Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap [Winter Upgrades]

Build a Silent, Standalone XBMC Media Center On the Cheap [Winter Upgrades]

You won't find a better media center than the open-source XBMC, but most people don't have the space or desire to plug a noisy PC into their TV. Instead, I converted a cheap nettop into a standalone XBMC set-top box. Here's how.

In the spirit of our Winter Upgrades theme this week, this guide details how to turn a cheapo nettop (think netbook for the desktop) into a killer settop box running XBMC. It handles virtually any video file I throw at it with ease (including streaming Blu-Ray rips from my desktop), it looks tiny next to my Xbox 360, it's low energy, and it's whisper quiet.

Huge props to this guide on the XBMC forums, which served as the starting point for much of what I did below.

What You'll Need

• Acer AspireRevo: This $200 nettop ships with 1GB of RAM, an Intel Atom 230 processor, 160GB hard drive, Windows XP (which we won't use anyway), and an integrated graphics chip that handles HD video and can output it to HDMI. It also comes with a small wired keyboard and mouse, but once you're done here, you shouldn't need either of them. Oh, and it's tiny. (Other, more powerful nettops will work [like this one's beefier, $330 older sibling], but this is the cheapest one I could find with the NVIDIA ION graphics powerful enough to handle the HD playback.)
• XBMC Live: This is a Live CD version of XBMC that boots directly into XBMC and has a tiny footprint. Basically all you're running is XBMC, so your media center stays light and snappy. You can find the download specifically set up for these NVIDIA ION machines on this page, you can grab the direct download here, or download via BitTorrent here.
• A thumb drive: It doesn't have to be huge, but it'll need to be at least 1500MB of capacity, according to the installer. You should also format it to FAT32.
• An IR receiver/Windows Media Center remote: This isn't strictly necessary, but if you want to control your shiny new XBMC via remote control, you'll need some sort of supported remote with a USB receiver. I bought this $20 remote because it was the cheapest I could find. (Incidentally, it also works like a charm with XBMC as soon as you plug it in.)

Getting XBMC Live up and running on your nettop is a breeze if you follow a few simple steps, so let's get started.

Install XBMC Live on Your Thumb Drive

XBMC Live allows you to try XBMC on any computer from a bootable CD or thumb drive, then optionally install the lightweight, XBMC-focused Linux distro directly to your device if you like. Since our nettop doesn't have a DVD drive, we'll need to first install XBMC to our thumb drive.

(There are ways around this. If you had a USB optical drive, you could probably burn XBMC Live to a disc and go from there. The thumb drive method isn't much more difficult, though.)

Here's how it works:

1. Download the XBMC Live installer with the updated NVIDIA drivers included on this page (direct link, torrent link). Update: My file host crapped out on this. If anyone wants to help host this zip, send an email to adam at lifehacker.com. It's a 341MB file, so it may take a while.

2. Burn XBMC Live to a CD
Once the download completes, unzip the xbmc.zip file. What you're left with is an xbmc.iso file—the disc image of the XBMC Live installer. Now you need to burn this ISO to a CD. Install our favorite tool for the job, ImgBurn, then right-click the xbmc.iso file and select Burn using ImgBurn. (If you're running Windows 7, you can use its built-in ISO burner, too, by selecting Burn disc image.)

3. Install XBMC Live to Your Thumb Drive
Now that you've burned XBMC to a CD, you're ready to install it to your thumb drive. To do so, plug in your thumb drive, put the XBMC Live CD in your DVD drive, and reboot your computer. If it's not already your default setting, go into your system BIOS (for most computers hitting Delete at the first boot screen will launch your BIOS) and set your optical drive as the primary boot device.

(All this means is that when your computer boots, it'll first check to see if there's any bootable media in your optical drive. If not, it'll continue booting to your secondary device—generally your hard drive. If your optical drive does contain bootable media—like your XBMC Live CD, for example—it'll boot it up.)

When XBMC Live loads, select 'Install XBMCLive to disk (USB or HDD)', then accept the first prompt (by pressing any key). Next you'll end up at the 'Choose disk to use' prompt, where you'll tell the installer that you want to install to your USB stick. Be careful here not to choose your hard drive, because it would be happy to overwrite your operating system if you told it to. Remember, your thumb drive is the Removable disk. After you pick the disk you want to use, confirm that you want to proceed and let the installer do its magic. (It'll only take a few minutes.)

