Joe Tech » Search

Iomoio : Cheap MP3s And Two Free MP3 Downloads For Signing Up

Joe Tech — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 14:02:29 +0000

I had the opportunity this week to check out another site where you can search for and buy mp3 songs on the cheap. At 16 cents a track, iomoio.com is a fraction of other sites, leaving you to ask, “What’s the catch?”

What’s The Catch

The first thing most people wonder about a site offering cheap mp3 music downloads is if it is legal. According to the site’s FAQ, it is. The reason they can offer these tracks for so cheap is because they’re outside the U.S. and have different licensing rules and agreements. Giving your credit card to a site outside the U.S. might make some people nervous, but I didn’t feel that way with iomoio.

Features, Selection, And Quality

Any time I visit a music site that I haven’t been to before, I look for three key components: site features/usability, music selection, and quality of the music being played. I give iomoio.com a 90/100 for features and usability. The site was very easy to sign up and navigate and finding tracks was easy with a comprehensive search that auto-completes for artist, album, and track. In my searches, I found most of what I searched for, and I have an interesting taste in music. Even though it didn’t find one of the tracks I was searching for, it did find a few artists I didn’t expect results for, like Faderhead and Stromkern. Of course, iomoio had plenty of the top artists like Rihanna and Lady Gaga too. I gave iomoio a 95/100 on selection. Out of the 10 tracks I searched for, it found nine, but the site had two out of three albums for the one it didn’t find.

When viewing a list of tracks, you are presented with a play button to preview the track, but the music preview plays about four different parts of the track rather than just the first 30 seconds, providing a better sample of what you’re buying. In addition, the preview lets you skip ahead by clicking the outer ring of the circle. When you purchase, you get to download mp3 songs without any DRM, so you can add them to any of your devices and listen wherever you want.

When a track or album is purchased, it’s placed in your Downloads page, where you can download a .ZIP archive including the song or album. Downloaded tracks included the important track information like album, artist, track number, etc. and are 256k, earning a 100/100 for quality. The tracks I listened to sounded perfect.

As a bonus, when you sign up, you get two free tracks. I give that 100/100.

Conclusions

Like a lot of people in the U.S., I’m a little sensitive about who I give my credit card information to. Being a site in a foreign land may turn people away, but the trade-off is really cheap tracks at great quality with fast downloads. Even if you’re not ready to make a purchase, just head over and pick up a couple free tracks.

Although the preceding was a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

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MP3-2000 Music Search Site Review

Joe Tech — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:29:19 +0000

Although the following is a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

I’ve reviewed some sites in the past that allow you to search for all kinds of things, but what if you’re just looking to download mp3s? There’s a site for that, too, and it’s called MP3-2000.com.

Download Music For Free

The site works in a few ways. If you’re looking for free music downloads or just wanting to purchase tracks, you can browse music by the most popular downloads, newest added, or most recently searched. If you know the artist or song, you can click on a letter of the alphabet at the top of the screen to browse for it or you can search for it by name using the search box. I performed several searches with mixed results, starting with a few local bands. Having no luck with the local bands, I moved on to some just barely more known music like Bigod 20, which surprised me with a few results.

Once you’ve found the track you’re searching for, a few options are presented within a couple tabs. In the second tab, you can obtain a link to share the track’s page with others. In the first tab, you can play the song right in the page or download it right from the source. In addition, there are links to purchase the track or turn it into a ringtone and if there’s more tracks from the same artist, they’ll be listed below. As well as all the links, an area for comments is provided and even lyrics if they’re available.

Buy Music Cheap

For those wanting to purchase the music they find, a couple options exist. The first is the ability to buy the song or album from mp3sales.ru. I did a little searching on the safety recommendations for mp3sales.ru and didn’t find anything alarming. Curious, I also checked their Legal Info page to see how they’re handling licensing. It looks like they are fine according to Russian laws. You may have to check your local copyright laws if you’re outside of Russia, though. mp3sales.ru offered the Bigod 20 tracks at €0.10 per track or €0.80 for the whole album, which is great compared to the $0.99 I normally pay per track elsewhere. Some browsing around gave me the impression that this pricing was pretty standard for most of the music selling on that site.

