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LongBar Is A Slick, Open-Source Sidebar For Windows
7:00AM The How-To Geek | Windows only: Desktop sidebar LongBar hosts mini-applications as “tiles”, giving you application launchers, system stats, Facebook updates, sticky notes and more on the side of your screen. More »
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Google Calendar Agenda Puts Your Schedule In The Vista Sidebar
2:00AM The How-To Geek | Windows Vista only: Sidebar gadget Google Calendar Agenda adds quick access to your calendar right in your Windows Vista sidebar. More »
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I Forgot The Milk Puts Remember The Milk In Your Vista Sidebar
6:00AM The How-To Geek | Windows Vista only: Sidebar gadget I Forgot The Milk adds quick access to your to-do list right in your Vista sidebar. More »
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GCalTasks Gadget Tracks Time In Google Calendar
9:10AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows 7/Vista only: Sidebar gadget gCalTasks tracks your time with a couldn’t-be-easier start/stop timer that saves your current task directly to Google Calendar. Installing the gadget is easy—just double-click on the downloaded file to add it to your sidebar, and use the wrench icon to add in your Google account details (works with Apps too). Once you’ve authenticated you can choose which calendar you want to send your time tracking data to. (It’s probably best to create a new one to keep from cluttering your regular schedule.) At this point you can start tracking your time by simply typing what you are working on and clicking Start; when you’re done, hit Stop to save your data up to Google. At the end of the day you can check the Agenda view in Google Calendar to see a nice list of everything you worked on throughout the day. The gadget has a few issues—most noticeably it’s too wide to fit in the sidebar so you really have to use it on the desktop, but the bigger problem is the lack of automatic sync, requiring you to remember to use the Stop button to save. The benefits of being able to easily track what you are working on and save to the accessible-everywhere Google Calendar outweigh the problems—and make this worth a look for anybody looking to keep better tabs on their time. gCalTasks is a free download for Windows 7 or Vista users. If you are looking for a hands-off, completely automated solution, take a look at previously mentioned Productivity Meter or Slife instead. Do you have a preferred solution for tracking your time? Share it in the comments. gCalTasks [via Download Squad] More »
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Watch YouTube Videos While Working On Other Tasks
5:00AM Kevin Purdy | YouTube is full of videos that don’t require singled-minded attention, but trying to keep a YouTube page visible in the background for passive watching isn’t easy. Digital Inspiration’s Amit Agarwal suggests two methods, though, that work great for browsing other sites or doing actual, you know, work, while keeping a video cornered and always on top. The first requires re-working a video link to its full-screen version and bookmarking it to load in Firefox’s sidebar—something we’ve covered before with other apps. The other method creates a mini-browser window that always stays on top using an AutoHotKey-coded app. Hit the link below for details on each idea, which should make burning through your favourite webisodes easier while still plucking away on your busy work. How to Watch YouTube Videos While Working on other Tasks [Digital Inspiration] More »
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Put Pandora On Your Vista Sidebar
8:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: If you’re a fan of the music service Pandora and sporting the Windows Vista Sidebar (or a ported Vista Sidebar on Windows XP) a Pandora sidebar gadget is now available to bring your stations to the desktop. When docked into the sidebar, it displays the current song and the thumbs up and down option. When undocked users see the entire Pandora interface and are able to edit stations. Pandora Sidebar Gadget is freeware, Windows only. Pandora Sidebar Gadget More »
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Install The Windows Vista Sidebar In XP
11:40AM Lifehacker US Edition | Windows only: If you’re in no hurry to adopt Windows Vista but you’ve taken a shine to the Vista Sidebar, Joshoon over at Deviant Art has uploaded a port of the actual application to Windows XP. Using a combination of resources such as Alky for Applications, a Windows Vista to XP compatibility client, and the sidebar extracted from Vista the port allows XP users to run Vista Sidebar. Users can grab additional sidebar gadgets directly from Microsoft and experience the same functionality as they would with the sidebar on a Vista system. If you’re running Windows XP and looking for something to round out real estate on your widescreen monitor this might just be it. For other sidebar candidates and general Vista goodness, check out how to get the best features of Vista in XP. The Windows Vista Sidebar pack is free, Windows XP only. Windows Vista Sidebar for Windows XP [via gHacks] More »
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Remember The Milk Gadget Puts Tasks In Gmail’s Sidebar
4:30AM Kevin Purdy | When Google released a couple of gadgets for the Gmail sidebar and provided an open means of making more, long-time users of Remember the Milk might have guessed the task manager that tries to be everywhere would be all over it—and they were right. The Remember the Milk gadget lets you add, complete, edit, and postpone tasks, as well as single out a task list to show in the sidebar. It doesn’t have the second-brain, star-equals-task power of RTM’s Firefox extension, but it’s a nice, unobtrusive way to add task management to your email/calendar/docs landing page. Hit the link below for instructions on installing RTM (which requires a free accont) in your Gmail sidebar. Remember the Milk for Gmail Gadget [via RTM Blog] More »
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Gmail Labs Adds Google Calendar, Other Gadgets To Sidebar
10:05PM Kevin Purdy | Gmail has added support for sidebar gadgets to its experimental Labs section, allowing users to add an agenda view of Google Calendar, a short list of recent Google Docs files, and any web-based gadgets using Apache’s Shindig standard to the left-hand sidebar. As the developers themselves note, adding outside gadgets isn’t exactly user-friendly, but then again, adding too many gadgets could lead to some page-loading slowdown. You can enable the GCal, Docs, and external gadget support in the beaker-icon Labs menu of Gmail. While you’re in there, here’s a few ways to make Gmail gadgets more convenient. More »
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