Filed under: Windows, Web services, Microsoft, Beta, Web
Microsoft has rolled out an updated version of its Windows Live suite of internet applications for Windows. The suite has been renamed
Windows Live Eseentials, and includes Windows Live Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Toolbar, and Writer, as well as Silverlight and a Family Safety app for filtering your children's internet access.
The versions released today aren't dramatically different from the Windows Live Wave 3 apps we
told you about last month. But Microsoft says the latest beta refresh means that the company is almost ready to take the beta label away and say that the Windows Live Essentials apps are ready to call final.
There is, however, a rather lengthy list of known issues, especially for users who are running Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. So you might want to check out the
release notes and system requirements before installing Windows Live Essentials.
[via
Sarah In Tampa]
Next generation of Windows Live application suite now available originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Internet, Browsers, Web
There are a ton of
Firefox add-ons or
Greasemonkey user scripts that can change the look, feel, and behavior of web sites. For example, did you know that there are at least 292 Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail alone? They let you do everything from login to multiple Gmail accounts simultaneously to setting a 2 minute time limit for any new message or thread to keep you from wasting all day writing an email.
But when you visit a web site, how do you know if there are better ways to view it?
Greasefire is a Firefox add-on that will tell you if there are any user scripts for the page you're visiting. When you have Greasefire and
Greasemonkey installed a little monkey will show up in the bottom right corner of your Firefox status bar. If there are scripts available for the site you're viewing, the monkey's background color will change to red. And when you right click on the icon you'll see the number of available scripts. Click on that number and a window will open telling you more about those scripts.
Last week another plugin was released with a similar purpose.
App Discover will theoretically tell you if there are any user scripts, Firefox add-ons, or even Adobe AIR clients that will enhance your web experience for a specific page. But unlike Greasefire, App Discover will only work on web pages where the publisher has added a bit of code to the page to let the plugin know about recommended user scripts or add-ons. And since the plugin is so new, right now the number of sites optimized for use with App Discover is hovering around zero. But that could change at any time, making this one plugin worth keeping an eye on.
[via
Firefox Facts and
ReadWriteWeb]
Easy way to find plugins, user scripts to tweak any webpage originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: E-mail, Yahoo!, Social Software, Web
Yahoo! has been talking about plans to make its web-based email inbox smarter and more social by integrating other web services
for months. Now the company is spelling out what that means a bit more clearly.
VentureBeat reports the company held an event today where it showed off a demo of the next generation email inbox with a new sidebar with support for web applications like
WordPress,
Xoopit, and
Flixter.
The new Yahoo! Mail will also feature Flickr integration, allowing users to share photos by logging into their Flickr accounts from their email inbox. Yahoo! Mail will also be able to mine your personal data to figure out who your closest contacts are. It will then be able to prioritize emails from those contacts.
Yahoo! will also be rolling out a new version of the Yahoo! Toolbar with access to your web applications and adding a new section to the My Yahoo! homepage where you can access the same apps.
TechCrunch snagged an image of the new toolbar, which is scheduled for a beta release next week.
Update: And the official announcement is up on the
Yahoo! Mail blog. Check out a video demo of the new Yahoo! Mail after the break.
Continue reading Yahoo! lays out plans for Inbox app integration
Yahoo! lays out plans for Inbox app integration originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Freeware, Mods
I'm not a Mac user, but OSX has a lot of nice features - several of which have been translated into Windows shell enhancements. I've been using the
Stacks docklet in RocketDock for quite a while. It's a very handy way to navigate frequently accessed folders.
If you're not a fan of dock applications, but you'd still like to add stacks to your taskbar, just download
StandaloneStack. It's a small executable that launches either grid (pictured) or fan style stacks.
Settings are written to a .ini file and you can create as many stacks as you like. To call a specific one, create a shortcut to the standalonestack.exe and add its name after the closing quote. The developer's home page has more detailed instructions on how to get things going.
The stack consumes about 7mb of memory while open, but it closes the instant you click an icon or the window loses focus. It's a free download for Windows only and worked nicely on my XP and Vista Ultimate x64 installs.
Add Leopard-style folder stacks to Windows originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Video, Windows, Beta, Web
Over the weekend the folks at ZeeVee released a new beta of
Zviewer, a PC-based browser for finding and watching web video. ZeeVee makes a set top box that's designed to provide a similar service for $499. But the desktop software is free while in beta.
I first
took the Zviewer software for a spin a few months ago. While the software showed promise, there were a few drawbacks. First there was no search bar, meaning you'd have to do a lot of browing to find the videos you were looking for if your using the software on your PC. And if your PC is plugged into a television set videos didn't start in full screen mode which means that your remote control had better have a virtual mouse mode so you could hit the full screen button on sites like Hulu or YouTube.
Both of those issues have been addressed in Zviewer beta 2. There's a new search bar and videos start in full screen by default. You can also change the size of the network and program icons on your screen using Firefox keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl+ and Ctrl-.
Zviewer is based on Firefox 3, which makes upgrading from Zviewer beta 1 to 2 a snap. When I started the Zviewer player this weekend it automatically downloaded and installed new versions of the plugins. I visited the Zviewer homepage to read the list of changes, and discovered that you can actually download these plugins as a package for Firefox 3 if you want. Instead of installing Zviewer as a standalone program, you can install the plugins and click a toolbar button to bring up the Zviewer interface from any web page.
Zviewer beta 2 turns Firefox into a web-based media center originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Social Software, Search, Web
Search engines are great at answering some types of questions. Want to know what Barack Obama's kids names are? No problem. Google can help. But some questions are a bit trickier, like "
what's the best way to find a new tech job after you've been laid off?"
Mahalo wants to be able to answer both types of questions.
Mahalo launched about a year and a half ago as a sort of human-powered search engine. Now the site has curated search results for around 100,000 search terms. They're sort of like Google search results, except human beings have helped select the items they think you'd be most interested to highlight.
And today the company launched Mahalo Answers, which fills several functions. First, it allows anyone at all to post a question and get answers from Mahalo employees or anyone else who feels the urge to post an answer. Mahalo may incorporate those answers into its general search results, which helps flesh out the content on the main Mahalo.com page. But there's another way Mahalo, and you, can make money using Mahalo answers.
When you're asking a question you can offer a "tip" for the best answers. Tips are paid in Mahalo Dollars, which is another way of saying US dollars. But Mahalo takes a cut of 25% when you withdraw any money in your account. So if you've made $100 by providing top notch answers to questions, you can either ask 10 questions and provide $10 tips yourself or you can withdraw $75.
Continue reading Mahalo Answers takes on Yahoo! Answers with money
Mahalo Answers takes on Yahoo! Answers with money originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Filed under: Internet, Utilities, Windows, Freeware
There are plenty of good download managers available for Rapidshare Premium members, but what about those of us without a pair account?
Raptor is a good option for handling multiple RS downloads with minimal fuss. Just copy the download URL, click the plus button in Raptor, and paste. Raptor takes care of sitting through Rapidshare's imposed wait times so you don't have to.
The program defaults to a Russian interface. To switch the interface to English, follow the screenshot below:
Transfer speeds aren't the greatest, but Raptor is still a very handy, hands-off way to download a slew of files. It's much less of a pain than tabbing back to the download page repeatedly until you're allowed to proceed.
Raptor is a free program for Windows only, and it requires the .Net 2.0 framework.
Raptor manages downloads for Rapidshare Free users originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 15 Dec 2008 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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