MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [March 4th]” plus 10 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [March 4th]
- 3 Cool Twitter & Google Maps Mashups You Should Check Out
- 2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails In Thunderbird 3
- 3 Unique Bing Search Operators You Will Definitely Love
- 12 Awesome Homepages Readers Shared With Us
- Email Blog Updates To Your Wordpress Blog With Postie
- MakeUseOf Must-Have Mac Apps Giveaway Day #3 – 1Password 3
- 5 Cool Apps That Make Dropbox Even More Useful
- Mac Giveaway AppZapper Winners!
- Artwork Gofer: The Hunt For Free Album Cover Art [Mac]
- How To Configure & Use Windows 7’s XP Mode
| Cool Websites and Tools [March 4th] Posted: 04 Mar 2010 07:31 PM PST Check out some of the latest MakeUseOf discoveries. All listed websites are FREE (or come with a decent free account option). No trials or buy-to-use craplets. For more cool websites and web app reviews subscribe to MakeUseOf Directory.
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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| 3 Cool Twitter & Google Maps Mashups You Should Check Out Posted: 04 Mar 2010 05:31 PM PST
The idea of a mashup in Web development is to simply take the data and functionality of different sources and combine them together to make a new service. With Twitter and Google Maps mashups here, it’s all about taking advantage of both the Google Maps and Twitter API to create a mashup that’s unique, practical, and fun. Let’s get right to it and find out what all the fuss is about. Here’s 3 cool Twitter and Google Maps mashups you should check out.
Trendsmap
Trendsmap is a tool to visualize the top Twitter trends throughout the world. Simply put, it’s about what people are talking about right now and where they are. Just browse the globe for all the current hot discussions in any region of the world. If you come across a topic that you’d like to explore further, just click on it for more information. Two small graphs of both the local and global history of that particular trend are displayed on top, along with details about why the topic is a big news story. Below that are links to any videos and news articles, followed by the most recent tweets about the topic continuously updated in real-time.
Feel free to explore the current Twitter trends in your region or city as well. Just zoom in on the map or type in your location for more of a local level perspective. GeoChirpEver wonder what people in your neighborhood are tweeting about? GeoChirp allows you to easily find out with its mashup. Start by selecting a search radius anywhere on the Google map by simply clicking an area.
The latest tweets from that region will be displayed at the bottom of the map. You can then use the site’s filter to specify a keyword, the number of tweets displayed, and the search radius (between 1 and 50 miles).
Keep in mind that the search results aren’t updated automatically, so be sure to hit the refresh button for the latest tweets. TwittervisionTwittervision is an interesting way to view tweets from all across the world. Once on the website, you don’t have to do anything but watch aimlessly as you sweep across the globe for real-time Twitter updates.
It pauses to display a popup of the actual tweet from where it was sent, along with the Twitter user and location. After that, it just moves on to the next tweet. There’s not much in terms of customization, but it’s still a lot of fun. If you get bored with that, give the website’s 3D mode a whirl. It’s the same concept, but this time it uses a three-dimensional globe from Poly9, not Google Maps. Twittervision is also available as an iPhone app. Can’t get enough of these? Be sure to check out 9 Awesome & Useful Google Maps Mashups for more. Do you have any favorite Twitter and Google Maps mashups? Let us know in the comments. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| 2 Extensions To Better Manage Emails In Thunderbird 3 Posted: 04 Mar 2010 03:31 PM PST
For this post I picked two well-integrated extensions that help you organize emails in Thunderbird 3. Thunderbird’s new version comes with a bunch of novel features. I have previously mentioned tabs. But also searching emails has become a lot more convenient. You can now use operators like in Google or Gmail and results will open in a new tab.
Messages TimelineMessages Timeline provides a visual overview of when emails were received. The email you’re currently viewing is marked with a green dot. When you move the mouse over a light blue dot, both the dot and the respective message are highlighted in yellow. Once you click another dot, it turns green and the respective email is displayed in the message window.
