Lifehack.org has a really nice roundup of mostly productivity related web apps that came out last year. The round includes a Mind map generator bubbl.us, Flash based word processor created by Adobe called Buzzword, Empressr a dynamic slide show creator, Highrise an enterprise-grade contact manager developed by 37Signals, Jott a note to self service which also offers transcribing notes from voice to text and the ability to post to your blog and todo list, A really interesting financial or I should say budget management service called Mint which you can use to setup all your accounts including bank, credit cards, loans and look at the big picture, A web app Nozbe based on David Allan’s “Getting Things Done” approach, you can have a virtual assistant via Email called Sandy whom you can email reminders etc.. just like a real secretary, Another similar to Sandy app is called Scrybe which follows the same theme as Sandy meaning you can email the things you want showing up in your calender and setup a to do list, a simple online to-do list interface called Todoist which does exactly what it implies, Another similar app to Scrybe and Sandy you expect people to still behave somewhat, Vitalist seems to another app focused towards productivity and whatever other needs one has to accomplish during the day.

Appupdater is a another program posted here at Lifehacker by Kevin Purdy that can be used to update your windows apps. It will be familiar to linux users as its command based. I have used this a couple of times and it works really nicely as it scans all the installed software and checks for updates and asks your permission before installing the updates.

Web Worker Dialy has a nice article posted by Samuel Dean referring to four websites that contain free software apps of various kinds. These include:

1. tinyapps.org
2. Sourceforge.net
3. PC Magazines Download Center
4. Download.com

Secunia is a freeware app which is Window only and helps keep applications on your system upto date and also notifies of obsolete apps. Its similar to windows update but much more powerful. Specially helpful if you have a lot of application on your system like I do. Posted at Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Nice hack when you really need to go on to the internet in extreme IT lock down policies. Of course use this at your own risk as posted in Lifehacker by Adam Pash. Basically you can open any app and press F1 to get to the help section and then go to tools and click on jump to url and you should be good to go.

One thing also possible is to use the portable version of firefox. To use this you can load it on a USB Drive and stick in your work computer and in most situation you can browse the web without any issues unless the access blocked at routers end but thats very unlikely.

I love the word free specially when it comes to software. Lifehacker Kevin Purdy posted a nice snippet about new free software available at donation coder. Apps include one that show info about your music library and another one to monitor your system for bugs plus plenty more to accomplish various things like the image to text converter is pretty cool. And the best is that its all FREE!!

I came across this post by Ben Popken at Consumerist about seven things to check on a regularly basis to keep your car running properly. After going over the tips some of the stuff is common sense but then again most people don’t have that gift now do they. Definitely worth a looksee.

Now you can place Remember The Milk in your side bar. Lifehacker Gina Trapani my favorite productivity guru points this out. Its very simple to setup and keeps your to do list right infront at all times your surfing away.

Sling has annonced a couple of products during CES 2008 which include the SlingCatcher, SlingPlayer 2.0 with Clip+Sling, and Sling Cable modem as pointed by Ryan Block over at Engadget. I am really interested in the new version of the SlingPlayer Software which provides a 60min cache feature which will really make it easy to forward and rewind which seems to be a drawback when using the current software.

Finally Amazon is getting up to speed and competing with more websites that offer software downloads as an alternative for waiting to get it in the mail. As pointed out by Lifehacker Adam Pash. Right now its windows only and you have install the application to your computer for it to work.