Yesterday I logged on to my Twitter account and saw a couple of direct messages from one of my contacts. I found them quite odd from the moment I opened them, as they were not the kind of messages this person would send to me. Anyway I opened the link he included in those messages and immediately noticed the trick. These are not real DMs: they’re a phishing scam to obtain your Twitter password.

Luckily for us, the swindle is fairly easy to spot. First, double check every link before clicking on it, even if they come from people you trust. Also, make sure you’re on the actual Twitter domain before entering your login data: the scam page may look exactly like the real thing, but the URL is not twitter.com. The good thing is that if you’re a Firefox user, your browser will probably detect the fraud for you.

If this advice is already too late and you’ve been tricked, use the Reset password service to create a new password and regain access to your Twitter account. Meanwhile, you can find more information about the whole issue on Twitter’s official blog.

Windows: All computers require a bit of maintenance from time to time, and TuneUp Utilities 2009 is simply the perfect program for the job. It includes all the tools you need to optimize, clean, tweak and fix your computer, all in a few clicks and with great results. This version includes a new Start page and Speed Optimizer, plus dozens of small enhancements.

Mac: Labeling your music files correctly is essential to make sure that they’re easily organised in apps such as iTunes. The Tagger is an MP3 and AAC tagger that’s packed with features designed around a very easy to use interface. The Tagger allows you to label and tag those MP3 files that you may be unable to iTunes for various reasons.

Symbian: If you’re forever getting lost then check out Nokia Maps 3.0 Beta, which takes mobile-based navigation to a whole new level. Complete with accurate high quality maps of the world, Nokia Maps now features 3D terrain and landmarks, real-time traffic information, train maps, point-to-point navigation, and integration with Nokia’s Ovi online service.

Whenever New Year is around the corner, the Web is flooded with top 10s, best-of lists and all sorts of summaries and rankings that try to encapsulate a whole year in only a few lines. Web sites and blogs around the world create their own themed lists according to their main topic, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a meta-list; that is, a list with the most interesting lists you can find these days on the Internet. It’s certainly a good summary of the year that’s about to finish.

Most under-hyped apps
In this list published by Lifehacker, Gina Trapani includes a series of apps that she considers deserved more attention during the last twelve months. Songbird, Picasa 3, VLC Media Player and Opera are among them.

Best of Last.fm
The online music service has published a list with the most popular artists, albums and tracks of 2008, based entirely on users’ scrobblings. Coldplay has the most scrobbled song and album, while MGMT top the Artist ranking.

Top searches in Google
In keeping with tradition, Google has published its Google Zeitgeist, a list of the most searched-for terms during 2008. The list varies from one country to another, but the global ranking is topped by Sarah Palin. Kudos to her!

Most downloaded iTunes apps
The App Store features a list where you can see the top downloaded apps of 2008. The list is organized in several categories: games, entertainment, utilities, social networking and music, all in free or paid versions.

Most beautiful icon sets
The design blog Noupe has gathered an impressive collection with the 50 most beautiful icon sets created during this year. You’ll find icons for blogs, for the iPhone, for social networks… and many of them for free.

Best photos of 2008
The top photos of 2008 in Flickr is being created by users themselves. Flickr has asked all Flickr users to choose the best photo they’ve taken this year and add it to the special group “Your best shot of 2008“. Really worth a look!

Top 10 Videogames
Published by the Time magazine, this list includes the top videogames of 2008, though I must say I don’t agree with most of it – except for GTA IV’s first place, that is. The wooden spoon award is for Spore.

Most Pirated PC Games
Funnily enough, Spore does reach number one in the Top Pirated PC games list published by Joystiq. Other games in this list are Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty 4 and Fallout 3. Not something to be specially proud of, I guess.

Windows: Lavasoft, the all-known authors of Ad-Aware, have just launched their own antivirus tool. Lavasoft Anti-virus Helix uses the powerful AHeAD engine detection and heuristic from Avira to protect your system against viruses, Trojans, worms, rootkits and other online threats. It’s unobtrusive and easy to use, even for beginners.

