Then came the emergence of collective buying websites like Groupon, LivingSocial and a whole host of others. For a lot of people who aim to get the most bang for their buck, deal of the day is here to stay. But did you know there are smaller niche websites that can help you save money, too? Here are 5 of those sites:

1. Bitrix24.com
For a business to survive a competitive marketplace, communication among its employees is of paramount importance. Problem is, corporate intranets usually cost thousands of dollars, and most small businesses may not have enough operating budget to afford them.

Bitrix24 provides a solution to that problem. If your business has 12 employees or less, Bitrix24 offers a basic package that is absolutely free. Yes, you heard that right. The basic package is absolutely free. And the package comes with a fully functional CRM, activity streaming where every team member gets updates as events unfold, calendar, activity planner, sales funnel and a whole host of other features. If your company is comprised of more than 12 employees, the service costs just about $99 per month.

2. Logaster.com
Online or not, if it’s a business you’re running, you need a logo. Unfortunately, professional logo designers command a high price – hundreds of dollars at the very least. And even with crowdsourcing sites, getting the logo you desire may render you at least $100 poorer.

Logaster.com lets you create your logo free of charge, and with a $4.99 subscription per month, you get other valuable features like business cards, letterheads and envelopes.

3. PickyDomains.com
Some people think it odd to pay somebody to come up with a name for his company or a domain for his website. Then again, branding can make or break your business. What’s worse, with millions and millions of top-level domains registered already, coming up with a domain that hasn’t been registered yet may be harder than you think it is.

PickyDomains.com is a site of over 55,000 namer contributors. All a client needs to do is register, pay the required $50 downpayment for a domain, brand or name (or $75 for a slogan), specify his parameters, then wait for suggestions to start pouring in. If none of the suggestions are to his liking, he may ask for a refund.

4. JetRadar.com
Expedia, CheapFlights and Orbitz are just three of several niche sites that have changed the way the securing-cheap-air-fare game is played forever. If you’re a businessman constantly on the go or somebody who simply likes to travel, with JetRadar.com, you can search for tickets that are even cheaper.

Cheaper than cheap? How’s that for a cool deal? JetRadar.com is a meta search engine that searches through every travel agency, major flight site and through registers of 728 individual airlines. Some deals from airline companies are made known only through their own websites and not anywhere else to ensure traffic to their sites. JetRadar makes these deals publicly available.

5. iSpionage.com

If you’re a business owner, you want to know what your competitor is up to. With iSpionage, you get to manage client campaigns, save valuable time monitoring affiliates and paid search competition, manage through search engine gaps, view the ads your competitor is running and a whole lot more.

And instead of you collating all the information you need from various searches, iSpionage sends you e-mail alerts every time a competitor activity is detected. iSpionage subscription starts at $59 per month.

Author: Maricel Rivera of www.careermomonline.com

Bare Bones Software today announced the release and immediate availability of TextWrangler(tm) 4.0.1, an update to its high performance, general purpose text editor for Mac OS X.

The TextWrangler 4.0.1 update includes fixes for specific reported issues in this popular text editor.
Crafted in Bare Bones Software’s best traditions as a leading Mac software developer, TextWrangler is a powerful general purpose text editor. It features a clean and easy-to-use interface and a rich set of features for composing and manipulating text.

TextWrangler supports working with both plain-text and Unicode files (with the exception of files written using right-to-left writing systems, such as Hebrew or Arabic).

Detailed information on all of the changes implemented in TextWrangler 4.0.1 can be found at:

http://www.barebones.com/support/textwrangler/current_notes.html

For more information on TextWrangler, visit the company’s web site:

http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/

TextWrangler 4 requires Mac OS X 10.6 or higher (10.6.8, or 10.7.3 or later recommended). All Mac OS X users may download TextWrangler 4 free of charge from the Mac App Store or the Bare Bones Software
web site:

http://www.barebones.com/products/textwrangler/download.html

If you’re new to a computer, maybe just new to digital photos or graphics in general, or if you find that Photoshop, Acorn, or Pixelmator are all just too difficult to understand or expensive, then I have an alternative Mac app for you to try. iMage Tools from IcyBlaze. At $9.95 retail and now FREE on the Mac App Store, it’s an app that you might want to download and try.

