We've been seeing an increase in professional-grade apps recently: and myPantone is one for those in the visual industries. Apps for professionals tend to be pricier - this is £5.99 on iTunes but does offer some niche high-end functionality and immediate access to their vast colour library.

An update to the iPhone app now out brings CMYK compatibility and colour bridges and the new Android version has just been released for £5.

Acting like a virtual colour studio, pocket-sized of course, it lets you send people exact colour samples, browse the colour library of 80,000 shades and match up colours.

It will also grade harmionous palettes together for you - nice!

£5.99 n iTunes
£5 on Android AppStore

Content. It's the lifeblood of the Internet. It's what we all come here for usually. That and chatting to our chums.

There are more content aggregrators on the web than there are pictures of girls in various states of undress. That's probably not true, we're emphasising for effect. There are a lot though.

But are they good for the Internet? More importantly are they good for content? Do they drive content producers to write posts built to a formula that appeals to them?

Such is their power in terms of the shere traffic they can point towards websites many blogs and large news co-operations find it hard not to pander to them.

So we've decided to compare seven of the biggest content aggregators and content sharing networks out there.

Name: Digg
Founded: 2004
How it works: Digg features content submitted by users into different sections. There is a frontpage featuring latest stories and separate sections for different types of stories. If you like a story you digg it which adds to the digg counter -- but you probably knew that. The average user joins and checks in a few times a week to see what's popular. Others start to follow users whose submissions they like.
Pros: The biggest user generated content sharing network on the web. A wonderful spread of content. Engaged and generally intelligent users.
Cons: Attracts formulaic content. Power diggers hold too much control. Users not renown for their collective sense of humour.
Conclusion: A wonderfully well-implemented platform. With great supplementary options such as the ubiquitous Digg button and Twitter feeds. The qualms over power diggers are founded, but the content they submit can only be truly successful when normal diggers pick up their stories.

Name: Reddit
Founded: 2005
How it works: Unlike Digg stories are more prone to going up and down. You can bury stories in Digg but the option to vote a story down on Reddit is far more pronounced and actually far more part of the process. Unlike Digg stories tend to be more serious and are often political. User generated one-joke images are also pretty common. The readership are a learned lot; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say Reddit is probably the most intelligent user-base of any content sharing site.
Pros: Power users don't hold the same sway. Users have a sense of humour. Good spread of content.
Cons: Comments can be a bit ranty, very ranty in fact. The interface is charming but really a bit rubbish.
Conclusion: Reddit's real strength is it's user base. Unpolished would be the kindest way to describe the site itself, but it's really worth bearing with for the multitude of content you'd have never come across otherwise.

Name: Buzzfeed
Founded: 2006
How it works: You submit content, usually pictures or video, they can contain links to fuller articles. Buzzfeed isn't a content sharing network in the purest sense of the idea. It combines a viral-snapshot mechanism and user generated content, to produce a snapshot of the viral internet. Basically it's more of a collaborative blog, where users vote up and down posts. Buzzfeed's level of interaction with each post is unparralled. You have the option to give a one word response which amounts to a vote, you can love or hate a post or you can reply with a comment or picture. Their is also a wierd Viral League thing where you predict what's going to go viral. Inbetween the posts are partner posts from a host of the internet's best sites and blogs.
Pros: Amazing design, a nice tongue in cheek slightly ironic outlook, plethora of interaction options.
Cons: Not really a content sharing site, difficult to get a popular post, generally spurious content.
Conclusion: If you don't take this site too seriously you'll really enjoy it, don't consider it a means to get bucket loads of traffic to your site like Digg and Reddit, but if you can get onto their partners list you'll be golden.

Name: Stumbleupon
Founded: 2001
How it works: Sign up, tell them what you like, and start stumbling. It's that simple really. Depending on what you like, you'll be landing on sites that people with similar interests to you like. Stumbleupon builds up a profile of you and shows you stuff you're more likely to like, like. It's really simple, but the mechanism for getting content featured is difficult it's all about social suggestions.
Pros: Genius idea that feels like you're channel hopping on the Internet, probably the broadest range of content on the web.
Cons: Convilluted submission procedure, difficult to make chums, lots of sites can be one click wonders.
Conclusion: A nicely implemented idea that would only be better if it's sharing mechanism was better.

Name: I-am-bored
Founded: 2003
How it works: You can submit, pictures, videos or links. You can sign up to their partners list and depending how many hits you send their way they'll put some of your content, or links to it, in their main stream. You won't believe the the sheer amount of traffic it wields. Get a link up there and your Google Analytics might prolapse.
Pros: Hilarious mix of content, surprisingly intelligent user-base contributing consistently hilarious comments, no such thing as power users.
Cons: Seems like there is no rhyme or reason to link backs, the UI is crap.
Conclusion: If you like your comedy pretty dark, and let's face it, you probably do, this site is for you. Again not really a content sharing site in the purest sense of the word, they want a lot from you before they give you anything back -- but you know, that's just life.

