There aren't many gadgets on my Vista or Windows 7 desktops yet. I have a hard time finding any that are compelling enough to keep installed. This handy little one from Raneri Web Design, however, is firmly lodged in the sidebar of my workbench computer.
The gCalTasks gadget is a slick desktop timer that integrates with your Google Calendars. Enter your credential and choose the calendar to track your times on - I decided to set up a brand new one specifically for tracking.
Enter a tag line for your task, click start, and then click stop when you're done. Information is automatically sent to your calendar, where the agenda view provides a nice recap of your activities. It's a simple, low-resource way to keep tabs on your time.
Thanks, Ricardo!
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: billing, google-calendar, tasks, time-tracking, timer ]
Track task times in your Google Calendar with a Gadget
Gwibber brings Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and more to Linux desktops
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 ]
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: ]
5 disposable email services with RSS support
If you're looking for a little anonymity and security when signing up for download links or invite codes, a disposable email service is a good option. Instead of providing one of your working email addresses, just grab a meaningless temporary one from any of these sites and keep your identity hidden.
These five sites all provide RSS feeds for your address, which is handy. No need to return to the site after registration, just subcribe with your favorite newsreader.
MailCatch - Choose your own address or roll the dice. MailCatch also provides an iGoogle gadget and creates a subdomain (using your address) for quick access to your web inbox. MailCatch also provides temporary forwards, and they've got an FAQ and forums.
MyTrashMail - Offers password protected temporary accounts in addition to the traditional public variety. Note that the Firefox "toolbar" they offer requires you have the Google toolbar installed first. FAQ and about links are prominently displayed.
FilzMail - Sports a clean interface featuring puffy, web 2.0 images. Create your own address or generate a random one and messages are available for 24 hours (which can be extended).
Incognito Mail - The option for minimalists. Choose or generate your address, and it's valid for 60 minutes. No FAQ or TOS is posted. There are a number of other services that look very similar to Incognito Mail, offering different time limits.
DodgeIt - Ok, maybe this is the one for minimalists. You pick the address (no random generator), you check for messages - they're deleted after seven days.
Do you use a different service? Share it with us, but stay on topic - make sure it supports RSS!
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: anonymity, anonymous, disposable, mail, privacy ]
Melt Mail provides free, disposable email forwarding
We've looked at other disposable email services (like my list of 5 with RSS support) before. Melt Mail is a nice alternative to other disposable account services.
Many require you return to their site to check for messages, but Melt Mail lets you work with any real email address.
Melt Mail works with your existing email, setting up a temporary forward @meltmail.com. You've got four time periods to choose from - three, six, 12, or 24 hours. After that, your address expires and forwards from it to your real account cease.
Once your address has been created, you can choose to pop up a small reminder window that displays your address and an expiration countdown.
One source of concern I have with the service is the lack of a privacy statement. If you're going to use Melt Mail (or a service like this), check for one before signing up. Who's to say your real address won't end up on someone's mailing list.
Melt Mail is a slick service, I'll just stick to using it with my "registration" gMail account.
[Via: Download Squad ] [Tag: disposable, email, forward, privacy ]
Techmeme adds search, becomes useful to the general public
Over the last few years, technology news site Techmeme has gotten a lot of attention in the technology blogosphere. That's because it's a tool for tracking conversations and hot topics in the tech blogosphere. Yes, part of the reason we as tech bloggers pay so much attention to Techmeme is because we're self absorbed. But the site has also been a great source of news. Want to know what today's biggest stories are? Techmeme will tell you.
But Techmeme has historically done a pretty lousy job of telling you yesterday's big stories. Or last week's. Or last years. Because the site has lacked any sort of a search function. But today, Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera finally added a search box to the site.
Only the top stories are indexed. And by default only the fist few sentences from each story. So Techmeme isn't exactly a Google News killer. You won't find every article ever written about a topic. But what you will find are some of the top stories (or at least the most discussed/blogged about stories) written about a topic. Or if you want to find every article from a certain source that made it onto Techmeme, you can just search for a URL. For example sourceurl:"http://www.downloadsquad.com" brings up a list of Download Squad stories that have been featured on the site.
