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[Lifehacker] 17 New Entries: Backblaze Offers Hassle-Free Unlimited Online Backup [Featured Download]

Backblaze Offers Hassle-Free Unlimited Online Backup [Featured Download]

Windows/Mac OS X: Backup service Backblaze aims to take the hassle out of online backup by backing up only the data you need and ignoring unnecessary files like operating system files, applications, and temporary files. That way you don't have to get specific with Backblaze about everything you want to back up or exclude (though you can if you want)—it just backs up everything and excludes the data that's not useful in backup form. The service does continuous backup, so files are always (hopefully) up to date, but you can switch to scheduled backups if you prefer. Like other popular backup tools, Backblaze does unlimited backup for a price: $5/month (similar to MozyHome) or $50/year (like Carbonite). A free trial of Backblaze is available if you'd like to try it out before committing. The app is available in Windows form to anyone; you'll need to sign up for an invite if you want to try it on your Mac.

Tim Ferriss' "Trial By Fire" TV Pilot Debuts Tomorrow Night [Television]

Set your TiVos, folks: Author of The 4 Hour Workweek and Lifehacker guest author Tim Ferriss debuts the pilot episode of his new TV show, "Trial By Fire," on The History Channel tomorrow night. Hit the play button above to get a taste (and hear them call him a "lifehacker"!). Ferriss explains what it's all about:

The concept is simple: I have one week to attempt to learn what is usually learned over 5-20 years. I either crash and burn — or survive by the skin of my teeth — in a final test (trial by fire) each time. If it's made into a series, which depends entirely on viewership numbers on Thursday night, I'll deconstruct a new complex skill each week. It will show you exactly how I approach learning, and no fake TV drama will be required to make the stakes real.

The pilot airs tomorrow night at 11PM ET/PT on The History Channel (though do double-check your local listings), and here's what you'll see.

This episode was shot in HD in Tokyo and the mountains of Nikko, where I rolled the dice on Japanese horseback archery, or yabusame: full gallop, no hands, no safety gear, with wooden poles lining the track on either side of the horse. Please don't do this at home. I had access to the best in the world, and you'll get to see some never-before-seen footage of a rare and brutal samurai sport few non-Japanese have ever attempted.

Like Tim said, this is a pilot that hasn't been turned into a series yet, so only your eyeballs will determine whether the show continues. Planning on watching? Tell us what you think about the teaser clip in the comments.

Google Contacts Syncs Your Google Address Book with Thunderbird [Featured Thunderbird Extension]

Thunderbird only: Thunderbird extension Google Contacts automatically syncs contacts between your Google and Thunderbird address books. The sync is bi-directional, and the extension is smart enough to detect Gmail accounts you've already set up in Thunderbird, so setup is a breeze. Beyond that, there's not much to it—Google Contacts does exactly what it sets out to do. We detailed how to sync Gmail contacts with Thunderbird using GCalDaemon—a command line tool that syncs Google Calendar and Contacts—a while back, but now that you can easily sync any desktop calendar with Google Calendar and sync Google Contacts with extensions like this one, it's easier than ever to keep your Google data synchronized. Thanks Pranesh!

Beer Can and Liquor Bottle Holiday Ornaments [Featured DIY Holiday Project]

Beer-lover and do-it-yourselfer fotoFluke recycled his cans, bottles, caps, and coasters into fabulous (and funny) holiday decorations, one of which won him an award at an office contest. Here you see a toy soldier constructed from beer cans, a mini-keg, paper coasters, with a bottle cap as the nose. Check out three more after the jump: Santa's drunken sleigh ride, three wise men liquor bottles, and Absolut angels.

The Santa's drunken sleigh ride decoration won fotoFluke's office Christmas decoration content "by a landslide." He says:

I had a lot of fun making this as I had to drink all of the beer before I started. Eight Bud nip cans as the Reindeer, a Foster's oil can as the sleigh and a playmobil made up as Santa.

The photo's notes also reveal that the antlers are cut from a Bass six pack. Hopefully Santa avoided getting pulled over on his trip around the tree. Not sure he'd pass the sobriety test.

