Minimize windows to the system tray with Minime

Tired of looking at icons in your Windows taskbar representing for every running program, including ones you don't click on very often? Minime is a little Windows utility that lets you minimize applications to the system tray. But unlike Trayconizer and TrayEverything, Minime doesn't replace a dozen taskbar icons with a dozen system tray icons. Instead minimized programs are hidden behind a single Minime button.
You can minimize any program using a customizable hotkey, and you can find the hidden apps by clicking the Minime icon in the system tray. It's worth pointing out that when programs are minimized to Minime they don't show up in the Alt+Tab menu, so you'll only want to hide apps that you don't need to access very often. For example you might want to minimize your music player since it can keep the tunes going in the background without your intervention.
Minime is a single executable file that doesn't require installation. In other words, you can throw it on a USB flash drive and carry it with you for use on any PC.

[Via: TechnoSpot ] [Tag: minime, minimize, trayconizer, trayeverything ]

Gwibber brings Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more to Linux desktops

Now that Adobe AIR is officially available for Linux, you can run plenty of popular desktop clients for Twitter in Linux. Twhirl, Alert Thingy, and TweetDeck all run on Adobe AIR. But if you're looking for a native Linux application that can handle Twitter status updates and much more, there's Gwibber.
Like Twhirl and other desktop Twitter apps, Gwibber will show you a list of the most recent updates from your contacts and let you respond with short messages. In addition to Twitter, Gwibber supports updates from Digg, Jaiku, Facebook, Flickr, Indenti.ca and the now defunct Pownce.
One thing that's a bit confusing is that Gwibber doesn't provide a clear way to tell which messages are coming from which services. For instance, I added my Twitter and Flickr accounts to Gwibber and the only way I could tell that some of the updates were from Flickr was because they were accompanied by thumbnail photos. Update: You can adjust the colors for each account in the preferences.
Gwibber packages are available for Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and Fedora.
[Via: MakeUseOf ] [Tag: facebook, gwibber, twitter ]

Voila for Mac is a full-featured screenshot app

Now that I've finally gotten my hands on a Mac, I've got to start looking for apps that provide the same functionality I'm accustomed to in Windows. First on my list: a good, free screenshot program that provides basic editing functions.
Yes, OSX's Grab tool is a good starting point, but I like to be able to crop, edit, add arrows and callouts, and perform other similar chores without having to launch something like Photoshop or GIMP.
Voila provides all the features I'm after. Apart from full screen, window, region, and menu capturing, it also offers an array of editing and notation functions. Arrows, callouts, shapes, and text are easy to add - and text can be edited after it's placed unlike a lot of similar applications. It also supports one-click exporting to iPhoto and Mail.
One glaring omission is resizing. It's something I use all the time, so its absence is a bit of an inconvenience.
The beta version is currently free, though the FAQ states that Voila will indeed become a commercial app. I'm just getting started on my Mac, so if you've got a better free alternative share it in the comments!
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: capture, screenshot ]

Yahoo unveils new webmail, toolbar apps

Yahoo has given their webmail app and their toolbar each a facelift, incorporating many new features into the apps which today must compete with the integration-rich Gmail. Yahoo's tactics are, of course, to include more integration, and the new version provides that with built-in support for things like Yahoo Music, Yahoo TV and more.

On the mailbox side, Yahoo is offering what it calls a “smarter inbox”, a welcome page combined with a prioritization system. It also includes integration with multiple Yahoo services, as well as the ability to provide instant access to third-party services as well. The latter is probably the most important part, and where Yahoo expects to see the most feature-richness come from. They want to see users accessing things like Flickr accounts, blogs and more through their mail account. They're also including Yahoo Updates along with the new mail package.

On the toolbar side they've provided new email features, personalized searching and other functionality. The company, ailing as they are, has a massive user base with which to help them recover.
[Via: Justin Mann ] [Tag: ]