Eventually the installer will ask you if you want to create a permanent system storage file, which presumably you'd want if you're not sure whether or not you want to install XBMC Live to your Acer's hard drive. I went ahead and created the system storage (even though we'll install XBMC Live directly to the hard drive in the next step.) Once the installation finishes, you're ready to proceed to the next step.

Set Your System BIOS

You'll need to make a couple of tweaks to your system BIOS to get it working smoothly with XBMC Live. So plug in your thumb drive, boot up your Acer AspireRevo, and hit Delete at the first boot screen to edit your BIOS. Look for the 'Boot to RevoBoot' entry in the Advanced BIOS features menu and disable it. While you're there, set your XBMC Live thumb drive as the primary boot device. (You can set the primary boot device back to your hard drive later, after you've installed XBMC Live to your drive.)

Then go to the Advanced Chipset Features menu and set the iGPU Frame Buffer Detect to Manual and set the iGPU Frame Buffer Size to 256MB. (This is detailed here; the actual guide says 512, but that requires that you install more RAM—something I may do in the future, and will detail with a guide if I do. The 512 buffer size will help you stream the larger HD videos without hiccups.)

Now that your BIOS are set, you're ready to try out XBMC Live on your Acer AspireRevo.

Boot Up/Install XBMC Live to Your Hard Drive

At this point, you've got two choices. You can either restart your Acer AspireRevo and boot into XBMC Live to play around a little before you install it to your disk. If you're sure you're ready to install it for reals, just go ahead and run through the exact same installation as you did above, only this time install it to your nettop's hard drive. When you install to the hard drive, you'll also set a system password. This'll come in handy later.

The Final Tweaks

Okay, so far so good. XBMC should boot up directly from your hard drive now, and if you've plugged in your Windows Media Center remote, it should also be working without a hitch. You've just got to make a couple of adjustments to make it shine.

Now, what makes your little nettop work so well is that its onboard graphics processor can handle all the HD business without eating up your regular processor power, so you'll want to enable this in the XBMC settings. So head to Settings > Video > Play, find the Set Render to section, and set it to VDPAU.

Now, depending on how you're planning on hooking up your XBMC Live box to your television, you've got a few more tweaks you'll want to make. Namely this:

If you want to use HDMI for your audio out, head to Settings > System > Audio hardware, then set the audio output to Digital. Set your Audio output device to hdmi, and set the Passthrough output device to hdmi. Last, enable Downmix multichannel audio to stereo.

If you are using HDMI as your audio out (I am, and it's pretty nice), you've got to make one final tweak if you want the audio output to work with menu sounds. (It'll work fine with video without making this tweak, but the click-click sounds that play when you move around the XBMC menu are nice to have.) If that applies to you, create a new text file on your regular old computer (name it asoundrc.txt) and paste the following code (again, this awesome tweak comes from this post):

 pcm.!default { type plug slave { pcm 'hdmi' } } 

In the next step, I'll show you how to copy that file over to your nettop (a little trick that'll also come in handy for manually installing plug-ins and copying files to your nettop).

SFTP to Your XBMC Box

If you want to transfer files to your XBMC Live box from another computer, you'll need to get yourself an FTP client (I like FileZilla) and log into your nettop with the password you set when you were installing XBMC Live. To do so, create a new connection in Filezilla that looks something like the screenshot below (the default user is xbmc).

Once you're connected, make sure you're in the /home/xbmc/ directory, then copy over the asoundrc.txt file we made above. (The one you want to use if you're running your audio through the HDMI output.) Once it's copied over, rename the file to .asoundrc, restart XBMC, and the click-click menu sounds should be working along with regular old A/V playback.

The same SFTPing method here will be useful if you ever want to manually install any plug-ins or skins down the road, or just copy over media directly to your nettop's hard drive. (Though we'd recommend streaming—see below.)

Other Options

As I said above, you can buy more expensive, meatier machines, but for my money this Acer nettop has worked perfectly. Apart from upgrading to better equipment, you can also add up to 2GB more RAM if you're up for the job (RAM's so cheap these days, anyway). Like I said, though, so far I haven't seen the need for it.

I also quickly switched the skin to the MediaStream skin, which is the one you see in the photo at the top of the page. For a look at some other great skins you may want to apply to your XBMC box, check out these five beautiful skins—or just head to XBMC's main skins page.

