Better Faster PC

Yahoo! has just launched a new music service, which incorporates content from other sites like Pandora, Last.fm, YouTube and more.

Check out the Yahoo! Music site HERE

If you have been looking for something a bit different to use for your background wallpaper then you might want to check out these three links, there are some really great wallpapers:

•  The abstract gallery - Caedes.net
• 30 Impressive Colour Spectrum and Rainbow Wallpapers
• 26 Gorgeous Aurora and Colour Spectrum Wallpapers

If you are interested in running Ubuntu but are not sure how to partition your drive or are a bit worried about making a mistake and wiping all your important files or ruining Windows installation then Portable Ubuntu might just be exactly what you are looking for.
Portable Ubuntu is a great idea for anyone wanting to learn Linux without the difficulty a beginner might encounter, especially running a dual boot system.
Lifehacker has a great post telling you how to get into Portable Ubuntu, check it out HERE. Want to find out more about Ubuntu Linux then check out the Wikipedia entry HERE

1. Need to format a USB Flash Drive in the NTFS file system format - Learn How To - HERE

2. If you still use Windows XP or 2000 and need a Virtual Drive Program (to mount .ISO files as usable drives without burning them) I found this TINY program, from Microsoft itself. Simple to use and is only a 59KB download. Well worth the 10 seconds it will take to download it. Go HERE

A couple of things happening in the world of Google you might be interested in:

• Google has FINALLY introduced themes for users that use Gmail with their own domain (like companies). That means if you are in an office and have been stuck with the plain, old boring standard Gmail theme for too long now you can change that (though apparently it has not been rolled out to every single domain, though this will occur shortly) by clicking on ‘Settings’ in the right hand corner. There should now be a tab called Themes from which you can select a Theme. Read more about it at Download Squad HERE
• If you use one Gmail account to manage more than one address you will have encountered the on behalf of phrase that is added to your emails, revealing the fact that the email was sent from a different email address. This was one of the reasons I personally stopped using Gmail for this purpose as I felt it negated the entire concept of anonymously managing multiple addresses (apart from the worry of your email address falling into the hands of the spammers you were trying to avoid in the first place!). This little phrase is NO MORE, thank goodness. Read more about it HERE
• If you love Autocomplete (the feature that makes suggestions when type in a search box) you will want to check out the new Gmail Labs feature that does just that - when you type in a search in Gmail it will offer suggestions with some extra features throw in as well. Worth checking out (and enabling) - go HERE
• Lifehacker did an interview with Senior Product Manager of Gmail, Keith Coleman, on the 5th Birthday of the ’still-in-beta’ free email service. Read it HERE

The guys from Mozilla (the same people that give us software like Firefox, Songbird, Thunderbird and others) have been busy lately. Here is a short update of what is going on:

• Personas (Firefox ’skins’ that change the appearance of the browser) has reached the 1.0 release. Check it out HERE. Though I will be honest I prefer the themes (which you can get from Mozilla HERE) myself
• Firefox 3 is officially more popular than Internet Explorer 7 in Europe and this is the first time in years that Microsoft is not top dog! Read more about it at Reuters right HERE
• Mozilla Labs has released Version 0.3 of Weave which is in essence similar to XMarks (or Foxmarks as it was called) meaning it enable synchronization of Foxmarks settings across multiple computers. Though not yet at 1.0 Weave already has a few extra features which XMarks does not, like Browsing History and Open Tab synchronization. It also works with Fennec, the version of Firefox for portable devices (also still in development). Check out Weave right HERE
• Lifehacker has a great post detailing four new expermintal extensions which you would probably want to read. The extensions are CacheSearch, FindList, Firefox 3.5 New Tab Prototype, tweecious. Check out the post HERE

A couple of things Google related to be aware of:

• If you use Gmail (and hence Google Contacts) there is now a stand alone page for Google Contacts which you can access HERE
• Google has entered the venture capital world with Google Ventures, check out the official site HERE
• Add ‘Retro Links’ to Google search page, allowing you to search different sites from within Google. Check out the image below and link HERE for more

If you are a user of Outlook 2007 you will be interested to know that there is a new hotfix available from Microsoft that, “will improve hard disk usage, startup and shutdown times, and help those with smaller, cached mailbox storage”.

This cumulative update will apparently be included in Service Pack 2 but as this is not available at the moment and if you are a regular user of Outlook 2007 then you might want to install it.

The post at Lifehacker is HERE and the Microsoft download page is HERE.

Two Google related topics you should be aware of:

• A bunch of holes have been discovered in the security of the web application Google Docs. If you are a user of Google Docs and keep any sensitive information stored there you would want to read this. The article at TechCrunch is HERE. If you don’t know what a web application (webapp) is, then you might want to read the Wikipedia entry which is HERE
• Gmail is celebrating it’s fifth birthday soon and with that they have announced “Google is celebrating with the launch of an exciting new product”. What it is I am not sure, but come April 7 we will find out. Read more about it HERE and HERE

Here is a nice list of some options available to you for docking on your desktop. If you are not sure what a docking application is or does then read the Wikipedia entry HERE. Basically it is a type of user interface that groups application icons for lauching and task switching. Below is a list of some docking options you might also want to check out along with Sliderdock.

• Sliderdock - You can get it HERE
• Circle Dock - Another circular docking option - is HERE
• RK Launcher - is HERE
• MobyDock -  is HERE
• RocketDock - A popular docking option is HERE
• Appetizer - is HERE
• ObjectDock - By Stardock, note there are two versions, one is FREE the other is NOT - get it HERE
• Y’z Dock - By Oxygen-X - is HERE
• Though not strictly a Dock, check out Fences as well, great for organising desktop icons - HERE