those we believe to be the best ones and which will most likely be useful to you. (+) denotes apps which run on both iPhones and iPads. From http://www.makeuseof.com/pages/best-iphone-apps

	Shazam Identify and discover songs with Shazam. Download		Pandora (+) Stream personalised radio stations on your iOS device. Download		Soundhound (+) Identify unknown songs. Works like Shazam without the monthly limit. Download
	TuneIn Radio Enjoy over 50,000 radio stations (even AM/FM radio) and stream to speakers via AirPlay. Download		SoundTracking Share a great song moment via snippets, photos and location with your friends. Download		Mixcloud Radio on demand. On your iPhone. Download

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Opera Mini Web browser (+) The fastest mobile web browser for iPhone. Web pages are compressed to reduce data costs. Download

Skyfire Web Browser Brings Flash back to your iPhone. Browsing as it should be. $2.99 Download

Atomic Web Browser (+) Enables tabbed browsing, private mode, orientation lock while browsing. $0.99 Download

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	DrawCast Free drawing app that supports layers, multiple brush sizes, colour mixing and more. Download		Doodle Buddy Great, simple drawing app. Supports multi-user drawing sessions over Wi-fi. Download		LiveSketch Awesome sketching app that makes you look like a professional artist. Download
	SketchMee Lite Turn your photos into brilliant sketches and share them via email or Facebook. Download

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	PayPal Gain secure access to your PayPal account to easily manage, send and receive money on the move. Download		Square Accept credit card payments directly on your iPhone. Requires Square card reader. Download		Mint Coupled with the online version, provides you with everything you need to manage your finances. Download
	Expensify Scan your receipts and track your expenses. Automatically generate expense reports. Download

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	Word With Friends Free Challenge up to 20 friends to word games that can be played at your leisure. Download		Cut The Rope: Holiday Gift (+) The free, holiday version of Cut The Rope. Still cute and still immensely fun. Download		Smurfs’ Village (+) Build your Smurf empire and play with your favourite Smurfs. Download
	Tiny Wings Slide down hills and fly to the sky. Watch out for the night as it chases behind you. $0.99 Download		NBA Jam Play as your favourite NBA basketball player in classic campaign mode of challenge your friend via Wifi or Bluetooth. $0.99. Download		World Series of Poker Hold ‘Em One of the best Hold ‘Em poker game for the iPhone. Play by yourself or with others around the world. Download
	Flick Football Lite A great, free game to pass the time. How many footballs can you flick before the game ends? Download		Overkill (+) One of the better free shooting games for the iPhone. Quite tough to play. Download		Solitaire If Solitaire is what you’re looking for, then look no further. Download

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	RunKeeper Use GPS to track your run and to plot your route. Also provides you with a historical dashboard containing your totals and progress. Download		WebMD Provides you with a simple symptom checker and other tools to better understand your medical condition. Download		Lose It! A simple app to help motivate you to lose weight and track your progress. Download
	Naturespace (+) A collection of relaxing nature sounds, reproduced in 3 dimensions to provide you with the most realistic experience. Download		Calorie Counter and Diet Tracker A great alternative to Lose It! Contains a database of over 750K foods and 350 exercises. Download		Nike+ GPS Coupled with the Nike website, Nike+ GPS is most complete running progress tracker for the iPhone. $1.99 Download
	Medscape Provides easy and quick access to the Medscape medical database with disease and condition references and drug guides. Download		Pillboxie With its visual design, Pillboxie is the easiest way to track your daily medication. Download

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	Movies by Flixster (+) Get movie reviews from Rotten Tomatoes, check out what’s hot and watch movie trailers. Download		IMDB (+) Everyone knows and loves IMDB. Rate recently viewed movies, browse the movie database and catch up on the latest flicks. Download		Fandango (+) Get movie showtimes and purchase movie tickets directly from your iPhone. Download
	Crackle – Movies & TV (+) A great new app that allows you to stream and watch full-length movies and TV series in certain countries. Download		HippoRemote Lite Control your Mac remotely via Wi-fi with HippoRemote. Extremely useful when you’re leaned back and enjoying a movie. Download		Netflix (+) Stream movies and TV series directly to your iOS device. Requires a Netflix membership. Download