Now that you've got it all set up, you've probably also realized that 160GB isn't all that much space for your media. You'd be right, of course. You've got two pretty good options. First, the nettop should have something like four free USB ports still, so you can easily plug in a big old drive that way. Assuming, however, that you can run an Ethernet wire over to your nettop, your best option is just to connect it to a shared folder on your home network. XBMC works like a charm with Samba shares (Windows shared folders use this).

Whichever method you use, you just need to add your extra hard drive space as a source in XBMC. You can do so through any of the individual menu items (videos, for example), or you can add a default Samba username and password in the settings so it can connect automatically without asking for a password each time you add a new watch folder on that machine.

At this point I could go into more detail on how to use and get the most out of XBMC (it can be a little hard to get your head around at first, even though once you do, it's not actually confusing). We've covered souping up your XBMC—and building your classic Xbox XBMC machine—and both offer some help in those directions. But stick around; tomorrow we'll follow up with an updated guide to some of our favorite XBMC tweaks.

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This guide covers in pretty close detail one method for putting together a dedicated, quiet XBMC media center without breaking the bank, but it's certainly not your only option. If you've gone down this road before, offer your tips and suggestions in the comments. For my part: I'm completely in love with my new little media center.

Adam Pash is the editor of Lifehacker and loves a good computer-based DIY, especially when the results are as beautiful as XBMC. His special feature Hack Attack appears on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Hack Attack RSS feed to get new installments in your newsreader, or follow @adampash on Twitter.

White Background Colourful Kids – Ideas for High Key Studio Photography

White Background Colourful Kids – Ideas for High Key Studio Photography

The white-room studio look has become really popular lately, especially for children. I love it for so many reasons:

• Kids are unpredictable, especially when you don’t know them. Removing the element of not only trying to catch the right moment, but also crossing your fingers hoping that the ‘moment’ happens in the right position within the frame of ideal natural light (while chasing them around) gives me more energy to actually focus on the child.


• It is a more affordable option for clients who can’t afford to hire you for a location shoot. I spend about 30 mins with kids in my studio.


• The lighting set-up is easy and optimal for whatever the kids decide to throw at you (sometimes literally!)

There are, however, a few drawbacks

• If you’re not a pretty decent photographer, it can be hard to produce the type of images you see in your head and without the element of a location/surrounding (sunny day in the park?) the only emotion you will convey through this style of photography is that which comes directly from the kids and you have to be pretty darn good to get kids who don’t know you who feel a bit strange in a white room filled with big flashing lights to open up and show you emotion. And then when they do, you have to be ready to catch it in a split-second.


• The right equipment can be really expensive. There are some really cool and clever ways of doing high key studio without any lights at all, but they’re not at all ideal for children as they involve staying in the same place within the set-up and kids never want to sit in the same place.


• You need quite a large space for this type of set-up

So once you’ve got your set up and your subjects, then what? Last week, I wrote an article called Helping Your Client Prepare for Their Shoot – Dress to Match the Sofa. Step one to making it a colourful shoot is helping your clients prepare. Something I forgot to mention is that in terms of clothing, especially for boys, shirts with collars are great for the close-up.

With a stark, bright white background, how do you make the shoot colourful? Obviously the clothing is important. After that, you just have to have a few tricks up your sleeve to get the kids to loosen up and have fun.

Having an enthusiastic assistant is a must. Someone who can stand behind your and interact with the kids in a way that will engage them and make them laugh. Sometimes the parents can be helpful and sometimes they can make things more tense. When the family comes in, I can usually tell right away what type they are and sometimes I offer them a cup of tea and a comfy chair to relax during the shoot and sometimes, I even direct the parents as to what side from which they should be engaging the kids to get them to look in the right direction.

Things I do in a typical shoot:

• I get down on the floor, laying on my belly, and I encourage them to do the same. They put their face in their hands, lean up on their elbows, feet up, feet down, roll over.


• We then both sit up cross legged and I show them all the poses to do. The posed shots aren’t always the best, especially the first sets, but it gets them in the frame of mind to be thinking of cool things to do and from there, they usually direct their own shoot!


• My assistant once found a big bag of ball pit balls in a location I was hiring for the day and whispered in my ear ‘get ready’. He opened the bag and dumped the entire 100 balls onto the floor and the baby (about 18 months) went wild. The shoot when from tense to full of life immediately and turned out really well.


