Hasta La Gadget!

Jul 24

WrapUp: Android 2.1 Hacked onto Droid, Log into Multiple Online Accounts in Firefox, and More

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Tips and Tricks, Today's Chili, ubuntu, WrapUp

This article was written on December 21, 2009 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Predator Drones Use Less Encryption Than Your TV
The military in Iraq and Afghanistan have been intercepting U.S. Predator drone communications because, well, the transmissions between the unit and ground control weren’t encrypted. They were able to grab transmissions using some laptops and a $30 Russian application.

Shuttleworth Steps Down as Ubuntu CEO
By March 1st, 2010 Mark Shuttleworth will have completely transitioned out of the CEO position of Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux operating system. His replacement is Jane Silber, who has been the COO of Canonical since 2004. Shuttleworth says that he isn’t leaving the company, and that the move will let him work closer on the design process.

New in Gmail Labs: Mark as Unread from Here
Google continues to amaze me as they roll out more and more Gmail labs features that greatly enhance the web email experience. The newest is a “mark unread from here” option that will let you flag parts of an email conversation as unread so that later on you can pick up where you left off. Individually these Gmail Labs aren’t earth-shattering features, but together they make web-based email more appealing to those who tend to lean towards desktop applications.

–News in Brief–

Google Confirms: 1 is Indeed the Loneliest Number
Not really news… more like a little bit of fun to start your holiday week!

Android 2.1 Hacked onto Droid
The iPhone isn’t the only one with a community to hacking the mobile OS every waking moment!

Dell Gets Pranked After Announcing Layoffs
Dell laid off 16% of its Malaysian workforce (about 700 people), and shortly thereafter some “price adjustments” were made to their site: a $4000 laser mouse and an $11 computer.

Microsoft’s Free Tinker Game
Tinker used to be a Windows Vista Ultimate Extra game, and now they’ve released it to all XP, Vista, and Windows 7 users.

Bing App Debuts on iPhone
Last week Microsoft released a Bing search app for the iPhone with a dazzling interface.

Reddit Users Band Together for Largest Secret Santa Ever
This year over 5,000 gifts were shipped for a Secret Santa program between Reddit users. In all over $160,000 in presents were exchanged.

Merge Duplicate Gmail Contacts
If you have a lot of clutter in your contacts you may want to try Google’s new contact merging tool that tries to combine records together for (what it believes) are the same contact.

McDonalds Offering Free WiFi Starting in mid-January
Now you’ll be able to surf the web and devour a Big Mac at the same time… without having to bring the food back home first!

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Add a Little 3D to Your Desktop
This Windows app will let you view open programs in a 3D view that lets you flip windows, zoom, move, and much more. What’s nice is that on Windows 7 it works with features like Aero Peek to give you a more streamlined experience. I’m not too confident that I’ll use this all that often (I’m an Alt-Tab kind of guy), but it can be pretty cool to show off to people.

Mutlifox: Log into Multiple Online Accounts in Firefox
This is something that should absolutely be built-into all browsers. Mutlifox is a Firefox extension that will let you open a new tab with a clean set of cookies, and you can therefore log into multiple accounts for the same service (eg. Gmail). I mean really, how many people actually have just one Gmail account these days? I think I have like six… I just can’t remember what they all are.

Packagetrackr Aggregates Package Delivery Information
Got a lot of last-minute holiday packages being delivered this week? If so this will be the perfect time to start using this service. Once you enter in all your tracking numbers you can follow the status of your deliveries from your web browser, or through your mobile device (with the mobile-optimized version of the site). Windows 7/Vista users can also grab the gadget for some package tracking “fun” on your desktop. After all, it’s pretty hard to wait for those nifty little gadgets to arrive at your doorstep.

–Tips in Brief–

Desktop Blog Editors for Ubuntu
While these blog editors may not be as powerful as Windows Live Writer they do certainly offer the basics from the comfort of your open source operating system.

Visually Organize Your Tasks
Get a virtual corkboard to post up all of your tasks, movies you want to watch, and more. (Note: Spaaze says it’s free while in Beta… which means they may charge for it later on down the road).

Quickly Remove Backgrounds from Images
This tool doesn’t do the best job removing backgrounds, but it is possible to get decent results depending on how clear the separation is between you and the background.