Name: Google News
Founded:
How it works: The Google news aggregator is a shady mechanism that Google uses to funnel traffic to certain, usually mainstream, new sources. About 60% of users will just go straight for the top link, the rest will look at all the options of the story and pick a source or headline they like the look of.
Pros: The shere breadth of content and options, nice simple design, no discernable bias.
Cons: Tends to favour the larger media producers (though they can't be blamed for this as it is part of the mechanism)
Conclusion: The best news aggregator going. But Google's presence in this market brings up more questions about their broader role with regard to the Internet.

Meet the web service that wants to become your new extra brain. Like a long personal blog - or perhaps a memory... it stores all the random shit you come across in real life or on the internet and lets you remember it.

Then search for it later.

Evernote wants to help you organise your life.

"We're trying to make an external brain," the CEO of Evernote tells Robert Scoble "- your one brain is just not enough these days - too much to remember. Whenever something happens that you want to remember, online or in the real world, you'll be able to relax because you can remember it."

With those words echoing in my ears, and fellow iphoners exclaiming that evernote was their new best friend and god-how-did-they-organise-their-lives-without-it, I tried it, expecting a revelation and immediately got a bit fed up.

Of course like anything else you have to sit down, set it up and keep coming back to it for it to get useful. You don't need an extra brain to work this extra brain, you just need about an hour and several video tutorials. And as several of our Twitter friends mention below: you then need to remember to use it.

Follow on after the jump

To say that Google runs the biggest most successful search engine on the world wide web is so obvious it's slightly ridiculous, so when Microsoft launched its search engine Bing I didn't really envisage myself using it beyond the odd curious poke-around.

But having Binged (Bung?) for a few months now, I'm going to recommend Bing for anyone interested in visuals and graphics. It's not just that the wallpapers on its home page are pretty pictures of seahorses and rainforests, it's that the image and video searches are genuinely better.

Apparently several Bing functions are only available in the US, but we'll compare the mutilated version we've got with Google in a quick run-down of key services.

Follow on after the jump

Hotel hunting has just been made less dull. Searching for a hotel to keep you cosy on your next holiday shouldn't have to be a boring monotonous task. That's exactly what Hotels.com had in mind when they created a personalised search tool, designed to find your ideal hotel based a series of pictures you want your hotel and holiday to encompass. Who knew the use of pictures summing up different experiences could make searching for a hotel so much fun.

Find out more after the jump...

Personally, I haven't sanded anything since Year 9 Design & Technology, when I was forced to make a spice rack. However, if by some miracle I did decide to embrace DIY over and above BAI (Buy At Ikea) I would totally go for the Hello Kitty sander.

Most of the time you don't actually need a full-fledged power drill to screw up... your pictures, say. So Handy Mandy! put together a nice little creamy purple electric multi-tool and drill set with a nice range of drill bits and sockets. Includes a 6 volt charger to keep your juices flowing, and a light so you can actually see what you're doing in back of the fridge. Seriously, at £4, unless it's total crap you can't go wrong. Unless you hate purple. [Camille]

Handy Mandy! Electric Multi-Tool and Drill set in Purple [via GirlyGeekdom]

More tools

My requests for additives in my tea and/or coffee are pretty consistent (some kind of vile bean-derived substitute for milk, two sugars) so I don't know f I'd actually need the MyCuppa from SuckUK, but I appreciate a good tool that makes life that little bit easier. In this case, it indicates exactly how much milk to put in one's coffee based on tints painted on the inside of the cup - and while there are probably high-tech alternatives to this it's probably cheaper and more reliable. There's also one for tea, but tea comes in so many different colours that it seems doomed. (Doomed, I tell you, doomed.) [Camille]

MyCuppa from SuckUK [via UberReview]

More tools

Seriously, who wouldn't want to hang a booger around their neck, if it was as spiffy as this Wharncliffe Booger keychain tool knife? Or would you prefer a Hexbaby always by your side to enable those nasty hexes to be clean as you please? Atwood Knife and Tool produces an excellent range of super-hard, super-sharp, super-small gewgaws for your keychain that'll make sure you've got the right sharp, prybar or whistle to cut, dig up or sound the alarm at a second's notice. All developed by the one-man band that is Peter Atwood. Video after the jump. [Camille]

Atwood Knife and Tool [via Gadget Lab]

There's nothing quite as satisfying as the right tool for the job, and the Multi Meter with spirit level and laser is a tool that'll find jobs for you to do - it finds everything else! Able to locate hidden power cables (and whether there are breaks in said cables), test diodes-fuses-capacitors-heating-elements-and-light-bulbs, it can also test polarity on two cable AC lines and locate hidden metal objects like nails. Then it also has a spirit level and a laser level, and lasers that are actually useful are paradoxically the most fun (who doesn't want to brandish their tool importantly and tell people they have important laser business?). Also includes an LED torch. £20. [GT]

Multi Meter with spirit level and laser [via Red Ferret]

More tools

As someone who isn't in proud possession of fine bathroom sealant, I find this powercaulk sealant gun very attractive in a 'coo, tools, must get and wield' way. Especially as its makers Black & Decker say even a novice can do a professional job with this gun. It has a consistent flow of caulk, a non drip tip and two speeds of application. Powered by four AA batteries - £29.99