• Give them something to keep them still for just a moment – like an entire cake! I love love love the messy sessions! You get tons of smiles and the kids are engrossed in something for a while, although not sitting in a tense, forced pose.


• When you have siblings, getting them to interact well on camera can sometimes be tricky, but mostly if you just let them go for it (and have all ofyour lights insured against getting knocked over by wrestling boys!) then those can be so much better than when kids are on their own.


• When kids are reluctant, I sometimes start by photographing their parent(s) just so they can see it’s all ok. I also let them push the button to trigger the lights or push the shutter to take a photo. The strobes can be scary when you’re little so knowing how they work helps when kids are apprehensive.


• I always have a ladder handy to get some down shots to convey a sense of smallness (hey, kids are little!) or get them from another angle. Getting them to jump up towards you with their hands raised while up on the ladder is wicked cool, especially with a fish eye lens and a kooky angle.


• Running. Seems easy but not really so easy! Get the child to stand at the back of the room or background and run towards you. The strobes need a second to recycle, so you can’t shoot 10 frames as they’re running. I wait until the split second they’re in the right spot running straight at me and fire the trigger. We can do that up to 10 times and the kids absolutely LOVE it. It’s a great thing to start with because they loosen up.


• Screaming. I mentioned this once in an article about tips for photographing children. But a kid will be your best friend the moment you allow them to scream their ever-lovin-head off indoors! This would be great from up on the ladder as I mentioned earlier. Tell them certain things to scream “I love poo!” You might get tense looks from the parents, but they will love the photos in the end and that’s really all that matters!

Before starting my studio, I was really nervous about the part where I had to interact with the kids and help them along in their shoot with poses or just fun ideas in general but it came so naturally and after the first couple shots, the kids often take over and come up with tons of shots. And if you’re confident, the parents will be confident so don’t let on if you’re secretly crapping it!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

White Background Colourful Kids – Ideas for High Key Studio Photography

5 Tips for Photographing Children

5 Tips for Photographing Children

Photographing Children can be a lot of fun – but also presents photographer with a variety of challenges. In this guest post the team at Aliph Aur Meem share 5 tips for photographing children to get you started.

1. LET THE KIDS HAVE FUN

Children are most expressive when they are being themselves. Give them a little too much direction and you could end up diluting the whole experience for both of you. This is really one of those times when you need to bring your photojournalism chops to the forefront, and genuinely be a bystander observing the kids being kids. If you want to change up the shot or try something else, instead of telling them what to do, have a conversation and lead them to where you want them to go. For example: “Is that your swing set? Do you have any cool tricks you could show me?”, or, “Look at all these leaves. Don’t you think it would be so much fun to just throw ‘em up in the air and let it rain leaves?”.

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2. FAMILIAR ENVIRONMENT

Pick a location that is familiar to the kids. It could be their backyard, a nearby park, or any place that is familiar to them. Not only will the kids be more relaxed and natural in a familiar setting, but they will also most likely have a few favourite things about the place they could show you.

3. PLAY THE EXPRESSIONS GAME

One of the things you could try with the kids is an expression game. If they are old enough to understand, tell them that you have a game for them, where you will say out loud an expression or a word, and they have to try and do their best impression of that word. Use words like “Happy, Shocked, Surprised, Sad, Smelly” etc. If the kids aren’t getting a hang of it, ask them questions that will bring out different expressions on their faces. For example, “What if your favourite thing to eat?”, “What is your least favorite thing to eat?”, etc. This generally works better for kids

4. PARENTS OR NO PARENTS

Some kids feel shy with other people watching them including their parents. Other kids love having an audience. Find out what kind of child you are dealing with and adjust accordingly. We got these cute pictures of this brother and sister duo when mommy was watching. But as soon as mommy went inside for a moment, the kids just totally opened up and started breaking out their own poses!

5. KEEP IT RELAXED

Family and especially children portraits are nothing like other high stress photographic assignments like wedding or fashion shoots. Keep it easy, relaxed and conversational. Sell your personality before anything else and the bonds you make will last as long as the pictures.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

5 Tips for Photographing Children

Griffin Technology wants you to Simplifi your life

Griffin Technology wants you to Simplifi your life:

I believe that it was Henry David Thoreau who wrote in Walden: “Out life is frittered away by detail…Simplify, simplify, simplify!” Of course, if he really wanted to take his own advice, he would have written “simplify” only once.

