Have More Fun With Google Labs

Everyone (I hope...) knows Google and a lot of people use it daily, but there is more to Google than just Gmail or search! Google Labs offers users a chance to try the experiments the staff over at Google have come up with, some of these may in future be implemented as part of the broader Google umbrella of services and others may just slowly disappear...

Things you really should try are:

• Google Fast Flip - A really great (and very fast) way to read headlines from major newspapers and websites. Much better than anything I have ever used - Go HERE
• Google City Tours - If you are going on holiday, instead of being like everyone else and buying a book for suggested tours, why not check out Google City Tours. It offers tours of many major world cities - Go HERE
• Google Squared - This is a unique and different take on search results output, too difficult to explain so rather just try it out yourself - Go HERE

There are also a bunch of Labs experiments for users of Google Android phones, so if you are using Google Android then I would head over to Google Labs right now - Click Here. If you are a user of Gmail they have a seperate Labs page here and the same for Google Calendar whose Labs page is here.

Download the Haiku OS Alpha 1 Release

The Haiku Project has been around since 2001, aiming to build a 'new' operating system that is compatible with BeOS (read more about BeOS at Wikipedia here). After about 9 years of development, the first official release is now available for anyone to try for free.

Haiku Alpha 1 can be downloaded as an .ISO (CD image for burning), .VM (for running in a Virtual Machine) or a .RAW image (for writing to a USB flash drive).

Read more about the Haiku Operating System at Wikipedia here or go straight to the homepage here. The page of available downloads is here and you can read the installation instructions for hard drive here. If you want to install on a flash drive you can read how to do that over here. The instructions are for just about everyone, including users of Windows, Linux, FreeBSD & Mac OSX. So, what are you waiting for, give Haiku a try now!

Upgrade Your Huawei E220 Modem Firmware - UPDATED

Okay, a while back I did a post detailing the fact that your Huawei E220 Modem firmware can be updated to run at 7.2 Mbps. That is still true, there is however newer firmware available, so rather then send people to the old link for the firmware update, I will send you to the new link.

The new firmware version is 11.117.10.03.99 and you can read about it at MobileBroadbandRocks.com here or get the firmware from Maxis Broadband here (the download link is on the left hand side for both PC and MAC). Otherwise the direct download link for PC is here and the direct link for MAC is here. I just downloaded and did the installation and it worked perfectly fine for me. The new version also contains a new version of the VMC Lite Dashboard (which is the software that is on the modem), so if you use that then I would recommend an upgrade as well.

Read about the Huawei E220 Modem at Wikipedia here.

BE WARNED - FIRMWARE UPDATES ARE DONE AT YOUR OWN RISK!

TweetZ - A Windows 7 & Vista Gadget for Twitter

If you are a Twitter user and have Windows 7 or Windows Vista you might want to take a look at TweetZ, a desktop gadget that allows you to tweet without having your browser open.

Read more about it over at Life Rocks 2.0 here or at the developers site here or just go directly to the download page right here (scroll down the page to find it).

Got Windows 7 - GET SOME FREE THEMES!

If you are using a new version of Windows 7, or the Release Candidate (RC) version, then get your hands on some free Windows 7 Themes! Below are some links to a couple of sites to check out -

• deviantART has a bunch of skins, themes and more for Windows 7 - Go HERE
• AddictiveTips has their list of their favourite 26 themes for Windows 7 - Go HERE
• Windows7Themes.net has a very comprehensive list of themes for Windows 7 - Go HERE
• Want official themes from Microsoft like Porsche, Ferrari, Infiniti and more? - Go HERE
• Into Windows has a collection of 14 themes for Windows 7 - Go HERE
• Want to make your own theme? Then get Style7 - Go HERE

Radian - Free Radial Application Launcher

There are a lot of application launchers out there, like RocketDock and others (read a more comprehensive previous post about Docking Programs right here). Radian is slightly different, using a radial layout for the launching interface.

It looks slick, pretty and might just appeal to you. It is also just a small 565 KB download. Check out Radian at the homepage right here.

Make Your Own Christmas Gift Bows

This is a really great post for everyone this Christmas and something to keep the kids busy. Using just a little bit of glue, some scissors and some funky paper (like a map, or pictures from a magazine) you can put together a pretty cool bow like the one in the picture below.

Check out how to make your own gift bows using almost any kinds of paper right here.

Make Your Own Games - FOR FREE

The Unreal Engine (read about it at Wikipedia here) has been around since 1998, and has been used to create many, many really great games. including BioShock, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Mass Effect and a whole lot more.

NVIDIA have just released the Unreal Developer Kit for FREE. That's right, so anyone with a bit of extra time on their hands that wants to have a go at making their own game can do it with no cost involved.

Read more about it at the blog here or go directly to the Unreal Developer Kit website here for a free download. Also check out the showcase of games that have already been created with the UDK here.

Read Your Favourite Magazines Online For Free

If you have got nothing to do check out Maggwire which has a comprehensive list of magazines that are hosted online. You will find most of your top title magazines here and a great resource for South Africans, as the magazines are all US based, hence ones we would not normally be able to read.

The official (and legal) Maggwire site is here.

Official Windows XP Wallpaper Changer from Microsoft

In Windows 7 Microsoft introduced a wallpaper changer feature which will automatically rotate your wallpapers at a desired interval from any directory you set it to.

You can actually get the same feature in Windows XP with the Creativity Fun Wallpaper Changer from Microsoft. Read the entire post over at AskVG right here or just download the Microsoft PowerToy here.