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Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Activate Alt-Tab Switching With Just Your Mouse [Autohotkey Tip]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/5PgNHfj2Jrk/activate-alt+tab-switching-with-just-your-mouse

Windows only: Reader Zarek writes in with an excellent tip for switching between open windows using just the mouse—all it takes is a couple of lines of AutoHotkey code.

The script binds one of your extra mouse buttons combined with the mouse wheel to activate Alt-Tab or Shift-Alt-Tab, depending on which way you are scrolling the mouse. To set this up for yourself, you'll need to create a new AutoHotkey script or paste the following into your existing one to activate your 5th mouse button:

XButton2 & WheelDown::AltTab XButton2 & WheelUp::ShiftAltTab

If you would rather use the 4th button, you can substitute XButton1 in the code where you see XButton2. If your mouse doesn't have any extra buttons, Zarek still has you covered—this solution will activate Alt-Tab using the middle mouse button combined with the scroll wheel—although it's a little more difficult to use and (one commenter notes that it makes the middle mouse button not work correctly, so use this one with caution).

Update: yourbuddypal in the comments notes that you need a tilde at the beginning of the line, per this AutoHotkey forum post. Thanks!

~MButton & WheelDown::AltTab ~MButton & WheelUp::ShiftAltTab

Where this tip becomes really useful is for readers using Windows 7—once you've activated the Alt-Tab dialog you can simply hold your mouse over ! any of t he preview thumbnails to see the entire window through Aero Peek—very useful when you have too many applications running at once. Thanks, Zarek!

For more AutoHotkey fun, read how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut, or turn your capslock key into a dedicated minimize button. Got your own useful AutoHotkey trick for managing open windows? Care to share your scripting skills with the rest of the class? Dazzle us in the comments with your wisdom.

Skype 4.1 Beta Adds Screen Sharing and Other New Features [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/bgn2J2P95mo/skype-41-beta-adds-screen-sharing-and-other-new-features

Windows only: Popular video and voice chat application Skype has just released a new beta version for Windows users featuring several cool new features, most notably the addition of a screen sharing feature that allows you to share your desktop with any contact.

In addition to the screen sharing, Skype 4.1 beta adds contact sharing, birthday reminders, call and video quality improvements, and more; you can find the full release notes here (PDF alert!). As Download Squad points out, new features generally hit the Windows version of Skype before the Mac version, but in this case, Macs have had Skype screen sharing since January.

To share your screen, just fire up a chat with a contact and then hit the Share button. After that, you can choose whether you want to share your entire screen or Skype may just become the new family helpdesk support app of choice. Note: The user you're chatting with must also be running Skype 4.1.

Skype 4.1 beta is a free download, Windows only.

Skype 4.1 Beta [via Download Squad]

Google Expects 18 Android Phones This Year: All the Flavors Explained [Android]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VznWxUPenD4/google-expects-18-android-phones-this-year-all-the-flavors-explained

Google/Android's Andy Rubin said at the Google I/O conference that Google expects 18-20 Android phones this year from 8 or 9 manufacturers—and those are just the devices they know about. But it's gonna be slower going in the States because of the custom Android builds that carriers want.

(The custom builds frighten us, on multiple levels.)

More interesting, perhaps, is how they fall along the Android lines—there are apparently three ways for a manufacturer to put Android on their phone with varying levels of Google control (though all are free). The "no strings" version anyone can grab, but it doesn't have Google's apps. The "small strings" version includes an agreement to distribute Google's apps, and 12-14 are this flavor.

The final one, aka the Google Experience, is like the G1—you've got Google apps and an agreement from both the carrier and phonemaker that they won't restrict access to the Android market at all. You can spot these phones by the Google logo literally branded onto them. (These are the Android phones you probably want.)

So, maybe 2009 will be the year of Android after all. Maybe. [NYT]

Google Ion hands-on and unboxing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/google-ion-hands-on-and-unboxing/

Looks like Chris' hatred wasn't totally unfounded. We just got our hands on a Google Ion -- which as you can tell is a spitting image of the HTC Magic -- complete with 30 days' worth of T-Mobile service on an included SIM card. It's not a public release model, but seems fully capable. Yes, it's got Cupcake, and while the portrait keyboard seems more cramped than the iPhone's, we found it very comfortable to type in landscape mode. Form factor wise, this thing is as sexy as hardware gets -- light, sleek, and thin. The only thing that exceeds our love for it right now is its own love for fingerprints -- seriously, the entire body and screen attract them like flies to honey. Colorful similes aside, hit up the gallery below for all the pics you could ask for.

Gallery: Google Ion unboxing and hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Google Ion hands-on and unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Intel Core i7 CPUs show up unannounced

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/new-intel-core-i7-cpus-show-up-unannounced/

Intel's Core i7 has become somewhat of a mainstay in the most recent wave of gaming rigs, but it's been quite awhile (in processor years, anyway) since we've seen any new siblings join the launch gang. We'd heard faint whispers that a new crew was set to steal the stage on May 31st, and those rumors are looking all the more likely now that a few heretofore unheard of chips have appeared online. The 3.06GHz Core i7 950 is shown over at PCs For Everyone with 8MB of shared L3 cache and a $649 price tag, and it's expected that said chip will replace the aging Core i7 940. Moving on up, there's the luscious 3.33GHz Core i7 Extreme 975, which is also listed with 8MB of shared L3 cache but packs a staggering price tag well above the $1,100 mark. If all this pans out, this CPU will replace the Core i7 Extreme 965 as Intel fastest Core i7 product. Just a few more days to wait, right?

