Web Nectar: September 2007

Delegating: The Case for Personal Outsourcing

Does the thought of hiring a virtual personal assistant in Bangladesh for 5 bucks an hour make your skin crawl? Entrepreneur Ryan Norbauer explains how he got over his hang-ups and got super-productive with hired help. He writes:

What is the part of your work (whether personal or professional) that only you can do? And what if you could somehow force yourself to do only that work? In my case, doing precisely this with the help of outsourcing has radically improved my effectiveness.

I've essentially cut out steps 1-7 of my daily routine above, so I'm freed to focus exclusively on what was previously just a bonus &mdash even though it was actually my most important work.

As someone still stuck in the "outsourcing? icky!" stage, Norbauer's article is a great take on why hiring help can help you bypass busywork and focus on your big picture. What's your take on personal outsourcing? Let it rip in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Change Your PC's Registered Owner in Windows

When you've inherited someone else's PC and want to make it your own, you can change the registered owner's name in the Windows Registry. The How-To Geek runs down the steps; in a nutshell, using the registry editor (Start->Run->regedit.exe to get there), change the RegisteredOwner key value located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion. As always, back up your registry before making changes, just in case.

[via] Lifehacker

Featured Windows Download: Compress and Extract File Archives with jZip

Windows only: Freeware application jZip, based on 7-Zip technology, creates and extracts archives with a click of a button. jZip supports RAR, TAR, ZIP, G-Zip, and other archive formats. Additionally, files can be encrypted with a passphrase for added security, and heavy archivers might find the shell integration feature handy.

Archiving and extracting is a breeze with jZip, and I was able to create a 360MB ZIP file in less than a minute. jZip also sports an interesting feature: the ability to view any file within an open archive with a desired application, such as WordPad for TXT files, for example. jZip is a free download for Windows only.

[via] Lifehacker

Ask The Readers: What's Your Best "Advanced Common Sense"?

Getting Things Done author David Allen calls any kind of productivity trick or system "advanced common sense"—using the smart part of your brain to help out the dumb part in its most feeble moments. The Getting Things Done weblog lists some of its best "advanced common sense," like writing things down, ubiquitous capture and setting up to-do's in their right contexts. For me, hanging up the car keys on the keyrack is the advanced common sense that keeps my dumb future self from running around the house looking for them when it's time to go.

Some other pieces of "advanced common sense":

Keeping pen and paper available in every room of the house and in the car to write stuff down easily
That extra $20 bill in a secret hidden wallet compartment
SMS reminders that it's time to leave or that the weekly meeting's starting in 20 minutes or that it's Mom's birthday

What about you? What are the best bits of advanced common sense that keep you on track during the day? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Interviews: The Globe and Mail interviews us for an article ...

The Globe and Mail interviews us for an article on the productivity media boom, in an article called Too busy organizing to be productive. Here's the full interview transcript.

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Make Better Coffee

This morning's cuppa joe a big letdown? Self-described "coffee snob" Brett Kelly says you can make a fabulous cup of coffee for a reasonable price yourself. Kelly's nuts about making his coffee—the guy uses bottled water and roasts his own beans, people—but he makes a great case for home roasting and grinding. How do you perfect your coffee? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Mac Tip: Turn Your Mac into a DVR

Mac only: Start watching, recording and burning live television to disc on your Mac with the right hardware and software. A USB TV tuner (like the $150 EyeTV tuner), Roxio's Toast Titanium ($100) and a big hard drive will get you started. Record shows with the EyeTV software which will transfer them to your iPod automatically and export to Toast for optional disc-burning. Macworld has the details. Anyone out there using their Mac to get their TV fix? Tell us about it in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Turn a Paper Clip into a Safety Pin

There's never a safety pin around when you need one, but in most offices, there are plenty of paper clips. Turn that paper clip into a safety pin with a pair of pliers and some ingenuity. DIYer ISR RAVIV demonstrates how in the video above. The end result isn't the perfect safety pin, as paper clips are thicker (and probably less comfortable if worn for prolonged periods of time), but if you need a backup in case of emergency, this hack should do the trick.

[via] Lifehacker

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Ways to Put Your Remote Server to Good Use

An always-on server can come in all kinds of handy for running automated tasks, syncing your data, remote controlling downloads and acting as a proxy. Lot of us have access to a remote computer—if not a hand-rolled home server, most Lifehacker readers said they couldn't live without their hosted web space—but most of us probably aren't getting everything we can out of it. Check out our top 10 ways to put your remote server to best use.

What's your favorite use for your remote server? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

From The 'Duh' Files: Computer thief unknowingly uploads Photo ...

Computer thief unknowingly uploads Photo Booth images to Flickr thanks to the FlickrBooth plug-in. Looks like there's more than one way to turn your iSight into a security camera.

[via] Lifehacker

Featured Windows Download: Track Price Guarantee Refunds with Amazon Price Watch

Windows only: Track your latest Amazon purchases for price drops qualifying for their 30-day price guarantee or just watch your wish list for price drops or availability with freeware application Amazon Price Watch. After you've installed the application, Amazon Price Watch can automatically track any item you add to your cart or wish list. That means that as soon as you click the add to cart or add to wish list links at Amazon, Price Watch will prompt you and ask if you want to watch for price changes. Then the application will track the price for 30 days and alert you via email if and when there's a price drop (or change in availability, Wii hunters). Amazon Price Watch is freeware, Windows only, works with Internet Explorer only (bummer). For web-based price protection at a variety of online stores, check out Price Protectr

[via] Lifehacker

MacGyver Tip: Make a DIY Portable Stove

If you've got the DIY outdoors-y bug, you can make your own portable miniature stove using two aluminum cans, sandpaper, a thumb tack, razor blade, coat hanger, fiber glass, and Heet (I'm sure that's all just sitting in your go bag, right?). It's a very cool project, but if you undertake it, make sure you proceed with caution. Lifehacker prefers its readers keep their eyebrows. If you've got less goodies on hand but still need a fire, check out these alternatives.

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Get Your Boss's Job

If the next rung on your corporate ladder belongs to your boss, you're probably not going to get promoted until your boss does, and Wired's How To Wiki details how to secure this kind of promotion. In a nutshell, it's a two-step process: 1) Learn your boss's job, and 2) Train your replacement. If you give your boss the opportunity to look good by helping him/her do a better job, your boss is more likely to get a promotion, which frees up your prospective job. If you've already been grooming a replacement, who better to slip into your boss's position than you? If you've ever successfully secured your boss's job using a similar or completely different method, tell us about it in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Windows Tip: Restore the Run Command to the Vista Start Menu

Restore the trusty Run command to your Windows Vista Start menu with the simple step-by-step instructions at weblog IntelliAdmin. Just right-click your Start menu and click Properties. Then go to the Start menu tab, click Customize, and tick the checkbox next to Run command. Your reliable Run command will return to your Start menu where you've come to know and expect it. Then again, you can always get to the Run prompt with the ever-useful Windows-R keyboard shortcut.

[via] Lifehacker

Featured Windows Download: Monitor and Automatically Upload a Folder's Photos to Flickr with Foldr Monitr

Windows only: Freeware application Foldr Monitr watches any user-defined folder and automatically uploads any new photos to your Flickr account. After installing the program and authenticating with Flickr, just select the folder you want to monitor and that's that. If you've set Foldr Monitr to start with Windows and point it to your main photo folder, the app will automatically back up all of your new pics to Flickr as soon as they hit your hard drive. I hacked together a similar solution for automatic folder monitoring and uploading to Flickr that works across platforms, but this freeware, Windows-only solution brings a much friendlier user interface and many more advanced options to the process.

[via] Lifehacker

Clever Uses: Clean Inkjet Printer Cartridges with WD-40

Dried ink on printer cartridges can render your expensive ink unusable, but blogger Bucky decided not to toss the cartridges out and instead soaked the base of the cartridge in WD-40. The result: a cartridge that works again.

I got a brain-storm of an idea the other day and decided to try soaking the base of the cartridge in WD-40 to see if it would soften and clean the dried ink and holy crap - it worked!!! (I soaked it over-night and then wiped it off good before reinstalling it in the printer.)

I had to run the printer through three head cleaning cycles afterward, but it cleared the clogged nozzles and it is now working perfectly.

Since printer cartridges are rather expensive, this tip should help save you money while helping you get the most out of your ink. Thanks, Lacy!

[via] Lifehacker

It All Comes Together: Desktop Show and Tell Roundup

We love looking at your killer desktops, and after three weeks of saucy submissions we're convinced that Lifehacker readers definitely know how to put together an excellent desktop environment. If you happened to miss any of our Desktop Show and Tell series—whether it was the Windows, Mac, or Linux version—hit the jump for an all-in-one roundup of the best submissions we received at Lifehacker HQ.

Desktop Show and Tell: Mac

Keep your eyes open tomorrow for your fellow readers' must-have system tray applications in our System Tray Show and Tell.

[via] Lifehacker

Stats Feed: Today's most popular headlines are Top 10 ...

Today's most popular headlines are Top 10 Ways to Put Your Remote Server to Good Use (18,578 views today), Turn Your Mac into a DVR (6,406) and Make Better Coffee (5,408).

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Build a Workbench on the Cheap

DIYer Bruce Maki describes how to create a simple but sturdy workbench for less than $20. For this project, you'll need a few 2x4s, Oriented Strand Board, and deck screws. Size can vary depending on your personal preference. The end result: a workbench that can handle your weight and then some.

[via] Lifehacker

Life Coaching: Fundamentals for Personal Growth

Personal growth blogger Peter says that before we get overly ambitious, we should apply some basic rules to our daily living. We can improve our outlook on life by defining our successes, having a positive attitude, and by getting a grasp on our health, wealth, and relationships. Here are a few of my favorite tidbits:

An open mind: some of our beliefs and actions are so ingrained that we automatically disregard any evidence that we should think or act otherwise. Keep an open mind, and you may just come across a better way of seeing or doing things.

Gratitude: instead of focusing on what you don't have, try appreciating what you do have. If you are reading this, chances are you are better off than the vast majority of the world's population.

Now these are definitely goals I'd aspire to. Readers, what drives your happiness?

[via] Lifehacker

GYM Wars: In an attempt to catch up to Google, Microsoft ...

In an attempt to catch up to Google, Microsoft will be rolling out improvements to their Live.com web search engine over the coming weeks.

[via] Lifehacker

Search Engines: Smplr Web Search

Search page Smplr is a web search command line tool. Using one input box, enter your query, prefaced by a snippet that directs the search to a particular site—very similar to the much-celebrated (and much more configurable) YubNub. For example, film:Dragon Wars will search IMDB, bt:Ubuntu will search the Pirate Bay, and terms without a prefix will search Google by default.

Here's a full list of supported search prefixes in Smplr:

go:(open a supplied url)

news:(google news)

wiki:(wikipedia)

film:(imdb)

tv:(epguide)

mmm:(recipes)

ebay:(ebay)

buy:(pricegrabber)

[anything] is a Google search

Smplr supports as-you-type suggestions for vanilla Google searches, and a nice selection of skins on the top right of the page. Of course you can set up any number of quick searches from your Firefox toolbar, but that solution's not as pretty as Smplr. Thanks, Ian!

[via] Lifehacker

TV: Schedule Your Television Time with CAT Calendar for TV

Don't want to miss the season premiere of your favorite TV series this week? Check out web site CAT (Calendar for TV), which lists primetime shows on a monthly calendar, with premieres marked in orange and handy rollover episode synopses. Adjust your timezone, and choose a printer-friendly style to print it out, too. Seeing as how the previously mentioned EvokeTV is now MIA, this looks like a handy lookup to plan your primetime evening while you're still stuck at the office. (Grey's Anatomy premieres tonight. Squee!) How are you keeping on top of your TV this season? Let us know in the comments. Thanks, Sam!

[via] Lifehacker

In Brief: A recent survey shows that being friends ...

A recent survey shows that being friends with your coworkers can help you get more done at the office: "Employees who have buddies at work are more eager to come to the office and enjoy their workday, which translates to higher productivity."

[via] Lifehacker

Single Inbox: Manage All Your Social Networks via Email

PR guy Steve Rubel uses his Gmail account to interact with all his favorite social networking apps (like Twitter and Facebook.) Using email settings and some feed trickery, Rubel doesn't have to go to those sites to get or post updates—it all happens in his inbox. The other day we posted about Fuser, the single inbox for your social networking messages, but Rubel's method uses the inbox you're already in every day to manage your online presence.

