Oct 22

Automatically Rotate Desktop Wallpapers

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on April 10, 2009 by CyberNet.

wallpaper juggler.jpg

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
We’ve shown you some tools in the past that lets you automatically rotate your desktop backgrounds (like this one), but the sheer simplicity of Wallpaper Juggler is what makes it so great. Basically what it does is download wallpapers from InterfaceLIFT and WallpaperStock, and you can choose to have it grab only the most popular wallpapers. Then you can setup an interval so that it automatically rotates through the downloaded wallpapers. Once setup the whole process happens transparently in the background without any interaction needed from you.

Here are the features the free Wallpaper Juggler app has to offer:

  • Controllable from the System Tray (enabled/disable, juggle now, switch back to last wallpaper, etc…)
  • Can be configured to…
    • start with Windows
    • look for wallpapers in multiple folders including/excluding subfolders. Best results when used with matching resolution wallpapers
    • change wallpaper once every preferred duration between 1 min and 500 hrs. It will understand “000 Hrs/Mins 000 Min” format. It can interpret M/Min/Mins/Minutes and H/Hr/Hrs/Hour as Minutes and Hours respectively
    • confirm before changing wallpaper
    • adjust image positioning for odd size wallpapers
  • Change wallpaper manually by clicking ‘Juggle Now’ menu or double clicking the icon
  • Displays the last updated wallpaper and the time stamp when the next change will occur

If you hate having the same wallpaper on your computer this might be just the thing you need. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

Wallpaper Juggler Homepage (for Windows only)
Thanks Raj for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 21

Switcher 2 – Best Exposé Clone for Windows

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili, Windows Vista

This article was written on September 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

Switcher

There is no doubt in my mind that Switcher is the best Exposé clone ever made for Windows, and only Vista users get to bask in the features that this free program has to offer. Switcher 2 Beta has just raised the bar several notches by adding features Apple’s own Exposé doesn’t even have!

Among many other things the new Switcher has tremendously improved the smoothness of its animation. You’ll see this in the video demonstration below, but first lets take a look at some of the great new features.

–Custom Window Labels and Backgrounds–

You can now have labels on windows as well as customized backgrounds and borders. You would probably think that the labels only tell you what the title of the app is, but you can put multiple things in the label. My personal favorite is having it show the number of megabytes the particular program is using, but you can also have it display the program’s icon, the filename of the application, or the process name.

–More Productive–

Switcher WindowNow the first 9 windows in Switcher are assigned numbers. This makes it a lot easier to move between windows without having to shuffle through them one-by-one.

One of my favorite features in Switcher has always been the customizable shortcut keys though. That’s also been taken up a notch by adding several new commands that can be assigned shortcuts, including "Begin and Select Next." That command behaves similarly to the standard Windows Alt-Tab where upon activation the last-accessed window is selected. I love this option so much that I’ve gone ahead and assigned it to be the default action. A more Alt-Tab like appearance can also be seen by using the new Grid View, which aligns all of the windows to a grid in number order. I’m sure the Alt-Tab fans out there will choose this to be their default preference.

Another shortcut action that was added was the ability to close a window straight from Switcher. I set it up so that anytime I right-click on one of the thumbnails in Switcher it closes that particular window.

–Live Filtering–

The live filtering gives you the capabilities to only show certain sets of windows at any given time. For example, you can have all minimized windows be hidden or you can only show windows from a certain program (like Windows Explorer). Here are the various options for filtering along with their default shortcut keys:

  • Search by window title (default shortcut Ctrl+F, or simply type to automatically display the search box). You can search using regular expressions (an obscure feature that I keep forgetting about).
  • Exclude minimized windows (default shortcut Ctrl+M).
  • Hide a particular window (default shortcut Ctrl+H).
  • Show only the windows belonging to a certain program (default shortcut Ctrl+W).
  • The default shortcut to remove all filters is Ctrl+R.

After trying out the search feature I couldn’t stop myself from creating a video to show off this cool feature:

–Overview–

I honestly can’t believe how much Switcher has evolved since I first started using it, and it’s quickly become something that I recommend to anyone using Vista. Of course, if you’ve never used Alt-Tab before then you’ll probably never think to use this, but I’ve quickly found this to be a valuable tool in my daily work.

