Wired magazine has published its annual Vaporware awards for 2007 - honouring the top ten most long promised, long delayed launches which still haven't made it to market. Or into beta. Or in some cases even made it beyond the designer's scratch pad...

I agree with some of them - the long (long) awaited Service Pack 3 for Windows XP (due in the first half of 2008?) is up there. But I can't say I'm bitterly disappointed that Guns n Roses still haven't released Chinese Democracy.

On the gaming front - Spore, yep, that's been a long time coming and it will be great to see it when it does. But am I hanging out for Blizzard's Diablo sequel? No. How about a World of Warcraft sequel with a new game engine? The game could certainly do with a tuneup.

In Australia of course the big example of Vaporware this year has to be the iPhone, of course. And on the subject of wish lists, could we possibly get TiVo already? And a Toyota Prius which isn't built like a barge?

So what was your vaporware in 2007? What are you hoping will show up in 2008, and what have you given up waiting for? Answers in comments please.

Just a quick reminder that the our reader survey finishes on Friday (ie tomorrow), so if you'd like to help us make Lifehacker AU a better read, or would like to get your hands on a $250 gift voucher, please fill it out! It should only take about 5 minutes, and you'll go in the draw to win a voucher for Coles/Myer, David Jones, Harvey Norman or Bunnings. Sweet!

Google rolls out a new flight tracking feature: just type your airline and flight number into the search box, and get the departure and arrival location, time, and estimated departure and arrival. I'm also a fan of 4INFO's SMS read more »

If you're expecting a new computer for Christmas, this post is for you. Help combat landfill and share the computing love by taking some time to repurpose your old computer.

First up, you may be able to extend the life of your computer by upgrading some of its components, or you could repurpose it (or bits of it) as a home server. Or you could give it to a friend or relative (make sure it's powerful enough/stable enough to meet their computing needs or you're not really being that helpful).

If you can't repurpose the computer, recycling's the next option. Extreme Tech's just posted a helpful article on ways to recycle your hardware, which suggests googling "computer recycling" and your city to see what options come up. Freecycle is another option -  a well established email list in which members can give away their unwanted stuff, or see what others are giving away.

If you can't repurpose the computer yourself, Computer Choice, the tech arm of independent consumer organisation Choice, has a very useful list of computer refurbishers and recyclers, broken down by state. Make sure you call them to double check they can take your computer, as the list is a couple of years old.

The Choice website makes a great point when it says: "Don’t let old computers sit around the house unused. The sooner you recycle it, the more chance it will be useful to someone else."

Australia's finally set the date for the switchover to digital TV. The Australian reports today that new federal broadband, communications and digital economy minister Stephen Conroy has announced a 2009 deadline for free to air stations to move to only digital broadcasts, with a final nationwide switchover date by 2013. That may seem a long way in the future but Conroy said digital takeup in Australia is around 30%, so a lot of people will need to upgrade their TVs by 2013.

We already walked you through beta 1 of the next major Firefox release, version 3.0, and today Mozilla released beta 2 for download by willing testers and impatient 'fox users. The second beta plugs memory leaks (yippee!) and adds features like a new URL auto-complete display, smart bookmarks folders, and revamped download manager. Get more details about beta 2 goodness after the jump.

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The Zen Habits blog has a guest post from old fashioned shaving advocate John Koontz, who offers some ways to save money and have a more comfortable shave in the process.

His secret? Ditch the disposable razors and go for the double edge razor. He estimates that after the initial $100 or so investment in the razor, you can save $140 a year from not having to buy razor cartridges. It also means no discarded cartridges going into landfill.

Now I'm a fan of clean shaven men, but if the thought of learning to use a double edge razor (they're called cut throat razors for a reason!) is a little much, here's some tips for getting a more comfortable shave from standard shavers.

1. Prepare, prepare prepare your skin. Koontz suggests shaving after a shower, which is fine but I would suggest that if it's not a long, hot shower, that you dampen a face washer with hot water and hold it on your face for a few minutes. The key is *hot* and *hydrated* - it can really make the shaving process less painful.

2. Shave gently, and with the grain of the hair. You don't need to press hard - if you do you're removing layers of skin along with the stubble. And shaving with the grain of the hair (ie in the direction the hair is growing) makes it less likely that you'll get uncomfortable ingrown hairs and shaving rash.

In case the Zen of Shaving article didn't convince you, I'd also point out that a nice clean shave reduces the chance of giving your loved ones stubble rash (ouch!). And it makes you look and feel good. :)

The Zen of Shaving [Zen Habits]

Two little tips to help air travellers and the people picking them up at the airport  - check before you leave the house to see if the flight's been delayed, and make sure you have the airline's phone number programmed into your phone before you leave to pick someone up!
Google's just unveiled a new feature for checking flight status - basically you just need to type the airline and flight number into Google, and the first result should tell you whether the flight is on time or delayed, and what the scheduled arrival and departure times are. I tried it for a Jetstar flight, JQ 747 and it worked just fine. Neat.

