tiny

TinyURL Generator is a new experimental Firefox extension that makes it easier to grab a TinyURL of whatever page you're on. Once installed it will automatically create and save a smaller, shorter URL from TinyURL.com when new pages are visited. The TinyURL is then copied to your clipboard for easy copying and pasting in an e-mail or IM conversation.

For frequent TinyURL users this might be a better route than using one of the many available bookmarklets since it saves you a click and a copy/paste. On the flip side, it doesn't work so well when … Read more

Flickr on Friday announced that it has formed a partnership with Tiny Prints that will see the online stationery site's services become a part of Flickr's "Do More" offering, which currently enables users to add images from their photostream to credit cards, order prints, and create books.

According to Flickr's John Nguyen, Flickr users will be able to create customized stationery with the images contained in their photostream through the Tiny Prints service. He said that Flickr chose to work with Tiny Prints after it got the company's attention with its "lovely, high-quality, … Read more

Thanks to the restriction on the length of posts in nanoblog services like Twitter, the world needs URL shortening services like TinyURL and similar sites. The shortening services are free, though. So one has to ask, how do they make money? And where's my cut?

There are (at least) two URL shorteners that are ad-supported. Not only do they have a revenue model, but they share their revenues with people who use them.

The new kid on the block here is Adjix. Like TinyURL, it creates short links. But the pages users get directed to get a small ad … Read more

Not content to just sit around recovering from Independence Day shenanigans this past weekend, TinyURL released a much-needed feature to its URL-shortening service that others have had for ages: vanity URLs. This means the nonsensical shortened URLs it spits out from your 1,000 character-plus links can now be changed to whatever name you want after the forward slash--that is as long as it hasn't been taken by someone else.

With the popularity of TinyURL and it's automatic integration with services like Twitter, most of the good ones have already been snatched up, so if you're looking … Read more

If you're a frequent Webware, reader you might remember Grooveshark, and Grooveshark Lite--two different but equally awesome music-sharing and listening tools. From those same folks comes TinySong, a bit of a play on large link sharing services like TinyURL. However, instead of sharing Web sites with your friends, you're linking them straight to the track.

The service uses the same built-in song search found in Grooveshark Lite, and will simply jump whoever opens the link right to the Web based jukebox. What's nice is whoever is searching will have the short link copied to their clipboard … Read more

Webware reader Amy wrote in to let us know one of her favorite Firefox plug-ins shortText just got updated with a handy new feature. It will now automatically go through any page you're on and seek out any TinyURLs, converting them to the actual URL so you can see where the page links to.

If you want to accomplish a similar feat, there's also a bookmarklet called Embiggen, which will do the same thing without you having to install anything. The key difference between the two is that shortText packs in a bundle of other features like letting … Read more

It used to be that powerful microscopes were reserved for laboratories, but magnification levels that were once possible only with professional equipment are increasingly available to the masses thanks to advances in digital technologies. Some gadgets are finding a natural home on the science toy market for kids, complete with night-vision features.

But the most certain way to tell if a product category has attrained common-denominator status is when it reaches the prolific mass manufacturers of Asia. To wit: Korean company 3R Systems has unveiled the "ViTiny," a pocket-sized digital microscope.

Measuring 4.7 by 2.2 inches … Read more

We're still not sure about the wisdom of having a USB key so small that it can get lost among pocket change but, if you want something truly tiny, this is it.

The appropriately named "Nano Flash Drive" from Imation comes in storage capacities ranging from 1GB to 8GB, but the size remains the same for all of them: 1.75 inches long and a half-inch wide, weighing a scant 1.3 ounces. Not surprisingly, Imation says it's the smallest flash drive of its kind that it offers.

In our view, its smartest feature has nothing … Read more

A few years ago, I downsized from an apartment with a huge, light-filled kitchen to one that was (to put it gently) more compact. Though the change was jarring at first, I've really come to appreciate the forced efficiency of a smaller kitchen.

Still, even this convert is amazed at the compact Instant Kitchen from Hansen Living, which was on display at the recent International Contemporary Furniture Fair in New York. The credenza-like unit contains everything you'd need in a kitchen, including an oven, gas jets, electric power, refrigerator, and water. You just hook up the water and … Read more