Friday, March 21, 2008

Quickly Right-Side Videos with Free Video Flip and Rotate

11:40PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Got a cell-cam clip or other video that’s in need of some right-side-up rotating for compute and television display? Free Video Flip and Rotate, an appropriately titled free Windows utility, will get the job done. The interface is dead-simple: Choose a file, decide which way and by how many degrees you need to rotate, and hit “Rotate.” The video will likely grow a bit—about 25 percent, by some accounts—and take some time, depending on your video size, but runs fairly fast and without installing anything else on your system. Free Video Flip and Rotate is a free download for Windows systems only. More »

Get the Most from Your Rechargeable Batteries

2:00PM Adam Pash | Blogger Jeff Atwood has been rolling with rechargable batteries since the late 90s, and after a bit of research he delves into the finer points of making the most of your rechargeable batteries, from choosing the longest lasting batteries to finding the best types of chargers. In both cases, Atwood highlights the tools that will give you the most bang for your buck. Whether you’re keen on rechargeable batteries but quickly draining batteries have you questioning your rechargeable ways, or you want to start saving money and the environment by switching to rechargeable, this post is a must-read. Adventures in Rechargeable Batteries [Coding Horror] More »

Get Rid of the Junk Left Over after You Install Vista SP1

1:00PM Adam Pash | If you upgraded to Vista Service Pack 1 when it went live earlier this week, Windows left behind several files system files from your pre-SP1 install that aren’t being used any longer. The files are left taking up space on your drive so that you can roll back SP1 if you wanted to, but since you’re unlikely to grow sick of all those improvements, weblog Digital Inspiration details how to remove the unneeded junk files and free up space on your hard drive. There are no manual steps involved. Just open your Windows command prompt and type vsp1cln.exe (short for Vista SP1 Cleaner). It takes less than a minute to execute. Just remember, once you execute the SP1 cleaner, you won’t be able to roll back, so make sure you’re happy with SP1 before you start freeing up space. Finished Installing Windows Vista SP1 ? Now Remove All The Junk Files [Digital Inspiration] More »

Create Individual Tracks from One Long Concert Track in iTunes

11:00AM Adam Pash | Dear Lifehacker, I’ve got lots of concert tracks in iTunes that are basically one long recording with no separation between tracks. Is there a way to split it up into individual tracks in iTunes? I’ve looked, but I don’t see any iTunes feature that appears to handle this.Sincerely,Longing for Shorter Dear Longing,It is possible to do what you want within iTunes, but you’re right—iTunes doesn’t make it obvious how. In fact, it’s more of an iTunes hack than an intended feature, but either way, here’s how it works. More »

How the Kindle Saves You Time (If Not Money)

10:00AM Gina Trapani | Normally we leave gadget reviews to the crazy cats over at Gizmodo, but when reader Pete Riley told us he’s “totally hooked” on Amazon’s new reading device Kindle because of its time-saving superpowers, we had to know more. Right now the $399 e-reader is out of stock, but since Pete’s one of the lucky ones who got ahold of the device, he was kind enough to write up his impressions. More »

Create a Shortcut and Hotkey to Eject Your CD/DVD Drive

9:00AM Adam Pash | The How-To Geek weblog details how to create a desktop or keyboard shortcut to instantly eject your CD or DVD drive on your Windows computer. The special sauce lies in using the previously mentioned command line tool NirCmd, and you’re basically creating a shortcut that executes NirCmd’s “cdrom open” command. Quick and simple, when you’re done you’ll be ejecting from the keyboard any time you want. If you’re looking to safely eject your USB drives, on the other hand, we’ve covered that, too. Create a Shortcut or Hotkey to Eject the CD/DVD Drive [the How-To Geek] More »

Embed Your To-Do List Onto Your Desktop

8:00AM Gina Trapani | For the next week and a half, readers are submitting their best life hack for a chance to win an autographed copy of our new book, Upgrade Your Life. Reader Denis wanted to embed a to-do list on his Windows desktop, and came up with a no-install solution: More »

IM App Digsby Available to All, Adds More Features

7:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware instant messaging application Digsby, which boasts integration not only across chat networks but also with your email and social networking web sites, has come out of private beta and added a few more spicy features. Among them, Digsby has added Twitter support, inline spell checking, and audio/video chat with TokBox, the same service Meebo is using to add A/V chat to their service. Aside from the perks that come with most cross-service chat apps (i.e., seamless connections to different IM services from one place), Digsby goes the extra mile by updating real-time newsfeeds from Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. The app is still freeware, Windows only, though they’re still promising Mac and Linux versions. More »