Google takes aim at Microsoft Office with a new Google Apps at Work campaign, their CEO resigns from Apple's board, and Pizza Hut has a delicious little iPhone app.
Twitter Now Filtering Malicious URLs Short URLs are a potential disaster for phishing from sites like Twitter, and now Twitter's looking to do something about it. [F-Secure]
Oy Tenenbaum! RIAA wins $675,000, or $22,500 per song RIAA wins yet another absurd settlement, charging a PhD student over $22-grand in damages for each of the 30 songs he'd downloaded via Kazaa. Somehow those damanges seem a bit unrealistic. [Ars Technica]
If you're a master in the kitchen, you may not blink an eye when it's time to figure out how many tablespoons are in two-thirds cup. For the rest of us, there's this handy measurement conversion apron.
(Click the images for a closer look.)
Once you've got the ball rolling in the kitchen, nothing puts a damper on your head of steam like an unwieldy, unfamiliar unit conversion. Sure you could use Google's conversion calculator, but your hands are covered with flour and your keyboard's already dirty enough as is. That's why we love the idea behind this clever apron. In addition to sporting a simple conversion table between cups, ounces, tablespoons, and teaspoons, the apron also offers common substitutions for various baking pans.
As you can see in the picture, the conversion table is upside-down, making it easy to read for the wearer. The apron will set you back $19 on Etsy, but if you're not keen on the price, you could surely steal the idea for your own DIY version. Thanks Gil!
Vacations can get pricey, especially where purchasing airline tickets is concerned. Luckily JetBlue is offering some cost savings in the form of one-way Monday flight deals for as little as nine bucks.
The promotion is part of JetBlue's Twitter deals, where you can score a one-way ticket for less than ten singles. A sampling of today's JetBlue $9 fares includes a one-way ticket from Syracuse (SYR) to New York (JFK) or one from Long Beach (LGB) to San Francisco (SFO), as well as a $9 flight from Burbank (BUR) to Las Vegas (LAS). Here are the restrictions:
Cheeps fares are only available for purchase on Mondays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. EDT or while seats last.
All Cheeps fares are one way for travel on Saturday, August 8, 2009.
Seats are limited. Each flight only has 10 to 50 seats available at the amazing fare advertised here, so hurry and book if you want one!
United Airlines also offers its own Twitter deals. If you know of other airlines that do, share them in the comments.
Time is a finite commodity, which makes knowing how to allocate it well all the more important. The New York Times looked into the daily habits of thousands of Americans and rounded up the results in a beautiful chart in ten-minute increments.
(Click the image above for a closer look, or just hit the link below for the interactive NYT graph.)
Not surprisingly, sleeping, eating, working, and watching television take up two-thirds of our average day. According to other statistics culled by The Times, at 6 p.m. most Americans are looking to finish up work, while at 8:50 p.m., four percent of Americans are traveling. And by 12:40 a.m., 87 percent of all Americans are in bed. As for time spent on personal care (which includes showering and grooming)? Americans spent an average of 47 seconds per day making themselves look and feel good.
All of this leads us to ask: How do these findings reflect your own habits? Do they mirror how you spend your time? If not, tell us what activities do take up most of your hours and how, if at all, that's changed over the years?
This is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more www.natgeotv.com/draintheocean
Web site MagMe displays full scans of popular magazines directly in your browser—covering the gamut from computer and lifestyle mags to art, fashion, and photography.
The offerings vary greatly, ranging from popular magazines to lesser known publications. MagMe is in essence very similar to previously mentioned Mygazines, which actually had been shut down and recently came back to life, though in what appears to be a neutered form. MagMe currently seems a little better than Mygazines, though neither seem as good as Mygazines when we first looked at it. If you're a magazine fan, let's hear what option you prefer (even if it's just "the real thing") in the comments.
If you're heading off to a foreign country and want to quickly familiarize yourself with its language, try changing the default language on your favorite gadgets to help jump-start your education.
Tech weblog Geek Sugar reminds us that you can tweak the settings for everything from your smartphone and television to your favorite gaming system—and that this can be used as a way to pick up some words in a language other than your native tongue. If you use a social networking site like Facebook, try tweaking those language settings as well.
This is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more www.natgeotv.com/draintheocean
Windows: When you're away from an outlet and flying on battery power alone, keeping an eye on how much juice your laptop has is critical. BattCursor makes it easy to track how much power you have left.