WordPress 2.7 is released

I'll give Brad a pass on being a tad premature with the WordPress 2.7's announcement, because I know that he -- like many of us who use WordPress to power our self-hosted blogs -- was just super-excited about the new release. Well, the wait is over and the official release for WordPress 2.7 is now available from WordPress.org.
WordPress 2.7, named "Coltrane" in honor of the Jazz legend, is a pretty significant step forward in WordPress's history. As Brad noted in his first look at the 2.7 beta, most of these changes are on the backend, but they are designed to greatly enhance your productivity and speed in maintaining your blog. On the front-end side, threaded comment support and support for "sticky" posts make it easier for readers to communicate with one another and access important information.
You can check out the WordPress Codex for 2.7 to see some of the technical details behind the new changes. I had a chance to talk to Mark Jaquith, one of the lead developers for WordPress .org, about the new release and some of his favorite features.
radical change from WordPress 2.5/2.6 and the 2.x series before it. What went into the development and what are some of your favorite UI features?
Mark Jaquith: We did a series of user tests on the 2.5/2.6 admin as well as on an experimental branch nicknamed "Crazyhorse." It involved eye tracking and timing and other nerdy goodies. We got a ton of data from this, as well as a new UI resource in the form of Jane Wells, now an Automattic employee. Jane came in with a lot of UI and usability knowhow, but relative unfamiliarity with WordPress, at least compared to the core developers.
That turned out to be a really good combination, as she challenged a lot of things that we had just sort of taken for granted, or written off as too difficult to fix properly. She was able to tell us exactly why those things needed to be fixed, and back it up with real data. This was a huge change from before, where we'd do things based on instinct or bow to the loudest voices shouting about a problem they were having. I found myself looking at UI issues from new perspectives, and I think the quality of our UI work improved measurably. Everyone seemed really excited about 2.7 development. We had over 150 people contribute code to the release, and many in the core team put in long hours sweating the details together.
My favorite UI features are the customizable post screen and the menu system. I'm especially proud of the new Publish module on the post screen. It's a small thing, but it's an essential and powerful area. I spent a lot of time on that, figuring out ways to make it more intuitive. One example: if you set a post date to a time in the
future, the "Publish" button changes to "Schedule," on the fly. That way you're absolutely certain of what happens when you press that button.
DLS: What are your favorite WordPress 2.7 features or additions?
Mark: My number one favorite feature is the comment moderation keyboard shortcuts. Dealing with comments has always been tedious. Anyone who has ever moderated more than ten comments in one sitting has gotten
mouse fatigue trying to click those "Spam" and "Approve" and "Delete" links over and over. Now, you can moderate comments -- even reply to them -- all without touching the mouse. It's fast, it's efficient, and anyone who gets more than ten comments a day is going to fall in love with it.
My second favorite feature is probably the built-in core upgrades. Too many people are running old versions of WordPress, and a big reason for that is not lack of knowledge, but fear of the upgrade process. This makes upgrading really fast, and really simple. I hope it means that more people will be keeping their WordPress site up to date!
DLS: Auto-updating of the WordPress core is a huge, huge addition. Is there anything (that you know of) that users need to check with their host or server configurations to use this feature?
Mark: The WordPress documentation has a list of compatible hosts
(http://codex.wordpress.org/Core_Update_Host_Compatibility) but there
are certainly things you can do to make things go smoothly. They're a little geeky, but once you get them sorted out, you should be good from then on.
There are two upgrade methods:
The first, and the fastest, is the direct method. This happens only if the server has the ability to overwrite your WordPress files. You'll have to check the "ownership" of the files as well as their permissions. Check with your host about these settings.
The second method is FTP, which is slower, but the only option for many people. For this, you'll usually want the "owner" of the files to be your FTP username. If you can edit your WordPress files via FTP, you're probably good to go here. With this method, you'll get asked for your FTP information.
We hope that web hosts will help their users get any initial permissions tweaks done -- it's in their interest to keep WordPress installs on their server secure and up-to-date!
DLS: Are there any backend code changes you guys are especially proud of or happy with?
Mark: The bulk of the effort was focused on the admin UI, but some backend
stuff was changed. The number one "hidden" backend change was the addition of the comments API. Wouldn't it be cool if you could moderate your comments from your iPhone or from your desktop blogging application? Stay tuned!
DLS: Is there anything for users upgrading to be aware of in advance?
Mark: Any plugin that modifies the administration interface (like custom admin themes) is certainly going to break, but that's to be expected. The good news is that while a lot changed visually, not that much
changed as far as API functions and core WordPress functions. Fewer things are going to break that you'd expect.
Remember that 2.6.5 is still secure -- so if you want to wait a few days to see if your favorite plugins come out with updated versions, you could. Of course, we'll all be partying without you!
--
I'd like to thank Mark for taking the time to talk to me about WordPress 2.7. WordPress 2.7 is free and available from WordPress.org. If you're hesitant about the upgrade (mine went perfectly from 2.6.5 to 2.7), check out these plugin, theme and host from the WordPress Codex.
And check out our gallery of WordPress 2.7 screenshots that highlight some of our favorite features! [Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: blogging, interview, interviews, mark jaquith, MarkJaquith, wordpress, wordpress-2.7 ]

Text messaging returns to Gmail

A few weeks back, Google began rolling out a Gmail Labs feature that enabled people to send text messages to cell phones within the US, but had to pull it back when a showstopper bug related to message transmission was found. Google hopes the second time will be a charm, though, and has finally brought back the SMS feature for their web-based email service.

To use it, one must first enable it through Gmail Labs and then simply input the contact’s 10 digit US cell phone number into the chat box on the left. Those who receive SMS messages from the service will get a unique return phone number from the 406 area code to which they can respond. According to Google, messages from the same person will always come from the same number, so you can even bookmark it in your phone and be sure messages will be delivered to the right person.

