Pak Tech Blog

How to Enable D2D in Firefox 4

2010-10-20T00:57:00.001-07:00

Firefox 4 will be bringing hardware-accelerated graphics with Direct2D support in Firefox 4, but that will not be enabled by default. The Firefox team believes that feature is not quite ready to be rolled out for everyone.

Even though it’s not enabled by default, you can still enable it manually with the help of the instructions given at the Firefox Wiki.

How to Enable D2D in Firefox 4

Follow the instructions below to enable D2D support in Firefox 4:

Enter ‘about:config’
Click through the warning, if necessary
Enter gfx.font in the ‘Filter’ box
Double-click on ‘gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled’ to set it to true
Below this, right click and select New > Integer to add a pref setting
Enter ‘mozilla.widget.render-mode’ for the preference name, 6 for the value
Restart

Firefox 4 beta 4 will be released on Monday which will have support for hardware-accelerated graphics!

Firefox 4 Beta 4 Releasing on Monday

2010-10-20T00:56:00.000-07:00

Mozilla will be releasing Firefox 4 beta 4 for download on Monday, just days after beta 3 was released, Neowin reports.

Firefox 4 beta 4 will be released with two new features: hardware-accelerated graphics for Windows users and tab sets.

Hardware-accelerated graphics with Direct2D will not be enabled by default as their code is not that ready yet. D2D will make Firefox faster by helping in displaying texts and images.

Tab sets (aka tab candy) will allow users to group their tabs together into sets, such as ‘Work’, ‘Home’ etc.

Mozilla will release Firefox 4 beta 5 probably next month, which will be the last beta release before RC is released.

[via Neowin]

Fennec for Android Pre-Alpha, Download Now!

2010-10-20T00:54:00.000-07:00

Fennec for Android, Firefox Mobile, ‘super’ pre-alpha version is now available for download! Yes, it is still in its very early stages, but atleast it could open websites ;)

It has been a long time since Firefox has been talking about Fennec for Android and promised with an alpha release soon. They kept their promise, and the first alpha release is out for public download.

I have tried it on my Nexus One and it seriously has the best rendering of webpages among other Android browsers. Why and how? I’ll get on to this in another blog post. It has many bugs and glitches, but it performs the basic functions well, including installation and adding of Firefox Mobile addons. I even tweeted using the TwitterBar addon for Fennec here.

Download Fennec for Android

You need to have atleast a Motorola Droid or Nexus One in order to try out Fennec. Download it from the link below.

Download Fennec for Android

Some points to keep in mind, taken from the developer’s blog.

We’ve only really tested this on the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One.
It will likely not eat your phone, but bugs might cause your phone to stop responding, requiring a reboot.
Memory usage of this build isn’t great — in many ways it’s a debug build, and we haven’t really done a lot of optimization yet.Â This could cause some problems with large pages, especially on low memory devices like the Droid.
You’ll see the app exit and relaunch on first start, as well as on add-on installs; this is a quirk of our install process, and we’re working to get rid of it.
You can’t open links from other apps using Fennec; we should have this for the next build.
This build requires Android 2.0 or above, and likely an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device.
Edit: This build must be installed to internal memory, not to a SD card.

Fennec for Android Download Now Available

2010-10-20T00:52:00.000-07:00

Fennec for Android is now available for download, unofficially though. Mozilla said they would be soon releasing a working, simple alpha release of Fenenc but it’s nowhere to be seen so far.

A developer at Android forums managed to grab the dump from Mozilla Wiki and compile it in to an app that he tried and tested on his Motorola Droid.

I tried to make it work on my Nexus One, but it didn’t work at all. Next I’ll be trying it on my HTC Hero, but I doubt it will work on that too as it is on Android 1.5 – may be I’ll have to flash an Android 2.0 ROM on it. Get Fennec now!

Check out the demo videos the developer uploaded below:

If you enjoyed this post, y

Firefox for Android Coming in February

2010-10-20T00:49:00.002-07:00

Firefox Mobile is still in development and we are already hearing of a Firefox for Android version expected to release next month. Firefox for Maemo and Windows Mobile is already in development.

Firefox for Android alpha version is being expected in February as the development work on it started back in December 2009. This news was posted on the German Firefox community site.

It is not sure what features the Firefox for Android will have, but it seems it will be a very basic app to display web pages.

A look at the Firefox Android wiki pages hints that the Firefox for Android will run on Android devices running on Android 1.6 or higher. It won’t work on Android 1.5 devices like the HTC Hero, HCT Droid Eris etc.

The Firefox for Android wiki page can be found here. Or you can grab the Firefox for Maemo 1.0 Release Candidate version for the Nokia N900 by pointing to Firefox.com/m.

[Via TheMobileBlog]

Accelerate Page Scrolling in Firefox 3.6

2010-10-20T00:49:00.001-07:00

Firefox 3.6 was released a few days back and is available for download. The tips and tricks for Firefox 3.6 have already started popping up on the Internet.

This latest Firefox release brings in lots of new features and updates. It was downloaded over 4.5 million times on the first day and Â has been downloaded 17 million times in its first week.

In the early Firefox 3.6 builds, a new page scrolling was implemented which was later turned off due to some compatibility issues. That feature is still better for many who find the current page scrolling slow in Firefox 3.6.

How to Accelerate Page Scrolling in Firefox 3.6

To enable this, follow the simple steps given below:

Go to about:config by typing it in the address box.
Now search for mousewheel.acceleration.start using the filter box and set it to the number of successive mouse scrolls that will trigger acceleration. (Recommended: 3)
Then in mousewheel.acceleration.factor change its value to how many times faster you want to scroll. (Recommended: 5)

That’s it! Your page scrolling with the mouse wheel in Firefox 3.6 should be a lot better now. You can play with the number of values and see what works best for you.

[Via Mozilla Links]

Firefox 3.6 Portable now Available

2010-10-20T00:47:00.002-07:00

Firefox 3.6 (final) was released yesterday which brings in better Javascript speed, Personas support and tons of new improvements i.e. speed.

PortableApps has released a portable version of Firefox 3.6 which you can carry anywhere you want.

This version would allow Firefox 3.6 to be used from your USB stick. No data will be saved on the computer you will be using it. It has the same features as the final (full) Firefox 3.6.

Download Firefox 3.6 Portable

Backup Facebook with Archive Facebook

2010-10-20T00:47:00.001-07:00

I have previously shared and gave away free license keys of SocialSafe, a tool to backup your Facebook account.

Well, since that was a paid app and people mostly prefer free tools and applications, I’ve found a free method to backup your Facebook profile.

