It’s great when developers respond to the genuine needs of users and produce something simple that makes a big difference to your working day. The development of Letterbox is one such application after a request by a user on an Ars Technica forum to create a plugin that allows Mail to take advantage of widescreen displays.

Letterbox makes using Mail a much easier experience. It’s ideal for those using Powerbooks, MacBook Pros and those with cinema displays although it’s appropriate for anyone with a widescreen monitor. Being able to manage your mailbox and organize it in widescreen can also increase your productivity by making everything clearer rather than squeezing it all into a small space.

Note that installation of Letterbox might be a bit tricky for the first time user as you have to do it manually. Firstly, you need to create the folder “~/Library/Mail/Bundles” if you’ve never installed a Mail plugin before. Secondly, you need to open Terminal and type “defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles 1″. Finally, copy the “Letterbox.mailbundle” into “~/Library/Mail/Bundles”. You have to quit and restart mail for these settings to take effect.

From here you can use a GUI to customize everything. You can customize Letterbox’s settings in the preference pane by select the menu item “Mail:Preferences”. You can also change the preview pane position which is useful if you regularly switch between a laptop monitor and an external monitor. Just go to “View:Preview Pane menu”. Read the rest of this entry »

Picture the scene. You’re happily surfing the net over the weekend and suddenly this baby pops up:

Lots of things might be running through your head: What is it? Where did it come from? Why me?! Basically, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is part of the Windows .NET framework. According to Microsoft, WPF combines “application UI, documents, and media content, while exploiting the full power of the computer”. In layman’s terms, it is a graphics plug-in.

Some people are in a huff because Windows didn’t ask for explicit permission to install the plug-in and instead sneaked it in as part of the NET Framework 3.5 SP1 update. Geeks have been on the case for a while, and claim that it is not the first time Windows has done something similar, having previously installed the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant. It only came to the attention of most users, however, when Firefox plonked a giant warning on their screens. The plug-in has been automatically disabled, as Mozilla believes it creates a security problem that leaves Firefox open to a ‘remote code execution vulnerability’ - in other words, makes it susceptible to drive-by spyware picked up while browsing.

For the moment, Mozilla has dealt with the problem, but many will be left wondering if Windows should go around installing things without our explicit permission. If you were reading a software review and the reviewer mentioned that the program sneakily installed things without asking, you’d be rightly suspicious. Should the rules be any different for Microsoft?

One Firefox plugin I’ve come to rely on is Gmail Manager Add-On for Firefox. This free plugin allows you to monitor as many Gmail accounts as you want in the Firefox status bar. It never worked perfectly - sometimes new mail wouldn’t register properly for example - but now unfortunately it seems to have stopped working completely.

The inbox counts don’t work at all and clicking on an account simply takes you to the Gmail login page instead of your inbox. According to one blogger, this is due to a security update in Firefox 3 which blocks the plugin and may have affected other Gmail plugins as well.

The only answer is to downgrade to Firefox 2 but that’s not exactly ideal. If like me, you’re lamenting the loss of a trusty Gmail add-on, here are some functioning alternatives to try.

Gmail Notifier Designed by Google, Gmail Notifier is all you need if you just need to check one account. It displays an icon in your system tray to let you know if you have unread Gmail messages, and shows you their subjects, senders and snippets, all without your having to open a web browser. A Mac version is also available. Note that it doesn’t work if you’ve got the Google Toolbar installed which leads me onto…

Google Toolbar This is worth installing for several reasons of which one of them is the Gmail checker. It isn’t very sophisticated however. An open envelope notifies you when you’ve received new mail and clicking on the drop down arrow next to it reveals all the subject headings of mail in your inbox. Clicking on any one of them, or the envelope itself, takes you to your inbox. Shame their is no inbox count reading or customizable sounds for when new mail arrives though.

Gmail Notifr A Mac only extension which sits in your Menu bar and supports multiple accounts. Gmail Notfr displays in digits how many e-mails you have waiting for you. It conveniently supports Growl alerts and doesn’t install any daemon background processes unlike Google’s Gmail Notifier. However, you can’t define how frequently you want it to check for mail (so it might be a bit slow at notifying you of new mail).