The ringtone link took me to a page offering up to 15 ringtones per month, but it was at a cost of $9.99/month. I’d didn’t sign up to get a hands-on experience with it, but if you have, let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Conclusions

MP3-2000.com is probably the easiest site to download music for free, with advanced searching, related tracks, and instant downloads in most cases. Functionally, my only complaint would be the suggestions of other music I might like because it was way off. If you’re concerned about the legality, you’ll want to remember that you’re bound to the laws in your own jurisdiction, so do your research.

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General Files Provides Advanced File Searching

Joe Tech — Mon, 30 May 2011 14:00:42 +0000

Although the following is a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

There are a lot of online sources to help you find files online, but many of them are limited to only a few upload sites and don’t remove old links. Others put really annoying sponsored links up that look like regular results to get you to click on a paid link. This week, I was asked to review a file sharing search site called General-Files.com. It promises a cleaner search of more files with a bunch of features.

Finding and Downloading Files

There’s not really a lot to finding files to download online. Generally, you search and something will come up. The problem I’ve had in the past is that I’ll search Google and half of the results are other file search sites that generate a fake hit for sponsored links. In this case, however, I skip Google and head to General-Files.com and search for my file. The search is pretty quick and returns just what I’m looking for in most cases. Some people will use sites like this to download movies for free, which can be illegal in some cases. Others will visit hoping to download free music, which comes with the same legal concern. This is not the case all of the time, though. Many artists will share their music online for free and it’s perfectly legal. I often use a site like this to find fonts, clip art, a viral video or image, or any number of things. The possibilities are virtually endless as this site includes results not only from Uploading, MegaUpload, RapidShare and many others, but it also returns direct links to files from around the web.

In addition to searching for what you know you want, you can also choose from their lists of Most Downloaded, Most Commented and Most Rated, as well as Hot Files and the Latest uploads. Just use common sense when you download random files. Finally, when you’re ready to download a file you can click right out to the site that hosts the file and begin your download one file at a time, or you can queue them up to download all at once.

Additional Features

For those who want to be more involved in the social process, you can vote for files on a five-star scale, comment on files, and even report some of the less savory content out there. You can also send a Good Report to indicate that the file is generally good, virus free, or erotic in nature. Reporting bad content warns others against downloading it and comments and votes help guide the “Most” and “Hot” lists mentioned above. It’s the same concept as liking and commenting on Facebook posts. And speaking of liking on Facebook, each file’s details page includes a Like button so you can help others find it, too.

One of the features I nearly overlooked is the Alert option. Alerts are turning up everywhere these days. From Facebook push notifications on your iPhone to Google searches, alerts are a popular way to find out right away when something happens. On General-Files.com, you can set a search alert to let you know via email when someone uploads a file matching your search criteria. This feature will be invaluable when you’re searching for a hard-to-find file.

General Conclusions

With any file hosting site or search, you need be aware of what you’re downloading. General-Files is a little more helpful in this regard when the reporting features are used. The clean, ad-free and fast search along with compiled lists and alerts make this file search stand out heads above the others I’ve come across. It’s in my bookmarks and should have a place in yours if you find yourself searching for files often.

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Find The Best Broadband Deals On BroadbandGenie

Joe Tech — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:11:29 +0000

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of broadbandgenie.co.uk. All opinions are 100% mine.

I don’t move much, but when I do, one of the important things I look at is what broadband solutions will be available to me. I need my high speed access. Just last weekend, my mom, who has lived in the same house for years, got new broadband internet access. She called me for help with figuring out what all this stuff meant and which provider to use, but what if I didn’t know?