ArchiveFacebook is a free tool that allows you to save content from your Facebook account directly to your hard drive. Archive your photos, messages, activity stream, friends list, notes, events and groups.

It is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save web pages from Facebook and easily manage them. Save content from Facebook directly to your hard drive and view them exactly the same way you currently view them on Facebook.

The addon is still in experimental stage, so you will need to create an account at the Firefox addon website.

Download ArchiveFacebook

You can download it from here: Download ArchiveFacebook

Remove Google Groups Ads

2010-10-20T00:45:00.000-07:00

This Greasemonkey script that I’ve found could be useful for those who use Google Groups a lot, but find all those Google ads on it annoying.

Google Groups Ads Remover is a free Greasemoneky script that takes off ads from the pages Google Groups which some people find annoying while going through the different groups.

How to Remove Google Groups Ads

Make sure you have Greasemonkey installed (see below for your browser).
Download the Google Groups Ads Remover script and install in Greasemonkey.
Refresh your Google Groups page
You shouldn’t see the ads anymore now!

Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 4

2010-10-20T00:42:00.000-07:00

Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 is now available for download and is probably the last beta before the final version is released.

This fourth beta version has been released for beta testers to test for any bugs or any last minute issues before Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 final version.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 contains more than 100 fixes as compared to the previous versions and more than 70% of Firefox addon developers have upgraded their plugins to be fully compatible with the latest version.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 4 Changes

Supports for the HTML5 File API.
A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
A mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing Firefox.
Users can now change their browserâ€™s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
Supports for the WOFF font format.
Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
Supports for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 4

You can download this for free here: Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 4

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1

2010-10-20T00:40:00.000-07:00

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is now available for download! This was suppose to be available a couple of days earlier, but due to some issues it wasn’t released. But now Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is available for download.

This beta version of Firefox 3.6 is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine. It contains many improvements for web developers, add-on developers and for the users.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Features

Some of the new features introduced in Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 are:

Users can now change their browserâ€™s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
Support for the WOFF font format.
Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 1

You an download this latest Firefox 3.6 beta version from here: Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 1

Firefox 3.5.4 Released

2010-10-20T00:39:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, a Firefox update was released and uploaded on the Mozilla FTP and as well on the website.

Mozilla Firefox 3.5.4 is now available for download. Many of you must have aleady got notifications of the update from automatic update.

This latest Firefox release brings in security and stability updates to your browser which makes it important for everyone to update. According to the release notes, the total changes list include 124 items with seven marked as critical and 13 as major.

Download Firefox 3.5.4

You can download the latest Firefox from here: Download Firefox 3.5.4

Add Lyrics Box in YouTube Video Pages

2010-10-20T00:38:00.000-07:00

How many of you visit YouTube daily just to download music videos? I’m sure 50% of YouTube visitors visit it just for music videos. No wonder, they have the highest number of views on a video.

On a video page, you can now add a lyrics box below the description box using a Greasemonkey script.

YouTube Lyrics script adds a lyrics box to the YouTube sidebar under the video informations box. It searches in eleven different lyrics websites and the show all the results in a drop down list.

Download YouTube Lyrics script

You can download this free userscript from here: Download YouTube Lyrics

Visual Cache Viewer for Firefox

2010-10-20T00:37:00.000-07:00

Everything you browse and do in Firefox gets stored in the cache. You can browse the cache with two ways. One way is to type about:cache in Firefox and other is to access them manually from your Firefox profile.

Firefox Cache Viewer is a free tool that provides a GUI and detailed information for your Firefox cache.

This tool can help you in identifying which images are stored in Firefox’s cache. You can sort by url, size, mime type, cache location or date and can also search for specific items.

Download Visual Firefox Cache Viewer

You can download this Firefox addon from here: Download Cache Viewer

Get Productive in Firefox with SmarterFox

2010-10-20T00:35:00.000-07:00

Firefox already comes with some many features to keep your productivity high, but what if you get to make it more productive by adding a little spice to it?

The spice I’m talking about is, SmarterFox, a Firefox addon to speedup tasks in Firefox and let you browse faster.

SmarterFox is the most popular productivity addon which saves time by speeding up common tasks. This Firefox addon will help you get things done much quicker by getting faster, parallelized downloads, convenient shortcuts and more.

Highlights of the addon:

To save Web videos right-click anywhere and then select “download page media”.
You can download all images and links of a page in parallel, maximizing the usage of your bandwidth.
When you reach the end of the page, SmarterFox will automatically load the next page and append it to the end, saving you time.
To open the qLauncher, press Ctrl + Space. You can change this in the options dialog.

If you don’t want or like any of its features, you can easily disable them from the menu Tools > SmarterFox.

Download SmarterFox

You can download this addon from here: Download SmarterFox

How To Create Your Own Firefox Installer

2010-10-20T00:34:00.001-07:00

Despite the fact that Firefox is becoming more resource hungry day by day, it is still my favourite browser with all the addons it has to offer us.

Did you know you can easily create your own Firefox installer? Yep, that also with all your favourite addons and themes installed in it.

Silence of the Foxes is a free utility that lets you create your very own Firefox installers. All you need is the latest official Firefox installer, extension files and you’re good to go with your first Firefox installer project.

This application is only 288KB in size and worth a try if you want to create a custom Firefox of your own. Keep checking, as I would be releasing a Sizzled Core edition of Firefox soon using this tool :)

Download Silence Of The Foxes

Firefox 3.5.2 Available for Download

2010-10-20T00:32:00.000-07:00

Mozilla has just released an update, Firefox 3.5.2, addressingÂ several security and stability issue which are now fixed in the latest release.

Currently, it is not available everywhere and is being reported of being distributed to all its mirrors.

Automatic update usually takes 24-48 hours before it starts notifying about any new released update. It is recommended that you all upgrade your Firefox to 3.5.2 as it is a security update fixing several issues. You can see the release notes here.

Download Firefox 3.5.2

While Firefox 3.5.2 gets distributed to all the mirrors worldwide, SizzledCore readers can download the English version from here: Download Firefox 3.5.2 (Windows only)

Firefox 4.0 Screenshots Revealed

2010-10-20T00:14:00.000-07:00

I remember when Firefox 3 was released making a world record for most downloads in 24 hours, the guys at Mozilla had already started working on the next Firefox. I even got a glimpse of the Firefox 4 Alpha 1 from their FTP, but not sure if that was the official one.

Just like there was a new interface in Firefox 3, the FF team is again working on a new and much-improved interface for Firefox 4.

Two mockup designs have been released on the Mozilla Wiki to gather user-feedback and improve their designs further. These two mockups show two versions, tabs on top and tabs on bottom on Windows Vista default theme.

