November 2007
54 posts
Google Reader Gets Recommendations, Drag-and-Drop →
Google has released two new features for its RSS reading product, Recommendations and Drag-and-Drop.
The Discovery recommendation feature suggests new sites a user may wish to read based on current subscriptions and (interestingly) browsing history. Google has previously offered feed bundles based on subjects, but this is the first time it has offered customized recommendations in this way.
The...
Google Experimenting With Digg Style Voting On... →
If you saw this one coming, give yourself a very large prize. Google is experimenting with Digg style voting features on search results that allow users to vote up or bury search results they see.
Gmail Chat Adds Groups and Smileys →
Group chat has finally found its way to gmail’s instant messaging system. So right there while you have your email inbox open, you can chat with multiple people at one time. Start a group chat by clicking on the Options link at the bottom of a conversation window. You’ll now see “Group Chat” as a new option. Once that’s selected, just type in the name of the person you’d like to add to your...
Mozilla testers have given our Better Gmail ... →
Mozilla testers have given our Better Gmail 2 extension their stamp of approval; thanks to everyone who pitched in a review! Here’s Better Gmail 2 on Firefox Add-ons.
Sink or Swim: Managing RSS Feeds with Better... →
Besides baseball, coffee, and my music collection, I probably obsess over how I read RSS feeds more than anything. Sometimes it feels like I tinker with the setup more than I actually read the news, but I’m making progress. I won’t claim to be completely satisfied with how or why I try to consume so much information from the internet, but lately I’ve been as content with the process as I can...
OmniFocus Raises the Bar for To-Dos →
We’ve spilled plenty of virtual ink on to-do lists in the past. But despite the plethora of alternatives on the market, there always seems to be room for one more. Now Mac software house The Omni Group is preparing to launch OmniFocus, a “professional-grade task list management” application with its roots in GTD. For web workers who spend most of their days tied to a Mac, it’s definitely worth...
Easily Filter Messages in Gmail [Gmail Tip] →
While it’s not as good as the excellent Filter Assistant user script, Gmail’s added a useful feature to messages: the ability to filter email like the one you’re viewing. To do so, click on the drop-down on the top right, and choose “Filter messages like this.” That will open a new filter form with the From: field filled in with the sender (and in the case of mailing...
Easily Filter Messages in Gmail [Gmail Tip] →
While it’s not as good as the excellent Filter Assistant user script, Gmail’s added a useful feature to messages: the ability to filter email like the one you’re viewing. To do so, click on the drop-down on the top right, and choose “Filter messages like this.” That will open a new filter form with the From: field filled in with the sender (and in the case of mailing...
Get SnagIt 7.25 from TechSmith for free →
Filed under: Design, Utilities, Windows, Freeware
Last week we told you that TechSmith was offering a free version of the Camtasia Studio screencasting software for free. As luck would have it, TechSmith is also giving away free licenses for SnagIt, the company’s popular screen capture utility. The only catch is that just like with the Camtasia Studio offer, TechSmith is offering an older...
Better Gmail 2 Gets Four New Features [Lifehacker... →
Firefox only: Just released an update to the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension, which compiles our favorite Greasemonkey user scripts for the new Gmail interface into one package. The new release includes a slew of recently updated scripts, including Folders4Gmail, Spam Count Hide, a swanky disk Quota Usage Graph, and my personal favorite, a modified version of Gmail Macros that lets you map your...
Zoho Writer Offline with Editing →
Zoho Writer was quick to release offline support using Gears, which allows you to carry read-only views of your data around when you were offline. This was just the first step in their offline support, and now they have announced the next step. This new version allows you to edit on the road with a synchronization system that keeps you sane:
Snag Screenshot App Snagit for Free [Free] →
Windows only: Normally not-free screenshot application SnagIt is being given away in a slightly older version for free—good news for technical writers and others who want to upgrade beyond the PrtSc key. Tech blog Digital Inspiration has the details of how to get a fully unlocked version of SnagIt, which maker TechSmith hopes will entice users into upgrading to version 8.2 at half price. But 7.2...
Celebrity Star Wars photoshopping contest →
Today on the Worth1000 photoshopping contest: shopping celebrity faces onto Star Wars characters. Link
JotSpot to replace Google Pages soon? →
It has been a while since we’ve talked about JotSpot — the wiki service Google acquired on October 31st last year. The last time it came up was when Tony discovered it would be part of Google Apps after playing around with specially crafted website addresses. That turned out to be a false alarm, kind of. Shortly after that article, the method Tony described to verify his theory stopped...
Weekend Reader - Social Nets and Cookbooks →
Redesigns Ahoy - You’ve seen our new look, of course, but if you haven’t popped by our parent site GigaOM lately you might want to pop in there too. We’re trying to make reading our ever-increasing flow of news and opinion online more pleasant - let us know what you think.
People Can’t Leave That Birdie Alone - TweetChannel is a new (invitation-only, so far) service to allow layering...