[via] Lifehacker

Utilities: Automatically Refresh Any Web Page with Page Reboot

Keep an eye on that eBay auction in its closing minutes automatically with Page Reboot, a web service that refreshes a given web site every 30 seconds (or any interval you set). Similar to the ReloadEvery Firefox extension, drop the URL into Page Reboot's refresh box, set the refresh interval (in seconds) and go. A bookmarklet version is also available.

[via] Lifehacker

Getting Things Done: David Allen and His "Cult" of GTD

Wired magazine profiles productivity guru David Allen and offers a good summary of his Getting Things Done system, its history, and some great quotes from The David. First, for folks who say GTD is too complex:

[Allen] realizes that his system can be difficult and that he's often accused of going overboard with elaborate schemes. He responds with a shrug. "Look, the workings of an automatic transmission are more complicated than a manual transmission," he says. "To simplify a complex event, you need a complex system."

The people willing to take on that complex system? They're the ones who know they need help and are trying to improve.

The book is for people who are striving hard. "The people who take to GTD are the most organized people," Allen says, "but they self-assess as the least organized, because they are well-enough organized to know that they are fucking up."

Hear hear.

[via] Lifehacker

Hive Mind: Ask MetaFilter Roundup

[via] Lifehacker

Screenshot Tour: System Tray Show and Tell

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Ah the system tray. It's that little corner of screen real estate that holds all of your must-have, always-on utilities. They're generally not the sexiest apps you're running on your system, but to many of us, our favorites would be impossible to live without. Today we're looking at the system tray applications your fellow readers use on every day to get things done.

As you can see below, our whole gallery thumbnail system isn't quite ideal for the generally thin system tray images, so sorry about that. Despite the funky thumbnails, a lot of our submissions are still boasting some great systray apps and utilities, so check 'em out.

I've got to say that I was thrilled to see so many readers using Texter.
Saw some very cool clocks.
Several last.fm lovers.
Lots of you like Taskbar Shuffle.
I really loved this system tray skin.
And last, one completely naked system tray.

And that's that. Thanks to everyone who submitted! If you find a particularly cool system tray app in this thread that you haven't seen before, please feel free to call it out in the comments. I'd also love you to hear one or two of your absolute favorite, gotta-have system tray apps, so why don't you give us that in the comments, too.

[via] Lifehacker

Celebrity Workspace: Tina Fey Organizes with Post-Its

And uses a Mac! But she seems to be losing the war against clutter.

(Photo from an American Express ad.) See also: attack of the piles in Al Gore's home office.

[via] Lifehacker

Kompoz- Social networking musician style

Kompoz is a site designed to allow musicians to compose music with other musicians around the world. Have a sweet melody but can't come up with song lyrics? Searching for a song you can add your own drum magic to? Kompoz is the place. The site allows you to upload what you have of a song, and then allow others on the site to add things to it. You can also search through songs on the site and add your own special touch to the songs that you find. Kompoz currently has musicians registered from over 60 countries and 24 different time zones, so you have the opportunity to collaborate with a truly diverse group of people.

Each song has its own page where you can see each version of the song that has been uploaded as well as who had added what to the track to make it what it the song it is today. Each song also has a discussion board attached where you can talk with other people on how the project is going. Once your project reaches its final stages it can also be added to Kompoz Radio a podcast featuring songs created on the site. You can also embed a player on your personal website that shows all of the different versions of your song. Believe it or not, the site actually has some pretty good songs out there now. Even if you're not a musician yourself it can be interesting to the original drum track that was uploaded to the site, and then hear the song a dozen different people managed turn it into.

[via EmilyChang]

[via] Download Squad

Facebook IM launching soon

Get ready for a whole new Facebook. Instant Messaging is getting set to find a home in the ever expanding, bulging at the seams social network.

Just when you thought that all that news about Facebook's valuation, the developer grants, and the possible Microsoft investment was enough to raise the roof on their worth, we hear news that the site is launching an IM client.. A new Facebook IM is set to go into Beta this Friday and will take on the likes of MSN, AIM, Google Talk, and Yahoo. We would imagine that this could not be used as a standalone application, and would work inline with Facebook profiles. Sam Sethi has received an early look at the beta, and enjoys the fact that there is no download or install necessary. But will it replace your standard IM?

With Yahoo! and MSN being somewhat locked down in their protocols, we are sure that things will change as the Facebook IM becomes the new in "instant messaging application". But for now, it looks like only chatting between Facebook friends is possible.

UPDATE: The Facebook IM application FriendVox, is rumored to be in development by a third party called Techlightenment, who specialize in Facebook application development.

[via] Download Squad

Making P2P pay: Grooveshark review

Grooveshark is a radical new service that attempts to fuse community services and P2P music file sharing with a product that will motivate users to share music files and simultaneously accrue credits towards music purchases from the process. Subscribing to Grooveshark turns your own personal library of music into a music store available to family, friends and any other passing consumers that you can draw in. The service is an ambitious attempt to commercialize a P2P distribution distribution with social networking model of distribution.

Grooveshark requires the user to download a Java app that interfaces between the Web service and your library of tunes. The site operates like a music laundering service, no questions are asked as to where the tracks came from, but when one of your contacts chooses to download the track from your computer, Grooveshark will bill your contact for the full cost of the track and then pay a share of the money to the label and credit a portion to your account against future purchases.

Continue reading Making P2P pay: Grooveshark review

[via] Download Squad

TruPhone demonstrates VoIP-over-WiFi on iPhone

iPhone TruPhone, the UK-based creator of VoIP least-cost routing tools for cell phones, is demonstrating the first implementation of VoIP calling over WiFi on Apple's iPhone. The demonstration is occuring at DEMOFall in San Diego. The solution uses the SIP protocol, so TruPhone users can call each other from the iPhone, or call the outside world using SIP or the public telephone network. This will allow TruPhone users to reach Gizmo Project users, for example.

This announcement is significant as VoIP calling from the iPhone was previously not possible, even with Apple's own iChat (which on Mac desktops enables VoIP chat. So TruPhone's offering will satisfy an enormous demand and increase the value of the iPhone's WiFi hardware dramatically.

UPDATE: Andy Abramson has video of TruPhone running on the iPhone.

[via] Download Squad

Google Video Alerts

Google Alerts is a handy service that allows you to get emails for the latest relevant Google results that hit the web or news based on the query of your choice. It's extremely handy when you're trying to stay on top of a subject and want every piece of related news to hit your inbox.

Text is one thing, but what about online video? It is a major part of our lives now. Well, Google has added 'video' to the Alerts dropdown. Allowing users to grab notifications for videos as they happen. As with standard news alerts, videos come from a variety of sources, but and are served with a Google Video frame.

The Google Alerts service is still in Beta format. Users can also choose to receive alerts in HTML format, or plain text to save on data if you choose to grab these alerts with a handheld wherever you are.

[via] Download Squad

Google Gmail hijacking

Your open Gmail account could be in severe jeopardy, thanks to a malicious script that initiates itself when a website is viewed,

The tables have turned from hacking your computer, to hacking your virtually stored information. Supposedly hackers are not seeing the benefits of attacking your protected and firewalled computer these days, and are much happier to go after hacking Web 2.0 API's. Such is the case in a recent exposure of a critical process that executes a filter looking for specific incoming emails, sending them to another email address for snooping and prying. The filter would be in place until the Gmail account owner deletes it from the Settings>Filter menu.

Gnucitizen broke the news on this, and it has been verified by a few sources. He is not planning on demonstrating this process, or releasing more details on findings until Google has fixed this concern. He is also urging that others do not expose anything until they have notified Google and a fix is implemented. But does say that the hacks are out in the open for anyone searching Yahoo or Google.

[via] Download Squad

10 ways MySpace can (and needs to) improve

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[via] Download Squad

Microsoft gets set to launch new Live.com Search interface

Microsoft is headed towards the rollout of a new Live.com search today, including a brand spankin' new interface.

There will be a gathering in Mountain View at the Microsoft campus for industry insiders to get a glimpse at Microsoft's latest search interface and redesign today. The new redesign will see a refreshing look for the search interface taking cues from both Ask and Google Universal Search. MSN Shopping will also get tied into the search results for consumer product results, making for an all around better user experience.

Akram Hussein, a Windows Live Platform Program Manager caught a glimpse of the new look while on his home PC, and managed to snap a few shots of the cleaned up design. He has since pulled down the post with images from his website but we did manage to get copies and have compared them with the current Live.com search results. We will have to wait and see what else is truly unveiled as all information from the meeting will be under an embargo for later this evening.

In more MSN news, there is also talk of MSN Video adding instant start and less intrusive ads in video content.

UPDATE: Microsoft's press release on the new updated Live Search Engine.

Gallery: Microsoft gets set to launch new Live.com Search interface

[via marketingpilgrim]

[via] Download Squad

RealNetworks buys casual gaming site GameTrust

It looks like RealNetworks is expanding its online video game holdings. PaidContent reports that the company best known for its audio and video player is buying Gametrust for under $50 million.

This doesn't mean RealNetworks plans to release the next Halo. Gametrust focuses on casual gaming. You know, the sort of games that you open in a web browser, play for a few minutes, and then move on.

Gametrust's Game Frame platform powers other online gaming portals including MiniClip and Shockwave.

[via] Download Squad

Picnik online photo editor goes pro

When we spoke with Picnik co-founder Mike Harrington a few months ago, he told us that the site would eventually have two tiers: a free image editing service, and a subscription version with more features. This week, Picnik officially launched its paid service, for $25 per year.

Paid subscribers get access to extra editing tools, effects, shapes, and fonts. The free service also got an update this week, with Photobucket support. Here's some of the new features available to paid users:

Photobucket support - edit photos from Photobucket and/or save your images to the site
Effect painting - choose certain effects and apply them with brush strokes
New effects including invert, pencil sketch, and pixelate
Add shapes, symbols, or speech bubbles
Touch up tool for whitening teeth or removing zits (from photos, not real life)
New image frames

$25 a year seems like a pretty decent price to pay when you consider how much professional editing software like Photoshop can set you back. And because Picnik is completely web-based, the company can continue to roll out new features for paid users without asking you to upgrade.

Eventually some of those new features will probably make their way to the free version as well. But you get what you pay for, and Picnik will most likely be using its free site to promote its paid services.

[via WebWare]

[via] Download Squad

Graspr: Another user-generated how to video site

While we often find ourselves thinking the last thing we really need is yet another website that lets users upload, share, and vote on videos, we might make an exception for Graspr. Like SuTree and 5min, Graspr is focused on how-to videos.

Sure, you can find out how to knit or shave with a straight razor on YouTube, but it's hard to find good instructional videos because there's just so much stuff to sift through on a general purpose site.

Graspr has a clean, easy to navigate interface. For example, the computers & internet section actually has useful subcategories like networking, hardware, internet, programming & design, security, software, and general. All too often, it seems like these instructional websites aren't geared toward geeks, so we appreciate it when we find a site that is.

And for a service that just launched this week, there are already a good number of instructional videos to browse through, thanks to a successful beta period. We also like how registered users can take notes on videos and read notes left by other members of the community.

There are still a few kinks to work out. When we tried to copy the embed code for a video using the "copy , we got a site not found error. But by copying the code manually, we managed to embed a video after the jump.

Continue reading Graspr: Another user-generated how to video site

[via] Download Squad

Feed Each Other: a social RSS reader

Feed Each Other is a new social RSS reader. What does that mean? Well, it's kind of a social network and RSS reader all rolled into one, sort of like a cross between Google Reader and Facebook.

As an RSS reader, the layout should be pretty familiar to anyone who uses Bloglines, NewsGator, Google Reader, or any of the other popular web-based RSS readers. You can organize your feeds into folders and you can choose to view just headlines or full articles. Feed Each Other also has a pretty good site discovery feature. Type "Download Squad" into the search box, and our feed will come up right away.

But the social aspects are what really make Feed Each Other shine. When you view our feed, you'll see a list of popular feeds show up in the bottom left corner. These are feeds that users who like Download Squad have subscribed to. You can also view profiles of individual users who have subscribed to Download Squad on the upper right hand side just above our feed's content. You can click on a user profile and see what they're reading. If you like their taste in news, you can add them as a contact.

You can also share interesting articles from your feeds with other users. While Google Reader publishes your shared clips as a sort of standalone link blog, Feed Each Other lets your contacts see your shared items when they login. You can also leave comments on your shared items or others to see and respond to.

Feed Each Other has just emerged from an invitation-only beta, so while it's pretty robust, there are still a few kinks to work out. But the service definitely shows promise.