Let’s not pull any punches here, I’m no Photoshop guru by any stretch of the imagination. I get by with basic digital photo editing and graphic design skills, but I’m still beyond the basic functionality found in iMage Tools. It does beginning graphic work for beginners, period. iMage Tools works to take an image and resize it, rotate it, rename it, watermark it, add a border, a reflection, a curve and a shadow to it. iMage Tools can open and edit all the main image formats and convert them into other main image formats. (.jpg,.png, .tiff, and .gif)

The application is Lion capable and can handle images as large as 50 megs. iMage Tools can handle multiple images and is quite fast. Download it free for now from the Mac App Store and see what you think about it. Maybe a simple, fast and basic graphic app is just what you’re looking for…

The last week I’ve been testing a business card scanning and cataloging app called WorldCard Mobile. The app is part of the entire WorldCard family of business card scanners and software including, WorldCard Pro, WorldCard Color, WorldCard Office, and the software, WorldCard License. WorldCard also makes document scanners and the iPhone app, Snap2PDF.

The idea behind WorldCard Mobile is simple, scan business cards, recognize the card’s details and export them to your address book or another database application. The cost is $6.99 from the app store. Now let’s look at the operation itself.

You use the iPhone to scan in a business card through the iPhone camera, or through a photo available in your albums, or from an e-mail signature, in cloud spaces or from QR codes. After you take the photo of the card you can edit and then “recognize it”. WorldCard Mobile can recognize many different languages from your business cards. Once you go into the recognition portion of the app you’ll be able to change any information in the specific fields and you also able to go back to the card image and highlight specific areas or lines in the image and designate the highlighted area as a company name, address, phone number, etc. Once all the fields are filled to your specifications, you can either export it to your address book as a new contact or amend it to an existing contact. It also goes into the card holder for future uses such as text messaging, sharing the contact, sending it to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

If you have any other WorldCard products you can export the cards you scan in your Mobile app to them, you can send the contact cards to iTunes, in fact, the amount of different formats that you can export your cards into from WorldCard is absolutely amazing.

Although I had to do a lot of manual entering when the business cards were dark in color or when the name and addresses were high graphics, the cards I had with regular type print on them were recognized and filed very accurately every time. The scanning process is blazingly fast and generally quite simple. The app allows you to keep your contacts in iCloud or Dropbox. It really is a powerful and full-featured business card application for your iPhone. If you’re the type of person or business that relys on business cards for meeting and organizing and maintaining your contact list, WorldCard Mobile is a must have iPhone app for you.

I am still patiently waiting for my new iPad to make it’s long journey across the Pacific to my door. As I wait, I decided to “borrow” a friend’s iPad and check out a couple new iPad cases that I received for review from Uniea.

The first one is called the Rebelution Straightedge Back Cover. It’s an ultra-slim back cover with a built-in stand. The list price is $39.95 and it comes in black, yellow and purple. The StraightEdge is made from a tough ABS plastic shell with nylon appointments and it snaps snugly on the back of your iPad, protecting its rear from scratches, dings, and drops, while a fold-out kick stand lets you set up your iPad for ideal typing and video watching.

The Straightedge gives you full access to the camera, buttons, and dock, while still retaining the look and feel of the iPad on the front. The whole idea behind the Straightedge is to leave as much of your iPad out in the open while protecting the important stuff and giving you the features you need. The material makes the Straightedge very light and you still have a sense of security with it on your iPad. Although, the iPad glass front is still open and can be damaged if dropped or roughed-up. If you have a sleeve that you use with your iPad, this is a perfect solution for added protection.

Their second case is called the Uniea Rebelution Skidboard Folio Case. It’s an ultra slim flip nylon hard case with auto on/off function. The retail price is only $44.95 and it comes in black, purple, yellow and red. Although the case is lightweight and minimalistic in appearance, the Skidboard is a solid choice for the price point. The folio adds an unmatched level of protection to your iPad’s screen, and doubles as a versatile folding stand so that you can put your iPad in the most ergonomic position for typing, watching videos, and more. And for as tough as the Skidboard is on the outside, a soft, velvet style interior lining won’t ever scratch your iPad. Custom cut-outs give you access to the dock, buttons, and camera sensor while providing maximum coverage and protection.

The Skidboard’s folio cover stays tightly shut, thanks to a durable latch, while the inner lining is incredibly soft and scratchproof, ensuring that all the rough stuff stays on the outside of your iPad. The folio cover doubles as a stand and the nylon strap will hold it sturdy when closed or opened and working in one of two positions available.

As I mentioned earlier, I love the lightweight and protection it gave me and the folio was my favorite, especially for the price point. Take a look at all the colors and styles along with all the cases Uniea designs and sells at Uniea.com.

I received an email from my dear friend, Allison Sheridan this week. She wanted to tell me about a great free Menubar app she found called NoMenuBar. It’s from Jeb-Soft. NoMenuBar is a simple application with only one (left) menu bar item. It let lots of space for the right side menu bar item to be displayed (like time, airport status, and any other add-ons). It will be very useful if you have a small screen (like on a laptop) or lots of right side items. So when your menu bar icons go so far across the bar that you can’t see them all, you simply command-tab to NoMenuBar and the whole area clears up so you can see all of your menu bar icons!

