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pimg alt="Cooliris" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgCoolIris.jpg" width="125" height="150" /a
href="http://cooliris.com"Cooliris/a - the extension that transforms your browser into a 3D
environment for thumbing through photos and videos - has been a crowd favorite for its creative use
of the browser platform. But one question always comes up: a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/can_browser_add-ons_be_businesses.php"Can browser
extensions be a business/a?/p pLast night, Cooliris released a a
href="http://blog.cooliris.com/2008/12/02/version-19-a-cooliris-you-can-call-your-own/"new set of
features/a for its users. And while the functionality is interesting, the most compelling part of
the release may the part they didn't mention: one of the new features may hold the key to a revenue
stream for the company./p p align="right"emSponsor/embr /a
href='http://d.openx.org/ck.php?n=12811amp;cb=12811' target='_blank'img
src='http://d.openx.org/avw.php?zoneid=861amp;cb=12811amp;n=12811' border='0' alt='' align="right"
//a/p pAt first blush, Cooliris 1.9 appears to focused on personalization. The product now offers
the ability to save favorites, change some of the presentation options for the flow of imagery, and
the ability to customize the background image. They've also added the ability to search and watch
Hulu videos (for those in the US) from within the Cooliris viewer./p pBut for as simple as it
sounds, it's the background image customization that holds the additional revenue potential for
Cooliris - a href="http://advertising.cooliris.com/"advertising revenue/a, but revenue nonetheless.
/p pClick on the Cooliris "Discover" option, select "Sci-Tech," and you'll be greeted by a number
of interesting photos sitting on a backdrop that advertises "Gears of War 2." The ad is obvious and
yet unobtrusive. Within the photo stream, you'll also find images from the game that are paid
placement ads./p pimg alt="CoolIris Ad" src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/imgCoolIrisAd.jpg"
width="610" height="381" //p pWill a new ad unit in a rapidly softening ad market be the key to
survival? Not likely. But it's a step in the right direction. And one thing is for sure: some
revenue is always better than no revenue. Plus, it's safe to assume that this is only one of many
ideas that Shashi Seth - the former head of YouTube monetization who joined Cooliris as Chief
Revenue Officer in June - has up his sleeve./p pIf you haven't seen Cooliris yet, it's definitely
worth spending a few minutes to experience it. Its visual landscape truly changes the photo
browsing experience. In fact, for some, Cooliris is so compelling that a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/first_apps_for_new_users.php"it's the first thing they
show non-technical folks/a for "Wow!" factor. To see it for yourself, visit a
href="http://www.cooliris.com/"CoolIris/a./p stronga
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/cooliris_personalization_ad_format.php#comments-open"Discuss/a/strong
pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0_cZTp0pjMP0dpYmivcDjK_hZNM/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/0_cZTp0pjMP0dpYmivcDjK_hZNM/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=Oxvy9r2L"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1035" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=J3RXymFZ"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=J3RXymFZ" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=tj7sBpfL"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=tj7sBpfL" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?a=eMpMndBE"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?i=eMpMndBE" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=52" border="0"/img/a a
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src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/readwriteweb?d=1034" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~4/uvqTSZQyFRw" height="1" width="1"/
I was thinking it would be cool if you could switch between what "state" you wanted the phone
is....
ie
switch it normally and its your normal work phone with email and callendar and notes etc etc what
you need for work with a serious theme & ringtone etc etc...
and then when u finish work, you can just flip the switch and you phone will transform to your home
phone. new theme new icon layout new setting new ringtone...
Sackboy, your beloved player character from the creative adventure LittleBigPlanet has arrived in
his full wool and yarn glory.
The simple design of Sackboy allows you to use your imagination when you decorate and personalize
him.
See how your designs will look on Sackboy in real life, stitch and glue fabric together and dress
him in the most up to date fashion.
For those who need inspiration, there are a number of decorated Sackboys available. With an
eyepatch and a hook, Sackboy transforms himself into Captain Hook the renowned pirate from Peter
Pan.
Those who prefers fantasy settings can get the swordsman Sackboy who comes with his red felt cape
and sword, while the happy go lucky of you can make a fashion statement by attaching the sunflower
Sackboy to your belongings.
Let loose your creative streak by getting your very own Sackboy now.
Due to popular demand, all sackboys, including the Sunflower version, will be restocked by
tomorrow, so just feel free to order your favourite player character.