[via

[via] Download Squad

ZimDesk: nice looking web desktop if that's your sort of thing

We've been over this before. We don't really see the point of web-based "operating systems." You've already got an operating system, and if you need a place to store your data online or access office tools like word processors and spreadsheets, you already have a ton of options which perform better than any webOS we've seen. But companies continue to pump out webtops anyway.

And we have to say, there's something we like about ZimDesk. It has a attractive graphics and a well organized menu system. Rather than group items together in the typical Windows-style pop up menu, you can choose from office applications, internet, media, or games. Some of the games are kind of fun, and the word processor and spreadsheet applications are perfectly serviceable.

But we still have to laugh whenever we open the web browser in a web-based desktop. Because essentially we're opening a web browser inside of a web browser. Yeah, loading pages has got to be more efficient that way, right? Unfortunately we weren't able to launch ZimDesk inside of the ZimNav virtual browser. When we tried, a new instance of ZimDesk opened in a new Firefox tab.

[via Killer Startups]

[via] Download Squad

Win cash for your startup

Think you have a hot startup idea? Write it down and you could net a little funding.

Bang Ventures from New York is offering $15,000 U.S. for startup CEOs to get their ideas off the ground. "You Be The VC" Candidates start by submitting applications outlining their plans for a new internet startup. These will be judged by handpicked professionals in the startup field to guarantee unbiased results and ensure that funding goes to best idea seen in the public's eye. There are no limits as to the number of ideas that CEO's can submit, just as long as they are in by the deadline of December 2007.

Voting begins March 2008, with the $15,000 prize money, temporary relocation expenses to Cambridge, MA, and living expenses being handed out upon final vote submissions. Winners of the "You Be The VC" campaign will also be able to utilize Bang Venture's support network, resources and materials.

[via killerstartups]

[via] Download Squad

Translate text to Zlango for your Zlango-speaking friends - Time Waster

Text messages are all well and good, but the kids these days, they like graphics. So when Zlango launched a service to offer enhanced emoticons and icons for mobile phone and web use, we were suitably impressed. The company came up with a hieroglyphic-like "language," complete with 200 different icons, some of which hold multiple meanings.

While it's not a complete language, you can convey a lot of meaning with those 200 icons. But that's a lot of images to remember. Fortunately, Zlango has gone and offered a couple of new services, including Zlango Composer, an English to Zlango translator. Because you know, there's a wide demand for that kind of thing.

The application is Flash-based, and translates text into images as you type. You can then send messages to your friends, who will likely have a pretty tough time reading them if you turn the captions off. We can't say Zlango Composer is particularly useful, unless say, you're a company focused on icons and you're trying to attract users to your service. But it's certainly fun to play with for a few minutes.

[via TechCrunch]

[via] Download Squad

ZoneAlarm ForceField protects your browsing session - DLS Interview

ZoneAlarm has launched a public beta of a new security tool that basically puts your web browser into a sandbox. Visit sites you know are unsafe, check your bank statements on a computer that you know is infected with viruses and spyware.

We caught up with ZoneAlarm Director of Consumer Product Management John Gable at ShowStoppers in New York, and he told us a bit about the new product. ZoneAlarm ForceField sets up a "virtualized surfing" system, that prevents your PC from downloading malicious code from the web. It also prevents keylogging, blocks spyware, and scans downloads. There's also a private browsing feature that immediately erases all details of your browsing session once you shut down the browser.

ZoneAlarm ForceField is free while in beta, but will cost $30 when it's officially launched next year. The program works with Internet Explorer and Firefox (but not Opera), and is Windows only.

[via] Download Squad

Microsoft revamps Live search

Microsoft has launched an updated version of Live Search. Some of the changes will be visible in the user interface, but the company also made a bunch of changes under the hood to make the search engine more useful and reliable.

Increased the site index by more than 400%
Improved understanding of query intent
Auto-spell correction
Faster page-loads
Uses more click-stream data to improve page ranking and relevancy
Improved answers to questions about specific items like weather, images, celebrities, entertainment, maps, or sports

The interface is also a bit cleaner. The search box has moved to the left. The tabs for searching images, video, news have been replaced with text links (which are a bit harder to notice than tabs at first). And the fonts look a little less 1985-ish.

Apparently 40 percent of the searches on Live.com involve entertainment, shopping, health, and local search, so Microsoft has focused heavily on these four areas.

[via] Download Squad

Microsoft launches Internet TV for Windows Media Center

Microsoft is rolling out the public beta of Internet TV for Windows Vista Media Center tomorrow. If you've got a machine running Windows Vista Home Premium or Windows Vista Ultimate, a new option should pop up inside of your media center interface, cleverly titled "Internet TV."

At launch, there will be 100 hours of programming available from MSN Video. The service is free, but ad-supported, meaning you'll have to put up with some 15 and 30 second spots here and there. YuMe is responsible for the ad.

But is there anything you'll want to watch? Here's some of the content available:

Full length episodes of TV shows including Arrested Development
Full length concerts by artists including Chris Cornell, Snoop Dogg, Elton John, Pink, John Mayer, and the Pussycat Dolls
Movie trailers
MSNBC news clips
FOX Sports clips

Internet TV will be available from Windows Vista machines with Windows Media Center, and from Xbox 360 consoles.

[via] Download Squad

Preview of Nero 8 - DLS Interview

Nero 8 is due out next week, although if you look around, you might be able to find a download link today. The latest version of Nero's popular CD/DVD burning suite includes support for Blu-Ray and HD-DVD videos, uploading videos to websites including YouTube, and MySpace, and a new disc recovery tool that lets you salvage data from corrupted CDs and DVDs.

Probably the most striking thing about Nero 8 is how clean and simple the user interface is when compared with Nero 7. We caught up with Nero technical director Craig Campbell at ShowStoppers in New York, and he told us that the company has put a lot of work into improving the interface. But there are also some improvements under the hood. Campbell says Nero 8 loads faster, and is optimized for dual-core and quad-core processors.

A full version of Nero 8 will set you back $100 if you buy it in a box, $80 if you download it from Nero's website, or $60 if you're upgrading from Nero 7.

[via] Download Squad

IBM workers strike in Second Life

IBM workers went on strike this morning in Second Life marking perhaps the biggest (if not the first) virtual strike in history. Italian workers are upset over a new contract deal that canceled their performance bonus costing them each 1000 Euros (close to$1400) a year. The pay cut came at a time of big profits for IBM, and right after the workers asked for a small pay increase.

Workers took their strike to the IBM islands of Second Life this morning carrying virtual picket signs. The employees online protest coincides with a real-life picket line outside of the IBM offices in Italy also taking place today. 900 avatars have signed on to protest in Second Life, representing more 18 different countries.

If you're not on Second Life but still want to get in on the action you can sign the petition to IBM and follow the protest today online.

[via] Download Squad

Tgif: This Week's Best Posts

Buried under too many Lifehacker posts? Turn down the volume of with our daily, trimmed-down top stories feed or once-weekly highlights feed. This week's best posts include:

Transform Your Classic Xbox into a Killer Media Center
"Don't ditch your classic Xbox just because you can't play Halo 3 on it: nowadays it's easier than ever to transform that old neglected console into a Unix-based media command center."
Five Tools to Capture Your Thoughts
"One of the best productivity tips I've found--courtesy of David Allen's book, Getting Things Done--is keeping 'buckets' for your ideas. "
Mirror Your Mac on a Bootable External Drive
"If and when that terrible day your Mac dies finally catches up to you, you can be back up and running with all your applications, settings and data in under 5 seconds with a bootable system clone."
Remote Control Your Computer with Your iPhone
"You could spend hundreds of dollars on a multimedia remote with a touchscreen interface, glorious album art, and all of the fixings, but if you've already got an iPhone, you really don't need to."
Yahoo Mail Innovates, Gmail Stagnates
"Google makes a great beta, but with Gmail they've been much too slow to actually take the application to the next level."
Top 10 Firefox Extension-free Tabbed Browsing Techniques
"Sure we love our Tab Mix Plus, but there's a ton of tabbed browsing features baked right into Firefox that don't necessitate the extra baggage of an extension."
Desktop Show and Tell, Linux Edition
"From the wholly minimal to the completely ornate, the Linux desktop has never been sexier."
Best Free Software to Unlock Your Favorite Hardware
"It sucks that your favorite gadgets have more functionality than their default software exposes, but it rules that several software applications are built to unlock that potential for free."
Follow Your Favorite Lifehacker Commenters
"The wisdom of this crowd surpasses that of any other community on the 'net, and now we're making it easier than ever to stalk follow your favorite commenters."
Google Docs Adds Presentations
"Google finally rounds out their web-based office suite with the addition of Presentations to Google Docs."
Hack Your Home Telephone with Asterisk
"..the free, open source Asterisk software does some crazy stuff, like IM's whenever the phone rings, sets custom MP3 hold music, and--my favorite--forwards annoying telemarketing calls to the very loud sound of monkeys screaming."
Ask the Readers: Best Firefox userchrome.css Tweaks?
"Just as extensions add functionality and about:config tweaks change behavior, you can style Firefox's "chrome" using the userchrome.css file."

[via] Lifehacker

Microsoft allowing PC makers to offer XP downgrade from Vista

Windows Vista is pretty. Nobody disputes the fact that the Aero interface is pretty, and in some cases even useful. And there are a lot of security measures built into the operating system. But many users have reported software they rely on isn't compatible with the latest operating system from Microsoft. Power management features often don't work the way they're supposed to. And sometimes too much security isn't a good thing (for example when your computer asks for your permission to perform what seem like the most basic tasks.

It turns out Microsoft has not turned a blind eye to all these complaints. And while most computer makers are offering Vista on their new PCs, Microsoft has made it easy for PC manufacturers to offer a downgrade option to Windows XP.

The downgrade option is only available for Windwos Vista Business and Ultimate editions. And PC makers get to decide if and how to offer the downgrade. Fujitsu has begun including an XP disc in boxes of computers it ships, while HP offers customers the ability to configure business models with XP. Lenovo will be selling XP "recovery discs" to customers who buy Vista Business or Ultimate until July 31, 2008. Hopefully by then Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will be out and will address most, or at least some of the major complaints.

[via Engadget]

[via] Download Squad

Firefox 3 Watch: Looks like we've still got to wait for the ...

Looks like we've still got to wait for the beta; Mozilla released Firefox 3 "Gran Paradiso" Alpha version 8. This is the bleeding edge in browsers here folks, so only testers and insatiably curious need apply.

[via] Lifehacker

Walking: Take a Walk That Will Reboot Your Brain

If you're suffering from the dreaded Brainlock Syndrome, in which all attempts to think are met with failure, you need to get out of your chair and take a walk. But how to take a walk that will get those creative ideas bouncing? Urban design expert Geoff Manaugh, editor of BLDG BLOG, thinks a lot about how cityscapes inspire people. He offers Lifehacker three tips for taking a mind-expanding stroll:

1. Don't weigh yourself down. Leave the briefcase and the backpack at home. If you need to write something down, bring one piece of paper and a pen. If you fill that piece of paper, then you've had a productive walk.

2. Take a strange route around a familiar area. Focus on the idea that you'll never see these buildings and spaces in the same order again.
3. The best walks involve pauses. Don't be afraid to linger—on a park bench, in a bookstore, at a friend's house, even inside Urban Outfitters.

The main idea, he emphasizes, is to take your time and look at your world from a new angle. If you can't spare a lot of time, a good walk can "be five minutes long," Manaugh says. Just remember to take that piece of paper with you so you can jot down stray thoughts. Photo by dAVIDb1.

[via] Lifehacker

Flashback: Two years ago, a day before comments launched ...

Two years ago, a day before comments launched here on Lifehacker, we got up on our soapbox and posted our guide to being good at weblog comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Excel Tip: Slice and Dice Your Data with AutoFilter

Your spreadsheet contains a huge table of data you want to slice and dice on the fly? You need the AutoFilter feature, which works like a database query builder—or for the non-bitheads, iTunes Smart Playlists. Select the criteria of the data you want to see, and AutoFilter will show you only the rows that match without actually changing any of the data (like sorting it would). The Productivity Portfolio weblog explains in detail, with helpful screenshots.

[via] Lifehacker

Privacy: Shorten and Password-Protect URLs with HideLinks

URL shortening service HideLinks shortens web page addresses with an added optional bonus: password security. If the URL you want to share (or store on your office computer, say) contains sensitive information, you can password-protect access to the link to avoid prying eyes from seeing confidential web sites. If you create a HideLinks account, you can change the URL or password in the future. These features are similar to previously mentioned dwarfURL, but unlike dwarfURL, you cannot see how many times a link was clicked. Still, for those concerned about security, the password restriction on URLs should make this service good to try.