I then told her about another free Menubar app I was using called AccessMenuBarApps from Ortisoft Software. It gives the user instant access to all menubar apps that reside in the right side of the Mac menubar. What it does is with a hotkey combo or with a flick of the mouse, it makes the hot application’s menu (File, Edit, Format, Window, Help, etc) disappear and allows all your MenuBar apps from the right side of the screen to overtake as much real estate as they need. Very handy and free.

Then here’s another free alternative to Menubar clutter that I never shared with Allison. It’s called Broomstick from a young developer by the name of Sebastian Hallum. Broomstick is the easiest way to hide menubar icons that you don’t like. While most apps that create a menubar icon allow you to hide it, some apps don’t provide this option. Broomstick lets you take back control of your menubar. Broomstick works by changing the permissions of the application’s files so that the application cannot display its icon. Some apps, such as Dropbox, do not display anything in the menubar, however other apps just display a blank space. To get around this, you can use the menubar order customization feature of Broomstick to ensure that your menubar remains beautiful. Broomstick can currently hide the following apps: Air Video Server, Avira, BetterTouchTool, Boom, CPU Speed Accelerator, Caffeine, Chronicle Mini, ChronoSync, Click.to, CloudApp, CrashPlan, Dimmer, DropCopy, Dropbox, Droplr, Evernote, Flutter, Flux, FullControlHelper, Garmin ANT Agent, Google Drive, GrabBox, GrabBox2, Growl, GrowlTunes, Hiss, Insync, Kuvva, Last.fm, LogMeIn, LogMeIn, Hamach, Memeo Backup, MiddleClick, MuteCon, NoSleepHelper, Nocturne, OpenDNS Updater, PleaseSleep, PuntoSwitcher, Quiet Read, RemotelessHelper, Seamless, SnagIt, Splashtop Streamer, Spotlight, ToDoHelper, Wakoopa Tracker, Wallpaper Clocks, iTeleport Connect.

So if your Menubar is getting cluttered up, try one or all of these alternatives. After all, they are free.

B&H has done it again ! (They are also an affiliate of Surfbits.com)

Introducing the New Canon DOUBLE rebate page. Expiring June 2nd 2012

How it Works:
1. You click on the link below

2. Choose a camera body and then choose a lens or speedlight (or both)

3. Start jumping up and down in utter ecstasy as your instant rebate doubles.

B&H Video Double Rebates on Cameras Link.

Examples:
Canon EOS 7D SLR Digital Camera (Body Only) $ 1,699.00 – $150 instant savings $1,549.00
Then get Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM Telephoto Zoom Lens $2,499.00 – Instant savings of $200 which Doubles to an instant savings of $400 Final price $2,099.00
You Just saved $550

Price Drops:

Pentax Q drops from $749.00 to $499.00

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH2 Digital Camera (Black) See price in cart

Sony NEX-5N Instant Savings

Huge rebates on Panasonic lenses Expiring May 5th

Hot Lenses in Stock:

Fujifilm 60mm f/2.4 XF Macro Lens

Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD Lens for Canon Cameras

Available For Pre-Order:
Sony NEX-FS700U Super 35 Camcorder (Body Only)

We all know that having a Gmail account has some wonderful advantages. The searching capabilities, the tagging, the archiving, and the ability to send and receive large attachments. But, the problem arises that your online mail history is at the mercy of Google. A very scary thought indeed.

The solution is to have a backup of your Gmail on your hard drive. You can accomplish this by using IMAP with your favorite Mail application and download all your Gmail emails. That can be a long and painful process. Plus, it may slow your Mail application down to a crawl. But, the positive aspect to using this method is the cost is free.

If you want another solution, one that costs only $1.99 from the Mac App Store, BackUp Gmail is the answer. It’s a lightweight Menu Bar App that works in background, connecting automatically with your account and it backs up any new emails. You can access your data whenever and wherever you want. All emails are in plain text (.eml format) and the relationships are stored in a SQLite DB. You can personalize how the backup is performed and set-up your destination folders as you wish. You decide if you want an hourly or daily backup of your account and set the times yourself.

BackUp Gmail is a fairly new application and the developer is working hard to add features to the app and make it more and more user friendly. Davide Gullo is receptive to feedback and seems to be committed to keep the app a simple and cheap solution to backing up your Gmail account. It’s working well for me.

The developer sent me some links for free and shareware SQLite Database programs that you can download and use to work with your backup. Of course, you can also just open the .eml text files in your current Mail app to read them or import them into your email.