Gmail+Growl This works with Gmail Notifier and as the name suggests, is a very simple plugin for Mac users that uses Growl alerts to notify you of new Gmail. Unfortunately, it only supports single accounts but the great thing about using Growl is that you can customize the alerts.

GmailAssistant A third party Windows only application which supports multiple accounts. If you want a Gmail checker that’s completely independent of your browser on Windows, then this is a good choice although the configuration is very limited. You can’t define the frequency you want it to check for new mail or save your preferences for each account.

Browsing videos on YouTube is great fun, but what happens when you find one you’d like to view offline, keep or transfer? Although you can embed or link to videos you like, YouTube doesn’t actually give you any option to download them. Don’t worry, because some of Firefox’s great add-ons (plugins that you can use to extend your browser) can do the job for you, all without even having to open a second program. Let’s take a quick look at some of the best.

YouTube Video Downloader does exactly what it says on the tin. The ‘keep’ icon, located in the status bar, opens the video details in a new tab, prompts you to chose a format (FLV, 3GP or MP4), name the video and download it. That’s it! Easy, right?

Another discreet option is Easy YouTube Video Downloader - it simply adds a button underneath the information displayed to the right of YouTube videos. Like its predecessor, it supports FLV, 3GP and MP4, but without the new tab is possibly even simpler to use.

NetVideoHunter takes a different approach, opening a window containing a list of the videos you have been viewing. The main selling point is that it ‘collects’ videos as you browse them. At the end of your session, it presents you with a list of the videos you have just seen, allowing you to pick the ones you want to download. It also has the added advantage of being able to download from video sharing sites apart from YouTube, such as Dailymotion and Google Video, and includes a player, so you can view videos even after you have closed the original page.

If you are looking for a little excitement, try YouTube Downloader. This experimental add-on is so thrilling that you have to check a box to say that you understand the risks - although when I tested it, it didn’t seem too wild. Youtube Downloader lets you download videos and music, and not just from YouTube. Like NetVideoHunter, it presents you with a list of possible downloads, and then lets you select the ones you want. It also has a search function which will automatically search for the video title on Google.

If discretion’s not your thing, maybe the Ant.com Toolbar is what you are looking for. Although it does install a toolbar on your browser, it’s only to accommodate the extra options it includes - a search tool, download manager, video player, download explorer and a ranking function. It is also more customizable than some of its competitors, allowing you to toggle a small number of options.

Whether you’re a dedicated video downloader or just someone who browses occasionally, you’ll find an add-on to suit. Read the reviews, make your decision and start downloading videos from YouTube today!

Firefox holds a special place in my heart. I’ve used it for years, blissfully happy since day one. I’ve told all my friends about it, lobbied for it among the IE crowd, and sneakily installed it on any computer I was left alone with for more than 5 minutes. So, why, oh why, has Firefox turned against me?!

A few days ago I noticed that funny things were happening on my computer. Gmail displayed the dreaded ’still working’ message and Facebook photos went crazy. I checked my Internet connection, logged out and logged in. I even restarted my computer, the fail-safe to solution to everything! Nothing worked and, for the first time ever, I had a sneaking suspicion that my beloved Firefox was at fault. It was time to find out what you can do when Firefox 3.5 goes bad…

Clear your history

Not a revolutionary idea, but once it was mentioned, I realized I hadn’t done it (or checked the settings) since upgrading to 3.5. Go to Tools > Clear Recent History and choose ‘Everything’ from the drop down menu.

Erase the cache

When you clear the history, make sure you’re including the cache: in the ‘Clear Recent History’ option, click on ‘Details’ and make sure ‘Cache’ is marked.

Update to the latest version

Make sure you have updated Firefox 3.5 to 3.5.1. Technically this patch was security related, but it also included a fix for “an issue that was making Firefox take a long time to load on some Windows systems“. Read the rest of this entry »

Fancy a $29 iTunes/Last.fm Mac app absolutely free? Well you can have exactly that with SweetFM which the developer has decided to make completely free and open source. If you regularly use iTunes and LastFM then you’re going to love it. The tiny app allows you to combine the best of both applications under one controller and much more. It used to sell for almost $29 but right now it’s completely free and open source.

