I haven't joined the eBook revolution yet, but I know a lot of people who have. Are you one of those people that carry around a Kindle, Sony Reader, or even an iPhone for that purpose? A lot of people just like reading when they're on the go without having to lug around a big book.
There has been a lot of focus on photos the last few years as digital cameras become cheaper and more widespread, and many of us are carrying cameras around in our pockets thanks to our cellphones. The great news is that this digital media revolution has made it so that almost anyone can look like a true artist with very little work.
In Windows 7 Microsoft has finally decided to revamp the built-in calculator so that it's a bit more useful for people. There is, however, already a free super powerful calculator available to all Windows, Mac, and Linux users. It's called SpeedCrunch.
As you may recall sLife is a application that you can use to monitor which applications you use on a regular basis, and then graph the usage on a pretty chart. Previously sLife 2.0 application was only available for Mac users, but after four months the Windows version has also been released.
Web browsers are becoming more and more important to our everyday lives because they help keep us connected, informed, and productive. So it's no wonder that there are several different people competing to be successful in this area including Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Opera, and now even Google.
CodeWeavers are the people behind the free and open source implementation of the Wine project. Most Linux users are familiar with this project because this is how they can run Windows programs in Linux without needing any kind of virtual machine. Well, the same people behind Wine also develop a more professional-grade product called CrossOver Pro that's available for both Mac and Linux.
Adobe has presented hackers with yet another challenge thanks to their new breed of Creative Suite 4 (CS4) applications that were released less than two weeks ago. They try do everything they can to stop software pirates from stealing their programs, but it's inevitable that someone somewhere will find a workaround.
Seeing that Ashley and I are still relatively new to the Mac world we are still finding some little gems that demonstrate Apple's eye for detail. A fine example of this is something I saw on the help page Apple developed to explain what Exposé is. It was there that I found out you can drag and drop files from one window to another using Exposé:
Over the last several weeks, you may have heard people talking about "supposed" changes Apple was going to make to their MacBook laptops. Some of what we heard turned out to be just rumors, but much turned out to be true.
I know that some of you have been patiently awaiting for a Windows version of the Slife computer usage analyzer. Back in June we wrote up a quick review of the Mac version, and at the time a Windows version was in the works.
Keeping up with everything that you need to do can be a rather exhausting task. An open source project called Chandler is looking to ease the burden by giving you an intuitive way to leave notes, manage tasks, and organize your calendar all from one central location.
Finding a good alarm clock to help get you up in the wee hours of the morning can be tough. I have a tendency of placing the clock out of arms reach so that I have to get out of bed in order to turn it off. What I use as an alarm varies from things like my cellphone or TV all the way to my computer.
It's always surprised me that Google has a few desktop applications (Picasa, Google Desktop Search, Google Talk, etc...), but for one reason or another they don't have any programs that leverage some of their other big services. Having a program for Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, and several others would all make a lot of sense in my book.
One of the things that's always nice to know is what you can remove from your hard drive to quickly regain hard drive space. Maybe there are some enormous games on your computer that you don't play anymore, or files you've downloaded that have never gotten deleted? By using hard drive visualization tools you'll be able to pinpoint exactly what is eating up your hard drive storage.
The weekend is here, and I'm sure you're wondering how you can burn through hours and hours of your precious time by doing productive. Like always, we've got you covered. Go download the free Phun program, and let your imagination run wild.
Panoramic photos seem to be becoming more common these days as people carry cameras with them wherever they go. In the past we've shown you tools like AutoStitch and Windows Live Photo Gallery that make assembling panoramic photos effortless, but the free Hugin program is much more customizable.
A few months ago we wrote about a free application that was able to track stolen computers, and today we've got an open source alternative for you. It's called Adeona, and it's interesting how it works. After setting it up you'll be given a file that is used to identify your computer in the event it gets stolen or lost.
Whenever I do programming I tend to use some form of text editor, and so far my favorite app for that is Notepad++. Ever since they added in the code auto-completion it has been a great tool for the projects that I've worked on.
One of the things that I really like being able to do on my MacBook Pro is monitor the temperature of various parts of my laptop, and also control the speed of the fans. Using the iStat Pro widget (review) I'm able to read the temperature of my hard drive, CPU, GPU, heatsinks, wireless card, and more. If you want you can take it a step further and even control the speed of your fans.
It's nice that with Apple computers you can now run the Windows operating system using Boot Camp, but they don't tell you how to do things like right-click. For the longest time I didn't notice any problems because I often have my MacBook Pro hooked up to an external mouse and keyboard, and the mouse has two-buttons just like most standard computer mice.
