Dr. Augustine Fou's Online Scrapbook: 10/12/08

Friday, October 17, 2008

A sneak peek at Gmail on Android

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OfficialGmailBlog/~3/423880173/sneak-peek-at-gmail-on-android.html

Posted by Jonathan Matus, Product Marketing Manager, Android The first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1, is coming out on Wednesday. My friends know that I work on Android, and as you can imagine, I get asked about it all the time. I have a lot to say about the G1, but I always begin by telling them that lots of Google products, including Gmail, are available for free, on several mobile devices. I've been using Gmail on the go for more than a year now and it's difficult to imagine my life without ubiquitous email access. It proves handy every day -- whether for keeping a close eye on a (very) busy inbox, finding the address of a party while already in the taxi, or sending out a spontaneous dinner plan while on the bus back home. If you like using Gmail on your computer you'll feel very much at ease with Gmail on Android-powered phones. You can download documents and MP3s, manage and view labels, star and archive messages, save drafts and even report spam.

I check my email frequently and have two Gmail accounts -- one for work and one for personal life. Before I started using Gmail on the T-Mobile G1, I used to check my mail by actively reloading or refreshing my inbox on one of my other mobile devices. And with two email accounts, I had to repeat this twice each time.

A sneak peek at Gmail on Android [Official Gmail blog ]

Tip: Read your mail without touching your mouse

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OfficialGmailBlog/~3/409695875/tip-read-your-mail-without-touching.html

Posted by Arielle Reinstein, Gmail Product Marketing Manager First, if you don't have Gmail keyboard shortcuts enabled, turn them on in Settings. You'll be glad you did. If you spend a lot of time in Gmail, you'll start shaving milliseconds of every action, which adds up. Get through a hundred or so messages every day and you'll end up with extra minutes each week to read your favorite blogs in Reader -- using Reader's keyboard shortcuts of course. Here's how I read my mail: 1. Log in. If I'm on my own computer I don't even have to do this, since I have the "Remember me on this computer" option checked on the Gmail homepage.

2. Get rid of stuff I obviously don't need to read. I scan the senders and subjects of unread messages in my inbox, navigate through the messages using k to move the cursor (little black triangle) upwards and j to move it back down.

Google Alert - +vdimm +i7

anyone following the vdimm i7 issue? Nehalem News - The latest news on Intel's next generation microarchitecture.

[AnandTech] Core i7: Is High vDimm really a problem? - techPowerUp ... Really interesting article over at AnandTech for those of you interest in the whole VDimm malarkey with the upcoming Core i7 CPUs and DDR3 voltages. ...

Elite Bastards • View topic - Intel Core i7 - Is high VDimm really ... For now, high VDimm is not necessarily the true problem here, but it is the quickest way to damage/destroy an i7 if the system is not properly tuned. ...

Firefox 3.1 Adds Keyword Filters to the AwesomeBar [Firefox 3.1 Beta]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/421467295/firefox-31-adds-keyword-filters-to-the-awesomebar

If you're one of the brave testers who dove into the first beta of Firefox 3.1 released yesterday, you already know about the Ctrl+Tab goodness and other neat features it offers. But there are two more features especially useful for keyboard lovers with a thick bookmarks and history file: Firefox 3.1 offers several special characters that filter the smart address bar's drop-down suggestions to page titles, your history, your bookmarks, or your tags. You can also preview any keyword searches you have set up as you type. Here's how it works.

With the Firefox 3.1 Beta installed, you can start typing keywords into the "AwesomeBar" as usual to get a drop-down of suggested destinations culled from your history and bookmarks. But several special characters can filter those results as you type. Blogger Edward Lee runs them down:

You can restrict the search to your history by typing ^, or bookmarks with *, or tagged pages with +. To make what you've typed match only in the URL type @, and for title/tags only use #.

For example, to find a page with the word "life" in the title or URL in your bookmarks, type life *, and you'll get any page with life in the title as well as lifehacker.com pages (assuming you've got lifehacker.com bookmarked). You can mix and match operators, too. For just bookmarks with life in the URL, enter life * @.

If you use Firefox keyword searches like we do, now you can see what query y! our keyw ord matches as you type. For example, I use w as my keyword to search Wikipedia, so when I type w into my address bar, the first suggestion looks like this:

Similarly, I use a ?lh keyword to do a Google search of just the lifehacker.com domain. Here's what that looks like as I type:

You can also roll up your sleeves and make some changes inside Firefox 3.1's about:config area to tweak what shows up in the address bar's drop-down. Check out Ed's full post for details, or see our previously posted useful Firefox 3 configuration tweaks for more.

Firefox 3.1 testers, what do you think so far? Let us know how it's going in the comments.