Live Documents debuts →
Hotmail co-founder Sabeer Bhatia launches his latest product:
Indian software product company, InstaColl today announces the launch of Live Documents, a hybrid online-offline Office suite of applications. Live Documents is a full-featured suite of online Office productivity applications offering functionality equivalent to Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Built using RIA technologies such as Flash...
Geek To Live: Rock Your Presentation with the... →
Remember The Milk, reloaded →
After a lot of late nights (so late, in fact, that the RTM team is now more or less nocturnal), we’re super excited to be launching Remember The Milk “reloaded”. This new version of RTM includes a whole bunch of features and improvements that we’ve developed based on all of your feedback. Read on to find out what’s new!
Improved list view
First up, we’ve been...
EverNote →
EverNote allows you to easily capture any information you like, and find it whenever you want. Create text or handwritten notes, import mobile phone snapshots, clip web pages, and grab content from any application directly into EverNote - so everything is kept in a single place.
Once your data is in EverNote, find it quickly using our advanced search, automatic and custom categories, and...
Great Gear and Gift Ideas for Mobile Web Workers →
If you’re a mobile web worker, there are lots of gadgets and peripherals out there that keep your data more secure, make you more efficient, and won’t weigh you down. In this post, I’ll round up seven examples that I like a lot.
Ironkey Thumb Drives. USB thumb drives have risen hugely in popularity in recent years, especially among portable computer users who frequently want a quick way to...
100+ Ways to Organize Your Life →
Updated GTD/Productivity Links List 04th Oct 2007... →
Huge List Of GTD & Productivity Sites/Blogs »... →
Canadian Police Tolerates Piracy For Personal Use →
The Canadian police announced that it will stop targeting people who download copyrighted material for personal use. Their priority will be to focus on organized crime and copyright theft that affects the health and safety of consumers instead of the cash flow of large corporations.
Gmail Analyzes your Firefox Plugins →
If you want to use Firebug, Google has something to say about it.
The Slow Road to Product Development: Emergent... →
Yes, the project has been moving slowly. I’ve had a few email inquiries regarding the status of the pre-printed Emergent Task Planner Pads. Here’s where we are right now: We have the pads printed and newly shrinkwrapped for durability.
We have our shipping options figured out: US Postal Service flat rate.
We now have an instruction sheet that we have to print (full bleed, 8.5”...
Widgetbox App Accelerator Upgrades →
Widgetbox, which released its App Accelerator for the quick creation of Facebook apps, has a few upgrades to this new tool. You can now create fully functional flash applications for use on Facebook profile pages, which greatly extends the capabilities of a Facebook app for the spot where it’s most likely to be seen by others.
It’s not surprising that this was the top request from developers...
GMail Adding Greasemonkey Support? →
Greasemonkey script support, it turns out, may be built into the new GMail interface. There has been official documentation pages released over at Google code, which is a pretty good indicator its coming true (although we’ve seen these things come and go in the past before Google makes an official announcement). The API has not been settled out completely, and compatibility is presently to be...
87 Great Photography Blogs and Feeds →
Title says it all
Adobe launches Buzzword public beta →
Filed under: Internet, Office, Web services, Adobe, Beta, web 2.0
Looking for an online word processing application but you don’t fancy Google Docs, Zoho Writer, or ThinkFree? Adobe has launched a public beta of Buzzword. Previously, you could only access the online writing/collaborating application with an invitation. Buzzword is a slick web application that looks unlike any other word...
Google: you'll never have to ask (a person) for... →
Filed under: Google, Search
You can get directions on your PC, your phone, or by talking to that friendly gas station attendant. But if you’re the sort of person who never likes to admit you’re lost, Google’s got you covered. The company plans to add Google Maps features to 3500 U.S. gas station pumps starting next month. Not only will you get access to on-screen directions...
Inka Pen →
I’ve been writing way too much heavy stuff about focus lately, so it’s time for a quick gear break!
I ordered an Inka Pen from ThinkGeek a few weeks ago, hoping to use it as a replacement for the flat pens I’ve been using. While I like the flat pens, they are not quite as durable in the pocket, and despite their relative thinness they tend to bulge out of my reporter-style...
Kick Off Your Daily Firefox Browsing with Morning... →
When you start your day each morning, you may have a set of sites you visit — your online email and calendar, a couple news sites, maybe a blog or two, your Facebook or MySpace page. Make it easy on yourself by installing the dead-simple Morning Coffee Firefox add-on. It allows you to open a bunch of sites at once with the click of a button. That way, even if you haven’t yet had your strong cup...
A hopeful Quicksilver alternative for Windows →
Windows users who are jealous of Quicksilver’s might on the Mac now have a glimmer of hope in Skylight.
Like Quicksilver, Skylight is an automation utility that lets you launch applications, find files, and execute actions with a quick series of keystrokes.
Skylight’s off to a good start, but it’s still not as robust as Quicksilver. It has a limited set of actions, no ability to create...
