Shakira's mantra doesn't always hold true with technology (who hasn't battled WiFi, a cell signal or less than logical download?), but most toolbar plugins offer sweet simplicity and easy access to the tools you need no matter where your surfing habits lead you.
The Google Toolbar 5 for
Internet Explorer or
Firefox puts a custom button to Gmail at your fingertips. You won't have to keep a window open and refresh it obsessively because you can get new message alerts, see previews of your mail and use Toolbar's search box to find any message no matter what page you're on.
One of my favorite sites (and lifesavers) has been
Remember the Milk. I've raved about the text messaging reminders, and the fact that you can create custom lists and share them with others, which has made my life so much easier. Especially since I have trouble remembering when to take the trash out.
I'm significantly more interested in weather-related tips now that, you know, the weather is starting to suck.
Umbrella Today alone has already saved me from some downpours! But since I live in a place like San Francisco where the weather report changes every three seconds (yes, literally), I am grateful for
ForecastFox.
My devotion to Google Reader has been
well-documented here, and I relish any new opportunity to get more of it (though I'd have to be a superhuman to read everything in my reader daily).
Read It Later is a free Firefox extension that just adds little empty check marks to stories in your feeds, and when you come to a post you want to read but don't have time to, simply click the check marks.
All checked stories are then saved in a separate reading list — either from Read It Later's site, in your RSS Reader, or for reading offline later!
Now that I've showed you how to add
colored cellophane to your camera flash for a creepy effect and
build a digital 3D Lego Pumpkin, it's time to transform your desktop's wallpaper into a Halloween masterpiece — Halloween is only two days away you know! The Smashing Magazine has a
great selection of high quality Halloween wallpapers for you to download onto your laptop or computer, which is guaranteed to get you in the
spooky spirit.
Here's a marvelous download that will help you spice up your
ecards with personal photos.
Photo Card Maker is a easy to use free program that offers hundreds of professional templates where you can
add your own pictures and text for special occasions like Birthdays, Christmas, Thanksgiving, or Weddings. Just click
here to download (Windows OS only)!
Now we can keep the original
Polaroid dream alive thanks to a neat website and download called
Poladroid! Mac OS X users (a Windows XP version is coming soon), just download the application on your computer, drag and drop your photos into the camera, wait a few seconds (like a real Polaroid cam), and then your retro-chic image should appear — utterly magical I tell ya. You can keep to pass along to friends, or upload high-res pics to the Polaroid cam and print them out for later .
I know my geeks are a literate lot, so I've dug up a new, free application for Macs to keep your analog books organized electronically. Where
GoodReads is a great way to keep track of all books you've read, the download
Books is your electronic library for all the books you own.
All you have to do is enter titles of the books you own, and Books will quickfill all the details of that book, including the cover art (once you've selected a quickfill metric in preferences).
I've been using
Google Mobile on my BlackBerry Curve for a while now and I absolutely love it; let's just say that the built-in web browser and map on the BlackBerry is . . .