Tabs on Top

A bookmarks menu has been added next to the address bar, also known as the Awesome Bar.

Tabs on Bottom

Positives:

Save Vertical Space
Efficiency/Remove Visual Complexity – Right now the tabs have to be connected to something. So we are adding an extra visual element for them to connect to.
Shorter Mouse Distance to Page Controls

Negatives:

Breaks Consistency/Familiarity – Moving things confuses existing users.
Title is MIA – With the space removed from the titlebar you only get the truncated version in the tab.
Longer Mouse Distance to Tabs – Takes longer to mouse to a tab.
Lost Space – Sandwiched in between the application icon and the window widgets you lose some space.

Download Facebook Videos

2010-07-15T23:31:00.000-07:00

Most video sharing sites do not allow users to download videos off the site for offline viewing. But still, there’s always an other way round that does the trick!

I’ve shared a number of times how you can download videos off YouTube and other video sharing websites. And now here’s a trick how you can download videos from Facebook shared by your friends.

How to Download Facebook Videos

This is a simple Greasemonkey (What is?) script that you need to install using the Greasemonkey addon for Firefox. Follow the steps below to get direct links to download Facebook videos in high quality.

Get Greasemonkey addon for Firefox
Install the script and restart your browser

That’s it! Now open a video on Facebook to see download and convert links.

Facebook Desktop Application

2010-07-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

There are many applications that lets you use Facebook on desktop, but not all give you a nice interface with almost all the Facebook features built in it.

Photo Uploader for Facebook is actually an Adobe AIR Facebook desktop application that lets you upload photos by simply drag-and-drop, but along with features to make a complete desktop app.

Simply click and drag an image (or folder of images) onto the running application. You can also stay constantly connected with your Facebook friends, view your News Feed, receive notifications, pokes and chat, right from your desktop without having to go into the browser.

Download Photo Uploader for Facebook

You can download this free Adobe AIR application from the Adobe marketplace from: Download Photo Uploader

Facebook App v1.7 for BlackBerry

2010-07-15T23:29:00.000-07:00

The best Facebook app for smartphones that comes next to Facebook app for iPhone is the BlackBerry Facebook app. Thanks to all the features it has, even Android version of this app doesn’t come closer to it.

There were rumours already that BlackBerry Facebook app 1.7 will be releasing on October 16th, and it has turned out to be true. Facebook 1.7 is now live on the App World client.

New features in this version are:

News Feed Support – The ability to set the News Feed as the landing page
News Feed Filters – The ability to toggle between ‘News Feed, Status Updates, Photos & Links’
Caching Improvements – The application uses the device memory more efficiently.
Feed Pre-fetching – The user will not be required to wait while their Facebook Feeds are updated
View Profile Menu Option – Clients may easily view their own profile by selecting ‘View my Profile’ from the menu. “

Download Facebook v1.7 for BlackBerry

You can download it by visiting blackberry.com/facebook or m.facebook.com on your BlackBerry’s web browser. Or download it from the App World from the link below:

Download Facebook 1.7 for BlackBerry

How to Show Age in Facebook Profile

2010-07-15T23:28:00.000-07:00

How many of you are bad at Maths? Okay, let’s take it this way. How many of you find it difficult to calculate age of someone whose date of birth you know?

Well, in Facebook, the profile page only shows a person’s date of birth (only if the user has allowed others to see). it doesn’t show you their age and yes, (for those who’re week in calculating) you have to calculate their age yourself, if you ever need to.

Today I came across this small Greasemonkey script that would replace the date of birth field in Facebook profile page with their age (like in the screenshot above). For all those lazy people, you won’t have to calculate the next time you find out how old your friend is.

Download Facebook Show Age script

You can download the script from here: Download Facebook Show Age script

Facebook Notifications on Desktop

2010-07-15T23:27:00.001-07:00

I’m sure you remember the list of best Facebook applications I did? I also recently wrote about a Facebook Photo Uploader that is also like a complete desktop app for Facebook.

But those were all Adobe AIR based applications. I’ve found another cool Facebook application that shows Facebook notifications on desktop.

Notifications is a small desktop application for Facebook that brings all your new notifications to your desktop. These notifications include friend requests, pokes, event updates, group invites and unread messages.

Whenever a new notification arrives, you get notified with a pop up window like in Windows Live Messenger. It’s a .NET based application, so Windows XP users will have to install that first.

Download Facebook Notifications

You can download this application from here: Download Notifications

How to Hide Highlights in Facebook Sidebar

2010-07-15T23:25:00.000-07:00

A while ago, Facebook introduced a section of Highlights in its right sidebar which shows the most commented photos, coming events, notes and what others are doing.

Highlights section got a neutral response from everyone. Some liked it, but others found it as an addition to the ever growing clutter on the Facebook homepage.

If you don’t like that highlight section, you can use a userscript to delete that part out of the Facebook homepage. Unfortunately, Facebook being so much customizable, doesn’t allow to enable or disable Highlights, Suggestions or any other section of the homepage.

To remove Highlights, simply download the Hide Facebook Highlights greasemonkey script and install it in your browser (see below for your browser). It will remove highlights from your Facebook homepage.

Suggest a Profile Picture on Facebook

2010-07-15T23:24:00.000-07:00

Facebook introduced the new homepage yesterday, which was in works for quite some time. People have been complaining about the live news feed ever since it was released.

The latest homepage features separate feeds for news feed and live feed. You can switch to whatever you find more appropriate for yourself. Even this design hasn’t been received well by the Facebook users.

I noticed that the new Facebook homepage sidebar now let’s you suggest profile pictures for people you ‘might’ know. Under Suggestions, it now shows options to write on friends’ walls who are not very active on Twitter.

To suggest a profile picture for someone, just click on the Suggest a Profile Picture link and it will take you to the person’s profile page and will prompt you to upload the new profile picture. Once uploaded, Facebook will send a request to the person whether it’s the correct/appropriate profile picture for him or not.

This feature still news to be matured, because for now, it shows suggestions for people who are not related to me in any way and don’t even have any mutual friends with me. But this is just new, and hopefully will get better.

Facebook 3.0 iPhone App Features & Screenshot Tour

2010-07-13T19:30:00.000-07:00

A couple of hours ago, the Facebook 3.0 app for iPhone and iPod Touch finally made it’s way to the App Store for download.

The UI has been completely revamped to support a number of new features that can be seen in Facebook 3.0 iPhone app. This app is getting mixed reviews from everyone, but for me, it’s the best Facebook for iPhone app release till now.

I’ve compiled a list of the best features along with screenshots of Facebook 3.0 iPhone app.