[via] Lifehacker

Mac OS X Tip: Open Multiple Photos in Preview

Mac users: Browse a group of photos full-size quickly and easily with trusty Preview.app. Avoid the load of iPhoto and the tiny thumbnails of Finder: highlight all the photos you'd like to see (hold down the Shift or Command key as you click the files in Finder) and Ctrl+click. From the context menu, choose Open With > Preview, and the images will open in a single Preview.app window simultaneously, with thumbnails in the drawer for quick navigation between them. (Update: Fixed the Control/Command key mistake. Apologies!)

[via] Lifehacker

Virtualization: Mac users virtualizing Windows, if you're ...

Mac users virtualizing Windows, if you're considering the switch, Macworld details how to migrate an existing virtual machine from Parallels to VMWare Fusion. Sounds like this process is still hit or miss, so proceed with caution.

[via] Lifehacker

Science: How Evolutionary Biology Explains Office Politics

There may be ancient evolutionary impulses behind modern-day office politics. If human nature is shaped by our monkey pasts, and the tens of thousands of years our species spent as hunter-gatherers, we might want to use some 100,000 year-old solutions to fights over the printer, snarky sysadmins, and lateral promotions. In that spirit, Stanford neuroscientist and author Robert M. Sapolsky offers Lifehacker some lessons from human prehistory to solve modern-day office dilemmas.

How to get a promotion and keep it? Sapolsky gives us this a tale from baboon life:

Big sharp teeth and lots of muscle have tons to do with which males become high-ranking; social intelligence and impulse control have everything to do with which males remain high-ranking.

What's the best way to keep an office relatively conflict-free? Hunter-gatherer society has the solution already, says Sapolsky. He explains that if you want group cohesion, "small social units with lots of opportunity for reciprocity (as well as for punishing non-reciprocators) work best." He adds:

Amid that emphasis on stable small social units, provide mechanisms for fusion-fission—i.e., the small groups having frequent interactions with others, having the opportunity for tensions to be solved within group by being able to move away from the group for awhile. Among lots of hunter-gatherers, you don't settle the fight with someone by punching it out. You go and hang with your cousins in the next valley for some time instead.

This is a great idea, and is already implemented in companies like Google, where people work in small groups that often shift and reform.

Finally, if you still can't resolve a dispute with an office-mate, Sapolsky gives one catch-all solution:

From lots of primate species we learn that grooming other people for any parasites on them always makes everyone feel better.

Hm. Lifehacker does not recommend that you groom your co-workers for parasites, no matter how much they may need it. A good modern-day translation might be to do something helpful.

Want more advice? Read Sapolsky's latest book, Monkeyluv: And Other Essays On Our Lives As Animals. Photo by Stig Nygaard.

[via] Lifehacker

Automation: Tasks You Can Outsource to Your Computer

It's only until you've scheduled automatic tasks for your computer to do for you that you have true reign over your silicon gadget minions. Weblog Of Zen and Computing lists what jobs your computer can do for you, like spam filtering, Google Alerts, and image batch resizing. I'd add backup, downloads, hard drive cleaning and spyware/virus scanning to the list. What do you automate on your computer? Do tell.

[via] Lifehacker

How To: Beat the Procrastination Habit

Chronic procrastinator J.D. Roth describes the techniques he uses to stop putting off tasks. One of his weapons in the war against procrastination? A timer. Roth says:

Part of the reason I procrastinate is that I have a rich mental life. This is just a flowery way of saying that I'm a daydreamer. I'm always lost in thought. One way to keep on track is to use a timer. I use the Ultrak Jumbo Countdown Timer, but not as often as I should. I set it for 48 minutes. When it goes off, it serves as an instant reality check: Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing?

As someone who also has a "rich mental life" AND a timer, I can attest that this does indeed work. What specific anti-procrastination strategies (besides "just do it now") do you have up your sleeve? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Love And Money: Thanks to This Week's Sponsors

Thanks to this week's sponsors for their support at the Lifehacker Booster Club concession stand: AT&T, Ask.com, Bank of America, Canon, Comedy Central, Crown Publishing, EBay UK, Energizer, ING Direct, Mio, Sprint, TiVo, Verify, Verizon, and VW. Want to help support the team? Advertise with Lifehacker.

[via] Lifehacker

Geek To Live: Useful Command Line Tricks for Mac Users

That Mac you're viewing this web page on using a pretty graphical interface? That's a Unix-based system which can run the powerful and age old command line utilities of the most advanced Unix beard. If you've never launched the Terminal, you're missing out on a plethora of Unix tools that offer more control and options than any dialog box possibly could. We've covered some basic Unix command line techniques in the past, but today we've got a few more for folks who want to start their Unix ninja training from the comfort of their own Mac.

Replace Terminal with iTerm

The first stop in your foray into Mac OS X command line goodness is getting yourself a proper terminal. While all the commands we'll discuss will work just fine in the build-in Terminal.app (located in /Applications/Utilities), the free, open source iTerm is a definite improvement over vanilla Terminal. Mostly because it supports tabbed sessions, which lets you run several tasks in various tabs without taking up screen real estate. Download iTerm here (free). iTerm tab hint: once you've got more than one tab open, use the Ctrl+Right/Left arrow to move between them.

The Basics

We've already posted a series of beginner's guides to the command line for Windows users running the Unix emulator Cygwin. This is the beauty and advantage of being comfortable at the Unix command line: learn commands once and they'll work most anywhere—on Mac, in Windows/Cygwin, and in most flavors of any Unix-based system. So instead of traversing ground we've already covered, hit up our past tutorials instead (and ignore all the Cygwin-specific stuff):

Introduction to Cygwin—Print the working directory with pwd, create new files with touch my-new-file.txt, and list all the files in a directory with ls.
More useful commands—File listing command options (like ls -lh), aliasing common commands to save typing (like alias 'ls'='ls -lh'), append text to files with >>, see the contents of files with cat, search file contents with grep, using your command history and RTFM'ing with man.
Scripts, packages and more—Logging onto other computers remotely from the command line using ssh and scripting collections of commands for easy execution.

While almost the entire recipe box of established Unix commands work on OS X, there are also a few Mac-specific command line tools that hook into Spotlight, access your iPod and other external disks, launch Mac graphical applications and install more open source applications. Let's take a look.

Launch Applications and Documents

The open command can open up a certain file in its associated application (like open lifehacker.doc will launch Word with lifehacker.doc open) or it can launch a specific application. To open a document, you've got to be in the directory where that document lives; to launch an application, use the -a option to tell Mac OS X to look in the Applications folder. For example, open -a ichat will launch iChat no matter what directory you're in. Using previously-mentioned aliases, you could map the command ichat='open -a ichat' in your .bash_profile to save yourself some keystrokes, too.

Access Files on Your iPod (and Other External Volumes)

Now that you know how to navigate folders and subfolders and file listings, you may want to use your new command line knowledge to check out external disks connected to your Mac, like your iPod. Mac OS X lists all external drives in the /Volumes/ directory. So to get there, type cd /Volumes/ and hit Enter. Then a quick ls will list the available drives. Here I've got an iPod (with disk use enabled in iTunes) called "Terra's iPod" connected to the Mac. Move into it using cd Terra's iPod (you can use the Tab key after T to autocomplete the volume name, which is a little screwy because of the apostrophe) and then ls the directories there. Your iPod's music is stored in the /iPod_Control/Music directory, so you can cd there to see how all your music shows up:

Sadly your music is stored in folders with non-obvious names, like F00-F49. cd into any one of those directories and you'll see similarly-named music files. To copy those files back to your Mac's internal hard drive, a simple cp command would get the job done.

Access, Search and List Spotlight File Metadata

Mac OS X's built-in file search system Spotlight indexes a lot more than just file names and contents. It builds an index of metadata like file type, author, times and dates and other information, like artist and album for properly tagged music files and camera model information for digital photos. Using the mdls command, you can list Spotlight's metadata for a file and using mdfind, search for files that only match certain criteria. For example, to see the metadata for a Word document, I'd do an mdls filename.doc, as shown:

To see other documents authored by Marcia, I'd use the mdsfind command with the filtering parameter "kMDItemAuthors == 'Marcia Ellett'":

Install Open Source Software with Fink

The Fink Project ports open source Unix software to run on Mac OS X's Darwin and makes that software available for download to your Mac in a simple command. Once you download and install Fink, you can use the sudo apt-get install emacs, for instance, to install the classic Emacs editor. Or you can browse the list of available packages in Fink using the free Fink Commander graphical interface, which looks like this:

More Fun Stuff

Other Unix fun to be had on your Mac (or any *nix system) includes:

Encrypt your web browsing session with an SSH tunnel
Automatically download entire web sites, new music and more by mastering wget
Run a personal, home SSH server
Customize your command prompt (like my pictured prompt, "Your wish is my command")

Sex: Many of us prefer the internet to sex, according ...

Many of us prefer the internet to sex, according to web site Ars Technica. Which can you go longer without?

[via] Lifehacker

To Do Managers: Organize Your To-dos, Bookmarks, and RSS Feeds with Treedolist

Web site Treedolist hierarchically organizes your to-do list, notes, bookmarks, RSS feeds, and pretty much anything else you can think to drop into it. At its most basic, you can think of it as a simple to-do list with the ability to add structured and nested lists and then filter your lists by due dates, labels, and a number of other useful methods. It gets interesting, though, when you realize that you can also add more information, like RSS feeds, and share branches of any tree with other Treedolist users. And—like any good online to-do list—Treedolist has several useful keyboard shortcuts.

[via] Lifehacker

Call For Submissions: We Want to See Your System Tray

We've already seen your killer desktops, but now it's time to get a little more granular. It's time to look at your system tray. We want to see what must-have utilities you run day in and day out in that little strip of screen real estate on the end of your taskbar. Hit the jump for more details and the detailed submission guidelines.

If you want to submit your system tray for Thursday's System Tray Show and Tell, here's what you'll need to do:

Take a screenshot of your system tray: Make sure we can see everything you've got running, so hit that little expand arrow. Getting the picture snapped while the tray is expanded can be tricky with some screenshot software, so I'd recommend using the trusty old standard PrtScrn shortcut and then pasting the results into your favorite image editor and cropping to fit.
Write up a description of the programs running in your system tray: It doesn't have to be long or flowery, but we want to know what applications you're running and what they do/how you use them.
Send your screenshot and description to us: Compose an email to tips at lifehacker.com with the subject title System Tray Show and Tell, then attach your screenshot and enter your description in the body of the email.

That's all there is to it. Thanks to everyone who submits, and here's looking forward to seeing and reading about your killer system tray apps. If you've got any questions about the submission guidelines, let's hear them in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Music: Find Local Music with Gruvr Maps

Google Maps mashup Gruvr lists live local music by date and location. Just head to their homepage and enter your location (if it doesn't automatically locate you). Gruvr begins automatically displaying upcoming concerts one at a time in what at first seems like a fun tour of what's happening. If your location has a lot of venues, it quickly gets irritating, since you can't stop the playback to focus on one that piqued your interest until it finishes displaying every show for the upcoming week. Despite that one user-unfriendly quirk (which could be easily fixed), Gruvr is actually a really nice idea. The weekend is upon us, so if you're looking to hit the town for some live music, Gruvr is a good option. If you want the latest on local music but you're not keen on Gruvr, check out Pollstar, Upcoming.org, or the iConcertCal iTunes plug-in.

[via] Lifehacker

Whiteboard: Collaborate with an Instant Online Whiteboard at Scriblink

Create and collaborate using instant online whiteboards with web application Scriblink. To get started, head to their homepage for an instant whiteboard space. From there you can invite friends by grabbing your whiteboard's URL or sending an email. Once they join you, you can chat or phone conference (phone conferencing doesn't seem to be complete) with your fellow collaborators. Scriblink is a very simple implementation of the online whiteboard, but its screen sharing seems fairly real-time, which is always a plus. If you're looking for a more robust online whiteboard, check out previously mentioned Skrbl.

[via] Lifehacker

Updates: Launchy lovers and early adopters might want ...

Launchy lovers and early adopters might want to check out Launchy 2.0 alpha and help in the testing process. Thanks Dan!

