Plugins are great. As anyone who bothers to make their online lives enhanced with conveniences knows, browser extensions, also known as “add-ons,” are a fantastic way to streamline tasks.

At the same time, installation of such software can be annoying. The act of restarting Firefox, IE or Safari is simply a no-go in some situations. Fortunately, the invention of the “bookmarklet” has made inroads in the market over the past several seasons. And because we’ve seen a number of good ones crop up as of late, we thought we’d take a look back to see where we’ve come from and present our “best-of.” Be sure to share your favorites, too!

Delicious

Delicious - Along with Google Gears or Greasemonkey, Delicious is one of those essentials that are hard to do without once you’re hooked. And while it sports a full-featured plug-in for power users, the services offers a bookmarklet as an alternative. Aesthetically speaking, I happen to find it much more appealing than its “big brother.”

Faviki

Faviki - Another social bookmarking service, Faviki is one of those services that becomes more valuable the more invested you become with it. Some features are plain as day, while others are there when you’re least expecting you’d need them. Of course, the service’s bookmarklet only does so much, but its inclusion of a smart tagging feature is reason enough to register an account.

LaterLoop

LaterLoop - So you want to bookmark a bunch of stuff to access when you’re cut off from the Web, and would really enjoy the ability to read that material on your laptop or mobile phone or whathaveyou. LaterLoop helps you do this. Naturally, there are some discrepancies between the service’s plugin and the bookmarklet, but you pretty much end up with the same outcome.

Tip’d

Tip’d - Tip’d is a kind of Digg-like startup built exclusively for people interested in finance. Which, in the current economic climate, counts pretty much everyone under the sun. A bookmarklet allows users to submit links when away from the service. Which is a good thing, considering that Tip’d does not and likely never will achieve the ubiquity that its technical inspiration has managed to reach.

BitLet

BitTorrent? Check. No-plugin and no-software downloads? Check. How much better does it get than that? Not very! BitLet is pretty darn great.

Lizzer

Links are what make the Web as incredible as it is. No question about it. So why not empower Web users with a superfast method to search for and establish links with sites and services and individual webpages that can help enrich their own publications. Lizzer does exactly that. If you’re a prolific blogger and you copy and paste hyperlinks from your journeys online with so much regularity that it really becomes a tiresome practice, this will take the edge off. You might even say it’s a godsend.

Iminta

A FriendFeed-competitor (which also has its own bookmarklet), Iminta behaves pretty much how you’d expect a lifestreaming service to. It incorporates dozens of services into a singular view of what you like and what you do online. Some reviews, including our own, regarded its behavior as more detailed control panel to that of FriendFeed. Is that a good thing? You decide. If you can’t get into the waxing and waning hype over FriendFeed and want something else to chew on, this is a pretty darn good option to dabble in.

YouBundle

A service described as a Mahalo competitor for its aggregate, editor-influenced data collection process, YouBundle is a bit hard-edged compared to the beveled softness espoused by many Web 2.0 ventures today, but it’s certainly got some technical chops to show users. Oh, and it’s got a bookmarklet, too!

Zhiing

This one is about social networking in the real world. Found someplace online that you’d like to visit today or tomorrow with friends, be it for lunch, dinner, drinks, or dessert, or simply just to hang out at? Zhiing helps you get information passed around quickly, whether its by email or to friends’ mobile phones.

Bubble Comment

So there’s a webpage you’d like to share with friends or family, but you’d like to add some witty commentary atop the standard supply of content. (It might be a news article or a comic, for example.) If you can muster up a brief video explainer, Bubble Comment is a near perfect complement to what it is you’re sending along. The service allows users to input URLs on site if they wish, but a bookmarklet is provided for folks who can’t get away from the camera.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Blummy - Bookmarklets, But BetterGoogle Maps Now Support hCard MicroformatsPhotagr: Social Bookmarking for ImagesSneak Peek at Otavo, The Intention Engine7 Ways To Create Your Own Digg Clone11 Tools to Help You Save Sites for Reading LaterSearchles Launches Social Bookmarking Site, Provides MySpace Codes

This week has seen an incredible amount of interest around Twitterank, a new tool that popped up that computes a numerical score of … something.