BattCursor has multiple ways of helping you keep track of your battery life. The method for which it was named is, as seen here, turning the cursor into a floating battery meter. As you run low the cursor gives both the percentage and a visual indicator.
If you're using the Aero Glass style you can also set BattCursor to tint the title bars of windows. When your battery is full or nearly full the title bars are their regular blue color. As you run out of batteries they begin to shift through a spectrum of warning colors until the title bars are red. You can also set BattCursor to disable Aero Glass once your battery is running low to squeeze a little more life out of the battery by not using a resource-heavy style.
If you have a favorite program for keeping an eye on laptop battery life—or even milking your battery for more time—let's hear about it in the comments. BattCursor is freeware and requires Windows Vista or higher.
If you're eager to get your grubby little hands on Snow Leopard, the update to OS X coming this September for $29, it's time you head over to Amazon, where you can pre-order the update as of today.
As the Amazon page points out, this upgrade is only for Leopard users—i.e. people who are already running OS X 10.5. Otherwise you'll need to hit up the Mac Box Set, which has a decidedly larger price tag of $169. Thinking of pre-ordering? Excited for what's to come in Snow Leopard? Let's hear it in the comments.
If you've ever had the inclination to look up information using the shell prompt, the Command-Line Fu site explains how to query Wikipedia using the built-in dig utility.
The idea is simple—you can use the dig command to look up DNS records, including text records attached to a DNS entry, and somebody created an interface that pulls back the Wikipedia summary for an article by querying the records from the command line.
To do this for yourself, use the following syntax from your shell prompt, replacing the keyword with the single word you are trying to look up. Because this uses the command-line dig tool, this should work natively on Linux, but Windows users need to have Cygwin installed.
dig +short txt <keyword>.wp.dg.cx
Hit the link for the full explanation, including how to wrap it into a shell script for easy querying from the shell prompt.
This is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more www.natgeotv.com/draintheocean
Anyone who has logged even a single long-distance flight knows how hard getting some good sleep on a plane can be. Use this cheap and ingenious hack to get the rest you need.
Star Simpson was tired of never getting a good nap while stuck on cramped plane. She wanted a pillow that packed light, kept her from getting pain from bent joins and a cricked neck, and could be stashed easily in a carry on. The solution turned out to not only meet those criteria but be incredibly cheap too.
All you'll need to construct the incredible comfortable set of pillows shown here is a pair of kid's water wings—also known as swim floaties in some areas—some fabric, and a way to sew. Star used an old t-shirt which sounds like a perfect source of fabric since most t-shirt material is soft, slightly stretchy, and breathes well. She tested it on her last flight:
I am massively pleased with the results. It's amazing how much more wonderful life when you wake up feeling actually rested! Also, they're super-light and they pack up tiny.
One unexpected added benefit was discovering that these keep my hands were really warm - much nicer than finding various limbs asleep, or joints crimped into awkwardness and discomfort - which is how I think of all prior airplane and travel sleep.
Check out the rest of the article at the link below for additional pictures how using water wings to turn your hands into comfy mini-pillows allows for some versatile positioning during your next in-flight snooze. If you have your own crafty way of getting comfortable in the cramped confines airline, bus, or car travel, let's hear about it in the comments.
We sort our dishes more quickly, try out a new word to save time, and get a great example of how not to organize our cables.
Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page.
Make Plans for Oxt Weekend With Fewer Words
"Hey! Are you doing anything the weekend after this coming weekend?" is a bit of a mouthful, but sometimes it's the easiest way to avoid confusion over what you mean by "next weekend." Fortunately Ivan has a solution:
The Internet has found a way for you to simply say "the weekend after this coming weekend."
My roommate taught me this trick. She sorts the silverware when she puts it the dishwasher in making it much easier to put away afterwards. You'd be amazed how much of a difference this make. Seems like one of those little trick Lifehacker loves, hope you can use it!
It's exactly the sort of simple but effective trick we love (send yours to tips at lifehacker.com).
Save Space in the Cooler With Multi-Use Water Bottles
Gaspare tells us how he gets ready for beach trips:
Here is a tip on packing a smaller cooler: I like to freeze a few bottles of water the night before I go to the beach. I then use them as ice and of course drinking. This multi-use will save space in a smaller cooler due to the fact that you don't need space for ice cubes or ice packs. I normally set the frozen water bottles along the walls of the cooler and then use the empty middle space for other items (beer, fruit, etc.). I find that by the time we're ready to leave I have an empty cooler so it works perfectly. A second plus is that when I take a water out to drink it it stays nice and cold, and who doesn't like ice water on a sunny beach day?
