Cozi.com is basically an all-in-one organizer for your family.  You can enter all of your family members (even if they can’t use the computer…) and enter a color-coded schedule that allows you to see where everyone is at all times.  You enter your grocery lists, or any other kinds of lists you can think of and every member of the family can pitch in.  You can send messages to members and get reminders for anything that is in your calendar.  For the author in you, there is even a blogging feature, called a family journal, that lets you chronicle anything and everything that goes on with the family, including pictures.  The features as listed by Cozi are:

• Family Calendar
  
  

  The Cozi Homepage

• Family Journal
• Customizable Lists
• Photo ScreenSaver ( requires a Download)
• Reminders and Messages
• Cozi and Outlook Sync
• Mobile Access

I can tell you first hand that Cozi is a very useable tool if your family is on the go.  There are no excuses for your tech-savvy kids not to use the site as well because they can get everything on the move.  Cozi offers mobile web access, SMS and even lets you call-in through a toll-free number to have your lists and schedules read to you.  All of these features will let you work with your iPhone and any Smartphone.

If you also like to use smartphones with Outlook, Cozi offers a plugin for outlook that will let you synchronize everything in your Cozi account with your Outlook.  This can be very useful if you don’t always have an available internet connection.

Aside from all the cool features and the nice way to implicate my family in my techno-crazed lifestyle, the interface and ease of use are the things that have caught my attention the most.  This is a great example of a very well done Web 2.0 application.  You get a framework that lets you do exactly what it was designed to do, and your data isn’t trapped inside of it.  You can access everything in more than one way.

Even without a family, Cozi can help you or any group get organized.  If you live with someone, you may want to give this one a try!

Adobe Flex will retain it’s name as a particular application but, from now on, the marketing for it will be as part of the Adobe Flash Platform.  Adobe has announced this new name for the product line as well as a few other things that will be official at the MAX Conference this week.

Adobe Air version 1.5 will be available featuring much better performance and memory handling.  The new version will support Flash 10 and webkit.  There will also be a new encrypted database which is a huge plus for corporate applications.  To go along with Air, Flex 4 (a.k.a. Gumbo)will be demonstrated which should be an even better and more powerful product than before, but also more accessible to newcomers.

Adobe Catalyst (a.k.a. Thermo) has been in the works for a long time now and aims to close the gap between Designers and Developers.  It creates a two-way bridge between files created in Adobe’s Creative Suite products such as Photoshop , Illustrator, and Web apps built in Flash or AIR.  Mobile flash will also be something in demonstration, allowing developers to port their applications on to mobile phones.

We should also see the new — and really really long awaited — 64-bit flash player for Linux.  This just shows the wide adoption for flash and its already very impressive lead in the RIA world.

I personally can’t wait to see the new version of Flex Builder, version 4, and all it’s new features.  I’m not a full-time developper so anything that makes building easier will be very welcomed and will certainly help Adobe to secure it’s lead as the RIA developper’s choice.

Refreshingapps.com was built primarily as a showcase and gallery that shows some of the fantastic Adobe AIR applications that are being developed today. So if you have seen a great AIR app, or you have built something cool go ahead and submit it to our showcase.

Everyone knows I love applications built with Adobe Flex/Air and this site is what it’s all about. You can find a bunch of applications described, reviewed and, best of all, divided into categories according to their purpose and application. The site also has some news articles about the RIA world and gives some useful links to different Resources for developers of all skill levels. Visitors can also rate the listed applications so you can view top applications as voted by actual users.

If you like Air applications, refreshingapps.com is certainly a bookmark to add to your list.

Yahoo! Buzz is now open to the general public, meaning that anyone can submit stories and rate the ones that are already there.  We’ll have to see if the ratings on Buzz are relevant enough for users to keep coming, because ultimately, Yahoo keeps a hand on the editorials.. so it’s not 100% user-driven.  For now, the top pages seem to satisfy but that may have been because only a few selected sites were submitting content.  Time will tell.

In the mean time, why not just Buzz Up our stories and articles using the button at the bottom of our articles and give us a hand! :-)

YouConvertIt.com, the world’s first and most complete conversion, file storage, units conversion website allowing internet users to convert audio video images and documents into an array of formats also sending or delivering file(s). YouConvertIt.com support unit conversion of thousands of types making it easy for users to reach one stop shop without the need to jump from one location to another.

The site offers many things, and all might not be useful to everyone, but some of them can be combined very often.  Unit conversions is the easiest one to understand and that’s the one I came looking for.  Youconvertit lets you convert in practically every unit there is(weight, distance, quantity, etc..), so my Kg to Lbs conversion was a pretty easy one.