This is where a site like Broadband Genie comes in. They offer comparisons of broadband (and other) services along with guides, news, tools, etc. Here’s what they have to say about why you might want to use their site:

* Save time and money. We spend loads of time gathering and checking all the price and package data from all the top providers, so you don’t have to.
* Be a sheep, make your life easy. If you don’t want to trawl through the comparison tables looking for that special deal, see what our experienced editors and users recommend.
* Get an education. If you want to learn all about broadband internet, how it works and how to compare it, then let us translate it all into plain-English for you. We’ve got help guides, blogs, daily news, and loads of places you can ask questions or just have a good moan.

For those in the U.S., the site won’t be much help in regards to comparing services. Non-UK readers still have plenty of reasons to visit, though, so keep reading.

Compare Broadband Providers

In the interest of the review, I pretended I was in Staffordshire and used Google to find an address where I could pretend to live. This yielded much better results from Broadband Genie, which returned a list of broadband providers in order of suggested use. The list displayed the initial setup cost, monthly cost, contract length, speed, and download caps as seen below.

I was able to sort by any of the columns I mentioned above and more information was a click away, taking me to a page loaded with information specific to the provider. The provider page included service highlights, an overview of different packages, a “road test” widget showing overall user ratings, and customer reviews. This page proved to be a pretty good snapshot of what the provider has to offer.

Compare Mobile Services and More

This site goes beyond just home/office broadband to also compare mobile phone services, pay as you go mobile broadband, and even deals that give you a laptop (with a contract for the mobile broadband). These work in the same way, providing a sortable ordered list and detail pages.

Tools and Guides

Before buying any services, it’s helpful to get educated. Broadband Genie starts with a broadband guide right on the home page to answer questions like “What is broadband?” and “What are modems, routers & dongles?”. Additional guides help you determine compatibility, understand broadband speeds, and even help guide you through setting it all up. Along with the guides, the newsletter, frequently updated News section, forums, and “Ask the Genie” form seem to make sure you’ll find the answers you’re looking for.

Once you’ve learned all about broadband speeds, you can test your own to get an idea of what your needs might be. The first time I ran the speed test, it actually crashed Firefox. When I loaded it up again, it worked great, so I can’t say if that’s a bug or my browser was just having one of its fits. I’ve since tried on another computer in Firefox, and Chrome with no crashing problems, but I’m not sure the results are reliable. They seemed much lower than I had expected, so I headed to another site that returned vastly different numbers which were very close to my expectations.

Conclusions

The speed test didn’t impress me at all, but it was a small bump in a very smooth and freshly paved road to broadband knowledge. Broadband Genie had what I expected. Then it had more and more and even more. I still feel like I left some stones unturned on this site and can only imagine other features I’ve missed. It really only needs two things to be perfect, a U.S. sister site and maybe a better speed test (assuming it’s actually inaccurate).

Also, for those in Australia, Broadband Genie has an Australian site too, which also compares mobile broadband and broadband deals.

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Find Files Online With General Search

Joe Tech — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:16:17 +0000

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of SellMyMobile.com. All opinions are 100% mine.

This weekend, I was asked to review a file search engine called General Search. It’s a site where you can search through a few of the biggest file sharing web sites on the Internet.

How Does It Work

It’s pretty much just what it looks like. You head to the site and initiate a search for whatever files you’re looking for. If you need a Windows XP driver for a Sony DSCP110 camera, just type in the camera model and “driver” and hit search. The site brings back results and shows some helpful information such as a short description, file name, size, and hosting site. When you click on the link, you’re taken to the site to download the file. Bandwidth costs money, so most hosts have a (sometimes slower) free version or you can pay for membership to the host site for faster downloading.

General Search lets you pick which file host to search through if you want to narrow it down and if you register for one of their free accounts it will keep track of your past downloads so you don’t have to search again if you lose a file.

Why Would I Use This?