This Mozilla Thunderbird extension lets you visually browse emails by date. Furthermore, when you move the mouse across different folders, it indicates the date range covered by emails in each folder. In the example below the range covered is November 23rd, 2009 to February 12th, 2010.
Are you looking for mails from a specific time frame? If so, you can click and drag on the timeline to see only those messages. Using right-click on the timeline, you can select time frames and zoom in to distinguish between emails that arrived within a short time. The developer has announced further features, including automatic expansion of time periods with many messages. eMarksThunderbird 3 supports tabs. This way you can keep all of your conversations together and open sites like Google Wave or Twitter in Thunderbird, rather than a browser. Additionally, you can now make bookmarks in Thunderbird. This extension, however, isn’t concerned with website bookmarks. How did you handle important emails so far? What did you do with messages that contained information you needed for reference every now and then? Did you tag or copy them into specific folders? Now you can eMark your most important eMails.
The Mozilla Thunderbird extension comes with an entry in the menu bar and a toolbar which can be turned on and off. To add an email to eMarks you have to use either one, there is no option in the right-click menu. All further options are summarized in eMarks Help, which is also displayed below. Hopefully, future updates of this extension will allow to create folders or categories for eMarks.
There is a lot more information about Thunderbird out there. Here are just a few of the MakeUseOf highlights. I recently covered 5 Extensions For Tabbed Email Browsing In Thunderbird 3. If you have ever wondered How To Recover Deleted eMails or How To Terminally Delete eMails in Thunderbird, you’ll love to read my respective articles. Furthermore, I explained How to Set Up Message Filters In Thunderbird and How To Integrated Google Calendar Into Thunderbird. Mark showed you how to Synchronize Your Google Contacts, Calendar & RSS In Thunderbird. Saikat demonstrated How to Set Up Mozilla Thunderbird to Send Mass Emails. How do you successfully manage your emails? What email tasks are you struggling with? Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section! New on Twitter ? Now you can follow MakeUseOf on Twitter too. Related posts
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| 3 Unique Bing Search Operators You Will Definitely Love Posted: 04 Mar 2010 01:31 PM PST
After a loud start Bing hasn’t done much to improve. Nor did it show its full potential. In fact, even those people that eagerly switched to Bing have no idea about some very cool features the search engine has. In this post I am sharing 3 unique Bing search operators (and by ‘unique’ I mean that no other major search engine has it): try playing with them and maybe you’ll find them useful!
1. LinkFromDomain:Ever wanted to see which pages a site links to? Well, no search engine will tell you this except Bing. Yes, this search command is unique and incredibly useful. Search pattern: LinkFromDomain:anydomain.com Suggested usage: Well, these are quite a few. I am sure you can think of the ways this search trick may be useful for you. As a search marketer, I personally use LinkFromDomain: operator to see if there are any “shady” pages the site under question links to. But here’s one idea everyone would appreciate: look which sites a great review and how-to site like MUO links to. For example, find all Mac-related pages MakeUseOf authors review and link to:
2. Feed:This Bing search operators finds RSS or Atom feeds on a website for the terms you search for. Search pattern: feed:term Suggested usage: This one is pretty simple and straightforward. I use it as an additional (or alternative) way to find blogs related to my topic because this search finds what Google Blog Search doesn’t. Example: [feed:gadgets]
Note: Hasfeed: is similar to the above ones: it finds webpages that contain an RSS or Atom feed on a website for the terms you search for. It can be used like yet one more alternative for your regular blog search. 3. Contains:This Bing search operators lets you find pages that link to a particular file types. Search pattern: contains:filetype Suggested usage: these are plenty, I am sure you will come up with many more ways to use this trick, I am giving just a few examples:
More information on Bing advanced search: The problem with finding official Bing information on how to use its search operators is that most results I was able to find were too outdated (dating back to 2005-2006) and were basically about MSN/Live.com search engines re-published on bing.com domain. Here are a few resources that you may find helpful (if you are going to give Bing a try):
Do you use Bing search? If so, what especially do you like about it? Image Credit : betsyweber Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| 12 Awesome Homepages Readers Shared With Us Posted: 04 Mar 2010 11:31 AM PST
All these homepages meet my qualifications for a quality homepage: no clutter, quick to load and some basic functionality. If you're looking to replace your current homepage with something better, you'll have no shortage of ideas after checking this out.