[via] Lifehacker

Fitness: Start and Keep Your Exercise Habit

Weblog Zen Habits discusses how to start an exercise habit, first by examining why most of us don't exercise, then by suggesting four steps for getting in the routine. Step one:

Set one easy, specific, measurable goal. There are several keys to setting this crucial goal:
By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: run for 10 minutes. Walk 1/2 a mile. Do 3 sets of 5 pushups. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for.

I've found the first step to be crucial; a good, detailed plan of attack is a must if you plan on sticking to a workout. Get a calendar you can use to cross off workouts as you go. Fall is upon us, which means cooler weather and comfort food for most of us. Rather than pack on an extra five to ten pounds of winter weight this year, starting a good exercise habit could help you stay fit and healthy in the coming months. Let's hear how you stay active during the cooler months to come in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Announcements: When the Lifehacker servers are uncooperative ...

When the Lifehacker servers are uncooperative it hurts us as much as it hurts you. Believe me. Sorry for the downage today, folks. As of now, all systems go.

[via] Lifehacker

iPhone Addict for September 21st 2007

Navizon "virtual GPS" comes to iPhone
Run OSX widgets on your iPhone
iPhone Dev team releases an easy-to-use GUI tool to unlock the iPhone
O2 iPhone hands-on shows possible updates for iPhone 1.1.1
iTunes 7.4.2 disables ringtone hack

Continue reading iPhone Addict for September 21st 2007

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[via] Download Squad

Googleholic for September 21st 2007

In this issue of Googleholic we cover:

Promoting GOOG 411
Google Presentations security flaw
Turkey bans YouTube's
Finance Fighting
Google lobbyist hire
Google and medical history

Continue reading Tuesday's Googleholic...

Continue reading Googleholic for September 21st 2007

[via] Download Squad

Get free FOX television downloads on iTunes

Starting next week FOX Broadcasting will offer the season premiere episodes of several of their televisions programs for free on iTunes. The plan behind the move is that once you download the first episode of the show onto your iPod you will be so enamored with watching your favorite programs on your tiny iPod screen that you'll pay to download the remainder of the season or at the very least you'll tune in to watch on television when the show airs.

Not all of FOX's programming will be available. Currently FOX's free iTunes offerings include American Dad, Bones, K-Ville, and Prison Break. ABC announced earlier this week plans to stream video through AOL's video portal, and NBC is looking at allowing users to download programming onto their computers for free a week after it's original air date. You can currently download several of NBC's new fall shows from Amazon Unbox before they even air.

[via TechCrunch]

[via] Download Squad

Sony to shut down ImageStation online photo site

Sony seems to be gutting its online media offerings like a fish... or something else you gut. Last month we found out that Sony was closing its Connect music store. Now it turns out the company is also killing the ImageStation online photo sharing site.

ImageStation is dying a slow death. You can no longer sign up for a new account. Some features will be shut down on November 12th, including image uploading, sharing, and shopping. The site will officially close on February 1, 2008.

In the meantime, Sony is offering current users the ability to transfer their photos to Shutterfly. You can also download high resolution images to your computer one at a time, which could take a while. Or for $7.49 per disc, you can order archived copies on CD or DVD.

[Thanks Frank]

[via] Download Squad

Designing Google print ads

Thought about getting into Google's Print Ad program? They have just made it easier to design effective advertisements through a new piece of software.

Google's new piece of ad software will help Google Print Ad advertisers design their own ads for display in newspapers. The process is pretty straightforward, but you must win the ad auction to begin. Advertisers start out by choosing a newspaper from participating publications, then bid on the space. From there, if the publisher approves, you can start on the design process. Images can be uploaded in any one of six sizes, from 1 col. x 1 in. to 2 col. x 7 in specially built for newspapers. Advertisers then enter the ad text and contact details into pre-designed templates. Then Google's tool will get to work automatically generating a few designs to choose from.

The big question is, will the ad design recommendations that Google spits out be effective enough? We have to assume Google has put some thought and industry insight into the most effective designs for print before releasing the tool. However, we will have to wait for some stats to be sure.

Check out some sample Google Print Ads developed with the application.

[via informationweek]

[via] Download Squad

Intel pushing low-power Linux development for laptops

Everyone wants a blazing fast PC. But if you've got a laptop, you also want long battery life. Oh yeah, and if you care about the environment or your home electric bills, you might want your desktop to suck electricity from the power grid a little slower too.

PC power consumption comes from a combination of hardware and software. Intel, AMD, and other chip makers have been trying to reduce power usage in their new processors, and Microsoft and Apple have tried to build power-saving features into their operating systems.

Now Intel has also launched a new initiative to encourage Linux developers to find ways to save power. The goal is to create a community of developers, users, and organizations committed to sharing code, bugs, or tips on reducing the power use of PCs running Linux. Intel has been turning to Linux as a way to boost battery life in ultra mobile devices, and has already demonstrated that low-power software can boost battery life by up to an hour on some devices.

[via APC Magazine]

[via] Download Squad

Google laying a multi-terabit undersea cable

An Australian telecommunications news source claims to have uncovered a secret Google plan to build a multi-terabit undersea communications cable.

Google has supposedly met with a number of carriers in Sydney over the past few months to discuss this 'Unity' cable that they want to lay across the Pacific Ocean, and tie into existing cables in Guam and Hawaii. Google had originally hinted at this venture earlier this year with a "submarine cable negotiator" job posting.

The partnership would add additional infrastructure for the internet with Google and the carriers joining forces to build the multi terabit cable. Google would have access to a fiber pair that could improve access and increase affordability of the internet across the Asia Pacific.

There is no word as to who the other carriers working on this venture with Google are. The route of the cable is also under wraps.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[via] Download Squad

U.S. Senate considers extending internet tax ban

You know how you you don't have to pay taxes on your internet service? (If you're a US citizen, at least). Yeah, that might last. In fact, it might not even last much longer than a month.

In 1998 the U.S. government passed a law preventing states from taxing internet access. The goal was to encourage the growth of internet service providers. The law is set to expire on November 1st, but the Senate is considering an extension.

There's some debate on the issue. But the good news for consumers is that the debate isn't centered on whether the tax ban should be extended. Instead, Senators are debating whether the ban should be made permanent or just temporarily extended.

The bad news is that if a compromise isn't reached within the next six weeks, the moratorium will be lifted and theoretically states could start issuing taxes. We seriously doubt they'll do that until if there's a good chance a new law will be put in place. But you never know.

[via] Download Squad

Online language translation moves from software to hardware

Time use to be that you needed to carry a thick book in your back pocket when traveling if you wanted to find the nearest bus station, restroom or ~~brothel~~ hotel.

But these days the quickest way to translate something from Japanese to English and back again is by typing it into an online service. There are dozens of online translators out there, letting you read complete websites or translate snippets of text.

But once your tools move online, they're not limited to a certain type of device. You can translate items with pretty much any web browser or operating system. Heck, it turns out you don't even need a computer. Fuji Xerox is showing off a prototype copy machine that can translate documents as it copies.

Insert a Japanese document and the copier will access an internet service to translate the text into Chinese, English or Korean. The printer access a dedicated server, which we expect is about as good as any other machine-based translator out there. In other words, expect the copier to spit out a few nonsense sentences.

It's a neat idea, but at least when you try to translate a web page online you're not wasting any paper when you wind up with a completely garbled machine translation.

[via Engadget and Crave]

[via] Download Squad

Can you create a successful internet startup in 3 days?

Some internet startups take months or years of planning. Others can be put together in just a matter of days with a good idea and a little pluck. In July a group of 70 people got together in Boulder, Colorado to vote on ideas that had been proposed. Over the course of a single weekend, they chose an idea and created Vosnap, an online polling tool.

This weekend, 120+ people have signed up for a similar "Startup Weekend" in New York City. The group will choose from more than 15 ideas, and try to put together a business plan by Sunday.

Vosnap is up and running, but isn't making money yet. But the process was successful enough to encourage Startup Weekends around the world. Future events are planned for cities including Boston, Atlanta, and London.

[via Silicon Alley Insider]

[via] Download Squad

MacGyver Tip: Build a Fire Without Matches or a Lighter

Don't have any matches or a lighter on hand but just happen to have fine steel wool and a 9-volt battery? Rub 'em together and you've got fire. The likelihood that you are without matches or any sort of lighter but that you do have steel wool and a battery on hand seems slim, but either way this is a great bit of MacGyver ingenuity.

[via] Lifehacker

AOL to stream ABC TV programs online

If you want to rent a video, you can go to pretty much any video store and walk out with a movie of your choice. It doesn't matter what studio produced that film.

But if you want to watch streaming video of network television programs, you either need to visit the network's website or find a site that streams pirated copies.

It looks like that could be changing. Increasingly we're seeing networks offer up programming on sites like MySpace, Yahoo!, and AOL. You know, pretty much anywhere but YouTube.

Today ABC and this blog's parent company AOL have announced an agreement to stream ABC programs through AOL's video portal. You'll still be able to watch recent episodes at ABC.com, but if you want to watch free, advertising-supported videos from ABC, CBS, and several other channels, you can visit AOL. While we work for AOL here at Download Squad, our dram is that one day streaming video will be more like video rental stores. You'll be able to visit the portal of your choice and watch all the video you want.

ABC will offer about four episodes of popular programs at a time on AOL's video site. AOL and ABC will split the advertising revenue. Meanwhile, NBC and News Corp are preparing to launch their own video portal, possibly within the next few weeks. NBC also plans to launch a service that lets users download free programs that can be watched within one week of their original broadcast date.

[via] Download Squad

How To: Get 32 AA Batteries from a Single 6 Volt Battery

Don't want to spend a wad of cash on AA batteries to power your gadgets? Trim down your spending by cracking open the case of a single 6 volt battery which sells for about $5. Inside you'll find a whopping 32 AA batteries! Considering that you can get 8 watch batteries from a 12-volt battery and 6 AAA batteries from a 9-volt battery, this isn't surprising, but since AA batteries are the most popular among the three, this should yield considerable savings. Thanks, Richard & Lew!

[via] Lifehacker

Personal Finance: Mint Manages Your Money

Personal finance webapp Mint monitors your finances for you. Enter your bank account and credit card details and Mint imports transaction data automatically and provides detailed charts about buying habits as well as suggesting how to save. Purchases are broken down by type (spending, gas, entertainment, restaurants, groceries), and Mint can alert you about any abnormal activity in your accounts. The interface is clean and friendly, and Mint looks like a clear winner in money management.

[via] Lifehacker

Announcements: Best of luck to Kyle!

We editors are very sad to say goodbye to our guy Kyle, who's moving on from Lifehacker and heading back to school this fall. Thanks to Kyle for all his fabulous work on the site—especially his fantastic *nix coverage. We'll miss you, Kyle!

[via] Lifehacker

Microsoft Outlook Tip: Overlay Calendars in Outlook (like Google Calendar)

Google Calendar makes it easy to manage multiple calendars and display them all at once, but did you know you can do the same with Microsoft Outlook? The How-to Geek explains that while it's possible (Update: to keep more than one calendar) in Outlook 2003, Outlook 2007 makes it easy to see multiple calendars at once:

First you'll need to change to the Calendar view, and then select more than one calendar in the list. Now if you hover your mouse over the little arrow icon next to the second calendar you'll notice it says "View in Overlay Mode." Of course you should just click the icon at this point.

The two calendars then merge into one view, and you can switch between them using the tabs.

[via] Lifehacker

Google School: Find Web Pages by Date

Google's updated its advanced search operator options to make finding pages by date a lot easier. Recently the big G's gotten a whole lot faster at adding new pages to their index, and now you can search for pages that Google's found within any number of days, weeks or months. Hit up the advanced search form to use a handy (but limited) dropdown, or go beyond defaults using URL parameters like this:

d[number] - past number of days (e.g.: d10)
w[number] - past number of weeks
y[number] - past number of years

So here are pages on Lifehacker that Google's found in the past 2 days. Great way to search for news or recent event coverage.

[via] Lifehacker

Procrastination: The Art of Productive Procrastination

It's when you're putting off doing that thing you're supposed to be doing that you can get the most other stuff done. Oh, I don't know, maybe you're supposed to be writing a book but you're ripping your 500-disc CD collection to iTunes and organizing your shoe rack instead. The LifeClever blog says this is a good thing, especially for getting done mundane chores, and lists their favorite structured procrastination activities. What do you do when you can't stand to work on that dreaded, put-off task? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Education: Learn a Foreign Language with Mango

Webapp Mango offers 11 free foreign language courses in Spanish, Russian, Greek, German, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian and Polish. Simply sign up with your email address and you're ready to go. Choose any of the available courses and view slideshow presentations instantly. As you progress through the slides, you'll be able to quiz yourself to see how well you're doing. There are about 100 available lessons per course, and they seem to do a good job setting the foundation for conversational foreign language—and then some. Useful if you're going abroad and need to speak to the locals.