How NOT to Manage Your Cables
Sometimes it's not the list of things to do that saves time; occasionally a cautionary tale helps, too. Glaeven has a "how not to" for us:
This was a little gem my brother thought of: put all of our wires into one tin so we know where they are. Problem is we have a lot of wires. Now there is just this tin and we can't really do anything with it.
Tiffany made us laugh with her tip for sticky hands:
Recently my son discovered how fun super glue can be. I've dealt with him sticking coins to tables and gluing books together, but I was terrified when he got his hands stuck together.
My mom came to the rescue: a cotton swap dipped in nail polish remover will gradually and painlessly unstick his troublemaking hands.
Get Full Magazine Scans Online for Free
Andy wrote in with some good news for magazine lovers:
If you remember waaaaay back when, you posted about Mygzines, the website that offered full magazine scans online for free. Unfortunately, due to either legal issues or having a smaller user base than expected (I don't remember which), they were forced to shut down.
Windows only: System utility Deskcretary cleans up your desktop folder with scheduled or manual scans, archiving and compressing files into a separate folder automatically.
Once you've installed the software package, it will place a new icon in the system tray where you can access all of the configuration options. You can choose whether to compress archives or simply move them, keep an extra copy of duplicates when archiving, and whether to run the cleanup daily, weekly or monthly. Once you've run through the cleanup, you can browse through your archived copies using the built-in explorer tool.
If you'd rather use a powerful tool that lets you automatically clean up or archive any folder on your drive, check out how our own Belvedere automates your self-cleaning PC.
If you've tried reading Lifehacker in the past couple of days, you've likely noticed the frequent and insanely slow load times. For whatever it's worth: It's not you, it's us. Apologies for the inconvenience; we're working on it. Photo by wheresmysocks.
Taking a cue from the custom web search options, Google Images has added fine-grained search controls. Want a pink-hued rabbit image that's exactly 340x180? A clip art bird larger than 300 pixels wide? Google Image Search has you covered.
As with the newer web search tools, Google Images rolls down the search options in a left-hand sidebar when you click "Show options" in the blue bar right under your search term. Google's search can recognize clip art, line drawings, photos, and faces in photos, sort pictures by a prevalence of 12 basic colors, and, most helpfully, search photos larger than, smaller than, or exactly a certain pixel size.
It's easy to imagine desktop wallpaper enthusiasts getting lost inside that kind of custom-fit image search, but it's also a boon to anyone who's been stuck looking to fill a white space with just the right size something-or-other. Yahoo Image Search offers the same size-matching, along with Creative Commons licensing filters, but Google's color-matching and face recognition seem to be unique tools. If there are other image search sites you've used that get just as specific as Google's new roll-out, share the link in the comments.
This is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more www.natgeotv.com/draintheocean
It's by no means official, and it requires a bit of command line work, but one Palm Pre tweaker offers up a step-by-step guide to switching the smartphone into a 3G-fed, open access Wi-Fi hotspot.
The process involves downloading unofficial software, applying patches with root access to the Pre's OS, and a few other steps one should pay pretty close attention to. That said, the end result is Wi-Fi access for any number of devices you feel comfortable splitting a cellular connection between. Our gadget-oriented sibling blog has previously posted Pre tethering tips, along with a notice that Palm officials would ask that you not do so, as it could injure a Sprint contract. Still, for heding one's bets against $10-per-day airport, hotel, or coffee shop Wi-Fi, a portable net sharing tool can be pretty handy.
Here's the guide writer's video accompaniment to his Pre tethering tips:
If you've got another means of turning 3G connections into Wi-Fi on any smartphone, feel free to share them in the comments.
If you're looking to hit some garage sales, forget combing over the local paper and trying to put together a route. Gsalr makes finding and mapping garage sales a breeze.
Similar to previous mentioned Yard Sale Treasure Map, although a bit more polished, Gsalr helps you find and map garage sales in your area. Plug a zip code or state and city into Gsalr and you'll be given a Google Maps mashup with local garage sales flagged. Each red flag represents a garage sale listing, clicking on it gives you a summary of the Craiglist listing, a link to the full post if it's lengthy, the days the sale is going on, and address of the location.
The "Add to Trip Planner" button lets you easily toss a sale you like into the route maker. When you're all done browsing the listings click on the Trip Planner tab in the upper right corner and get a handy turn by turn driving route to help you hit all the garage sales in the most effective way. If you know of another tool for helping you discover goods to repurpose and deals to score, let's hear about it in the comments.