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	MapQuest 4 Mobile Free voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation powered by MapQuest. Download		Trapster This little app will alert you as you approach speed traps, traffic cameras, accidents, etc. Download		AllSubway Complete database of all major city subway maps around the world. $0.99 Download
	MotionX GPS Drive Affordable turn-by-turn voice navigation with voice guidance and free traffic updates. For the U.S. and Canada only. $0.99 Download		Waze Free GPS navigation with turn-by-turn instructions. Download

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	Weatherbug Simple. Accurate. What else do you need from a weather app? Download		Scan (+) Fast QR code scanner. Redirects to webpages; recognises phone numbers, email address, etc. Download		AppShopper (+) Create wishlists and be informed when your favourite apps are on sale. Download
	Flashlight Enable your iPhone’s flashlight quickly. Allows for manual control (morse code function). Ad-free. Download		Find My iPhone Must-have app. Allows you to log in and find other missing iOS devices. Download		GlobeConvert Convert over 80 units including time, volume, length, weight and over 190 currencies. Download
	iHandy Level Calibrate your iPhone and use it as a handy water level. Download		Dragon Go! Say what you want and Dragon Go! will deliver. Download		Tips & Tricks – iPhone Secrets An app full of iPhone secrets. $0.99. Download

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	Hipstamatic The most popular photography app for iPhone. Comes with several unique effects, with additional effects from the in-app store. $1.99 Download		OldBooth Superimpose yourself and your friends onto images from the past. Super fun app that everyone enjoys. $1.99 Download		Instagram The popular and incredibly awesome Instagram. It comes with over 15 beautiful effects and the ability to share your creations. Download
	Photosynth Th easiest way to create beautiful panoramic photographs on your iPhone. Download		Photogram Great app to easily broadcast photos from an event to Facebook, Twitter and email simultaneously. Download		Adobe Photoshop Express (+) Perform simple edits like rotate, crop, adjust saturation; all on your iPhone. Download
	Camera Genius Equip your iPhone camera with enhanced digital zoom, timer, sound capture, a full screen capture button and more. $0.99. Download		Pocketbooth Turn your iPhone into a retro, fun photobooth. Via AirPrint, you can print the photos directly from your iPhone. $0.99 Download		Dermandar Create and share panoramic images on your iPhone blazingly quick with a fully automated capture system. Download
	Canopy Camera Tools Simple app that adds time delayed capture and allows you to create time-lapse videos. Download

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	Dragon Dictation (+) Allows you to transcribe your notes, emails, SMS, social network status, and reminders. Download		Wunderlist This iPhone app keeps your online and desktop to-do list in sync. Download		PeerPressure for Goals Stick to your commitments by letting your friends in on them. Gain a virtual support team and achieve your goals. Download
	Mozy (+) Securely access all of your Mozy backed-up files via your iPhone. Download		Dropbox (+) Access your Dropbox and share documents and images directly on your iOS device. Download		Scatterbrain Jot down notes, to-dos and reminders as they happen. Optional account to backup and sync your thoughts. Download
	Evernote Another great thought-tracking app that syncs with Evernote.com and the desktop client. Download		Remember The Milk (+) Take your RTM to-do list with you wherever you go and connect to your tasks, search your notes and plan your day on the move. Download		Weave A great-looking free app that allows you to manage projects, to-dos, expenses and time spent on a particular task. Download
	Calvetica Calendar For those who need a simple and elegant calender and reminder app. $0.99 Download		SugarSync (+) Enables access to all of your SugarSync folders. Similar to Dropbox but packs a bigger punch. Download		Simplenote (+) Create and edit notes, automatically synced with Dropbox. Download

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	Pulse News for iPhone An elegant solution to browse through your favourite websites. Download		Instapaper (+) Save your favourite websites to read offline, optimised for the iPhone’s screen. $4.99 Download		Read It Later Free Save your webpages to read later offline, either on your iOS device or your desktop. Download
	Zinio (+) Devour magazines like Maxim, The Economist directly on your iPhone. Requires subscription. Download		Kindle (+) Optimised for iOS devices, allows you to read Kindle books and access the Kindle store. Download		Goodreads Discover new books, read reviews and keep a virtual bookshelf of the books you’ve read. Download
	iBooks (+) A must-have on your iOS device. Download and read ebooks from the iBookstore. Download		Stanza (+) Read ePub, eReader, PDF, CBD, CBZ, Project Gutenberg and DjVu books. Download		Wikipanion The easier way to search and browse Wikipedia. Download
	BBC News Browse breaking news from the BBC as it happens. Download		CNN (US) Gain access to live streaming news broadcasts and important headlines directly on your iPhone. Download		ESPN Scorecenter Stay up to date with sports news and results from leagues around the world. Download
	Byline (+) Ad supported offline feed reader that uses your Google Reader account. Premium version is $2.99 Download		feedly (+) Gorgeous free feed reader. Download		Reeder Google Reader client that syncs with Google, Instapaper, ReadItLater, Readability. $2.99 Download

