Redesigned Skin Graduates from Better Gmail 2 Extension [Better Gmail]
Hey, Gmail Redesigned fans! Your favorite skin is no longer included in the latest version of the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension—to get it, download and install the official Google Redesigned extension instead. It makes more sense to get the goods straight from the horse's mouth. Special thanks to Redesigned makers Globex Designs for their generosity, for letting us keep the style in our extension for this long. Better Gmail users, a new version is now available with updates and fixes and Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 compatibility. Download the latest version of Better Gmail 2 now.
Gmail Labs Gets SMS in Chat Again--For Real This Time [Gmail]
After a pulled-back launch back in late October, Google has re-released SMS capabilities in Gmail Chat. It's still an "experimental feature" in Gmail Labs, but presumably after the false start it'll actually work this time—in the U.S., anyway. Googler Leo Dirac writes:
We're just trying it out for cell phones in the United States right now, but you can send texts to your friends with US phone numbers from anywhere in the world. You can start by just typing a phone number or into the search box in the chat window on the left, then select "Send SMS." You can also select the contact you want to SMS first and then add their phone number.
Recipients will be able to respond to you, and you'll get their message in the chat window.
On the receiving end, when you get a text message from Gmail on your phone, it will come from a number in the 406 area code. (The l33t folks in the crowd will note that this spells G0O.) You can reply to this text on your phone just like you'd reply to any other text. The reply gets routed back to our Gmail servers and shows up in your friend's Gmail chat window. Each of your friends' messages will come from a different 406 number so you can reply to any message and it will get back to the right person. Messages from the same person will always come from the same number, so you can even bookmark it in your phone.
Not only is this a great way to get to friends on the go when you're at your computer, but it'll also save you sent message charges on your own phone bill.
Open++ Adds Anything You Want to Your Right-Click Menu [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free utility Open++ adds a new submenu to your right-click context menu with advanced options for adding virtually any function you could want. Rather than add a bunch of its own custom commands (though it does have a few handy defaults, like Copy Path), Open++ provides a versatile utility for adding your own functions. You can launch files, folders, or applications complete with special arguments, a user-defined working directory, custom icons, and even custom file associations (so the command only shows up when you right-click a certain file type). For a similar app, check out previously mentioned FileMenu Tools. Open++ is a free download, Windows only.
Did You Use All Your Vacation Days this Year? [Reader Poll]
Travel web site Expedia released the results of its eighth annual Vacation Deprivation survey, and the upshot for Americans is rough:
Despite earning the least amount of annual vacation days, Americans will leave an average of 3 days unused—totaling more than 460 million in 2008.
According to the survey, almost one-third (31%) of U.S. workers don't take all of the vacations days they receive each year. The only country that bests our unused vacation day average is Spain (at 4), but considering that Spaniards boast a whopping 31 vacation-day average, that's not much of a consolation. The survey is an interesting read, and it piqued our curiousity about our readers:
Granted, Expedia has its own motives for suggesting you take more of your vacation time, but this isn't a new trend. Check the link to Expedia or go straight to the 2008 survey results (PDF Alert!) for a closer look. Let's hear more about your vacation use—including why you didn't use all your days this year (if you fall in that category)—in the comments.
Apple Releases Firmware Updates for Notebooks [Apple]
Apple releases a slew of firmware updates for MacBooks and MacBook Pro notebooks purchased after the October '08 launch, which include fixes and stability improvements. You can get 'em through Software Update for by downloading the one that applies to you manually. [via]
Ask MetaFilter Roundup [Hive Mind]
- How can I create a list of URLs for all "pages" and assets on a web site?
- How hard is it really to swap out the Superdrive in a MacBook?
- Clever/pretty ways to "wrap" gifts that are just pieces of paper?
- How can/does (student) debt constrain life choices?
- Can I learn how to write and think faster?
Share Your Holiday-Themed Desktop [Customization]
If you've been tweaking your desktop in celebration of the season, we want to see it. A few great holiday-themed desktops have already hit the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell group—one of which we've already featured—so join in the holiday fun by adding yours to the group and have it featured here.
Five Tips for Saving Time Over the Holidays [Time Management]
Everyone's talking about budgeting money in the face of a bleak economic outlook this holiday season, but if there's one thing we never have enough of during the holidays, it's time. Yesterday I was lucky enough to join CNBC On the Money's Carmen Wong Ulrich to offer a few helpful tips for saving time over the holidays. The segment—embedded here—was cut short for time (I would have loved to have a little more time to talk Lifehacker), which meant that the original list of five holiday timesavers plus some was cut down to a quick three. Keep reading for our full list of the five best holiday timesavers.