One of the things in life that really need to be simplified is our desktops. Many of us have all sorts of accessories to our PC like memory card readers and iPods, and the Simplifi is designed to take up a lot less real estate on the desk.

The Simplifi is clad in anodized aluminum, and attaches to the computer via USB. Fortunately, no software is required, and my computer recognized it right away.

From there, it can be used to read and write media cards like the SD, XD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, and the Memory Stick Pro. It also has two USB ports in back for any USB device that you wish to use as well.

It can also be used as an iPod or iPhone dock, and it has six dock inserts for this. It also comes with an AC cord, but I was able to get the Simplifi to read and write memory cards with the USB alone.

The Simplifi can be purchased on the Griffin Technology website for a price of $69.99.

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Tech Cult – We cover the latest tech news, but always with a funny twist.
[ Griffin Technology wants you to Simplifi your life copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

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LDD 3.0 is out

LDD 3.0 is out
The LEGO Group™ has released the new major version 3.0 of the LEGO Digital Designer®, the official software to create LEGO® models virtually on the computer.

The new version includes

• an online panel
• an improved user interface
• a new building guide
• grouping of elements
  
• an improved hinge tool and a hinge align tool
  
• a hide tool
• improved performance
• a buyability tool

Try it out (you can download it from here for free), inspect the Get Started guide and tell us about your experiences.

Windows 7 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard at no additional cost

Windows 7 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard at no additional cost

Filed under: Hardware, Software, Open Source

Anil Dash has described how to run Windows 7 on a Mac running OS 10.6 -- as a virtual machine -- for free (after you buy Windows 7, of course). It's not very tricky and, according to Anil, works well. Start by installing Windows 7 in Boot Camp and wait while it grabs the necessary drivers (the duration of this process will vary).



Next, eject the Boot Camp disk and enter a few simple Terminal commands. You'll also need VirtualBox, which is free and open source virtualization software. Once you're done in Terminal, launch VirtualBox and browse to the file you made with Terminal. Read Anil's article for the details.



As today is Windows 7 launch day, we're interested in hearing from anyone who has installed it on their Mac, either via Boot Camp or virtualization.



For more, read Christina's post on installing Windows 7 on a Mac (at Download Squad), or Steve's take here. You can get your absolute fill of Win7 coverage all day today at DLS.

TUAWWindows 7 on Mac OS X Snow Leopard at no additional cost originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

uTorrent Portable Puts BitTorrent on a USB Drive [Downloads]

uTorrent Portable Puts BitTorrent on a USB Drive [Downloads]: "

Windows (Portable): You've always been able to grab uTorrent's program folder and drop it onto a thumb drive for portable BitTorrent handling. Now the PortableApps.com suite has packaged our favorite torrent client and integrated it with their application menu.

If you wanted to try out uTorrent with no commitment, this portable download would be a handy download for any Windows system. More likely, however, is that you'll grab uTorrent Portable for stand-alone installation on your USB drive, or integrate it into your existing PortableApps.com USB installation. All the same features that you've come to love about uTorrent, like remote web control and organized downloads, are present in the portable version. In short, you'll never be stuck at mom's house without a means to access crucial content again.

uTorrent portable is a free download, runs from anywhere on Windows systems.

µTorrent Portable [PortableApps.com via Download Squad]

Make an Installation DVD from Windows 7 Student Upgrade [Backup Utilities]

Make an Installation DVD from Windows 7 Student Upgrade [Backup Utilities]: "

If you grabbed a Windows 7 upgrade for $30 with a college email address, you might have discovered a file download instead of a DVD. The Download Squad blog details the transformation of that download into a bootable upgrade disc.

Not that your upgrade files wouldn't work, per se, but making an upgrade based on a batch of files you download doesn't leave you with much of a safety net if things go wrong. Download Squad's method involves one command-line trick, one program download, and one file copy. It's not too hard, especially for the price of having a fallback if you need to wipe your system or otherwise re-install it at some point.

How to make a DVD of that student-only Windows 7 you bought for $29.99 [Download Squad]

Top 10 Windows 7 Booster Apps [Lifehacker Top 10]

Top 10 Windows 7 Booster Apps [Lifehacker Top 10]: "

Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista, and a pretty convenient OS in general—but it's by no means perfect. These 10 downloads improve Windows 7's looks, functions, and make it easier, safer, and more convenient to upgrade to.