Menu View and New UI

The main interface gives you access to news feed, profile, friends list, messages inbox, chat, friends requests, events, photos and notes icons. You can open those applications from there. If you swipe your finger, you will get additional space to save your favourite pages and friends for quick access to their profiles.

Revamped News Feed

The news feed in this Facebook 3.0 app shows everything just like you see on the desktop version of Facebook. Earlier, activities of some Facebook applications wasn’t shown, but now they are also included. Plus you can Like/Comment on stories just like you do from a computer.

Profile View

You profile also shows all your Facebook activity along with your information and photos. This area is pretty much the same except a slight change in the interface.

Friends and Page List

If you open the Friends list from the menu, you will now also see the option to browse your fan pages along with your Facebook friends. A much betetr feature to manage them separately. Previously we had to search for pages.

Call Friends

Image Credits: @MystaKool, @ellipsis3

iPhone users having the Facebook 3.0 app can also call their Facebook friends directly from within the app. This feature is not available for iPod Touch users.

Facebook Chat

The chat feature in this app now shows your online and idle contacts in alphabetical order and you can easily find an online friend by jumping from different alphabets. Previously, you just had to scroll up and down to find online/idle friends.

Notifications

The notifications area is also pretty much like what you see on your computer. Although, I personally liked the previous Notifications better in this app as it also showed thumbnails for photo comments.

Requests Panel

The requests feature still doesn’t show requests for groups, fan pages or any applications so that you can easily ignore the unwanted ones ;) And it would have been nicer if they supported Friends Lists while adding friends.

Events and Birthdays

Yep, the events feature is back from where you can check details of an event created on Facebook along with details on who’s attending, may be attending or or won’t be attending. Plus, you can also check for any upcoming birthdays – No more excuses of forgetting birthdays just because you use Facebook on iPhone!

Notes Feature

You can now read notes on Facebook 3.0 app and also create new ones to quickly share it with your friends.

Add Facebook Friends to Windows Live Messenger

2010-07-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

How many of you have more friends on Facebook than Windows Live Messenger (WLM)? Atleast, I do as I’m more active on Facebook than Windows Live.

Since the launch of the new WLM, many services have been integrated to it, like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn etc. Now you can even add contacts from these services in your WLM contact list.

It’s better to use the Connect tool in Windows Live Profile, rather than going through each of your Facebook friends’ profile for their Windows Live address and adding them individually.

How to Add Facebook Friends to Windows Live Messenger

Wondering how to do this? Just follow the steps below :)

1. Visit the Connect page from Windows Live Profile from here.

2. Next sign in with your Windows Live ID and proceed.

3. Select Facebook and press the arrow button next to it.

4. Sign in your Facebook account and choose the friends you want to invite.

5. Add a personal message to your invitation, once they accept your invite, start chatting.

Get Emoticons List in Facebook Chat

2010-07-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

I personally don’t prefer Facebook chat much and have almost put it on offline, but this tip could be helpful for those who use it a lot to chat with friends on Facebook.

I’m sure none of you would be aware of the entire list of emoticons available in Facebook Chat, but this little Greasemonkey script will display all of them like in any IM chat window.

How To Get Emoticons List in Facebook Chat

Follow the simple steps below to get your

Close any Facebook tabs/windows if they’re opened.
Get Greasemonkey addon for Firefox.
Now install this script for Greasemonkey to display Facebook Chat emoticons.
Sign in Facebook and open a chat tab to check emoticons.

Best Facebook Desktop Applications for Windows

2010-07-13T19:25:00.000-07:00

Facebook is now the most popular social network with over 300 million active members. Even being this big, Facebook has no official application for desktop to manage their updates and account without opening the Facebook website.

I have managed to compile a list of (almost) all the desktop applications available for Facebook, and I’m sure people like me who are very active on Facebook would love to try them out.

Best Facebook Desktop Applications

Let’s kick off with the list!

Facebook Desktop

Facebook Desktop is a Windows program that, with a small memory footprint, provides updates to the users Facebook profile, such as messages, pokes, wall posts, and friend requests. You don’t need to refresh your profile a hundred times to keep track of your Facebook! And just cause you’re not on the website doesn’t mean you’re not on Facebook. Download Facebook Desktop

FBQuick

FBQuick is a quick and easy way to get all your Facebook notifications right on your desktop without having to open the website. Download FBQuick

Bloom

Bloom is a multi-platform desktop app that let you upload your photos and videos easily and efficiently to Facebook, download albums and view your friends’ photos. You can upload photos to a new or an existing album, you can tag them and you can view your friends photos. [Download Bloom

FaceDesk

FaceDesk is an Adobe AIR application to use Facebook as a standalone application, instead of having to open it in a web browser. This app acts like a browser and only lets you browse Facebook on it. You won’t be able to view any other sites on it. Download FaceDesk

FB Photo Uploader

Upload photos to Facebook using a Java-based desktop application, including tagging photos before you upload. It looks more like a stripped down version of Bloom. Download FB Photo Uploader

FB Tray Notify

fbTrayNotify is a small Windows application that sits in your taskbar, providing balloon style alerts when you receive new messages, friend requests, event invites, group invites, pokes and shares. Download fbTrayNotify

VisualSage

Visual Sage for Facebook is an innovative Facebook chat and desktop application implemented by VisualSage, an innovative software technology company. This app is built upon Microsoft’s new technology WPF which shows all our friends at Facebook in a network. Download Visual Sage for Facebook

ScrapBoy

Scrapboy is a free desktop client for some of the popular social networks like Facebook, Orkut, and MySpace. It is a very useful app that brings all the features of social networks right on your desktop. Download ScrapBoy

Gabtastik

Gabtastik is a WebKit based app that lets you chat with your Facebook buddies from your desktop. You won’t have to open the entire Facebook page in your browser, just to chat with those friends, thus, saving system resources. Download Gabtastik

Zebr

Zebr lets you keep tabs on your Facebook friends from your desktop and see what they are doing. It is an AIR-based app. Download Zebr

FBLook

If you are an Outlook user, you probably have it open all the time. Now you can update your Facebook status, see your friend statuses and see notifications of new requests without having to open the browser or any other applications. FBLook seamlessly integrates Facebook into Outlook. Download FBLook

Facebook Introduces Prototypes, Apps In Making

2010-07-13T19:24:00.000-07:00

Facebook’s engineers thrive on innovation and experimentation and work on projects that inspire them and build on new ideas, but not all of those features and improvements make it to the main site.

For such applications, Facebook introduces Prototypes, an application directory which brings all the usable product experiments built by Facebook engineers for everyone to try.