Opera's Speed Dial: Bookmarks & Search
Opera's user base is among the most loyal I can think of: you literally can't write anything involving browsers without hearing from Opera fans about a built-in feature. This article was no exception, as a number of our readers informed me of the awesomeness of Opera's Speed Dial function. The idea is simple: every time a new tab is opened you're shown the bookmarks you use most often. You can set these bookmarks to be whatever you want, and can even sync them across multiple computers. This feature is so good, some Opera users set the new tab page as their homepage, making it not only the first thing they see when they open a tab but also the first thing they see when they open their browser. This homepage can only be used in the Opera browser, which you can download here for Linux, Mac and Windows. Chrome's New Tab Page: A Lot Like Speed Dial
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the Google Chrome team really liked Opera's Speed Dial feature. Sure, Chrome's new tab page differs from Opera's offering in a few ways: it dynamically fills itself with the pages you like best, and features recently visited pages at the bottom of the screen. As our readers pointed out: it loads instantly, shows you the sites you're most likely to want. What else are you looking for? This feature is built into Chrome. If you're not already using Google's excellent browser, download it here for Linux, Mac and Windows. Fast Dial: Yep, Another Speed Dial Clone
This one's easy enough to explain: it's Opera's Speed Dial, for Firefox. This Firefox extension replaces the blank page you see when you open a new tab, with unlimited customizable links. Set them up and a thumbnail of the site in question will display. Set them all up and you've got a quick way to get started with your web browsing without having to switch to Chrome or Firefox. The con? Unlike Chrome's new tab page, it doesn't dynamically fill itself in; unlike Opera's speedial, the bookmarks cannot be synchronized from computer to computer. Still, it's worth checking out. Check out and download Fastdial here. 3×3links: Like the Others, But Web Based
3×3links is like Speed Dial/Chrome New Tab Page/Fast Dial, but for any browser. This web-based startpage allows you to set up nine shortcuts that arrange themselves in a grid. Your bookmarks are stored in the cloud, meaning you can access them anywhere and start your browsing in style. Set this up as your homepage and you've got a clean homepage with links to your favorites. Check it out here. Why Not Make Your Own From Scratch?MakeUseOf readers are a tech-savvy bunch, so it should come as no surprise that a number of our readers take a DIY approach to their homepage. Why settle for existing homepages if you can make your own? This is a great project for those who want to teach themselves HTML, and a quick one for those who already know it. The best part? You can't get a more flexible homepage than one you write yourself from scratch. This isn't for everyone, but it is a good idea for those willing to put in some time. about:blank Is The Ultimate In MinimalismMy key reason for choosing Google as my homepage was minimalism: I wanted something that loaded quickly and stayed out of my way. Having said that, nothing fits that description quite as well as a blank page. In most browsers, typing about:blank in the address bar loads an empty page. If you like having a homepage that's…well…a homepage and not a blank page, this isn't for you. But if you value speed above all else, about:blank is your ideal solution. Fav4.org
I know I talked about this one in the previous article, but I can't help it: it's just about perfect. This site does nothing but show you four slick icons. You can select from a wide variety of popular services, and there's no need to log in once you do: a simple cookie keeps track of your choices. This one is fast, clean and efficient. The one con is the limited number of pages featured: MakeUseOf isn't there, and neither is more of the web. But the things featured are hugely popular, so Fav4 is certainly worth checking out – a couple of you readers certainly seemed to enjoy it. Google Bookmarks: A List Of Bookmarks
As it turns out, Google.com isn't all Google offers on the homepage front. Those wanting a simple collection of links should check out Google Bookmarks. While all it does is give you a list of simple text links, and it's not the prettiest homepage on the net, some appreciate its simplicity. Best of all, it's tied to your Google account, so you don't need to create a new account to use it if you already have Gmail or any other Google service. The main con is it's yet another part of your life given to the Google Empire, but if a list of links doesn't concern you too much check out Google Bookmarks here. Start.io: Simple & Sexy List Of Bookmarks