At first, no one was really too sure what Twitterank was computing, but, it related to Twitter, one’s perceived popularity, and had a quirky site, so, why not enter in your credentials and see what the site had to say about you seemed to be the thinking.

Alas, as word of Twitterank spread (through automatic tweets of people’s scores), concerns arose that the site might be stealing user passwords, as Twitter users began seeing Tweets pop up in their timeline that they thought they didn’t make themselves. The phenomenon is perhaps best summarized by one of our commenters, Michael Bailey, who wrote:

“This whole password stealing rumor got started when a few people who did NOT bother to uncheck the box for sending their Twitterank to Twitter. Then it became a matter of self-preservation expressed in the form of “I did NOT give them permission to send that to Twitter” - well, yes they did because of the default setting, which they didn’t bother to read.

So, as most self-preservation of ones ego goes, many people began the rumors that the site must be stealing their passwords, even rumors of DM’s being sent from their account.”

In other words, the user flow on Twitterank – automatically tweeting one’s score unless the user explicitly opts out – was apparently enough to confuse a lot of people into thinking their accounts had been compromised. Additionally, you could (and still can) enter anything into the “password” box on Twitterank and have your score computed, although this won’t post your score to Twitter since it can’t be authenticated (although several commenters dispute this).

Twitterank’s developer, now known to be Ryo Chijiiwa (@ryochiji), has noted in his blog that he regrets these decisions, writing “I probably would’ve done 2 things differently. Firstly, I would’ve come up with an algorithm that works with Twitter’s Search API, which doesn’t require authentication. Secondly, I would’ve handled posting to twitter differently, which would’ve sacrificed virality, but after today, I’m not so sure insane rapid growth is really worth it.”

Indeed, the design of Twitterank certainly had much to do with its massive word-of-mouth spread, and it’s still Twitter’s #1 trending topic today. This design is also what led to speculation that it might be a phishing scam – a fire we added fuel to by simply asking our readers: “Is Twitterank Ranking Your Popularity or Stealing Your Password?”

The answer now appears to be the former, though the design flaws of Twitterank are certainly a valuable lesson for anyone building a Twitter application, or, on a more serious note, applications that actually do important stuff (as a recent victim of being opted into a credit card scam, I can relate). And for users, the Twitterank “scare” was an important reminder to keep your passwords safe, and use a diversity of them. After all, if something as innocuous as Twitterank was actually a phishing scam, it could easily be parlayed into accessing email, bank accounts, and other sensitive data.

As for Twitterank’s future, it’s self-deprecating developer probably describes it best: “by tomorrow, most of Twitterdom will have forgotten about Twitterank. Thank goodness for short attention spans.”

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Is Twitterank Ranking Your Popularity Or Stealing Your Password?Google’s Actions and Reactions to Phishing on MySpaceMySpace’s Tom HackedMySpace Introducing New Anti-Phishing Measures TonightPayPal Not Stopping Safari Users, Just Way-Old SoftwareYou Must be Logged in to Do That!MySpace Passwords, Acrobat Connect, Tagworld MTV, Wattpad

Source:Mashable!

Some signs of how President-elect Barack Obama will use his massive Internet following are starting to surface. The President’s weekly radio address, a staple of American politics since the Franklin Roosevelt administration, will be posted to YouTube, starting this week with the Democratic address (the party not in power has also traditionally broadcast a weekly radio soundbite). The videos will also be posted to Change.gov, the President-elect’s transition site that launched last week.

According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration is also likely to launch a YouTube Channel for The White House after taking power. As a candidate, Obama (and rival John McCain) made heavy use of YouTube, utilizing the service for broadcasting speeches, campaign rallies, and political commercials. While placing the weekly radio addresses online in video will be a first, the current administration offers a full archive of all of President Bush’s weekly radio addresses as sound files at WhiteHouse.gov.