There are also two larger sized versions coming soon and are available for preorder:
Yeah, this marvel is a Nokia and it has been released at the Nokia World Event in Barcelona,
Spain! It's the latest Nokia smartphone It's the N97 here are some of the features
inside: a 3.5 touchscreen with haptic feedback and a full QWERTY keyboard and
a 5 megapixel camera, support to up to 48 GB of storage upgradable to up to 16GB via microSD. The
S60 OS has been improved to make use of the touch input, bringing it up to version 5 and includes
many of the 5800 XpressMusic's features, like the quick contacts bar and desktop widgets.
Jonas Geust, Vice President, heading Nokia Nseries said:
From the desktop to the laptop and now to your pocket, the Nokia N97 is the most powerful,
multi-sensory mobile computer in existence, together with the Ovi services announced today, the
Nokia N97 mobile computer adjusts to the world around us, helping stay connected to the people and
things that matter most. With the Nokia N97, Nseries
leads the charge in helping to transform the Internet into your Internet.
The phone will ship sometime in the first half of 2009 and it will retail for 550 Euro before
subsidies or taxes. What do you think? Don't you just love the new Nokia?
PES's new screensaver is a Yule Log that transforms your computer into a Fireplace. Funny yule log
screensaver from PES films Previously: Stop motion film by PES: Western Spaghetti - Boing Boing
Stop motion film maker: PES - Boing Boing Web Zen: Animation Zen - Boing Boing...br style="clear:
both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=6edd8a4f678c69455c59881e237c4ae5p=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=6edd8a4f678c69455c59881e237c4ae5p=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=6edd8a4f678c69455c59881e237c4ae5" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/
pFiled under: a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/sports/" rel="tag"Sports/GTs/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/nissan/" rel="tag"Nissan/a, a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/toys/" rel="tag"Toys/a/pa
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/alternity-megatron/1200202/"img vspace="4" hspace="4"
border="0" alt="" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/tak10890_450.jpg"
//abr / div align="center"emstrongsmallClick above for image gallery of Alternity
Megatron/small/strong/embr //div br /a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/alternity-megatron/1200203/"img width="200" vspace="4"
hspace="4" height="292" border="0" align="right"
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/tak10891_small.jpg" alt="" //aTo go
along with the recent addition of a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/30/nissan-gt-r-alternity-convoy-transformer-toy-pics/"Alternity
Convoy/a, a version of Optimus Prime in Japan that transforms into a Nissan GT-R, comes another new
toy in the same series by TakaraTOMY. What bot would be a better followup to Prime than Megatron?
Instead of the classic weapon shape that we've grown accustomed to for the ultimate Transformer
baddie, Alternity Megatron's alt-mode is a Nissan 370Z. Here we have a problem, as Megatron's car
mode takes a decided back seat to Prime's GT-R. Still, the GT-R and Fairlady Z (what they call the
370Z in Japan) are both made by Nissan and the two leaders are actually brothers in the
Transformers universe.br /br /No matter, as diehard Transformer fans are sure to overlook the
obvious Decepticon snub. What they may not forgive, however, is Megatron dropping his cannon for a
pair of swords. br /br /Like Alternity Convoy, Megatron is officially licensed from Nissan and die
cast in metal. Those wanting to get their hands on the latest Alternity bot can choose from silver
or blue. emThanks for the tip, 94 Taurus owner/em!br /br /div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/alternity-megatron/"Alternity Megatron/a/strong/pa
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/alternity-megatron/1200202/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/tak10890_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title=""
//aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/alternity-megatron/1200203/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/12/tak10891_thumbnail.jpg" alt="" title=""
//a/divbr /div class="postgallery"pstrongGallery: a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/"Tomy GT-R Transformer/a/strong/pa
href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/1063351/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/cce6905e573578305b2fe263b97ecd3b_thumbnail.jpg"
alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/1063352/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/silver_gtr_transformed_2_thumbnail.jpg"
alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/1063355/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/red_gtr_transformer_thumbnail.jpg"
alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/1063354/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/silver_gtr_transformer_thumbnail.jpg"
alt="" title="" //aa href="http://www.autoblog.com/photos/tomy-gt-r-transformer/1063353/"img
src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/09/silver_gtr_transformed_thumbnail.jpg"
alt="" title="" //a/divbr /[Source: a
href="http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/alternators-10/prototype-photos-of-alternity-megatron-166306/"TFW2005/a]p
style="padding:5px;background:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/03/megatron-hides-from-humans-in-nissan-370z-form/"Megatron
hides from humans in Nissan 370Z form/a originally appeared on a
href="http://www.autoblog.com"Autoblog/a on Wed, 03 Dec 2008 14:57:00 EST. Please see our a
href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/"terms for use of feeds/a./ph6 style="clear: both;
padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"/h6a