10. Bring back the 'classic' Start menu

Windows 7's Start menu is a powerful thing, offering program and file launching as you type and allowing for smart pinning of whatever you frequently access. If you're really attached to the Windows 2000/XP-style Start system, though, CSMenu restores a 'classic' look to Windows 7 by installing a companion Start menu on your taskbar. Want to eliminate that new-fangled Start menu and use only your classic model? Grab StartKiller and wipe away all signs of progress—er, change. We meant change. (Original post)

9. Logon changer customizes password screens

You can customize a lot of your system's look in Windows 7, but the login/password screen remains fairly opaque and unchangeable. Tweaks.com offers a Logon Changer for Windows 7 that simply takes a JPG file (256K or less, so be sure to re-size and compress) and applies it to your logon background. If you don't mind doing a little registry hacking, there's a manual work-around for logon changing, but the Logon Changer is worth the install/uninstall if you know what you want to keep as your logon screen. (Original post)

8. Create recovery discs for pre-installed Windows 7

If you moved up to Windows 7 by way of a new computer purchase, you may have found that getting a full Windows 7 disc, or even a system recovery disc, was an 'option' that cost a good bit of extra cash. If you'd like to ensure you can save your system from common boot-up and system errors in the future, NeoSmart offers its own Windows 7 System Recovery Discs that can repair damaged files, restore System Restore points, and even pull in full backups for restoration. If you upgraded to 7 from a student discount package that only delivered a single .exe file, Download Squad explains how to make a DVD upgrade disc from student discount files. (Original post)

7. Pull up incoming Gmail from the taskbar

If Gmail is your primary inbox, Gmail Notifier Plus not only subtly informs of you of new mail by changing its taskbar icon, but provides a subject line preview of new messages when you hover over its icon. You also get shortcuts to compose a new message, pop open your inbox in your browser, or head to any of your messages individually. Neat stuff, especially if you'd rather have a more firm control over when your inbox can have your attention—just close down Gmail Notifier Plus when it's time to get cranking. (Original post)

6. Winfox makes Firefox work with Jump Lists

Support for Windows 7's helpful jump lists won't show up in Firefox until version 3.7. In the meantime, those who want to access their current tabs and most frequently visited sites can do so with Winfox, a helpful little add-on that you pin to your taskbar to access Firefox from. Copy Winfox to your Firefox program directory, install it, and pin the 'Winfox' application to your taskbar. Now you can pin favorite pages to your jump list by dragging their tabs down, see the favicons of the sites you've got open, and get a read on how many tabs you're running in the Firefox icon. (Original post)

5. Hulu Desktop Integration adds streaming TV to Windows Media Center

Windows 7's Media Center was impressive enough for Adam to bust out his Buster Poindexter headline, and the only thing you might say it's missing is better access to streaming television. Since Media Center just added CBS streaming, the one big hold-out is Hulu—which would deliver streaming shows from the likes of Fox, ABC, and NBC. Hulu Desktop Integration brings Hulu to Media Center with a clever little app. Launch the Hulu app from Media Center, and Media Center shuts down, opens the full-screen Hulu Desktop app, and then switches back to Media Center when you're done in Hulu. That's a nice thing, since because it uses the official channel to get at Hulu, the chances of it being locked out by Hulu are slim. (Original post)

4. Add stacks to your desktop

Windows 7's taskbar is getting a lot of notice, and some say it's more useful than Mac OS X's Dock—except it's missing the very neat "Stacks" feature. Missing, that is, until you grab StandaloneStack or 7stacks, which both do a great job of creating blow-up menus of folders and apps from single icons on your taskbar. Add a storage folder or custom collection of shortcuts to your taskbar, and you'll never have to hunt down that 'Computer' link in the Start menu again just to get to the right file. (Original posts: StandaloneStack, 7Stacks)

3. Tweak hard-to-find settings

It's always a good idea to see what kind of settings you can change from your new OS' Control Panel, but Microsoft only lets you play with so many check boxes and sliders. Apps like Ultimate Windows Tweaker, along with XdN Tweaker, have been digging deep into the guts of Windows since Vista first arrived (and sometimes before XP showed up), and they let you seriously fine-tune your system. Want only certain Aero 3D effects on your desktop? Need to change Windows 7's window-snapping behavior? These apps have you covered. The hardest part is knowing when to say when on a settings-changing binge. (Original post)