To answer this question, you should first ask why you would need to look through the file hosting sites this site searches. The biggest reason is to find obscure or otherwise hard to find files. A great example is if you wanted to track down an older driver that worked better for you but the manufacturer’s web site only has the latest driver. In such a case one of those file hosting sites might have the older driver and this file sharing search site might help you track down that file. So it’s good to have a site like General Search bookmarked for circumstances like these.

Additionally, it’s sometimes fun to take a look at the top or recent searches and see what people are looking for. You never know if you’ll discover some new song or funny video.

Content Quality

To be quite honest, I’m not as familiar with Uploading.com, but RapidShare seems to attract a lot of porn and pirated files. It seems like they do a pretty good job of removing anything copyrighted or illegal, but don’t be surprised if you see some adult themes in the recent and top searches. I suppose this could be a good thing if you’re looking for that stuff. If not, just type in what you’re looking for and the other spectrum of content shouldn’t get in the way of your search too much.

One of the things that I saw that I was unhappy with was a search result directing me to a site other than one of the actual file sharing sites. This alternate site pretends to try and connect to get your file and then tells you that this particular file needs you to create an account. It’s not illegal and I don’t know if it even tries to get money from you, but it’s a little sneaky and doesn’t seem very nice. I always ignore those and head back to the search results. I don’t know if I’m being directed to that site by General Search or by the file host.

Conclusions

Although I didn’t like the fake download registration option I came across, General Search, itself was fast and yielded some good file results. As a test, I was able to find and download a Samsung camera driver pretty quickly, which beats looking through forums for a while. I’ve bookmarked this site for my future file needs.

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Chuck Norris Can Blow Bubbles With Beef Jerkey… And Other Funny Google Search Phrases

Joe Tech — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 21:00:34 +0000

There are many things that are certain on the Internet. One of those things is that Chuck Norris is a cyber-idol. Another is that people will never cease to surprise me with how creative they can be. You may or may not know it, but Google offers up some very helpful (and sometimes funny) suggestions while you search and these suggestions are based on common search queries. After remembering some really funny suggested search phrases people found, I thought I’d see what I could find on my own.

Chuck Norris can…
We’ve all heard it before. Chuck Norris is a god and can do anything. What I wasn’t aware of is some of the creatively specific things people on the Internet are convinced he’s capable of. My second favorite is “Chuck Norris can divide by zero”.

My teeth…
The rest weren’t funny, but seethrough? Really? I think you should get that looked at. And how many people typed that in to make Google suggest it?

I smell like…
Some of this is gross, but maple syrup? Kinky.

I laughed so hard I…
Surely it’s a song lyric or title, but that fact that this “I laughed so hard I…” phrase made me laugh earned it a spot here.

What’s your favorite of the ones above? Have you found your own? Share in the comments!

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10 Easy Ways To Find Anything Online

Joe Tech — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:09:15 +0000

I spend a lot of time online. I think it’s somewhere around 16-18 hours a day, really. Because of this, I also spend a lot of time looking things up, from directions to music lyrics to how to fix a computer. Today, I thought I’d share some of my favorite resources. While this list certainly isn’t complete, I think it represents some of the most useful sites on the Internet when it comes to finding things online.

Information
Google – As a developer, I’m constantly looking up functions, code examples, error messages, etc. and Google is the number one source for finding what I need quickly, be it code examples, recipes, what time it is in London, etc.
Tips: Try the advanced search and then watch what it puts in the search box when you submit. You’ll learn a lot of useful tips to refine your searches. Also, note the links at the bottom of the advanced search. When looking for a song you heard but only know some words to, type in a lyric phrase (in quotes) that includes a unique word for more precise results.

Bing – I’m a fan of Google and Microsoft is the company everybody loves to hate, but MS seems to have come out of the gate with a pretty solid offering this time around. There’s things I’d change about it, but Bing is definitely worth a look.
Tips: ToThePC.com has written 10 Bing Search tips & features for better searching.