FotoFluke explains the three wise men ornament:

Jim Beam, Johnnie Walker, and Jack Daniels presenting gifts of water, Advil and Alka-Seltzer for the hungover. Made for a homemade Christmas tree ornament contest at work. The problem with hanging this one was getting the balance just right, other than that it was light enough.

Finally, the Absolut angels tree ornament added wings to mini Absolut vodka bottles.

Nifty way to recycle and show off your choice of spirits, fotoFluke! Don't forget to submit your DIY holiday projects—inebriated or not—to the Lifehacker DIY Holiday Flickr group.

FoxReplace Adds Find and Replace to Firefox [Featured Firefox Extension]

Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension FoxReplace adds find-and-replace functionality to web pages. If you do a lot of writing in web forms—whether it's for work, your personal blog, or just your Gmail account—the option to do automatic find and replace is a godsend. You can choose to match by case and replace all matching text, whole words only, or use regular expressions if you're really savvy. The extension boasts way more features than you're likely to use (including finding and replacing text on an HTML level), though to be honest I'd be happier with a similar extension that worked only with textareas and had a Find Next option before replacing (right now it replaces all instances). FoxReplace is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

Ask MetaFilter Roundup [Hive Mind]

Amazon Mobile Looks Up Any Product You Snap a Picture Of [Featured IPhone Download]

iPhone/iPod touch only: Amazon released a new mobile application for the iPhone and iPod touch today, ensuring that you can now get your online shopping fix no matter where you are. Not only does the Amazon app provide an excellent interface to search, buy, or add items to your wishlists, but if you're an iPhone user, the application's Amazon Remembers feature identifies any product you take a picture of—sort of like previously mentioned SnapTell. When you snap a pic, the app uploads the picture to Amazon, which looks for a match among its products. If it finds one (it can take anywhere between a couple minutes and 24 hours), it'll send you an email and update the Amazon Remembers tab. So far it's worked like a charm with all of the products I tested. I expected that my iPhone book might throw it for a loop, considering it has a picture of an iPhone on it, but even it was correctly identified within a few minutes.

If you give it a go, let's hear how it works out for you in the comments.

Watch YouTube Videos While Working Other Tasks [YouTube]

YouTube is full of videos that don't require singled-minded attention, but trying to keep a YouTube page visible in the background for passive watching isn't easy. Digital Inspiration's Amit Agarwal suggests two methods, though, that work great for browsing other sites or doing actual, you know, work, while keeping a video cornered and always on top. The first requires re-working a video link to its full-screen version and bookmarking it to load in Firefox's sidebar—something we've covered before with many other apps. The other method creates a mini-browser window that always stays on top using an AutoHotKey-coded app. Hit the link below for details on each idea, which should make burning through your favorite webisodes easier while still plucking away on your busy work.

Have You Ever Edited Wikipedia? [Reader Poll]

CNET reports that Wikipedia has received $890,000 in funding specifically aimed at creating an easier to use interface for readers with a low level of tech knowledge. Wikipedia's goal is "to identify the most common barriers to entry for first-time writers, and then work to systematically reduce or eliminate them." It's an excellent idea, considering the obvious fact that there are presumably countless potential contributors with a lot of knowledge but a low level of tech skill. Still, since most of our readers are a tech-savvy bunch, it got us wondering:

It's not clear when the new and improved interface will reach public eyes, but all the new code will remain open source for those of us who've set up ou own personal Wikipedia using MediaWiki's software. Until then, check out our previous guide to contributing to Wikipedia.

Toucan Syncs and Backs Up Your Files [Featured Windows Download]

Windows only: Portable application Toucan backs up and syncs your data between two locations (like your hard drive and your USB drive). Weighing in at just over 4.10MB installed, Toucan offers several advanced backup and syncing settings, like incremental backup with compression (supporting 7-Zip format), portable drive variables, scripts and advanced rulesets. Similar to SyncBackSE but smaller and portable, Toucan is a nice option for making sure you've got everything on your thumb drive. Toucan is a free download for Windows only.

