Tag: GADGETS

It's been about a month since Google announced its new Friend Connect platform which lets you add social widgets to any blog or web site. If you've been waiting patiently to see these widgets start popping up on the wild, wild web, it looks like the wait is over. Tech blogger Orli Yakuel has added a widget to her blog, Go2Web20. The widget looks a lot like the recent readers widgets you find ...

Yesterday we told you about a new desktop widget engine called Sobees which is in private beta. We also told you that if you wanted in on the private beta you had to sign up at the Sobees homepage. But Francois from the Sobees team has been kind enough to share 10 invites with Download Squad readers. Just be one of the first ten people to leave a comment on this post and we'll email you an ...

sobees beta english by fbochatay While we often find ourselves thinking "the last thing this world needs is another desktop widget engine," we might be willing to make an exception for Sobees. While we'd forgive you if you mistook Sobees as nothing but a desktop widget engine like Google Desktop, Yahoo! Widget Engine, or Vista's gadgets and the Dashboard in OS X, it's actually much more. First ...

Google seems to be rolling out improvements to Google Spreadsheets like there's no tomorrow. Or like there's no Microsoft Office tomorrow anyway. When you click the little chart icon in the Google Spreadsheets toolbar, you now get a whole slew of charts and other gadgets to choose from in addition to the pie, bar, and line charts that Google introduced a while back. The new gadget gallery ...

We love desktop widgets as much as the next guy, but sometimes Google Desktop, Yahoo! Widget Engine, or Vista's sidebar can get a bit overwhelming. They just take up so much space hanging out in your sidebar. Stick is a widget-like utility that lets you add a handful tabs to your desktop to access basic applications. The utility ships with just a few tools, like a News Feed applet, calendar, ...

With everyone and their cousin busy idea farming for the next monster Web 2.0 social media community site, there are going to be some oddities. And Product Clash, despite the "sounds good on paper" concept, is shaping up to be one of them. The idea is this: you have a bunch of products like game consoles, cameras, or mp3 players and match them up against a similar product in a 1-on-1 "clash." ...

OS X has its dock, Windows Vista has an enhanced start menu, and Windows XP has, well, a bunch of menus to click through to launch programs. But thanks to independent developers, there are a ton of great program launchers out there that make it easy to bring an OS X-style dock to Windows, or keyboard program launchers to pretty much any operating system. Over the years we've tried out a ton of ...

Google has been offering two different types of gadgets (or what the rest of the world calls widgets) for a while now. You could install tiny applications on your desktop using Google Desktop. Or you could install them in a personalized Google Startpage using iGoogle. Now Google has gone and removed the line dividing these two gadget types: You can now install Google Desktop gadgets on your ...

Widgets, most people use them now on their social network pages, blogs, or even on desktops. But where did they originate and how did they come to be? Niall Kennedy, the widget guru, answers that in his brief history of the widget. Where did it all begin? Back in 1981 when the graphical user interface was first designed for home use. Netscape pushed the widget along its journey in 1996 with the ...

Google has rolled out a new beta feature for its iGoogle personalized homepage. PubSub (short for Publisher/Subscriber) is basically a new framework that allows iGoogle gadgets to communicate with one another. For example, if you've got a search box in one gadget, you can type a query that will affect the results in other gadget. So if you've got a news gadget, a maps gadget, and a calendar gadget ...

Ryan from Cybernet tagged us, so now we have to come up with 5 suggestions for improving the Opera web browser. There are a lot of things to love about Opera. The company makes one of the finest mobile web browsers around. And the desktop version renders pages quickly and has a great fit-to-screen feature. But there are some web pages that still don't work properly in Firefox. In no particular ...

We know, being responsible is just so, hard. Electronics which run the nifty software we cover and love contain some nasty stuff that's not so friendly for the environment when left to rot in a landfill. So what's a gadget oving geek to do? Recycle. Our newest little sister, DIY Life, has a great article on the basics of responsibly recycling your old gear. So, clean out that junk drawer and ...

Google introduced a set of themes for your personalized homepage (or iGoogle) a few months back. But if you're looking for a few more customization options, check out this new Google gadget. digg_url = 'http://digg.com/software/Dress_up_your_iGoogle_with_custom_skins'; Once you install the gadget on your homepage, you can choose from a variety of custom skins, create your own, or submit ...

Google has added in Mapplets to Google Maps today. It was previously offered in a preview mode. Mapplets are like mini applications that can be embedded into the Google Maps site. Google currently has standard Mapplets available including Real Estate Search, Photos, Gas Prices, Distance Measurement tool, Earth as Art, and Crop Circles. Mapplets are essentially Google Gadgets that can work with ...

It's a widget gadget world, so why not add a few more mini helpers on your desktop. Yourminis, who is highly known as a destination to go for widgets that can be easily added to personal websites and blogs, has entered the desktop marketplace. Are they waging some kind of war against Google Desktop sidebar and gadgets, Apple widgets, and the new Yahoo Widgets? I think they are merely providing an ...