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	WhatsApp Messenger Until iMessage is available to everyone, this is what we’ll depend on. $0.99 Download		Foursquare Share your hotspots with your friends and let them know where you’ve been. Download		Bump Share photos, contacts, videos, songs, and apps by bumping two iOS devices together. Magical. Download
	Viber The best way to make and receive free calls on your iPhone. Requires an internet connection. Download		Twitter (+) Get your tweets on the move. Share images and thoughts with your Twitter followers. Download		IM+ (+) A great multi-protocol instant messenger. Supports GTalk, MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, iChat, Jabber and many others. Download
	Meebo Another great multi-protocol instant messenger. Download		Trillian For the die-hard Trillian users. Supports Trillian to Trillian messaging to save money. Download		Facebook Who could live without Facebook on their iPhone? Download
	Tumblr For those who use Tumblr, this is an easy way to update on the go. Download

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	FlightTrack (+) Track flights in real time and get updates about delays and changes directly on your iPhone. $4.99 Download		Currency (+) Get up-to-date currency exchange rates for over 100 currencies and easily convert them to a currency of your choice. Download		TripIt – Travel Organiser (+) Organise your travels. Coupled with an awesome web interface, this app is a must-have. Download
	Urbanspoon (+) Use GPS to find the best restaurants around you, sorted by cuisine and complete with reviews. Download		Yelp (+) Like Urbanspoon but for everything else in the community, covering places to drink, eat and have fun. Download		Skyscanner Great app to help you find the lowest flight fares and cheapest dates to fly. Download
	Google Translate Speak a phrase and the app translates it automatically! Over 50 languages supported. Download		XE Currency Convert over 180 currencies at trusted rates. View currency charts going back on year. Download		Jetsetter Gain access to exclusive discounts on spa, ski and beach resorts; travel packages and cruises. Download

Best iPhone Apps for 2011

Best Of iPhone Apps 2011

By Emmanuel Banks | December 29, 2011 |

The year is finally coming to a close and we are now getting ready to see what 2012 has in store. However, today we will take a look back at the best apps of 2011 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. There have been many popular applications that were released or were a hit this year. The applications ranged from those geared toward photography to social media, and even one with both all in one app.

 

Best of Social Networking

 

1. Instagram

Instagram brings creativity to any iPhone user and any iPhone photo. With just a pick of a filter, you can turn a mundane photo into something akin to artwork. The social media integration also allows other individuals to appreciate your photos.

2. Facebook

Facebook for iPhone wasn’t the best application out there in its early days. However, the later part of 2011 was great for the application. The new interface makes the application a lot cleaner, and the sidebar provides for quicker access to profiles.

3. Google+

The Google+ application took a while in 2011 to reach iOS users. The Android users beat iPhone users to the punch on this one. But for many users, it was worth the wait. The Google+ application offers the full site in an iPhone friendly interface. I personally only have to go on the desktop when uploading large files.

4. Twitter

Twitter for iPhone wasn’t its best in its early users, but the social media website seemed to have hit a growth spurt during the later part of 2011. The new application now has a revamped interface known as Twitter Fly. The interface offers a simpler, better organized Twitter experience.

Best of Photography

1. Camera+

The native iPhone camera application is seen as too basic for many individual’s taste. Aside from some light editing, including enhancement, cropping, and redeye editing, you don’t have much to work with. Camera+ offers great editing features, filters, borders, and more. It’s the only camera application I need.

2. iMovie

If you have an iPhone 4S, then you most likely haven’t been taking as much advantage of the 1080p lying in your pocket than you should. The iMovie application brings on board video editing, allowing you to share amazing video to YouTube and social networking websites in a snap.

3. Postagram

Postagram offers a great complement to our other favorite application for 2011, Instagram. Postagram allows you to physically enjoy some of your Instagram photos for only 99 cents each. The photos, printed on high quality paper, are a perfect vacation memento or a wonderful, personal holiday gift.