The most interesting feature however, is probably the video conversion.  This one lets you download Youtube videos(or any other online video source) or just convert them and download them in a better format.  Simply supply the URL to the video you want, the new format, and you will get an email with a link to download your freshly converted video.

Youconvertit offers the possibility of converting between different file formats as well.  For instance, you could convert a Microsoft Word file into a PDF directly online.  You might also want to convert to an entirely different format such as from a .PDF to a .BMP file.  Naturally, not all conversions are supported, so you should refer to their conversion table to make sure that what you want is possible.  There are many document formats, audio, video, image and even archive formats to choose from.

Finally, Youconvertit lets you send files to your friends or post them on forums and blogs using a supplied link.  You can upload files up to 1000mb and the site gives you a link to publish.  You can simply email that link to a friend to download the file you wish to share.  Files you share remain available for download for a maximum of 7 days.

Keep in mind that Youconvertit.com is still in beta, so some formats may not work as expected, but for the most part, the ones I’ve used all worked just fine.

Chickipedia is the world’s largest web-based, women-based, wiki-based database of hot chicks on the planet. It is entirely user generated, making it the first female-only encyclopedia of the people, by the people, and for the people.

I’m an avid IMDB.com user and this is probably the best complimentary site to add to your list since it is not limited to actresses.  You’ll find many categories including TV, Sports, Movies, Business, Fashion, Misc, Music and Politics.  The greatest thing about Chickipedia that makes it different from all those databases out there is the fact that you can embed a girl’s profile on your own site.  This way, you don’t need to copy all that information or steal pictures, everything links directly back to them.  You can even embed your own list of babes or a slideshow.  Here’s an example with my quick list – I’ve got Britney Spears, Jessica Lee Rose, Megan Fox, Jessica Simpson and Lacey Chabert in there.  Use the arrows to change girls.

If you add your “My Babes” list, your users have to change from one girl to the other using the arrows and clicking on the widget takes you directly to that girl’s page.  However, the option that I like the most is using a specific girl’s profile which, when you hover the mouse over, gives you more information on that girl.  Here’s Jessica Lee Rose’s profile:

This is just one of those sites that I wonder why I didn’t think of doing myself.  Everyone on the internet is looking for this kind of information and Chickipedia not only supplies it, but gives you a means to display that information without stealing anything.

Keep in mind that the information on this site is user-generated, just like on Wikipedia.  This means that the information may not always be accurate, although the content is moderated.  Overall, the information I have seen looks pretty good, and some humorous content is also added to make things more enjoyable.  For instance, one of Britney’s vices is “Mental Instability”.  One could argue that jokes are not facts, but it certainly is based on facts :-)

There are a few bugs on the site as well, but I’m sure those will get worked out very quickly since they are minor.  I had two problems while writing this.  The search box at the top didn’t seem to like spaces.  Searching for Jennifer Love Hewitt turned up nothing, but just jennifer works fine.  There was a problem with the embed code for “My Babes” but I’ve already flagged that one so it should be resolved in no time.

Chickipedia.com will very likely become a common web site if the content keeps growing and the response times remain the same as they currently are.  I can see the embedding feature popping-up on many web sites.  Give it a visit.

Animoto is a web application that produces MTV-style videos using the images and music you choose. Produced in a widescreen format, Animoto videos have the visual energy of a music video and the emotional impact of a movie trailer. Best of all, no two videos are ever the same. Ever.

Basically, you upload the picture that you want in the video, choose or upload the music and let the Animoto engine do its thing.  You can send the end-result through the engine again if you are not happy with the results.  The video above went through it only once since it was only a test, but because of the way Animoto “Reads” your music and places pictures and animations to go along, no videos are ever the same.

As with many services of this type, Animoto offers a free version to try it out and offers two paid options.  The free version lets you create as many videos as you like, but you are limited to 30 seconds per video.  If you want to make the full-length videos, you need to pay 3$ per video or get the all-access pass for 30$/year which will let you make an unlimited number of videos.  All your creations can be embedded or published to various sites or sent by email or even to Youtube.

There are a variety of websites which offer similar services, but Animoto is the first one I actually tried.  I must say I like the result but would prefer a longer version.  Naturally, I don’t really need one, so I’m not going to pay 3$ for a video I can probably make myself if I were to put the time into it.  But overall, I can see this service being very useful when you need to create something cool very quickly and don’t want to use a boring old slideshow.

You can just give the free version a try and see if you end up with something you might want to use.

