Monday, October 6, 2008
Organise
Paper Case Bookmarklet Makes Auto-Filled CD/DVD Cases
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | The Liquid Mongoose site has a neat bookmarklet tool that creates fold-able cases for audio CDs or movie DVDs from AOL Music or Netflix DVD pages. Simply copy the bookmarklet to your bookmarks, head to a relevant AOL Music or Netflix page, and click the bookmark. The page is now formatted for printing a case with cover art, track details, and other information. The bookmarklet works with Firefox and Internet Explorer 7, but didn’t play nice with Google Chrome on testing. Check the video above for help folding the non-outlined results. Looking for a manual-entry solution for your custom mixes? Try the Paper CD Case site. Paper Case [via Download Squad] More »
Design
Picasa 3 Beta’s New Features
10:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows/Linux: Picasa, Google’s photo management tool, has quietly announced a new beta that adds basic movie editing, fuller syncing to Web Albums, and many other features and changes. Actually, the biggest change in the new Picasa isn’t in the software itself—it’s a new “quick view” utility, which replaces the basic double-click viewing tool in Windows with a Picasa-friendly, drop-cloth-style window. Five new collage styles have also been added to the offerings, and Picasa’s new “Movie Maker” tool lets you create slideshow-style clips out of stills or trim and paste video clips together. Check out Picasa’s help section for more details on what’s new and what’s changed, or read on for a peek at some screenshots from the new release. More »
Communicate
Give Android A Spin Online
4:09PM Gina Trapani | Curious about how Google’s upcoming mobile phone operating system Android will work? Give it a spin on a free online G1 Android emulator on T-Mobile’s web site. Not all features in the emulator work, but it does give you a good idea of Android’s look and feel. [via Blogoscoped] More »
Organise
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Carbonite has been promoting its online backup services in Australia since May, but those activities have stepped up a notch with the launch of its full Australian Web site. Carbonite, which costs $64.95 for a 12-month subscription, is highly regarded amongst Lifehacker readers, regularly scoring kudos for its simple interface. Online backup eliminates the hassles of keeping a spare copy elsewhere, though the initial setup can have a nasty impact on your monthly download cap, and you may well need to allow a few days for the initial upload before incremental backups become possible.
Carbonite Australia
More »
Carbonite Rolls Out Australian Web Site
4:00PM Angus Kidman | Carbonite has been promoting its online backup services in Australia since May, but those activities have stepped up a notch with the launch of its full Australian Web site. Carbonite, which costs $64.95 for a 12-month subscription, is highly regarded amongst Lifehacker readers, regularly scoring kudos for its simple interface. Online backup eliminates the hassles of keeping a spare copy elsewhere, though the initial setup can have a nasty impact on your monthly download cap, and you may well need to allow a few days for the initial upload before incremental backups become possible.
Carbonite Australia
More »
Organise
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Earlier this year, Adam wrote up the Logitech V550 cordless mouse, which clips to your notebook for easy portability. I’ve been using the V550 recently, and while it’s definitely a neat way of travelling with a pointing device, there’s still some tricks you need to follow to get the most out of it. More »
Tricks For Travelling With A Mouse
1:30PM Angus Kidman | Earlier this year, Adam wrote up the Logitech V550 cordless mouse, which clips to your notebook for easy portability. I’ve been using the V550 recently, and while it’s definitely a neat way of travelling with a pointing device, there’s still some tricks you need to follow to get the most out of it. More »
Work
11:30AM Angus Kidman | Budget Qantas offshoot Jetstar suffered an extended computer outage over the weekend, which was apparently due to a power surge somewhere in its network. While you won’t be forced to check in hundreds of passengers manually if your own power supply fails, it always pays to be prepared for unexpected power incidents. As I’ve noted in the past, a fully-charged laptop and a wireless broadband card can get you a long way when there’s no electricity around. If most of your key resources are in the cloud, heading to a net cafe can also be a good option. What other tactics have you used to deal with unexpected loss of power? More »
Jetstar Problems A Reminder Of Need For Power Outage Strategies
11:30AM Angus Kidman | Budget Qantas offshoot Jetstar suffered an extended computer outage over the weekend, which was apparently due to a power surge somewhere in its network. While you won’t be forced to check in hundreds of passengers manually if your own power supply fails, it always pays to be prepared for unexpected power incidents. As I’ve noted in the past, a fully-charged laptop and a wireless broadband card can get you a long way when there’s no electricity around. If most of your key resources are in the cloud, heading to a net cafe can also be a good option. What other tactics have you used to deal with unexpected loss of power? More »
Work
10:00AM Angus Kidman | Westpac recently started promoting the ability to access its online banking applications via the iPhone. However, as both Westpac’s site and a story at AustralianIT by Andrew Colley point out, this isn’t a full-blown iPhone application, but a standard mobile app which can work within the iPhone’s Safari browser.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Despite the hype, iPhones aren’t yet anything like the dominant mobile device on the market, so building a site that works on multiple devices makes sense. It also helps reduce download volumes, an area where iPhone owners can be a bit lax. Do you think more iPhone-specific sites need to be built, or has Westpac taken the right approach? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Westpac’s iPhone folly? [AustralianIT]
More »
Are Customised iPhone Sites Necessary?