Windows 7 Beta 1 Coming January 2009 [Windows 7]

Web site Windows 7 Center reports that Microsoft's forthcoming update to Vista, Windows 7, will release its first official beta on January 13, 2009—exciting news for anybody dying to test drive Windows 7's awesome new features. On the other hand, if you're not eager to upgrade, you can still enjoy some of Windows 7's best features right now.

Apple Has Always Recommended Antivirus Apps [Antivirus]

Despite a widely reported claim that Apple had recently changed a support document to recommend its users run multiple antivirus utilities, Gizmodo reveals that the antivirus recommendation is not new. Still—even if the recommendation predates dinosaurs—68% of you have never once run antivirus on your Mac in the first place. UPDATE: The kicker: Apple has now removed the article in question altogether.

What's Inside Vista SP2 [Windows Vista]

The All About Microsoft blog posts a seriously complete list of what's going to be included in Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista, expected to be out in April 2009. Major items include the Vista Feature Pack for Wireless for easier/better connections, built-in Blu-Ray writing, and reduced resources required for sidebar gadgets. Nothing majorly huge, so it's worth looking at Windows 7 features you can get in Vista.

SkyDrive Upgrade Goes Live with 25GB of Space [Online Storage]

Windows Live, intended to be a landing page for social activity and Microsoft's cloud-connected apps, is rolling out a host of redesigns and upgrades today, but none so exciting (to our eyes, anyways) as the anticipated jump of the SkyDrive online storage service to 25GB capacity. As the Digital Inspiration blog points out, SkyDrive seems to be a central part of the Redmond giant's web ambitions, so it's not likely to go away or shrink. Aside from the raw upload/download capabilities, having a SkyDrive account gives you a few other cool abilities, which we'll detail below.

No-sign-up-needed sharing: If you've used most any Microsoft service, you know their features are often linked to a drive to get more people signed into their apps and networks. Not so with SkyDrive, which offers a nice little checkbox for sending sharing links to any email address without requiring a Live sign-in.

Lots of tools for photos: Tag yourself or friends Facebook-style in your photos, launch elegant pic-on-black-background slideshows from folders of pictures (your own or shared) that works on any browser (but supposedly better with Silverlight installed), order prints, and SkyDrive's thumbnails are nicely big and clear. Here's how photos are handled in SkyDrive's file browser:

Grab entire folders as single .zip files: This simple, helpful compression feature isn't entirely common amongst file-sharing/storage services. You can also drop photos right into your Live Photo Gallery, if that's how your roll.

Easy sharing and updates on contacts' files: Windows Live allows you to keep updated with what your friends on Live, Facebook, and LinkedIn are up to, and SkyDrive is no different. Your main SkyDrive page will let you know if any of your contacts have opened up a file for public sharing, and you can organize contacts into categories for easy group sharing—so everyone, for example, in "Project Team" can be sent your latest report at once, with one click.

Mount SkyDrive on your desktop with Gladinet: As we detailed earlier this week, Gladinet's free Cloud Desktop beta allows you mount and access SkyDrive (and Picasa, Google Docs, and Amazon's S3) as if it were a plain network folder. Drag-and-drop access to 25GB of go-anywhere cloud space is surely a nifty thing.

Still lacking—50MB file size limit: Amongst SkyDrive's online storage peers, 50MB isn't quite eye-opening, especially for a service that wants to be the hub of a burgeoning online network. Still, for photos, documents, and even most zipped-up MP3 albums, it's decent enough.

SkyDrive requires a sign-up with Windows Live for storing and sharing files. What do you think of the newly-expanded SkyDrive? Share your review in the comments.