Spiceworks is a free tool that lets you manage your IT assets, network and helpdesk tickets easily.  This new release is certainly very well done, just like the previous version and includes some 1,200 bugfixes and a bunch of new features.  Here are a few of them:

• SaaS Inventory Management – new inventory features include the ability to track SaaS services – such as online back-ups or e-mail hosting – which often account for more than 50 percent of IT spendings and are becoming more prevalent as SMBs migrate to “Cloud Computing” services. Inventory items that can be tracked include service costs, related contract dates, help desk tickets, outages, contact information, documents and relevant news.
• Network Glide^™ – the new Network Glide^™ feature allows users to flip through and view network devices, applications and services with a single click. This not only makes navigation easier but allows IT managers to view more aspects of their networks quickly in a single glance.  The network detection capabilities are also improved and allow you to have less “unknown” devices listed.
• IT Services Activity Feeds – allows the history of IT services to be viewed in an activity stream similar to a social networking application news feed. This helps the IT manager stay on top of issues with IT services.
• Report Sharing – users can now create customized reports and share them with other IT managers within the Spiceworks community. Users benefit from access to additional out-of-the-box reports customized to the needs of small business IT pros like them.  This feature is one of those that truly work when the community gets involved, and knowing the Spiceworks community, I’d say there should be some interesting sharing going on.
• Microsoft Exchange Monitoring – allows users to monitor their Microsoft Exchange server for up-time status, load, and mailbox capacity usage. In addition it integrates the Spiceworks help desk email functions with Microsoft Exchange.
• Active Directory Support – users can now leverage Active Directory to simplify the authentication and administration of the end-user help desk portal included in Spiceworks.  This feature is especially handy if you have and Active Directory to prevent your end-users from having to remember an extra username/password for Spiceworks.
• Third-Party Tool Integration – enables users to launch and view other network and systems management tools from within the Spiceworks user interface, making it easier to perform key IT management tasks.

These are the most important new features in terms of functionnalities, but the most important one overall, to me, is the increased speed of the system.  The interface is now 30-40% faster than before, and it shows.  This alone makes the upgrade worthwhile, even if you don’t intend on using the new features.  Using Spiceworks is even more enjoyable with a responsive interface.  Network scanning times have also been cut down, making then 20-40% faster.

Just like the previous version, I highly recommend you give Spiceworks a try if you have to manage any of the things it can help you with.  I mostly use the helpdesk features for my trouble tickets, but I have tested all the little features and all of them do exactly as they should.  Best of all, Spiceworks is a free download so it’s always a very welcome addition to your IT management toolbox.

Go!Animate in their own words: “We are a bunch of guys who love animation and want to share our passion with the world! The problem is that animation requires very specific skills. Animators need to learn Flash or other advanced software before being able to create anything. They also need to know how to draw. That’s why we created GoAnimate, a platform that allows people to express themselves through animation without having to learn to draw or install any software.“

The tools found on Go!Animate are pretty efficient to get you started in no time. Very easy to use and if you just watch the tutorial, you should be able to create a little something right away. I did find that some things were missing, but I’m sure they will get added as time goes by. For instance, I wanted to add a credits screen at the end of my animation. There is only one credits screen available but it is not editable.

Tools are divided into different categories such as characters, speech bubbles, scenes (backgrounds), props, music and visual effects. You can use the ones that are supplied by Go!Animate or upload your own. There are also community supplied assets, meaning there should be more and more things available as the community grows.

Once your animation is complete, you can save it to your account as a private or public animation. Public animations are viewable to everyone on the site and you have the possibility of sharing via email or an embedded link, just like I used here on this site. I had to resize the player to fit my blog, (that’s why the Go!Animate text doesn’t quite fit) but it’s basically like youtube videos. You can also share directly on Facebook, Digg, MySpace, Reddit, Del.Icio.Us and Stumbleupon.

If you want an easy way to create and share animation online, without having to learn Flash and similar tools, Go!Animate offers a great way to get started and let the world know about your incredible animation skills.

Here is the animation I created while testing the service:

Edit: for some reason, many people seem to have a problem viewing the embedded version, so here’s a link to the actual page: http://goanimate.com/go/movie/54025/1

The UI is somewhat a re-creation of Flex Builder, and will let you switch between Building and Coding just like the real thing. Here is a screenshot of a quick application I made… I made this one after I created a better one but accidentally closed the window, so it’s really simple.

Keep in mind that Flairbuilder is still a work in progress. It’s not even really in beta yet, but you can still have a look and perhaps you can try a few Flex functions without having to play with the SDK or setting up Flex Builder. You can find it at http://www.flairbuilder.com