It’s been a long week. Work it out in this week’s open thread.

Same drill as always, open-threaders: You can chat and ask questions with your fellow readers all week long at the #openthread hashtag page, but our weekly open thread post is your opportunity to reach the most people. Ask questions, offer advice, discuss productivity tips, or just chat about whatever’s on your mind. You’ll need a commenter account to participate, then you’re ready to roll.

An extra reminder: If you’re not quite satisfied with the interaction in the weekly open thread or in #tips, remember that you can also share your expertise every day on our Expert Pages. Photo from Cute Overload.

Playlist from MixTape.me.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5757947/take-it-easy-in-this-weeks-open-thread

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• Flash 10.2 Allows Full Screen on Separate Monitors, Manages 1080p Video (Windows/Mac/Linux)
  Flash 10.2 is finalized, and we almost regret to inform you that you can now watch Hulu, YouTube, and all manner of Flash video in full screen on a second monitor while clicking elsewhere. There goes your “working lunch.”
• Gladinet 3.0 Creates Dropbox-Like Folder Sync Through Google Storage (Windows)
  Gladinet provides desktop-style access to storage on Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, Microsoft’s SkyDrive, and other cloud services. Its newest release improves its interface greatly, but also adds a key convenience: backing up a local folder through cloud services.
• Tracks Is an iTunes Controller, Scrobbler, and Shorcut Manager All in One (Mac)
  If you’re tired of constantly sifting through your iTunes library, Tracks will simplify the whole process. You can quickly search for, play, scrobble, and control tracks right from your menu bar with a host of custom keyboard shortcuts.
• WebLiveWallpaper Sets Web Sites or Image Galleries as Your Android Wallpaper (Android)
  Live wallpapers can be pretty and ooh-shiny, but with WebLiveWallpaper, they can actually be informative and revealing. Keep tabs on a certain site, rotate great shots from Flickr, NASA, or National Geographic, or even periodically check a webcam.
• Camera Mic Snaps Pictures in iOS by Tapping the Microphone (iOS)
  Apple doesn’t like apps repurposing buttons, so Camera Mic went ahead and did something creative: it turned your microphone into a button. All you need to do is run your finger across your iPhone’s mic or headset mic to snap a picture.
• Npackd Is a Linux-Like Package Manager for Windows (Windows)
  Ubuntu has Synaptic, OS X has the App Store, but Windows users are often left to fend for themselves when it comes to installing programs. Npackd is a central hub from which you can discover, install, and manage your software.
• Speedy PDF Reader Sumatra Is Now Even Faster at Opening PDFs (Windows)
  Sumatra PDF has always focused on being the faster, lighter, and less system-burdening alternative to Adobe and other PDF solutions, and its latest 1.3 update continues down that path. Images are rendered faster, in particular, and less memory is used.
• EasySMS Sends Text Messages from Your Android Phone via Your Browser (Android)
  No one likes texting on their tiny phone keyboard if they’re right in front of their computer. EasySMS connects to your phone over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or USB, and lets you send and receive text messges from your web browser.
• NoteTote Makes Quick Work of Scheduling Downloads Remotely (Mac)
  We’ve looked at remotely scheduling torrents, but if you want to remotely schedule regular old downloads you can do that easily with NoteTote.
• MacDropAny Syncs Local Folders with Your Dropbox Account (Mac)
  Syncing folders outside of Dropbox has always been an option by creating symlinks, but now there’s a free app called MacDropAny to make the process extra simple.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5758445/this-weeks-top-downloads

Catherine Zeta Jones Chandra Wilson Charisma Carpenter Charlize Theron

Android: GOTO Lockscreen is a replacement for Android’s built-in lockscreen with some very smart functionality built in.

GOTO Lockscreen is very simple to implement with its built in setup/tutorial, so once you download it, you should be up and running in a minute or two. Once installed, you can see immediately how this app is going to save you time. The normal unlock slide function of your Android phone is now replaced with a very stylish arc based slider that has a few other tricks up its sleeve.

GOTO Lockscreen costs $1.50 in the Android Market.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5757507/goto-lockscreen-previews-notifications-and-launches-directly-to-apps-from-the-lockscreen

Halle Berry Hayden Panettiere Heather Graham Heather Locklear

This week we learned the basics of Photoshop, added a great new layer of security to our Google accounts, set up a more healthy workspace, and got a little makeover. These are this week’s most popular posts.

Learn the Basics of Photoshop in Under 25 Minutes
Photoshop is an incredibly powerful but also intimidating application. If you’ve wanted to start using Photoshop but didn’t know where to start, we’ll be teaching you the basics all week long.