Photology Helps You Search Your Photos Using Intuitive Filters [Windows Featured Download]

Windows only: Photology steps away from tag based searching and allows you to search through your pictures with a variety of filters. There are filter functions for colors, dates, times of day, photo orientation, exposure, text of captions/file names/folders, and even filters for things like plants, sky, faces, beaches, flowers, snow, sunset and water. The simpler filters like the color picker are a bit more accurate than the more advanced ones like clouds. In the screenshot above I had searched for the color blue and snow. Photology kicked out a ton of blue skied and snowy wallpapers I had saved earlier in the holiday season but it also returned a picture of Wonder Woman standing on a cloud. In the defense of Photology clouds and snowbanks are quite similar. Filters can be stacked, so if you need to find a picture from October, predominantly yellow, and taken in the morning you can use all three filters. In addition to helping you search through your photos, Photology has tools for photo adjustments like color correction, red eye removal, cropping, etc. You can also upload your pictures from the application to a site hosted by Enoetic, the parent company of Photology. Pictures will be stored there for 7 days to share with friends. For a more permanent upload, you can also use Photology to upload to Flickr. Photology is freeware, Windows only, requires .Net 3.0+ framework. Thanks GisellaPot!

.TEL Contact Domain Available for Registrations [Domain Names]

A new top-level-domain, .TEL, is due to be available for registration today that lets ~~individuals and companies~~ companies, and later individuals, create a web home for contact information. Phone numbers, email addresses, social network pages, and other relevant info are stored at the domain-name level rather than on static pages, so updating your .tel information can be a quick, universal way to change any of those digits. For those without personal web sites, it could be a nice way to build a simple web presence, as you can also set up search-able key words for your domain. Those with their own sites, or presence on a lot of social sites, can simply point to a .tel address, rather than try and keep your contact data up on every single page. Wondering what your .tel would look like? Try it out on Telnic's .tel simulator. Update: Actually, only owners of trademarks can apply in today's "Sunrise" registration; the general public gets their .tel availability during the "Landrush" on Feb. 3, 2009, and for cheaper during general sale on March 24. Sorry for the confusion.

Favorites Search Adds Easy Bookmark Recall to Internet Explorer [Featured Windows Download]

Windows only: Internet Explorer add-on Favorites Search is a small, handy button for your toolbar that adds a pop-out pane to quickly search your bookmarks. That's nothing that Firefox, Google Chrome, or any Windows user who's installed Windows Search 4.0 or set up Vista for Favorites indexing can't do, but if you're dedicated (or locked) into using IE 7 and just need some in-browser search functionality, DzSoft's lightweight add-on is worth a try. Make sure you add its button to your main toolbar (right-click it and hit "Customize Command Bar") for quicker click-and-type functionality. Favorites Search is a free download for Windows systems with Internet Explorer 5.0 and above. Hit the via link below for four other small, unique-function add-ons for Internet Explorer.

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[Hack a Day] 2 New Entries: Firefox addon makes pirating music easier

Firefox addon makes pirating music easier

The Amazon MP3 Store may have the lowest prices on DRM free music, but for some people 79 cents for a song is just too much, especially when [john] and the folks at pirates-of-the-amazon.com can help you get that song for free. Pirates of the Amazon is a slick Firefox addon that inserts a “download 4 free” button next to the “add to cart” button in the Amazon MP3 Store. After clicking on the button, the addon refers users to a thepiratebay.org search page with bittorrent download links for the song or album. While there is no question that this makes getting your music easier, by using this addon you do run the risk of violating copyright laws, depending on which country you live in.

There isn’t much here that hasn’t been thrown into Greasemonkey scripts in the past and we wonder if they’re marketing this to anyone at all. People who absolutely love using Amazon but hate buying stuff perhaps? They cite a couple interesting projects in their about section: Amazon Noir robotically abused the “Search Inside” feature to reconstruct entire books. OU Library searches your local library to see if it has the Amazon book you’re looking for.

Nintendo DSi gets its first flash cart

ak2i_power_on

A month ago, we reported that Nintendo’s new DSi portable didn’t work with any of the current crop of flash cartridges. Things didn’t look good for homebrew. Here we are a month later and looking at the release of the Acekard 2i. It’s the first DSi compatible flash cartridge. The features appear to be identical to previous versions and we expect other manufactures will be updating their product lines in short order. You can find a video of the Acekard 2i after the break.

