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How To Kill Time Productively On Your Phone Mac only: Web site MacHeist’s second annual shareware bundle sale, which offers nearly $500 worth of software for the relatively low price of $49, is underway. This year’s bundle includes popular Mac shareware like previously mentioned Cha-Ching, AppZapper, TaskPaper, and other killer apps like 1Password. Our focus is almost always on freeware around these parts because—frankly—no one likes paying for software. That said, sometimes you just can’t find a freeware version of a killer piece of shareware, and that’s when deals like MacHeist come into play. Right now the bundle comes with 12 apps with another soon to be unlocked. The MacHeist sale ends in two days.
MacHesit BundleA new study shows that using your mobile phone just before you go to bed can make it harder to get a good night’s sleep. Study participants exposed to the radiation equivalent of a mobile phone took longer to get to the deeper stages of sleep and spent less time in the deepest one than those who were not. This research suggests that if you need to make a phone call in the evening it is much better to use a land line, and don’t have your mobile by your bedside table.
There goes using your cell phone as an alarm clock! Mobiles linked to disturbed sleep [BBC]
One year ago, you learned how to encrypt your instant message conversations with Gaim (now Pidgin).
Mac OS X Leopard only: Why would you start a filename with spaces? To make it appear at the top of the list in Finder when you sort by name, that’s why. Macworld’s Rob Griffiths has been using this trick for a while now, and would hit the spacebar to select the files named that way. But in Leopard, the spacebar invokes Quick Look. His workaround: hold down the Option key, then hit the spacebar to select the space-starting file at the top of the list. Good to know.
File selection tricks for Leopard [Mac OS X Hints]Fans of third-party apps for iPhone/iPod touch and other hacks can take comfort in knowing the 1.1.3 firmware has already been jailbroken, although the complex solution may not be revealed until February. [via]
The Simple Dollar finance blog has a tip that might just make a coupon convert out of those who didn’t think it was worth the time and effort before. Simply take the coupon section out of a Sunday newspaper and stash it away for four weeks. Then: At that point, take the wad of coupons to the store and just look at the shelves. Magically, most of those coupons you have will sync up very well with stuff that’s already on sale on the shelves.
Instant messaging and email are great ways to quickly get ideas and notices across quickly to co-workers, but sometimes an actual, real-time chat session can save you time on replies and confusion. ChatMaker, a free web chat application, instantly creates online chat rooms after you type in the name for one. Inviting others into the chat is as simple as sending them a human-readable URL, and nobody has to sign up or answer an invitation email. The chat interface is simple and familiar, but you don’t get as much flexibility and control as with more old-school solutions like Internet Relay Chat. ChatMaker is a free web service, no sign-up required. For more group chat options, check out Google Talk and the (very) similar ChatCreator.
ChatMaker [via MakeUseOf.com]Google recently unveiled an option to associate non-Gmail email addresses with a Google Account. What’s the point, you might ask? Right now, the answer seems to be that any Google Calendar invitations sent to that non-Gmail address will be registered and placed on your Google Calendar—and you can sign into your account using that same email. Google Blogoscoped notes, however, that tools like Google Docs and other collaborative services will likely benefit from alternate email access in the future. You can’t add a different Gmail address at the moment, but it’s a helpful way to integrate a work or alternate email address with your Gmail/Google life.
My Account [Google via Google Blogoscoped]