4. Adobe Photoshop Express

This free application offers great minor tweaks and improvements to already great photos. In other words, it may not be the application for the heavy photographer, but the average iPhone user will greatly appreciate it. Features like cropping and black and white offers the final touch to great photos.

Best of Games

1. Angry Birds

This two year old iPhone application has morphed into an App Store classic. This is why the whole Angry Birds series (Classic, Seasons, Rio etc), as one of the best iPhone game apps. It’s the game that some newly popular games base off of.

2. Temple Run

Temple Run is the highly addictive game that I thought was a great hit from the start. The objective is to go through an obstacle course, jumping over road cracks and more. Temple Run is now one of the top games on the app store, so if you haven’t heard of it, you don’t know what you’re missing out on!

3. Charadium

The loners in your life would find some company with the Charadium application. This game allows you to guess the word based on the drawn image of others you play with online. When the word is guessed, you get a point. It’s a great time passer.

4. Doodle Jump

Doodle Jump’s main objective is to draw the course that your character takes as it passes by various other hurtles. This is all while trying not to miss your step and fall to your death. Doodle Jump also has support for online multiplayer.

Best of Travel

1. FlightTrack Pro

This is one of my favorite travel applications out there. FlightTrack Pro offers a great hub for all of your travel information for your next trip. You have the ability to get any updates on your next flight, have airline emails forwarded here, and know when there are delays through push notifications.

2. Packing Pro

Who ever enjoys packing must not be avid travellers, because packing is one of the most put off activities in the whole travel trip. Have you ever considered having a packing assistant? Packing Pro is that application. The application gives you sample lists for what to pack, based on your upcoming trip so you can never forget anything.

3. UberCab

When you are leaving dinner with friends or arriving in your vacation spot, have you ever wanted to say “Let me call my driver”? UberCab allows you to do this. The application allows you to call a personal driver who can bring you from point A to point B in style at affordable prices.

4. TripColor

Capture your travel memories with Trip Color. The simple application allows you to share travel photos, text, and more by using templates made according to your travel theme. This keeps family and friends in the loop, without it being stressful.

Best of Productivity

1. Dropbox

Dropbox allows you to have your online life, in the cloud. Simply upload files onto the application, and they are easily accessable on the Dropbox website on your desktop. This is the top, free, iCloud alternative for any user.

2. Vlingo

For the iPhone 4 and 3GS users out there without Siri, this is the next best thing for getting stuff done through the voice. Vlingo allows you to send text and email messages, use maps, update your status, call, and do web searches with your voice. Is it better than Siri? Some may say no, but it’s the best alternative out there.

3. Remember the Milk

This is one of my favorite to-do applications available on the app store. It focuses on the content, not just the design, providing you with a productive application. In addition, with a small work around, you can even hook it up with Siri!

4. eTodo

What Remember the Milk lacks in design is what eTodo makes up for. The application categories your tasks into three easy to understand categories, providing you with the ability to know what to focus on.

Best of 2011…

Flipboard for iPhone

Flipboard is the chosen best application for 2011. The application just became available for iPhone a few weeks ago, but it’s a hit in our books. The application allows you to consume everything important to you online, in just one application. Your Twitter feed, Instagram, and favorite news sources are all available in one area. The interface uses the photos from these posts, providing for a classic magazine look. Best of all, this application is free!
Is your favorite apps in the list around? If not, share with us in the comments.
Image credit: BigStockPhoto

Source: http://maketecheasier.com/best-of-iphone-apps-2011/2011/12/29?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+MakeTechEasier+%28Make+Tech+Easier%29

3 Fun & Simple Phone Apps That Will Change The Way You Text Message

Text messaging – especially among the younger crowd – is probably the number one thing we use our phones for. Think about that for a second. We use our phones, which were designed for calling people, to send text-based messages instead. That’s not to say we don’t call anyone, but texting has become second nature to us. It’s very easy to do.
The way texting usually works is you would take out your phone, select all the recipients of your message, type it out and send it. Then you would get multiple replies and have basically the same conversation a few different times in order to coordinate your plans with the entire group. Well, that’s all about to change.

In this article, I’ll be unveiling three phone text messaging apps that have really been generating a lot of buzz lately. Each one offers a unique and interesting way to communicate via text message and they’re all free, so if you don’t have an unlimited SMS plan you can start saving some cash on your cell phone bill too.