The launch of the search tool actually makes Techmeme a site worth visiting if you're not just trying to figure out which stories Download Squad, TechCrunch, CNET, ReadWriteWeb, and Engadget are covering today.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
Hulu: People are actually watching us
Much to everyone's amazement, Hulu doesn't suck. Seriously. When Fox and NBC first announced plans to get into the online video streaming business, a lot of commenters spent a lot of time talking about how silly it would be to take on YouTube. And then Hulu started showing full length movies and TV shows with minimal advertisements. The video quality is fairly good, and the content library includes things you might actually want to watch. Now, just two months after publicly launching, Hulu reports that:
- The site has served up more than 63 million video streams
- The average Hulu user watches 2 hours of Hulu video each month
- Hulu is now the top network video site
Hulu has also launched a distribution deal with TV.com today, and plans to start streaming video through TVGuide.com, Break.com, Zap2it, BuddyTV, Flixter, and MyYearbook in the next few weeks.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
Bicycle powered Google Earth flight simulator
Sure Google added a flight simulator to Google Earth last year. But what fun is a flight simulator if you have to use your mouse and keyboard to navigate? Well, some. But not as much fun as flying through Google Earth while riding a bicycle, E.T.-style.
Want to build your own bike-powered Google Earth flight sim? Here's what you need:
- A programmable SunSpot wireless sensor
- A bunch of corresponding sensors
- A bike or other unit that you want to use for navigation/exercise
- Way too much free time on your hands
The flight simulator lets you know what it would be like to pedal your bike through the sky. Or you could just take your bike outside and figure out what it's like to pedal through your neighborhood.
[Via: Hackszine ]
[Tag: ]
Redlasso offering bloggers TV/radio searchable database
Much of TV and radio has so far been unsearchable in any truly convenient way. Until now, finding and embedding a TV clip often ends requires the use of less-than-legal services and practices. This is the hole Redlasso is trying to fill, though, it's hard to foresee the sight's success (or failure.
The accounts are monitored to make sure no one's watching extended amounts of programming. This makes it an inconvenient tool for media pirates, but it is intended solely for bloggers and other web publishers only. As a result, expect some type of application process when requesting an account. As for us, we're waiting on our acceptance emails.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
Opera: There's a good chance you've visited Facebook on your phone
Opera has released a report on the state of the mobile web. And considering the company claims more than 44 million users for its Opera Mini cellphone web browser, Opera's in as good a position as any company to report on mobile web usage.
There are two trends that are particularly noteworthy. First, 77% of all traffic was to full web pages, not stripped down mobile pages. This probably shouldn't be that surprising, since Opera Mini renders full pages pretty quickly and lets users zoom in and out to read the fine print. And while WAP might have been pretty exciting a few years ago when there wasn't as much rich media content on the web, and when mobile internet connections were significantly slower, those days are long gone.
The second trend is a bit more surprising. 40% of worldwide traffic was directed to social networks. In some countries including the US, South Africa, and Indonesia, that number was as high as 60%. Now, it's not like we didn't know that social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Orkut, and Bebo were popular. We just didn't figure people would be spending half of their mobile web browsing time visiting them.
What sites do you visit regularly with your mobile web browser?
[Via: VentureBeat ]
[Tag: ]
Lycos launches Webon web site builder
This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.
IE7Pro 2.3 adds prefetching, session management to Internet Explorer
IE7Pro is a plugin for Internet Explorer 7 and 8 that brings some of the best features of Firefox and other web browsers to Microsoft's browser. Yes, we know many folks would suggest just using Firefox or Opera, but if you need to use IE for one reason or another (perhaps there are some web sites you visit regularly which aren't rendered properly by other browsers), IE7Pro can make your browsing experience much more pleasant.
IE7Pro 2.3 was released today, with a handful of bug fixes and new features, including:
- FasterIE module with support for prefetching, which should speed up your browsing experience
- Session Manager which allows you to save open tabs when closing your browser and reopen those tabs next time you login.
- The MiniDM download manager now supports drag & drop and multiple links
You can check out a complete list of updates in the IE7Pro 2.3 changelog.
[Via: CyberNet ]
[Tag: ]
Backup your Firefox, Flock, or Thunderbird profiles with MozBackup 1.4.8
Last time we checked in on Firefox backup utility MozBackup, the developer had just added support for Firefox 3 beta. Apparently it's been a busy half year over at MozBackup HQ, because this week MozBackup 1.4.8 was released, with the following new features:
- Create automatic backups via command line
- New Installer
- Supports backup of unknown files from user profiles
- Backup profiles and settings for: Firefox 2/3, Flock, SeaMonkey, Netscape Navigator 9.0, Netscape Messenger 9.0, Thunderbird, Spicebird, Firefox Portable, and Thunderbird Portable
If you're just looking or a quick way to backup your Firefox extensions, bookmarks, and other settings, you can always check out the FEBE and CLEO Firefox add-ons. But MozBackup looks like a nice all-in-on tool if you have several Mozilla-based programs that you want to backup.
