Google Buys 20 Million Archived Newspaper Pages [Newspapers]
Google has upped its commitment to bringing newspaper archives online, first announced in September, by buying 20 million historical pages from Paper of Record, covering the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Europe. Good news for scholars, students, and "Day you were born" print-out gifts.
How Do You Get New Gmail Notifications? [Reader Poll]
Last night's release of the Google Desktop Gmail Gadget added yet another way for users of the big G's email service to be pinged about their new inbox messages. While constant email awareness isn't necessarily a great thing, as alumnus Keith, author Tim Ferriss, and our site editor have noted, Gmail seems fairly open to third-party apps and clever hacks that can keep you aware of your inbox without annoying sounds or in-your-face pop-ups. We're wondering which tools our readers are actually using, if any, to stay on top of their inboxes in an ambient kind of way. Read on to vote in our reader poll, and offer up any apps or tricks we missed in the comments.
NexusFile Helps You Speed Through File Management Tasks [Windows Featured Download]
Windows only: NexusFile is a feature-rich portable Windows Explorer alternative. Weighing in at just under 3MB, NexusFile easily replaces a host of other applications. There is a basic file renamer, an ftp client, and a file splitter/joiner. You can export saved file lists in a variety of formats, assign favorite folders, browser folders in tabs and in a dual pane view, and compare folders. NexusFile has keyboard shortcuts for every imaginable need from jumping to the root folder to executing command line instructions and everything in between. If you have a disdain for your mouse, you won't be reminded of it while working in NexusFile. If you're on friendly terms with your mouse you aren't forgotten, the GUI of NexusFile is very well laid out. Have a set of working folders your access frequently? Assign them while you work to the vertical bar of numbers in between the dual panes. They'll be right at your fingertips from then on. The rest of the interface follows with a similar degree of thoughtfulness. If you need Unicode support for your daily file management, you're covered with NexusFile. If the extremely high contrast color scheme is too much for you, there is a detailed color scheme designer under Tools -> Options -> Color. For another feature rich and portable explorer alternative, check out Cubic Explorer. For more alterantives make sure to look over the Five Best Alternative File Managers. NexusFile is freeware, Windows only. Thanks g915!
Napping Better than Caffeine in Many Ways [Napping]
The New York Times reports that in a study of 61 people, those who took a 2-hour afternoon nap did "significantly" better at repeating verbal, perception, and motor-skill tests from that morning than those given caffeine or a placebo. What's more, the caffeine takers didn't do do much better in verbal tasks than the placebos, but claimed to be the most awake. Not brand-new news to long-time Lifehacker readers, perhaps, but a nice reminder that coffee does not always equal productive power. (Here's the full study paper).
Find Similar Images with Live Search [Image]
Microsoft's Live image search tool added a new button underneath every image result you mouse over: "Show similar images." Close to the functionality of previously mentioned engine TinEye, but with a much wider scope and reach. The complexity of the image, and cleverness of its knock-offs, will of course vary from search to search, but if you're looking for a higher-res or non-marked-up copy of a certain graphic, Live seems pretty spot-on. Got your own dupe-finding tool for web images? Tell us about it in the comments.
Freckle Tracks Time and Clients Quickly and Simply [Screenshot Tour]
Just-released webapp Freckle isn't, as it proclaims, a whole-cloth re-thinking of time tracking, billing, and client management, but it is refreshingly light, agile, and easy to get into. Like Remember the Milk and other text-aware apps, it doesn't require learning an entirely new input system, but knows that "1h35m" and "1:35" mean the same thing. The AJAX-saturated interface requires very few refreshes, and the smart tagging system works well for those who tend to "organize" on the fly. The fleshed-out version of Freckle isn't free, but they do offer 30-day trials on any account type, along with a very limited free account. Walk through screenshots and analysis of using Freckle for organizing billable hours and client work below.