SweetFM switches seamlessly between Last.fm and iTunes. If you get bored of listening to either application at any point, you can just switch in a click. You can configure hotkeys to control most tasks and even use your Apple Remote - useful for parties or just kicking back and relaxing.

But there’s more to it than that. SweetFM extends Last.fm functionality with things such as tag-station shuffle. Just enter an artist name with some keywords and let Last.fm create the playlist for you. You can see what’s next on your playlist in the dock or the statusbar menu. I like the fact that SweetFM also uses album art covers retrieved from Amazon.com when playing major artists.

One other thing worth bearing in mind about SweetFM is that if you want to export tracks to iTunes, it will automatically check for duplicates although this obviously relies on your music being tagged correctly. There’s lots more to SweetFM than this too including CSS skin design support, Skype moods integration and handy Growl notifications.

There’s little to fault with SweetFM and considering it’s now completely open source and free, the time has never been better to try this sweet app.

With the recent release of Firefox 3.5, there’s never been a better time for Internet Explorer users to give it a go. In case you think for a moment that browsing is much the same on Firefox - hold on a minute!

Aside from being faster, lighter and more stable, what makes Firefox really different is add-ons. You can easily customize Firefox to work how you want it to, and it’s not hard. Click an add-on download link, restart Firefox (it will remember all your open tabs), and you’re done. To get started, here’s 5 add-ons I think are really cool, and should convince you of Firefox’s all-round awesomeness!

1 - Juice. I include this as it’s flashy, great looking and can really change your browsing. Basically, if you read something you want more info about, just highlight it, and drag it into the Juice sidebar - it will search Google, Yahoo Bing or Twitter for answers. See a picture you like? Just click and drag it into juice and it’s saved. YouTube videos get a tab that you can drag into juice, so you can make a playlist, and also watch videos in the sidebar while you browse. It’s cool, have a go!

2 - DownThemAll!  This basically allows you to download whatever is on a web page. You can choose what type of files you’re looking for, like MP3s or images, and’DownThemAll’ in one click. It can save you lots of time scrolling through long pages looking for files.

3 - Open IT Online. This neat add-on allows you to open most documents, spreadsheets and presentations using online applications. when downloading a Word file,  an extra option will appear under ‘Open With’, allowing you to see the document in your browser, saving you the hassle of waiting for another application to open. It’s unobtrusive, and makes document viewing hassle free.

4 - UrlbarExt is a bit nerdy, but I like it, and use it every day. It adds a bunch of tools to the address bar, like a tiny URL maker, an add address to clipboard button and much more.  It really makes use of a piece of browser space that was underused.

5 - The add-on I use most? TwitterFox. Everything I want from Twitter, without having to open up a page, it’s fantastic. You get a tiny icon at the bottom of Firefox, and clicking it activates a pop up display showing you your Twitter feed. It feels ideally suited to Twitter, and I can’t imagine a browser without it anymore.

So there you have it. If you load up an add-on you don’t like, it’s simple to deactivate it - just go to add-ons in the Tools menu, and you can deactivate or uninstall anything you like. No doubt everyone will have their own favorites, so you can go and check out the Firefox add-on site here.

A very common problem Mac users have is playing Windows Media Video (WMV) files. When your Mac tries to open WMV files by default in QuickTime, commonly you’ll receive an error message along the lines of “This is not a movie file.” The reason for this is because WMV files use Microsoft proprietary codecs that don’t work in OS X. This is really annoying if someone sends you a WMV video clip by e-mail or if you want to download a WMV clip from the net.

In 2006, Microsoft discontinued making Windows Media Player for Macs meaning there was no longer a tailor made player for the WMV format for OS X. Fortunately, there are a few free and easy solutions to this problem:

Flip4Mac Plugin This is probably the easiest solution as it enables QuickTime to playback WMV files.  This plugin created by Telestream allows you to import, export and play Windows Media video and audio files on your Mac. The Flip4Mac WMV plug-in also works with other QuickTime based applications such as iMovie and Final Cut Pro meaning you can even edit WMV files on Mac too.

VLC Media Player The most versatile player out there allows you to play WMV files as well without the Flip4Mac Plugin. However, this is just a playback solution - it won’t allow you to edit WMV in QuickTime supported applications such as iMovie and Final Cut. The great thing about VLC Media Player however is that it’s lightweight, fast and can handle almost any media format.

