In today’s digital world, pretty much everything is possible online, including creating photo slideshows. And ImageLoop is an online service that helps you do just that. This free service makes slideshow creation a breeze and also provides lots of other services.

With ImageLoop, creating a slideshow is very easy. You can either upload a bunch of photos from your hard drive or import them from an online service that stores photos. The only requirement is that all photos must be in JPG format. Fancy a Flickr photo that isn’t yours? No problem, ImageLoop lets users import photos from Myspace and Flickr just by typing in the username, not just their own.

Once the photos are uploaded, you can customize the look and feel of your slideshow, and add descriptions to your photos as well. Once the slideshow is ready, you can email it to your family and friends or use one of the available embed codes to publish it on the internet. ImageLoop also allows you to decide just who can view your slideshow by changing the access levels. If you want to go back and change the accessibility, you can do that too.

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Tags: imageloop, photo sharing, slideshows, social networks
Categories: Cool, Online Services

I confess that I’m not particularly adept when it comes to working with hardware. I can work with nuts and bolts and have even built my own switchboards but I’m always looking to upgrade my skills. Besides, as most people know, getting people to come and fix things can turn out to be a very expensive affair most of the time.

That’s why I love MrsFixit. The brainchild of a woman who decided she’d had enough of paying for fixing things and rolled up her sleeves to do things herself. After sharing her tips with her friends, she put them online to share with other people, especially women.

MrsFixit is full of do-it-yourself solutions for getting things done around the home. From female oriented subjects like alternative uses for common substances and kitchen tips to installing a lighting system or a guide to plumbing, the site ahs tips on pretty much everything, including working outdoors.

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Tags: do-it-yourself, hardware solutions, household tips, mrsfixit
Categories: Advice, Knowledge, Tutorials Basic

Photo editors are a dime a dozen, both as software and browser-based apps. Programs like Photoshop and GIMP are far ahead of browser apps in terms of the functionalities they offer. However, once in a while, you come across something that’s worth checking out, even if you normally use feature-rich software.

piZap is an online photo editor that offers something more. To be more specific, piZap lets you have fun with images. The flash-based application is ideal for people who love to manipulate their pictures and make them goofy. You can upload a file from your computer or play with one of the demo images on the site.

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Tags: image editor, online app, photos, piZap
Categories: Entertainment, Funny, Online Services

Like most people, I have a fairly large collection of music in a digital format. The only problem is that very often I get songs that are at different volume levels. This is irksome because then I have situations where one song is really loud and the next one is very soft.

To solve this problem, I usually standardize the volume of all my audio files. To do this, I use a little program called MP3Gain. But if you do not want to add to the endless list of software installed on your computer, you can opt for getting the job done with a browser-based application. One such tool is Vloud.

Vloud allows you to upload any mp3 or wav file to the site and change its volume according to your preferences. Using the site is easy. Select the desired volume you want your file to have from the options light, loud, louder, and loudest. Then, upload the original file and wait for the changes to take place. Once the file is ready, you can listen to it online or download it to your hard drive.

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Tags: browser-based tool, Vloud, volume control, web application
Categories: Cool, Music and Video, Online Services

It’s holiday season and while it is the season to spend time with the family and be grateful for your loved ones, it’s also the season for presents. Whether you’ve been naughty or nice, it’s likely that there’s something you really want to get your hands on.

Since this is Ghacks, there’s a pretty good chance that your ‘must-have’ is tech-related. If it is, why not share your wish with the rest of us? Maybe you want a new souped-up computer for your gaming needs, or that fancy new mobile phone. How about the latest portable media player?

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Tags: Gadgets, holiday-season, wishlist
Categories: Cool, Misc, ask the readers

Piracy in gaming is huge. The earliest form of illegal practices in computer gaming I can remember is a person buying a game and giving it to a friend to copy in exchange for a copy of his game. Gaming companies wised up to that and today most PC games come with some kind of protection so that they cannot be copied and distributed.

Of course, as gaming companies have gotten smarter, so have the gamers. Gaming piracy is still rampant on the Internet and torrents are one of the fastest ways a person can get hold of a pirated game. In fact, TorrentFreak recently released their list of the top 10 most pirated games of the year, which made for some interesting reading.

At the top of this unofficial list is Electronic Arts’ Spore. The game has been downloaded 1.7 millions times since it was released in September. The top position can be attributed to the game’s ridiculous DRM, which allowed a user who purchased a legitimate copy to install the game only three times. Spore also holds the distinction of being the most downloaded torrent on Piratebay for a full week, a rare feat for a game.

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Tags: Games, piracy, torrents
Categories: Entertainment, Games, P2p

In today’s world, owning a cell phone and/or a portable media player has practically become a necessity. The thing is I don’t own either. No, I do not live in a cave, I just took a conscious decision not to own one.

Recently though, I’ve decided to invest in an mp3 player. I knew about the standard players available but after doing some more research, I’m more confused than ever. So I decided to ask the tech-savvy readers at Ghacks to help me make my decision.

Now I’m looking at hard-drive based players with a minimum capacity of 60 GB. Here are some of my thoughts on the different players so far:

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Tags: Archos, Cowon, creative, iPod, portable media players, Zune
Categories: Entertainment, Hardware, Music and Video, ask the readers, iPod