Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Travel
PortableApps.com Suite 1.5 Improves Menu Looks, Customisation
11:00PM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: The PortableApps.com Suite, a full-featured app package that runs from a USB drive, has upgraded with a crisper-looking and more customisable menu, the latest versions of a ton of great freeware, and other improvements. A new theme brings some transparency, mouse-over effects, and display improvements to the PortableApps menu, but the release notes bury the big news—you’ll be able to theme the suite yourself in the next release, due out in less than two weeks. The app icons on the pop-up menu can be renamed or hidden, applications can be launched as an administrator, and the menu can hide all the icons and switch wallpapers on whatever PC you’re on. A PortableApp thumb drive loaded with a customised Firefox browser, office suites, IM clients, KeePass, and other portable offerings is a great way to get things done when you’re at a computer that’s not your own—or testing out stuff on your system you don’t quite want to install and muck around with. The PortableApps.com suite comes in three flavors (basic, lite, and standard), is a free download, and launches on Windows systems only. Got a killer PortableApp setup on your thumb drive? Share the app list in the comments. PortableApps.com Suite 1.5 [PortableApps.com] More »
Communicate
Gmail Goes Down Again For Some Users
10:30PM Kevin Purdy | The BBC reports that Gmail went down before 6:30am EST for “a small subset of users,” less than two weeks after the service’s 2.5-hour downtime. Having login problems, or otherwise irked? Tell us in the comments. (Lifehacker AU is obviously not surprised.) More »
Money
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Last week, Google launched Tip Jar, a selection of ideas for saving money and managing finance which uses its Moderator technology to promote popular and useful ideas. It’s an interesting concept which would work well if the entire Google audience was using it, but so far it doesn’t seem to have produced many unusual results. most of the tips are pretty obvious, a lot aren’t strictly finance-related, and some are borderline illiterate. But we’ll keep an eye on it in case something useful comes up.
Google Tip Jar [via Official Google Blog]
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Google’s Money Saving Tips Site Is Interesting But Not Astounding
3:00PM Angus Kidman | Last week, Google launched Tip Jar, a selection of ideas for saving money and managing finance which uses its Moderator technology to promote popular and useful ideas. It’s an interesting concept which would work well if the entire Google audience was using it, but so far it doesn’t seem to have produced many unusual results. most of the tips are pretty obvious, a lot aren’t strictly finance-related, and some are borderline illiterate. But we’ll keep an eye on it in case something useful comes up.
Google Tip Jar [via Official Google Blog]
More »
Communicate
1:00PM Angus Kidman | On our recent story about the death of the landline phone, commenter Jason asked about the procedure for setting up naked DSL. The exact steps needed for setting up will depend on which provider you choose (you can’t just choose to set up naked DSL in a vacuum). However, a useful starting point for that is to know who currently offers a naked service. These are the providers I’m aware of (in alphabetical order):
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Naked DSL Providers In Australia
1:00PM Angus Kidman | On our recent story about the death of the landline phone, commenter Jason asked about the procedure for setting up naked DSL. The exact steps needed for setting up will depend on which provider you choose (you can’t just choose to set up naked DSL in a vacuum). However, a useful starting point for that is to know who currently offers a naked service. These are the providers I’m aware of (in alphabetical order):
More »
Organise
11:00AM Angus Kidman | Many of the workspace hacks we feature here at Lifehacker involve complex cable management systems and unusual items of furniture, but often you can get similar results just by using a typical desk and putting a bit of effort into organisation. That’s the case with the desk reader Dennis sent in: nothing unusual but well organised and functional. Dennis explains the setup:
It’s a standard desk with a raised glass top, which has been most useful in allowing me to organise the wiring along the back and have the least accessed items under the glass. It’s my media centre as well as office, so I have several external hard drives connected, which does mean many cables. The main items are connected from one power switch, so the whole thing is powered down when not in use.
Check out the video linked below for a fuller view.
Dennis: My Desk
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Glass Top Plus Tidying = Organised Desk
11:00AM Angus Kidman | Many of the workspace hacks we feature here at Lifehacker involve complex cable management systems and unusual items of furniture, but often you can get similar results just by using a typical desk and putting a bit of effort into organisation. That’s the case with the desk reader Dennis sent in: nothing unusual but well organised and functional. Dennis explains the setup:
It’s a standard desk with a raised glass top, which has been most useful in allowing me to organise the wiring along the back and have the least accessed items under the glass. It’s my media centre as well as office, so I have several external hard drives connected, which does mean many cables. The main items are connected from one power switch, so the whole thing is powered down when not in use.