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Set Up Google’s Two-Step Verification Now for Seriously Enhanced Security for Your Google Account
Google just launched two-step verification for all Google accounts, a system which makes your Google/Gmail account-the account possibly containing the lion’s share of your private communication online-considerably more secure. In fact, we’d encourage everyone who uses Gmail (the @gmail version or your Google Apps version) as their primary email provider to start using this feature as soon as possible. Here’s why, and then how.

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Top 10 DIY Hacks That Could Poke Your Eye Out
Most of the DIY projects we feature around here are simple and uncontroversial. However, in honor of the Anarchist Cookbook’s 40-year anniversary, we’ve decided to share our top 10 DIY projects that you may not want to try at home.

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How to Ergonomically Optimize Your Workspace
We spend a lot of time sitting at our desks every day, and while it may not look like it, it can wreak havoc with our bodies. Here’s how to set up a healthy, ergonomic workspace to keep you comfortable and injury-free.

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What Does the IPv6 Transition Mean to Me?
Dear Lifehacker,
I’ve heard that we’re running out of IP addresses and we need to switch to a new system called IPv6, but I don’t understand any of it. What does this all mean for the internet and for me?

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Seven More Easy Ways to Integrate Your Google Apps
Google’s productivity apps-like Gmail, Google Maps, Calendar, Docs, and so on-can play so well together, once you’ve ticked the right checkboxes. We’ve previously shown you seven ways to integrate your Google apps; now we’re adding another seven clever tricks to the fold that make managing your web-based life much easier.

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Five Traits Low-Stress, Happy Work Cultures Have In Common
Around the world you’ll find scientifically identified pockets of happy people ranging in size from neighborhoods to entire countries. Researcher Dan Buettner spent years studying them to find out what makes them so special, and how others can emulate their success in the happiness department.

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Learn the Sounds of a Failing Hard Drive to Avoid Lost Data
Most hard drives make certain sounds when they start failing, but every drive and brand of drive is different. Data recovery company Data Cent has put together a database of sounds that let you know what’s going wrong with your drive.

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Build a $4 DIY Solar Battery Charger
There’s no need to pay the electric company to charge your small electronics when you’ve got a portable solar charger on hand. Learn how to turn some cheap solar panels and a Tupperware container into a solar charging station.

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Hello World! This Is the New Lifehacker
Welcome to the new Lifehacker. Here’s what you need to know.

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Tips

Got a great tip, trick, hack, or app that you think would be a good fit on Lifehacker? Send an email to tips@lifehacker.com, or submit it to our tips page.

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Forums

Looking to continue the discussion? You can find a lot of Lifehacker readers hanging out in openthread and tips.

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Source: http://lifehacker.com/#!5758049/this-weeks-most-popular-posts

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Like the look of iOS-style icons and want to bring them to your desktop? Here’s how to make your own with Photoshop (or an alternative) and CandyBar.

David Lanham’s Flurry icons will provide the majority of your system’s icons with the iOS rounded rectangle style, but there will always be a few applications and folders that will go unadorned. Fortunately it’s really easy to make these icons yourself with an application like Photoshop and the help of Candybar.

While these instructions are for Mac OS X, you can still following them if you use IconBuilder for Windows (although it’s worth noting this is a pretty expensive plug-in for what it does).

To make this easier, if you’re using Photoshop you can download our Photoshop template and example to get you started. This will take most of the work out of the process. If you want to do it yourself, however, you can just follow these steps:

• Make a new Photoshop (or whatever) document that’s 512×512 pixels.
• Make a rounded-rectangle that’s 483×483 pixels with an edge radius of 80 pixels.
• Paste a graphic into the rectangle.
• Add a drop shadow, and perhaps a stroke, using Photoshop’s built-in layer effects.
• If you want to add glossiness to the icon, you can just make a new layer and paint white diagonally across the icon, covering up one half of the rectangle. Next, reduce the opacity to about 20% and it’ll have a glossy effect. You may want to use a soft brush so the glossy, reflective quality isn’t too harsh but it’s completely up to you.
• Save as a PNG24 file (with a transparent background) and add the PNG to CandyBar.

Once you’re done you’ll be able to use the resulting icon just like any other. Enjoy!

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You can contact Adam Dachis, the author of this post, at adachis@lifehacker.com. You can also follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5738370/how-to-make-ios+style-icons-for-the-desktop

Arielle Kebbel Ashlee Simpson

Source: http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-01/nasa-seeks-help-ham-radio-operators-locate-its-missing-nanosatellite

Elizabeth Hurley Elizabeth Shue Ellen Pompeo Elsa Benitez

The strongest passwords are ones that don’t contain actual words. Firefox extension ObPwd generates strong text passwords from images or text on your computer, so you can re-generate them when you need them but don’t need to resort to weak, easy-to-remember passphrases.

