When you first get rolling with XBMC out-of-the-box, you may not be overly enthusiastic about the appearance. By default XBMC 11 ships with the Confluence skin that, while it looks clean, can easily be replaced by one of the other user-made skins. The most impressive one that I found is the Aeon MQ 3 skin which sports a very modern look that is sure to impress anyone that sets eyes on it.

Windows only I know a bunch of people who customize the appearance of their desktop, but many don't know that Windows 7 supports themes that rotate between desktop backgrounds and automatically adjusts the color of the Aero interface.

I remember when Microsoft first came out with Windows Vista and they introduced the Aero theme. One of the computers I had at that time didn't have the graphics chip needed to support the Aero interface in all its splendor. Going back and using the Windows Basic theme was rather depressing because not only did it look clunky, but you couldn't even customize the color.

Windows only Windows 7 Home Basic users are restricted from doing a lot of things... including changing the color of the primary theme. This is feature that Microsoft chose to leave out in hopes of getting people to upgrade to a more expensive version of Windows 7.

Windows only I am a huge fan of the redesigns that the Windows Start Menu went through in Vista and Windows 7, but I know everyone doesn't share the same enthusiasm. Microsoft's decision to not include a classic Start Menu layout irked many, but at the same time that opened the door to plenty of third-party developers.

When Gmail first came out I was extremely impressed with the interface, but the lack of updating kinda left me wanting more. Then Google rolled out the Gmail Labs back in 2008, which drew me back to the web-based mail client because there were some pretty cool features and capabilities getting added that couldn't be found in a desktop app.

There are some Firefox themes that I absolutely love, but they don't always get everything the way that I like them. One of the areas I'm rather particular about is the Address Bar drop-down menu that appears once you start typing. A good example of this was a theme I tested out recently that styled both the title and URL in the exact same fashion.

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.

There have been a few themes that have been developed using the mockups Mozilla made for Firefox 4.0. What's funny is that while Firefox 4.0 is over a year away you can already get the same beautiful design without having to wait.

I've always thought that Gmail has one of the best interfaces out there in terms of web-based email clients, but not everyone may feel the same way.

According to Alexa Wikipedia is the 7th most visited site in the world only to follow behind companies like Google and Yahoo. Seeing that they receive millions of visitors each day it should come as no surprise that people would use the tools at hand to make their own customized layouts and designs for the site.

The last few Alpha releases of Ubuntu 8.10 have been a bit controversial because of the dark brown theme, called NewHuman, that it was shipping by default. Good news for those of you who weren't too fond of that theme...

As you probably remember Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 was sporting a brown theme when it was released, and it made some people do a double-take to figure out what the heck was going on. Just about two-weeks ago Alpha 3 was released of the new version of Ubuntu, and it still included the dark brown theme (called NewHuman) from the original release.

Songbird is a media player that I've had a lot of faith in ever since I took a look at it back at version 0.2. The fact that users create extensions just like in Firefox gave the perception that it would become very successful, but for awhile development had slowed down considerably.

There were quite a few of you who were fond of the dark Gmail theme that we wrote about a few months ago, and since then it has received some significant updates to make it even better. Now there is a very similar theme that is designed for Google Calendar, and it's created by the same people who made the Gmail version.

One of the the most frequent comments I hear from new Ubuntu users is that the default theme for the operating system is a tad too brown. I kind of like the current Ubuntu theme, but it was supposed to get an overhaul with the last release. The new default theme has got pushed back to Ubuntu 8.10, and we're getting our first glimpse of the new theme now that Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 has shipped.

Firefox 3 (review) has been out for just barely over a week now and it has been downloaded over 19 million times according to Spread Firefox. Many of you requested that we assemble a tweaks guide just like we did with Firefox 2, and so that's exactly what we've got in store for you today.

The other day we showed how you could get the Firefox 3 Vista theme on XP, or vice versa. Well, there is a theme out there for those of you who want to grab the Firefox 3 theme for Mac as well, and it works pleasantly well on Windows. The checkboxes, scrollbars, and buttons all take on a native Mac appearance.

Windows only Sticky notes are one of those things that many of us have grown accustomed to placing all over our physical workspace, and our children. They serve as a great way to remember important things, but eventually you have so many of them that it becomes difficult to find what you're looking for. That pretty much defeats their purpose, doesn't it?

Are you using Windows XP but prefer the Firefox 3 theme for Vista, or vice versa? Unfortunately Mozilla decided that Windows users shouldn't be given the option between the two themes, but it was only a matter of time before someone duplicated them for everyone to use. As you can see above I'm running Windows XP, but Firefox 3 has the Vista theme enabled.