Entries tagged with apps - Channel 10

Gestures…The New Touch?

sarahintampa — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:42:00 GMT

Gestures are getting hot, are they not? Lately, I’ve noticed a bunch of apps that let you use mouse gestures to execute predefined commands or actions. But this is hardly a new trend…apps like StrokeIt, the Windows-only global mouse gestures app were getting attention as far back as spring 2007. So why the resurgence now, I wonder?

I’ve recently come across freeware like Mazzrick, a portable mouse gesture utility that lets you create your own custom gestures, and the full-featured gMote which, in addition to being portable, supports over 30 actions.

Given the usability of these freeware/donationware programs, I’m not sure why someone would pay for a mouse gestures app, but mgLaunch ($29.95) is hoping you will. Their app launcher is skinnable, so maybe that’s what makes it worth it? I’m not sure, but it also crossed my radar not too long ago, so it may be worth a look.

Another gesture-based utility is the IE plugin called simply “Mouse Gestures for Internet Explorer.” With this software, you can control various tasks related to your web surfing – like opening and closing windows - just by drawing a simple symbol on the screen. (Works with XP/Vista/64-bit, too).

But with computers getting smaller and more portable, I would think more people are using the touchpad than the mouse. Still, the netbook phenomenon may have people starting to pack a mini mouse to go, too, since those netbook touchpads are crazy small.

Are you a fan of mouse gesture applications? If so, feel free to share which ones you like and recommend in the comments.

Aero Shake For Your Vista PC

sarahintampa — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Have you been eying the new Windows 7 features with envy? Well, now you can get at least one of them on your Vista computer: Aero Shake. Over at LifeHacker, they’ve released an app that lets you shake your active window to minimize all the other open windows, just like in Windows 7. Shake again, and the other windows will be restored. Simply called the Shake app, the software was written in AutoHotkey and the source code is available for addition to your main AHK script if desired. But for most of us, the downloadable .exe file will work better.

Before you download, though, be aware that this app is still a little “rough around the edges” they warn, and some commenters have reported issues with its use. In our tests, it worked OK, but maybe a little slow. It also hid the sidebar! However, it definitely gets us excited to get our hands on Windows 7 so we can finally enjoy the real Aero Shake and all its other cool features too. (Image via)

Keeping a Clean Desktop With TrayEverything

sarahintampa — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 23:09:00 GMT

I read about a new app called Tray Everything, which lets you minimize any program to your system tray, but I didn’t think I would really have a use for it. A few days later, though, I had a number of apps open including Windows Live Writer, Excel, IE, Firefox, my FTP program FileZilla, and an AIR app called Doomi (for to-do lists), which seemed to have no “minimize to tray” setting. I then realized that Tray Everything might just be something I needed after all. The clutter of having all the apps at the bottom of my screen was finally starting to bother me.

I then remembered Tray Anything and decided to give it a try. I was happy to find that the app is very simple to use. After you install it, you just double-click on any of your running applications listed to minimize them to the system tray. That’s it in a nutshell. But beyond that, you can also configure more advanced options like hiding certain apps’ icons from appearing in the tray, password-protecting apps, configuring hotkeys, or turning on auto-minimizing to the tray after an interval you specify. And if you plan on using Tray Anything to minimize a bunch of instances of the same application, you can tray them all with just one icon. (Did I just use “tray” as a verb? Hmm.)

According to the application’s homepage, Tray Anything works on Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP, but I’ve been running it on Vista without any issues yet. You can download Tray Anything for yourself from here.