Everyone's talking about budgeting money in the face of a bleak economic outlook this holiday season, but if there's one thing we never have enough of during the holidays, it's time. Yesterday I was lucky enough to join CNBC On the Money's Carmen Wong Ulrich to offer a few helpful tips for saving time over the holidays. The segment—embedded here—was cut short for time (I would have loved to have a little more time to talk Lifehacker), which meant that the original list of five holiday timesavers plus some was cut down to a quick three. Keep reading for our full list of the five best holiday timesavers.1. Do Your Shopping Online
Not only will you avoid the long lines, but you can also save a lot of money by doing your shopping online. Amazon is an obvious favorite for online shopping, and for good reason, but you can also find also find incredible deals with our savvy shopper's guide to online deal finders. Just remember—if you're doing your shopping online, you need to be aware of shipping deadlines. Most sites prominently display these deadlines, but this previously mentioned list of holiday shipping deadlines nicely aggregates them if you're looking for some eleventh hour shipping. Photo by The Pug Father.
2. Tackle Work Commitments Early
Be aware of your upcoming workload and plan accordingly. Identify any projects or other work-related issues that could fall in your lap at the last minute and take time away from your family; then do what you can to address those issues ahead of time so you're not celebrating the season in your cubicle.Photo by Photo Mojo.
3. Get Ready for Guests Ahead of Time
Again, it's all about preparation. Do the necessary shopping, plan out your meals ahead of time, and know when your guests will arrive. Last minute errands can be a huge holiday time-sink—especially when you have to run them at the same time as all the other last-minute errand runners. You're bound to forget something, but the more prepared you are going in, the better off you'll be. Photo by Editor B.
4. Limit Your Commitments
We have a tendency to overestimate how many social commitments we can squeeze into our lives, especially around the holidays. Just remember: You don't need to attend every holiday party of and buy a gift for every single one of your acquaintances. The holidays are about spending time with the people you love; you don't need to do everything, and limiting your commitments can take a lot of stress out of the holidays. Photo by goodrob13.
5. Take Extra Time for Travel
Make sure to budget plenty of time for your travel to save time in the long run, especially if you're flying. Everyone's heading to the airport during the holidays, and if you don't budget your time for traffic delays and long lines, you'll find that missed flights and baggage drama will ultimately cost a lot more of your time time than building in extra time to your travel on the front end. Photo by dougww.
Thanks again to CNBC for having me. Share you secrets for saving time over the holidays in the comments.
Multitouch Gestures Added to the Latest Firefox 3.1 Beta [Beta Beat]
One under-the-radar feature that came along for the ride with the recently released Firefox 3.1 Beta was multi-touch support for the latest generation of MacBooks. If you've got a new MacBook, the latest beta release supports swiping, pinching, and twisting your way through Firefox history, tabs, and more. [via]
Better GReader Extension Gets New Features Plus Fixes [Exclusive Lifehacker Download]
All platforms with Firefox: Just uploaded new version 0.5 of the Better GReader Firefox extension, which includes new features and fixes to all the stuff that Google's recent Reader redesign broke. In this new version you'll find Dustin's popular Absolutely Compact skin, plus the Remove Unread Item Count, and Mark Until Current As Read scripts. The Minimalistic skin has been fixed (thanks Scott!) and the extension is now compatible with Firefox 3.1 Beta 2.
The only sad news is that we lost the excellent OS X skin, which hasn't been updated to work with Google Reader's redesign. I'm also hearing reports that the Preview button script isn't working, but it is in my tests; if it isn't for you in version 0.5, please post what version of Firefox you're using on what platform (XP, Vista, Mac, or Linux) and I'll continue to try to get to the bottom of the problem. Update: The Preview button is now working; Automatic Preview only works in list view, not expanded. Thanks, Chrismith! In the meantime, Better GReader is a free download for all platforms with Firefox.
Google Reader Minimalistic Trims the Fat from Reader [Featured Greasemonkey User Script]
Firefox with Greasemonkey: The Google Reader Minimalistic Greasemonkey script streamlines Google's popular newsreader by removing unncessary images and links while also shrinking the text. Once you've installed the script, just tap 'w' on your keyboard to toggle between the default view and the Google Reader Minimalistic view. Google Reader's recent redesign may have been an improvement, but between the previously mentioned Absolutely Compact script and this one, it's clear that users still want to fit more content on Google Reader. For a better idea of what you can expect, check out the before and after screenshots.
Here's Google Reader pre-minimalistic:
Here's the Reader layout with Google Reader Minimalistic installed and enabled:
As you can see, the top row of links, the reader logo, and all of the friends, trends, and other non-feed subscription links are gone—leaving you with your feeds and feeds alone. Google Reader Minmialistic is a free download, requires Firefox with Greasemonkey.
Evernote Teams Up with Eye-Fi for Wireless Photo Uploads [Evernote]
Previously highlighted Eye-Fi—the SD card that wirelessly uploads images to your computer or the internet—has teamed up with popular note-taking application Evernote, allowing users to upload digital camera photos directly to Evernote without plugging in their camera. With Evernote's ability to recognize text in photos, it's an obvious win—and one more way you can expand your brain with Evernote. [Press Release]
Google's 2008 Year-End Zeitgeist Rounds Up Your Searches [Google]
Google shares the top searches for 2008 in their annual Google Zeitgeist, offering such gems as: Fastest Rising Global search: Sarah Palin; Most Popular "What is..." search: What is love?; Social Networks: Facebook; and Comfort Food: Ice cream. The zeitgeist is the result of billions of search queries that ran through Google's search box over '08, providing a great snapshot of what occupied our minds over the past year. Share any gems you dig up from the zeitgeist in the comments.