Facebook Prototypes

You can test any of the products and features launched by Facebook Prototypes and then provide feedback directly to those who built them. So far, the Prototypes directory shows only five applications, but more will be added soon. Applications available in Prototypes are:

Desktop Notifications – For Mac OS X, Adds Notifications to your desktop, alerting you when interesting activity happens on Facebook.
Similar Posts – Gives you an easy, one-click way to find similar posts right from your homepage.
Enhanced Event Emails – Includes an iCal file as an attachment to your Event Invitation emails, enabling better integration with external calendaring solutions (Outlook, Google Calendar, etc).
Photo Tag Search – Search for photos that your friends are tagged in.
Recent Comments Filter – Add a filter to the homepage that shows what your friends are commenting on.

A detailed review about these Prototypes and other tips will be done later.

Try Facebook Prototypes

How to Find Orkut Friends on Facebook

2010-07-13T19:23:00.000-07:00

We all know how dominant Orkut was in social networks back in the year 2003. Still many people have friends on Orkut whom they haven’t been able to find on the current in thing – Facebook.

This is an old trick, but you can easily find your Orkut friends on Facebook by following the steps below.

How to Find Orkut Friends on Facebook

Drag this Facebook bookmarklet to your browser’s bookmarks bar.
Now login to your Orkut account, and click the Facebook bookmarklet. If that doesn’t work, you can alternatively try opening this link.
The Friend Finder tool in Facebook will now looks for your Orkut contacts that are not in your Facebook friends list.

How To Upload Photos By Facebook Mobile

2010-07-13T19:22:00.001-07:00

Facebook has a separate site for mobile users with a clean interface and less options; optimized for all mobile devices. Along this, it also allows you to upload photos directly from your mobile phone.

Many times I’m asked by my friends on how I set up Facebook to upload photos directly from my mobile phone. So for them, and all those who don’t know how to, I’m writing the procedure below for your convenience.

Sending photos to Facebook is very easy, but some people still have problems on setting it up. First thing I would like to make clear is that this feature of uploading photos works on all mobile devices with MMS capability and Internet connectivity in it because it uses email to upload photos to your Facebook account.

How To Set Up Facebook Mobile to Upload Photos

Simple follow the steps below to start uploading photos directly from your mobile phone.

1. Send a MMS to mobile@facebook.com from your mobile phone with a photo attached in it.

2. Facebook will read that photo and to associate your mobile number with your account, confirmation code will be sent to you as a text message. Note down that code.

3. Now open Facebook and go to your Profile page.

4. Then click the Photos tab and click “Create an album” button.

5. Now click Mobile Uploads tab. There you will see a box to enter your confirmation code.

6. Enter the confirmation code (sent by Facebook) there and you should now see a new album “Mobile Uploads” in your Albums with the photo in it that you sent earlier.

Your Facebook account is now been configured to receive photos directly from your mobile phone. All the images uploaded from your mobile will be stored in the “Mobile Uploads” album.

Free Facebook Advertisement Credit Worth $100

2010-07-13T19:21:00.001-07:00

I must say, Twitter is really replacing my feed reader to get the latest and hot tips. I hardly check my feed reader now, when I can get everything from my friends on Twitter.

As you all know Facebook is one of the most popular social networks out there, that has also beaten MySpace in terms of traffic per month. They allow you to advertise your Facebook pages, brands and other websites through their geo-targeted advertising system.

Won’t it be fun if you get some free Facebook advertising credit? My friend, Andan Ali, on Twitter shared a trick to get free Facebook advertisiment credit worth $100 by joining The Visa Business Network.

The Visa Business Network is a part of Visa’s dedication to helping small businesses succeed. By offering free Facebook advertising credit, they believe to help us grow and manage our business better.

Get Free Facebook Advertisement Credit Worth $100

Go to The Visa Business Network page, and join the network.
Fill in the form with your business details (no need to enter advanced details) and submit.
Now you should receive a confirmation email with your Facebook advertisement coupon code.
Follow the instructions carefully given in the email and enjoy free advertising on Facebook worth $100!

Remember, the generated coupon code is valid for the next 3 months and should be redeemed before that. And oh, yeah, I know all your minds here, so use this promotion wisely! ;)

Backup Facebook Profile with SocialSafe

2010-07-13T19:19:00.000-07:00

Most of us are addicted to online social networks like Facebook, Orkut, Hi5 etc. and for some managing an online social profile is now more important than keeping up with the one in real life.

Since no web service is infallible, you never know when your account might get hacked, deleted, suspended for false spamming or anything like that where you may lose important data, friends, uploaded photos etc.

We have already shared how you can backup your Twitter profile (followers), but there was no way to backup Facebook profile, until today, when I came across the perfect tool to backup your Facebook profile.

SocialSafe is a backup tool for Facebook which allowws you to download your Facebook friends, photo albums, photos you are tagged in and all your profile info to view them offline or just make a backup.

We, at Sizzled Core, have always reviewed and shared free applications and tools which are always helpful and doesn’t even cost a penny from your pockets. SocialSafe isn’t free, but I think it’s a must-buy application for hardcore Facebook users having many friends and popular profiles and I think $2.99 is not a big price the application is asking for.

Features

Download all your photo albums and photos you’re tagged in.
Backup your friends and profile info.
View and browse your Facebook profile offline.
Let friends know that you’ve downloaded the photos.

This Adobe AIR-based application is really simple to use, and it’s one license can let you use this application on two machines. Since SocialSafe has just released, there is lots of room for new features to be added. For now, your Wall Posts in Facebook are not backed up, but in the next versions that feature will also be added. Another feature I’m looking forward to is the backup of your private messages. I hope they add that soon.

Where is the backup stored?

If you’re wondering where your backup gets stored on your computer, a quick view in the FAQs page found me the path for stored backup location in Windows and Mac.

Windows: C:Documents and Settings[USER_NAME]Application Datacom.1minus1.SocialSafeXXXXXXXXXLocal Store
Mac: /Users/[USER_NAME]/Library/Preferences/ com.1minus1.SocialSafeXXXXXXXXX/Local Store

SocialSafe is available for both, Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac OS X (Leopard and Tiger). The first 10,000 copies of SocialSafe are being sold for just $2.99, so I’d suggest you to better hurry up! Payments are done via PayPal.

Download SocialSafe

If you have already purchased a license, this application can be downloaded from here: Download SocialSafe.

Facebook App for Android, Coming Soon

2010-07-13T19:15:00.000-07:00

Facebook has its official mobile apps for almost all mobile operating systems i.e iPhone, Windows Mobile, Symbian etc, but Andoid has been the only one left out.