Check out the video linked below for a fuller view.
Dennis: My Desk
More »
Fix
Simple User-Interface Trick Makes Your Remotes Idiot Proof
10:30AM Adam Pash | Ever written out detailed schematics so visiting friends or family members could operate your home theatre setup? It’s annoying, right? Web site Designing Interactions highlights an incredibly simple but surprisingly workable solution. It’s a bit silly and, you know, ugly, but the simplicity and effectiveness is undoubtedly a win. Just grab a piece of paper, cut a few holes where necessary, label, and you’re done. No, this isn’t necessary for the remote wizards in the audience, but it’s a great idea for quickly dumbing down your remote for anyone to pick up and use. Chapter 4 – Adopting Technology [Designing Interactions via Gizmodo] More »
Communicate
9:10AM Angus Kidman | Cable was the first practical broadband option for Australians, and it generally remains the fastest choice. Now it’s getting insanely fast. Telstra today announced that it will speed up its cable network to 100Mbps, in an upgrade that’s due for Melbourne users by December this year. No word on whether other cities will be included, but it’s hard to imagine Sydney won’t follow course pretty swiftly. Tellingly, there’s also no word on price. Nonetheless, it’s good to have a continuously evolving alternative to ADSL, even if it doesn’t stretch much outside capital cities. More »
Telstra Cable To Hit 100Mbps — But Not Until Christmas
9:10AM Angus Kidman | Cable was the first practical broadband option for Australians, and it generally remains the fastest choice. Now it’s getting insanely fast. Telstra today announced that it will speed up its cable network to 100Mbps, in an upgrade that’s due for Melbourne users by December this year. No word on whether other cities will be included, but it’s hard to imagine Sydney won’t follow course pretty swiftly. Tellingly, there’s also no word on price. Nonetheless, it’s good to have a continuously evolving alternative to ADSL, even if it doesn’t stretch much outside capital cities. More »
Communicate
9:00AM Angus Kidman | A brief follow-up to our report last week that Australians are multi-media gluttons and we spend more time using the Internet than watching TV. Not surprisingly, that kind of news isn’t very welcome if you run a TV channel, so perhaps it’s no surprise that rival research firm Roy Morgan quickly followed up with a study suggesting the opposite. The Australian’s Amanda Meade reports the study found the average Australian watches 21.5 hours of TV a week, but only spends 10.7 hours using the Internet. Again, though, those figures haven’t been broken down usefully — do those 21.5 hours include some time watching Channel BT? (We were going to illustrate this piece with the much-discussed Freeview sendup video, but it’s been pulled, possibly because of the legal action hinted at in the Australian article. Bah humbug!)
TV or the net: whose research do you believe? [The Australian]
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What Wins: TV Or The Internet?
9:00AM Angus Kidman | A brief follow-up to our report last week that Australians are multi-media gluttons and we spend more time using the Internet than watching TV. Not surprisingly, that kind of news isn’t very welcome if you run a TV channel, so perhaps it’s no surprise that rival research firm Roy Morgan quickly followed up with a study suggesting the opposite. The Australian’s Amanda Meade reports the study found the average Australian watches 21.5 hours of TV a week, but only spends 10.7 hours using the Internet. Again, though, those figures haven’t been broken down usefully — do those 21.5 hours include some time watching Channel BT? (We were going to illustrate this piece with the much-discussed Freeview sendup video, but it’s been pulled, possibly because of the legal action hinted at in the Australian article. Bah humbug!)
TV or the net: whose research do you believe? [The Australian]
More »
Work
Snow Leopard Shows Promising Text Expansion Utilities
8:00AM Adam Pash | We love the time-saving benefits of text expansion utilities like TextExpander (Mac) and Texter (Windows), but now it looks like Apple may be incorporating its own text substitution tool directly into its upcoming release of Snow Leopard. According to web site AppleInsider, Mac OS X 10.5.6 (aka Snow Leopard, expected to launch mid-year) will feature all kinds of great text improvments, including a spell-check autocorrect (à la Microsoft Office’s “replace as you type” spell check) complete with user-defined text substitution. We’re already nuts for text replacement timesavers, so to see an operating system take steps to integrate these features directly is really exciting. Of course, we’ll have to wait until Snow Leopard drops later this year to find out just how well it works, but if the screenshot is any indication, it looks promising. Text to get smarter in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard [AppleInsider] More »
Organise