Get Switcher 2 Beta

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 21

PS Vita’s Twitter app shown off in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video)

Posted in: app, exclusive, Features, gaming, hands-on, Music, playstation, sony, Today's Chili, twitter, video

Here’s a little souvenir for Twitter addicts eyeing the upcoming PS Vita: at today’s debut event in Hong Kong, we got to see said console’s Twitter app in action for the very first time, and we were also fortunate enough to get some exclusive hands-on time with Sony’s in-house software. As you can see in our video after the break, the overall design feels very much in line with Twitter’s standard ID: the same shade of blue, the usual tabs on the left column, slick elastic scrolling in the timelines, and support for geotagging, hash tags plus photo attachment while tweeting. No surprises here, but hey, the app worked well for us.

That said, we were told that the app wasn’t quite finished yet, and Sony still couldn’t confirm whether this — along with the other dedicated apps like Skype, Foursquare and Facebook — will be ready for download by the time the Vita launches in Hong Kong on December 23rd (just a tad later than Japan’s launch on the 17th). In case you’re wondering, the Vita there will cost HK$2,280 (US$290) for the WiFi version and HK$2,780 (US$360) for the 3G flavor, both unsubsidized but cheaper than their Japanese counterparts. Of course, given that the console isn’t region-locked, feel free to go do some shopping in Hong Kong then — just save some for the locals, OK? Also, check out our gallery below for some close-up shots of the Vita’s music and video apps.

Gallery: PS Vita launch event in Hong Kong

Continue reading PS Vita’s Twitter app shown off in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video)

PS Vita’s Twitter app shown off in Hong Kong, we go hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 21 Oct 2011 06:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Oct 20

Best Greasemonkey Scripts – Google Sidebar

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Google, search, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on December 30, 2007 by CyberNet.

One thing that I’ve always enjoyed with Google’s test site, SearchMash, was the powerful sidebar that it included. It gives users quick access to videos, images, Wikipedia, blogs, and more. Determined to find a way to get similar features on the Google search page I decided to turn to Greasemonkey.

The script that I came across is called Google Extra, and it does everything that I wanted it to. It utilizes the extra space on the right side of the search results to display:

  • Images – Six small thumbnails are shown, and hovering over a thumbnail will show you a larger version.
  • Videos – Grabs four videos from YouTube, and if you hover over one of the thumbnails it will flip between three thumbnails from that video.
  • Wikipedia – You’ll see a condensed excerpt from Wikipedia.
  • Dictionary – A nice list of definitions for the word you’re searching for.

Google Extra Sidebar 
(Click to Enlarge)

The thing that really makes this script nice, however, is the ability to reorder the four different sections so that they are organized with your most useful ones first. If you don’t use one of the sections very often, such as the videos, just minimize it. Your settings are remembered for every search you perform.

Heads up: Don’t be concerned if you perform a search and don’t see the four different sections pictured above. It’s designed to only display a section if it actually has matching results, so most of the time the Wikipedia and Dictionary results probably won’t show up.

You probably have some speed concerns, which is understandable given that several different sites have to be queried in order to display the extra data. After all, you don’t want to compromise Google’s split-second search results. Don’t worry, the script is well designed so that it will load after your search results. Basically you won’t notice any speed decrease in how long it takes to show the search results, but the overall page will obviously take an extra second or two to load.

Google Extra Script
Note: This script uses Greasemonkey-specific features, and for that reason it won’t work in Opera.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 20

Foxmarks 2.0 – Faster Syncing and Favicon Support

Posted in: Features, Firefox Extensions, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on November 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

Foxmarks 2 Beta Foxmarks is the 13th most popular extension for the Firefox browser, and users who don’t mind test driving a Beta version can get a sneak peek at the upcoming Foxmarks 2.0! Initially you won’t be able to see a lot of differences because most of the work has been happening underneath the surface.

For starters Foxmarks has redesigned the way that they synchronize your bookmarks. Instead of synchronizing all of your bookmarks each time it will not only synchronize those bookmarks that have changed (newly added, renamed, moved, etc…). If you only have a handful of bookmarks you probably won’t notice much of a difference, but it should be a lot faster for those of you with hundreds (or even thousands) of bookmarks.

Foxmarks 2.0 has also implemented a new feature for synchronizing favicons, but from what I gather the favicons are still not shown on the My Foxmarks website. They are, however, synched across all computers that are running Foxmarks 2.0. This is especially great for all of you who use the Favicon Picker to customize the icons for your favorite websites.