Firefox 3.1 Restricts, Matches, Keywords [edilee via CNET]

TubeMaster Plus Grabs Video or Audio From Nearly Any Site [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/421541015/tubemaster-plus-grabs-video-or-audio-from-nearly-any-site

Windows only: Free streaming media capture tool TubeMaster is a great all-in-one solution for grabbing and converting audio and video from nearly any web site that can stream it to you. The no-install app launches as its own application with a built-in, tabbed browser—simply launch it, head to Last.fm, YouTube, a site with proprietary Flash video, or nearly any other streaming media, and hit "Start Media Capture." The files you grab are lined up in a queue for you to decide how to convert and save, and TubeMaster's built-in media search tool covers nearly 100 video and audio-sharing sites. There are browser plug-ins and apps that do some of the same things, but none quite as comprehensively as TubeMaster Plus. TubeMaster Plus is a free download for Windows systems only; upgrading to a paid version unlocks downloads from adult sites.

TubeMaster Plus [via FreewareGenius.com]

Flash 10 Available for All Systems [Flash]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/421583511/flash-10-available-for-all-systems

Adobe dropped the 10th version of their inescapable browser plug-in Flash overnight, with new "expressive features" for developers and claimed performance improvements for users. The really good news is that it's immediately available on all platforms, including Linux.

Two Great Charities at Work to Beat Poverty [Blog Action Day 2008]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/421741829/two-great-charities-at-work-to-beat-poverty

The midst of an economic meltdown isn't the most obvious time to start thinking about how you can donate money and time to those in need, but if you're reading this blog you might be in a position to do so. Today's Blog Action Day, so along with thousands of other blogs, we're shining the spotlight on the issue of poverty. Earlier Kevin told you about Computers for Children, and now I wanted to tell you about two of my favorite charities working towards beating poverty locally and abroad: DonorsChoose.org, and Women for Women International.

DonorsChoose.org

Lifehacker readers are probably familiar with DonorsChoose.org because we've featured it several times before. In short, DonorsChoose.org's focus is education: it uses the web to connect teachers with donors interested in helping students in need. Teachers post a specific thing they need for a classroom project—everything from school supplies like markers and pads to a digital camera—and donors browse the projects and decide which ones they want to support. Last year Lifehacker readers and editors raised almost $5,000 for DonorsChoose education projects just through a few posts here on this site. The most gratifying thing about donating there is that you g! et handw ritten letters from students and photos of them using the materials you helped purchase. Check out just two of the letters and photos I received from my donations to a math teacher through DonorsChoose.org.

Women for Women

After seeing a gut-wrenching 60 Minutes segment on rape in the Congo back in January, I immediately signed up to sponsor two women through Women for Women International, an organization that helps war survivors in the DR Congo. My Women for Women donation is a monthly, recurring payment of about $25 per sponsored woman that comes directly out of my checking account, so it's a set-it-and-forget-it scenario. Like DonorsChoose.org, you also get letters from your sponsored woman, which is the best part of the experience. Here's a translated excerpt of a letter from one of the women I sponsor, who has four children aged 4 through 12 years old, but doesn't have electricity or running water in her home.

How are you doing? I am doing a bit well so far, but only God knows about tomorrow.... I live in a thatched house and we fetch water from a public standpipe. It is near our house. Thank you for the financial assistance I am receiving from you. May God bless you.

Here's a scan of one of her handwritten letters, and here's the translated version.

If you can do it and you're not already, take time today to sign up with a charity that works for a cause you care about, and send them what you can. Not only are your donations tax-deductible, but they're a worthwhile deposit in your karma account, too. What are your favorite charities working to beat poverty? Tell us about it in the comments.

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Virtual CloneDrive Mounts ISOs and Other Disk Images Without Burning a Disc [Featured Windows Download]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/421968238/virtual-clonedrive-mounts-isos-and-other-disk-images-without-burning-a-disc

Windows only: Free application Virtual CloneDrive mounts any common disk image file type as a virtual drive that you can browse as though it's a normal hard drive without burning a disc. The app supports popular disk image types like ISO, BIN, and CCD, and mounting an image once you've installed CloneDrive is as simple as double-clicking the file. We've covered similar tools in the past, but CloneDrive is the simplest implementation we've seen, and it's made by SlySoft, the folks who develop the popular DVD decryptor, AnyDVD. Virtual CloneDrive is a free download, Windows only.

Virtual CloneDrive [via gHacks]

Skip Gmail's Body-less Message Prompt Using (EOM) [Gmail Tip]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/422046641/skip-gmails-body+less-message-prompt-using-eom

The Official Gmail Blog serves up a useful tip for laconic folks who like to send subject-only messages: add (EOM) to the end of your subject line to skip Gmail's prompt confirming if you want to send the message without any text in the body. Update: <EOM> works as well, and it doesn't appear to be case-sensitive. EOM, of course, stands for "End of Message" and it tells both Gmail and your recipient that's all she (or he) wrote. Here's more on how EOM makes your email more efficient.