While this is certainly another sign that the Obama administration will continue to make social media and transparency an important piece of his Presidency, critics are quick to point out that he still has not updated his Twitter account since November 5th after winning the election. Presumably, we’ll continue to see new tools come out piecemeal as the transition team decides how to best utilize the Web.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Latest Offer from SoundExchange Turned Down by WebcastersObama on LinkedInOnline Ads Surpass Radio Ads in a Historical FirsteMusic Launches 10 Internet Radio MashupsCBS Radio Rolling Out More Internet InitiativesShow Your Support for Obama or McCain With email charityMake Your Own Obama Logo, With Your Face

There are a number of microblogging engines in existence today that work the build-your-own angle of the market. The corporate and closed Yammer and the open source Laconi.ca are two such enablers.

Well, today one more joins the fold. Its name is Twingr. It comes by way of Miami and the Startups.com network and its aim is to give anyone the ability to create free custom Twitter-like forums without having to do much legwork.

Easy to Use

Suffice it to say that the promise of an easy-to-use system is realized at Twingr quite strongly:

- It sports a simple layout that anyone familiar with the 140-character messaging architecture will recognize and immediately warm up to.

- Its community-building component allows you to tap into your Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo accounts to send invites to contacts you know. You have the option to manually send messages to email addresses without having to log into one of the above mentioned services if you prefer to avoid that method.

- The settings menu provides users with switches to fine tune member-to-member messaging access. By default, the main options are as open as possible, except for follower request approvals.

Insofar as microblogging goes, there is little or nothing about Twingr that won’t appeal to registrants. Save for select circumstances for users of WordPress and 37signals webware, who have things like Prologue and Newsroom to interact with relatively small groups of people, a community on Twingr to complement your website or fanclub or whathaveyou can be the very style of forum you’re looking for. Startups.com Marketing VP Pepe Amorin says that the plan for the new venture is really to “let the flower blossom.”

And it’s free…

Again, there’s no cost of admission, at least not yet. It’s in public alpha mode for the time being. Yet even at launch stage it looks like it’s off to a good start. If I am to compare it to alternatives in the field, it has more in common with Yammer than Laconi.ca. But the fact that that it is free of cost regardless of engagement will have the attention of microblog fans who wish to limit the public thread to personal invitees only.

A few final words to cap our review: Pardon the electropop in the demo video below. Yes, it’s just as informative to watch when muted.

Source:Mashable!

HD Video isn’t just coming to every television screen, it’s making its way online as well. From well known video sites like YouTube to unknown upstarts like Vuze, many online video services are embracing the new standard.

Here’s a list of 20 great sources where you can find High Definition videos. Making the switch is easy; the only thing that’s blurred is the line between online and offline entertainment.

Tell us more about where you find HD videos in the comments.

Online HD Video Streaming

Apple - The Mac daddy site sports an excellent HD Video section with plenty of movie trailers, music videos and more. For the best experience, you’ll need to install/upgrade your QuickTime player.

Microsoft - Not to be outdone yet again by Apple, the boys from Redmond have added support for HD Video to their Windows Media player. Their WMV HD showcase has plenty of IMAX clips in HD as well as some movie trailers.

SmoothHD - This is a joint effort from Microsoft and Akamai for delivering HD content over HTTP with the help of SilverLight as part of the Open Video Player initiative.

Hulu - The hot video service has an extensive HD gallery of movies to behold. There are full-length feature films you can experience in HD for free. For example, here’s a trailer for Quantum of Solice.

Vimeo - Now supports HD in 1280×780 and lets you upload videos and convert them to HD.

Adobe - Has jumped into the HD Video arena as well by adding HD support to their Flash player technology. Here’s their HD Gallery.

Vuze - Provides a downloadable player that lets you view stunning HD Video content. The site is reminiscent of Hulu and YouTube with its search capabilities.

DailyMotion - The French video service supports the HD format.

