Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Work
HandBrake Media Converter Gets Even Better
11:13PM Gina Trapani | All platforms: A new version of the most popular media converter for Lifehacker readers, Handbrake, adds several useful features like universal input (it’s not just for DVDs any more), better video quality, and now integration with VLC to do DVD decryption. Download version 0.9.3 and see the full release notes here. [via] More »
Work
Google Chrome Gets Full-On Bookmark Manager
10:50PM Gina Trapani | Released a few weeks ago only to the developer version of Chrome, Google has now pushed out a full-on bookmark manager in the latest beta going out to users (version 0.4.154.25). Make sure you’re running the latest build (choose About Google Chrome and hit the update button), and then you can hit Ctrl+Shift+B to launch the new Bookmark manager, which isn’t as fleshed-out as Firefox 3’s but is a huge improvement over the older version. There are no tags or smart folders, but there’s a search box (of course) and a Recently Added area where you can quickly see newly-bookmarked URLs. See the rest of the updates and bug fixes in the new version here. Now that Chrome’s been out for three months and much of the hype has died down, are you still using the new browser from Google? [via The Download Blog] More »
Fix
YouTube Widens Player To 16:9 Aspect Ratio
10:28PM Gina Trapani | YouTube has adjusted the video clip player’s size from a 4:3 aspect ratio to 16:9 (generally used for HD TV). As a result, many clips will have black bars on either side to fill in the new space. More »
Organise
Tark Gives Bookmarks Expiration Dates
10:00PM Lifehacker US Edition | Firefox only: If you frequently deal with bookmarks that have limited future utility, the Tark (Temporary Bookmarks) extension can set an expiration date on them. For instance, if you bookmark auction listings or some other time-dependent item on the web, only to find you forgot to clean out the temporary bookmarks you’d created, you can attach an expiration date of one week to one month for the bookmarks. When the expiration date has arrived, Tark simply drops the notation on the bookmark and converts it to a regular one. You can however designate a bookmark folder as a graveyard and all expired bookmarks will be dumped into it. Installing Tark does not affect regular bookmarking procedures, and bookmarks that you assign an expiration date can be converted to regular bookmarks at any time. Tark is a free download and works where ever Firefox does. Tark (Temporary Bookmarks) [via gHacks] More »
Work
More Ubuntu Kung Fu
9:00PM Gina Trapani | Editor: Say hey again to Keir Thomas, author of the new book Ubuntu Kung Fu, who stopped by to share some more of the best material from the book, in a follow-up to his post, Some Productive Ubuntu Kung Fu. Read on to get Thomas’ suggestions for speeding up boot times, reducing delays, getting the codecs you need, getting better DVD playback and more on your Ubuntu desktop. More »
Communicate
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Aussie hard rockers AC/DC have come up with an unusual promotion for their recent Black Ice album — an ASCII art video for the lead single “Rock N Roll Train” which is embedded in an Excel spreadsheet. The theory is that this should let people at work access the video even if their IT department has blocked video and music feeds — after all, everyone needs to be able to download spreadsheets, right? The reality is a little more complicated: Excel 2007 users will likely find that the active content features needed to access the video will be switched off by default, and if your administrator has blocked your ability to switch them back on, then there’s no Young brothers for you. But if that’s not an issue, it’s an impressive piece of work.
AC/DC [via Inside Office Online]
More »
AC/DC Attempt To Thwart Firewalls With Excel-Based Video
4:30PM Angus Kidman | Aussie hard rockers AC/DC have come up with an unusual promotion for their recent Black Ice album — an ASCII art video for the lead single “Rock N Roll Train” which is embedded in an Excel spreadsheet. The theory is that this should let people at work access the video even if their IT department has blocked video and music feeds — after all, everyone needs to be able to download spreadsheets, right? The reality is a little more complicated: Excel 2007 users will likely find that the active content features needed to access the video will be switched off by default, and if your administrator has blocked your ability to switch them back on, then there’s no Young brothers for you. But if that’s not an issue, it’s an impressive piece of work.