That may be because of the past rivalry between Google and Facebook, but it looks like Facebook has finally decided to come out with an official app for Android.

This new Facebook Android app is expected to release somewhere in this this week and will use the new Facebook Stream API which provides access to news stream and status updates.

It will not be a full-featured Facebook app, like the iPhone one. You won’t be able to even check your Inbox, but all we can do is expect Facebook to add better access support and features as the time goes on.

Facebook Chat on Desktop

2010-07-13T19:11:00.002-07:00

We all know that the chat feature in Facebook is one of the worst feature they have added. I mean, it’s not stable at all and keeps disconnecting every now and then while chatting with someone.

There are several multi-IM that allows you to chat with your Facebook buddies, but if you’re looking for a Facebook-only desktop app for chatting, then this application might help you.

The only requirement this app has is that you need to have Adobe Flash Player installed. Gabtastik runs on Windows XP, Windows Vista and Mac OS X.

Download Facebook Chat on Desktop App

You can download this application from here: Download Gabtastik

Facebook 3.0 App for iPhone Now Available

2010-07-13T19:11:00.001-07:00

Facebook 3.0 app for iPhone and iPod Touch is now finally available in the Apple Store for download! After the app was submitted to Apple, it took almost two weeks for it to appear for public.

The version 3.0 of the Facebook app is by far the best release till now with lots of new features.

Some new features:

Check for upcoming events and birthdays.
Upload videos from an iPhone 3GS
Write notes and read your friends’ notes
Zoom feature for photos
Change your profile picture
Post updates and photos to Facebook Pages.
Like feature for all Facebook activity.
Make calls from within the app
… And a lot more!

The only feature that couldn’t make it to Facebook 3.0 is “Push Notifications”, but it will probably make it to Facebook 3.1.

Download Facebook 3.0 App for iPhone

You can download using iTunes or directly download from the link given below.

Direct Download Link for Facebook 3.0 App

Windows 7 Tranformation Pack 2009

2010-07-13T19:06:00.000-07:00

Last week at PDC, Windows 7 was revealed to the tech world by Microsoft. I was eager to know more and more about the new features and its awesome looks.

At that moment it clicked in my mind to test the geeks that whether they succeeded in making a transformation pack for Windows 7 or not. I was amazed to know that it already exists with the latest Windows 7 theme, start menu, wallpapers etc.

So here it is for you guys, Windows 7 Transformation Pack 2009, the loaded piece to download to sooth your eyes unlike similar packs formerly released before the new looks and features were unfolded officially.

Also check out 5 Windows 7 Transformation Packs which were posted earlier for Windows XP and Vista.

This transformation pack includes:

Windows Se7en Visual Style
Windows Se7en Start Menu
Windows Se7en Styler TB
Windows Se7en Pie Dock
Windows Se7en Wallpapers

Download Windows 7 Tranformation Pack 2009

[Via Technix Update]

Google Mosaic Wallpaper

2010-07-13T19:05:00.000-07:00

Google is everywhere, it is taking control of your every aspect of life slowly, gradually but effectively. Now its time to experience the Google effect on your desktop with this amazing mosaic wallpaper featuring Google Logo.

It was last month when I found the Giant Google Logo Mosaic. Now it was really not appealing to fix only logo right on my desktop, so I simply added some reflexive effect to the original file to made it more appealing.

I hope you guys will like it.

Wallpaper

Click the image below to download high quality version.

All credit for the original logo goes to the original designer!

Best Free Painting Applications

2010-07-13T19:03:00.000-07:00

Image editors like Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW and GIMP are used for high-level image editing, which can also give very realistic looking paint effects, but now you can use a number of free tools to give that effect.

A paint effect application is not a full image editor like Photoshop, but it can give way more options and features than the usual Paint app in Windows.

Below are some of the free apps I found which can be used to give nice paint effects to your photos.

MyPaint

MyPaint is a fast and easy graphics application for digital painters. It has extensive options for brush creation and configuration which give effects like natural painting. It also supports pressure sensitive graphic tablets. MyPaint is a multi-platform application supporting Windows and Linux. Download MyPaint.

ArtRage Starter Edition

ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition gives you 8 painting tools and lets you create, save, and print as many pictures as you like and doesn’t limit their size. It has a very appealing interface with limited features for a beginner. Download ArtRage Starter Edition.

TwistedBrush Free Edition

The free edition is a version of TwistedBrush with a significantly reduced set of features that is suitable for painting original artwork. But you can use its quick start guide to get familiarized with tools. Download TwistedBrush.

Project DogWaffle Free Edition

It’s a light, yet powerful tool for artistic expression. You don’t have to worry about things get messy. Simply paint, erase it, and try again, and again, and again…… Download Project DogWaffle Free Edition.

Artweaver

Artweaver is a free application for creative paintings with all artistic effects you need. It supports layers, gradients etc. and contains variety of digital brushes. You can also create sketches with photos. Download Artweaver.

Windows 7 Skin for Windows Media Player 11

2010-07-13T19:02:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 public beta is just around the corner, which will feature the next version of Windows Media Player (WMP 12). According to what we have seen in the previous Windows 7 milestone/beta leaks, Windows Media Player 12 has got some minor interface changes.

WMP 12 has a lighter, and a brighter user-inerface that you can now also get in Windows Media Player 11.

The following skin for WMP11 is not just a skin, but a complete skin pack which will modify the core components of your WMP. Remember, the following Windows 7 skin for WMP 11 will only work on Vista. Don’t try to install it on XP, or you will end up with a messed up WMP like me ;)

Download Windows 7 Skin for Windows Media Player 11

You can download Windows 7 skin for WMP 11 from here.

[Via BlogsDNA]

Windows Live Messenger 3D Emoticons Pack

2010-07-13T19:00:00.000-07:00

First instant messengers that came out were very simple, and users were quite content with what they had i.e an interface to chat online.

Soon, designers came out with emoticons, a graphical representation of our mood, expression and feelings during chatting. They were just small static images, then they got bigger and now you can even have them in 3D!

Windows Live Messenger team in France created some cool looking 3D emoticons for Windows Live Messenger a few days ago.

You can download them from the official site, which is only in French. Use the download link below, and wait for the page to load (contains Flash content). Once the page is opened, click on ‘installez gratuitement’ to download 3D emotions for Windows Live Messenger 2009.

Download Windows Live Messenger 3D Emoticons Pack

S60 Hero Theme for Nokia E72

2010-07-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

I don’t really share Nokia themes on this blog, but this one is a must-see for every Nokia S60 user. Tehkseven, the popular mobile theme designer, has released S60 Hero, HTC Hero theme for Nokia E72 and E71.