[via] Lifehacker

Personal Relationships: Why You Shouldn't Send That Angry Email

CEO Michael Hyatt says he learned his lesson when it comes to sending angry email:

Several years ago, I wrote a fourteen-page diatribe to a business associate. I skewered him. I was right. He was wrong. And I had the proof. I laid it out in meticulous detail. I prosecuted my case like a lawyer before the bar. I sent it off with fire in my eyes and a healthy does of self-satisfaction in my heart. That'll show him, I thought.

I eagerly waited for his response. After a few weeks, I still hadn't heard a word. So I re-read the letter and was embarrassed. My response was way out of proportion to the stimulus that provoked it. While I was technically right, I was relationally wrong. I never should have sent the letter. I regretted that I had acted so childishly.

Hyatt says that thankfully his email recipient acted like nothing had happened the next time they saw one another, and that he'd learned a lesson. Every single one of us has experienced email regret at one point or another. Hyatt's suggestions for avoiding that include a self-enforced cool-down period, and calling a meeting to talk things out face to face (*gasp!*). How do you inoculate yourself from email regret? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Lifehacker Top 10: Top 10 Firefox Extension-free Tabbed Browsing Techniques

Sure we love our Tab Mix Plus, but there's a ton of tabbed browsing features baked right into Firefox that don't necessitate the extra baggage of an extension. Power web surfers need close control of the dozens of tabs they chew through in a day. From extensive keyboard shortcuts to configuration tweaks to mouse manipulation, today we've got our top 10 favorite Firefox extension-free tabbed browsing tips.

What are your favorite ways to make your Firefox tabs do your bidding? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Updates: If Firefox hasn't taken care of it already, ...

If Firefox hasn't taken care of it already, go grab your update to Firefox 2.0.0.7 to patch a security hole in Firefox and QuickTime.

[via] Lifehacker

Featured Windows Download: Manage Hyperlinks with the Word Hyperlink Checker

Windows only: Freeware Microsoft Word add-in Word Hyperlink Checker manages hyperlinks in Word documents and checks for suspicious or broken links. While the internet has progressively become a more viable source of cited information in documents, Word doesn't manage links all that well by default. The add-in scans your document for links that appear broken or "suspicious" (it's unclear what that entails), then aggregates and marks them as suspicious. Word Hyperlink Checker is a free download, Windows only, Word 2000 and up.

[via] Lifehacker

Webapps: Convert Any Filetype and Share Large Files at You Convert It

Convert documents, images, audio and video files, or even units of measure to virtually any format with web site You Convert It. Similar to previously mentioned Zamzar, all you need to do is upload the file and provide the site with your email address so it knows where to send the download link for the new file once the conversion is complete.

Unlike Zamzar, You Convert It doesn't currently appear to have a filesize limit (Zamzar caps filesizes at 100MB)—I uploaded a 300+MB file in testing. It also works as a file sharing service like YouSendIt and its contemporaries, meaning you can enter a friend's email address and just upload the file without converting it. Last, You Convert It has the kitchen-sink addition of unit conversions, which isn't that useful since you can already use Google for currency conversions and just about any other quick conversions.

You Convert It is the perfect web application for anyone who's got a device—like an iPod—that requires specific filetypes. There are desktop options for these kind of conversions (like iSquint or Videora), but it really doesn't get any easier than these web-based conversion tools.

[via] Lifehacker

Cell Phones: Get Directions with a Phone Call to Dial Dir-ect-ions

Free cell phone service Dial DIR-ECT-IONS (347-328-4667) sends driving directions to your phone via SMS. Just call their number and step through the voice-activated menus, telling it where you want to go and where you're starting from. You should receive a text message on your phone a few seconds after you hang up detailing turn-by-turn directions from your start point to your end point. It's no substitute for a fancy Google Maps application or GPS, but if you have neither it's a simple and useful way to get quick directions on the go. The service currently only works in these nine cities with more on the way.

[via] Lifehacker

Travel: Pack Like a Pro with the Bundled Wrapping Method

If you've been plagued by wrinkled and creased clothes in your suitcase no matter how much care you've taken packing, previously mentioned packing web site OneBag suggests using the bundle wrapping method.

As the name suggests, bundle wrapping involves the careful wrapping of clothes around a central core object, avoiding the folds that result in creases. Furthermore, the tension created in the fabric by the wrapping process significantly reduces the chances of wrinkling.

The instructions are fairly wordy, so be sure to check out the bundle wrapping diagram for a visual step-by-step.

[via] Lifehacker

Moving: Check for Bad Neighbors Before You Move with RottenNeighbor

Check Google Maps mashup RottenNeighbors before you move to a new neighborhood to get a heads-up on the potentially noisy folks next door. Just go to the site and search by your zip code. If you want to add your rotten neighbor to the database and help out future potential tenants, go to the appropriate neighborhood and click the Contribute to This Map link. It's tough to tell which complaints are valid and which are frivolous whining since anyone can contribute to the site with just a couple of clicks, but it still might be worth checking out before you move.

[via] Lifehacker

Office Supplies: Temporarily Pin Documents with Your Stapler

Blogger Jacob Grier discovers what Wikipedia calls "the least known stapling method": pinning. If you rotate the plate on the bottom of your stapler, it will bend staples outward instead of inward to fasten things temporarily. Easily remove a pinned staple by pulling it along the plane of the document. Many modern staplers don't have this feature any more, so pick up an old-school model to try it out.

[via] Lifehacker

Retro Roundup: One Year Ago on Lifehacker

Don't trash broken stuff; send it back
"Rather than just sending your broken stuff to a landfill, pack it up and ship it back to the manufacturer with a letter asking for a new one. You will be amazed by the results."
Technophilia: 15 ways to get more out of Pandora
"I've got 15 ways to get better music - and better performance - out of Pandora."
Control spending with the 30-day rule
"For the next thirty days, think whether you really want the item, but do not buy it."
Geek to Live: Wget local copies of your online research (del.icio.us, digg or Google Notebook)
"Sure, storing your data on the web is great for from-any-online-computer access, but in an age of cheap, enormous hard drives and powerful desktop search, why not replicate the data you keep on the web to your computer?"
Geek to Live: Improve your web site with Google Analytics
"I've tried practically every free web site stats analyzer under the sun - and none has come close to the utility, richness and depth of Google Analytics."
Hack Attack: Side-by-side Windows and Mac OS with Parallels
"Using the previously-mentioned virtual machine software, Parallels Desktop for Mac ($79.99), you can run Mac OS X and Windows (XP, Vista, you name it) side-by-side."
How to create the grunge effect with Photoshop
"Veerle's blog offers a helpful tutorial on creating a grunge look in an image in Photoshop..."
Hack Attack: Get more from Google Desktop
"I love Google Desktop as a desktop search app, but I'm more interested in it as an application launcher first and search tool second."

[via] Lifehacker

To Do Managers: Manage Group Projects with TaskBin

Collaboration webapp Taskbin shares and manages to-do lists among groups. Flag tasks in order of urgency to prioritize, and write notes for yourself or share them with group members. What separates TaskBin from other tools is that it doesn't force you to enter deadlines; it's a simple list manager that gives an unlimited amount of users a lot of flexibility for getting things done. A great choice if you want to get items off your mind without feeling overwhelmed.

[via] Lifehacker

Health: Quick Fixes for Minor Health Problems

Natural medicine expert Candace McNaughton offers some easy fixes for common ailments, like the post-lunch afternoon slump, migraine headaches, fatigue, anxiety and quitting smoking. Hit the play button to hear her five minute talk, or hit the link below for a text transcript.

[via] Lifehacker

Information Addiction: A recent survey shows most Americans are ...

A recent survey shows most Americans are uncomfortable going more than a day without the internet; online activity also lessens the amount of time people spend having sex and socializing with friends face-to-face.

[via] Lifehacker

Ask The Readers: Best Firefox userchrome.css Tweaks?

Just as extensions add functionality and about:config tweaks change behavior, you can style Firefox's "chrome" using the userchrome.css file. The chrome includes menus, toolbars, tabs, and the address bar—all the outer control area in Firefox—and web developers know that CSS sets colors, sizes, visibility and more. We've already covered how to consolidate Firefox's chrome with style tweaks, but there are still lots of possible ways to change the fox's appearance with userchrome.css. Here's a compilation of my favorite userchrome.css tweaks—add yours in the comments.

/* * Do not remove the @namespace line -- it's required for correct functioning */ /* set default namespace to XUL */ @namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* Remove Edit menu (if you already use all the keyboard shortcuts) */ #helpMenu, #edit-menu { display: none !important; } /* Remove Back button when there's nothing to go Back to */ #back-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; } /* Remove Forward button when there's nothing to go Forward to */ #forward-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; } /* Remove Stop button when there's nothing to Stop */ #stop-button[disabled="true"] { display: none; } /* Remove Home button (never use it) */ #home-button { display: none; } /* Remove Go button from address bar */ #go-button-stack, .search-go-button-stack { display: none !important; } /*Remove magnifying glass button from search box*/ .search-go-button-stack { display: none !important; } /* Eliminate the throbber and its annoying movement: */ #throbber-box { display: none !important; } /* Show keyword input box when adding a bookmark */ #keywordRow { display: -moz-grid-line !important; }
/* Make the active tab wider */ tab[selected="true"] { min-width: 200px !important; }

Thanks to TheQwerty for my latest addition, the last few lines, which makes the active tab wider than background tabs.

For more on how to edit userchrome.css, see our previous post on consolidating Firefox's chrome. What else have you hand-added to your chrome style? Let us know in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Office Supplies Fetish: Field Notes Memo Books

Designer notebooks Field Notes are soft-cover, pocket-sized memo books for jotting ideas, making lists and sketching. Each 3.5x5.5" Field Notes book contains 48 pages of graph paper and from all appearances, will survive your back pocket a lot better than the stiffer Moleskine. Practical applications of the notebooks are listed inside (like "Shoddy Sketches," "Treasure Maps," "Gambling Debts" and "Shady Transactions") and you designer types will appreciate the Futura type and printing details also included inside. A pack of three will set you back 10 bucks. Photo by Dan Cederholm used with permission. UPDATE: Don't miss the Lifehacker reader Field Notes discount offer. Thanks, Jim!

[via] Lifehacker

In Brief: Popular news site Digg releases a slew of ...

Popular news site Digg releases a slew of new social features, like adding photos to your profile, sending quick "shouts" and sharing links with other users.

[via] Lifehacker

Ask Lifehacker: Open Text Selection as URL?

Dear Lifehacker,
Is there a Firefox extension or behavior that automates the following process (which I seem to use a dozen times per day)?

1. Select URL
2. Ctrl+C to copy URL
2. Ctrl+T to open a tab
3. Ctrl+V to paste URL
4. Enter to go to the URL
I'd love to be able to select a chunk of text and, using the right-click context menu, send it to the Address bar of a new tab. Bonus points to do it with a keystroke!

Thanks in advance!
Copy and Paster

Dear Copy,

As someone who also used to have to go through all those steps a few times a day with raw URLs or wrapped email URLs, I feel your pain, and highly-recommend the excellent Auto Copy Firefox extension. With Auto Copy installed, when you select text on a page, hit its right-click context menu to open that text as a URL in a new tab, paste it into the search box or location bar. This feature also comes in handy with long emailed URLs that wrap and aren't clickable.

I'm sure there are other extensions and methods to achieve the same result, so readers—you know what to do.

Love,
Lifehacker

[via] Lifehacker

Digg: Surf Digg on Your Mobile Phone

Digg addicts can browse the social news site on their mobile phones with newly launched DiggM8. Unlike previously mentioned Digg River or Digg Mobile, DiggM8 promises to deliver the full story quickly—it actually appears that the stories are routed through the DiggM8 server rather than on the other sites. As an avid Digg user myself, it would be nice if DiggM8 would list the number of votes every story has been given rather than numbering them from one to ten, but regardless, the service looks promising.

[via] Lifehacker

From The 'Duh' Files: Oh look, most US internet users depend on ...

Oh look, most US internet users depend on a search engine called "Google" to find web pages over Yahoo, MSN or Ask.com. We'll have to check it out.