YouTube - Well, there isn’t any special area for YouTube HD Video content because it only plays high quality video if it’s available and if you have a fast Internet connection. If you want to force YouTube to always play the high quality video whenever it’s available, change your option under account setting to do so:

MotionBox - Allows you to upload your home movies and convert them to HD Video. Go here for more information on the service.

NASA - If you’re into HD space exploration then this is the place to go. Many blasts from the past.

NY Times - The popular newspaper has recently launched an HD Video Portal based on Brightcove’s player.

Broadcast TV Channels in HD

CBS - Maintains a wide selection of HD Videos you can watch in their entirety, such as CSI: NY, The Amazing Race and many more.

ABC - Follows suit with their rival by streaming many of their shows online in HD. Requires you to install a small movie plugin for your browser.

NBC - NBC also streams their shows online in HD. Keep in mind that not all of their video content is in HD format. Look for the HD symbol next to the show name to verify. Also, you can download many shows in HD from their NBC Direct service for free.

HD TV Resources

Boxee.TV - Software that lets you connect video sites to your HDTV so you can enjoy HD video on your big screen. For example, you can stream hulu.com to your AppleTV.

vudu - Set-top Box that allows you to watch a slew of HD and HDX video instantly from an online selection.

AppleTV - Apple also provides a set-top box that lets you play HD movies, TV Shows and more.

XBox 360 - Microsoft has a set-top box that plays HD Video content such as movies and TV shows. You can find plenty of HD content at their xBox Live Marketplace.

Tivo HD - The new line of Tivo boxes support HD and Internet access, which means you can stream HD video from online services such as YouTube and NetFlix. You can also share your HD converted home movies with friends and family members.

Image courtesy of iStockPhoto, Bim

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Jon Stewart Now Free and Legal on AOL VideoNew MSN Video Has Time-Based AdvertisingGoogle Video Adds Free Music Videos from Warner and SonyYouTube Users Hate Ads; Won’t Make Money AnywayWarner Music Group and Brightcove Enable YouTube-Like Video SharingBreak.com Gets NBA Content Too. Everybody’s Doin’ It.Jalipo Is a Costly (and less cool) Joost

Co-op combines a quick update tool like Twitter with inline time tracking and project management. Earlier this week, Co-Op presented a demo of their application at the NY Tech Meetup. We covered the launch of Co-Op last month.

CN Sponsor: CloudContacts - make your business cards work for you!
Other CenterNetworks Coverage: iminlikewithyou, FriendFeed, Web Jobs

Anand Iyer with Microsoft Startup Zone provided a video demo and details about the Microsoft BizSpark program. Microsoft describes the program as, "BizSpark is an innovative new program that unites Startups with entrepreneurial and technology resources in a global community with a common goal of supporting and accelerating the success of a new generation of high-potential Startups."

Check out reviews on Geekzone, The Register, Ostatic and Sitepoint.

CN Sponsor: CloudContacts - make your business cards work for you!
Other CenterNetworks Coverage: iminlikewithyou, FriendFeed, Web Jobs

An iPhone application called FrontPocket, built by Jacksonville, Florida-based design firm Updatable, launched today. It behaves as a mobile extension to 37signals’ Backpack service, a business organization and data sharing utility.

As any 37signals fan might intuit, a development of this type must be one thing above all: simple and straightforward. The better to conform to the less-is-more ethos maintained by the team behind Backpack and its siblingware. I think it’s safe to say FrontPocket can feel right at home with family.

A closer look at design

The design is almost entirely plain. Only the basic template of features evident in many other iPhone applications are there. Nothing more. As for color, I would say there’s only a half-rainbow thing happening, whereas on the desktop things are a little more festive. We all know how festive data management can be, eh?

Reasonable limitations

Looks aren’t very important here, however. It’s all about information access and seamless management between desktop and mobile environs, which FrontPocket handles fairly aptly. Of course, you can only do so much with the release. You can’t post files, for instance. (You’re using an iPhone, after all.) Lists, pages, calendars, and journal entries are the extent of what the application is capable of building, maneuvering or adding to or subtracting from. But that’s pretty much all you could sensibly ask of the app for the time being, right?