This theme is available for free download and can be downloaded in thre flavours, for standard S60 3rd Edition FP1/FP2 devices, E-series and S60 5th Edition.

This theme features new icons for most of the third-party apps that we use. If you’re a Nokia S60 user, then I’d recommend you give this theme a try.

Even though I own a HTC Hero myself, but I found this theme better on my Nokia phones.

Download S60 Hero Theme for Nokia E72

You can download this theme for free from here: Download S60 Hero Theme [Via E72 User]

Download Firefox 3 Theme for Chrome

2010-07-13T18:58:00.000-07:00

Many people have already moved on to Google Chrome from Firefox 3 for it’s amazing features and simplicity. But some like me are are using both to get the best out of them.

Just two days ago I wrote about the first five themes that are available for download for Google Chrome and a new set of themes have been released now. In the latest themes, a developer has made a Firefox 3-styled theme for Chrome.

The Chrome navigation icons in this theme are exactly like the ones in Firefox 3 and have a grey top bar.

Download Firefox 3 Chrome Theme

Mirror 1

Mirror 2

Chromifox: Chrome Styled Theme for Firefox 3

2010-07-13T18:56:00.000-07:00

arlier today I wrote about a Firefox 3 styled theme for Google Chrome, for users who like Firefox 3 and also use Chrome.

I was quite bored with the default Firefox 3 theme now and was looking for a new one to give it a refreshing look when I came across Chromifox.

It is a bright and soft blue theme for Firefox 3, inspired by the theme from the Google Chrome web browser. According to the developer, the clean lines, slick layout, and compact style of Chrome were the points of inspiration for this theme.

It gives a nice Chromey coat for your Firefox and is compatible with all OS i.e Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.

(Click the screenshot above to enlarge)

This theme is a BETA release and you will have to log in the Addons site in order to install it. If you don’t have an account there, you can download this theme using the link given below.

Download Chromifox [Direct Link]

How To Install Chromifox

If you have downloaded Chromifox using the direct link, then simply drag and drop the file in your Firefox Addons window. Installation will start after that.

5 Resources to Get Free Plurk Layouts

2010-07-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

Hi, this is Muhammad Siyab and this is my first post on Sizzled Core as the second author. To introduce myself, I blog about blog strategy, design and general blogging tips at PuttingBlogsFirst . It would be a pleasure writing here and I hope you enjoy my articles.

Plurk is a popular social media network. Your Plurk page can be styled with backgrounds and formatted with font options. But who wants to do it themselves when there are Plurk layouts freely available?

Here are 5 places you can get free Plurk layouts from:

Plurk Layouts – A massive collection of free Plurk layouts divided into many categories. There is also a Plurk for Beginners guide, if you be interested. You can also get a layout custom built for yourself!
Flickr Plurk Themes Pool – A collection of Plurk themes from all over on Flickr. There are 340 themes (as of writing this post) currently in the pool, so there is a lot of variety.
Plurk Themes – A growing database of impressive Plurk layouts. Not so big as the above two, but good enough! :)
Plurk Templates – Another massive collection of Plurk templates. The templates here are based on a wide variety of topics, so it shouldn’t be hard to pick one you like!
Plurk Theme Sate Babi – A relatively unknown collection of quite impressive Plurk themes, with around 15 themes available. Moreover there are other styling tips and techniques too, so you can fiddle around with your Plurk layout all you want!

So, where do you get your Plurk layouts from? Do let us know!

Want to Optimize your Images, SmushIt!

2010-07-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Every now and then Yahoo gives out optimizations tips for websites and blogs to make them load faster. I tried few of them, and really found them useful. Images with big size can increase your blog/website’s loading time and make it slow which is something your readers will never like!

They have rolled out a new tool that can help you reduce and optimize the size of images used on your blog/website.

Smush It is a service that goes beyond the limitations of Photoshop, Fireworks & Co. It uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images – without changing their look or visual quality.

Want to Optimize your Images, SmushIt!

According to them, lots of more optimizations could be done, even after using good image editing tools. So Smush It comes out with the objective of doing it online and in a much better way.

You can add images (which are to be optimized) by three methods:

Upload a bunch of pictures from your browser
Provide them with a list of image URLs
Install a Firefox Extension to optimize the images found on any web page

After the optimization completes, a ZIP archive with optimized images in it will be generated for you to download.

This tool also looks useful to me and I’ll be definitely using it in future. I recommend this to all webmasters.

12 Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Wallpapers

2010-07-13T18:47:00.002-07:00

The final version of the most popular Linux distro, Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex is almost ready to be released which is on October 30. It is going to bring a number of new features, changes and bug fixes.

As posted earlier, Ubuntu 8.10 is going to get a new look. It will come with a new version of its default theme along with new wallpapers.

It is not confirmed whether the following wallpapers will officially make their way to Ubuntu 8.10 or not, but you can still use it to give your current Ubuntu a new look.

Download 12 Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Wallpapers

2010-07-13T18:47:00.001-07:00

Microsoft introduced Windows 7 to the public at Professional Developers Conference 2008, and since I have seen the first screenshots, I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. I’m now desperately waiting for the first public beta from Microsoft.

If you also liked it, here’s something that all Windows 7 fans are going to love. Two free wallpapers that have been inspired by the by the first official screenshots of Windows Seven at the Microsoft PDC 2008.

This wallpaper comes in two flavours: with and without the logo (both standard and widescreen). I really like the logo, and wish Microsoft uses it as the official logo for Windows 7.

Credit goes to Life Rocks for digging and sharing them out. You can download these wallpapers from the link below.

Download Windows 7 Wallpaper

Download Official PDC 2008 Wallpapers

2010-07-13T18:45:00.000-07:00

It’s Day 3 at PDC 2008, and Microsoft continues to unveil interesting stuff that we all are loving it. First, they introduced Windows Azure, Microsoft’s cloud OS. Then on Day 2, they unveiled Windows 7, the upcoming OS from Microsoft after Windows Vista.

The official PDC website has three wallpapers to promote PDC 2008. You can download and use these wallpapers from the links below.

Download these 3 wallpapers from here!

Thanks to Long Zhen, you can now also download the official wallpaper that is being used on the machines at PDC 2008.

Download 1600Ã—1200

Download 1920Ã—1200 (widescreen)

Cryptex Phone Concept: Twist Dials To Use

2010-07-11T09:00:00.002-07:00

Here’s an interesting concept design for a cell phone that has been designed by March Schomann. This Cryptex phone concept features only a rotatable dial and the entire functionality of this phone works on it.