“For now, If you want to open SQLite database you can use a simple firefox add-on (free):
https://addons.mozilla.org/it/firefox/addon/sqlite-manager/
or
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sqlitebrowser/

or any other app that allow access to SQLite db as (not free):
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/14140/sqlitemanager
http://www.razorsql.com/articles/sqlite_mac.html
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/29654/base “

When it comes right down to it, most Mac users spend more time, (then should be necessary), finding software to make the OSX Finder handle basic file operations. You know what I mean, copying, moving, collecting, separating or organizing files. We search for methods to open multiple Finder windows, arrange these windows, tab the windows, decorate these windows, etc. Don’t get me wrong, there are some wonderful shareware and freeware apps that help you accomplish these chores, but for the last five years I’ve never needed to use them. That’s because I’ve been using Path Finder from Cocoatech.

Over the years we’ve reviewed many different versions of Path Finder as it’s matured. I wrote this article on Path Finder 4, David Sparks looked at Path Finder for us in this article, and Chris Marshall looked at Path Finder 5 in this post. We’ll try not to repeat ourselves, but with all the great features in Path Finder 6, you don’t want to miss any of them.

Path Finder is first and foremost a file manager for OSX. With it’s dual browser windows you can easily compare, move, copy, rename, compress, preview, email, get info or burn any file or folder on your Mac. The toolbar is fully customizable to allow you to pick and choose the file operations you need for fast access. I love the idea of a customizable contextual menu so that I can right click on a file and achieve the same results as going to the toolbar or menubar. Finally, you can add and change keyboard shortcuts to suit your needs. As you can see, Path Finder allows you to choose it’s look, design and function. It can be as simple or as complex as you want it or need it to be.

What other features does Path Finder offer? The list is just too long, but let’s hit a few of the main feature set. Some of the new features is version 6 are:

File Transfer Queue: Access current file operations from either a toolbar item or a separate unified window.

ACL Editor: Create and modify Access Control Lists, an advanced alternative to OS X’s standard Unix permissions.

File Tagging: Leverage the power of OpenMeta to tag your files and share tags between apps.

Batch Renaming: Apply filename changes to a group of files simultaneously.

Hex Editor: Low-level file editing without ever leaving your browser.

Some of the great features that have been with Path Finder since earlier versions are:

Drop Stack: Freeze drag-and-drop operations by placing files into a temporary stack.

Dual-pane Browser: View the contents of two folders side-by-side in one window.

Tabs & Bookmarks: Bring your web browser workflow into your file browser.

File List Filtering: Quickly filter a list of files by name, extension, or kind.

Smart Sorting: Sort by folders, packages, or files first. Then sort by date, name, modification, type or any attribute.

Quick Look & Cover Flow:: Quickly preview files, and display Cover Flow alongside any other view type.

Integrated Terminal: Embed a terminal window directly into your graphical file browser window.

Command Line Tools: Execute common command line tools directly from the Path Finder GUI.

Application Launcher: Access your apps with the press of a key.

Archives: Work with a variety of archive types including zip, gzip, dmg, sit, and more.

Text & Image Editors: Create and edit text. Crop and scale your images.

I love the idea that when I need one of the drawers on the right side, left side or bottom of the browser window to pop out and let me use a specific function, I can press a button for it to appear and press a button for it to disappear. I love the preview pane built right into the browser window and the built in text editor makes simple text edits fast and easy. I guess I just love Path Finder, period. When I read reviews about this application or that application that allows you to change this function or that function in the Finder, I just smile. I already can do all that, plus a lot more, with Path Finder 6 from Cocoatech.

The new Path Finder 6 is only $40 new and $20 for an upgrade.

Last week I sang the praises of a new application in development for searching your Mac and your cloud called Found. The problem is that Found is still in a beta stage and to even use the application you have to get on a waiting list. I was contacted by another developer that told me about his application called CloudMagic. After a week using it on my iPhone and my Mac, I have to say that it does a great job at a great price. Free!

CloudMagic is a search engine for all your personal online data. It lets you search across all your data (emails, tweets, docs, contacts, calendar, etc.) through one simple search box. You could also install the Chrome extension, Firefox extension or Safari extension which will show up as a floating CloudMagic search bar. You can download the CloudMagic iOS App or download the Android App available on app stores.

CloudMagic currently supports the following services: (You can add any number of accounts for any service.)

• Gmail
• Google Apps Email
• Google Chat, Docs, Calendar and Contacts
• Twitter
• Microsoft Exchange Email, Calendar and Contacts (Exchange Server 2007 and 2010)
• Microsoft Office 365 Email, Calendar and Contacts

Once indexed, I found CloudMagic to be lightning fast and you see results as you’re typing the search query. Quick Preview allows you to quickly preview and take common actions like Reply, Retweet, etc. The iOS app works well and, like the OSX client, is very fast.

CloudMagic is simple, fast and free. What more can you ask for from a search app?