There is some important information for those of you who are upgrading from Foxmarks 1.0:

You cannot easily mix Foxmarks 1.0.1 and Foxmarks 2.0; they exist in separate universes. If you do choose to run with Foxmarks 2.0, make sure you update all your existing installations to Foxmarks 2.0. There’s no risk of data loss, but changes you make with one version 1.0.1 won’t find their way to your Foxmarks 2.0 installations until you upgrade (and vice versa). Once you upgrade your first computer to Foxmarks 2.0, going to My Foxmarks will only show you Foxmarks 2.0 data — another reason to upgrade all your machines.

As of right now Foxmarks 2.0 is not compatible with pre-release versions of Firefox 3. The developer has said that he will begin working on a compatible version once Firefox 3 hits the Beta stage.

Get Foxmarks 2.0 Beta

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 19

JottiQ Antivirus Scanner is the Shining Point of NANY 2011

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on January 19, 2011 by CyberNet.

jottiq.png

arrow Windows Windows only arrow
Every year Donation Coder holds an event called “New Apps for the New Year” (NANY) where developers do some cramming in order to whip up small but useful apps. The NANY 2011 event came to an end on January 1st, and there’s no doubt that many of the 30+ apps available will only be downloaded by a very small subset of users. There was one, however, that really caught my attention: JottiQ.

Jotti, not to be confused with the new JottiQ application, is a website that is comparable to VirusTotal. You can upload files to the site and have it scanned against a bunch of antivirus applications. The JottiQ app, however, is a great replacement for needing to interact with the Jotti website. You can queue up files that you want to be scanned, but one of the super cool things is that you can have it scan all of the executables that are associated to processes you currently have running. Now that is slick.

Some other features of JottiQ include:

  • Uses Jotti’s internal cache to speed up scans by avoiding the uploading of files that have already been scanned in the past
  • Lists scanners with detections at the top of their list in red
  • Open scan results in your browser
  • Context menu integration lets you right-click and select “Scan with JottiQ” on a file
  • Up to three files can be scanned (processed) simultaneously.
  • Items that have been scanned and are deemed safe can automatically be removed from the queue.

After using this for a little while I’d say this is by far one of the most useful apps I’ve seen come out of any NANY event, and it is definitely worth checking out. These a few more of the apps available from NANY 2011 that I thought were at least worth mentioning:

  • Webcam Video Diary – A program to help you quickly record, label, and manage videos and photos from your webcam throughout the day
  • Quick Cliq – A portable menu based application launcher and productivity tool
  • Auspex – Automatically replace and complete text strings as you type
  • Duplicate Photo Finder – Find and delete duplicate photos

Kudos to all the developers who put in their own time to contribute all these apps!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 18

Foxit 2.3 PDF Reader Includes Tabs

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Newly Released, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 25, 2008 by CyberNet.

foxit tabs bookmarks-2.png

Last year we took a look at a sweet PDF reader called PDF-XChange Viewer. One of my favorite things that it includes is a tabbed system for managing multiple PDF’s. It seems like everything is getting tabs these days, and there’s no doubt that they fit very well into a PDF reader. It sure beats having ten different windows open and trying to switch between them all, doesn’t it?

Our fan favorite Foxit PDF reader is jumping on the tab bandwagon as well! The newest version that was just released includes the tab system seen in the screenshot above. Not only that, but it also lets you create bookmarks for any spot within the document which is especially handy when you’re dealing with extensive PDF’s.

Still want more? Here’s a look at some of the other new features and improvements:

  • Multimedia Player Support: Supports many media formats including audio and video. Read multimedia ebooks with Foxit Reader 2.3.
  • Callout and Text box Tool: Creates comments in a callout text box or a box. You can also define their appearance as other commenting tools.
  • Commenting Text Tool: Enables users to add most types of text edits by right-clicking on the selected text, including highlight, strikeout, underline, squiggly and replacement. You can also use the Commenting Text Tool to add bookmarks for PDF files.
  • Rulers and Guides: Provides horizontal and vertical ruler guides to help users align and position objects on the page. Right-clicking on the ruler enables you to change the unit of measurement.
  • Magnifier: Magnifies areas of the PDF files easily as you work on Foxit Reader.
  • Automatic Scrolling: Allows users to view documents without using mouse actions or keystrokes.
  • Optimized Rendering: Supports progressive rendering and significantly reduces the response time from the user interface events.
  • Improved Link Tools: Allows users to add actions to links, such as go to a page view, open or execute a file, open a web link, etc.
  • Improved Snapshot: Enables users to print the selected area in Foxit Reader by simply selecting the Print option from the context menu.
  • Search Enhancement: Allows users to float, move and resize the Full Foxit Search box.
  • Better Annotation control: Groups drawing markups to help users operate objects collectively, and allows users to move annotations through pages.
  • Streamlined UI: A completely redesigned UI with a new look and feel makes Foxit Reader more intuitive than ever before.

