I’ll start off by saying I love POIFriend! 

I was contacted by POIfriend.com and I was rather intrigued. As you might suspect POIfriend.com (pronounced like boyfriend) is all about points of interests. Essentially, it is a social network that allows users to create and share their own POIs within their group of friends or with the entire community. With POIfriend, you can create your own POIs, download them to your GPS unit, iPhone or Blackberry, and share them with others site users and even with friends who aren’t members. Best of all, it’s free.

“The advantage POIfriend has is that you are in the driver’s seat — quite literally,” says Bill McLean, co-founder, POIfriend Inc. “We often don’t realize the sentimental value associated with the places important to us. Places are just places until they take on more of a personal, helpful, or intriguing aspect for us, so we’ve created an online community to share just that.”

“POIfriend.com is an essential tool for everyday life. It offers accessibility and sharing of your favorite shops, sporting events, restaurants, gas stations, bank machines — whatever it is that keeps your world ticking,” adds McLean.”

Since POIfriend.com is constantly updated by you, the user, the information is always current and fresh. Uploading your own POIs means that there’s no limit to the groups that you can create or the friends that you can involve. POIfriend allows you to share and grow your world, on the go, all the time. However, as exciting as this is, I feel there may be some inaccurate data. Either way, it is a great service and it is absolutely free. Here are a few more features:

– A one-stop shop for a broad-range of POI destinations
– Avoiding the hassles of store-locator navigation
– 100% FREE
– Connect with everyone you know and those you don’t
– User-friendly compatibility (works with most portable GPS-enabled
devices)
– No GPS required
– Stripping away the techno-babble from GPS and POI data
– No bio necessary – just an email will get you started
– Users have full control over the places they wish to share
– Compelling connection between businesses and your community

So what are you waiting for? Go sign up today!

I think the instant messaging applications are starting to get big again, or perhaps it is just because I am starting to use instant messaging apps more frequently. Either way, there are quite a few of them out there so it is always important to be a little different than the others. How much more different can you be messaging a friend? Two words: Goober Networks.

Goober is an instant messenger developed by a team of Germans based in Delaware that’s going up against the big guys (Skype, MSN, ICQ, etc.) with a desktop client that overflows with features. Available for Mac, Linux, Windows, and cell phones, you can practically use Goober anywhere. In addition, like many of the instant messaging apps, Goober incorporates their network, MSN, ICQ, and Jabber. Interestingly, AIM is not part of the protocol group. 

The application comes equipped with voIP, so making and receiving calls is a nice addition. Users can also send text messages, and MP3s. Unfortunately, video is not yet included but I am sure that will be added in the future. Still, it seems like your normal application, right? Look a little closer and you’ll find that Goober differentiates itself primarily by providing a suite of widgets that can be used to communicate through the client. 

An email widget can be placed in the signature of messages and a “portal” widget can be placed on social network profiles and other webpages. This is rather cool because instead of the other person getting the application, they can instead go to your site, Facebook, or wherever else you placed the widget and chat with you. Both options present buttons for one-click instant messaging, VoIP calling, and file transferring with the user. An additional “classifieds” widget assists those trying to conduct business online who want to be reached through more synchronous means than email.

There is more – if you are looking to listen to a little music while you chat, so be it. Like AIM, Goober has also integrated entertainment music and video into the client. Goober scours the internet for free video channels and radio stations found on the internet and allows for the playback of them at the bottom of the client. I love this feature but unfortunately, the quality is subpar. 

Overall, Goober is a pretty decent IM client. Unfortunately, I won’t be a switcher quite yet. AIM is not included. However, those who regularly communicate across several protocols should check it out, especially once Goober adds AIM and Gtalk support. It is currently in beta, so many features and changes will be taking place. Fortunately, your phone and other computers won’t be left out to collect dust with their multi-platform upgrade system. Speaking of phones, if you own an iPhone, I was told that there are more great features coming soon in conjunction with the iPhone so stay tuned. I do application reviews at iPhone Matters so be on the lookout when this feature is released.

I have spent a number of years following backup services and discovering new ones. Some are good, some are bad, but one that slipped under my radar was a service called SpiderOak. I was contacted by Ethan Oberman, co-founder, for this relatively new service and I was, of course, ready to experience a new backup service with open arms.

As our digital media grow, it is imperative that we all find ways to keep it forever. I was once a strong believer that I could never be a victim of hundreds of important files lost. I saw more clearly my mistake when I lost some of my most valuable pictures, videos, and music years ago. To keep that from ever happening again, I backup to several places so in the event that anything fails, I have a backup somewhere else. SpiderOak has made the list of saving my most important files, and doing it well.

For For $10 a month, you can store up to 100GB; this can be further increased with another $10 per 100GB increment not just for one computer, not two, but all your computers! If you are like me, then you’ll take it and run with it. One thing that $10/month will get you is advanced security. SpiderOak has one of the most advanced security systems that I have used in a backup service. Many people have their security concerns, so the SpiderOak team takes great pride in protecting their customers. In fact, because of its strong encryption, the program is currently available only in the United States. MacNN, a favorite site of mine, mention: “While it’s unlikely that employees will browse through your files, the possibility is always there, which means you lack true privacy. That’s why the site uses the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), a US government algorithm, for encrypting your data on its servers. In theory this not only halts local access, but means that if the password is lost or forgotten, even you will never be able to retrieve your files ever again.”

