TechThisOut!

Before I start I should re-enforce the fact that this is still a Beta, and may contain bugs/do bad things to your PC etc, and although this is VERY rare, please bear it in mind!

Also please note that this is for Windows XP Service Pack 2 ONLY so will not work on any other version of Windows so trying is futile!

The main new features of IE7 as opposed to previous versions are:

Tabbed browsing, which is something it has been missing for a long time and this may even put it back in the league with the likes of Firefox, and Opera, who have used tabs for ages… it’s about time Microsoft allowed tabbed browsing for IE.

It also have a more streamlined toolbar, with a search box (also similar to Firefox) as well as various printing enhancements, and “Shrink to Fit” printing which will enable you to adjust margins, remove headers and footers, change the page layout, and increase or decrease the print space which many will find useful.

It also detects RSS feeds, making it simpler and easier to subscribe to them.

A final version of IE7 will be released later on this year to coincide with the release of Microsofts’ new operating system - Vista

Download IE7 here

Writely is an online word processor, allowing you to create, save, delete, and generally manage documents — online.

The best part is that you will have your writely documents wherever you go. From the site:

• Nothing to download — your browser is all you need.

      

• Collaborate just by entering people’s e-mail addresses.

      

• Publish on the web or post to your blog with a click.

      

• Pick exactly who can access your documents.

      

• Upload from Word/OpenOffice & save to your desktop.

      

• Edit your documents anytime, from anywhere.

You can use it for:
      

• Meeting notes, Reports, technical specs

      

• Sign-up sheets, proposals and much more…

Here’s how Writely explains it:

Writely is a web word processor that provides simple and secure document collaboration and publishing on the web using only the browser.

1. First, you create a document:

      Either by typing it in, or by uploading a Word/OpenOffice document, html, text or image file.

      Use our editor to format the text, add tables, images, etc.

Now, you share it with others:

      Enter people’s e-mail addresses to grant them access to the document.

      Send them a message from Writely to tell them about it.

Then, you edit it online:

      If another person starts editing the same document, a small notice will appear.

      Your changes will be automatically sync’d with theirs every few seconds.

You can check out the full tour by clicking here.

Check out Writely today by going to writely.com.

Enjoy!

Jesse

It looks like it is going to be an exciting year for one of the most popular browsers out there, Firefox.

According to the Mozilla Blog, the main changes in Firefox 2 will be:

New Bookmarks and History - Improve the browser’s Bookmarks and History systems to improve their effectiveness as renavigation aids while at the same time improving the back end for speed and extensibility.

Tabbed Browsing Enhancements - Make tabs behave more like windows in the operating system environment, making them behave more as users would expect.

Improved Basic Content Type Handling - For things like RSS/Atom feeds, mail links etc. Improve discovery and handling user interfaces.

Web Search - Improve the discoverability and adaptability of the search UI within Firefox.

Bug Fixing - Bug fixing at all levels where risk is low and yield high, e.g. the blank tab download bug, platform stability, etc.

Other features that are a possibility, but are not yet deffinite, are:

Visual Uplift - A freshen of the visual design of Firefox while maintaining high levels of system integration.

Inline Spell Check -The rise of applications like web mail, blogging etc highlight the weaknesses of HTML’s textarea widget. We should at the very least offer people the ability to spell check their submissions.

Exit Survey - We’d like to know why people leave Firefox. A survey on uninstall would help us find ways to make the software better in future versions.

UI Consolidation and Simplification - Consolidate and simplify user interface in the browser window tying together features in meaningful ways where possible.

I personally think that although there are some good future features there, they should be working more on fixing the memory leaks, as that’s what’s most likely to make people uninstall! As for an exit survey, that has to be the most annoying thing anyone can do.. The last thing you want to have to do when uninstalling somthing is fill out some survey saying why!

The inline spell check would of course be a great idea, (if only searching with ctrl+F would allow you to search text input areas too!) especially for forums and the like.

The expected release date for Firefox 2 is around the middle of this year, with alpha/beta testing starting as early as Ferbruary.

Ever been surfing the web, checking your emails, talking on MSN and trying to use Photoshop at the same time? Well, I’m sure you know how annoying it is having such a cluttered taskbar, and now theres an answer to your problems!

AllToTray allows you to minimise pretty much anything to your systemtray only, so it’s out of the way till you need it. This also helps if you have a program like Adobe Photoshop (which takes forever to load!) open, and know you’ll want to use it again, but don’t want to close it. You can just minimise it to the systray, and you won’t even know its there, till you need it again.

Users of WindowsXP can also right-click their taskbar and choose “Properties” > “Hide Enactive Icons” and then choose what you want to hide from all those programs you’ve ever minimised. This means you don’t even have to see the minimised programs if you don’t want, which just adds to its usefulness.

If you decide you didn’t need what you minimised, it’s easy just to right-click the icon in the systray and click “Close”!

Overall, I’d give it 10/10 as it has to be the most useful bit of software that I use every time I use my PC, and as of yet, I haven’t found anything wrong with it (besides the fact it only has a 14 day trial before you have to pay US$9.99 to continue using it), so I really do recommend it.