Of course, many cell phone users in the US get charged on a per-message-received basis, so if you want to avoid hefty bills just reply “block” or “stop” to either block a specific contact from texting you or stop the service altogether.
[Via: Jose Vilches ] [Tag: ]

Ozh Admin Drop Down plugin now works with WordPress 2.7

WordPress 2.7 was officially released last night after several months in development. The new version of the popular blogging client features a ton of behind the scenes changes, allowing bloggers to more easily install plugins and customize the look and feel of the blogging interface.
One of the most useful improvements was the decision to move most of the site navigation features to a sidebar where you can expand or collapse the sections you need rather than clicking a link and waiting for the page to reload as you did with earlier version of WordPress. But the problem with the sidebar navigation is that it takes up more screen real estate, giving you less room for writing or managing your blog posts.
Enter Ozh' Admin Drop Down Menu. Long before the WordPress team realized the value of drop down menus, this plugin offered bloggers the ability to convert the site navigation links into drop down menus which cut back on the number of page loads you need to wait through to get from the main page to the plugin page, post page, or other pages.
I had been a bit concerned that the developer would stop updating the plugin now that WordPress includes a collapsible menu. But just a few hours after WordPress 2.7 was released, Ozh" Admin Drop Down Menu 3.0 was released with support for the latest version of WordPress. It removes all the navigation links that show up on the left side of the WordPress 2.7 dashboard and replaces them with drop down menus near the top of your screen. The net effect is that you regain a ton of screen real estate.
We'll have a more in-depth look at WordPress 2.7 later today.
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: ozh-admin-drop-down-menu, plugins, wordpress, wordpress-2.7, wordpress-plugins ]

BitLoot helps turn ideas into Open Source software

I've written about plenty of great software, but I'll probably never create any on my own. I'm no programmer, unless you count the projects I used to cobble together on our Commodore 64 and Apple IIe when I was in middle school.
That's why I like the idea of bitloot. It's a simple concept. Submit your idea for an application and it's added to bitloot's listings. Once some financial contributions are made, a developer is selected and creates the code.
Developers that think they've got a cool idea and would like a way to gather some donations can submit an idea and select "me" as the developer.
It's a terrific idea. You get a custom-made program, the developer gets a little compensation for his or her efforts, and the community gets both a new application and open source code to play with.
Bitloot is still fairly new, so why not help get things rolling? Visit the site and submit some ideas, or donate a few bucks to a worthy project!
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: coding, development, FOSS, open-source ]

Amarok 2.0 Linux music player released

Open source music player Amarok 2 was released this week. The latest version of the popular KDE-based application features a completely retooled user interface, integration with online services like Shoutcast, Magnatune, and Jamendo, and support for the KDE 4 desktop environment.
That last bit is important, because if you try to install Amarok 2 on a system running KDE 3.5 you'll probably need to download a whole slew of other updates in order to get the music player working.
There are Windows and OS X ports of Amarok, but right now online Linux distributions (including Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, Fedora, Debian, and PCLinuxOS) are officially supported.
[Via: Ubuntu Unleashed ] [Tag: amarok-2, kde, linux, music ]

Blackbird Web Browser: Because Firefox is Too Navajo for Black Web Surfers [Internet]

Wait, why do I need a special web browser? I mean, I get there's been a long standing digital divide between black America and the technological world (controlled by The Man). But do I really need a repackaged piece of software whose name evokes the Jim Crow era? Last time I checked, I don't physically browse the internet any different than anyone else—evidenced by the fact that Blackbird UI looks exactly like Firefox (both are based around Mozilla), except, you know, with a black color scheme. And great, it comes preloaded with a bunch of bookmarks that might be of interest to the black community. But I'm pretty sure the same thing can be accomplished with an effectively marketed website (black people DO know how to use Google, after all. Shocker!). Maybe 40A, Inc. meant well with Blackbird, but it comes off as a lazy marketing ploy that plays on the emotions of people who are (admittedly) still marginalized when it comes to the online world. And playing along with the notion that blacks and whites (or anyone, for that matter) can't enjoy any of the same things, is the same retarded line of antiquated, ethno-centric thinking that the internet is supposed to destroy. Blah. [Via: Gizmodo, The Gadget Blog ] [Tag: ]

Drawminos: domino knockdown simulator! - Time Waster

If you're like me, you rarely played dominos properly as a kid. Instead, you just built elaborate chains and knocked them down, Domino Rally style. Drawminos is a site that lets you virtually relive those fun times, building and saving different domino setups, so you can watch them fall whenever you want. The best part? You don't have to set the dominos back up when you're done.
If I have a complaint about Drawminos, it's that it's tedious to pick up a new domino every time you want to place one. It would be fun to have a domino tool you could just hold down and drag. I guess that part of the simulation is a bit too realistic for me. On the other hand, you won't run out dominos like you would in real life.
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: dominos, drawminos, game ]