2. Make Alt+Tab switching more intuitive

The familiar Alt+Tab keyboard shortcut gained a little visual overhaul in Windows 7, but it still offers just basic window switching. VistaSwitcher, a more powerful app and window switcher, improves on it in just the right ways. Besides an intriguingly different look, the app supports keyboard shortcuts that let you minimize or tile windows from your Alt+Tab screen, close down programs or file windows in bulk, and, with a Ctrl+Alt+Tab press, switch only between the open windows of the particular program you're using, like a browser or image editor. Despite the name, VistaSwitcher works perfectly well on Windows 7. (Original post)

1. Install all your necessary apps at once

The first few times you re-installed an operating system, it probably felt like an adventure, something fun, a test of your tech prowess. At this point, though, you might just want to skip the part where you spend an hour grabbing Firefox, Picasa, an anti-virus app, WinAmp, uTorrent, and other must-have apps from the net. Ninite is your ticket out of redundant installations. Head to the web site, check off the apps you need from a huge range of good, free software, and download the resulting customized installer app. Double-click, hit start, and do something constructive while Ninite installs everything you asked for in the background, with very few, if any, questions or prompts. (Original post)

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What app or utility has made Windows 7 feel a bit more like a desktop home on your system? Which apps from previous versions of Windows do you miss most? Share the wealth, and the links, in the comments.

Five Best Portable Apps Suites [Hive Five]

Five Best Portable Apps Suites [Hive Five]: "

Once upon a time, easy remote computing was a pipe dream, now people routinely carry gigs of data around on flash drives smaller than a modest pack of chewing gum. Manage your apps and data with these portable application suites.

Photo by basheertome.

Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite portable application suite with us. We've tallied the votes and now we're back with the top five nominations for your review. A note on the reviews: portable applications suites usually contain dozens and dozens of individual applications. We'll be unable to list every single one here and we urge you to visit the site of the suite to check out the full application list.

LiberKey (Windows, Free)

LiberKey doesn't have the polished menu found in the PortableApps suite, but its menu is functional and conveniently arranged by program type. LiberKey opts to put things in categories labeled according to what they do, so even if you've never seen an application that is included in the LiberKey suite you'll have a pretty good idea that it's a Color Picker or Security Tool based on the folder you find it in. It's a useful feature given that the Ultimate installation installs around 250 applications—you're bound to see quite a few you've never used before.

PortableApps Suite (Windows, Free)

PortableApps is the Grand Daddy of portable application sites. Between John Haller—the founder of the site—and the dozens of developers, packagers, translators, and the hundreds of people that participate in the forums, the sheer number of people working to polish the PortableApps suite has resulted in a very comprehensive package. The PortableApps suite includes basics like Firefox for browsing and Pidgin for instant messaging but also includes—in the full package—Open Office. You could download all the individual portable components separately of course, but what really ties everything together is the PortableApps menu system. Seen in the screenshot above, the menu system is clean, includes a backup utility, and makes organizing your portable apps and documents simple.

Portable Linux (Free)

Many of you took the stance that running portable apps in Windows was great but way too restrictive. Booting a computer into a distinct operating system gives power users the ability to run the machine as their own without any risk to the native operating system on the machine. You can find dozens and dozens of Linux distributions which can be modified or tweaked to run off a portable drive. If you're just getting started with using a LiveUSB version of Linux, however, we'd suggest taking a peak at one of our past features on portable Linux use: Battle of the Thumb Drive Linux Systems—one of the contestants, Puppy Linux, is pictured in the screenshot above. If you want to get a sense the number of Live Linux versions out there, check out The LiveCD List here.

Geek.Menu (Windows, Free)

Geek.Menu is a branch in the PortableApps development tree. Geek.Menu uses the same convenient installation files from PortableApps.com that the original PortableApps suite uses. The layout is similar but Geek.Menu has several key enhancements—you can check them out here—like support for TrueCrypt, creation of categories within the menu structure, and automatic application execution on menu startup. You'll note—from the screenshot above—that Geek.Menu doesn't come preloaded with software. To get Geek.Menu off to a quick start you can download the PortableApps suite and swap out the menu systems.