Mac: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could search several major torrent sites at the same time for your torrents? Chances are you probably favor one particular site usually but you may well be missing out on a whole world of other options if you do so. TorrentDam is a simple application that can search up BitJunkie, ISOHunt, ThePirateBay, Mininova, Demonoid, TorrentReactor and MyBittorrent all at the same time.

Blackberry: You don’t have to just use your phone for calling and SMS messaging, you know. You can also chat via instant messaging, just as you would do on your home computer. IM+ enables you to do this andm your Blackberry boasts support for all the major IM networks, so you can do all your chatting on your Blackberry!

Windows: Have you ever wanted to have a personal music server but didn’t even know where to start? Sockso is what you’re looking for. This simple Java app will help you have your own music server set up and running in no time - no technical skills required! Simply select the music folders you want to share and use your computer as streaming server.

Symbian: If you’re traveling abroad this Christmas and are worried about communicating with the locals then install Speereo Voice Translator on your Symbian phone. This multilingual version of the program comes translations of more than 4,000 different words in nine languages. The words are organized into categories so it’s very easy to use the application.

Mac: There’s nothing worse than finding out your favorite band or artist is coming to town but you’re too late to get tickets. Ticketmaster Widget can help prevent this by showing on your desktop what’s on sale on the Ticketmaster website. It can be completely customized based on where you live although it only supports those users living in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand.

December is the month of summaries, top rankings, compilations and all sorts of lists with a common purpose: to make a round-up of everything that has happened along the year. Now that 2008 is about to finish, the guys over at the iTunes Store have decided to join the trend and have published a list with the top downloaded apps in the App Store for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The list is divided into several categories (games, entertainment, utilities, social networking and music, both in free and paid apps) but we’ll have a look at the overall free app top list and see what people downloaded most to their iPhone and iPod Touch over the last 12 months.

Pandora
Enjoy yor favorite artists on the move. You can create genre-based personalized music stations or simply use your Pandora web account from the iPhone.

Facebook
Only for real Facebook-addicts! With this light version of Facebook you can view your wall, check your messages, see photos and follow your friends’ activities.

Tap Tap Revenge
If you like Guitar Hero, you’re going to love this game. Test your rhythm skills while trying to follow the chords on the screen of your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Shazam
Believe it or not, Shazam is able to recognizes almost any song,  anywhere. It’s perfect to identify that song that’s been stuck on your head for weeks!

Labyrinth Lite Edition
A revamped digital version of the traditional wooden labyrinth. I tried this game myself and got so insanely addicted to it that I ended up buying the full version.

Remote
With Remote you can control music on iTunes in your computer or on your Apple TV. Remote displays album artwork, works with Genius and lets you edit playlists.

Google Earth
A jaw-dropping app that includes incredible satellite imagery, shows millions of geolocated photos and can find your current position in a few seconds.

Lightsaber Unleashed
Lightsaber Unleashed emulates a lightsaber on the screen of your iPhone or iPod Touch. The emulation includes sound effects and even a duelling soundtrack.

AIM
Keep in touch with family and friends at all times. It works with 3G or WiFi and can connect with all AOL networks worldwide.

Urbanspoon
Discover new restaurants with Urbanspoon! Enter your search filters and shake the phone to activate the restaurant slot machine.

The funny thing about these top apps lists is that they change according to the different countries from which you can access iTunes Store. So in the case of Spanish users, instead of downloading Urbanspoon or AIM (which are more oriented to a North-American audience), they preferred to download Flashlight and iPint – strange combination, huh?

Finally, as an iPod Touch user myself, I’m surprised that my favorite Twitter client Twitterrific didn’t achieve a higher position, and that a great adventure such as Aurora Feint didn’t even make it to the top 10 downloaded games. At the same time, I find it simply amazing that such an absurd app as Lightsaber Unleashed is among the ten most downloaded tools in 2008. In any case, these lists will surely help you find some interesting new apps to try.

I recently reviewed the Gmail gadget launched by Google, which enables you to check your Gmail account right from your desktop. This gadget works with the Google Desktop sidebar, so I had to install it on my PC.