MPlayer OSX This player emerged out of the Google Codes project as an attempt to create an all-round player. MPlayer OSX is a simple but powerful video player designed specifically for Mac and can handle WMV playback. It features more options and preferences than VLC Player with the only drawback that the first time it plays a video, it has to build a font cache which can take a while but only has to be done once.

Crane wars is an almost ready for release game from Flashbang studios, the quirky team behind Paper Moon, Off Road Velociraptor and Minotaur China Shop. You can play a beta 3 version of this browser game here. You control a crane at a construction site, and have to build tower blocks, while watching out for attacks from a neighbouring crane company. You can throw objects at the competition’s buildings, and they can do the same! The game is timed - your budget is constantly being drained, and when it runs out the game is over.

The controls are simple, but building your skyscrapers can be a bit fiddly, especially when someone’s throwing trucks at your creation! Like all of the games on Blurst, Crane Wars is compelling mainly because it’s a cool and ridiculous idea. It was originally scheduled for release today on the Blurst site, so if you don’t fancy playing the beta and want to wait, it shouldn’t be long… As with all Blurst games, you’ll need the Unity browser plug-in.

There’s nothing more time consuming and tedious as cutting and pasting words into search engines. If you have the Google Toolbar installed in Firefox, do you know that you can create your own custom searches simply by right clicking on a word and selecting the site you’d like to search? Here’s how to:

1. Right click on a search box that you’d like to integrate with Firefox. This could be absolutely any search-box on any webpage of your choosing.

2. Go to the bottom of the context menu and select Generate Custom Search…

3. In the Add Search Button dialog that appears, add the name of the search site (in this case “Softonic”) and add the URL of the site. Click Add. Read the rest of this entry »

Windows: If you ever come across an online video you’d like to keep it with you, NetVideoHunter is the app you need. This handy Firefox extension lets you save embedded videos from websites like Youtube, Dailymotion and Metacafe among others, and save them right to your hard drive in FLV. It includes a built-in video player and can handle multiple downloads.

BlackBerry: If you’ve already got bored of your BlackBerry Storm and are wishing you’d bought an iPhone instead then fear not because iPhoneishStorm Theme will give it a passing resemblance to Apple’s legendary mobile device. The theme completely overhauls your home screen, adding a series of iPhone-style icons, as well as a dock at the bottom of the screen.

Mac: If you think that Apple¡s iChat is a bit limited, then you might find Chax gives it that little something extra. Chax is a collection of minor modifications and additions that extends iChat and makes using it far more pleasurable. The preferences alone add several new features to iChat, then there are all the other benefits, which include a unified contact list and growl notification.

Juggling the ever increasing number of social networks and media sites can be a time consuming pain. Logging into lost of different accounts, you can have a very busy browser before you’ve don anything constructive. I thought I’d look at the current range of solutions to this. I’ll start with some honesty: At the moment there is no one good solution, but there are some which do a reasonable job.

Notable stand alone applications AlertThingy, TweetDeck and Skimmer all offer to pull together your social networks. Skimmer is quite interesting, but it’s very much a beta product, and is the only one with Blogger support, but doesn’t feel finished! It’s something to keep your eye on. TweetDeck and AlertThingy are much slicker, although both are focussed on Twitter and Facbook. Both work very well for Twitter - you don’t miss any of the Twitter experience doing through either of these clients. Facebook is a mixed bag - you can’t do everything you can on the website from any of these clients. AlertThingy offers many more social networks, and they both look good, so TweetDeck loses out just by being a bit too limited.

Firefox has similar add-ons. These give you the more or less the same features as the stand alone apps, but are integrated into Firefox. The most flexible we’ve found is Yoono. It’s a bit of a monster, but can bring Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Myspace and more into the same space. On top of that it features instant messaging from Microsoft Messenger, Google Talk and Yahoo chat, plus the option to add feeds from your favourite websites. The amount of stuff can get a bit overwhelming, but you can choose exactly what you do and don’t want. The Facebook feed also gives you your news feed, not just status updates, which is great.

