Tag: NOTIFICATION

Notifications on the Android platform a bit, er, awful. The notification bar at the top of the screen just simply doesn't cut it when it comes to displaying important information -- it's completely out of the way, and it garbles anything longer than a few words. Basically, it's only useful if you actively check -- let's see if I have any messages.. -- which isn't really the point of ...

Scott's Gmail Alert (SGA) has been a great desktop notifier for a long time. In the just-released version 5, however, SGA has added a handful of new features which make it even better than its predecessors. SGA 5 can also notify you of upcoming events from a Google Calendar (even password-protected ones), changes in your local weather forecast, and new messages sent to you via Google Talk. As ...

I wrote about Scott's GMail Alert last year. It's a terrific desktop notifier with support for multiple GMail accounts (including GoogleMail and Google Apps), Google Calendar, and RSS feeds. Version 4.0 is now out, and Scott's app is better than ever. As you can see in the screenshot, Aero transparency is now supported. You can also now change the location where your alerts appear and choose ...

If you don't need notifications for every Google services under the sun (as provided by One Number) and you're just looking for a solid GMail notifier for Google Chrome, have a look at the Google Mail Checker Plus extension. I haven't encountered many Chrome extensions which utilize the desktop notification functionality, but what better place to put it to good use than a mail checker? Install ...

Just when you think the Facebook privacy debate has reached its peak, the popular social network drops another privacy-related bomb. This time, Facebook has said it will allow apps to demand users' email addresses. Currently, apps communicate with you via the red-flag "updates" tab in the bottom-right corner of the site. On the plus side, Facebook is taking that annoyance away. On the "oh my ...

I love Growl, the highly-customizable systemwide notification app for OS X. In fact, I love it so much that I rounded up the 10 coolest Growl styles on Download Squad a while back. Well, my post might be totally invalid now, because there's a new Growl style in town, and it's the best I've seen yet. Meet Mono. Mono is a slick, dark style featuring subtle animation, and it was created by ...

Mac users love Growl, a global alert system that displays notifications from your favorite apps for various events (like a new email message or a completed download). Now Windows users can get in on the fun, with Snarl. While Snarl isn't a straight-up Growl clone, it provides a lot of the same features, like customizable notification styles. Snarl isn't completely new, but the last time Download ...

Finding a particular item you want on Craigslist can be a matter of actively checking back every day to see if somebody has listed one in your area, but for the lazy amongst us, there might be a better way. Check out Heycraig!, a site that watches Craigslist for you, and sends you an email alert when a new post matches your search terms. It's city-specific, and kind of tricky to fine-tune, but if ...

Download Squad has written before about the humorous-but-sometimes-useful site Down For Everyone or Just Me. It comes in handy if you need to figure out whether the problem is with a site, or if it's on your end. But if the site really is down, it's out of your control, and that's kind of frustrating. Instead of futilely hitting refresh, try Notify Me When It's Up. True to its name, it will send ...

A lot of OS X users are familiar with Growl, a customizable notification system with all kinds of uses. New e-mail, iTunes track changes, new instant messages -- Growl handles all of this stuff. Now there's a Growl-like jQuery plugin called jGrowl that lets you apply the same sort of notification in your browser window. jGrowl supports different animation settings, as well as sticky messages that ...

If you're a devotee of Growl, the slick pop-up notification system for OS X, then you've probably got a wishlist of apps that need Growl support. Even some of the ubiquitous Apple apps like iCal and Address Book don't work well with Growl. No need to fret about that, though, just download OmniGrowl, and you can set Growl notifications for practically everything. When we say practically ...

You spend the day scouring the web for funny, interesting, and gross articles to send to your friends, family, and colleagues. But is it really worth it? Do they even click the links you email them? LinkBlip provides an easy way to find out. All you have to do is enter your email address and the URL you want people to click on. LinkBlip will spit out a TinyURL-style shortened link that you can ...

If you only read one website every day, it's probably not too difficult to keep on the conversation around various posts. Just leave a comment with your two cents and keep checking back to see if anyone's responded. Some sites will even let you subscribe to blog comments by e-mail. But if you read and comment on dozens or hundreds of blogs on a regular basis, this can get a bit tedious. A few ...

Google's Blogger platform makes blogging about as simple as it gets. You can start writing your blog a few seconds after signing up for an account and choosing a template. But Blogger has long been a few steps behind other popular blog clients like WordPress and TypePad when it comes to enabling new features. For example, Google has just added the ability to subscribe to post comments via email. ...

Gmail's built-in Chat feature, which lets you use Google Talk within your web browser, is pretty handy, but I often find that a message has been waiting me for a long time before I notice the tab blinking at me. Gmail Chat Alert is an extension for Firefox that fixes that by sounding an audio notification when you get an IM in Gmail. Simple and effective. ...