[Via PCWorld]

Read - Core i7 Extreme 975 listing
Read - Core i7 950 listing

Filed under: Desktops

New Intel Core i7 CPUs show up unannounced originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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palm-sized cameras for an enthusiasts toy box

Casio superfast camera 1,200 frames per second

casio one is to capture slo mo (bullet blasting through apple)
Casio High-Speed Exilim EX-FC100 9 MP Digital Camera with 5x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 2.7-inch LCD (Black)

Sigma DP2 foveon 14 megapixel direct capture camera

foveon is to capture intricate fabric detail (every pixel has R, G, and B captured, not extrapolated)
Sigma DP2 14MP FOVEON CMOS Sensor Digital Camera with 2.5 Inch TFT LCD

Fuji super high dynamic range camera

Fuji's CMOS sensor captures 2 shots in one - one low light and one high light, and smashes them together to
achieve a high dynamic range shot (previously you'd have to bracket the same shot yourself, and smash the shots together with software)
Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR 12MP Super CCD Digital Camera with 5x Wide Angle Dual Image Stabilized Optical Zoom

Every Mobile Browser Should Give Up and Just Go WebKit [Internet]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/a1QFwO3gAEg/every-mobile-browser-should-give-up-and-just-go-webkit

The ZuneHD looks like a lovely catchup to the original iPod touch—you know, before apps allowed it to be so much more—except for one thing. That damn browser. It's not just they're basing it off hellacious and reviled IE—it's that it's not WebKit-based.

There simply isn't a better mobile browser than WebKit right now. It powers the internet in the iPhone, Android, Symbian S60 and Palm Pre, and destroyed all comers in our Battlemodo. It's fast, it's competent and most importantly from a development perspective, it's open source. Meaning Microsoft could adopt it for its mobile devices with (relatively) little shame (okay, maybe a lot of shame) and it's ready to go right now, meaning there's no wasting time building a new engine just to attempt to play catchup to a browser that handily delivers the best mobile internet experience right now across multiple platforms.

Mozilla's Fennec could become a contender to the throne, true, but it's still far from final. Opera and Skyfire are interesting and good, but they're both proprietary, meaning there's no chance in hell they'd ever be adopted by Microsoft or RIM, much less the entire industry, as the basis for their mobile browsers.

You could rail against the idea of WebKit becoming a "monopoly," but you'd be foolish to do so: Web standards are important, and WebKit, whic! h is aga in, open source, is dedicated to standards compliance and performance. A performance and compliance standard that web developers could count on in every single mobile device wouldn't be a bad thing—far from it. It would mean even more amazing web apps, since developers would know they'd run on any mobile device, no matter what "OS" they were running underneath—the web would be the real OS.

That day is coming. I just hoped I'd see it a little sooner.

Google Android 2.0 Donut Has Universal Search and Text-to-Speech Powers [Android 2.0 Donut]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/qvSOLy2tir0/google-android-20-donut-has-universal-search-and-text+to+speech-powers

Sort of odd that Android, made by Google, is behind both the iPhone and Palm Pre in rocking the universal search thing. But Google showed off that, a text-to-speech API for Google Voice Search in any app, and other Android 2.0 Donut goodness at Google I/O today. [Engadget]

Intel's new Nehalem-EX CPUs rock servers with eight cores, 16 threads, infinite sex appeal

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/intels-new-nehalem-ex-cpus-rock-servers-with-eight-cores-16-th/

Intel's new Nehalem-EX CPUs rock servers with eight cores, 16 threads, infinite sex appeal

What's that, you have an array of six-core CPUs in your rack? That is so last year. You're going to feel pretty foolish when all the cool admins start popping eight-core chips up in their closets this fall. That's the number on offer in Intel's latest, the Nehalem-EX. It's an evolution of the architecture that some of you may be spinning in your Core i7 machines, but boosted to support up to 16 threads and 24MB of cache. 2.3 billion transistors make the magic happen here, and Intel is pledging a nine-times improvement in memory bandwidth over the Xeon 7400. Chips are set to start hitting sockets sometime later this year, and while nobody's talking prices, staying hip in the enterprise server CPU crowd doesn't come cheap.

Filed under: Desktops

Intel's new Nehalem-EX CPUs rock servers with eight cores, 16 threads, infinite sex appeal originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung shows off latest, biggest, bendiest AMOLED prototype

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/samsung-shows-of-latest-biggest-bendiest-amoled-prototype/

Samsung shows off latest, biggest, bendiest AMOLED prototype

Today the flexible OLED is still a very rare thing, usually confined to dark corners of exhibitors booths at trade shows or grainy photos from some research facility. Sadly that doesn't look to change anytime in the immediate future, but Samsung is at least still making progress with the tech, demonstrating a new 6.5-inch flexible prototype at SID 2009 in San Antonio. It's bigger than the earlier examples we've seen from the company, and apparently a little bendier too, but beyond those juicy facts -- and knowing that it can display scenes from The Sound of Music -- we don't know a thing about it.