[via] Lifehacker

Featured Windows Download: Manage Your Digital Pics with Windows Live Photo Gallery

Windows only: One of the perks of Windows Vista is that it ships with a built-in digital picture manager called Photo Gallery—but now Windows XP users can get in on the newest beta of that action. The Photo Gallery Beta automatically organizes your pics by date, and can add tags, ratings and captions to each. Edit features include red eye reduction, sharpening, auto-enhance, cropping/resizing, and photo histogram adjustment; you can also publish your photos to Windows Live Spaces (but no Flickr or Shutterfly.) Not convinced that Photo Gallery betters Picasa just yet, but it has potential. Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta is a free download for XP as well as Vista, but watch for installation options which try to get you to set MSN as your default search engine and browser homepage.

[via] Lifehacker

Screenshot Tour: Desktop Show and Tell, Linux Edition

From the wholly minimal to the completely ornate, the Linux desktop has never been sexier. You've already seen the Windows and Mac editions of the Desktop Show and Tell, but you haven't seen variety, inventiveness, and all-around desktop eye candy until you've taken a gander at what your fellow readers are doing with their Linux desktops. Hit the jump for a look at some of our readers' best Linux desktop submissions.

As always, if you need to see the screenshot in greater detail, click the 800 or 1280 links on the bottom right of the image. Most readers provided details describing how they achieved their desktop, so if you like what you see, give it a read. If you don't see the details you need, feel free to ask about it in the comments.

Highlight time:

The purple orb launch pad is a new and interesting take on folder and application launching.
Compiz, Compiz, Cardboard box.
Linux can look a helluva lot like a Mac.
Awn is awesome.

Thanks to everyone who submitted for the Desktop Show and Tell, and keep your eyes open tomorrow for our next show and tell call for submissions.

[via] Lifehacker

Nourish turns RSS feeds into newsletters

Looking for an easy way to set up an email newsletter? Nourish will take any RSS feed and convert it into an email newsletter. The service is free to use, and relatively easy to set up and send out.

Want to keep customers up to date with your own newsletter?For companies that have a blog up and running, you can take that fresh content and easily package it into an email broadcast. Users register an account and presented with a campaign dashboard; four steps then stand in the way of your escape from the land of newsletter-less losers.

Choose a name, subject and to and from name and email address.
RSS Feed import - Paste the URL of your RSS feed, and grab posts from a certain date.
Scheduling - Daily, Weekly and Monthly newsletters can be created at certain times of the day.
Custom design (optional) - if you want your newsletter to better present your brand identity.

Subscribers to the newsletter are imported via a CSV file. When newsletters are sent out, Nourish will provide you with subscribers open rates, click through rates and the number of emails delivered. It's a great free service that has only one drawback, albeit a major one, there are currently only 10 subscribers allowed per account.

[via] Download Squad

Download IBM Lotus Symphony without registering

One of the main complaints we're hearing from readers about IBM's new office suite is that you have to register in order to download it. IBM released Lotus Symphony yesterday. The suite includes a word processor, spreadsheet application and PowerPoint clone. It's built on OpenOffice.org, but it has a look and feel all its own. And it's free, but you have to give away a lot of personal information in order to download Lotus Symphony from IBM's site.

Fortunately, it turns out that there are a few ways to download the program without first signing up. No, we're not talking about downloading it from a gray market BitTorrent tracker, although we're pretty sure that's another possibility.

Download the installer from Softpedia.
Try the direct download link for the Windows version.

If anyone has a good direct download link for the Linux version, let us know in the comments.
[via Cybernet]

[via] Download Squad

Facebook Moo's

Moo cards, made popular by their partnership with web based photo storage site Flickr, have opened up their services to the Facebook user base.

Moo will now be taking advantage of the millions of photos uploaded daily to social networks and give users a link to pull in photos to get printed. Facebook users will be able to browse photos, tags or albums and purchase note cards, business cards or stickers with their choice of a personal image.

Prices for Moo prints from Facebook start at $9.99 for 90 different stickers, 100 mini cards for $19.99 and 16 Notecards for $24.99. Order before September 30th and you could save 15% off your order.

[via] Download Squad

Digg gets (more) social

According to Business Week, Digg is launching a series of new social networking features today. But wait, isn't Digg already pretty social? Well yeah, the site leverages the power of communities by letting users submit and vote on news stories. And you can add "friends" to your profile to make it easier to see what other people are digging. But Digg is no MySpace/Facebook/Friendster.

First up, you'll be able to create a more complete personal profile. This will make it easier to find friends with similar tastes and interests. And you'll be able to send out story links to a limited group of friends rather than submitting them for review by the whole community.

In other words, if you've created a friend group filled with 19th century literature enthusiasts, you can share stories with your friends that would never make it to the front page of Digg.

By beefing up the personal profile page, Digg is also hoping to create a stronger user community base. You'll be able to post more information, links to profiles on other social networks, and multiple pictures. Apparently only about 15% to 20% of Digg's users actually have registered accounts, but that could change if users see more benefits to signing up than just the ability to submit links and comment on stories.

Digg hasn't officially announced the new features yet, but the existing Digg community is already having a thoughtful discussion in the comments of link to the Business Week article.

[via] Download Squad

SimCity Classic online - serious Time Waster

Watching our friends play SimCity on their Nintendo DSes got so frustrating that we finally went out looking to see if there's a free version that can be downloaded. We didn't get that far, however, because a quick trip to Wikipedia informed us that Maxis - the original publisher of SimCity - offers a version of SimCity Classic that you can play online.

Unfortunately, it looks like this has been up for a really long time, as evidenced by the following error you are greeted with if you visit the site with a Firefox browser:

SimCity Classic Live requires Windows 95/98 or Windows NT with either
Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 or higher
or
Netscape Communcator/Navigator 4.0 or higher.

So your choices for popular modern browsers boil down to IE, and well, that's it. Oh, and the other big downside is that to play the game, you have to register giving a username, your first and last name, and a valid email address. And you have to consent to some legal mumbo-jumbo that we didn't read... you should probably read it and let us know if we owe Maxis our first born.

Game play is just as you remembered it - classic and bare-bones, but in full color glory. And it's still really hard.

[via] Download Squad

Propeller launched, with apologies

AOL's old social news site Netscape, has officially relaunched as Propeller, with a few apologies from the team.

We told you about the news that Netscape was planning to reorganize its social news section away from Netscape, and bring it all together in its own unique site. The time has now come, and Propeller has officially launched, Netscape has been moved, feedback is being implemented, performance concerns and technical glitches are getting worked out and we can now make our mind up whether Propeller will live in our bookmark lists.

What's next for Propeller? The content will find its way over to the new Netscape portal as well as on AOL news. Feel free to submit your comments and thoughts about Propeller to the team, they want to hear it.

[via] Download Squad

Add to search box Firefox extension - Browser Tip

Do you find yourself frequently searching a site, and annoyed that you can't search it directly from Firefox's search box like you can with Google, Yahoo and the other default search providers? It turns out there's a way to add the ability to simply add a search provider to the Firefox search box with the click of a mouse. You just need the Add to Search Bar Firefox Add-On, pointed out by Lifehacker.

Using the extension is as simple as right-clicking in the search box on the page that you'd like to add to Firefox, and choosing "Add to Search Bar..." from the context menu. As soon as you've done that, the new search provider will show up in Firefox ready to be used.

[via] Download Squad

Ahoy, mateys! Win a license for CallBurner

Ahoy, mateys! Gather 'round the poopdeck for an important message from yer captains.

Today, in honor of Talk Like a Pirate Day, we be givin' away a full license for CallBurner, a call recorder for Skype that we think is better than a chest full of pirate booty. To enter, all you landlubbers have to do is leave us a note in t' comment section. T' contest ends at 11:59 ET on September 21 (which gives us time to get our peg legs sanded and stained).

Enter now or we'll make ye walk the plank!

Permalink | Email this | Comments

[via] Download Squad

Google phone in the final stages

Rumors has it that the Google branded gPhone is on its way. Now when exactly is a different story.

Our brothers at Engadget report that sources at the DigiTimes have said that Google will definitely be launching a handset. The mobile OS is rumored to be Linux-based. The only issue is that hardware specs, production facility, and operating partners are still getting worked out.

As for the handset design, Google is supposedly leaning towards a 3G device instead of a full EDGE compatible cellphone, this all leading to a first quarter 2008 release.

We suppose we will wait for the initial gPhone announcement before deciding on whether to drop some coin on Google's device or the iPhone.

[via] Download Squad

Google Gadget Ads

It's hard to escape online ads, and now Google has rolled out another ad format in order to take control of another piece of the ad pie and make it more dynamic and interesting. Ads in Google's Gadgets.

The AdWords Gadget program has been built to quite simply turn widgets into ads. These websites within websites can draw in dynamic content including data feeds, maps, images, audio, Flash, HTML and JavaScript content to serve an audience in over 100 countries with no hosting charges attached. The ads can then be embedded and users of your brand can share them amongst friends. Built on the iGoogle platform, companies like AOL and IBM are already using them to drive traffic.

With widgets and gadgets being so easy to embed into social networks and websites, there is surely no stopping Google from deploying these into such high profile locations as MySpace and Facebook.

Check out some samples of the Google Gadgets.

[via] Download Squad

NBC to lauch free video download service

Pretty much every TV network and its sister offers up a way to watch popular shows for free online. Just hop on over to a network website and you'll find a way to watch recent episodes of everything from Heroes to Girlfriends. The episodes are typically free, but include advertising. And not an assortment of commercials like you get on broadcast TV. No, we're talking about a single ad which plays about 8 times per episode. Not that we have a problem with the repeated redundant repetition of a sponsor's message.

You can also download many of the same shows for a fee from services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox. But NBC is preparing to launch a new service that's a combination of the two. NBC Direct will let you download videos to your computer for free. They'll include advertising, and you'll only be able to watch for up to a week after a program's original air date. But you can download a video and watch it on the go when you don't have an active internet connection. No buffering needed. It actually sounds a bit like the BBC's iPlayer.

The move is a little surprising. Or at least the timing is. NBC recently announced that it was terminating its contract to sell movies through Apple's iTunes service. But the company struck a deal to offer shows through Amazon Unbox. The new download service could eat into revenue from Unbox video sales. Perhaps the network is hoping that advertising can be more profitable than video sales.

NBC is also working with News Corp to launch a new online video service called Hulu. While it's not entirely clear whether Hulu will feature full length episodes or just video clips and exclusive content, it now seems like NBC is a bit all over the place when it comes to its streaming/downloadable media strategy. But since nobody quite knows what the future holds for the medium, maybe it's not a bad idea to have all the bases covered.

[via] Download Squad

Plan your trips at TripCart

As the weather slowly shifts from summer to fall, many of us are left thinking about traveling south for some sun. With plenty of trip planning websites out there, TripCart focuses on combining all attractions into a single convenient location.

When the time to getaway rolls around, check in with TripCart. This travel website focuses on attractions that would be interesting to hit up when traveling in the U.S. Select a destination and TripCart pulls up Google Map with pinpoints of places to check out, including hotels, places of interest, theme parks, shopping, golf, sporting events, nature/parks, zoos and aquariums. It certainly takes the hassle out of visiting multiple locations for vacation planning.

Even more useful are the in depth descriptions of cities and the locations around where you are searching. Great if you have never been to the area before.

[via profy]

[via] Download Squad

Man files best lawsuit ever against Google

Google is no stranger to lawsuits. Everyone from Viacom to the country of Thailand has taken legal action against the internet behemoth. Heck, we're betting at least half our readers have tried to file a suit against Google at one time or another.

But we've now found the incontrovertible best lawsuit ever filed against Google. And by best, we mean funniest. And kind of the saddest. This handwritten lawsuit claims that if you take the plaintiff's social security number and turn it upside down, and then scramble the numbers you get a code which spells Google. So obviously Google was trying to violate the plaintiff's civil liberties by adopting his social security number as their company name.

Seriously. That's what he's claiming. We're not kidding. Check out the suit yourself after the jump.

[via Techdirt]

Continue reading Man files best lawsuit ever against Google

[via] Download Squad

Buy a new iPod, pay to download the games you already own

You already know that Apple wants you to buy a new iPod or two pretty much every year. That's why the company keeps coming out with skinnier/cleaner looking devices that have more and more storage. Since 98.9% of the US population already owns an iPod, the company needs to keep pushing out products that make your MP3 player look like a Sony Walkman so that you'll be ashamed to walk around with your ancient technology.

But there's a price to upgrading (beside the hundreds of dollars you spend to, you know, buy a new product). It turns out that if you've purchased games designed for playing on previous versions of the iPod, you'll have to buy the same games again to play them on the latest generation.