10:00AM Angus Kidman | Westpac recently started promoting the ability to access its online banking applications via the iPhone. However, as both Westpac’s site and a story at AustralianIT by Andrew Colley point out, this isn’t a full-blown iPhone application, but a standard mobile app which can work within the iPhone’s Safari browser.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Despite the hype, iPhones aren’t yet anything like the dominant mobile device on the market, so building a site that works on multiple devices makes sense. It also helps reduce download volumes, an area where iPhone owners can be a bit lax. Do you think more iPhone-specific sites need to be built, or has Westpac taken the right approach? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Westpac’s iPhone folly? [AustralianIT]
More »
Design
How To Photograph Stars In The Nighttime Sky
9:00AM Gina Trapani | Taking any kind of photo at night isn’t easy, but especially when you’re camera’s pointed towards the heavens. When you want to start capturing your star-gazing on film (or, er, memory card), check out Wired’s How-To Wiki’s guide to photographing the stars. Photo by DJMcCrady. More »
Organise
8:30AM Angus Kidman | Kick off your Lifehacker Monday by making sure you didn’t miss any of the biggest posts from last week:
How To Kill The Twitter Election2008 Topic Bar“Twitter has recently added a Election 2008 topic bar covering key tweet topics around the forthcoming US presidential election to the top of the site.”
Breathe New Life Into Your Aging MP3 Player With Rockbox“Since the birth of the iPod in 2001, Apple has released generation after generation of new iPods packed with exciting feature updates.”
Google Toolbar 5 Released For Firefox (Firefox)“Frankly, we’re not so big on browser toolbars around here, but if you’re a dedicated Google Apps, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Bookmarks, and Notebook user, the Google Toolbar looks really useful.”
Best Ways To Find Cheap Accommodation Online“It’s undeniable that the advent of the Internet has made it easier than ever to locate accommodation no matter where you’re travelling, but getting a decent deal requires more than just typing “place name hotel” into Google and clicking on the first link that comes up.”
Persuade People with Subconscious Techniques“The power of persuasion can get you far in this world, even if you’re not in sales, and a few simple communication techniques can go a long way to get someone to agree with you.”
Second Skype 4.0 Beta Shrinks Screen, Adds Notifications“When Skype rolled out its first beta 4.0 release back in June, its enhanced video chat and managed conversation features came at a cost: a screen-filling app which wasn’t necessarily helpful on ultra-portable devices and in which it was easy to lose notifications of chat messages.”
TagScanner Renames And Tags Your Digital Music (Windows)“Rename the thousands of MP3 files in your digital music library and add or edit tags, lyrics, and album art in one fell swoop with free utility TagScanner.”
VLC 0.9 Revamps Interface, Playlist Features (All)“VLC 0.9.3, the bug-fixed, updated version of our favourite cross-platform, hardly-ever-fails media player, is available for download.”