I would probably suggest you always remember your password . Also unique to SpiderOak is a feature I absolutely love. Versioning is a wonderful feature that all backup services should use in my opinion. Imagine you save a document, and you decided to change some things within the document and resave it. Most services would replace the backup copy with the new one, however, SpiderOak not only keeps that version, but any previous changes you have made or will make. Brilliant.

SpiderOak also takes great pride in giving users the ability to share their files. You can designate specific files to share, assign a password to them, and then anyone with the right password can access your files over the Internet. Simple as that! With such a simple program, anyone can use it and not only am I talking about any person being able to use this program but any operating system can use it as well. This cross-platform program can have you backing up on your Mac laptop, Windows PC, or your Linux computer.

I am not particularly fond of the look and feel of SpiderOak, but in my conversations with Oberman, he made it easily understandable when he said, “this has been as issue that we have discussed at length internally. However, given that one of our top priorities from the beginning was to be completely cross platform, we wanted to provide a consistent look and feel within the application regardless of platform. Therefore, if you are on a Mac, a Windows machine, or working in Linux, the SpiderOak application will look and feel the exact same.”

That is when the saying, Never judge a book by its cover comes to mind. Despite its unpleasing facade lies a great functional program that not only backs up your files (as it is suppose to do) but also does so with security that even you cannot access without the password. SpiderOak is also joining the “Cloud.” “The company allows users to create a ‘SuperCloud’ that protects them against data loss, makes all stored information available by browser on a 24×7 basis, offers password-protected ‘ShareRooms’ for easy family/friend/colleague access, and provides a variety of technical advantages for efficient and cost-effective data management.” 

Another dating site in amongst us so what does the new dating service have that others do not? Simply put – Images. Youniverse.com is a site and a network that connects people with image tests. Youniverse.com uses images to discover people’s interests, character, and style. I thought to myself, “how cool is that,” so I headed over to the site to see why it is craving so much attention.

Upon arriving at the website, you are instantly greeted with images. You may get confused as to what they are supposed to be, until you read the question above the images. Individuals take an image test where they are asked questions and told to respond by choosing the image that best embodies the answer. Youniverse.com has a love test that asks questions about love and has you answer with images. Once you have finished the tests you will get a description of your perception of love. The answer to the image test is your visualDNA. Once you have taken the love test you can create a profile. You can find love by searching for users with similar visualDNA. Besides finding people with similar visualDNA you can find gifts that you will find attractive and appeal to your taste. Find the perfect match and great valentine products at Youniverse.com.

” We’ve developed a way of understanding people’s feelings with the help of over 5 million people who have come from all over the world to our sister site, Imagini.net. 
As a result, everyone that’s part of Youniverse will eventually be able to have a relationship with the internet that’s guided by their feelings.”

The site is very unique and I am sure their uniquness will be rewarded with great numbers. Youniverse is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Imagini Holdings (www.imagini.net), the inventor of VisualDNA^TM, so the team knows what they are doing. The two sites may appear to be the same, but differences arise when you take a closer look. The site is clean, simple, fun, and – off the record – a little creepy. “Through our behavioral assessment tool we will allow people to discover more about themselves and, as a result, meet and connect with people in more meaningful and true ways,” said Alex Willcock, founder and CEO of Youniverse. However, you will enjoy it. It is very intreguing, and there is the prospect of meeting the woman/man of your dreams based on commonalities of your answers so go ahead and try it out!

As gas price increase, my bank account decreases. I currently own an SUV (not for long) and to fill up my car, I have to take out a loan…Well, maybe not that bad quite yet, but at over $100, I am just about willing to do anything to fill up for as cheap as possible. Whenever I take a necessary ride somewhere, I noticed the price of gas rising right before my eyes and it seems like yesterday, I was complaining over $1.92/gallon. I cannot help you get it back to that price, but I can help you save some gas money.

I’m pretty sure most of you have heard of the few places I am going to talk about since traffic to these sites are growing every day. “GasBuddy.com, which serves as an umbrella site for 180 regionalized sites covering some 170,000 gas stations in the U.S. and Canada, has seen more of a steady climb in traffic.” This site, and GasPriceWatcher essentially do the same thing – Find the cheapest gas prices in your vicinity. GasBuddy.com and GasPriceWatch.com, both 8-year-old sites, rely on their networks of registered members/spotters. Spotters are community members who are usually offered incentive points or a chance to win a “thank you” prize such as a discount on gas.

GasBuddy.com has one of the coolest features in what it calls its Gas Temperature Map, an interactive display of gas prices around the country, with areas color-coded according to their average price for regular unleaded gasoline. I was able to find some cheap gas this way, but that is not the only way to be alerted of cheap gas. It should be noted that new technologies have changed the way we consumers are accessing information from the gas price sites. Some are still looking at the sites on their PCs. But other gadgeteers, like me, are getting such information through in-car GPS systems, text messaging, and smartphone applications.

Make no mistake that these are not the only gas saving websites out there. There is also AAA’s Gas Price Finder, unlike the other two sites; this site uses data primarily from credit card transactions. MapQuest Gas Prices and MSN Gas Prices rely on data supplied by the Oil Price Information Service, a pricing database that collects information from 125,000 North American retail outlets. Not to mention, last year, a X-writer here at The Tech Brief wrote about six super ways to save on gas. That super six ways is definitely a must see.

If you were not aware of these sites, I suggest you use them, because now a day, every little bit of savings helps. Another useful tip I heard not too long ago is if you can find a gas station that does not accept credit cards, then the gas will be considerably cheaper. Word on the streets is that the prices will continue to grow to groundbreaking records and soon, we will all be working from home, not going anywhere.