It's like Google Bookmarks, but pretty. Start.io gives you the chance to create a clean and condensed list of links, styled however you like. This page loads quickly and can serve as a great starting point. Best of all, you can set up whatever links you like. Yes, you need to sign up for an account, but it's a great compromise for people who want a custom set of links but don't feel like writing their own from scratch. Check out Start.io here. Symbaloo
If four to nine bookmarks isn't enough for you, check out Symbaloo. This site is the heavy power-users dream, allowing you to literally fill your page with more shortcuts than you can shake a stick at. You'll need an account to set up the service, but once you do it'll be hard to switch to any other page. The con? It's busy. Really busy. But if you prefer selection to simplicity Symbaloo comes recommended. Find it here. Genieo
A number of late commenters, including Genieo's own Vice President, commented to tell us about the wonders of Genieo. This service, which requires the installation of a proprietary Windows-only program to work, analyzes your Facebook feed, your Twitter feed and your browsing habits in order to build you a custom homepage catered to your interests. Find out more by reading Saikat's recent article on Genieo. It doesn't work with Chrome, nor does it work on Linux or Mac. But if you're a loyal IE or Firefox user this one might be worth checking out; a couple readers called it game-changing. I myself won't be touching it because I want the same homepage on my Jolicloud netbook as my Windows desktop, but you're free to check it out here. KeyboardrThis one's just slick. When you open it you see nothing but a search box and a clock. Type a search and you'll be shown the results in the same window, which you can browse using nothing more than your keyboard. Hit "Enter" to open a site and it'll launch in a new tab. This is an amazing homepage for people who want to browse Google results without touching your mouse. Check it out; you'll probably love it. ConclusionThere you have it: twelve great homepages recommended by you, the MakeUseOf reader. If you think of another great idea for a homepage feel free to share it below of course, but I've decided on mine: I'm sticking with Google. This isn't to say none of these services are cool; on the contrary, they were all awesome enough for me to share here. It's just that none are cool enough to make me switch from Google. Discuss whether or not I'm stubborn in the comments below. While you're at it, keep on being awesome. Related posts
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| Email Blog Updates To Your Wordpress Blog With Postie Posted: 04 Mar 2010 10:31 AM PST
Unfortunately, as you may have noticed if you read that article, Google Voice doesn’t do a perfect job transcribing your voice yet. It completely misunderstands some words, and these mistakes are unacceptable when you’re using the text as a blog entry. So until Google can improve their service, we’re left with the next best option – email blog updates via email.
Installing Postie On Your BlogMost folks who have had a personal hosted Wordpress blog for a while understand how to quickly install or uninstall Wordpress plugins. If you’re not sure how to do it, simply download the zipped file from the Postie link above, unzip it to a folder on your PC, and then use your favorite FTP client to FTP the file into the plugins folder of your blog.
Once you do this, the plugin will show up as Postie and Cronless Postie in your Wordpress control panel under “Plugins.”
Activate both Postie and Cronless Postie. If you are a Linux user, or you otherwise know how to configure cron jobs that will run the Postie script every so often to check your email account for any new email, you can use just the Postie feature alone. However, for most users, the additional add-on Cronless Postie is needed so that you can use the built-in scheduler that will run the Postie script at a set interval (every day, hour, etc) to check for new emails. How Postie WorksThe cool thing about Postie, as opposed to most other email-to-blog tools out there, is that you can use any personal email account that you want – not a specific pre-defined address, as you have to do in some cases with Blogger. Once you’ve enabled Postie, go under “Settings” in your control panel and click on “Postie.” Here, you’ll see the basic Mailserver settings.
This is where you can set up your POP3 settings for any email that you like. I suggest setting up a Gmail account exclusively for receiving email blog updates. While any email will work (because you can filter out which senders are authorized to blog), creating an email account only for your blogging will make things a lot easier to handle.
