1. Magic Seaweed
This is almost always the first site I open in the morning. If you are a surfer or a paddler, you already know about Magic Seaweed – your one stop shop for surf reports, forecasts, and webcams for spots around the globe.
2. Wikipedia
C’mon, how useful is Wikipedia!? More than 77,000 active contributors working on over 22,000,000 articles in 285 languages! Pretty awesome stuff. Find out more here.
3. Hootsuite
Hootsuite is the leading social media management system. It handles multiple social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, and even lets you post directly to multiple Facebook Pages at once, and from any device. I can schedule posts or tweets in advance, and it links directly to my WordPress blog. Hootsuite FTW!
4. Pulse
I read a lot of blogs and Pulse helps me keep track of them all in one place. It takes your favorite websites and RSS feeds and transforms them into a colorful and interactive mosaic, complete with versatile sharing functionality. It also comes with a great free iPhone & iPad app that syncs the three seamlessly.
5. YouTube
For every minute that passes in real-time, 60 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube! That’s five months of video every hour. 10 years of video every day. And it ain’t slowing down. I mean who doesn’t enjoy watching random clips of people hurting themselves or babies laughing hysterically? I certainly do!
6. Training Peaks
I like to track things. I have a Garmin watch that tracks my heart rate, calories, and distance when exercising. I track my sleep quality using an iPhone app. I even track my weight & body fat using the Withings scale. The beauty about Training Peaks, is that it seamlessly collects all this data into one place, with graphs, maps and reports so I can always see exactly how I’m doing at any time.
7. FNB
By far the best and most innovative bank in South Africa, FNB are always looking at ways to make banking “simpler, better, and faster” (sorry Standard Bank!). Their online experience, together with their iPhone app, is great. If you haven’t yet switched, do it now.
8. Kiva
Kiva is a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty. Leveraging the internet and a worldwide network of micro-finance institutions, Kiva lets you lend as little as $25 to help create opportunity around the world. My wife & I have been lending for years now, and it has been a rewarding and thrilling experience. Learn more about how it works.
9. Facebook
I had to put this one in because I, along with ONE BILLION others, use it every day. Even my ninety-year old gran is on Facebook! Need I say more?
10. Slavery Footprint
There are 27 million slaves in the world today. They’re working for me. And they’re working for you too. That smart phone. That T-shirt, computer, cup of coffee… That’s all stuff we buy, and that’s all stuff that comes from slaves. Slavery Footprint creates awareness about this very real issue, and have made massive strides in working directly with businesses and government to eradicate slavery from the products we love. How many slaves work for you? Find out here.
11. SuperBru
SuperBru is a free social sports prediction game. A bunch of my mates always use it to bet on the Super 15 Rugby, or various other tournaments, and it’s always a good laugh! There’s no money involved, just PRIDE – which is much more important of course.
12. Legal Sounds
Legit cheap mp3 downloads or dodgy Russian loophole? Not really sure, but they have a great music selection, and it’s really really cheap compared to iTunes.
