Windows 7 Tranformation Pack 2009

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]

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Google Mosaic Wallpaper

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!

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Best Free Painting Applications

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.

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Windows 7 Skin for Windows Media Player 11

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]

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Windows Live Messenger 3D Emoticons Pack

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

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S60 Hero Theme for Nokia E72

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]

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Download Firefox 3 Theme for Chrome

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

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Chromifox: Chrome Styled Theme for Firefox 3

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.

Related: Download Firefox 3 Theme for Chrome

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5 Resources to Get Free Plurk Layouts

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!

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Want to Optimize your Images, SmushIt!

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.

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12 Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex Wallpapers

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

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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

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Download Official PDC 2008 Wallpapers

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 1600×1200

Download 1920×1200 (widescreen)

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Cryptex Phone Concept: Twist Dials To Use

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 “to phone” (green LED). If you want to hang up the call you turn the first segment to “hang up” (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.

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MSN.com Getting Redesigned – Version 11

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.

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Delicious 2.0 Is Now Without Dots

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: We’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: We’ve completely overhauled our search engine to make it faster and more powerful. Searches used to take ages to return results; now they’re very quick. The new search engine is also smarter, and more social: you can search within one of your tags, another user’s public bookmarks, or your social network. Now it’s easier to take advantage of the expertise and interests of your friends, not to mention the Delicious community at large.
• Design: Finally, we’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.

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23 Awesome Themes for Ubuntu Linux

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

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