A Google engineer recently posted a message on the Chromium development board stating that his team would be implementing a synchronization service into Chrome's open-source progenitor as early as this week. What's different about Chrome's sync service? It uses a "push" service, through Google Talk protocols, to instantly move bookmarks, settings, and other user data into a Google account base, where it could be accessed on the web from any browser. A developer channel build of Chrome with some of the first features implemented can be expected as early as the end of this week, according to the posting. Does a push-synchronized Chrome change your view of each web browser's strengths and weaknesses? [via Ars Technica]
New York Times tech columnist/reviewer David Pogue continues his worthy war against unnecessary, money-grabbing voicemail "instructions," digging up an actual elimination tip for Sprint customers and a few suggestions for everyone else.
As most people know by now, cellphone voicemail systems offer "guidance" to callers on how to leave a message. You do it "after the tone," you see, and sometimes you can even learn how to "send a numeric page." It's all explained to eat up the caller's phone minutes, and each carrier seems to have their own magic button one must hit to skip straight to leaving a message.
Gina compressed those magic buttons into a single "One-Star-Pound algorithm, although it's one that requires a good bit of active work on the caller's part. Pogue learned that Sprint customers could join iPhone owners in having those instructions entirely eliminated:
Access your voice mail box. Press 3, for personal options. Press 2, for greetings. Press 1, to change your personal greeting. Press 3, to add or remove the caller instructions. Follow the prompts to turn instructions on or off.
Pogue's readers suggested those who can't turn off their voicemail "instructions" or "prompts" to record a personal greeting that includes the magic button, as in, "You've reached Kevin, hit star to leave a message." That can come off a bit rushed and informal with the wrong recording, but it's not a bad idea, and can definitely be construed as a courtesy by busy callers.
Read Pogue's follow-up for a reminder on how you can contact your cell carrier and request (firmly but politely) that they eliminate voicemail instructions. While you're feeling rebellious, leave your own voicemail work-arounds in the comments.
Your brain's natural tendencies don't easily accommodate international flights, all-nighters, or rotating shift work. Refusing to eat for about 16 hours before waking up, however, can help reboot your sleep cycle.
Harvard researcher Clifford Saper explains that one's body has more than just a single clock dictating some magical eight-hour sleep period. Sleep needs are regulated in part by exposure to light, but also by food intake. By fasting for 16 hours before your breakfast in a new time zone or on a new sleep/wake schedule, or perhaps after some really rough sleep nights, one can "override" the body's other sleep clocks that have a really aggravating way of demanding obedience. The Wise Bread blog suggests 12 hours might be a decent compromise if you can't hold off for 16 hours, though Saper seems to suggest 16 is the magic number.
Saper explains more about the power of not eating on your sleep cycle in this interview clip:
If you've got your own first-hand research on the relationship of food and sleep changes, or you've got evidence that Saper's method works as suggested, let us know in the comments.
Vacations can get pricey, especially where purchasing airline tickets is concerned. Luckily JetBlue is offering some cost savings in the form of one-way Monday flight deals for as little as nine bucks.
This is a world you have never seen before, a world normally hidden under miles of water...the landscape of the ocean bed. Click to learn more 
If you're heading off to a foreign country and want to quickly familiarize yourself with its language, try changing the default language on your favorite gadgets to help jump-start your education.
Windows: When you're away from an outlet and flying on battery power alone, keeping an eye on how much juice your laptop has is critical. BattCursor makes it easy to track how much power you have left.
Anyone who has logged even a single long-distance flight knows how hard getting some good sleep on a plane can be. Use this cheap and ingenious hack to get the rest you need.
If you've tried reading Lifehacker in the past couple of days, you've likely noticed the frequent and insanely slow load times. For whatever it's worth: It's not you, it's us. Apologies for the inconvenience; we're working on it. Photo by 
Taking a cue from the 
It's by no means official, and it requires a bit of command line work, but one Palm Pre tweaker offers up a step-by-step guide to switching the smartphone into a 3G-fed, open access Wi-Fi hotspot.
A Google engineer recently posted a 
New York Times tech columnist/reviewer David Pogue continues his worthy war against unnecessary, money-grabbing voicemail "instructions," digging up an actual elimination tip for Sprint customers and a few suggestions for everyone else.
Your brain's natural tendencies don't easily accommodate international flights, all-nighters, or rotating shift work. Refusing to eat for about 16 hours before waking up, however, can help reboot your sleep cycle.
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