You already saw Google Chrome’s humorous about:internets Easter egg, but reader nettleman points out that Chrome’s got several special about: pages that reveal all sorts of interesting information about what’s going behind the scenes. Here’s the full list, with screenshots.
Google Chrome users, type about:internets into the address bar to get a fun little animation. Don’t clog the tubes, yo. (Check out some more of our favourite software Easter eggs here.)
Web site SoundUnwound is Amazon’s new music web site designed to provide comprehensive articles and information on bands, musicians, and their discographies and lineups. Mimicing Wikipedia’s user-edited model, anyone can edit a SoundUnwound article; the main difference is that all changes are approved by SoundUnwound staff before it’s included on the site. Beyond that, the layout of the site is interesting and will potentially provide lots of great information, allowing you to drill down into everything you’d want to know about the artist. Right now, however, the site feels a bit low in info, and considering the existing strength of Wikipedia as a go-to source for this sort of info, SoundUnwound’s got its work cut out for it. If you give it a try, let’s hear how you like it in the comments. SoundUnwound [via Wired]
Windows only: Free application Desktop Takeover is like a rotating digital photo frame for your desktop, embedding user-defined images in an overlay on your desktop. The cool thing about Desktop Takeover is that it can embed several images at a time, and it can rotate the pictures from your hard drive, online photo sharing sites, or even webcams. If you’ve got a good eye for desktop customisation, there’s a lot of potential for an app like this. The biggest drawkback is the 20MB+ memory footprint, so if memory is a concern it may be a pass (hopefully the big footprint will be reduced when the app leaves beta). Desktop Takeover is freeware, Windows only.
Desktop Takeover [via FreewareGenius]The internet is atwitter with Google Chrome’s innovative new features, but there was no clear winner in our speed test comparing Firefox and Chrome—which means your choice of browser may depend solely on features. Apart from a few specific issues (namely process management), many of Chrome’s best features are already available in Firefox 3, proving yet again the power of extensibility. From incognito browsing and the streamlined download manager to URL highlighting and improved search, let’s take a look at how you can bring some of Google Chrome’s best features to Firefox.
Mac OS X only: Free iTunes add-on GimmeSomeTune automatically fetches missing album artwork, lyrics, and automatically embeds them in your music library. GimmeSomeTune runs in the background, and in addition to the metadata tools, it also supports scrobbling your music to Last.fm, universal hotkeys, iChat status updates, and even Apple Remote control. Apart from all that, GimmeSomeTune is also an excellent iTunes desktop remote, complete with a fully customisable song notification window. The donationware GimmeSomeTune is a must-have for the iTunes lover, Mac OS X only.
GimmeSomeTuneGoogle’s new Chrome web browser beta is getting a lot of attention for its slick looks, helpful features, and performance, but how does it rank against the early releases of more established browsers? We’ve previously put the major browser releases to the speed test, but today we’re measuring Chrome against the second beta of Internet Explorer 8, as well as the beta of Firefox 3′s next iteration, 3.1. We tested tomorrow’s browsers on startup and page-loading times, JavaScript and CSS performance, and, perhaps most importantly to the average user, memory use on launch and with lots of content loaded. Read on to get the scoop on which bleeding-edge beta has the edge in the browser time trials.
Windows only: Desktop application College Alarm Clock wakes you up on time for class (or an irregular work schedule) seven days a week. Set a custom alarm time on a per day basis, Sunday through Saturday, and set the sound to just a plain beep, or choose a song from your computer’s digital music library. College Alarm Clock can skip any day of the week, and you can save an alarm schedule to easily switch between holiday break and the new semester of wakeup times. College Alarm Clock is a free download for Windows only.
College Alarm Clock [via Cybernet]Windows only: Fleace is a Flickr-based desktop switcher for those who only want to switch their desktop wallpaper on startup, or who dislike having wallpaper rotators hang around in their system tray. The stand-alone app can be launched or given a shortcut, which allows the user to preview an image before applying it to the desktop and shutting Fleace down. Alternately, you can add Fleace as a run-once app to your startup process, so it will pull and place Flickr artwork based on tags you specify. Those seeking finer control should check out the excellent John’s Background Switcher, but Fleace is a nice solution for low-memory systems or non-picky users. Fleace is a free download for Windows systems only. Fleace [via gHacks]