These carts may exist because of pirates, but we happily use them for homebrew. There are a lot of great programs out there; here’s a list of 24 apps that are dedicated to music creation. You can run Linux on it too. It’s as easy as copying a file to a flash drive. If you have a DS and aren’t using homebrew, you’re wasting it. We’ll be picking up a DSi as soon as they’re in the US (they’re region locked).

[via DS Fanboy]

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[Lifehacker] 2 New Entries: Easy Wi-Fi Takes Annoyances Out of Free AT&T Hotspots [Featured IPhone Download]

Easy Wi-Fi Takes Annoyances Out of Free AT&T Hotspots [Featured IPhone Download]

iPhone only: Normally, getting free Wi-Fi at one of AT&T's 20,000 or so hotspots requires opening a launch page in mobile Safari, entering your phone number, clicking the link in a text message, then repeating at every new hotspot or every 24 hours. Fun stuff, but free (until Friday, Dec. 5) iPhone app Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T can make it much simpler. Enter your AT&T number into the app's settings, then when you're in range of an AT&T hotspot (and the app will verify that you are), you simply hit the "Log In" button, and you're on your way. There isn't a Starbucks or airport close by to Lifehacker East HQ for immediate testing (and, besides that, it doesn't fly with iPod touch models), but iTunes reviewers are saying it delivers what it promises—when it doesn't have occasional server errors. Easy Wi-Fi for AT&T is a free download until Friday; the developers also make a $1.99 app for all models that works with nearly 30 other hotspot networks.

Best New and Improved Software of 2008 [Best Of 2008]

Mobile phone operating systems and a reheated web browser war: that's how we'll recall the year 2008 when it comes to software. From brand new to revamped browsers and mobile platforms and apps, 2008's been good to technophiles who like their data in the cloud and accessible wherever they are. Let's take a look back at this year in software, and some of the best new and improved applications, web services, and mobile platforms that were born in 2008. Looking back at the last 12 months, these are the apps that get a gold foil-wrapped chocolate coin from us this year. Photo by Gaetan Lee.

Firefox 3

Not only did you swoon over the release of Firefox 3 because of the "AwesomeBar" and the rest of the "Had no idea I needed this but now I love it!" features it offers, but because the launch itself was a grass-roots community-driven effort towards making software history. Indeed, on June 17th of this year, the makers of Firefox set a new Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a given day, at more than eight million downloads of the new browser iteration in 24 hours. If you haven't dug into the advanced functionality Firefox has to offer, check out our power user's guide to Firefox 3.

Google Chrome

While Mozillians and Firefox users celebrated across the globe over the summer, no one knew that search powerhouse Google was in the software development lab cooking up their own lean, mean browsing machine that would forsake all of the fox's bells and whistles (and extensibility) to run Javascript-based applications lightening-fast. On September 2nd, Google released the first beta of Chrome, their new web browser which they hope you'll make your window to the web and all its apps. Our own in-house browser speed tests show that Chrome is indeed speedy, and we're seeing a significant uptake on Chrome usage by Lifehacker readers. (Last month's browser breakdown for Lifehacker readers was 62% Firefox, 22% IE, 8% Safari, and 6% Chrome. Not bad for a browser that's been out only a few months.) For more Chrome goodness, see our power user's guide to Google Chrome.

iPhone 2.0 and the App Store

Yeah, yeah, the iPhone launched in 2007, but this year the iPhone 2.0 software and the new iPhone 3G model with a faster data plan and GPS came out to hype almost as big as the original iPhone launch. The combination of an operating system that finally ran third-party apps officially plus pinpointy GPS goodness set the bar for what users can expect to get from the next generation of smartphone with a fast internet connection, full-on browser, and spot-on location-awareness. Plus, dozens of the apps available for the phone are free. At first, we were in love. Later, we had our doubts. The iPhone 2.0 launch did start to show some of the cracks in the Apple armor—several of the earliest versions of the software were crash and freeze-prone, requiring many users to uninstall apps and reset their phone software to fix maddening keyboard delays and application crashes. Meanwhile, Apple's approval-only App Store left a few applications out in the cold. Still, the iPhone 2.0 software created a compelling mobile platform and app marketing campaign that made Aunt Bertha really want to try that Neil Diamond song out on Shazam.

