As you can no doubt see, Lifehacker has been given a bit of a facelift, with a new more streamlined design (it’s the same basic concept recently rolled out on our sibling site Gizmodo) You’ll notice slightly less ‘shouty’ tags under the stories. Australian entries are still marked with a local flag, but now it’s more visible. Particularly useful for Lifehacker readers on the go is the fully functional mobile feed at http://m.lifehacker.com.au/, which gives you a stripped-down version perfect for use on mobile phones and handheld devices, where space and bandwidth are at a premium. Let us know what you think of the new look (and if you encounter any bugs — life’s rarely perfect!) in the comments.
Windows only: Free application Game XP tweaks your computer’s performance by adjusting system settings, CPU priorities, and disabling unnecessary Windows services. As the name suggests, Game XP was developed with gaming in mind. It’s not an application you’ll run all the time, but if you’re launching a CPU-intense app—like a game, for example—Game XP makes quick tweaks to optimise your system and improve your experience. You can toggle what you want Game XP to fiddle with, including video card, network, memory, and cosmetic settings. I highlighted Game XP when I detailed how to trim down Windows to the bare essentials, but we’ve never featured it on its own. Some users have experienced problems with Game XP, but I’ve run it on my slim Windows install regularly without issues, so your mileage may vary. Thanks Andy!
Game XPPopular BitTorrent client uTorrent has released its first stable update since January: uTorrent 1.8. The changelog is huge, but the main improvements are better Vista support and IPv6 support (the latter means better connectivity and download performance). With the 1.8 release complete, the uTorrent team will be focusing more resources toward developing a long-awaited Mac version, according to TorrentFreak.
The Google Operating System blog uncovers a few snippets of JavaScript which add features to Google Docs, like a document table of contents, a thesaurus, and encyclopedia. For example, to generate a table of contents using your document’s headings, enter this into the address bar while your doc is open:
Windows only: Free multi-network instant messaging application Digsby is testing a new release with significant improvements. The very young IM client quickly found a place among the five best instant messengers with good looks and integration with social networks like Facebook, but its major drawback was a rather unwieldy memory footprint (over 150MB on some systems). The new release promises RAM usage more commensurate with other IM apps, sitting around a much more reasonable 30MB on my computer (according to their blog, it shouldn’t get any higher than 50MB). In addition to memory improvements, this release also boasts performance enhancements, firewall and proxy fixes, and more. If the oversized memory footprint had held you back from using Digsby, the new release may be worth another try. Thanks Carl!
Testers Needed for New Release! [Digsby Forum]In the mid-year slump when there’s absolutely nothing new on television (except the Olympics), it’s time to start watching the web—and you need the right tool to do just that. The free, cross-platform internet video player Miro can automatically download online video series via RSS feed or BitTorrent, play almost any format you throw at it, and keep track of what you’ve watched and what’s new and queued up for you. More and more independent producers are putting out fabulous video content on the web, but keeping up with it by visiting your favourite video hosting web site or in your regular feed reader can be almost impossible—but setting up Miro is like getting TiVo for web video. Let’s take a look at how to subscribe to free internet television with Miro.
Windows only: While Windows Explorer can sort files by type, by default it doesn’t display or sort files by extension in a separate column—but the Extension Column add-on does just that. Install this small utility to add a column to Explorer’s Details view that lists the file extension (TXT) versus the default file type (Text document). A tiny but useful thing. Here are some more useful free Explorer add-ons. The Extension Column is a free download for Windows only. Extension Column [XRayz Software via gHacks]
We’ve previously described online mega-merchant Amazon.com as a nearly universal wish list centre, but now it really can be. Drag the Universal Wish List bookmarklet into your browser toolbar, and you can add any web page—most usefully, of course, pages of products not offered through Amazon—to your Amazon wish list. Whether you use the lists as a holding place for future self-bought gadgets or actual suggestions to gift-buyers, it’s a pretty handy capture tool for multi-purchase projects, brainstorming, or just sending an easy-to-grasp link to relatives. Universal Wish List [Amazon.com via Micro Persuasion]
Mac OS X only: When it’s time to dig deep and do some serious focusing on a task—and refrain from surfing or checking email entirely for a block of time—you want temporary internet disconnection utility Freedom. Freedom serves a simple purpose: It disables all wireless and Ethernet networking on your Mac for up to six hours at a time. After the time you specify is up, Freedom re-enables your network adapters and display a confirmation. What, think you can just turn Freedom off to hop online to check the Olympic medal count? Not so fast, buster.
Linux only: Free panel applet Hamster adds a simple but effective time-tracking tool to Linux desktops. The applet, marked for default inclusion in the next version of the GNOME desktop used by many distributions, tracks a task and displays it after you type it in and hit enter, and stops tracking when you type another or hit “Stop.” Click on the “Show Overview” button, and you’ll get a full look at how much time you’ve spent on tasks over your Hamster history, with printable HTML reports. Hamster is a free download for Linux systems only. Project Hamster [via Tombuntu]
