Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Organise
Filter Amazon’s Deep-Discount Feed to Find the Deals you Want
11:09PM Kevin Purdy | The Simple Dollar personal finance blog posts a great idea for anyone looking for a deal on a particular item or group of goods who doesn’t want to be tempted by other deep discounts at a place like Amazon’s Gold Box section. Using an RSS-filtering tool like Feed Sifter (or any keyword-search tool, like Feed Rinse), you can get pinged only when the specific item you really can buy shows up at an affordable price. For local deals, try setting up Craigslist feeds using boolean operators. A Clever Trick for Automatically Finding Deals You Want at Amazon [The Simple Dollar] More »
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Install Speech Macros in Vista
10:36PM Kevin Purdy | Windows Vista’s built-in speech recognition tools are seriously powerful and convenient, as Adam demonstrated by controlling his PC with his voice, but, as he noted, the process for adding seriously helpful macros to the “technical preview” macro tool isn’t quite apparent. Luckily, Rob Chambers of Microsoft’s speech division has posted a guide to editing, saving, and enabling speech macros in Vista. Good thing, too, because his own blog has lots of geekily awesome macros available for free copying: a Windows Media Player controller that lets you say something as casual as “Play something by Led Zeppelin”; a simple “Send email to …” Outlook macro; and many more. Got some of your own favourite macros? Post ‘em up in the comments. Thanks, Al! Using Macros of the Day: A Step by Step Guide [Rob's Rhapsody] More »
Communicate
Agile Messenger Brings Tabbed IM
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Jailbroken iPhones/iPod touches only: Agile Messenger isn’t the only multi-client app available for the iPhone, but it makes mobile messaging seriously convenient, and it’s pretty slick-looking, to boot. Agile supports the AIM, GoogleTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, and Jabber protocols, can run in the background and update its home screen badge for messages, and places your multiple conversations easily-navigable tabs. What’s really intriguing is its copy/paste function—simply select some text with your finger, click to copy it, then paste it into your text field. The app also makes sending pics from your iPhone camera a one-click process. Agile Messenger is a free download (at least while in beta), available through the Installer program on a jailbroken iPhone or iPod touch. Agile Messenger [via Just Another iPhone Blog] More »
Design
Get Better Fireworks Photos
8:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Fireworks might be illegal down under, but that makes getting pictures of the big public events where they are permitted even more important enough. But photographing fireworks is tricky. You’ll either wind up with immensely rewarding photos or frustration that makes you wish you’d left your camera at home and just enjoyed the show. The outcome has everything to do with the preparation and knowledge you take to the event. Before you go, arm yourself with a few tips and tricks that will prepare you to capture fireworks in all their brilliant glory. Photo by jonrawlinson. More »
Fix
3:12PM Angus Kidman | As both Nick at Gizmodo and Logan at Kotaku reported this morning, Microsoft has dropped the Australian price of the Xbox 360, making the cheapest model $349. Those price cuts might well tempt you to add the Xbox 360 to your technology arsenal, but remember that the machine isn’t just a console and media player. Check after the jump for five mods you can make to your new discounted Xbox to render it more useful and more efficient.
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Five things to do with your new cheap Xbox 360
3:12PM Angus Kidman | As both Nick at Gizmodo and Logan at Kotaku reported this morning, Microsoft has dropped the Australian price of the Xbox 360, making the cheapest model $349. Those price cuts might well tempt you to add the Xbox 360 to your technology arsenal, but remember that the machine isn’t just a console and media player. Check after the jump for five mods you can make to your new discounted Xbox to render it more useful and more efficient.
More »
Communicate
1:24PM Angus Kidman | By default, Twitter sends you a new email whenever someone starts following your tweets. You can switch that option off in Twitter’s settings, but what if you’d prefer to have those notifications sent to an RSS feed rather than just disabled? Australian Forrester analyst Steven Noble came up with a neat solution: set up a specific email address to handle your Twitter correspondence and access that via your feed reader. Full instructions after the jump.