On the upside, you get some minor improvements in the new versions of the games. They've been "reformatted" for the new devices. Updated games include Tetris, Soduku, and Ms. Pac-Man. The games will all run on the new iPod Classic and Nano. 15 more games will be added soon. Games cost $5, and may be obsolete next time you buy a new device.

[via Engadget]

[via] Download Squad

TVTonic upgrade adds QuickTime support to Windows Vista Media Center

Waveexpress is releasing an updated version of TVTonic for Windows Vista. The big news is that the upgrade adds support for native QuickTime video playback using Windows Vista's Media Center interface.

TVTonic is an application that works in conjunction with Windows Media Center to download and stream internet video using a 10-foot interface. In other words, you can watch video podcasts like RocketBoom in your living room.

You can download and watch pretty much anything that has an RSS feed, but TVTonic also has an index of 358 video channels. And almost all of them use the QuickTime format, which means if you're using Windows Vista Media Center, up until now you could access only a limited number of channels. Not only does the new version of the software support QuickTime playback using the TVTonic application, but you'll be able to watch QuickTime movies stored in your "My Videos" directories.

[via] Download Squad

Sharing stuff through Google

A new social bookmaking and sharing service has recently had a low profile launch over at Google. Google Shared Stuff. Simply drop a bookmarklet on your browser bar, and click 'Share' when you want to share something that you have come across online. The shared items will then appear on your own unique shared stuff page with descriptions and tags that you associate with the bookmarks.

But that's just one of the options, through Google Shared Stuff not only can you share it on a webpage, but you can choose to email the page to someone else, or share the page through Facebook, Furl, del.icio.us, Social Poster, Reddit or Digg.

Shared Stuff will be accessible when users are logged into their Google account and visit this link. Full link pages can also be shared amongst friends.

UPDATE: You can also check out shared stuff from people you know.
[via GoogleBlogoscoped]

[via] Download Squad

Scriblink - Your own online whiteboard

Scriblink is an online digital whiteboard that allows you collaborate with others online through writing on a digital whiteboard. You can invite up to five people to join your board at a time and can talk to your guests through an in-screen chat function. You can write on your board using different colors and shapes and theres a layout toolkit to help you with the complex stuff.

If you don't have people to collaborate with but feel the need to draw the site also has a "Universal Board" where you can get together with random people from around the world and get your scribble on.

[via EmilyChang]

[via] Download Squad

Facebook Apps 4 sale on eBay

Forget about listing your 'Web 2.0' company on eBay, selling your Facebook app is the in thing to do.

With the launch of the Facebook developer platform, a slew of great Apps have come out, leading the company into a superstar. Logbook, an application where users can add and review movies, books and music is built on top of the Amazon affiliate platform and accepts Google ads. This money generating application is now newly listed on eBay and with 25 bids, the price currently sits at $510. Could this spark a new trend in the Facebook saga? With Facebook recently launching a $10 Million grant fund dedicated to funding companies that have the sole purpose of building dedicated applications, you can bet there are a slew of startups that will just not make it into the fund and choose to unload the app for another developer to work their magic.

Written in PHP and using MySQL on Apache, this application could have a lot of potential for those that put a little marketing effort. There are currently only about 90 users. (all friends and family of the developers no doubt.)

UPDATE: appmrkt is a place where developers can buy and sell Facebook applications.

[via mashable]

[via] Download Squad

FIQL TV lets you create, watch and share music video playlists

Online music community site FIQL is launching a new service today called FIQL TV. While FIQL has been around since 2005, its business model has sort of limited growth. The service lets you create and import music playlists. You can share those playlists with other users. There's just one problem: it was kind of a hassle for anyone to actually use those playlists to listen to music.

The site doesn't host music, and for the most part you can't find free streaming music online, so you needed to link out to services like Napster or Rhapsody if you wanted to listen to the songs.

Now here's the funny part. While it's relatively tricky to find free streaming music online, it's really easy to find free streaming music videos. Just go to YouTube. Or Metacafe. Or DailyMotion or any of the other myriad online video sites that lets users upload clips of their cat doing stupid things, or music videos they've recorded from MTV. Sure, it's illegal to upload a video if you don't own the copyrights, but that hasn't stopped people from doing it. Constantly.

So FIQL TV will take your FIQL playlists and locate corresponding music videos. It's kind of like creating your own MTV. You can also skip ahead or back in the playlist. And there's an embeddable player so you can add your playlist to your own website.

Odds are some of the videos you want to see won't be available, or will be removed by YouTube for copyright violations. But there's an equally good chance some other user will upload the same video. Oh yeah, and sometimes content producers actually put their videos on YouTube on purpose.

Still, basing your business model on the illegal activity of the folks who use another site is a bit tricky. So we're going to say the outlook for FIQL's future is, well... fickle.

FIQL is down for site maintenance right now, but FIQL TV should be up and running later today.

[via TechCrunch]

[via] Download Squad

MOOing your way to a 25% Birthday discount

Its Moo's one year birthday, and they are celebrating by giving everyone a 25% discount!

Moo, the online printer, and creator of the famous MiniCards is now offering a pretty sweet 25% discount for everyone that orders before September 30th. Simply login and enter the code "BIRTHDAYMOO" when prompted.

Current prices for Moo's MiniCards sit at a very reasonable $19.99 for 100 custom high quality cards. (with $4.99 global shipping.)

If you were ever thinking about trying out the Moo service, now is the perfect time.

[via] Download Squad

Email: Yahoo Mail Innovates, Gmail Stagnates

Less than two years after their beta release, Yahoo Mail has begun rolling out of beta after releasing an onslaught of innovative feature improvements along the way. On the other hand, a whopping three years into their beta release, Gmail remains one of the most popular but stagnate web-based beta email apps around—and most of Gmail's innovation since its release has come in the form of third-party hacks and extensions. The short of it: Google makes a great beta, but with Gmail they've been much too slow to actually take the application to the next level. Let's take a look at some of Yahoo Mail's killer out-of-the-box features in comparison to what Gmail is offering.

What They've Both Got

Autocomplete: It's a simple feature, but hell if we don't rely on address auto-completion almost exclusively these days. I don't even know half of my contacts' email addresses any more.

Chat: Gmail's got Google Talk/Chat while Yahoo's integrated Yahoo Messenger. Both work exclusively with users of those email services, which is a little annoying. The more useful chat application depends entirely on which service more of your friends use for email, though Gmail does save chat transcripts, which edges out the built-in Yahoo client.

Keyboard Shortcuts: Both email apps have a fairly good set of default keyboard shortcuts, though both are very different. I lean toward Gmail's shortcuts, having always found them more intuitive. One might be tempted to point out the third-party Gmail Macros, but keep in mind that those aren't actually integrated into Gmail.

Where Yahoo Mail Wins Out

Unlimited Storage: Yahoo thrilled all their users by announcing unlimited storage, meaning you no longer need to keep close watch on your account usage. In contrast, Gmail's once innovative 1GB of storage has progressed to just under 3GB. It's not that 3GB is bad, Gmail, but you're still falling behind the curve.

Built-in RSS: It's by no means as robust as Google Reader, but Yahoo has gone that extra mile and incorporated RSS directly into their email application. And while Google Reader and Gmail share very similar layouts (meaning one could easily imagine a tight integration), Gmail users have yet to see integrated RSS in any form other than third-party hacks.

Push Email for iPhone: It certainly doesn't affect as many users as many of the rest of the features, but Yahoo Mail's support for push email on the iPhone is just another point indicative of their desire to innovate new features into their email client.

Integrated SMS: When Yahoo Mail rolled out of beta, they also added the ability to SMS contacts directly using their email. The SMS feature and out-of-beta rollout still haven't reached my Yahoo Mail account over three weeks since the announcement, but this added feature is obviously a step in the right direction.

Robust contact management: Yahoo Mail's Address Book is head and shoulders above Gmail contact management (which—if you've ever tried viewing "All Contacts"—is an absolute disaster). Incidentally, Yahoo's Address Book also syncs with the iPhone—again, not applicable to everyone, but an absolute killer feature for anyone who owns an iPhone. (And it's worked, too, as I've set up filters to forward all of my important email from Gmail to my Yahoo account for this feature alone.)

Drag and Drop: If you want to file a message into a folder, you can do so in Yahoo Mail with a simple drag and drop. Sure you can label content in Gmail, but unless you're using a third-party add-on, it requires selecting each email you want to label and then choosing a label from a cumbersome drop-down box. I can already see all the labels on the left sidebar, Gmail! Why not add drag-and-drop capabilities like you've already implemented in Google Docs & Spreadsheets labels into Gmail? Or if not, get going on incorporating Gmail Macros (see below).

Where Gmail Tops Yahoo

Threaded Conversations: The one thing that Gmail has done that absolutely puts all other email applications to shame, web or desktop-based, is its threaded conversations. This single feature—along with the third-party Gmail Macros—is what keeps me in complete love with Gmail. It's revolutionized the way I view and keep up with email. The endless thread of Re:s comes to a screeching halt in Gmail, and I still don't understand why every email application doesn't follow suit.

Labels: They may take some getting used to for people who are used to straight folders, but Gmail's labels outsmart Yahoo Mail's folders if only because labels are not buckets in the traditional sense that folders are. You can label a single email with as many labels as you want, meaning you can access through as many organizational avenues as you feel are applicable.

Chat Transcripts: Like I said above, Gmail outdoes Yahoo with it's chat transcripts, which rather seamlessly integrate with regular email content—even within email threads. It's a simple but powerful implementation.

Where Third Party Add-ons Come In

Gmail Macros: Written by Google's very own Mihai Parparita, Gmail Macros up Gmail's keyboard navagation one hundred fold. In fact, Mihai—who's the tech lead for Google Reader—actually integrated a very similar set of keyboard macros into Google Reader, which—*GASP*—just left Google's labs and beta labels in the dust. The Gmail Macros script has been available from Mihai as a Greasemonkey script for a couple of years now, and it's currently bundled into Lifehacker's popular Better Gmail Firefox extension (see below), but when will we see this kind of crazy-useful functionality baked directly into Gmail?

Better Gmail: Because we want to love Gmail so much, Lifehacker has bundled all the greatest third-party Gmail scripts (including Gmail Macros) into a Firefox extension called Better Gmail. Better Gmail adds Gmail Macros, Google Reader integration, Google Calendar integration, and tons more into the best email beta on the block.

The Possibilities

It's probably obvious that Gmail is my preferred web-based email (I've sung its praises many times before), but I'll be damned if I don't want to see some improvements out of it. Aside from what I've discussed above, Gmail could shut me up about most of my complaints if and when they pull off the rumored and much-anticipated offline Gmail via Google Gears. (Is it any wonder that Google Reader was the first—and so far only—Google app to actually use Google Gears?)

Personally, though, I'd much prefer a dedicated Gmail desktop client that incorporates most of the third-party abilities and syncs labels and read/unread status with the web version. Gears could be all right, but sometimes you just need the speed of a dedicated desktop application—but you still want virtually the same interface and a lot of the same features you're used to in the browser. I'm probably asking way too much.

Any Gmail/Yahoo Mail users care to defend/tear down your client? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments.

[via] Lifehacker

Telephony: Hack Your Home Telephone with Asterisk

Telephony geek Brian Aker controls his entire home phone system using the free, open source Asterisk software which does some crazy stuff, like IM's him whenever the phone rings, sets custom MP3 hold music, and—my favorite—forwards annoying telemarketing calls to the very loud sound of monkeys screaming. Hit the play button to hear Brian's recent five minute presentation at the Ignite Seattle tech event. Thanks, Brady!

[via] Lifehacker

Google Reader goes international, loses beta tag

Google Reader has come out of beta. That's right, Google now has at least two services that don't have a beta tag, their search engine and Reader. Gmail, which predates Google Reader still wears a beta label even though it's been a while since we've seen any major new features.

But just a few weeks after Google added the much sought-after search function to its RSS Reader, the company has decided the product is all grown up and ready to go out into the world. And we mean that literally, Google has added support for new languages including French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. There's even a UK English version.

But we have to say, there does seem to be a bit of extra white space at the top left of the screen where the familiar "beta" once rested.

[via] Download Squad

Replace Terminal with iTerm

The Basics

Launch Applications and Documents

Access Files on Your iPod (and Other External Volumes)

Access, Search and List Spotlight File Metadata

Install Open Source Software with Fink

More Fun Stuff

Further Reading