How To Recover Lost Email Passwords

sarahintampa — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:23:00 GMT

I’ll bet you can already think of a handful of times when you could have used this next tool: Mail PassView. I recently came across Mail PassView when surfing through my techie RSS feeds. The program is a freeware utility that helps you recover passwords from both Outlook and Outlook Express as well as other mail clients like Eudora, Thunderbird, Yahoo!, Gmail, Hotmail, IncrediMail, and Windows Live Mail. When I first saw the application, I thought that the interface looked a lot like that other incredibly handy password recovery tool: WirelessKeyView. As it turns out, they’re both from the same developer, Nir Sofer. Although on the one hand, these sort of tools make me nervous as they so easily expose the passwords you think are safe and secure, on the other I’m very grateful that they exist. I can’t even count the number of times I helped others move their files, email, and apps from one PC to another and the biggest stumbling block was always that they didn’t remember their passwords for their ISP-assigned email addresses. If only I had known about Mail PassView then…I could have saved so much time! You can download Mail PassView from here.

CraigsPal Brings Craigslist To Your Desktop

sarahintampa — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 12:49:00 GMT

Are you a heavy user of the online classified website Craigslist? If so, then you definitely have to look at CraigsPal, a desktop software program designed just for searching Craigslist. The application is available in two different versions, one free and one paid. The free version lets you search across cities, states, and countries, filter content, use negative searches (-keyword), preview listings/photos, sort by price or date, flag spam, and has several keyboard shortcuts.

The paid version, however, is for the true Craigslist fanatic. With CraigsPal Pro ($29.99), you can receive mobile SMS and email alerts, save favorite searches, backup your user data, automate searches, and you have access to free updates for the life of the program.

Of course, if you just want to search all the Craigslist sites, you don’t need an app to do so: Search All Craig's lets you do that from one simple web page. And if you really want to delve into all that is Craigslist, Lifehacker has the definitive Craigslist Power Users Guide.

Finding More Space On Your Hard Drive (Part 2)

sarahintampa — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:55:00 GMT

In the past, I looked at a couple of programs that can help you find more space on your hard drive: Xinorbis and WinDirStat (my current favorite). However, I recently discovered a couple more tools thanks to Steve Smith’s blog. Steve recommends a program called SpaceMonger. The current version of the program, version 2.1, claims to work on any version of Windows from 95 to XP to Server 2003. Although it doesn’t mention Windows Vista, Steve is using it on Vista with few issues. The program displays your disk space using proportionally sized rectangles so you can easily identify the places where you may be able to delete files.

He also mentions another utility called Easy Duplicate File Finder, which he found on PCWorld’s site. However, this program was not too good for Windows Vista as it had issues with the Vista file junctions (like, for example, the program didn’t know that c:\Users\Sarah\Pictures is really the same as c:\Users\Sarah\Documents\My Pictures\). This slowed the program down quite a bit.

If you have any favorite programs to recommend, leave us a note in the comments!

360Desktop Now In Beta

sarahintampa — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:33:00 GMT

In December, we told you about 360Desktop, a new software application for Windows that lets you see your desktop in a 360 degree format. As you open programs and windows, you can spin to a virtual “other side” of your desktop to have more space. Although we were excited for the program back then, the software was not yet available for download. But just recently, 360Desktop introduced their first public beta. The app can now be downloaded from the 360Desktop homepage.

In addition to being able to spin your Windows Desktop around, you can also easily make desktop widgets from various parts of the web. You can clip anything – RSS feeds, games, videos, parts of web pages, or whatever else you want and then make them a part of your desktop. You can even clip anything that features an embed code - like a blog widget or online video and turn these into widgets as well, just by copying and pasting the embed code into the “Add Widget” box. The end result is nearly unlimited desktop space featuring your favorite content from the web.

At the moment, the program only features two 360 wallpapers, and I didn’t particularly care for either of them. However, the next release of the software will allow you to create your own canvases and share them with others. These canvases will also allow you the ability to mashup multimedia content and integrate it right into the photo background. A 64-bit version will be available soon, too.

You can download 360Desktop for free from here: 360Desktop.com.