Whether you’re signed up for a payment plan with the browser-based service or maintain a free account, FrontPocket does its thing. Mostly. It is by no means a replacement, functionally speaking, or an equal to its inspiration. And there’s this thing about access you’ll need to be aware of, which is that you’ll have to fork over cash to 37signals each month - $7 or more - to make use of the calendaring service. Yet that is true whether you’re iPhone-enabled or not, so it’s hard to feel disappointment about such a restriction on FrontPocket’s part.

Is it worth it?

So, is it worthwhile? I think yes. There’s enough to get out of the application’s connection to the full-fledged “home service” to make it handy in many circumstances. If you happen to encounter any technical issues with the initial release (an issue was discovered for 1.0, which was pretty hastily corrected in 1.0.1, and the developers expect to issue version 1.1 two weeks hence), any rough patches will presumably be smoothed out in short order.

Quite frankly, if you’re an ardent fan of Backpack, and simply wish you could have some variation of it to keep with you at all times, this application will make your day. I’m 99.9% sure of it.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:Writeboard vs Writely37Signals Releases Backpack Update37signals Backpack Organizer Now Offers Options for Groups37 Signals Launching Newsroom: Wordpress Prologue Competitor?How To Run a Web 2.0 Company: Less is MoreWeb 2.0 Mashup Matrix!IMified - Control Apps via IM

Source:Mashable!

Everyone keeps wondering if and how YouTube will finally manage to monetize its vast traffic, but one has to admit they’re not just idly sitting waiting for a miracle to happen. Their latest idea, unveiled Wednesday, is simple: they’ll sell sponsored video spots for certain search terms.

It’s similar to how advertising works on Google itself. An advertiser buys a position for certain keywords; “big game fishing,” for example. Whenever someone types those search terms into YouTube, advertiser’s sponsored video will pop up above all other videos.

This is the logical next step for YouTube. After in-video graphical and text ads, post-roll advertising, as well as regular banners, they pretty much did all they could to the video itself without ruining the user experience. However, they still have the positioning of the videos to experiment with, and that’s what they’re aiming for here; most users won’t mind having a sponsored video on top of a search listing. After all, they’re used to it: it happens on Google all the time. On the other hand, advertisers will likely jump all over this; after all, it works so well with AdWords.

I don’t doubt that, in the end, YouTube will be able to monetize the many eyes that are constantly set upon its huge catalog, but even when they do, they’re not home free yet. They still need to win one big lawsuit and get big Hollywood studios to start doing business with them, otherwise the party may be moving to Hulu and its ilk.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:SiteVolume Measures Frequency of Search Terms Across Social NetworksYouTube = Funny Videos. Literally.Yahoo Rolls Out New Search FeaturesYouTube Still On Top, and Google’s Keeping It ThereWebwag Searches Within Your Own StartpageYouTube-Google Video Plan Reveals ItselfYuscano Previews YouTube Clips

This article is part of the Open Web Awards, an open, international contest for the best websites and services.

Getting dressed is pretty easy (and not even necessary usually) for those of us that work from home as bloggers, but for everyone else, fashion can be a big deal. We’ve covered tons of different websites that try to make fashion easier, ranging from those who cover the latest fashion news to applications that let you rate what your friends are wearing.

To get an idea of some of the sites vying for top fashion site, check out our 25+ Sites for the Fashion Minded. Then, nominate your favorite using the widget below:

Make Your Nomination

Mashable Open Web Awards

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Feel free to elaborate on your nomination in the comments, or try to gain more support for your favorite service by copying the widget to your blog (click the “Grab This” link in the widget above)!

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The Open Web Awards is made possible by our sponsors. By supporting the Open Web Awards, these companies reward and encourage innovative web technologies. We can’t thank them enough for sharing our passion: building great web companies.

Platinum Partner

“PartnerUp brings small business and social networking together to create a community where entrepreneurs find the people, resources and information to grow their businesses.”