I must admit I wasn’t happy about having even more stuff on my desktop, but after testing it for a while I was pleasantly surprised by the functionality and nice design of this smart piece of software.

Google Desktop is mainly a powerful local search tool that makes use of the Google engine to find files, folders and apps on your hard drive. You can use it just as a Google-powered local search tool, either as floating bar on your desktop or a neat deskbar perfectly integrated in the taskbar. But if there’s a way you can make the most of Google Desktop, that’s the sidebar.

The Google Desktop sidebar is similar to the Vista sidebar, in the sense that it can hold a number of small handy webapps (the so called gadgets) that can deliver information to your desktop, show data, display photos and much more. Gadgets are very easy to install: you can get them right from the sidebar by clicking on the plus sign button on top, or simply download them from the Google Desktop website.

There are literally hundreds of gadgets to install. If you don’t know where to start, try sorting them by popularity. The top 10 gadgets include clocks (both analog and digital), weather information, calendars, calculators, games and even a virtual flower pot you can take care of like one of those old Tamagotchis.

I’ve always preferred to give handmade presents, a piece of handicraft made by myself that makes the gift more personal. Following this idea, and as the holiday season approaches, I like to prepare special Photoshop tutorials to create your own greeting cards. In case you missed them, here’s the 2007 tutorial and here’s the 2008 one. And for those behind the deadline, here’s another easy tutorial that shows you how to add a snow effect to text; a simple yet effective trick you can use for cards, themes and all sorts of Christmas-related graphic.

Read the rest of this entry »

Any videogame fan in their thirties will remember Lunar Lander, a very simple game from the late 70s in which you had to safely land a tiny spaceship on lunar terrain, by controlling the amount of throttle as accurately as possible. Super PerfectoProp takes this same idea and recreates the classic arcade in a new, revamped version with new features.

Super PerfectoProp also challenges you to make a perfect landing, though this time you controll a weird-looking guy with propellers instead of a spaceship. Also, there are more obstacles besides gravity: sharks waiting for you at the bottom of the screen, power lines that will electrocute you as soon as you touch them and more. This means that you have to be really careful when controlling your propellers and giving full power to them.

has several difficulty levels, including a training area that will help you get used to controls. Also, the game lets you create your own customized levels with an easy level editor, a feature you don’t usually find in online games.

Windows: If you like the Vista sidebar but don’t want to get rid of your good old Windows XP yet, Vista Rainbar V4 is the perfect solution. This Vista sidebar clone works with XP and includes a bunch of handy gadgets to make the most of your system: CPU meter, post-it notes, calendar, photo slideshow, RSS feeds, weather information and much more!

Symbian: Fancy yourself as a bit of a card shark but too frightened to bet with real money? Well Aces Blackjack is as near as you can get to the real thing without losing your house. There are three main games at the green table - Classic Blackjack, Aces Time Crunch against the clock and Aces Hand Challenge to grab as much cash as you can from limited hands.

Mac: Take an already awesome password storage program, slap on a new eye-dazzling interface, speed up the performance, increase security, and make it a ton cooler. Now you’ve got Wallet 3 -  a brand new remake of one of the most popular secure database apps for Mac OS X. Wallet 2 uses military-strength 448-bit Blowfish encryption to secure your most important data. You can feel safe knowing that absolutely no one will be able to access your Wallet database without the correct password.

Windows: PC maintenance tasks can be difficult and boring, but if you use Glary Utilities Portable you’ll find they’re easier than it seems. This great app features all the tools you need to repair, clean, tweak and optimize you system in a portable, pocket-sized version that doesn’t require installation and can run from a USB device.

Blackberry: If you’re looking for a new game to get addicted to on your Blackberry then give Color Lines a shot. The object of the game is to remove balls from the board by arranging a horizontal or vertical line of five or more balls of the same color. Rumor has it that Color Lines is now even more popular than Tetris in Russia, though this could just be marketing spiel.