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Get Twitter follower notifications by RSS
1:24PM Angus Kidman | By default, Twitter sends you a new email whenever someone starts following your tweets. You can switch that option off in Twitter’s settings, but what if you’d prefer to have those notifications sent to an RSS feed rather than just disabled? Australian Forrester analyst Steven Noble came up with a neat solution: set up a specific email address to handle your Twitter correspondence and access that via your feed reader. Full instructions after the jump.
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Work
10:39AM Angus Kidman | As we’ve previously mentioned, as of June 30 Microsoft is no longer be selling boxed copies of Windows XP or allowing manufacturers to install it directly (although some white-box vendors are immune). If you want to stick with XP, you’ll need to purchase a machine running Vista Business and then get a downgrade licence to revert to XP.Fran Foo at AustralianIT rang around local vendors to find out how much such a downgrade would cost. Pricing ranged from nothing (for HP models) to $83 to get an XP CD from Lenovo. If you decide to stick with Vista instead, check out our Vista hub for tips on how to make the most of Vista.Local vendors gear for Vista downgrade [AustralianIT]
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The cost of downgrading from Vista to XP
10:39AM Angus Kidman | As we’ve previously mentioned, as of June 30 Microsoft is no longer be selling boxed copies of Windows XP or allowing manufacturers to install it directly (although some white-box vendors are immune). If you want to stick with XP, you’ll need to purchase a machine running Vista Business and then get a downgrade licence to revert to XP.Fran Foo at AustralianIT rang around local vendors to find out how much such a downgrade would cost. Pricing ranged from nothing (for HP models) to $83 to get an XP CD from Lenovo. If you decide to stick with Vista instead, check out our Vista hub for tips on how to make the most of Vista.Local vendors gear for Vista downgrade [AustralianIT]
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10:12AM Angus Kidman | No visit to Melbourne would be complete without hopping on the city’s tram network, but working out routes, stops and timetables isn’t always straightforward if you’re an out-of-towner. Tramroute simplifies the process by merging Google Maps with timetable information, allowing you to enter an address, identify the nearest tram stops, and then view timetable and real-time running information for that route. There’s also a feature to find trams near popular attractions such as Luna Park, Federation Square and the MCG, and a handy mobile version which offers stop information without the maps being loaded. Although the terms suggest that you need to register, the site currently appears to operate for any visitor. [Tramroute]
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Plan your Melbourne tram trip with Tramroute
10:12AM Angus Kidman | No visit to Melbourne would be complete without hopping on the city’s tram network, but working out routes, stops and timetables isn’t always straightforward if you’re an out-of-towner. Tramroute simplifies the process by merging Google Maps with timetable information, allowing you to enter an address, identify the nearest tram stops, and then view timetable and real-time running information for that route. There’s also a feature to find trams near popular attractions such as Luna Park, Federation Square and the MCG, and a handy mobile version which offers stop information without the maps being loaded. Although the terms suggest that you need to register, the site currently appears to operate for any visitor. [Tramroute]
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Communicate
8:30AM Angus Kidman | Having just rolled out TV shows in the Australian iTunes store, it’s no great surprise that Apple is also hoping to have movies available to Australian buyers within a month, as a story at APC (written by yours truly) confirms. With many movie files easily topping a gigabyte in size, that makes the strategies discussed in our recent guide to minimising costs for iTunes downloads even more essential. If you’re a serious movie buff, right now it also makes iiNet particularly appealing as an ISP. (Shot from Tropic Thunder from PR Newswire)
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iTunes movies make managing bandwidth mandatory
8:30AM Angus Kidman | Having just rolled out TV shows in the Australian iTunes store, it’s no great surprise that Apple is also hoping to have movies available to Australian buyers within a month, as a story at APC (written by yours truly) confirms. With many movie files easily topping a gigabyte in size, that makes the strategies discussed in our recent guide to minimising costs for iTunes downloads even more essential. If you’re a serious movie buff, right now it also makes iiNet particularly appealing as an ISP. (Shot from Tropic Thunder from PR Newswire)
More »
Organise