Gold Sponsors

“iStockphoto is the world’s leading image market and a revenue-sharing social network. Browse 3.5 million images and videos starting at $1 or become a contributor.”

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Prize Sponsor

“Infinite and Instant, Zazzle is the only on-demand retail platform for consumers and major brands, offering billions of retail quality, one-of-a-kind products, most of which are produced within 24 hours.”

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:MySpace Fashion Launches OfficiallyWeardrobe out to be the Shelfari of FashionStyleMob Launches Community for Street FashionFashion Mash Launches Clunky Outfit-Sharing SiteGirlSense Launches Fashion Slideshow for TweensBuy or Swap Clothes with OurThreadsStyleHive Adds Premium Content in StyleDiary Acquisition

Source:Mashable!

Video on devices like the iPod, iTouch and iPhone look great because of their MPEG-4 H.264 format. The good news is that there are tons of videos that you can purchase from the iTunes store, but the bad news is that you’ll go broke in a hurry downloading everything you want. Sure, some of the videos aren’t much ($1.99 each), but the numbers add up really quickly.

Thankfully, there are a slew of sites and software packages that will allow you to convert just about any video format to the H.264 mp4 format that Apple devices require. Here are the best solutions for converting videos online as well as off. Some will convert any video you have on your local computer while others will only convert videos that you find online. In any case, you will wind up with a video file in the correct format for your Apple or other mobile device.

Sites & Software

ConvertTube is a free service that converts online videos to several formats including the MP4 format that you need for Apple devices. Simply paste the video URL from sites like YouTube, Google video, MetaCafe, etc. and select the desired output format.

While the service is extremely simple to use, it must be mentioned that it can take an eternity sometimes for this service to convert even the smallest video. Sometimes it just times out or fails without any explanations. Still, most of the time it will do the trick if you want to do a quick conversion or two. For more than a handful, you’ll be better off with another solution that handles batch processing.

VideoDownloader is similar to ConvertTube except it doesn’t provide you with any output options. What you see is what you get when you download the video from the services they support: YouTube, Google, BlipTV, DailyMotion and a few others. So, if you can’t download the video .mp4 format, you’ll have to convert it with another separate utility which isn’t a big deal or expense.

Movavi Online Convert is another online video converter that provides the unique ability to download and convert up to five different online videos as one video. You can add all of the URLs and the service will send you an email with a link to download when it’s done. It could take a long time, so it’s not good if you’re in a hurry.

Videora offers an impressive suite of tools for converting and editing videos for free. The video files can be avi, divx, xvid, flv, x264, vob, mpeg, DVDs, YouTube, etc. Any of these videos can be converted into the proper video formats (MPEG-4, H.264) that play on the iPhone 3G.

Here’s Videora’s Video Converter for the 3G iPhone, which does an excellent job changing existing formats of videos you own into the MPEG-4 H.264 format. Their other converters will do the same trick for other devices such as the iPod, nano, Tivo, Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), Xbox360 and more.

There are many options when you’re converting your videos for your iPhone. Obviously, the better the quality, the larger the file size. Ultimately it’s a personal decision everyone has to make on what’s more important: space on your iPhone or audio/video quality. Personally, I prefer to stick with the highest quality video and audio because the experience is so worth it. You just have to pick and choose which videos you want to keep on your iPhone. If you have the 8 GB then perhaps you should compromise a little and choose medium or high levels of quality for video and audio. Play around and see which results you like best.

Note: All of the converters are free and appear to be spyware free without any problems. They do offer a Videora 2.0 software and service package for a fee but that isn’t required for any of these converters.

Free Studio Manager offers a staggering 20 free audio/video tools. You can choose to download all 20 utilities as one package or pick and choose those you need.

There are a few that focus on converting videos for the iPhone. For example, there’s the YouTube to iPhone converter that downloads YouTube videos and automatically converts them to the appropriate iPhone MPeg-4 H.264 format for you. Keep in mind that many of the videos on YouTube are now in the .MP4 format, so the conversion process will skip that part once it’s downloaded and determines what format the video is in. There’s a handy batch mode feature which allows you to download several YouTube videos at one time, making this process more efficient.