User settings is where you define who can post to your blog via email. Do not “allow anyone” unless you feel pretty certain that the unique email you set up for your blog will not receive any spam or unexpected messages. By allowing anyone, you’re saying that anything that lands in the inbox of that unique email account will immediately be blogged – that could be dangerous. Instead, add Authorized Addresses in the list box. When Postie checks your unique email account, it will check the sender. If the sender is one of those addresses, the email will get converted into a post entry. You can also automatically add the addresses of anyone set up on your blog under any role by simply selecting that role.
Once Postie checks your email account and recognizes a new incoming email from one of your authorized senders, you can then configure how the email is converted into a blog post under the “Message” configuration. Set up the default category that Postie blogs to, and if there’s no subject for the email (which normally becomes the title), then define a default title as well. The options below that define how the message is processed – what code is allowed or not allowed. For example, if you allow the subject in the email, then people can type “#your title here#” in the message rather than the subject line in order to set the Title (this works well for SMS to email posts). The coolest option here is the Tag or Message Start and End. Using this setting, you can define what text or code begins and starts the post, so no matter what extra text exists outside of those tags, only the enclosed text gets posted.
Unlike many other email-to-blog services, Postie gives you the ability to completely customize how many images attached to the email message are posted to the blog. I always had the problem, with previous apps that I’ve used, where the image would just get thrown at the top of the blog post and centered, with the text below it. I always like my images aligned as thumbnail left. Postie not only lets you set that up, but then you can further customize the image template by tweaking the HTML however you like.
The same customization is available for any video or audio files that you attach as well. Customize how those files are embedded into your blog, based on attached file type.
For any attached files of other types, you can define how that attachment looks in your blog. Select the icon set color and size, and add any default text that you’d like to go with it. As you can see, Postie turns the ability to simply email blog updates into the ability to create full-featured blog entries via email. Now, when you’re on vacation and nowhere near a computer, you can just type up a quick email on your mobile phone, attach an image, and all of the customization that you have in place with Postie will ensure that your blog entry looks exactly as it does when you post it directly into the Wordpress editor. Do you use Postie to post blog entries? What’s your favorite email-to-blog Wordpress plugin? Share your thoughts in the comments section below. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| MakeUseOf Must-Have Mac Apps Giveaway Day #3 – 1Password 3 Posted: 04 Mar 2010 10:00 AM PST
You should never jeopardise security for the sake of convenience. That’s where 1Password steps in. It’s a fantastic password manager, form-filler and personal information vault. And we have 5 licenses worth $200 to give away!
However, the app will come in handy whenever you need to review/edit password information.
Besides storing internet username and passwords, 1Password is an awesome and secure personal information vault. Use it to store email account passwords and other details, instant messaging credentials and file sharing (Amazon S3, FTP, MobileMe) account information. If you find yourself frequently filling in forms, 1Password makes life a little easier by automatically entering your home address and other contact information, not to mention storing them securely (unlike your browser’s form filler).
It can also be used to store sensitive notes from prying eyes.
1Password also offers a secure wallet feature which can be used to store financial information such as personal banking, credit cards; and to back up important documents like your passport, driving license and social security number.
Finally, to help you come up with secure passwords, 1Password offers a built-in password generator that’s much more robust (and easier to reach) than the built-in Mac OS X Password Assistant.
If you need to access your sensitive information while you’re on the road, 1PasswordAnywhere is a simple yet clever solution. Or you could always get their iPhone app, which syncs with the desktop client. So, are you convinced yet? How do I win a copy?All you need to do is; Join our Facebook page by clicking on the Become a fan button below.