 

Real-Time Texting With Kik

Kik Messenger is a free smartphone to smartphone messenger, not unlike BlackBerry’s Messenger. One of the things that makes it different, however, is that it is truly cross-platform. It will work on your iPhone, BlackBerry or Android device.

The best part about KIK (a popular misspelling of ‘LOL’) is the real-time messaging. You get free, unlimited cross-platform messaging to all Kik users and your text messages are turned into real-time conversations, meaning that you’ll know that your message has been sent and when it is read. Because this process is fast, Kik makes texting feel more like a face-to-face conversation.

If you’re too busy to read a new message, but don’t want your friends to feel ignored, Kik steps in and tells them that their message has been delivered but not yet read.
Kik Messenger also features push notifications, free cross border messaging, landscape typing, offline messages and – according to their website – it works worldwide. According to Kik, the next step is adding free (legal) music sharing.

Kik Messenger is the fastest, most reliable instant messenger that allows you to connect with your smartphone friends for free! Enjoy real-time conversations enabled by your data plan that you can use to talk to your friends all over the world. Say goodbye to texting!

Group Texting With GroupMe

GroupMe (directory app) allows you to create free texting chatrooms for your real-life friends. The way it
works is simple:

First, you start a group. This can be your family, college buddies, co-workers or really anything you want. When you start a group, you get a unique number for it. Save your group’s number to your contacts so you can get a hold of the group at any time. Once you’ve created your group, add contacts to it.

Then, start texting your group. All of your group’s contacts will be brought into a chatroom where you can all see the entire conversation. If you would prefer not to text, you can call your unique number to start an instant conference call. How cool is that?
GroupMe is said to work on any phone, but they do have an iPhone app for download.

Fun Team-Based Texting With Fast Society

While the previous two apps offer you fun ways to send text messages, I think this next app was designed specifically with the word fun in mind.
Fast Society (directory app) is another group texting application that is totally private and works with every phone on every carrier (in the US). It allows you to “create temporary teams of friends around fun events in your life.”

You start by choosing your team. You can choose a few friends or invite anyone, even those who don’t have the app. Then you pick a length of time for how long you would like your chat session to last. Temporary teams means no commitment, and because the session expires you won’t have to get a stray message the next day from someone who was “unconnected”.

Then, what happens next is up to you. You can start texting your team for a simple group chat via SMS, or call them for an instant conference call. Members of the team can also share their location with the group.

Have an iPhone? Fast Society has an iPhone app, but it also works on other phones, so head to the website.

Conclusion

I realize that these text messaging apps might not seem very “fun” at first glance, but I assure you once you start using them with your friends you will really start to get into it. Changing the way we text message is such an interesting dynamic to me, and judging from the current popularity of these applications I think it is something to keep an eye on.
If you’re interested in these apps, check out some other SMS tools.
What do you think of these apps? Will you be trying any of them with your friends?

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-fun-simple-phone-apps-change-text-message/

Send Text Messages for free over the Internet

10 Sites To Send Free Text Messages To Cell Phones (SMS)

posted on August 19, 2009 by Jack Cola

With SMS messages becoming a key utility in today’s modern world, we are finding ourselves sending more and more of them. But the telecommunications industry is charging a fairly high price on 160 characters. So what can we do about it? We can send SMS messages for free, or for a very low price by utilizing the magic power of the internet.

The only downside with this is that you have to be sitting in front of a computer, unless of course you have one of those hi-tech phones with internet capabilities.
So where are these free SMS services hiding? We’ll expose them now. Here are 10 great sites to send free text messages to cell phones (SMS).

txtDrop


txtDrop is a web-based text messaging service that lets you send free text messages to almost any mobile phone worldwide. Just enter your name, recipient’s mobile number and your message. No registration required.

txtDrop features

• Completely free of charge.
• Mac Dashboard widget: send text messages right from your desktop and receive replies to your messages via email.
• Vista Sidebar gadget: same features here, send text messages receive email replies
• Myspace widget: Let your profile visitors send you free text messages.
• iPhone support: Send free text messages from your iPhone @ www.txtdrop.com/iphone.

Go to txtDrop
- To send text messages within US and Canada (http://www.txtdrop.com/)
- To send text messages worldwide (http://www.txtdrop.net/)

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/txtdrop/

Textme2Day

Textme2Day is a website that lets you send free sms to any mobile from computer. It works for almost any almost any major cell phone provider in the world. There is no sign up or registration needed. Just type in the 10-digit-mobile number and select the carrier from drop down menu. Then enter your text message and click on “Send” button. Done!