Here’s the Video to iPhone Converter which lets you convert any video file that you already possess without needing to download any videos from YouTube or elsewhere. The important thing to point out about this utility is that it provides the highest quality video output in this roundup, whereas Videora can generate a standard quality MPEG-4 H.264 file (24 fps, 480×320 ACC 128Kbits). Free Studio’s converter can generate a High Quality MPEG-4 H/264 file at 30 fps, 480×320 ACC 192Kbits. It might not be that big a deal to most people, but it will make a huge difference to many of you.

Any Video Converter is another free converter for windows that will convert a boatload of formats to iPhone friendly format: DivX, XviD, MOV, rm, rmvb, MPEG, VOB, DVD, WMV, AVI, etc.

Replay Converter is a media converter from Applian Technologies which is well-known for its Replay Capture Suite that includes the converter and several other products. Their most popular product is the Replay Capture tool that allows you to record any streaming audio or video much like a Tivo for the Internet.

Video for Other Platforms

Okay, okay, we won’t ignore you CrackBerry heads. Here’s AVS Video for Blackberry that’ll help you convert videos for Blackberry devices.

All of the software packages referenced above were for the Windows OS, so MAC OS users won’t be able to use them. There was a free video conversion tool for the Mac OS from iSquint.org, but they’ve stopped supporting their product. However, it’s become open source on SourceForge, so others might continue the development for this tool for the Mac OS.

How to Copy Videos to Your iTunes and iPhone

After converting all your videos to the appropriate video format for your iPhone, you’ll need to store them on your computer in the right place so that iTunes can do its job and copy the videos to your device. The best thing to do is create a new folder on your system called, for example, iPhone Videos, and copy the newly converted videos to that folder. You can also get into the habit of converting new videos straight to that folder to save steps and time later on.

Once you have your videos in one place, simply launch iTunes, click on the Movies icon and click the File menu. Select Add Folder to Library, then select the new iPhone Videos folder that you created. iTunes will then suck in all of the videos that it finds in that folder.

Click on your iPhone under DEVICES and select the Video Tab. Then Enable the Sync Movies option, and select all of the videos that you want to copy to your iPhone. You can pick and choose which ones you want at any time.

The next time you sync, all of the videos you selected will be copied to your iPhone. You can view them by launching the iPod app on your iPhone and selecting the video option.

Must-Have Video Player

Every system comes with a video player but these standard players don’t support that many formats. For example, Microsoft’s Windows Media Player does not support the Flash (.FLV) video format, which means you can’t download and play most of the videos you find online these days.

VLC Media Player is an open source media player that supports a plethora of video and audio formats. It loads quicker than most of the bloated media players and can handle most of the formats you’ll ever run into. Here’s a feature list.

Conclusion

This was just a sampling of the many cool tools out there that can help you download and convert videos into a format that you can use on your iPhone or any other device. In most cases, you can do so for free. However, some of the premium packages and services appear to be well worth their nominal fees when you consider everything they provide. In any case, you can now enjoy any of your favorite videos on your iPhone or other mobile device.

—Related Articles at Mashable | All That’s New on the Web:iPhone to Offer YouTube VideosiPhone Arrives in the UK and Germany TodayiPhone to Spur Growth in the Mobile Video Industry?CovertTube: Download YouTube Clips or Buy the Whole SiteiPhone to Launch in Germany on T-MobileAdInfuse Now Has “Creepy” Ads Just for iPhonesNew Zimbra Version Utilizes iPhone’s Active Sync

Last night at the NY Tech Meetup, organizer Scott Heiferman and co-organizer Dawn Barber provided an update about the future of the monthly meetup.  Scott will be stepping down as organizer and there will be a public vote for a replacement.

There will also be a new board setup for the meetup which will consist of 11 people; 7 people will come from other popular NYC technology meetups, the new organizer plus 3 additional people. Scott noted that more details on the nomination process will be