Latest Posts from Download Squad

Digg.com has links to a number of mirror sites with the final, official release of OpenOffice 2.0. The main project site still lists 2.0 as a Release Candidate but mirror sites are apparently being populated in preparation for an official announcement. Read the comments on the Digg post to see the mirrors that are currently offering the download.

MobiTV provides something like basic cable for your mobile device. It was released for the Treo 650 (sorry 600 users, not yet) on Friday. Subscriptions run $9.99 per month. How does it work? Short answer - pretty darn well.

No, the picture quality is not as good as watching an AVI on the Treo. Yes, it’s very sensitive to your connection strength. And oh yes, it does suck a huge amount of bandwidth. In fact, the first time you launch the MobiTV application, it warns you that you want to be on your carrier’s unlimited data plan. But the audio is very good and the picture quality - with a 3 or 4 bar connection - is also quite good. MobiTV can either be loaded from your PC or directly to your phone from the web.

The monthly service, which currently displays 40 channels on my Treo, includes a good selection of news (MSNBC, NBC Mobile, ABC, C-SPAN), sports (MLB Highlights, NFL Highlights, Fox Sports, ESPN 3), and a smattering of comedy, music, weather, and educational material (Discovery and TLC).

NOTE: Apparently, AT&T users with an older SIM card now on the Cingular network have reported that they can not get anything other the MobiTV promo channel. A fix is in the works. Check the supported carriers and phones information carefully before you subscribe. There is no trial period available.

Rumors are flying fast and furious that Google is jumping into the instant messaging and VOIP game. Beginning with a carefully couched piece in Sunday's New York Times by John Markoff, the fever pitch of speculation that Google plans to follow the release of Google Desktop 2 with an instant messaging/VOIP client has been building literally by the hour. Today the LA Times, eWEEK, C|Net, PC Magazine, and others are all reporting that the new service will be launched as early as tomorrow.

Y'know... with all of the similarities between Windows XP and Mac OS, it amazes me that Microsoft has never figured out that it might be helpful to be able to see the size of a folder in Windows Explorer. Sure, you can right click on the folder and get its properties but that's more clicks than I care to make and comparing the size of two folders is... well, it's annoying.

Enter Folder Size, a nice bit of open source goodness that simply adds a "Folder Size" column to your Windows Explorer windows. One less annoyance.

If you don’t know what it means to tail a log file, please skip right over this post. It will be entirely unintersting. If, OTOH, you need to monitor the goings-on on one or more servers and are tired of wrestling with miles-long log files, you’re going to love this tool. From the site:

Tail XP: Ever wanted to follow a log file or capture debug messages without having a debugger at hand? Then this product is for you! Featuring multiple types of monitors: file monitor, event log, syslog, OutputDebugString and coloring of lines based on regular expression rules. Best of all: it docks to the top or bottom of your desktop like ICQ and other windows resize accordingly. Check out the screenshots.

Freeware: This product is a total freebie. The cost is zip, nada, zilch. Zero in whatever language you care to use. Certified by softpedia.com

Here's a great piece of shareware. DeskMount adds a shortcut to your Windows desktop whenever you mount a removable drive and removes the shortcut when you unount it. The Lite version (free) supports CD-type media. The commercial version (approximately $6.00 USD or 5 Euros) adds support for virtually any removable device. Slick.

From the features list on the site:

• Automatic addition/removal of drive/media shortcuts on your desktop! (Registered version can be set to any target destination).
• Does NOT mess with your OWN shortcuts Supports any drive type (Lite version is limited to CD-Rom like devices) Remembers customized media names.
• This way you can have media shortcuts appear that have their title as the shortcut name.
• (In progress - Registered version only) Customizable refresh rate (Lite version is limited to a 4 second interval).
• Tray icon Autorun(.inf) support for ANY drive type, including USB sticks.
• You may disable the built-in autorun of windows completely if you like.

C|Net is reporting that WinZip Computing has been purchased by Vector Capital, a turnaround specialist that previously bought Corel Corp., took the company private, and restored it to profitability.

WinZip has never charged for upgrades or new versions, a common practice in the software world. And it has not added extra features for customers that paid the $29 licensing fee. Vector plans to "change that by reminding users a little more firmly that the software costs money, as well as likely coming out with features that only paying customers can download," the report says. Vector has also signed a marketing and distribution agreement with Google. Of course, there are plenty of free compression tools out there, so we can't help but wonder how successful Vector will be at squeezing some fossil fuel out of this dinosaur.

Read the entire article here.

This looks like a great addition for Skype users. Pamela is a "personal assistant" for Skype that offers a bevy of features to handle Skype calls and IM's. Three versions are available. The Basic version is free. The Standard edition is 6 Euros (approximately $7.25 USD). The Professional Edition which records Skype calls, creates XML, and FTP files for podcasts (I'll be testing this for sure) is 17,50 Euros (approx. $21 USD).

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SplashData has been developing handheld software for a long time. SplashID is my password manager of choice, offering great usability on the small screen combined with an excellent desktop application. SplashID is available for either Windows or Mac OS X. Handheld platform support is outstanding and includes Palm OS, Pocket PC, Smartphone, Symbian, and Nokia Series 60.

Fixes and inprovements in the just-released version 3.3.2 include:

• Desktop: Desktop database can now be saved to a custom location.
• Desktop: Custom icon databases are now assigned a created/modified date, no longer causing problems with desktop backup applications. (Windows)
• Desktop/Handheld: Records modified on the handheld now sync correctly to the desktop even if it’s running. (In the past the desktop would require an exit/relaunch to display the newly synced records.)
• Desktop/Handheld: Updated the standard icon set.
• Desktop: Exported data (vID or CSV) no longer gains an extra linefeed character. (Windows)

This is a free upgrade for registered users of version 3. A 30-day trial is available. New licenses are $29.95 or you can get SplashID as part of the SplashWallet Suite (Palm OS only) which also includes SplashPhoto, SplashMoney, and SplashShopper. SplashPhoto is available seperately for all other platforms.

Pluck, a bookmarks, RSS feed and search manager, is now available in public beta for Firefox. Pluck has been available for some time for Internet Explorer and it's great to see support for Firefox as well. Here are some of the key features in the new Firefox release:

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