iPhone 2.0 Jailbreak Utilities and Apps

What with the App Store limitations and Apple's insistence on ruling over what you can and cannot do on your phone, it's not surprising the enthusiastic "jailbreak" community soldiered on this year, continuing to offer installers and non-Apple-approved applications for your iPhone even in the face of the mainstream iTunes App Store. We take our hats off to these intrepid hackers, who offer such lovely functionality as the ability to SSH into, theme, and download video clips to your phone; if you haven't jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch, here are a few of our picks of best iPhone 2.0 jailbreak apps you can't find in the iTunes Store.

Google Android

Google's answer to Apple's proprietary iPhone hardware and software came in the form of their very own touch mobile phone operating system, Android, which launched this past October. Unlike the iPhone, this new mobile platform is open source and will run on various handsets going forward. Right now Android's first release is only available on the HTC G1 handset; you can see our hands-on first look at Google Android running on the G1 here. As an iPhone user frustrated by limited apps, crashiness, and lack of copy and paste, Android is like a breath of fresh air. Even though the mobile OS is still very new, its open-source nature has led to hundreds of new apps. See our pick of best Android apps to boost your mobile productivity.

Digsby

One of the few software apps on this list that's not open source or made by a ginormous company, new instant messenger client Digsby took chatters by storm with its ability to consolidate your IM, email, and social networking in one place. Even though the Digsby beta only went public in February, by April it was already one of our readers' top five favorite instant messaging tools.

XBMC and Forks

We were really late to the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) party when we showed up last year and installed it on our old classic Xbox, but since then we've been hooked on this rich, open-source media center. Luckily, just because those old black boxes are becoming obselete doesn't mean the XBMC software project has died off. Just the opposite: XBMC has forked into several neat branches that run on various hardware platforms so you can enjoy the same media center goodness without hacking an old Xbox. Check out a few launches from various factions of XBMC developers this past year that have warmed our hearts:

Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex and Hardy Heron

Another year, another TWO Ubuntu releases, and they just keep getting better. You have to love the free, open source operating system that manages multiple releases within the span of a year—something Apple and Microsoft, companies you pay hundreds of dollars to for the privilege of using their software, can't pull off. If you've tried Linux on your desktop before and killed the partition in frustration only to slink back to Windows, it's time to give it another go. This year we thought version 8.04 Hardy Heron made Linux worth another look; the follow-up, version 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is even better.

Gmail Labs, Gadgets, and Themes

Our favorite web application on the internet, Gmail, continues to burn down barns and rip up the competition with continual iteration and feature adds. This year, Gmail added a "Labs" section to your account, a safe way for power users to enable "experimental" power features to their email while keeping everyone else's safe from harm. Truthfully, when I attended the Google press event announcing Gmail Labs back in June, I had my doubts about whether or not the featureset would ever expand beyond the initial 13, and if it would go beyond eye-candy games like Snakey to, you know, actually useful stuff. Turns out it did. Six months later, ten more Gmail Labs features are available in your account, including a super-useful Gadgets feature that lets third parties embed their apps into your inbox. (Like Bit.ly or Basecamp.) Later, Gmail launched themes as well as a Google Desktop gadget. In the midst of all this, the Gmail security team took the time to respond to a breach that several users had experienced and blogged about online. Clearly there's someone home at Gmail; this is a rapidly-evolving product that any webapp developer should use as an example on how to iterate quickly.

Honorable Mentions

Making best-of-year lists is always difficult because you risk leaving off really deserving items. At least two that go in our honorable mentions bin are the Firefox keyboard interface prototype Ubiquity, and photo-sharing site Flickr's launch of short video clips in April.

Now, you tell us which one of these apps impressed you the most in the year two thousand and eight.

If you can't get enough of best-of lists, hop into the time machine and see our top 10 new and improved apps of 2007, and our best apps of 2006 and of 2005.

Anything you would have included on this list that we left out? Tell us about it in the comments.