Download Here

Check out Recolored, it’s a great program that will colorize black and white photos according to the monochrome shading.

You can colorize the whole image, or just certain parts. All you do is mark the area you want colorized, and then Recolorize will colorize the selected area for you.

Check it out!

Jesse

Learning to use Firefox keyboard shortcuts to reduce your trips to the mouse can lead to a much more fulfilling web browsing experience, especially at those times that your mouse just isn’t doing the trick.

Okay, you got me. I have, on occasion (read: often), neglected to charge my wireless mouse for long enough that, when it’s time to get posting, I find myself totally mouse-less.

Now you’re thinking, “What, just because this wire-hating jerk can’t remember to put their mouse on the charger every now and then, I’m supposed to get all excited about the idea of using Firefox without a mouse?” But that’s not it at all, people!

I’m the kind of web surfer who’s never terribly happy when they have to move their hand over to the mouse, and frankly, jumping over to the mouse every time you need to follow a link is so 2004. Check out the following Firefox keyboard shortcuts (some well-known, others not), and before long you’ll forget all about the little rodent next to your keyboard.

Navigation from the toolbar

The address bar shortcut should be as instinctual as breathing by now, but there’s a few more shortcuts to that top bar that you should keep in mind.

* Select location bar: Ctrl/Cmd+L or Alt+D
* Select search bar: Ctrl/Cmd+K
* Back: Backspace or Alt/Cmd+Left
* Forward: Alt/Option+Right or Shift+Backspace
* Change search engine: Ctrl/Cmd+Down (Next) +Up (Previous)

The last shortcut, used to change the search engine, was a big discovery for me. I’ve always been interested in additional search bar plugins, but it was never worth the trip to the mouse. No problem any more.

Searching Pages

The find-as-you-type feature was an epiphany. While Google is great at getting you to the right web page, Firefox’s find-as-you-type feature gets you the rest of the way.

* Find as you type text: /
* Find as you type link: ‘
* Regular old find: Ctrl/Cmd+F

The link search is very useful, especially when used in conjunction with

Opening Pages

. Unless you do all of your browsing in one page, these shortcuts are huge when you don’t want to go running for your mouse.

* Open link in new window: Shift+Enter
* Open link in new tab: Ctrl/Cmd+Enter
* Open address/search in new tab: Alt/Option+Enter

Used together with their respective shortcuts (address and search bar shortcuts and the find-as-you-type link shortcut), the page opening shortcuts go a long way toward mouse-less browsing.

Grab bag

The preceding shortcuts are of mostly obvious usefulness. Switching tabs and reloading pages are must-have shortcuts for any mouse-eschewing Firefox-er. A less-known feature, Caret browsing, inserts a cursor into the text of the page and is very useful for highlighting and copying text.

If you’re looking to change your default mail program (e.g. to Gmail, etc.) to best utilize the Compose email shortcut, check out these tips for setting your default mail program.(provided by Lifehacker.com)

Keyconfig Extension

Finally, if you haven’t totally satisfied your shortcut cravings, you can install the Keyconfig extension. Keyconfig allows you to define Firefox shortcuts to your hearts content.

Download Keyconfig

Some of the shortcuts above may be old hat, while others may be news to you. I’ve excluded a lot of the more obvious universal shortcuts (like copy and paste), but I tried to include everything you need to browse just as you would with a mouse in hand. Still not enough? You might want to check out the full list of Firefox keyboard shortcuts.

Any other must-have Firefox shortcuts or extensions that make the mouse-less Firefox experience that much easier? Comment them now!

-Jesse

Courtesy of Lifehacker

I’m in the process of changing webhosts, from Surpass Hosting to A Small Orange. Because of this merger, the site may be down for a few hours to a few days. I don’t know. Just a warning.

-Jesse

Funny article about the font Comic Sans and how it was never supposed to be put to use… enjoy!

Comic Sans was designed because when I was working at Microsoft I received a beta version of Microsoft Bob. It was a comic software package that had a dog called Rover at the beginning and he had a balloon with messages using Times New Roman.

Click here for the full explanation with pictures.

-Jesse

Alright guys, IE7 (Beta 2) has officially leaked!

Because I don’t use Internet Explorer and I never intend to, I don’t have a review up.

But here’s some screenshots:

Sure, screenshots are great, but why not try it for yourself?

Download now!

Edit: Link was broke. Fixed!

Note: You must be running a genuine copy of Windows in order to run this. If you are not, there are instructions in the “Instructions-doread.rtf” file for how to get it working.

I’m sorry, but because of limitations out of my control, I can no longer host Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 5299 on my servers. I apologize. You can find it many other places on the net, however. Google it!

Enjoy!
-Jesse

A reader at Engadget wrote a script to be able to control your iTunes setup from anywhere, using the internet. It is a small PHP script and is handy if your media center is setup through your computer and your computer is inconveniently placed, or something like that.

Check it out!

Edit: The download link to the zip file containing the zip on that link on Engadget is down, so once you read the tutorial at the above link, then click here to download.

-Jesse