You may have started out the work day with energy to spare, but suddenly it’s hump day and you’re probably feeling a tad less inspired. Hit the refresh button with these quick tips.
Got yourself a pen pal that just happens to speak another language? A new feature in Gmail Labs automatically translates foreign-language email messages to your native tongue directly in Gmail.
Mac OS X only: Reader Daniel used his ubergeeky perl skills combined with GeekTool and created a more powerful way to display the current weather conditions on his desktop.
Windows 7′s inflated prices may still be a stumbling block for adoption once the new operating system is officially released this holiday season, according to a CNET interview with an executive at computer manufacturer Dell. We still haven’t heard any definitive pricing for Windows 7 yet, and even though the CNET article points to prices that “are higher than they were for Vista and XP,” we just can’t imagine Microsoft would be so bold—both in this economy and after the mostly negative response to Vista. Guess we’ll have to wait and see. [CNET]
Windows only: Backup Maker offers extremely simple wizard-driven backup to a variety of local media and remote hosts.
The official Microsoft Office 2010 IT Blog asks users to avoid installing the leaked builds of the latest version of Office because many of them are infected with viruses—though readers will note that any and all torrents are potentially infected, so using your favourite anti-virus application is a must if you choose to download it. [Office 2010 IT Blog via Tweaking with Vishal]
If your hard drive is filled to the brim now that more and more of your music and movies have hit the digital realm, it may be time to move that iTunes library to an external drive.
Windows only: Ever wonder why your laptop’s battery seems to die too quickly? The Windows Help blog points out a hidden command-line switch that generates a report with loads of helpful troubleshooting information.
Cobocards is a free, web-based flash card application with an emphasis on collaboration, so you can create and study a set of flash cards alongside your friends or fellow students.
iPhone/iPod touch: The biggest problem with the iPhone’s email client is its lack of search. All My Mail can’t compose messages, but its free version lets you search Gmail, AOL or Exchange messages pretty easily.
