Filed under: E-mail, Google

The other day the folks at Google launched a new Gmail Labs feature called Title Tweaks that lets you decide whether your browser title bar should read "Gmail - Inbox (20)" or "Inbox (20) - Gmail." This is a feature that's been a part of Gina Trapini's Better Gmail 2 add-on for Firefox for a while, but now that it's officially part of Google Labs, you can set your preferences once and they'll apply no matter what web browser or computer you use to check your email.

But there's one thing that the latest version of Better Gmail can do that Google can't... yet. Better Gmail 2 now lets you see how many unread messages you have right on the favicon. This takes up a lot less space than the typical Inbox notifications in the title bar. And that means you should be able to see how many unread messages you have even if you have dozens of tabs open, or if you're using an add-on like Faviconize.

If you don't want to install Better Gmail 2 for one reason or another, you can get the same effect by using the Unread Messages Count in Favicon userscript with Greasemonkey.

Better Gmail 2 now shows unread messages in the favicon originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Google, Social Software, Web

Google Street View lets you see photographs of city streets and their surroundings taken by Google cameras attached to vehicles that have been driving along major city streets in the US and other countries including Japan, Australia, and Spain. And now you can also find photos taken by amateur photographers as well. In this case, that's a good thing, because the amateur photos are often higher quality and more interesting compositionally. That's what happens when a human being snaps a photo instead of letting a computer to it.

Google is using geotagged photos contributed through Panoramio. The company also makes some of these photos available in other applications like Google Earth.

If you're viewing a location in Street View that has user photos available, an icon will pop up in the upper right corner of your screen letting you know that user images are available. When you click, a series of photos that you can scroll through will pop up. Just click the button on the right, which should now be labeled Street View, to go back to the normal view.

[via WebWare]

Google adds user generated photos to Street View originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Text, Hardware

In a victory for neo-Luddites the Author's Guild, Amazon has announced its intention to disable the speech to text function its new Kindle 2 ebook reader. Amazon announced its intention to selectively disable the device following criticism from the Author's Guild President Roy Blount Jnr. that the Kindle 2 would undermine the billion dollar a year audiobook market.

In a statement released to the press, Amazon argued that the text-to-speech feature was legal, but said that it would give authors the right to decide whether or not to disable the feature for their books:

'Kindle 2's experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given... nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat... Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rights holders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title.'

It's unclear if the Author's Guild plans to now campaign to receive royalties from all other text-to-speech programs, but its hollow victory is sure to be received poorly by the visually impaired and any other consumers who are forking out around $350 bucks for their new Kindle and want to actually use the legal functionality that it has been designed with.

Hopefully Amazon will flag up which cheapskate publishers have disabled the text to speech functionality of their books very clearly, so that Kindle users can be sure to vote with their wallets and boycott those responsible for this shameful decision.

[Via the New York Times]

Amazon agrees to cripple Kindle 2 originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 23:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Audio, Internet, Windows, Web services, Freeware, Windows x64

Back in October of 2008, our own Christina Warren snagged some beta invites for Mufin's web-based service for our readers. Now their crew has now released a public beta version of their desktop player for Windows.

Once you install the player and show it the way to your stash of audio files, and it begins the (lengthy) process of examining each track's "sound fingerprint." It can take quite a while for Mufin to complete its analysis, so you might want to relax and check out some Time Wasters while it does its thing.

Suggestions can be made either from your own library or from Mufin.com. Now, they might not always right on target, but I'm not going to hold a grudge against a piece of software that can't find decent, non-Primus matches for a song like "Here Come the Bastards." Even if Mufin misses the mark now and then, it's still a great way to familiarize yourself with new artists.

Apart from recommendations, the player can also analyze a file for artist and track information using AuidioID. You can also let it auto-generate playlists based on a single track, and essential functions like ripping, burning, and copying tracks to an MP3 player are also included.

You'll need to register for an account in order to take full advantage of the player, so head over to Mufin, sign up, and download the player. More details about the desktop player are available at Mufin.com.

If you've tried it out, tell us what you think in the comments!

Music recommendation site Mufin releases desktop player originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet, Social Software, Web

It looks like Digg is working on a StumbleUpon-like toolbar that lets users digg, bury, or find related stories while surfing the web. Veronica Belmont first spotted a screenshot of the toolbar on Flickr, and it looks like the folks at TechCrunch managed to track down some additional information about it.

