Australian auction site Oztion has added a couple of security features to its site, including the ability to do a 100 point identity verification through Australia Post. I’m assuming this $20 service will be of most interest to people selling on the site. They’ve also added a free phone verification service for sellers, which is an automated phonecall which prompts you for a single use password which you enter at the site to complete the verification process. Oztion claims to be the second largest Australian auction site, with more than 1.2 million Australian visitors in August 2007, and 195,000 registered members in total. I have to admit I hadn’t seen the site before, so I’d be interested to get feedback from readers who have used it. More »
US-centric: Don’t want to miss the season premiere of your favourite TV series this week? Check out web site CAT (Calendar for TV), which lists primetime shows on a monthly calendar, with premieres marked in orange and handy rollover episode synopses. Adjust your timezone, and choose a printer-friendly style to print it out, too. Seeing as how the previously mentioned EvokeTV is now MIA, this looks like a handy lookup to plan your primetime evening while you’re still stuck at the office. (Grey’s Anatomy premieres tonight. Squee!) How are you keeping on top of your TV this season? Let us know in the comments. Thanks, Sam! AU – The CAT calender is for US TV, but it might be useful for those awful, awful Bit Torrent-using pirates out there who like to know when their favourite US shows are going to be hitting the internets.
CAT – Calendar for TVFurther to our news brief last night about Google’s latest updates, I should clarify that they haven’t overhauled Gmail, just its mobile offering. The update was to Gmail’s mobile version – further information can be found here. They’ve cleaned up the interface and added a few features from the desktop version, including the ability to add views like Spam or Drafts. The update got a writeup at the (Unofficial) Google Operating System blog today, and the java app in particular got a nice wrap for preloading some messages and requiring less clicks and keystrokes.
Gmail Mobile Improves the Interface [Google Operating System] More »
Last week we told you about Microsoft’s student pricing for Office 2007.
Microsoft kindly got in touch to confirm that the cheap pricing is available in Australia too. The student price is $75. More »
Bash programmer Jason Hutchinson built a command line download manager called Download Queue (or DQ) based on Lifehacker’s own todo.sh script. In short, you set up a text file called queue.txt, and add the URLs to download one per line, and DQ does the rest, handling filters, automatically continuing broken downloads and more. More »
If you’re an Adobe user, Blog Freelance Switch has a nice rundown of the various new products and ‘premium editions’ they have on offer.
“If you are confused about Adobe’s new offerings, you aren’t alone. Currently, one can not only purchase Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web and Design Premium, but also both variants in a Standard edition, plus Production Premium and the all-inclusive Master Collection.”
“The real question at hand is should you upgrade (if you already have CS/CS2) or purchase Creative Suite 3.”
This review walks you through some of the new features and different product bundles to help decide what to buy and whether you need the latest versions. It uses a lot of screenshots to illustrate how things have changed within new versions of old favourites like Photoshop, which is helpful.
Adobe versus Adobe [Freelance Switch] More »
Ever let someone borrow something and they break it? RealSimple has an interesting post on borrowing, and what happens when something goes wrong: Borrowers do have an obligation to replace items they break or lose, says etiquette authority Anna Post, who leads business-etiquette seminars for the Emily Post Institute, in Burlington, Vermont. That’s why borrowing — or lending — expensive items is not a great idea.
I’ve unfortunately had this happen to me, mostly with books being lost. If you’ve let someone borrow something and it didn’t end well, let us know how you handled it (or wish you would have handled it) in the comments.
5 Money-Etiquette Issues, Solved [RealSimple]Quicksilver’s heretofore elusive creator Nicholas Jitkoff, generally known only as A1c0r, demos Quicksilver at a Google Tech Talk for his employers and co-workers at Google. Aside from providing an exceptionally detailed overview of the ideas behind Quicksilver, it’s also a great guide understanding to the application. If the video whets your appetite, check out our beginner, intermediate, and advanced guides to Quicksilver. While you’re at it, our Quicksilver video extravaganza and time-saving Quicksilver triggers offer some more Quicksilver goodness.
Quicksilver: Universal Access and Action [Google Video via 43 Folders]If you’ve followed our beginner and intermediate guides but your BitTorrent download speeds are still less than stellar, there’s a chance your ISP may be throttling your BitTorrent traffic. The Wired How To Wiki details several ways to get around ISP traffic shaping, from encrypting your traffic and changing your default port number to reducing or hiding your transfers. Following these methods won’t guarantee faster traffic (in fact, encryption could end up slowing you down), but if you think your ISP is behind your disappointing speeds, it won’t hurt to try. AU – We mentioned this yesterday on Lifehacker AU but the US was on a public holiday.
Optimize BitTorrent To Outwit Traffic Shaping ISPs [Wired How-To]CNET Australia has published a video how-to on the subject of TV calibration. It’s just over 5 minutes long, and features display calibration pro Aaron Rigg of Avical Australia talking you through 4 picture settings you can easily set at home. It’s a followup to a TV calibration how-to video they ran earlier in the year.
(If, like me, you hate watching tiny embedded movies in websites, don’t forget to right click in the movie and select ‘Go Full Screen’. Thanks Adobe Flash Player 9!)
Perfect Picture: 4 steps to DIY TV calibration [via CNET Australia]