If you can’t see the fanbox above, click on this link. To seal the deal, click on the Facebook Share button below the article to spread the news to your friends. Then in comments section, post a link to your Facebook profile (be sure to enter your real email address so that we can contact you if you win!). Existing fans only need to share the article and post a link to their Facebook profile in the comments. This giveaway ends tomorrow, just before the next one starts. Between now and then, you can share this post or comment as many times as you want! The more you interact, the higher your chances of winning. Let the giveaway begin! Have fun! Want to know what else we’re giving away? Check out this post 15 Must-Have Free Apps For Your Mac & Giveaway. MakeUseOf would like to thank Agile Web Solutions for their generosity while participating in this giveaway. Interesting in sponsoring? We’d love to hear from you. Get in touch with us via email. em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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| 5 Cool Apps That Make Dropbox Even More Useful Posted: 04 Mar 2010 09:31 AM PST
Out of the box Dropbox works really well with support for Windows, Mac and Linux. The default functionality, however leaves a lot to be desired. For instance you can only sync files and folders that are contained within the My Dropbox folder. Here we present some useful dropbox downloads – software tools and applications that you can use alongside Dropbox to make it even more useful. Some of them fill the voids left by the out of box functionality while some of them take Dropbox to a whole new level, using it for things far beyond synchronization.
Junction, SyncToy, Conduit
All of these Dropbox downloads fall in roughly the same category. They help you keep two folders in sync. So why would you need any one of these when you are already using Dropbox? Well, because you can use them to sync folders via Dropbox that are outside the My Dropbox folder for your account. While all of these applications are fantastic, I must point out that you can use the mklink command on Windows and the ln command on Linux to create links to external folders from within the My Dropbox folder Dropbox Portable / Dropbox U3Both these Dropbox application downloads or add-ons serve the same purpose. They let you install and use Dropbox from your USB flash drive. Dropbox U3 is specially made for U3 Smart flash drives. All you need to do is to unzip or install onto your Flash drive and you are set to use Dropbox with your flash drive. So now you can keep your pen drive data synced and backed up to the cloud easily! MailDrop
MailDrop is one of my personal favorites. It lets you add files to your Dropbox using nothing but email. Here is how it works: it checks your mail account via IMAP. Any mail inside the Dropbox folder (label in Gmail speak) is checked for attachments and those attachments are uploaded to your Dropbox. You will of course be required to provide your mail credentials so that MailDrop can access your account via IMAP. MailDrop’s developer says that the email credentials are only used locally by MailDrop and you need not provide your Dropbox credentials. Dropbox Copy Plugin
The Copy Plugin lets you copy or move files to your Dropbox folder via the right click context menu. It then copies the Dropbox public link on to the clipboard so you can share in a snap. Akira
The Akira Dropbox download can let you control certain aspects of a remote machine via commands using nothing but Dropbox as the conduit. You can do tasks like running an application or shutting down the remote computer using Akira. While it cannot replace remote desktop or ssh login into a Linux machine, Akira provides a good basic set of commands that are pretty useful and easy to remember and use at the same time. MakeUseOf has written a lot about Dropbox in the past. Here’s a small selection : 3 Reasons Why Students Should Be Using Dropbox Do you use any other Dropbox downloads or custom scripts to make Dropbox even more useful? Let us know about them in comments! Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| Mac Giveaway AppZapper Winners! Posted: 04 Mar 2010 09:00 AM PST
We hope you enjoy zapping your unused apps away! License information will be sent via email. Thank you for participating. The next giveaway begins in an hour — be sure to try again if you haven’t won anything yet! em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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| Artwork Gofer: The Hunt For Free Album Cover Art [Mac] Posted: 04 Mar 2010 08:31 AM PST
Even though browsing through the cover art in digital format is not as fun as touching the real thing, I think most people can cope with that. The one thing that annoys most people is the absence of cover art here and there within the collection. Among thousands of songs in your library, I’m pretty sure that some of them have the blank look in the cover flow mode. You can manually search for free album cover art on the net and add them one by one to the songs. But why bother? We have Artwork Gofer.
Start Hunting!Artwork Gofer is a free application which will help you search and add missing cover art in your music collection. It uses one of the biggest storage of free album cover art as its resources: Amazon Stores. The first time you open Artwork Gofer, you will find the Preferences window. You may adjust some of the settings here to fit your needs. For example: change the store location from US to Japan if you are looking for cover art for J-Dorama songs.