This phone uses haptic technology to provide physical feedback whenever you make a call. If you want to turn the phone on, twist any dial. To make a call, twist the number dials one by one. This phone has no display screen or buttons. Just a dial that will make you break your wrist while dialing a long international number. It even has vibration, that will be liked by many people.

Word from the designer:

You turn the dial of every element to the desired cipher. If you entered the number you turn the first segment â€œto phoneâ€ (green LED). If you want to hang up the call you turn the first segment to â€œhang upâ€ (red LED). The phone works without buttons and without a display and based on the old dial phones.

Overall, I like the concept, but I won’t prefer using this when making emergency calls.

MSN.com Getting Redesigned – Version 11

2010-07-11T09:00:00.001-07:00

After the recent beta Yahoo re-design, MSN also felt the need of a new design, and has put up a beta page to try out the version 11 of MSN design.

This new design looks only a bit less-cluttered and improved. They have integrated Windows Live Homtail, Messenger and Spaces in a Vista-like sidebar. And also contains some video highlights from MSN Video.

I don’t see any major difference in the new design, and the current one. You can see them below and compare:

New Design

Old Design

Take A Tour:

You cn take a tour of the new design here.

Try It Out:

Or check out the new homepage from here.

Delicious 2.0 Is Now Without Dots

2010-07-11T08:59:00.000-07:00

Delicious has finally unveiled their new site design. This was scheduled to release long ago, but due to some problems it didn’t.

Delicious 2.0 is now finally released for public. First change that you will notice is that the old del.icio.us has moved to a new domain Delicious.com now. Now it’s much easier for users to remember the name.

When I checked the new domain earlier today, it redirected to the old del.icio.us. But now the new site is live and is open for public. Delicious has focused on three things, speed, search and design. According to the official blog post:

Speed: Weâ€™ve moved to a new infrastructure that makes every page faster. This new platform will enable us to keep up with traffic growth while ensuring Delicious is responsive and reliable. You may not have noticed, but the old back-end was getting creaky under the load of five million users.
Search: Weâ€™ve completely overhauled our search engine to make it faster and more powerful. Searches used to take ages to return results; now theyâ€™re very quick. The new search engine is also smarter, and more social: you can search within one of your tags, another userâ€™s public bookmarks, or your social network. Now itâ€™s easier to take advantage of the expertise and interests of your friends, not to mention the Delicious community at large.
Design: Finally, weâ€™ve updated the user interface to improve usability and add a few often-requested features (such as selectable detail levels and alphabetical sorting of bookmarks). Our goal has been to keep the new design similar in spirit to the old one, so all of you veterans should be able to jump in without any confusion.

23 Awesome Themes for Ubuntu Linux

2010-07-11T08:58:00.000-07:00

I started using Ubuntu 4 months back, and since then I’ve been looking for ways to customize and tweak it to make Ubuntu more productive and look good. During my search, I came across many cool themes from various sources that I’d like to share with you all.

These themes are all available for free download from Gnome Art. Do try them out and let me know if you like them. If you have more cool Ubuntu themes, let me know below in the comments. I love eye candy!

Murrina Triomphe

Download

Hardy Theme 2.0

Download

Bamboo Zen

Download

Lux Theme

Download

Burnt Orange Ice

Download

Creamy

Download

Glow

Download

Moomex

Download

Roy (Windows Royale)

Download

Clearlooks Metallico

Download

Aqua Dreams

Download

Linux Mint

Download

Real Minimal

Download

Root Green

Download

Light Coffee

Download

Slickness Black

Download

Murrina Aero

Download

Tigris

Download

Sofice

Download

Blue Joy

Download

Gaia Nova

Download

Elegant Brit

Download

Darker Ice Murrina

Download

Create Avatars for Twitter with Face Your Manga

2010-07-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

Avatar creation services has been around for quite some time now like Yahoo Avatars, Kiwee and WeeMee. But they have become old and boring now, and do not even have a large variety of avatar styles.

FaceYourManaga.com lets you express? yourself ?through? your? image ?and? share ?it? whoever ?you? want. Enjoy ?yourself? by ?discovering ?unlimited? combinations? to ?realize ?your? virtual ?alter?ego. It allows you to make avatars for yourself or friends in a quick and easy way.

These avatars will work with the most popular instant messengers like Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, AIM, ICQ etc. including the most popular micro-blogging site, Twitter.

With Face Your Manga, you can create your virtual alter-ego online without needing an artistic knowledge and to download any kind of software on your computer. It provides you with tons of customizing features whcih you can use to express every imaginable part of your face virtually.

Avatars are created in three easy steps:

Customize the look of your Avatar
Enter your e-mail address
Receive the Avatar in your e-mail address

This service is absolutely free to use, and does not require any registrations to create an avatar. Alternatively, you can also use these avatars on forums, blogs, websites and social networks.

To create your free Avatar and enter Face Your Manga world, click here!

Make iPhone Themes for Free Online

2010-07-11T08:55:00.000-07:00

There are thousands of free iPhone themes available for download. But sometimes, you might not like the themes that have been made by others. You would like to have your own custom theme.

iPhone Theme Maker is very nice web generator that allows you to create themes online and use them on your iPhone.

It lets you customize your theme by adding a wallpaper, and changing the dock background and status image. You can upload your own images from the computer, or use the existing ones that are in its gallery. It also allows you to upload new icons for Text, Calendar, Photos etc. The changes you make to the theme are previewed on the left side.

Once you finish making your theme, click the “Compile Theme” button to download it. They can be downloaded in ZIP and PXL formats. It also generates a unique theme key that can be used for editing the theme later on that site.

iPhone Theme Maker

4 Sites To Add Speech Bubbles to Images

2010-07-11T08:54:00.000-07:00

Itâ€™s always fun to add speech bubbles to images and make them funnier. You don not need Photoshop to create these speech bubbles when you can do it online because they are way easier to use and doesnâ€™t take much time.

I have compiled a list of four sites that allow you to add speech bubbles to your images easily and for free. Click on the titles to visit these sites.

1. Speechable

2. SuperLame

3. PicBite

4. Kyolo

Free Official Orkut Themes For Download

2010-07-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

I’m back with another wave of the most popular post of this blog, download free orkut themes! Unlike the previous posts (1, 2), this time I’ll post themes that were officially released by Orkut, but since they were only for Indian users, others couldn’t taste them. If you are a non-Indian and would like to try out what official themes look like, download the themes from below and use them.

The previous ones have become quite boring now, and I was getting mails to add some more. So here are the 10 themes that Orkut recently added for Indian users, but first, make sure you meet all the requirements. :)

A treat of 10 official Orkut themes for all my readers.

jr001