Top Draw Generates Eye-Catching Wallpaper (Mac)“Today Google releases Top Draw, a nifty image generation application that rotates its creations on your desktop.”
Firefox Universal Uploader Is Like An FTP Client For Popular Web Sites (Firefox)“The Firefox Universal Uploader extension (aka fireuploader) uploads and downloads files to and from popular web sites through a simple dual-pane interface.”
iTuny Adds iTunes Controls To Launchy (Windows)“iTuny is a free plug-in for popular application launcher Launchy that controls music playback and so much more.”
WiseStamp Adds HTML Signatures To Your Webmail Service (Firefox)“The WiseStamp beta Firefox add-on edits, saves, and applies rich HTML signatures to your web-based email accounts, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and AOL mail.”
Tweak Your Windows Theme With Vista Visual Master (Windows)“Those Windows Vista users who just can’t commit to patching, finding and copying themes might find comfort in Vista Visual Master, a free, all-in-one tool for opening up your Vista system to themes, downloading and installing them, and tweaking tons of other graphical elements, including icons, your log-on picture, boot screen, and more.”
More »
Last Week’s Best Posts
8:30AM Angus Kidman | Kick off your Lifehacker Monday by making sure you didn’t miss any of the biggest posts from last week:
How To Kill The Twitter Election2008 Topic Bar“Twitter has recently added a Election 2008 topic bar covering key tweet topics around the forthcoming US presidential election to the top of the site.”
Breathe New Life Into Your Aging MP3 Player With Rockbox“Since the birth of the iPod in 2001, Apple has released generation after generation of new iPods packed with exciting feature updates.”
Google Toolbar 5 Released For Firefox (Firefox)“Frankly, we’re not so big on browser toolbars around here, but if you’re a dedicated Google Apps, Gmail, YouTube, Maps, Bookmarks, and Notebook user, the Google Toolbar looks really useful.”
Best Ways To Find Cheap Accommodation Online“It’s undeniable that the advent of the Internet has made it easier than ever to locate accommodation no matter where you’re travelling, but getting a decent deal requires more than just typing “place name hotel” into Google and clicking on the first link that comes up.”
Persuade People with Subconscious Techniques“The power of persuasion can get you far in this world, even if you’re not in sales, and a few simple communication techniques can go a long way to get someone to agree with you.”
Second Skype 4.0 Beta Shrinks Screen, Adds Notifications“When Skype rolled out its first beta 4.0 release back in June, its enhanced video chat and managed conversation features came at a cost: a screen-filling app which wasn’t necessarily helpful on ultra-portable devices and in which it was easy to lose notifications of chat messages.”
TagScanner Renames And Tags Your Digital Music (Windows)“Rename the thousands of MP3 files in your digital music library and add or edit tags, lyrics, and album art in one fell swoop with free utility TagScanner.”
VLC 0.9 Revamps Interface, Playlist Features (All)“VLC 0.9.3, the bug-fixed, updated version of our favourite cross-platform, hardly-ever-fails media player, is available for download.”
Top Draw Generates Eye-Catching Wallpaper (Mac)“Today Google releases Top Draw, a nifty image generation application that rotates its creations on your desktop.”
Firefox Universal Uploader Is Like An FTP Client For Popular Web Sites (Firefox)“The Firefox Universal Uploader extension (aka fireuploader) uploads and downloads files to and from popular web sites through a simple dual-pane interface.”
iTuny Adds iTunes Controls To Launchy (Windows)“iTuny is a free plug-in for popular application launcher Launchy that controls music playback and so much more.”
WiseStamp Adds HTML Signatures To Your Webmail Service (Firefox)“The WiseStamp beta Firefox add-on edits, saves, and applies rich HTML signatures to your web-based email accounts, including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, and AOL mail.”
Tweak Your Windows Theme With Vista Visual Master (Windows)“Those Windows Vista users who just can’t commit to patching, finding and copying themes might find comfort in Vista Visual Master, a free, all-in-one tool for opening up your Vista system to themes, downloading and installing them, and tweaking tons of other graphical elements, including icons, your log-on picture, boot screen, and more.”
More »
Design