First off, the pricing and plans:
Once you've signed up with an account, free or otherwise, you'll probably want to add your username.letsfreckle.com address to your bookmark toolbar. Your basic dashboard should load fairly quick, especially once the images are cached, and it's where you get everything done in three tab-able boxes. Enter the time however you'd like in the first box—it rounds up based on a project-specific time increment setting you can configure. The second box is the name of the project you're entering time for, which, in my free-only account, is simply "Project." The last box is the action tag for the time spent, and it drops down, WordPress-style, to help you recycle action names. Add a * to the end of the tag, and it's listed as non-billable.
The "Pulse" tab, accessed from a nicely unobtrusive right-hand menu bar, isn't a full report, but gives you an at-a-glance look at what you've been doing today, yesterday, and in recent history in text and graph, and a link to configure budgets on any particular project. If you had something other than a free account, and shared your Freckle use with other workers, you could see what they were up to also.
The actual reports are more straight-forward, and include a link to download and print as a CSV file.
From glancing at the developer's blog and manifesto, we can assume there's more to come in the features and usability departments, as Freckle is a very new release, if pretty nicely polished.
What do you look for in a time tracking app, whether desktop or web based? What features or functions put one over another? Tell us how you score the field in the comments.
Gmail Google Desktop Gadget Now Available [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only (running Google Desktop): If you want access to your Gmail on your desktop (literally) without running a full-blown email client, now you can download the Gmail Google Desktop gadget. You'll need the free Google Desktop software installed first, and then you can dock your Gmail gadget to the desktop to read, search, send, and star messages. The Gmail gadget offers the same keyboard shortcuts that web-based Gmail offers, too. You can even open multiple instances of the gadget and log each into a different Gmail account. The only complaint about the gadget? It doesn't play a sound when new mail arrives. (Though you may thank Google for that one.) The Gmail gadget is a free download and works in conjunction with Google Desktop 5 for Windows only.
Sandy's Demise Inspires Open-Source Replacement [Webapps]
If you'll be without your personal assistant when webapp Sandy closes its doors next Monday, you may not have to wait long for a replacement: A group of developers are working to build a free, open-source Sandy, and they're hoping to resurrect as much of Sandy as they can from the startup graveyard. Be sure to stop by the Sandy's Back blog or send a tweet @mysandy to let the developers know which features they should tackle first. Thanks Joshua!
What Your Computer's Doing While You Wait [Optimization]
Software developer Gustavo Duarte explains exactly what your computer does while you wait, in a thorough, technical answer to the question "Why the hell is my computer taking so long to do something when I have such a fast processor?" This post isn't for anyone who glazes over at measurements of throughput in nanoseconds at the component level of a computer. If you want to speed up your computer by giving it less to do, make sure you're running only the stuff you need clean up your startup.
PhraseExpress Text Replacement App Updates, Better than Ever [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free text replacement application PhraseExpress updates to version 6.0, sporting a handful of new time-saving features and stability improvements. If you're unfamiliar with text replacement apps like PhraseExpress, they're like digital shorthand for your computer; the user defines small text snippets that expand to larger pieces of text, so when you type ,sig, for example, a text replacement app can expand that text to a full text signature. We've developed our own text replacement app here at Lifehacker, Texter, which was inspired by the Mac-only TextExpander, but PhraseExpress has a ton to offer in its own right.
Among new features, PhraseExpress 6 supports HTML formatting, faster load times, advanced options for triggering text replacements, application-specific replacements, and autocompletion of words. As an added bonus, the new version can also run off your thumb drive, so you can take advantage of your PhraseExpress timesavers no matter what computer you're using. I'm partial to Texter for obvious reasons, but PhraseExpress is undeniably awesome. PhraseExpress is free for non-commercial use, costs $50 for a professional license.
Helvetireader Facelifts Google Reader [Google Reader]
Firefox with Greasmonkey (and other browsers): The Helvetireader theme for Google Reader strips away the bells and whistles and offers a minimal interface redesign for keyboard shortcut users. Install Helvetireader in Firefox with the Greasemonkey extension, Opera, a Chromium nightly build, or Safari with Greasekit. With Helvetireader enabled, GReader uses red and black Helvetica font and white background with a light gray gradient. Especially suited to work in Reader as a Fluid or Prism standalone app, Helvetireader is a free download.
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