AC/DC [via Inside Office Online]
More »
Communicate
2:54PM Angus Kidman | Seems like the combination of a touch-screen interface, reliable push email (take note, Apple) and more or less unlimited browsing is making the BlackBerry Storm a pretty appealing choice. Having originally planned a December 1 launch, Vodafone (which has exclusive local rights to the smart phone) has now pushed back the on-sale date to December 5 after being flooded with “thousands” of queries. Customers who have pre-registered for the phone will be sent an email on November 27 and given the option of ordering online, with the promise that those phones will be couriered out on December 4. (But if you didn’t pre-register, tough luck — the option has now been removed.) More »
BlackBerry Storm Delayed By Vodafone
2:54PM Angus Kidman | Seems like the combination of a touch-screen interface, reliable push email (take note, Apple) and more or less unlimited browsing is making the BlackBerry Storm a pretty appealing choice. Having originally planned a December 1 launch, Vodafone (which has exclusive local rights to the smart phone) has now pushed back the on-sale date to December 5 after being flooded with “thousands” of queries. Customers who have pre-registered for the phone will be sent an email on November 27 and given the option of ordering online, with the promise that those phones will be couriered out on December 4. (But if you didn’t pre-register, tough luck — the option has now been removed.) More »
Work
1:30PM Angus Kidman | The table formatting tools in Word 2007 might be ridiculously distributed over three separate parts of the Ribbon, but there are some pretty useful options buried in there. The Word Team Blog offers a helpful and pretty comprehensive look at the benefits of using conditional table styles, which let you set up neat tricks like rows in alternating colours that automatically adjust themselves as new data gets added. Not sure how to fix up styles in a regular document, let alone a table? Learn how to use the Styles pane for a more consistent look.
Behind The Curtains: Table Styles [The Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog]
More »
Use Conditional Formatting For Better-Looking Tables In Microsoft Word
1:30PM Angus Kidman | The table formatting tools in Word 2007 might be ridiculously distributed over three separate parts of the Ribbon, but there are some pretty useful options buried in there. The Word Team Blog offers a helpful and pretty comprehensive look at the benefits of using conditional table styles, which let you set up neat tricks like rows in alternating colours that automatically adjust themselves as new data gets added. Not sure how to fix up styles in a regular document, let alone a table? Learn how to use the Styles pane for a more consistent look.
Behind The Curtains: Table Styles [The Microsoft Office Word Team's Blog]
More »
Money
12:56PM Angus Kidman | If you’re reluctant to use PayPal because of security concerns, then the addition of an SMS security feature might help ease your paranoia. Sign up and you’ll be texted a unique six-digit code that you’ll need (in addition to your regular password) each time you log in to the service. Despite some confusing wording on PayPal’s site, you don’t have to pay to register for the SMS option: there’s a charge if you want to order a security token to generate a unique password, but not for the SMS version (save any charges you might pay to receive an SMS on your phone plan while overseas). The service is initially being rolled out in Australia, the US, Canada, Austria and Germany.
PayPal
More »
PayPal Adds SMS Authentication
12:56PM Angus Kidman | If you’re reluctant to use PayPal because of security concerns, then the addition of an SMS security feature might help ease your paranoia. Sign up and you’ll be texted a unique six-digit code that you’ll need (in addition to your regular password) each time you log in to the service. Despite some confusing wording on PayPal’s site, you don’t have to pay to register for the SMS option: there’s a charge if you want to order a security token to generate a unique password, but not for the SMS version (save any charges you might pay to receive an SMS on your phone plan while overseas). The service is initially being rolled out in Australia, the US, Canada, Austria and Germany.
PayPal
More »
Communicate
10:29AM Angus Kidman | While using Facebook last week, I suddenly realised that the on-screen Notifications area (previously on the top right side after Requests and Applications) had disappeared. At the time I figured this was just another in the intermittent series of bugs that have plagued Facebook since its controversial redesign, but when I finally dug into the Help file, it turns out notifications have now been moved into a pop-up menu at the bottom right of the screen. This is similar to the Applications menu on the left, but at least with that they’ve also kept an on-screen version (handy for those of us who don’t fancy excessive clicking, and much better for users of screen readers). Quite frankly, there’s already enough small annoying icons kicking around near the bottom of my screen without Facebook adding to them. More »
Where Facebook Hid Your On-Screen Notifications
10:29AM Angus Kidman | While using Facebook last week, I suddenly realised that the on-screen Notifications area (previously on the top right side after Requests and Applications) had disappeared. At the time I figured this was just another in the intermittent series of bugs that have plagued Facebook since its controversial redesign, but when I finally dug into the Help file, it turns out notifications have now been moved into a pop-up menu at the bottom right of the screen. This is similar to the Applications menu on the left, but at least with that they’ve also kept an on-screen version (handy for those of us who don’t fancy excessive clicking, and much better for users of screen readers). Quite frankly, there’s already enough small annoying icons kicking around near the bottom of my screen without Facebook adding to them. More » 