Black and Decker website

Related: Kirsty Allsop's tool kit I Magnagrip tool wristband I More tools

This is not the latest in S&M wear, um, that I know of. (Actually, it probably is.) It's the latest in high tech bike lock gear. MasterLock has replaced that nasty chain you had to tie your scooter with, with a simple design based on (you guessed it) handcuffs. Weighing only four pounds, if your vehicle gets stolen by force or breakage of the MasterLock, they'll buy you a new one. [GT]

MasterLock Street Cuffs [via Spungle]

More tools

An Introduction to Screwdrivers: For those who have never come across one before, allow me to introduce you to screwdrivers. Screwdrivers are useful in many situations. Both men and women may find many applications for screwdrivers. Uses include assembling furniture, fitting electrical plugs, fixing broken items and many further applications. Since screws come in many different sizes, a good screwdriver will possess interchangeable heads in order to enable the aforementioned screwdriver to be used to screw screws of different sizes.

For a female beginner in the use of screwdrivers, the Flower Power screwdriver is recommended. Its floral 'English Rose' design will make it appear familiar and perhaps remind you of your tea towel, china cup or other reassuringly well-known household items, thus rendering the frightening experience of wielding a screwdriver less traumatic. I bid you good luck in your screwdriving experiences.

Product Page, £6.95
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Now, as an avid reader of Shiny Shiny, you must agree we tend to feature quite a bit of the ol' pink gadgetry, which is all fine and dandy... Until one of these gets made. Read on for the Top 5 Most Ridiculous Pink Gadgets, EVAH!!1!! to have appeared on this blog. I recommend dousing your eyes with something strong afterwards, like petrol or maybe Drakkar Noir, that'll get rid of those ghastly images.

1.) Portable grill from Pink Princess - ok, firstly, whoever buys a coloured grill these days?! They always get hideously deformed due to the splattered oil and grease, I thought people tended towards black these days. Plus, not to sound like a traitor to sisterhood, but isn't that the man's job? They love standing around holding a beer and tongs, looking just like Homer Simpson, right? Maybe I'm hanging out with the wrong kind of men...

2.) The Little Pink Tool Kit by The Tool Kit People - When asked awhile back in a Yay or Nay Wedneday feature, most of you hated the numerous condescending pink toolkits available, citing badly made tools and little dinky sizes. However, they're still being churned out - when will these companies ever learn?

Kirsty Allsop is a marvel, isn't she. Her slightly dodgy taste in stockings never detracts from her work in TV finding houses for us plebs, or indeed in creating useful kits that are as cute as they are handy. Her latest venture is to team up with Sebastian Conran to create tool kits in kitsch 1930's style book boxes. The starter tool kit pictured here contains a claw hammer, pliers, screwdriver, spanner, fuses, radiator bleed key, tape measure, torch, screws, hooks and a 'How to..' guide, all for £32.49. Other kits include a picture hanging kit.

Product page

Related: Everyday tool kit in pink or blue|Another pink tool kit for handy women|Swiss card - compact tools

Yes, your prayers have been answered - it is possible to get a tool kit that comes in blue as well as the ubiquitous pretty pink. And this one has a fairly mammoth pack of 51 tools including hammer, screw bits, allen keys, spirit level, stanley knife and protective gear. The bag leaves a lot to be desired. it's neither chic nor particularly pretty, in fact, it could just be your granny's shopping bag.

Product page

Related: Another Pink Toolkit for Handy Women I Pink Glovebox Toolkit I Joanne Wood Tools and Tool Box

I know it's another girly tool kit but it's not pink! Instead it's four useful and very flowery tools that you're bound to need every now and again. The kit contains hammer, pliers, screwdriver and measuring tape and come in a purple satin bag. Would make a cute stocking filler or moving in present? Patterns vary - £39

Product page (go to 'Gift' section)

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Seeing as you don't seem particularly offended by pink tools (unless they are rubbish - fair point), I'm going to risk posting about another tool kit in that omnipresent colour. This tool kit contains 27 tools including ratchet, torch, screwdrivers, allen keys, pliers, ratchet heads and a variety of Phillips attachments in a grey and pink canvas case. It could have benefitted from a hammer but you can't have everything - £14.99

Product page

More tools on Shiny Shiny

Dropping nails, screws and tools when you're in the midst of a job is a pain and can bring the project to a yawning halt whilst you go in search of more. Practical types keep their things in tool boxes but gadgety types wear a magnagrip wristband. As you can possibly guess from it's name, it's magnetic and although lightweight, apparently strong enough to hold a hammer (how do you lose that?) They also say it expands to fit all sizes and I hope that means it's small enough to fit narrower wrists too - $15.95

Product page

Related: Micro-Plus MicroTool - eight tools in one I Gofer X Electric Screwdriver I Real Tools for Real Women

This tool resembles a transformer toy crossed with an archaic dental instrument. Don't let that put you off though. It has eight tools integrated within it - a Phillips and flat screwdriver, precision pliers, wire cutters, wire strippers and sheet shearers with ruler. Plus at 39g, it's light enough to fit on your key ring if you really, really wanted to. Guaranteed for life - £10.99

Product page

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