If you don’t fancy hand-coding the look of your MySpace profile, the newly-rolled-out Profile Themes editor can do the job for you. Currently in beta, the tool is basic but functional, offering you a choice of themes in eight pre-designed categories such as Arty, Tech and Sports. You can customise the themes by changing colours, borders and background images. Access the editor by selecting Edit Profile from the Profile menu and then Profile Editor. [MySpace]
Web site Swurl aggregates your online activity in a simple blog-like format. From del.icio.us bookmarks and favourite YouTube videos to Twitter posts and Flickr photos, Swurl pulls it all into a simple blog-like interface. On the surface Swurl sounds similar to previously mentioned FriendFeed, but it’s actually got a much different feel and offers a lot of customisation. Swurl’s timeline feature stands out most, placing your links, photos, and other activities on a calendar timeline. For a nice example, check out Swurl founder Ryan Sit’s Swurl page; if you like what you see, starting your own Swurl is free.
SwurlFirefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): The CyberSearch Firefox extension transforms Firefox 3′s AwesomeBar into a dynamic search box capable of returning results from popular sites like Wikipedia, Google, and more. The extension is fully customisable, so you can define keyword shortcuts for just about any search you can think of. For example, you could create a Lifehacker-only Google site search so that typing something like lh gmail in your AwesomeBar would give you the first page of Google results directly in the AwesomeBar. Choosing a result will take you directly that page. Luckily you don’t have to create the Lifehacker-only search if you don’t want to, as the extension already includes a custom search using the keyword techy that searches only Lifehacker, CyberNet, and Download Squad. Hit the jump for a video of CyberSearch in action.
Windows Mobile devices only: Free application TaskPlus is a Today screen plug-in that reorders the standard task list interface on Windows Mobile devices into a compartmentalised and more manageable one. TaskPlus divides to-do’s into into personal and business categories, and automatically prunes completed tasks. TaskPlus will also display birthday and appointment reminders in the same simplified and streamlined way it displays tasks. TaskPlus is a free download for Windows Mobile devices. TaskPlus [Forest59]
Mac OS X only: Freeware application AllBookmarks provides access to all of your browser bookmarks through a searchable menu bar item. AllBookmarks supports Safari, Firefox, and Flock, so regardless of your browser of choice, AllBookmarks will index your bookmarks. It also integrates with the developer’s marquee application, the shareware password management tool 1Password. AllBookmarks’s searchability is both its coolest and most lacking feature—lacking because it could really benefit from a keyboard shortcut and a few other small tweaks. AllBookmarks is freeware, Mac OS X only. AllBookmarks [Agile Web Solutions via TUAW]
All platforms with Firefox: Just posted an update to the Better Flickr Firefox extension, a long-neglected compilation of Flickr Greasemonkey user scripts. The new version 0.3 adds Firefox 3 support, and two user scripts, including Jason Rhyley’s Photo Page Enhancer and Thumbnail Page Enhancer. It’s also got a shiny new icon, and now runs the latest and greatest Better code. Go grab the free download for all systems running Firefox.
Better Flickr Firefox extensionLooks like Apple’s getting your Mac ready for the new iPhone software due out next week; Just got a Software Update prompt to install a Mac OS X 10.5.4 update, which includes bug fixes and security patches for iCal, Safari, Spaces, and Expose.
A project to port the KDE Linux Desktop’s apps to Windows has been slowly gathering steam for some time now, but installing some of the more noteworthy apps, including the Kopete messenger, Amarok media manager, and Konqueror browser, can be a bit wonky. The Simple Help blog has a helpful screen-by-screen explanation of how to install KDE’s backend in Windows and get your favourite apps installed and running. Not every project ports perfectly—Amarok, for example, requires some tweaking to get sound working—but some work just fine. For a fuller virtualization of KDE (or GNOME) apps in Windows, check out Adam’s guide to running Linux apps seamlessly in Windows. How to install and run KDE programs in Windows [Simple Help]
Windows/Mac/Linux (Firefox): The makers of the previously-posted PDF Download extension have released a 2.0 beta that adds some key features, including a full web-to-PDF converter that retains CSS styling, web links, and layout details. The extension has also beefed up its PDF-to-HTML rendering, and works in Firefox 2 & 3, Flock, and other Mozilla-based projects. The developers have made 10,000 beta sign-ups available, with more to come. Hit the link below for more details on what’s new in PDF Download 2.0. PDF Download Beta 2.0
