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Every Tuesday at 9:30 PM EDT, Albert Maruggi, Dave Erickson and I broadcast the “Beyond Social Media” show live on Blog Talk Radio. One of the three sections we cover is Shiny New Objects. Those are the great new apps, extensions and tools that you can use. Here are some of the latest ones we’ve found.

  • Cruxlight is like Cliff notes for webpages. It’s a browser extension that automatically summarizes webpages and highlights key points and keywords. You can decide on short, medium or long summaries.
    Pindigit

  • Pindigit tells you which tab is using all the memory in Chrome and slowing down your computer 
  • CurbText aims to use license plates to provide driver’s contact info from a database of registered users, allowing anyone to easily text the car’s owner if they are blocking a driveway, parked illegally, left their lights on, or the car is being vandalized.

How Curbtext works: you register your license plate and phone number, which is stored on CurbText’s database. You also receive a bumper sticker to alert passersby that you’re registered. When someone needs to get in touch with the owner of a vehicle, they can send a text — which should begin with the state code and license plate number — to the CurbTXT number and the service will forward it on to the driver.. For example: “CA3214567 you’re blocking my driveway – pls move” and then SEND.

Currently available in San Francisco, CurbTXT hopes that communities will adopt the idea and begin looking after each others’ cars. Is this an idea that could spread around the globe?

    Search engine for GIFS

  • Giphy – A search engine for GIFs, in this case funny cats – since that’s what holds the Internet together.
  • Thread – the he ultimate Caller ID App for Android.

    Replaces your existing Caller ID with a customized screen that shows you not only who is calling you, but also that person’s latest Twitter and Facebook posts, and your most recent text and emails with that person. When you answer a call that information is still visible, allowing you to reference an email, tweet, or post quickly while chatting. iOS version in the works. Promo Video.

    Coffivity

  • Coffivity –  Moderate ambient noise has been proven to boost creativity, so you sign in here and get ambient coffee shop noise. Great for when you don’t really want to work alone but there’s no coffee shop nearby. I’ve been keeping it on as background all day. Very energizing!