Filed under: Displays

Samsung shows off latest, biggest, bendiest AMOLED prototype originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 08:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG demos ultra-bright Full HD 3D monitor

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/video-lg-demos-ultra-bright-full-hd-3d-monitor/

LG's certainly been known to dabble in the third-dimension, and while we're still waiting for it to ship those "one or two" 3D TVs this year, at least we're confident that it's getting closer. Over in South Korea, the company has showcased a new Full HD (1080p) 3D monitor with what it says is the highest brightness level of any competing panel. Sadly, viewers are still required to don glasses when ingesting the action, but this take on the tech enables said eyewear to be somewhat thinner and less cumbersome. Have a peek at the vid down in the read link.

Filed under: Displays

LG demos ultra-bright Full HD 3D monitor originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 09:22:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So long, HSPA+: AT&T "likely" moving straight from 7.2Mbps to LTE

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/so-long-hspa-atandt-likely-moving-straight-from-7-2mbps-to-lt/

At Mobile World Congress, AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega had mentioned to us that AT&T was "better off" than Verizon thanks to 3GPP Release 7's capabilities to extend existing HSPA infrastructure through to 21Mbps and beyond by using the wonders of HSPA+ before the company would need to bite the bullet and get moving on LTE. We're not sure whether Big Red's aggressive LTE plans have AT&T rethinking its strategy or if it just wants to save time, money, and energy by avoiding yet another interim rollout, but we're now being told by a company spokesman that "it's likely that timelines for LTE standards will lead us directly from 7.2 to LTE." He mentions that HSPA+ is "still an option," but at any rate, this is a markedly different tone than we've heard in the past -- even as late as last month -- and if this means we're getting LTE even a single day sooner, we're all for it.

Filed under: Wireless

So long, HSPA+: AT&T "likely" moving straight from 7.2Mbps to LTE originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 13:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MSI's X-Slim X340 now shipping in US for $899.99

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/msis-x-slim-x340-now-shipping-in-us-for-899-99/

It's hard to say if our harmless threats influenced the MSRP here, but either way, we'll take it. MSI has finally (finally!) come clean with a set price on its succulent X-Slim X340, and while we heard through the grapevine awhile back that it would ship here for under a grand, we definitely had our doubts. Starting today, eager consumers can order one for the low, low price of $899.99, which buys you an Intel ULV SU3500 processor, Vista Home Premium, a 13.4-inch 1,366 x 768 resolution display, GMA 4500MHD graphics and 2GB of DDR2 RAM. There's also a 320GB hard drive, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi, 4-cell battery (an 8-cell is optional), 1.3 megapixel camera, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, twin USB 2.0 sockets, VGA / HDMI outputs and an SD / MMC card reader. The 0.78-inches thick machine is shipping today in the US of A from a bevy of e-tailers, and you can peek the full release just after the break.

Continue reading MSI's X-Slim X340 now shipping in US for $899.99

Filed under: Laptops

MSI's X-Slim X340 now shipping in US for $899.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Ion hands-on and unboxing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/google-ion-hands-on-and-unboxing/

Looks like Chris' hatred wasn't totally unfounded. We just got our hands on a Google Ion -- which as you can tell is a spitting image of the HTC Magic -- complete with 30 days' worth of T-Mobile service on an included SIM card. It's not a public release model, but seems fully capable. Yes, it's got Cupcake, and while the portrait keyboard seems more cramped than the iPhone's, we found it very comfortable to type in landscape mode. Form factor wise, this thing is as sexy as hardware gets -- light, sleek, and thin. The only thing that exceeds our love for it right now is its own love for fingerprints -- seriously, the entire body and screen attract them like flies to honey. Colorful similes aside, hit up the gallery below for all the pics you could ask for.

Gallery: Google Ion unboxing and hands-on

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Google Ion hands-on and unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google I/O attendees getting free unlocked HTC Magic with T-Mobile 3G

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/google-i-o-attendees-getting-free-unlocked-htc-magic-with-us-3g/

In case you needed yet another reason to nerd out with Android developers for a couple days in scenic San Francisco, here's a doozy: every attendee is getting hooked up with an unlocked HTC Magic in black plus 30 days of voice and 3G data service. While the carrier isn't specified, we certainly wouldn't be surprised if it ended up being T-Mobile, which would make this an AWS version of the phone -- and a probable precursor to the presumed myTouch 3G release (or whatever they end up calling it) later this year. In the meantime, I/O attendees -- and yes, that includes you, Ross Miller -- we hate you out of sheer, raging envy.

Update: Confirmed -- it's a T-Mobile SIM, hence AWS 3G!

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Google I/O attendees getting free unlocked HTC Magic with T-Mobile 3G originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 15:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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