How many times have you been inside your Gmail inbox and realized that you need a break from reading your gazillionth email? Well, a new Gmail Lab project called “Take a Break” allows you to do just this.
To enable this lab project, navigate to your Gmail settings and select the “Labs” tab (should be the last tab available in the settings section). Once there, click the enable radio button for “Email Addict.”
When you’re ready to get a break from answering your email, just click the newly created “Take a break” link from the top-right corner of Gmail. Your screen will dim out, and you will loose access to your email/chat for 15 minutes. Please note that if you require immediate access to your Gmail inbox/chat again, just refresh the page.
All in all, this is a cool little Gmail Lab project. Be sure to check out other great Lab projects for Gmail — I especially like the “Mail Goggles” one that makes you answer a couple math problems before sending an email late at night.
Since the success of Facebook and MySpace, online social networks have started sprouting up everywhere. Most social networking followers have many accounts from many different social networking services. But how many of them do you actually use? Would you use them more if you could update your status on one, and have it replicated on all the services to which you are subscribed?
There is hope if you are looking to synchronize your multiple social networking services. I’m going to show you a software solution, as well as two web-based solutions.
MoodBlast
MoodBlast is a Mac application developed by Brett Terpstra (who is a friend, and fellow blogger on The Unofficial Apple Weblog). The application lives in your menu bar, waiting for you to call on it. It supports updating status on:
It is also quite extensible with it’s additional tools like the ability to put in strings like the current iTunes song, Time variables, and weather (results via AccuWeather.com). You can even set a hot key and hide all visible icons, making for a seamless experience.
Ping.fm
Ping.fm is similar to MoodBlast, with the exception of it living online. Ping.fm can update your status across a wide-variety of social networking sites, including:
As you can see, the list of services that Ping.fm can sync with is quite exhausting. You can get a free account from Ping.fm and starting pining away.
Pixelpipe
Pixelpipe does for your pictures, what Ping.fm does for your status updates. With Pixelpipe, you will be able to sync your photos and videos around to different services. All you have to do is upload it from Pixelpipe first, and it will handle the rest. Pixelpipe is able to interface with a ton of services including a handful of very popular ones:
-Flickr
-Facebook
-Twitpic
-Viddler
-YouTube
-Picasa Web Albums
-Pownce
-Blogger
-Tumblr
-Vox
-Vimeo
This service is particularly useful to people who have multiple photo services they use. As soon as you upload a photo or video to Pixelpipe (which may take a while depending on the file size), your photos or video will be synced over to the different services you use.
There you have it, 3 useful Web 2.0 services that sync to other Web 2.0 services! Here’s hoping your Web 2.0 days be filled with joy.
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About
Hi, my name is Cory Bohon. I am a tech blogger at Mac|Life, Mac/iPhone developer, lover of all things technology, and photographer. This is my personal blog, where you can find what I am currently ranting about.
Any opinions expressed on this site are mine and not necessarily shared by my employer or educational institution.
Since the success of 