MozBackup is available for Windows 98 through Vista.
[Via: CyberNet ]
[Tag: ]
AOL completes take-over of Bebo
While Bebo is most popular in the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand, AOL is hoping grow this upcoming social network in the US. Silicon Alley Insider seems to think AOL will layoff employees working in the AIM/ICQ division due to the restructuring process.
What do you think? Did AOL make a good decision? Do you think this acquisition puts AIM at risk? Be sure to voice your opinion in the comments!
[Via: InformationWeek ]
[Tag: ]
AOL gives out $100,000 in prizes to AIM plugin coders
AOL is getting serious about opening up its popular instant messenger application. A few months ago the company launched the Open AIM initiative, making available the APIs and documentation developers need to add AIM features to third party applications or to develop third party plugins for AIM. Now AOL, which happens to be this blog's parent company, has announced the winners of a $100,000 design competition. Winning entries included applications that let you:
- Instantly translate messages from one language to another
- Preview an URL in an IM by hovering your mouse over it
- Manage your RSS feeds from within AIM
- Share your desktop with another AIM user
- Convert text-based instant messages to speech
Nine winners scored $10,000, while 20 more winners got $500 prizes. You can check out a list of winner and see all the submissions at the TopCoder contest page.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
mooColorFinder finds web colors
If you're in the business of pirating colors from websites, then mooColorFinder is here to help you. Just type in a web address (say, your favorite blog) and mooColorFinder will return the colors used on that website. The colors are display as little tiles of color; which you can then mouse over to get the hex color.
Now, we should note that this web service doesn't seem to always work correctly on certain websites. We believe it has to do with the way in which the site was coded.
If you prefer desktop applications to web apps, you could always use DigitalColor Meter.app (Mac; found in /Applications/Utilities/) or Instant Eyedropper for Windows.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
MyGads remembers your wife's birthday
For instance, if you want to remember "My Birthday," then you could create a statement similar to "My Birthday - 12/06." You could then text or IM MyGads to retrieve the birthday. This service has unlimited uses and might just get you out of a sticky situation, say, remembering your anniversary or wife's birthday.
[Via: Download Squad ]
[Tag: ]
eBay eliminates negative feedback from sellers
As expected, eBay has banned sellers from leaving negative or neutral feedback. Earlier this ear the auction site announced plans to change its feedback policy in order to discourage sellers from leaving negative feedback in retribution for negative comments from buyers.
On the one hand, this seems like a reasonable measure to prevent sellers from abusing the feedback system. On the other hand, there really are bad buyers out there. Some people bid on auctions and then back out either because they misread the item descriptions or never had any intention of paying in the first place. And while sellers can request a refund for transaction fees from eBay, they then have to either offer the item to another bidder for a lower price or re-list the item.
It would probably make a lot more sense for eBay to allow sellers to leave negative feedback -- but only before buyers leave feedback. That way there's no way to leave a nasty comment in response to negative feedback. Or perhaps eBay could allow negative feedback only after a reasonable period of time has passed, like 14 days or a month. That way buyers and sellers should have plenty of time to resolve their differences before leaving feedback.
[Via: Wired ]
[Tag: ]
Is Twitter Down? Yes or No
Twitter may be addictive, popular with the geek crowd, and possibly even the next Facebook. But the service sure goes down pretty frequently. You'd think Twitter's frequent downtime/outages would present an opportunity for another micro-blogging service like Pownce or Jaiku to swoop in and steal the site's user base. But once you've got a few hundred followers, you're pretty much locked in to the service.
So what's a Twitter addict to do when they can't login to the service? Well, the first thing you should do is check and see if you're the only one having the problem. And since you can't send out a tweet asking your followers for help, you can turn to Is Twitter Down. This web site makes Down for Everyone or Just Me look feature-rich. While that site will actually spit out a sentence letting you know if the web page you enter is down or not, Is Twitter Down gives you a monosyllabic answer to just one question: Is Twitter down.
The site does have one more trick up its sleeve. Click on Yes or No and you get taken to an Amazon product page for a rather appropriate item.
Oh, and in related news, Down for Everyone or Just Me is down today. There's a nice message on the site letting us know it will be back soon though.
Thanks deathwombat!
[Via: ouroboros ]
[Tag: ]
Study: Digital divide is alive and well in the US
- Only 7 percent of those 20 million households plants to sign up for internet service within the next year.
- Almost 33 % of heads of household have never created a document on a computer
- Half of the folks who say they've never used email are over 65
- More than half of those who haven't ever used email have no post-secondary education
[Via: CNET ]
[Tag: ]