Wolfram Alpha – WA was hyped for months because of it’s intelligent search features. Instead of a flexible, yet broad, search, they offer specific information presented in a report-like fashion. If you’re looking for a grouping of information about a person or company, this is a good place to start. It’s a bit like a mix of Google and Wikipedia
Tips: Try searching for a gadget by name or just type in a mathematical equation. Try entering a few stock symbols and see the comparisons.

Yahoo Answers – Yahoo has lost a lot of ground in search, but they’ve come out on top when it comes to the answers game. Yahoo Answers is a great source for personalized answers when you can’t find what you need at the above sites. Ask a question and people answer and even help you choose the best answer. Great system.
Tips: Be patient. You’ll need to wait for human interaction, unlike a Google search. See if your question already has an answer. Answer questions from others. It helps your karma and earns site points, too.

Music
GEMM – Over the years, I’ve had a few drinks bought for me because I found some obscure album hiding away in a small shop in the Netherlands for a friend. Every time, it was a result of searching GEMM. If it’s rare and you need it badly, this is the place to look.
Tips: If cost isn’t a factor but getting it now is, just search and buy, but you can also wait for another seller to have your item cheaper. Either way, be aware of seller feedback. I’ve never had a problem, but the feedback might be why.

CD Universe – CDU was the second site I ever found selling a wide variety of music online. Now offering movies and games, too, they are a great resource when you want the physical item and not just a digital download.
Tips: Watch for weekly deals and releases. Also watch for pre-orders so you can be assured to get that newest album as soon as it drops.

Software
Download.com – Usually, if I need commercial software, I run to Best Buy for it, but most times, I just need a video converter, chat program, or some other utility that can be found often for free or a low price at Download.com
Tips: Filter by your operating system from the start to save time. Sort by user rating and if you have to have free only, filter by license before you download something just to find it’ll cost $100 after 10 days.

Images
Google Image Search – I use Google to help me find images several times a week. It’s fast and (mostly) reliable for finding what I need.
Tips: Use advanced searching like web search. Filter by size to find wallpapers or icons.

Flickr – Flickr is a great way to quickly find more photos from the concert you went to or even royalty free images for your blog posts. Just last week, I searched for “Woodstock 94″ and found lots of great photos that other people took. It was like I was there again.
Tips: Search groups or images and use the sorting options. You can refine your search by showing images where your search words match the tags only.

Directions
Google Maps – Always my favorite for any geographic search, Google Maps shows me as little or as much detail as I want. I can even use street view to see what a place looks like so I’ll recognize it when visiting for the first time.
Tips: Zoom in to the area you want to find a business in and then search to see all results in just that area. As mentioned above, use street view to see what you’re friend’s house looks like before dropping by for the first time. Wander around in street view some time. There’s some interesting things to see.

BONUS: Products
eBay – I was all set with my list of 10 sites, when I realize I couldn’t dare leave out my favorite product resource. eBay is my first stop when I want to find a product. Many times, I want something very specific and eBay seems to have the largest selection at varrying prices. If I’m looking to buy something, I can usually find it on eBay.
Tips: If there’s a lot of an item but also a lot of buyers driving the price up, look for it outside of the expected category or look for a misspelling in the title. You can often find something with little to no bidding competition this way and get in cheap.

I’m sure some of you, at this point, are thinking “What about… ?” If you have a good site in mind that you think should have made this list, please add it in the comments and don’t be shy about including tips. What sites do you used to find things online?

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Easy Apartment Searching On Your iPhone

Joe Tech — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:43:23 +0000

I haven’t had to go shopping for an apartment since before the iPhone. I have a love/hate relationship with the task. I love to see a new place and imagine a new home and how I could dress it up, but I hate all the driving around and making notes about everything. That part feels like work. These days, however, the iPhone spoils us with all sorts of ways to make things like this easier. You know the saying: “There’s an app for that.”