Of course you can check direct with the airline if you prefer (bearing in mind that their websites might not update flight arrival details often enough to be useful).
Qantas details arrival times on their website or you can call 13 1223. And did you know that you can get Qantas flight updates via WAP sent to your 2G or above phone? Well, you can - details here.
Jetstar has flight information here, or  the phone number is 131 538.
Virgin's number is 13 6789 or flight details are here.

Avoid paper cuts opening up your holiday cards. If there's no letter opener around, grab a pen, insert the cap clip under the sealed envelope flap, and zip it open in one swoop. Hit the play button to see a quick demo. Thanks, TFB!

Our favorite bookmarks synchronizing Firefox extension, Foxmarks, is going through some growing pains. I got the notification to upgrade to version 2.0.34 last night, and went ahead with it. But since I did, I haven't been able to connect to the synchronization servers. The Foxmarks folks say it's server overload and they're on the case, but if you can, I'd hold off before doing the update.

All platforms with Firefox: Our favorite web-based task manager Remember the Milk has released a Firefox extension that integrates your to-do list into Gmail. This integration isn't just an embedded list—it's pretty full integration. For example, you can label messages "To Do" to automatically make them a task; as well as complete, postpone and otherwise manage your to-do's right inside Gmail. The RTM Gmail extension adds a Tasks tab in Gmail's settings where you can tell it to make starred messages or messages with a certain label a task. It also adds RTM capabilities to Gmail's More Actions drop-down. Cool! If you haven't checked out RTM yet, here's how to get organised with Remember the Milk. The Remember the Milk in Gmail Firefox extension is a free download that works with and wherever Firefox does.

2007's been another fantastic year here at Lifehacker, and in case you've missed any of it, today we've got the highlights reel. In the spirit of the Google Zeitgeist, I've put our data-crunching elves back to work yet again to calculate the most popular posts and tags here on Lifehacker this year, as well as the most busy commenters and bloggers. After the jump, get Lifehacker's 2007 Zeitgeist.

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Food author and recipe minimalist Mark Bittman follows up on his summer-time list of 101 10-minute meals with a list of 101 appetizers that take 20 minutes or less to whip up. A few of them fudge the time requirements a bit, and a good number require having pre-made ingredients on hand, but the vast majority can be whipped up quickly with only one or two items added to your grocery list. What last-minute appetisers do you keep in your bag of tricks for unexpected guests or holiday entertaining? Open-source your recipes in the comments.

Google has integrated translation tools into its Google Talk and GChat interfaces through the use of chat bots. To have a line translated from English to French, for instance, invite en2fr@bot.talk.google.com to chat, then simply chat the line you want to see translated. The bots use Google Translate as their back end, which, as one Blogoscoped commenter notes, has quite a few languages in rough beta, so this tool should mainly be used for casual or on-point word or line translations. For more translation tools and tips, try Wendy's guide to translation sites.

Windows only: Open source keyword launcher Launchy grows up a little with a 2.0 release. Most of the changes seem to be in the interface—polished icons, better skinning support, transparency and fade effects, and other visual tweaks. But program options have been condensed into one window, plugins are more customisable, and the launcher seems more configurable overall. It's important to note that any plugins and skins Launchy users currently have won't work with 2.0 (yet), and your configuration file will be wiped away, so you might want to make a few notes before upgrading. Just jumping into Launchy? Check out Adam's screenshot tweaking tour and guide to taking Launchy beyond applications. Launchy is a free download for Windows only. Thanks Troy!

Windows only: Install and remove programs, update all your applications at once and build your own Linux-style repository for Windows with AppUpdater, an unassuming but powerful free program for Windows. Similar to the Apt or Yum applications in Linux, AppUpdater saves you browsing time and guess work while installing from a big list of programs, including a number of Lifehacker favorites—but you can roll your own repository of programs as well. But Appupdater is more than just a low-tech installer—its real power lies in two simple commands.

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Does the idea of hidden programs eating up RAM and CPU cycles give you occasional chills? Well, maybe not, but if you've been using Windows for awhile, you've likely gotten familiar with pruning applications in the Task Manager to keep those thoughts at bay. The How-To Geek blog offers a nifty trick for having the utility run at startup as a minimised program, giving you an icon that updates to show system load and the ability to quickly chop down unnecessary apps and processes with one click. Like any program, however, the Task Manager uses resources, so you could also simply create a shortcut to launch the program whenever you're ready to get neurotic efficient.

Windows only: Free web site/software combo DocSyncer has just rolled out its public beta, pitching a set-it-and-forget-it way of syncing your computer's documents with Google Docs. After signing up and installing the software, DocSyncer goes to work uploading all the Microsoft Office and OpenOffice documents it finds in your Documents and Desktop folders. You can then choose which file types will be synced to Google Docs and set DocSyncer to open those files with local software instead of Google Docs, but you'll likely want to make a few more tweaks before leaving it running.

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