May, 2011

jGFeed is a jQuery plugin that build an abstraction layer on top of Google Feeds API. API becomes more jQuery like style. This plugin can get ANY rss on ANY host and converts RSS feeds to JSON (javascript object) to make it easier to use.

jQuery Google Feed API plugin lets you specify the following settings:

• url – URL of the feed that you want to load
• callback – callback function to call after RSS feed is loaded
• num (optional) – number of blog entries to load (defaults to 3)
• key (optional) – Google API key to use while loading RSS feeds.

BillGuard is antivirus for your bills. BillGuard monitors your credit card and debit card bills and alerts you when they contain unwanted charges such as hidden fees, unrecognized charges, unauthorized charges, billing errors, scams and fraud.

Imagine if you could get an alert anytime a charge on your bill is flagged by anyone else, on theirs.

Quickly see the charges that require your attention so you can get your money back in time. Check this out …

BillGuard uses the same security measures as your bank to ensure your data is kept private and secure.

ScaleNine is a collection of skins and themes created for Flex and Adobe AIR (formerly Apollo), as well as a showcase of other apps using these frameworks. Some involve graphical skinning and others are purely CSS.

ScaleNine provides skins and themes for Flex and AIR created by the community using the Adobe Creative Suite of tools and Flash Catalyst.

Check out the Gallery to see the latest submissions or gain a little inspiration from the Showcase area of great looking applications.

do@iPhone platform changes mobile search in three fundamental ways – the way results are delivered (apps instead of links), the sources delivering the results (direct from publishers) and the manner in which results are ranked (via do@’s ”social radar”).

The app is also available on iTunes.

This years Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) event is about to take place, with the third ever event taking place on June 4-5.  The idea behind this event is simple and more than a little warm and fuzzy – “technology can and should be used for good.”

RHoK brings together a number of people, including subject matter experts, volunteer software developers, and designers, in order to create “open source and technology agnostic software solutions that address challenges facing humanity.”  It takes place at five separate U.S locations and 13 international locations at the same time.

Some of the applications that have been developed by RHoK members are focused on crisis response, such as I’mOK, a mobile messaging application for disaster response; and CHASM, a visual tool to map landslide risk.  Another example is Person Finder, a tool created by Google’s crisis response team to help people find friends and loved ones after a natural disaster.

Many of these applications are already being used by crisis response units in natural disaster areas such as Haiti and Chile.  Google are putting out the call for new participants, so now is the time to get involved for any developers who want to make a difference:

We’re inviting all developers, designers and anyone else who wants to help “hack for humanity,” to attend one of the local events on June 4-5. There, you’ll meet other open source developers, work with experts in disaster and climate issues and contribute code to exciting projects that make a difference. If you’re in Northern California, come join us at the Silicon Valley RHoK event at Google headquarters.

And if you’re part of an organization that works in the fields of crisis response or climate change, you can submit a problem definition online, so that developers and volunteers can work on developing technology to address the challenge.

Visit http://www.rhok.org/ for more information and to sign up for your local event, and get set to put your hacking skills to good use.

According to a TechCrunch report, Twitter is about to launch its own photo sharing service, which many people see as the next logical step for the social networking giant.  Twitter has owned Twimg.com for a long time now, and this is where the photo sharing action is likely to take place.

At the moment, Twitter users need to host images at third party sites if they want to post photos through links in their tweets.  Some of the most popular options include Twitpic, Yfrog, Instagram, and Flickr, although all of this may be about to change.

Twitter has recently asked developers to stop building third-party clients, after the company announced its acquisition of TweetDeck.  Twitter Platform Lead Ryan Sarver warned them to stay away from building “client apps that mimic or reproduce the mainstream Twitter consumer client experience.”  If these reports are correct and Twitter are ready to jump into image sharing, the mainstream Twitter experience could be getting that much bigger.

These reports have also been confirmed by AllThingsD, who made an unsuccessful attempt to contact Twitter about the issue.  While this move is likely to be applauded by the majority of Twitter users, companies like Twitpic and ImageShack will definitely not be so happy.

Twitpic, Yfrog, Instagram, Flickr, and other image hosting services bring in millions of dollars in revenue through selling advertising on their image pages, and Twitter is a big source of their traffic.  For example, ImageShack have raised more than $10 million in funding from a number of backers, including Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, and Felicis Ventures.  While a Twitter image sharing service may not see the death of these companies, it would certainly be a major setback.