The MyNewPlace app
When provided the opportunity to give a paid review of this application, I have to admit that I hesitated. I really thought it would be some mediocre app and, having not been apartment shopping for years, I was unaware of MyNewPlace.com, which is actually one of the biggest apartment search sites on the web with over six million listings. Before even deciding to review this app, I made sure to watch the video below, and that’s what convinced me to give it a shot. The video provides a quick walk through of all the features and how they work.

Of course, to provide a fair review, I needed to download the application myself and come up with an apartment shopping scenario. I decided to re-enact my apartment shopping task when I was moving Michelle out here to live with me. We needed a two bedroom place with some nice features, a decent pool, and close to my office and also to a freeway as she didn’t know where her next job would be. Armed with some base criteria and my new app, I set out for an adventure (on my couch, that is).

Searching

The first thing you’re asked for is a city and state or a zip code to search. Alternatively, you can use GPS for location-based searching, but I wanted to search across town today. I’m all about the fastest route and this was it. After typing in the zip code at my office, I had 76 results, but I have criteria, remember? So I tapped the “Filter” button and all sorts of filtering options showed up on a new screen. I wanted two bedrooms so I could have a home office. Air conditioning is a must-have, as is laundry and a pool, so I turned all those filters on. After applying filters, I got a new list back, narrowed down to 30 results, but I want it to be close to the freeway, so I tap the “Map” button and up pops a map with 30 little flags. Here, I was able to move up and down through the list with a couple arrow keys or directly tap a flag for base info. I could then further investigate a property by tapping it’s info box.

Property details
Once a property has been selected, I want to see pricing details, photos, amenities, etc. I also want to know about deposits, pets, etc. The details area just says “Yes” for pets, which I have to assume means all pets are welcome. It also doesn’t show “Fitness Center” for one of the places I looked at like it does for other places, even though I know this complex has one. If that was a deal-breaker, I’d be avoiding a good complex for no reason. I’m unsure if that’s due to too many other amenities listed or the complex just didn’t include it when they submitted their data. From the details page, I can go to another map with just the one property listed, view photos, see a property description, see the unit options, call them, email them, email the information to a friend, save as a favorite, or enter notes and photos. The photo gallery is clean, offering a large view and five thumbnails along the bottom. I like that they accommodate more than five photos by just letting you flick the thumbnail list left or right for more. I think my property actually had twenty photos. You can also just ignore the thumbnails and flick right through the larger views. The property description page includes a thumbnail, name and address of the property, contact options, and a long blurb of text. In this case, the text included visible HTML that was neither parsed nor stripped, so that looked a little funny. The next option from the property’s profile page was “See Units” which just shows the available unit types and detail about each such as square footage, number of beds/baths, and monthly rent range. One of the little treats that brought it all home was the Notes & Photos area. Suppose I visited the property. I could note that it had a full (two-sink) counter in the bathroom and a large garden tub. Both are selling points for me but aren’t listed in the amenities. I could also take a few pictures during my walk through and they will be saved to this profile. As soon as I do either, it saves this property as a favorite. Of course, I can always get back to visited properties with the “Recents” and “Favorites” buttons on the starting screen.

My wish list
- Larger photos I can zoom in on.
- Floor plans.
- Some form of indicator on a button to let me know it is going to eject me from the app out to Google Maps or my email. (There should be a standard, actually, and all apps should follow it).
- More details in regards to amenities, etc.

Conclusion
For starters, you can hardly ever go wrong with free if an app is even a little useful, but how does it compare to the competition? To answer that question, I downloaded four more apartment search applications and put them through the same test scenario. Comparatively, the other applications I tried offered larger photos or more detail or in one case all sorts of things I didn’t care about, but none were as intuitive and functional. This app is very easy to use and for the most part, well thought out, but could use a couple extras like larger photos and more details.