See the list of supported mobile carriers below (worldwide):

Features:

• Send free sms to mobile phones from your PC.
• Send as many messages as you like. No limit.
• Supports almost all major cell phone providers worldwide.
• Message length limit: 140 characters
• No email or sign up needed.
• Similar free SMS sites: GizmoSMS and TxtDrop.

If your frequently communicate to your friends using text messaging youshould also check out our recent article on How To Send Email To Any Cell Phone (for Free).
Check out @ TextMe2Day @ www.textme2day.com

Yakedi

If you are anywhere but in Australia, unfortunately this service will not work for you. But if you are, Yakedi is absolutely the BEST free site to send SMS messages to Australian and New Zealand users. I have been using this site for years now. When I first joined, they offered unlimited free SMS messages. Unfortunately, they reduced it down to 10, now it is a steady 3 per day.
Pros

• You get the full 160 character for each SMS you send
• The messages come from your phone number and not someone else’s
• You have a contact list so you can select contacts
• Their is no advertisements in SMS messages. However, you do have the otion to include advertisements in your messages
• Since I have been using this service, they have not sent spam to my mobile phone, or to the people I send the text messages to
• The website has a nice, clean, professional design
• Ads are chosen based on surveys of your interest, so you know the ads are targeted towards you
• Ads are from known corporations (could be a pro or a con)
• All messages are kept in your message log so you can keep track of what you have sent (and how much money you have saved)
• You have the ability to earn more free text messages through competitions and email promotions
• You can change your mobile number anytime
• SMS messages take roughly 5 seconds to receive

Cons

• This service can only send SMS messages to Australian and New Zealand numbers
• By default, you can only send 3 SMS messages per day, unless you have won more from promotions
• They are starting to introduce email promotion = a little bit of spam in your inbox (1-2 a month)
• There is a four step process to send your SMS. (1. Send SMS, 2. select recipient, 3. Write text message, 4. Confirm message)

Final Say
If you live in Australia and New Zealand, this is the best site for you to send free text messages to cell phones on a daily basis.

GizmoSMS

The good thing about GizmoSMS is that you can send free text messages to any number world-wide. You do not even have to sign up or have a mobile phone number. It is just a web-based form. But without signing up, the mobile number it is from will not be yours and you only get 80 characters.
GizmoSMS is great if you want to send a message or a note to someone who may be overseas. It is quick and easy. If you want a bit more features, you should have a look at Gizmo5 SMS.

SMS Pup

A friend referred me to this program, however, it is not as good as Yakedi as you will see why in the pros and cons.
Pros

• Contains an phone book
• Messages come from your number
• SMS messages take roughly 5 seconds to receive
• Contains a number of other services
• You can schedule your SMS messages
• Provides a number of ways to send free text messages to cell phones such as through the web, email and allows you to turn English text into SMS slang

Con’s

• You have to do a one minute survey before you can start using the service, which gives you 5 free sms messages
• SMS may contain ads
• If your email has a “˜.’ in it, it won’t allow you to sign up
• You only get 136 characters, which means the rest are advertisements (Free sms message by SMSPup.com)
• Unless you want your email inbox to increase, with surveys and advertisments, don’t sign up with an email address you regularly use.

Final Say
Unless you want to do surveys all the time, SPSPup is OK. It still can’t beat Yakedi.

SMSFun

SMSFun not only allows you to send free SMS messages but you also join part of a community. You have access to forums, User Profiles and Useful Tools such as number lookups.
Pros

• You can send SMS messages from email
• Allows you to look up premium numbers to see what they are
• A community based service, which allows profiles
• Has premium SMS services
• If you need more SMS messages, you can upgrade to a Gold Subscription for $2 per week which allows you access to more features on the website

Con’s

• A lot of ads, and a few raunchy user pictures
• Signup process is a bit lengthy
• Have to earn free SMS messages
• You may want to stay away from Premium SMS services that SMSFun offers

Final Say
If you just want to send free SMS messages without all the other features that SMS fun offers, then I would go with Yakedi or SMSPup. Nevertheless, if you want to join part of a community, fill out surveys and earn free text messages that way, you can’t go past this website.

Text4Free

Text4Free allows you to send free SMS messages to most countries world-wide. The only downside is that you may have to know your recipient’s cell phone provider, otherwise recipients may be charged.