Mac: uTorrent may now have arrived for Mac but don’t forget that Transmission is a free, lightweight BitTorrent client. It features a simple, intuitive interface on top of an efficient, cross-platform back-end. If you don’t want to get lost in statistics and don’t want your bit torrent client hogging your Mac’s resources it’s an excellent choice.

Flickr is probably the best online photo management tool: it’s easy to set up, it’s also useful as a backup copy of your photos, it works great to share pictures (with a handful variety of privacy levels) and is compatible with online photo editors like Picnik and FlauntR.

However, Flickr still lacks a good tool to generate photo galleries. Besides the plain, boring old-school slideshow used by Flickr to display images in full screen, there’s no other way in which you can view Flickr’s sets – let alone do it in a more original way than just the standard slideshow.

Here’s where PicsViewr comes on stage. This online service creates attractive photo slideshows with your Flickr photos right on the spot, without having to create a user account or register for anything. All you need to do is enter your Flickr username and pick your favorite gallery design. A customized URL will be automatically create for each gallery, and you can share it with friends and family right away.

There are currently ten different designs to choose from, with more to come. Once viewing the gallery, you can easily switch from one design to another, and browse different sets in the Flickr account via a handy drop-down menu. Just test it with the Softonic Flickr and see how nice it looks with PicsViewr!

One last tip: some of the available gallery designs have the option to display pictures in high resolution, which takes longer to load but also produces much better quality images. To switch to the HD version, simply replace the “sd” in the gallery’s URL with “hd”.

Christmas is back again with all its traditions: family meals, compulsive shopping, Christmas carols everywhere and of course, greeting cards. Just like we did in 2007, this year we’d like to show you how to design and create your own personal Christmas greeting card in Photoshop with just a few simple steps. Then you can print as many copies as you need and show off your artistic skills!

1. Open a new document and fill it with black. Then apply a Gradient overlay with green, so that it looks similar to the image below.

2. Add a new layer and fill it with black too. Then lower down the Fill percentage to 0% and apply another Gradient overlay with the following settings. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows: do you need to convert and resize a dozen images every day? Then you need Pixillion! This quick, easy and efficient tool will do the hard work for you. You’ll be able to resize, convert and watermark as many images as you want, all at the same time, with just a single mouse click. Save time and boost your productivity!

iPhone: Making long distance or international calls from your mobile phone can be so expensive that it’s almost better to not stay in touch. Install Nimbuzz on your phone, and you’ll be able to talk to people all over the World for free - at least in theory. Nimbuzz allows you to make calls, chat online, exchange instant messages and send files from your iPhone for free

Mac: Similar to the other Pedia titles created by the same developer, Gamepedia allows you to store and organize all your items, in this case your video games. Perfect if you own different game systems and your game collection is getting a bit out of hand. You’ll be able to enter titles by searching for them directly on six different Amazon sites or scanning the UPC on the game with your Mac iSight camera.

Discovering new software can be exciting, but keeping that software up to date is certainly time-consuming. Many recent software tools include a self-update option which notifies you of new versions as soon as they come out, but many others, usually older programs, don’t.

Besides missing all the new features of most recent versions, an outdated app can also be a threat to computer security, especially if it’s an Internet related app. So if you don’t want to take any risks, use any of these automatic update finders that will help you keep all your software up to date.

• AppUpdater - Cross-platform tool that scans your system and finds updates for all installed programs, as long as they’re supported by the program. You can suggest new apps to be included on the list and also create your own repository.

• UpdateStar - Performs a thorough scan of your system and looks for possible updates. The database includes more than 135,000 entries and is being constantly refreshed by an active user community. Also recommends paid software.

• AppSnap - Open source tool that detects installed versions of your software, searches for updates and downloads them straight away. Its database is not very extensive (less than 400 entries) but you can suggest new apps.

• SUMo - Detects software apps installed on you PC and finds required updates or patches for them. You can filter Beta versions and also create a “black” list that enables you to track only those apps you’re interested in.

• AppHit.com - Website specializing in updates. Get their desktop client (no installation required) and it’ll find updates for the programs installed on your computer. This client doesn’t install updates, only shows search results on a web browser.