Microsoft to Offer Free Anti-malware Software with Windows [In Brief]
In an effort to improve user experience and secure more machines from becoming zombies on botnets, Microsoft's anti-malware project codenamed "Morro" will be free with every copy of the operating system. It's specifically designed to require few computing and connection resources to work with older machines and limited bandwidth in an effort to protect new users on inexpensive computers around the world. The company has also announced plans to end the Windows Live OneCare paid subscription security service. Want to protect yourself now? Check out downloads like Hitman Pro and our top five antivirus applications.
Save Money by Converting Your Lawn Into a Garden [In Brief]
"A lawn is nature under totalitarian rule," argues Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn contributor Michael Pollan. If so, Fritz Haeg isn't just an artist but a freedom fighter with his Edible Estates projects around the country. The basic idea is if you're already spending time watering, weeding, seeding and mowing your lawn, why not spend that time (or even less) tending a productive garden? Haeg's web site contains an excerpt from the book, a quick start checklist, and plenty of pictures and plans from demonstration gardens around the country—so you're almost certain to find something that will work in your climate, even across the pond in London. Got your own suburban mini-farm? Share your experiences in the comments.Photo by Laurie Avocado [via]
BubbleTimer Webapp Helps Track Time and Set Goals [Time Management]
Based on the Emergent Task Timer worksheets from David Seah, BubbleTimer is a quick and easy to use web application for budgeting, tracking and working towards time management goals. Set up a series of activities, such as work, physical activity, entertainment and personal projects and click to fill in the bubbles representing fifteen minute periods of time. As priorities change or you end up spending time on one task instead of another, you can change a selection from one activity to another. At the end of the timeline are targets you can set, such as more reading or time at work and less time playing video games or watching television, and the goal will change from red to green (and vice-versa) as you live up or down to your personal goals. Export the data, share it with a colleague or print out a copy to carry with you throughout the day. BubbleTimer is free to try for two weeks with registration, with a subscription costing $20 a year.
Cookstr Offers Recipes from Famous Chefs [Cooking]
Looking for recipes from legends like James Beard and Julia Child, or current celebri-chefs like Mario Batali and Daniel Boulud? Try Cookstr, which has created a database of recipes from well-regarded authors and chefs. The search feature works quite well, and particularly nice are the Refine Search tools like Skill level, Kid Friendly, or One Pot if your not particularly confident, have fussy little ones or don't want to do a sink full of dishes. The Dietary Consideration options include twenty settings, in case you need to whip up something low fat, peanut-free and halal. Suggested menus and cooking tips are promised for the future. Looking for more culinary inspiration? Find recipes based on what you have in the larder at Allrecipes or search based on what you're craving right now at Cookthink.
FlickerEdit Backs Up Your Photos [In Brief]
With CEO Jerry Yang leaving Yahoo and the company's stock price sinking, ZDNet writer Jason Perlow get a bit nervous about the sanctity of his photos on Flickr and started looking for solutions to back them up. I backed mine up using FlickrEdit, the updated Java Web Start application formerly known as Flickr Backup, but like Perlow it didn't quite get the whole job done. We've covered flickrfs, which only runs on Linux. Any readers care to recommend a way to back up a large Flickr account on Windows or Mac OS X machines?
Google Mobile App for iPhone Could Be Better... If It Read Your Mind [Screenshot Tour]
After a small delay, Google released their new and improved Google Mobile for iPhone app yesterday. We gave you our one-word review, but now it's time for a closer look at Google's impressive new voice recognition search app—the one that's going to make typing to search on your phone a thing of the past.
How It Works
How It Really Works
The videos above certainly make the search-by-voice Google Mobile seem incredible, but anything can look good in a video. The real test is how it works in practice.
Lucky for us, the voice-recognition capabilities of are uncannily good. I won't say you'll never get a bum match—see, for example, how TechCrunch's Michael Arrington's search for "How big is a giant squid?" was interpreted as "public citizen times square", or alternately, how my initial voice search for "Lifehacker" was interpreted as "Flight Tracker" (my second try worked, for what it's worth). For the most common searches—and even many uncommon searches, for that matter—you may be surprised at just how well it works.