Lupo PenSuite (Windows, Free)

Lupo PenSuite mashes up a familiar looking menu with a huge offering of applications. Taking a note from the LiberKey school of portable suite production, Lupo PenSuite throws everything at you but the kitchen sink. Need to tinker in the Windows Registry? Lupo PenSuite has 8 applications just for registry editing. You can check out the full app log at this link. If you're looking for a suite that sports everything from a web browser to a DVD burner and everything in between including security tools and torrent clients, Lupo PenSuite has quite a list of offerings.

Before Upgrading to Windows 7, Grab This!

Before Upgrading to Windows 7, Grab This!: "Save time. Grab the must have Ninite!"

Review of the Powermat Wireless Charging System

Review of the Powermat Wireless Charging System

Earlier this week I went along to the UK press launch of the Powermat wireless charging system. Now I saw this at CES in Las Vegas back in January of this year, but now it is finally coming out.

Using wireless energy transfer, Powermat pairs an ultra-thin mat with a receiver that connects to your device. All you then have to do is place your device on the Powermat and it will begin charging. You can charge up to three devices at the same time on the Powermat and the same amount of power is used for three devices as is for one device. And even better is that the devices are charged at the same speed they would have been with their own charges, and in fact sometimes even faster! So for those of us with multiple devices that always seem to be needing a charge both quickly and at the same time this is a great feature.

As you can see from the third picture above, the iPhone receiver when attached to the iPhone really doesn’t make it much bigger, and it also acts as a protective case, and it only adds a little bit of extra weight. Although you don’t have to leave it on the iPhone all the time if you don’t want to!

You can add a fourth device for charging via a USB cable as well.

There are two different versions of the Powermat – the Powermat Home and Office and the Powermat Portable. The Powermat Portable folds up to be less than 10cm by 10cm by 3.5cm making it very small and easy to carry around with you – and it even comes with a cool carry case that is magnetically sealed! The case also contains three different plug ends for the power cable which means you can use it in other countries without the need of buying another adaptor – so well done Powermat!

As I mentioned earlier, you use a receiver for the device you want to charge. Currently there are receivers for the iPhone, iPods, Blackberry and Nintendo DS Lite and DSi devices. There is also something called the Powermat Powercube which comes with 8 different tips including mini USB connectors that connect to devices such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson mobile phones and even the PSP!

So How Does it Work?

For those of you who might want to know exactly how the Powermat works carry on reading.

Inductive coupling transfers energy via a magnetic field from a charging circuit inside the mat to another charge circuit in the receiver which is embedded in, or attached to, the device. The uniqueness of the Powermat technology lies in its intelligent power management features.

When the mat and the device are in immediate proximity, an RFID “handshake process” evokes to identify:

1. if there is a valid connection between the mat and the device


2. the amount of power required, and its existing level of stored batter power


3. which component in the mat should be activated to transfer the required power.

Then and only then does the transfer of electricity begin.

The connection is monitored at all times and the power transmission will cease once the connection is broken.

Final Thoughts

I love the Powermat, it works very well, is small and is very easy to use.

I like the reassuring sound you get when you place a device on the mat, plus that slight pull as the magnets kick in!

A nice feature of the mat is the charging lights. When you place a device on the mat, a light comes on to show it is connected and charging, when the charging is complete the light goes off. Nothing revolutionary here but its a nice feature that shows you quickly and easily the charging status of any of the devices on the mat.

Price wise the charging receivers are on par with that of a charger for the device in question.

If you travel a lot, and carry a few devices around with you then this is certainly a must for you. Mine is going to go with me from now on.

Pricing an Availability

Here in the UK the range of Powermat products will be launched next week on the 30th October and will be available from The Carphone Warehouse, Amazon and John Lewis, with more retailers expected later on.

Pricing is as follows:

Home and Office Powermat	£69.99
Portable Powermat	£79.99
Powercube including 8 tips (micro USB, Nokia 2mm, SE, Samsung, LG, Nintendo DS Lite, Nintendo DSi, Sony PSP)	£29.99
Apple iPhone	£34.99
Apple iPod Touch	£34.99
Apple Dock	£34.99
Blackberry Bold	£29.99
Blackberry Curve 8900, 8300, 8310, 8320, 8330, 8350i	£29.99
Blackberry Pearl 8110, 8120, 8130	£29.99
Nintendo DS and DSi	£29.99

You can also buy this in the US – both the Home and Office Powermat and the Portable Powermat retail for $99.99 from Amazon.