Klipfolio: A Personal Dashboard for Windows

sarahintampa — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:21:00 GMT

Klipfolio is a tool that provides a dashboard for your Windows desktop which you can use to monitor anything - news, weather, RSS feeds, email, or whatever else you can access via a web browser. You can also monitor computer events like your CPU usage or disk space, too. Although the program works on Vista, it’s clearly a Sidebar replacement, so you wouldn’t want to run both at the same time. However, for XP and Windows 2000 users, this program can certainly deliver the sidebar experience, except that instead of gadgets, Klipfolio offers “klips,” downloadable programs which developers can write with as little as 7 lines of XML code.

Like the Vista Sidebar, Klipfolio can be set to auto-hide and can be positioned on the right or left of your screen. Yet, unlike the Sidebar, it can also be moved to the top or bottom or you can have it float on your screen like an AIR app, too. To personalize Klipfolio, you can adjust the font, change the color, and/or choose from a bunch of different skins. As for content, there are currently over 4000 Klips available for download from the Klipfolio website, so you’re sure to find enough of interest to fill up your dashboard and then some.

(Thanks to Social Web Tools for this tip!)

TinyTwitter Updated: Now Add Pictures and Geolocate Your Tweets

sarahintampa — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:25:00 GMT

If you have a Windows Mobile device and you are a Twitter user, then you may have heard of an app called TinyTwitter. Many people say that TinyTwitter is already one of the best applications for using Twitter on their mobile phone, but now it’s even better than before! A recent update to TinyTwitter has added two great new features: picture uploads and geolocation. The picture uploading is done via a service called TwitPic and there’s nothing special you have to do to use it – just add append a picture to your tweet.

The new geolocation feature is pretty great too, especially because it’s using our very own Live Maps service to geolocate your tweets. Assuming your mobile phone has GPS built in, your tweets will be mapped out and posted on a timeline along with a link to Live Maps so people can see where you are. Don’t worry, though, it won’t be exact enough to encourage stalking.

To try out the new version of this app, go to TinyTwitter.com on your PC or visit m.ttwt.at from your mobile phone.

(Thanks to Jeremy Cath for the tip! Img courtesy PocketPCThoughts)

Go Green With Edison

sarahintampa — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:31:00 GMT

Edison is a new download that helps you with PC Power Management. The app comes from a company called Verdiem, which offers similar technology for large enterprises for a fee. With Edison, though, you’ll get those same power-saving tools for free. After you download and register the program, you can customize your settings through a set of easy-to-use tabs. You can specify when you use your PC the most, edit settings for both "work" and "home," use a slider to adjust your savings level, and more. But the best part of this app is where it tells you what your estimated annual power savings will be. Edison provides those figures in dollars, Kilowatt hours, and even in pounds of CO2 saved! You can download Edison from www.microsoft.com/environment – the link is on the right. (via Steve Clayton)

New Windows Mobile App Portal

sarahintampa — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:28:00 GMT

There’s a new Silverlight-based portal for Windows Mobile applications designed specifically for customers in the EMEA region – that’s “Europe, Middle East, and Africa.” On this site, you can browse line of business applications by industry or drill down into apps for sales force enablement, field force enablement, GPS, and more. Each app features a description, a scenario for its usage, and its benefits. You can click to see screenshots and to access more links – like the link to the app’s website, for example. For anyone in this geographic region, the site can be a valuable resource to help you find the best business apps for your Windows Mobile device. To take a look for yourself, the link is: http://www.microsoft.com/emea/windowsmobileapps/default.mspx
(Via Mr Mobile)

nCleaner – A Free App for System Cleaning

sarahintampa — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:31:00 GMT

If you have ever used the system cleaning app cCleaner, you may be interested in checking out nCleaner as an alterative. cCleaner let you delete your browsing history, cache, cookies, while also cleaning up your Windows Explorer, emptying the recycle bin, cleaning your clipboard history, and clearing the memory in various applications (like Office).

nCleaner, on the other hand, goes even further and offers a slew of detailed options for system cleaning and offers to clean over 90 items, one of these items being a registry cleaner. Now, you will no longer need a separate program for that – it’s built right in. In addition, the software provides a system resource monitor, a system advisor, logging, scheduling, plug in option, custom cleaning, statistics, automatic updating, and a lot more.