I would say that this is actually a pretty big upgrade for Foxit, and I definitely recommend grabbing the new version. Remember, you can download the ZIP version if you want to run it without performing an installation.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 18

Digsby Getting Performance Improvements

Posted in: Features, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 17, 2008 by CyberNet.

digsby.pngDigsby is hands-down my favorite instant messenger on Windows not only because it works on all the major networks, but also because it is well designed. When we first covered the messenger some of you were a little hesitant to use it because of the excessive amounts of memory it chewed up (upwards of 70MB), but you’ll be happy to hear that the Digsby team has taken your criticism to heart!

According to a recent blog post the next release, which should be available in about a week, will include memory leak fixes, a “major reduction” in memory usage, and a more responsive interface. There’s no doubt that users will be applauding the developers if the performance improvements really are this significant.

Also by reading through the comments on that article I was able to grab some things that the developer said will be coming in future versions:

  • Group chat support
  • Direct Connect with AIM users
  • Portable version of Digsby
  • Skype support
  • IRC support
  • Mac version (they are already working on it now)
  • An option to disable smilies or download other emoticon sets
  • An API so that users can make their own themes, and then upload them to a website for everyone to download

Exciting, huh? It’s nice to see someone taking the time to develop a cross-network messenger application that has the features users actually find useful. When the new version comes out we’ll be sure to keep you updated, and and will also let you know if the performance improvements are as good as they say they are.

Digsby Homepage [via Webware]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 16

IE8 InPrivate Browsing to Include Ad-Blocking Capabilities?

Posted in: Features, Internet Explorer, Software, Today's Chili, Windows

This article was written on August 26, 2008 by CyberNet.

ie8 inprivate.pngMicrosoft will be addressing a lot of privacy issues in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, which will be released to the public soon. The new version of the browser will include a private browsing mode called InPrivate, and when it’s enabled cookies aren’t stored, history isn’t recorded, and a lot of your other data is never saved. For people who work on public computers this kind of feature can offer a little piece of mind.

One other handy feature that will be included is the ability to clear out all of your history, passwords, cookies, and more for all websites except those located in your favorites. That means clearing out all of your cookies won’t cause you to have to login again to the sites that reside in your bookmarks.

The last thing that I wanted to point out is a feature they’re calling InPrivate Subscriptions. Here’s how the IE8 team describes this feature:

Under the covers, InPrivate Subscriptions are simply RSS feeds of Regular Expressions that specify sub-downloads to block or allow. Anyone can publish an InPrivate Subscription on their website, just as they can offer an Accelerator or Web Slice on their website.

Essentially with InPrivate Subscriptions users will be able to subscribe to lists of sites that should be blocked. Anyone can create their own list, and then publish it on their own site to share with the world. Content including images, scripts, and CSS files can all be blocked using InPrivate Subscriptions. While it may not be the intended use I’m sure there will be plenty of these subscriptions created to block advertisements from around the web.

ie 8 inprivate subscriptions.png

So what do you think? Is Internet Explorer 8 shaping up to be a great browser? Here’s a rather lengthy interview (38 minutes) with some of the managers from the Internet Explorer team outlining how some of the new features will work.

[via IE8 Blog] Thanks Claus!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Oct 16

Kindle 3 gets software upgrade, ready to soar into the cloud

Posted in: amazon, amazon kindle, AmazonKindle, Books, cloud, e ink, e reader, e-book, e-books, e-readers, ebooks, feature, Features, firmware update, FirmwareUpdate, keyboard, kindle, minipost, reader, Today's Chili

Amazon has pushed out a new update for the Kindle 3, now operating under the alias of the Kindle Keyboard. This gives the well-buttoned e-reader access to some of the cloud features found on its freshly unboxed younger brother, and includes the ability to view any archived documents, notes and highlights you’ve added to that intangible pile of books and articles. You’ll need to tether the Kindle to your PC, point your browser towards Amazon, and download the file corresponding to the right region and model. Excitable annotators can grab the upgrade now at the source link below.

Kindle 3 gets software upgrade, ready to soar into the cloud originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 16 Oct 2011 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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