Free On-Demand Project Management Help →
No matter how organized you are, you can always improve. There are a few on-demand project managers on the web that can help you do so, and this blog has done extensive coverage on free task management applications and to-do list managers. If you want an application that gets a little more sophisticated than many of the simple to-do list managers, look into Wrike.
In Wrike, you manage your...
How Can Flock’s Social Browser Play Into the... →
We’ve followed the development of Flock 1.0 pretty closely, so we figured we should let you know that the browser has emerged from public beta and has officially launched its full release, available to all users here. There is Flock support for Macs, PCs and Linux.
As I mentioned before, the new Flock has some added social features that make it very simple to share media across networks. So...
Google Launches Android, an Open Mobile Platform →
“Google Phone” turned out to be a mobile platform and not a phone optimized for running Google apps. “Android is the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. It includes an operating system, user-interface and applications — all of the software to run a mobile phone, but without the proprietary obstacles that have hindered mobile innovation,”...
Breaking: Google Announces Android and Open... →
Google just officially announced the Open Handset Alliance to create an open platform (to be called Android) for a Linux phone that can run mobile Google apps and others. The 34 partners include T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, NTT Docomo, China Mobile, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Motorola, Samsung, HTC, Qualcomm, Intel, and Google itself. No mention of Verizon, AT&T, Vodafone, or Nokia (which is...
Get Smarter and More Productive on Twitter... →
Blogger and Lifehacker reader Caroline Middlebrook has put together a comprehensive guide to using, being productive with and—just as important—not abusing the micro-blogging service Twitter. Many of her tips and advice should be familiar to regular Twitter users (and Lifehacker readers), but her compilations of software tools, webapps, mashups and productivity tools are great all-in-one lists...
BitTorrent blocking goes north: Canadian ISP... →
Candian ISP Bell Sympatico has admitted to using bandwidth throttling technologies that impose limits on peer-to-peer traffic.
Microsoft’s Answer to Google Gears →
Microsoft is rolling out a new technology called the Microsoft Sync Framework, which looks to be the company’s answer to Google Gears.
It will let developers create web services and databases as offline applications. The Framework will offer P2P synchronization of any file type, including contacts, music, videos, images and settings, and provides built-in support for synchronizing relational...
Microsoft is rolling out Windows Live Calendar →
Filed under: Internet, Productivity, Web services, Microsoft, Beta
Microsoft appears to be taking a cue from Google, and is rolling out its latest web service to just a few Windows Live users at a time. LiveSide reports that some folks are able to access the new Windows Live Calendar today, while others will be taken to Hotmail or MSN Calendar if they follow that link. The updated calendar...
Splashup: one of the best online image editors... →
Filed under: Design, Internet, Web services
While you’re waiting for Adobe to release Photoshop Express, you might want to take a look at Splashup. This web-based image editor has all your usual features like resizing, cropping, and some basic effects like sharpening, blurring, and pixelizing. But there are also some pretty advanced color controls and you an even use layered effects. ...
Flock 1.0 Released: Next Gen Social browser →
Flock 1.0 is now available for download. In the couple of weeks I’ve been using it, Flock hasn’t crashed once, Seriously Firefox users having issues with crashes should move over to Flock.
Google Continues “User Appreciation Week” with... →
Google listens to its users. In what seems to be a week full of helpful updates for Google apps, the company has added labels to Google Notebook. Each note can be labeled for better search and organization of your content. So in addition to sorting your notes by date, they can also be filtered by label.
The application also imports all the labels and web pages from Google Bookmarks and adds...
Vader en amour … →
Darth Vader qui est en amour … voilà une révolution n’est-ce pas?
New for Pro: Introducing Remember The Milk for... →
It’s been an extremely popular request, and today we’re excited to announce the availability of a special version of Remember The Milk that’s optimized for the iPhone and iPod touch. It joins MilkSync as the second feature available exclusively for those special people who have Pro accounts (don’t have one yet? Upgrade today :)
Like the original RTM mobile version, the...
Google OpenSocial Now Live! →
We’ve been waiting all day for Google’s OpenSocial site to start working, and it has finally happened.
The site contains the official OpenSocial API documents, developers blog, featured community gadgets, and featured videos. Unless you’re a developer dying to see the inner workings of the APIs, there isn’t really much new information up there; everything’s been extensively covered here at...
Flock 1.0 Released →
Flock 1.0 (production version) is now available for download.
Some reports have suggested that many of the Flock tweaks to the underlying Firefox engine were designed specifically to provide a more stable browsing experience; in the couple of weeks I’ve been using it, Flock hasn’t crashed once, where as I had grown so sick of Firefox crashing I had switched to using Safari. If you’re having...
Go Highligher Crazy with Mojonote’s New Features →
Mojonote, the online calendar and planning tool, has rolled out a pretty big update, which is more important in concept than in function. The service is now 100% free. For a tool such as Mojonote, which started out with premium plan options, making the shift to a free service is usually the opposite of what we see occurring in this space. Everybody loves free, though, so hopefully the move will...