Karl on MakeUseOf put it to the test recently and managed to recover 17 GB worth of disk space and declared the app a winner. That’s good enough for me – since it’s a free download, I’ll give it a shot. You can try it too – the download link is here.

iWindowsMobile Launches Updated ZoomBoard

sarahintampa — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:32:00 GMT

Their URL is simply iwindowsmobile.com, but their header image puts a heart in there, so I guess we could call the site iheartwindowsmobile.com. Regardless of what it's called though, the site offers up a treasure trove of downloads and apps for Windows Mobile devices, the latest of which is a refresh of ZoomBoard.

This new app offers an onscreen keyboard for quick and easy touch typing on Windows Mobile devices. As you touch a letter, the app can either zoom in on the part of the keyboard under your finger in a pop-up lens or it can zoom in on the entire keyboard. The keyboard comes in different color palettes - black or bright blue - and looks great on the new HTC Touch devices.

However, ZoomBoard is just one of many great apps on iwindowsmobile.com. There's also FunContact, a contact manager; GoodWin, a task switcher and launcher; and SMS-Chat, an instant SMS messenger. You can also get the three of those programs bundled together with the Communication Suite download.

In addition, there is also EyePhoto, a photo viewer which lets use your finger to swish through your pictures; Audio Notes Touch, an mp3 recorder; and AstroNavigator, an interactive slide sky map.

The site is owned by Vito Technology, a company based in Russia who makes all kinds of apps for Pocket PC, Symbian, and other Smartphones.

There's really only one problem with the apps from iwindowsmobile.com - they aren't free ($14.95/ea) and you're going to want to download them all!

Skip the Start Menu

sarahintampa — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:17:00 GMT

You can skip using the Start Menu, desktop icons, or Windows Explorer and just use Launchy instead. Launchy is a open-source keystroke launcher for Windows XP (BTW: you can hit the start button and type app names in Vista to launch apps.) The app indexes your Start Menu programs and files so you can launch any application, document, files, folder, or bookmark with just a few keystrokes. When Launchy is running, it hides in the background, but you can bring it up by holding down "Alt" and hitting the spacebar. You then type in a few letters of the program or file you want and hit "Enter" when Launchy finds it. You can leave Launchy visible or hit "Alt" and spacebar again to re-hide it. The app itself is completely skinnable, and there is a gallery of custom skins for you to choose from.

Skip the Taskbar!

sarahintampa — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:04:00 GMT

Not a fan of using the taskbar? Skip it with an application called miniMIZE, you can minimize windows to thumbnails that stick to your desktop instead. miniMIZE, a clone of a discontinued app called MINt, has a lot of features, making it a more flexible choice than similar programs, like ThumbWin (it's in English, too - a big plus for me!) With miniMIZE, you can use its auto-placing feature to select where on your screen your thumbnails will appear; this setting is retained so the next time you minimize a window, the app will remember where you want your thumbnails placed. Of course, you can drag the thumbnails around the screen, too. There are hot keys for cycling through thumbnails, minimizing windows, and showing/hiding thumbnails. The thumbnails are all the same size and can be pinned to three different levels - Desktop, Normal, and Top. Another handy feature is the icon that displays on each thumbnail to show you the program the thumbnail is from. You can see this in this screenshot here. miniMIZE is a free download, but you can make donations to the developers here if you find it useful. (via appaholic)

Live Search Maps

Tina — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 22:33:00 GMT

I sit down with Steve Lombardi about Live Search Maps. He talks about the difference between Live Search Maps and Virtual Earth. He gives us the breakdown on some of the new features. Live Search Maps was launched about two years ago. Back then it only worked in Internet Explorer but now there is a Netscape style plug-in. Yea, for Firefox fans. And if you're a fan of ratings and reviews...well, it's got that too.