Online services like Zenbe bring your email together with Facebook, Twitter and more. I found this less comfortable than using either a Firefox add-on or a stand alone application. What is clear at the moment is that no one has a perfect solution. Everything I’ve seen can handle Twitter easily, but Facebook always feels like ‘Facebook lite’, and all of these social network aggregators suffer from becoming cluttered.  I am looking forward to Skimmer’s further development, as its Blogger support could make it the most complete package, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Windows: Fancy a pool game? Now you don’t need an expensive table that takes up half the space in your flat. PoolStars is a fun online game that lets you play pool and snooker right from your computer. Practice on your own or play against other people from all over the world in a nice, realistic 3D environment. And when you’re ready take part in a tournament!

Mac: Foxmarks is a free add-on for Firefox that syncs and backs up your bookmarks across multiple computers and more. Foxmarks for Safari now brings the same benefits to Safari. The result is that wherever you have Safari, you have your bookmarks with you at any time. What’s more, you never need to worry about losing your bookmarks again because Foxmarks always holds a backup of them on its servers.

iPhone: There was a time when the pinnacle of home entertainment was guiding a ball out of a wooden maze without it falling down any of the holes. Labyrinth Lite Edition recreates this fascinating challenge on your iPhone and actually proves to be one of the more enjoyable games on the platform. There are ten free courses included in Labyrinth Lite Edition, each offering a unique challenge.

iPhone: Looking for a bit of fun on your iPhone? Try Bike or Die 2 Lite, which puts you in control of a bouncy BMX on which you need to complete a number of obstacles. There are five levels included in this free Lite version, in which you get to perform jumps, traverse icy hills, pull off mid-air flips and even cycle along a ceiling!

Mac: If you’re used to either iCal or Google Calendar then it’s a shame to have to choose between the two. Both are great organizational tools in different ways. Calaboration lets you have it all by allowing you to keep both iCal and Google Calendar in sync so you never need to choose between using one or the other again. And it works absolutely seamlessly.

Windows: The wait is over. Internet Explorer 8 is finally here, with a bunch of new features and advanced functionality to make your Internet browsing experience even better. Try the new Accelerators, Web Slices and InPrivate Mode, and see why this new version of Internet Explorer is a significant step forward for Microsoft.

I have to admit, I don’t use iCal as much as I should do. That’s partly because I’m not big on calendars and agendas but mainly because Google Calendar came along and trumped it. Since I spend half of my life online, using an online calendar is no big deal to me and I’m hardly bothered about a breach of privacy whereby someone could discover my grandma’s birthday. However, in recent times I’ve come to discover various plug-ins and add-ons for iCal that mean I can have the best of both worlds and more. Here are my 5 tips for getting the most out of iCal:

Calaboration An essential for any Google Calendar user. Calaboration syncs iCal with Google Calendar so no matter which you use to organise your life, they’ll always be in sync. It simply requires your Google account username and password to get up and running and from then on, every entry you make is synced in real time.

YAI (You Are Invited) If you work with Outlook like me then this is another essential. YAI allows you to translate and transfer appointment and meeting invites to iCal from Outlook, Google Calendar and Zimbra. This prevents you needing to use Outlook’s calendar and iCal at the same time. Invites appear in iCal’s invitation pane and you can also import pending invites that you’ve already received but want to add to iCal.

eBaytoiCal Why not use iCal to make money? If you’re a big eBay user and you’re forever missing auction deadlines, then this is the plugin for you. Quite simply, if you’re browsing an item on eBay, eBaytoiCal creates an event in iCal for the auction date. It sets a reminder 15 minutes before the end of the auction with the name of the event and the URL of the item you’re viewing. The downside? It only works with Safari at the moment.

iCal Events For all those dashboard addicts, iCal Events allows you to see what’s coming-up in your schedule without even opening iCal. You can only see events up to two weeks in advance but that’s enough not to give you any excuses! By hovering your mouse over the color of the calendar you want to view, you can also see more details about each event.

Today Designed to give a comprehensive overview of your daily events and tasks without having to open iCal all the time. Today allows you to keep track of what’s on your agenda for any given day and it syncs with iCal automatically. In this way, your agenda, events and tasks are available all in one tidy interface. It can however be prone to a few bugs now and then so use with care.