You can also choose to allow a single track to have multiple artworks and replace low-resolution existing artwork with better ones. Done with the preferences, you can then start hunting by clicking the File menu. There are several options that you can choose: “Get Artwork for Selection (Command + O)“, “Search Album (Command + Option + O)” and “Get All Missing Artwork (Command + Shift + O)“.
If you choose one of the options while not having iTunes opened, you will get this warning window popping up.
To search cover art for individual songs, select the song in iTunes, switch to Artwork Gofer (you can use Alt + Tab for faster switching) and hit Command + O.
Artwork Gofer will do its magic and show you the search results. Pick the best one from the results (if there are many) and click the “Add Artwork” button. That cover art will then be added to the previously selected song on iTunes.
Please note that it’s also possible to have zero results for your searches. You can take another route of this cover art hunting by directly searching for an album. Just hit the “Command + Option + O” and write the title of the album and the artist’s name and hit the “Search” button.
The ultimate method is the “Search all missing artwork” (Command + Shift + O)”. The option window will open with several items that you can adjust. Hit the “search” button when you are done adjusting.
Artwork Gofer will read your Music Library for songs with missing cover art.
Then the search result window will open. All of your songs with no cover art will be listed on the left pane along with the number of possible free album cover art found. Click the results one by one and select the best cover art for your songs.
From my experiment, I found that even though this tiny app is not perfect, it did its job very well. Music lovers who want to get a richer experience with iTunes should check our other related articles about: TunesArt and GimmeSomeTunes. And as always, if you know other free methods to quickly find and download cover art, please share using the comments below. Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!
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| How To Configure & Use Windows 7’s XP Mode Posted: 04 Mar 2010 07:31 AM PST
This application can help a company with legacy applications and still upgrade to the latest and greatest iteration of Windows. If this is your situation you can follow this post to see how to get Windows 7 XP Mode and running.
If you do not know if your processor can handle it, check out this site to check your Intel processor over here and you can check your AMD processor with this site called Securable. You can also run this application from Microsoft to check your processor and BIOS settings. OK now that we know that we CAN run XP mode lets see what we need to do next. We will need to download two packages from the Internet. The first download is called Windows XP mode for Windows 7. You can download that here from Microsoft. This is a 500MB download. The next download is called Windows Virtual PC that allows us to run the XP virtual machine which was downloaded above. There the instructions provided by Microsoft state clearly:
You will need to specify your username and password for your XP installation as you can see below:
After you have installed both components, click on Virtual Windows XP for it to complete the installation.
You will see a bunch of dialogues as Windows 7 installs your Virtual Windows XP Environment. When it is complete you will have a real Windows XP installation in your virtual machine as you can see below:
You can check your virtual machine settings by right clicking on the file, choosing properties and you will see the following:
You can change your memory allocation and other virtual machine settings here. You should have Auto Publish turned to enable so when you set up a application to work with your XP VM the shortcut can be published to the start menu.
To add items to your XP virtual machine, simply drag shortcuts into the start menu under Programs or install them within the XP VM. They will be auto-magically published to your Windows 7 start menu (if Auto-Publish is enabled) under the XP virtual machine shortcut so you can launch them with a single click. What do you use your XP virtual machine for? Leave us a note in the comments! em>Got Tech Questions? Ask Them on MakeUseOf Answers! Related posts
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What happens when you combine the social networking power of Twitter with the usefulness of Google Maps? The result can be some pretty cool and intriguing applications.
Since 
Many people hope 
You guys are awesome. In my article last week about 
Recently, I covered how to 
If you’re a real web-bug, you must have tonnes of usernames and password to keep track of. Many people attempt to solve this problem by using a universal password for every web service. Experienced tech-gurus will tell you that’s not a good idea.
Congratulations to the extremely lucky 20 winners from Day #2! Each of you won a copy of 
Sometimes I miss the good old days when I spent my spare time in the traditional music store, browsing through piles of CD cases adorned with beautiful images on their covers. Not many people do that anymore though, because the music industry has gradually shifted from the physical to the digital form.
You are running Windows 7 and you have already looked at some of our previous posts on Windows 7 such as 
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