A Few Others

Web2msg ““ You do not need to register and you get 140 characters. This service is only for Australian users,  but it is a quick and free way to send a free text message to a mate.
SendSMSNow ““ You can send a free SMS to selected countries only. Registration is now free.
FreebieSMS ““ You need to register your number and your friends number and email address to be able to send a free SMS message.
Mobik ““ I have not had any experience with them.   Maybe you have and you can tell us a bit about them?

Clickatell

If you want to set up your own SMS website service, then you should have a look at Clickatell. They allow you to develop and integrate your own SMS service on your website. If that is not your thing, you can download a desktop application to send cheap SMS messages world-wide.
If you want to send cheap SMS messages using your computer, it is best to use Clickatell. Any problems, just send them an email, as they have 24/7 online help.

A word of caution

As with any website, please read their terms and conditions, and Privacy Policy before entering any personal information. Remember that these sites make their money by advertisements and possibly selling your personal information to third parties. What I suggest is to buy a $2 SIM card to try them out first, just in case they do spam your mobile number, or steal some credit. When testing these services, I have not had these issues yet.
So make sure you read these pages first before using these services:
Yakedi : T&C, Privacy Policy
SMSPup: T&C, Privacy Policy
SMS Fun: T&C, Privacy Policy
Do you use a website to send free text messages to cell phones? If you do, please share in the comments. If you have used such a service, and it has been a scam, please also let us know and our readers.

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/10-sites-to-send-free-text-messages-to-cell-phones-sms/

Check What Your Computer is Connecting To

Has your internet connection become slower than it should be? There may be a chance that you have some malware, spyware, or adware that is using your internet connection in the background without your knowledge. Here’s how to see what’s going on under the hood.
Secret Squirrel by akumath

How to Check What Your Computer is Connecting To

So, how do you find out what the problem is? There is an easy method using the netstat command from a command prompt window. This works with Windows 7, Vista, and XP. If you’re still using XP, make sure you are running at least Service Pack 2.
We will use the netstat command to generate a list of everything that has made an internet connection in a specified amount of time. To use the netstat command, you must run the command prompt window as administrator. Open the Start menu and enter “cmd.exe” in the Search box. When the results display, right-click on cmd.exe and select Run as administrator from the popup menu.

If the User Account Control dialog box displays, click Yes to continue. Note: You may not see this dialog box, depending on your User Account Control settings.

At the command prompt, type the following command and press Enter.

netstat -abf 5 > activity.txt

The –a option shows all connections and listening ports, the –b option shows you what application is making the connection, and the –f option displays the full DNS name for each connection option for easier understanding of where the connections are being made to. You can also use the –n option if you wish to only display the IP address. The 5 option will poll every 5 seconds for connections to make it more easy to track what is going on, and the results are then piped into the activity.txt file.
Wait about two minutes and then press Ctrl + C to stop the recording of data.

Once you’ve finished recording data, you can simply open the activity.txt file in your favorite editor to see the results, or you can type activity.txt at the command line to open it in Notepad.
The resulting file will list all processes on your computer (browsers, IM clients, email programs, etc.) that have made an internet connection in the last two minutes, or however long you waited before pressing Ctrl + C. It also lists which processes connected to which websites.
If you see process names or website addresses with which you are not familiar, you can search for “what is (name of unknown process)” in Google and see what it is. It may be a system function you don’t know about or a function of one of your running programs. However, if it seems like a bad site, you can use Google again to find out how to get rid of it.

Using CurrPorts to Check What Your PC is Connecting To

You can also use a free tool, called CurrPorts, to display a list of all currently opened TCP/IP and UDP ports on your local computer. It is a portable program and doesn’t need to be installed. To use it, extract the .zip file you downloaded (see the link at the end of this article) and run cports.exe.
For each port that CurrPorts lists, information about the process that opened the port is displayed. You can select connections and close them, copy a port’s information to the clipboard or save it to an HTML file, an XML file, or a tab-delimited text file. You can reorder the columns displayed on the CurrPorts main window and in the files you save. To sort the list by a specific column, simply click on the header of that column.

CurrPorts runs under Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. There is a separate download of CurrPorts for 64-bit versions of Windows. You can find more information about CurrPorts and how to use it on the website listed below.
Download CurrPorts from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/cports.html.

Source:  http://www.howtogeek.com/98601/easily-monitor-your-computers-internet-connection-activity/