Hive Five Winner for Best Desktop Customization Tool: RocketDock [Hive Five Followup]
Free application launcher and dock application RocketDock took home the gold star from this weekend's Hive Five Best Desktop Customization Tools, followed in second place by Samurize (which lost by a mere six votes). System monitor and desktop enhancement tool Rainmeter rounded out the top three.
Melt Mail is Another Quick, Disposable Email Service [Email]
Melt Mail is a free email forwarding service that creates a temporary email address that forwards all incoming mail to your real email address. To use it, just enter the email address you want messages forwarded to, select how long you want it to work, then hit Create. Melt Mail generates a random address that you can use with impunity to register on spam-likely sites, for example, and after 3, 6, 12, or 24 hours, the forwarding will stop. We've covered boat loads of similar disposable email applications, so Melt Mail isn't breaking any new ground, but since some services won't allow you to register with popular temporary email addresses, it's worthwhile to have another option in your arsenal. Besides, the dead-simple interface is a nice touch.
Ensure You Send Email from the Right Address in Gmail [Featured Greasemonkey User Script]
Firefox with Greasemonkey: If you've consolidated multiple email addresses in Gmail, chances are you've accidentally sent email using the wrong From address at one point or another. If this is a persistent problem for you, the Gmail Multiple From Address Greasemonkey script helps ensure you're sending email from the right address every time you compose an email. After you install it, just compose an email as you normally would and hit Send. The script will display a pop-up confirming the From address you've chosen, giving you the opportunity to cancel sending the email and switch From addresses in case you've forgotten to do so. To accept it, just hit Enter again or click OK. To cancel, hit Escape or click Cancel. It may not be for everyone, but if you manage multiple email accounts from a single Gmail inbox, it could come in very handy. Thanks Bill!
Newzie Newsreader Watches Feeds and Feedless Pages Alike [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application Newzie is a feature-rich desktop newsreader designed to keep you up to date with the latest web content, whether that content is coming from a traditional RSS feed or not. To that end, Newzie monitors feedless web pages for changes, supports "virtual channels" that monitor user-defined keywords (great for ego tracking), and more. It also supports advanced content filtering, customizable keyboard shortcuts, subscription priorities, a Post Sweeper feature that clears out unnecessary posts when you've fallen behind, and built-in reading statistics. In the end, Newzie is full of interesting and innovative ideas that we'd love to see from more newsreaders, but it could use a little more polish overall if it wants to attract a lot of users. If you give it a try, let's hear what you think in the comments. Newzie is a free download, Windows only.
The Giant Flip Clock Desktop [Featured Desktop]
Reader projectvirus creates a smart, dynamic desktop HUD that prominently displays a desktop-sized flip clock. That big old clock is pretty cool by itself, but projectvirus went one step further by embedding small pieces of information along the edges of the clock, including the date, weather conditions, system monitor, and music playback info. To top it off, the whole setup is accomplished using the following free, popular desktop customization tools
Snackr:
- Scrolling Rss FeedRainmeter:
- Personal port of Fliqlo screensaver as first seen by Skarhead187
- Moxaweather
- HUD Vision horizonal calendar
- Enigma system statsCD Art Display:
- Displays music information from iTunesObjectDock:
- Open/running windows dock
If you're looking to make the most of your custom desktop, be sure to check out our recent Hive Five Best Customization Tools or our guides to customizing your own Enigma or Lightning at Sunset desktops. Got your own tweaked out desktop to share? Upload it the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell Flickr Group complete with description and we just might feature it here.
Visage Customizes Your Mac [Featured Mac Download]
Mac OS X only: Preference pane Visage lets you customize your Mac's desktop, login panel, and alerts. Set a custom login panel background image and logo with Visage, or enable a "desktop effect" that runs a screensaver (like the Word of the Day, RSS visualizer, or iTunes album art) as your wallpaper, behind your windows. Visage offers a free trial for seven days, then if you don't register and pay its $9.95 license fee its features are limited (though it's not clear what you can't do beyond the seven-day trial). Visage is a free download (with seven-day full trial) for Mac OS X only. Thanks, bachya!
Self-Diagnosis via Web Search Leads Users to Think the Worst [Health]
Everyone's done it: you've got a raging stomachache and you're feeling kind of fatigued, so you search online for the cause of your malady and conclude that you've got cancer. A new study from Microsoft shows that "cyberchondria" is common because when you search for symptoms, the worst case scenario can be the first result—or not representative of the frequency of a serious illness. (For example, searching for a headache will return just as many brain tumor results as caffeine withdrawal, when the chances of a tumor are "infinitesimally small.") Have you decided you're dying after searching for illness symptoms online? Tell us about it in the comments.
HandBrake Media Converter Gets Even Better [Handbrake]
All platforms: A new version of the most popular media converter for Lifehacker readers, Handbrake, adds several useful features like universal input (it's not just for DVDs any more), better video quality, and now integration with VLC to do DVD decryption. Download version 0.9.3 and see the full release notes here. [via]
TiVo Mobile Programs Your DVR from Your Phone [TiVo]
TiVo owners, you've got a new bookmark to add to your mobile phone while you're on the road this Thanksgiving: The new TiVo Mobile web site lets you program your DVR remotely. (You could always do this on the TiVo web site, but the mobile version is more handset-friendly). Fire up m.tivo.com, log in with your TiVo credentials, and search for programs and set them to record, or get a Season Pass, right from your phone. Webware reports:
Any user will have access to the program listings, but only TiVo owners (Series2 or Series3/HD) will be able to set their home DVRs to record programs they would've otherwise missed. A similar service was previously available—for a fee—only to Verizon customers.
The beta site will become available to all users within the next few weeks, but I had no problem accessing it this morning.
Google Chrome Gets Full-on Bookmark Manager [Chrome]
Released a few weeks ago only to the developer version of Chrome, Google has now pushed out a full-on bookmark manager in the latest beta going out to users (version 0.4.154.25). Make sure you're running the latest build (choose About Google Chrome and hit the update button), and then you can hit Ctrl+Shift+B to launch the new Bookmark manager, which isn't as fleshed-out as Firefox 3's but is a huge improvement over the older version. There are no tags or smart folders, but there's a search box (of course) and a Recently Added area where you can quickly see newly-bookmarked URLs. See the rest of the updates and bug fixes in the new version here. Now that Chrome's been out for three months and much of the hype has died down, are you still using the new browser from Google?
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