While we love online password managers like LastPass, many of you don’t feel comfortable storing your passwords on someone else’s server. If you want strong passwords without a manager like LastPass automatically entering them for you, ObPwd is an interesting alternative.

With it, you can right-click on any text or image from a webpage or on your local machine to generate a strong password for you. That image or text will always generate the same password, but it won’t be something someone can easily crack if they have one of your passwords (or know you well). You can then use the same type of object on all your frequented web sites—like the site’s logo, or the first sentence of the second paragraph on a page—to generate all your passwords. It’s a pretty interesting way to generate passwords, and one few people are likely to think of if they’re trying to crack yours.

That said, the one downside is that if you use images, text, or files that end up changing, you’ll be SOL. I’d recommend still storing your passwords in an encrypted file somewhere on your hard drive, or somewhere safe and local the first time you generate them. That way, if a site updates and you lose your password-generating image, you’ll still be able to log in, then change your password to a new one.

ObPwd is a free download, works wherever Firefox does.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5738127/obpwd-generates-secure-passwords-from-web-images-and-text

Christina Applegate Christina Ricci Claire Forlani Claudia Schiffer

Google Maps speeds up and dresses up its layers interaction, a new Starbucks app for iOS and BlackBerry lets you pay for coffee using your phone, and Apple announces the top ten downloaded applications of all time.

• See more views with the new Google Maps widget
  Today Google Maps released a minor update making it faster to trigger layers, like traffic or satellite imagery, to their maps. [Google LatLong]
• The Most Popular iOS Apps of All Time
  iOS apps are nearing their 10 billionth download. In honor of the occasion, Apple’s released a list of the all-time top 10 applications downloaded. [Gizmodo]
• Everything is easier with Starbucks Card Mobile
  Starbucks’ new iPhone and BlackBerry apps allow customers to purchase coffee using their phones. [Starbucks]
• Facebook Teams With Snaptu To Launch Rich App For Feature Phones
  Facebook is teaming up with Snaptu to release a basic Facebook application for feature phone users. The application will feature a similar start page as smartphones, but offer cheaper rates than using m.facebook.com. [TechCrunch]
• Twitter Learns Korean
  Twitter now speaks Korean. In the latest update to their language support, users can now read and type in Korean across any of Twitter’s web or application properties. [Twitter]

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5738221/remains-of-the-day-pay-for-coffee-with-your-iphone-or-blackberry

Vanessa Angel Vanessa Anne Hudgens Vanessa Ferlito Vanessa Paradis

From the same site that scared us witless with visualizations of just how large the BP oil spill really is, comes the country comparison tool. Choose two countries—say, the US and Germany, and see all sorts of differences.

It’s not just life expectancy; the amount of money spent on healthcare or chances of dying in infancy. For every country—and developer Andy Linter has added heaps—there’s details on how much more (or less) electricity you’d use, along with oil…and crucially, how much more free time you’d have. After a brief play around with the site, I was pretty shocked by some of the findings—and have obviously packed my bags and booked a flight to the Faroe Islands in the meantime. [IfItWereMyHome via Reddit]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5738779/if-you-lived-in-any-other-country-how-much-less-electricity-would-you-use

Scarlett Johansson Shakira Shannon Elizabeth Sharon Stone

If building a desk around a treadmill seems a little dramatic (and expensive), today’s featured workspace sports a miniature stair stepper for inexpensive at-your-desk exercise.

Lifehacker reader Emily wrote in and shared her “Step-puter” setup with us:

I’m too poor and have too little space for a treadmill to be an option for me, but about three months ago I did make the transition to a standing desk. As Gina Trapani described, standing all day encouraged me to fidget and wiggle, and I loved the way it felt to be moving. I started imagining how great it would be if I had something like a stair master in front of the desk, but small, and preferably self-powered.

One day (an embarrassing number of weeks later) I Googled it, and discovered that “mini-steppers“. They’re cheap, too: I paid $90 retail, including tax and extended warranty. The whole thing has a footprint of about 1.5 square feet. Since it doesn’t drive itself, I’m able to step a lot when I want, and less or not at all when I start to get hot and sweaty. I entertain myself by imagining that I’m surfing the web while simultaneously climbing the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan.

It’s worth noting that while you can get mini-steppers really cheap (in the $30-40 range), buying a nicer one (in the $70-100 range) is probably a wiser investment if you’ll be stepping away on it all day long. Emily’s setup is a great compromise in the space and money saving department and her setup shouldn’t be hard to emulate for anyone wanting to follow her lead.

If you have a workspace of your own to show off, throw the pictures on your Flickr account and add it to the Lifehacker Workspace Show and Tell Pool. Include some details about your setup and why it works for you, and you just might see it featured on the front page of Lifehacker.

Source: http://lifehacker.com/5738993/the-step+puter-station

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