The Best Ways To De-Stink Your Stuff 
In Memoriam: Our Favourite Apps And Services That Have Gone Belly Up 
How To Prepare For A Move Overseas 
From Saucy Pics To Passwords: How To Share Sensitive Information 
How Do IKEA's Prices In Australia Compare? 
New flybuys Earns Discounts Faster (But They're Not Good Discounts) Well we were hoping for a Google phone, and what Google’s delivered instead is Android, an open software mobile phone. Google’s fostering development on the platform by releasing a developer kit and offering $US10 million in prizes for the best software developed for the new platform.
ZDNet has today published an interview with Andy Rubin, head of mobile platforms at Google, where he talks about Android, Linux, the iPhone and the “Dream” prototype phone. Read it here.
If you don’t think you can count on your poor parenting skills and the angst of existence in our hellbent society to ruin your child’s life, why not ensure it by chosing a nerdy name for him or her from the annals of science fiction? You have to wonder just how nerdy we’ve become when Sci-Fi Baby Names: 500 Out-of-This-World Baby Names from Anakin to Zardoz gets published. It got me to wondering how many girls are running around out there named Leia. Nice name, but do you think she’ll ever forgive you for it?
I guess parents have been embarrassing their kids like this forever – my dad’s middle name is Rhett because my grandmother was watching Gone with the Wind while in labour, and I’ve met a couple of people named after Lord of the Rings characters. So, do you have a nerdy name, or know someone who does? Spill all in comments please!
Aw, little Nuchadnezzar has your dimples! [Wired's Geekdad blog]
We’re expecting a review unit of ASUS’s Linux-based mini-laptop to arrive at Lifehacker’s door today, so you can expect a full review next week, but I’ve already discovered one thing which I thought was worth correcting immediately. At the launch the other day, an ASUS rep told me it gets up to 5 hours battery life, and I duly quoted this in my writeup of my first impressions of the laptop. But when chatting with another journo I found out she’d been quoted 2-3 hours! I contacted ASUS to get the story straight, and their official response was:
“The battery is a 4 cell: 5200 mAh with an average life of 3.5 hours.”
That’s a lot less than the “up to 5 hours” I was originally quoted, so I’ll be checking battery life carefully when I do the review!
It’s election eve in Australia, so we’ve compiled a roundup of all the information you need for voting tomorrow. Below the cut you can find information on the best information available online to find out who your candidates are and where to vote, along with the a wrap up of the election guides that are available online, and even how to get the election results SMSed to you!
Don’t forget to vote, and if you’re having an election night party, have fun! :)
One year ago, Lifehacker alum Rick posted 11 killer freebies for your Pocket PC.
Power up your Flickr account with the Digital Photography School weblog’s helpful roundup of 10 Greasemonkey extensions that take some of the irk out of Flickr. A few could be real time-savers, including a Flickr mail manager and a multi-group submission tool—but I’m particularly partial to the Auto Page script, which automatically loads new pages of a photostream Google Reader-style when you scroll to the bottom of the current page—meaning you don’t need to click the Next button. All the scripts require Firefox and the Greasemonkey extension. For even more Flickr streamlining through the power of Firefox, check out Gina’s Better Flickr extension. Screenshot by steeev.
10 Really Useful Flickr Greasemonkey Userscripts [Digital Photography School]Windows only: Freeware application SmartJournal archives your Windows Mobile cell phone’s call history—including incoming, outgoing, and missed calls—with Outlook’s Journal, a lesser-known feature of the popular email client. After you’ve installed SmartJournal (which is in German—though that shouldn’t affect any operation, since its actions are all behind the scenes), the program runs alongside ActiveSync and writes the phone number, the type of call (incoming, outgoing, missed), date, duration, and name of contact (when available) to the Outlook Journal. SmartJournal is freeware, Windows only, requires a Windows Mobile phone. My Windows Mobile device is on the fritz so I was unable to test this, but if you give it a try, let us know how it worked for you in the comments.
SmartJournal [via Inspect My Gadget]Google has changed its translator to use its own in-house language-to-language converter. Time will tell how it rates against the many other translation tools on the web. [via]
Collaborative web search tool StumbleUpon has always helped you avoid unnecessary trips to Google, but now the free browser plug-in can also improve your search results there—along with Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and other sites as well. Starting today, StumbleUpon users should notice star ratings and speech balloons next to their results, indicating the number of thumbs up and overall popularity of the site, as well as the names of StumbleUpon friends who have voted the site up. Links to discussion pages are also provided on the search and results pages.
The new search features come as part of an upgrade package to the StumbleUpon browser add-on that includes a familiar feature to find friends through your e-mail account, Facebook login, and Outlook contacts. Those who want to keep their search results clean can easily disable the new features in the StumbleUpon preferences. For tips on better using StumbleUpon, check out Wendy’s guide to getting the most out of your stumbles.
StumbleUpon [via CNET News]Track your perishable food’s expiration dates and receive reminders days before the food goes bad with web site Best When Used By. If you’re in a pinch to put those edible treats to good use while you still can, the site also features a recipe search to help you make the most of what’s left before the food spoils. On a related note, learn more about food expiration dates to determine which foods you really must toss once the date has passed.
Best When Used By
