Monday, June 2, 2008

Add Favicons to the Bookmark Toolbar

11:30PM Gina Trapani | Mac users rockin’ Firefox 3 who like to see web site icons on their bookmark toolbar already know that the previously mentioned Mac Favicon extension isn’t Firefox-3 ready yet. But a user style can give you back those pretty icons instead. You’ll need Stylish to install the Mac bookmark toolbar favicons user style, but it’ll get your toolbar looking as good as the Windows version. Mac bookmark toolbar favicons [userstyles.org via A Whole Lotta Nothing] More »

Outlook Duplicate Items Remover Automates That Boring Job

11:06PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: Outlook Duplicate Items Remover, a free Windows utility, does its namesake job pretty well, explains how it does it, and gives you the option of undoing its changes, making it a worthy tool for a tiring task. Simply install ODIR, activate it from Outlook’s toolbar, and point it at a mail folder. The app finds anything it thinks might be a duplicate, then moves it into a marked sub-folder, which you can look through, back up, or simply delete. Easy enough, and much easier than brain-wracking filters or other such dupe-deleting methods. Outlook Duplicate Items Remover is a free download for Windows systems only. Outlook Duplicate Items Remover [Vaita via CNET] More »

Control Microsoft Office with Your Voice

10:30PM Kevin Purdy | Taking a tip from Adam’s recent look at Controlling your Vista PC with Speech Recognition Macros, the Productivity Portfolio blog takes an in-depth look at the speech recognition features built into nearly every Microsoft Office release since 2002. With a decent microphone and a little training, you’ll be able to dictate, issue commands, and hear your content read back to you. For those with arm and hand injuries or anyone looking to get comfortable with voice commands, it’s a helpful post. Use Your Voice to Power Microsoft Word [Productivity Portfolio] More »

Email This! Sends Selected Text via Right-Click

10:06PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): If you find yourself regularly selecting, copying, and then pasting text from your browser into emails, Email This! is a definite time saver. A right-click (or toolbar) menu lets you directly compose a new Gmail, Yahoo, or Google Apps web mail message with the selected text, or pass it into a mail client like Thunderbird or Outlook. Those options can be added to or whittled down, and helpful shortcuts (Alt+G for Gmail) makes text sending even quicker. Email This! is a free add-on, and works wherever Firefox does. Email This! [via gHacks] More »

Pronounce Tells You How to Say It

9:00PM Gina Trapani | All platforms with Firefox: Whether English isn’t your native language or you’re just tired of wondering whether you’re reading that unfamiliar word in your mind correctly, the Pronounce Firefox extension is a very handy tool. With the extension installed, highlight a word on any web page, right click, and choose “Pronounce” from the context menu. Have your speakers on, because using pronunciation audio from the Merriam Webster dictionary, Pronounce will tell you how to say it (though with a US dictionary, words such as “leisure” and “router” likely won’t work for the Australian tongue). But anyway, give it a try: milquetoast. Pronounce is a free download for all platforms running Firefox, and it’s Firefox 3-ready. Pronounce [Firefox Add-ons via gHacks] More »

Will ABC Earth rock your world?

4:55PM Angus Kidman | Plenty of companies and individuals have integrated Google’s map systems into their site, but not many of us have the depth of material the ABC can boast. The national broadcaster has begun trialling a new service, ABC Earth, which currently includes access to news services (updated every five minutes) and a range of archival news material, accessible as a layer within the Google Earth client (no browser-only version yet). It’d be good to see this extended into other content — how about location filming links for Summer Heights High? ABC Earth More »

XP is doomed: Get cracking on PC purchase plans

4:28PM Angus Kidman | With June now officially upon us and the financial year almost over, if you’ve been thinking of purchasing a PC, now is a sensible time. If it’s a business machine, you’ll be able to deduct at least some of the cost in this financial year – and with sub-$1,000 machines now common, you might be able to do it in a lump rather than over four years (check with your accountant). An even more pressing reason to buy now is that manufacturers are officially supposed to stop selling any machines (apart from certain ultra-portables) with XP on them after June 30. If you want a PC that actually has a useful Windows operating system, not the pig-with-lipstick experience of Vista, then you’d best order soon. While there’ll be downgrade rights options after that date — meaning you can purchase a Vista Business machine and ask for XP to be installed instead — who needs the extra hassle? (We note in passing that July 1 will also see tax rates increase on cars costing more than $57,123; go crazy, motoring freaks!) More »

eBay jumps on the virtual help bandwagon

4:09PM Angus Kidman | National Australia Bank isn’t the only major site looking to use automated chat services to handle common queries. eBay is also continuing with its trial of “Emma”, a virtual agent who is “able to answer the most frequently asked questions”. Presumably she’s getting a lot of queries about how to set up PayPal right now. For eBay, this is almost certainly a good thing: the site has virtually no support staff in Australia (certainly none for the average punter), so anything that speeds you forward in the queue for US tech assistance has to be helpful. More »

Cracking concert camera bans

3:15PM Angus Kidman | You don’t have to wander very far on YouTube to find concert footage, but venues and artists are getting increasingly narky about the prospect of being filmed. At a Go West/Pseudo Echo/Wa Wa Nee concert in Perth last weekend, a security guard came up to me and pointedly asked if I was planning to video the concert (I wasn’t). My crime? Using an i-Mate 9502 to surf the Web — apparently the large screen makes it a video suspect. In a more blatant crackdown, Prince recently demanded that YouTube remove all fan footage of him performing Radiohead’s Creep from the site, even though the members of Radiohead (who in theory would lose songwriting royalties from such postings) actually don’t give a damn. There’s not much you can do about pop star lawyers, but there’s some obvious strategies you can use if you do plan to film parts of a concert and don’t want a shakedown from the security goons too soon. Check the venue policy first: some places have a blanket ban (in which case there’s not much point trying), with others it’s dictated by the artist. Getting a seat away from the aisles makes you harder to reach. Using a smaller camera and only filming for small bursts makes it hard to distinguish what you’re doing from regular photography. Anyone got any other tips for concert capture? More »

Best days for uncrowded airports

9:19AM Angus Kidman | We often don’t get a choice of when we fly, but if you do have some flexibility, picking the right day can make a big difference. It’s well-known that mid-week flights (Tuesdays to Thursdays) are often the cheapest, but if you have to pay full fare anyway, then picking a less busy day of the week can make the flight experience less stressful. Degrees of activity vary widely between cities. Sydney’s domestic airport is pretty much a ghost town on a Sunday morning, but flying out of Perth yesterday, the check-in queues extended past the door. Staff told me that Saturday is the quietest day at Perth (though that’s not saying much apparently). Let us know what days work best for you and we’ll compile a handy guide for the weary local traveller. More »