Much to my satisfaction, the search results now appear in an iPhone-optimized format similar to the new mobile Safari layout. That means you'll also get quick access to phone numbers and directions when applicable to your search.
Any Downsides?
My biggest disappointment is the new Apps tab, which contains links to open any of a handful of Google Apps, still has to launch mobile Safari rather than opening the apps directly inside the Google Mobile app, so it's still not the one-stop Google shop that it could be. (Apparently there are limitations placed on what an application-embedded browser can do versus what mobile Safari can do.)
Now that you've had the chance to play with it for a day, let's hear what you think of the new Google Mobile app in the comments.
Tr.im Webapp Creates Even Tinier URLs for Twitter [TinyURL]
The latest entry in the URL-shortening service is Tr.im, and while there are a number of features that might make you switch from reader favorite TinyURL, the most compelling is that with so few characters in the service's domain name, it creates really tiny URLs. A quick test for shortening the address to to Lifehacker got it down to a mere 17 characters, equivalent to abbreviated web addresses from is.gd. If you're a hard-core character counter, it's probably because you're a user of Twitter or similar services, and Tr.im will automatically send created links directly to your Twitter stream if you like. It also offers stats to keep track of where from and how many folks clicked through the link. A bookmarklet is available to make it quick and easy to trim a site's location while browsing. And you can also give a custom word for the URL or even add tags to improve searchability. Check out our Hive Five of best URL shrinkers for more tiny-fying solutions.
Tidy Favorites Is a Customizable Thumbnail Homepage [Featured Download]
Windows only: Web browser plug-in Tidy Favorites creates a customizable bookmarks start page for Firefox and Internet Explorer complete with thumbnail previews. We've seen several Firefox extensions covering similar ground before—most notably previously mentioned Fast Dial and Speed Dial—but Tidy favorites adds a few more ideas to the thumbnail start page. For example, Tidy Favorites lets you customize each thumbnail individually, so you can independently resize different thumbnails or zoom in and out on a page. You can also create different tabs and folders for bookmarks, or place any bookmark in the Tidy Favorites stack. Be sure to check out the demo on the homepage for a closer look at how your Tidy Favorites bookmarks can be customized. Tidy Favorites is a free download (a Pro version is available, but the free version is functionally complete), Windows only, works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. If you want to take your Tidy Favorites bookmarks with you, try installing Tidy Favorites in portable mode to your thumb drive.
Doc Scrubber Removes Hidden Metadata from Your Word Docs [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Every time you save a Microsoft word doc, Word embeds gobs of potentially embarrassing metadata in your document, meaning that when you send a document off to someone else, you may be sending more than you intended. Free application Doc Scrubber analyzes Microsoft Word documents for hidden data, scrubs the document of any metadata you tell it to, and then creates a new clean file. We've highlighted a similar Microsoft Office add-on once before, but Doc Scrubber can scrub whole folders at a time and offers a lot more control over what it scrubs and how it does it. If you do a lot of work in Word—especially with sensitive material—Doc Scrubber could come in very handy.
Google Hosts 10 Million Historic Time-Life Photos [Google]
Google announced today that they're now hosting around 10 million photos from the LIFE photo archives on Google Image search. You can search the photos—which range from the 1750s to present day—directly from the LIFE photo archive start page, or you can simply include source:life with any Google Image search query. If you give it a spin, share some of your favorite photos in the comments.
Hive Five Winner for Best Video Chat Application: Skype [Hive Five Followup]
Popular cross-platform VoIP application Skype took home the top honors in this weekend's Hive Five Best Video Chat Applications with an overwhelming 52% of the vote. The Mac OS X only iChat and Google's fledgling video chat both had strong showings for the silver and bronze.
Axence NetTools Is Advanced Network Monitoring Tool [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application Axence NetTools is a comprehensive suite of networking tools for your PC, including a network scanner, inbound/outbound connection monitor (NetStat), port scanner, and other network and bandwidth measuring tools. NetTools is very similar in ways to previously mentioned network monitors like Look@Lan, but if you want to get elbow deep in your network, it's another great option to add to your toolbox. Axence NetTools is a free download, Windows only.
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