If that info is correct, here's how it works. Users will see a toolbar the toolbar pop up on their screens. The toolbar shows up in an i-frame, which means it's not browser specific and you can make it go away at any time just by hitting the X button.

When you visit pages that have already been submitted to Digg, you'll see the number of votes it has received. Or you can submit the page you're currently on. You can also bury stories or see related stories.

The toolbar will also create a shortened URL for any page you're visiting, beginning with digg.com... You can then share this shortened URL via email, Twitter, Facebook, or other services much the same way you would with TinyURL.

The Digg toolbar is not available to the general public at this point. And for all we know, the whole thing could just be a hoax. But it certainly seems like something Digg could and/or should offer in the future.

Digg could take on StumbleUpon, TinyURL with new toolbar originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fugly Friday

I would be remiss in continuing this series without a stop at RogerART.com -- a throwback on the web in so many ways. Run by Earth Citizen Roger Drowne, the site is all text and GIF's, they way HTML 1.0 intended. Roger's message is pure, I'll give him that. He revels in being consistently lumped into the "worst" website category, which I think is terrific. Roger has some painting ability with traditional media, but judging from his digital artwork, it leaves a bit to be desired, I think.

Roger eschews the tradtional top nav for a blast of text and GIF goodness that'll have you scrolling down in no time -- a convenient list of links to his other sites (also replicated at the bottom of the page in case you missed it). If you're color-blind (as I'm sure Roger would prefer) you won't be able to read random portions of the page. That's because random words are randomly colored random web-safe colors.

If you brave a scroll down you'll find quite the menagerie of crappy animated GIF's and half-assed Paint artwork. Roger's text will also have you checking your default settings, but don't worry: it's all part of the plan. Some text should be gigantic, and some text should be just overly large. You'll have a ball playing "is this a link" too, since there's a lot of blue text. Luckily, all URL's are using the default HTML spec in a handy blue with underline... you'll just have to wade through the sea of SMS-like gibberish to find them.

So sure, RogerART is a design abomination -- but is it art? Let's turn to our dictionary.app definition of kitsch:

art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way : the lava lamp is an example of sixties kitsch | [as adj. ] kitsch decor.

We have a winner! Here's hoping Roger continues to refuse professional design help for at least another 10 years.

Fugly Friday: RogerART originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Time-Wasters, Web

Hey Wizard is low-color, magical platformer fun - Time Waster originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Text, Blogging, Productivity, Web services, web 2.0

Speed read RSS news feeds with Spreed:News originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Internet

Less than a year after launching an online backup solution called Upline, HP is discontinuing the service. HP hasn't given any official reason for killing Upline, but in an email sent to customers, the company says that it stop accepting uploads yesterday and will cease operations altogether on March 31st, meaning if you need to get files from the server, you'd best do it before then.

HP will issue full refunds to paying customers. The subscription-based service had offered unlimited storage for $59 per year. Since Upline didn't even last a single year, I guess it's easier for HP to send the money back than to try to pro-rate the refunds.

HP Upline file backup service goes Offline originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Filed under: Utilities, Features, Productivity, Web services

Wikipedia is one of the most-visited sites on the Internet, for very good reason. If you're like me, and Wikipedia is your starting point for research on any topic -- and your starting and stopping point for quick facts -- then you might be interested in a handful of ways to make your Wikipedia experience faster, more attractive or more integrated. Give Wikipedia a boost with these great apps and add-ons:

1) Save a trip to Wikipedia.com with AQwikWiki or QuickWiki

Sometimes you run across a term on a webpage that you want to check out on Wikipedia, but you'd also like to finish reading the rest of the page. If you install these add-ons for Firefox, you can have both. AQwikWiki lets you highlight a term and right-click to insert the Wikipedia definition into the text in a yellow highlight. QuickWiki uses a customizable key combo plus a click on a word, and pops the definition up in a box. They're two different methods of doing basically the safe thing, but either way, you don't even have to bother leaving the page.

2) Access Wikipedia quickly from your iPhone with Wikiamo or Wikipanion

Both of these iPhone apps are designed to browse Wikipedia more efficiently from your iPhone. They each have their own unique feature sets, so you'll have to decide which one works better for you. This is much is for sure, though: they both make Wikipedia faster to search and easier to read than if you just browsed to it in Safari.

Continue reading 5 ways to enhance your Wikipedia experience

5 ways to enhance your Wikipedia experience originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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