You can read more about it at http://www.mynewplace.com/iphone or download MyNewPlace in the iPhone app store.

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PicLens is Now CoolIris and Much Cooler AND iPhone-ready

Joe Tech — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:00:34 +0000

If you are familiar with PicLens, then you’re probably familiar with CoolIris. If you’ve never heard of either one, you’re in for a real treat. When one of my employees showed me PicLens some time ago, it was one of the coolest improvements to my browsing experience that I’d see in a while. With the name change to CoolIris, comes more features, cool shopping search, and a much appreciated iPhone version.

Let’s drool over CoolIris for a minute
Before pagination (click for the next page of whatever) was invented, you’d have to sit there on your 2400 baud modem, waiting three hours for a page full of images to load up. Then, as faster modems were challenged by larger images, pagination was introduced, allowing us to load up ten or twenty images per page, but you couldn’t get a quick glimpse of everything anymore. Then came CoolIris (then PicLens).

If you have the plugin installed and the site you’re viewing supports the technology (most of the big ones do), you’ll see a new little watermark in the corner of each image you hold your mouse cursor over. Click that watermark to launch CoolIris and you get a full-screen image gallery like the one shown above. If you click anywhere and drag, you’ll be dragging the whole gallery to see more images.

Click on any image and you get a closer view like below, which you can double-click to view full screen:

Search, shop, and share easily
One of the features I’ve always been fond of from day one is the search. As a web developer, I’m constantly looking for images for use or just for comparison. Traditionally, I would head to Google and search, but Google’s image search is very clumsy when it comes to getting at the actual image. With this, I just search, scroll, and double-click.

I don’t recall seeing shopping in the early versions. Frankly, I’m not sure how much I’ll really use it, but there are times when you want an item and the appearance is critical. Sometimes you know it’s a watch, but not the brand or model number and a gallery of men’s watches would be perfect for finding it. How about Laptops and accessories? I searched for “laptops” for my example below, and CoolIris dug through its shopping sources and handed me a ton of laptop and laptop-related images. If you mouse over any item in the search results, you get a peek at the price. If you choose a “Store” from the top left, you can then sort by price (high-to-low or low-to-high) or by whatever that other search option is. I’m stumped.

The latest version also provides a slick way to share images and other media with friends and colleagues. Create a CoolIris account (just so it has your name and email address) and log in when you start CoolIris. At any time while logged in, just click the little right-arrow-in-a-circle icon at the bottom and the sharing panel will appear. In that panel, you can type in the address you want to send to as well as a message. Below that is a space for you to drag images and videos. Drag them in and send. Mine showed up lightning fast.

Tips and shortcuts
- You can navigate the gallery and slideshow with your arrow keys
- Use the ENTER key to zoom in on an image
- Hit the space bar to start the slide show
- You can send multiple items at once. Just drag more items into the little sharing box.
- Just like your browser, CoolIris remembers where you were. Use the little left and right arrows at the top left to get back to previous searches.

Wish List
- The ability to ALT+TAB from CoolIris to another application and back. 90% of the time, I have to force FireFox to quit because it becomes unresponsive.
- I would love to search multiple sites at once. I know that can be tricky development, but I’d love it.
- You know everyone wants to save images directly from the CoolIris interface. My suggestion: Allow us to set up a default download directory and then add a watermark in the bottom right corner (maybe a little floppy disk icon?) that, when clicked, drops the full-size version of that image in my download folder.

Finally, CoolIris for my iPhone?
CoolIris finally came out with an iPhone application bearing their name and, well, coolness.

The basics work pretty much like it’s big brother. You can browse or search images, scroll with a thumb-flick, and email the ones you like to a friend or just visit the image’s page directly. The iPhone version has a few glaring empty spots where you might expect to search YouTube or shop like you can with its desktop counterpart, but it’s still the coolest way to find images on your iPhone. If you have any doubts, search for that perfect iPhone wallpaper with it.

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