The Most Popular Linux Posts of 2008 [Best Of 2008]
Only around five percent of Lifehacker's visitors are using the open-source Linux operating system when they stop by, according to our traffic charts, and only one of our editors (ahem) is regularly using it every day. Having said that, when we get to write about great Linux-based tweaks or downloads, we get pretty excited—and, apparently, so do our readers and visitors linked in from across the web. Today we're looking back at the Linux-related posts that got the most attention in 2008, so read on to see what you might have missed, and what the open-source crowd is down with. Photo by Ypsy.
Fedora 9 Puts Your Desktop on a USB Drive
There are many tools one can use to create live-booting Linux desktops on a USB drive, including the multi-distro UNetbootin. Back when Fedora 9 was officially released, though, the Red Hat spin-off made a splash by giving us an easy-to-grasp, Windows-based tool for automatically downloading the latest Fedora release and putting it on a USB stick, along with allowing for extra space for storing changes you made to your system and documents you worked on . The Live USB Creator still works with Fedora 10, and very well might have inspired Ubuntu's 8.10 release to include a similar tool.
Seamlessly Run Linux Apps on Your Windows Desktop
There's probably a few Windows-only apps that make living in Linux pretty hard for even those intrigued at the idea—but there's also some Linux apps that would be great to have on your Windows system. Adam detailed how you can put what's basically a full Ubuntu installation onto your desktop with andLinux, using it to enable and launch apps like Amarok, the Akregator RSS reader, or whatever else you're into. For the flip side of that Win/Linux coin, see our guide to using Virtualbox to run Windows apps seamlessly inside Linux
Hardy Heron Makes Linux Worth Another Look
Looking at everything newly available in the popular Ubuntu distribution's 8.04 release, your humble editor jumped on the soapbox and made a case for it being a great reason to give Linux a shot. You could actually install it only as a Windows boot option without messing with your system's boot record, or easily access both Windows and Linux-formatted drives from either system. You could share settings between open-source apps like Firefox, Pidgin, and Thunderbird, and your ability to customize your desktop was pretty boundless. We try not to rant too often here, but sometimes it's worth letting fly with the links and inline pictures.
First Look at Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Beta
There wasn't half as much new in October's 8.10 release of Ubuntu as there had been in the majorly re-spun 8.04, but a bunch of seriously helpful usability tweaks made it worth the upgrade. Much-improved network and wireless management (including baked-in 3G card support), a graphical indicator for the installation partition editor, and hardware and dual-monitor managers that explained more of what was happening. Ubuntu-savvy author Keir Thomas also gave us a more in-depth, user-focused look at 8.10.
Lifehacker Faceoffs: Battles of the Thumb Drive Linux Systems and Linux Distros
We describe, you decide. We couldn't pretend to cover every desktop Linux operating system or live-boot-able, portable-minded distro out there, so we offered up a few popular, prime examples and polled our reader for their preference. As of this morning, Ubuntu held a commanding 49 percent in the desktop poll, followed by Ubuntu variants like Kubuntu/Xubuntu, then PC Linux OS (surprising!) and Fedora. In the thumb drive wars, Ubuntu still rules the roost at 29 percent, followed closely by Puppy Linux at 24 percent, then Fedora and Damn Small Linux at 13 and 12 percent, respectively.
Five more popular Linux posts
- Five Tweaks for Your New Ubuntu Desktop—Taken from the first things your editor always finds himself doing upon a new install. Switching to mirror servers, disabling or throttling index services, and setting up automatic home folder backups.
- Make Your Linux Desktop More Productive—Windows and Mac fans thinking about making the switch can benefit from checking out how to give their desktops a familiar, quick-task-switching feel, using dock programs like Avant Window Navigator, quick-launchers Gnome-DO or Launchy, and system tray indicators galore.
- Ask the Readers: Would a Prettier Linux Make You Switch?—Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth said he wanted to take an Apple-like focus on creating an elegant, eye-pleasing desktop for Linux distributions, and we wondered if that was a big missing link in Linux adoption. Readers seemed to agree it was important, but, well, another Mac trait—usually seamless hardware compatibility—was more key to your minds.
- Ubuntu 8.10 Gets Optional DarkRoom Theme—Looks like a lot of Ubuntu users are getting a bit tired of the orange/brown theme, and like the eye-relaxing looks of darker-hued desktops.
- Linux Desktops Dressed Up as Macs—For those who don't mind the mental schism between an ultra-proprietary desktop look and open-source guts, there are plenty of tools and tutorials for getting a strikingly Apple-like look on your Linux deck.
What was your favorite Linux app, tweak, or discovery from 2008 (or, if you're not calendar-minded, in recent memory)? Tell us about it in the comments.
Google Chrome to Leave Beta Soon [Google Chrome]
According to a TechCrunch interview with Google's vice president Marissa Mayer, Chrome will leave beta soon—though, frankly, the all-important "when" is conspicuously absent from the post. But I guess in a world where Gmail has remained in beta for going on five years, just knowing that Chrome has plans to leave beta sometime in the next year (maybe?) is good news.
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