href=http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/alternators-10/prototype-photos-of-alternity-megatron-166306/Read/anbsp;|nbsp;a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/2008/12/03/megatron-hides-from-humans-in-nissan-370z-form/"
rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry"Permalink/anbsp;|nbsp;a
href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/1389441/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email"Email
this/anbsp;|nbsp;a
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title="View reader comments on this entry"Comments/a pa
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centerimg id="image1642" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/polite-umbrella-2small.gif"
alt="polite-umbrella-2small.gif" //centerbr / centerimg id="image1643"
src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/politeumbrella1small.gif"
alt="politeumbrella1small.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Polite Umbrella/i/centerbr
/ ipa href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/"JooYoun Paek/a builds small, object-based responses to
urban life, transforming the aches and pains we customarily suffer, at the hands of the metropolis,
into novel sites of reflection, social courtesy, and rest. The artist's humorous, insightful
approach bespeaks her familiarity with her subject; she was raised in Seoul, Korea, and moved to
New York in 2005 to attend NYU's a href="http://itp.nyu.edu/itp/"Interactive Telecommunications
Program (ITP)/a. Fresh from her recent participation in "a
href="http://eyebeam.org/engage/engage.php?page=exhibitionsid=190"Untethered/a," at a
href="http://eyebeam.org/"Eyebeam/a, and "a
href="http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/exhibitions.php?id=5632"Design and the Elastic Mind/a," at a
href="http://www.moma.org/"MoMA/a, JooYoun caught up with me at her a
href="http://www.lmcc.net/"LMCC/a Workspace Residency studio, on the twenty-ninth floor of the
Equitable Building in Manhattan's Financial District. - Tyler Coburn /p/i pbWhat's the difference
between wearable technology and what you make?/b/p pThe difference? Well, I never define what I
make as wearable technology. I think I'm just doing conceptual work that's wearable. Wearable
technology is more about focusing on using new technology and making it fashionable, but also
highly functional. I don't think my work was ever designed for utilitarian purposes. But oftentimes
the methodologies of what I'm doing and wearable technology overlap, and that's why people think,
on the surface, that my work is similar./p bpThat really comes across in a piece like a
href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/politeumbrella.html"iPolite Umbrella/i/a./p/b pYes. I made iPolite
Umbrella/i after I came to New York for ITP. ITP isn't really a fine art school. It focuses more on
collaborative and innovative practices. We had an assignment of observing daily life and behavior,
and I began to observe umbrella usage. Quite interestingly, it was the fall of 2005, which was one
of the rainiest times in New York City. October was a record-breaking month. It rained almost every
day. This was my first time living in New York, so I thought this was usual. Previously, I had
framed myself as an artist working with sculpture and sometimes in performance and photography and
video, but after going to ITP, I began to explore design. This didn't bother me that much, because
the observation of life was already a part of my creative process, which either came out as very
utilitarian or very expressive objects. It always started from the observation of mundane
moments./p pbOne of the things that I find interesting about this piece is that I can imagine an
umbrella that just condenses uniformly, but your model responds to specific scenarios, such as a
particular angle of passing. One or all sides of it can compress. So it's not just something that
has a function that’s designed to meet a generic social scenario; it's something you can
control on a case-by-case basis. I think that specificity is what pushes it beyond just being a
quirky object./b/p pIt's not only helpful to you. It also gives a gesture to other people. I
definitely involved the cultural reference of people bowing to one another in this piece./p pbSo
you see the compression of the side of the umbrella as a gesture of social politeness?/b/p pYes. It
has a morphing gesture, but conceptually it gives other people more space./p pbI can see a similar
interest in modifying and improving everyday city life in a
href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/ssc.html"iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i/a, which is also controlled by
the user, yet is far more absurdist in conceit./b/p pWith this piece, I was also inspired by New
York and walking in the city. I was getting sick and tired of walking the same commute route from
my station stop to my home every day while carrying a heavy backpack. I wanted to make something
that could make every walk I take more meaningful. The idea was very abstract, so I began to add up
the days and minutes of my commute time. My walk ended up being almost fifteen full days per year.
That time should be more exciting, so I made this chair. I thought that each step could generate
some energy, which can then transform into something else./p centerimg id="image1644"
src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/selfsustainablechairsmall.gif"
alt="selfsustainablechairsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Self-Sustainable
Chair/i/centerbr / bpIt punctuates the commutes. No two walks are the same anymore, depending on
when you choose to stop or pause or contemplate. I like the way that once the chair becomes full,
it not only gives you the option to rest but sort of forces you to. It makes you stop for a minute.
It seems like a lot of your work is about using fast-paced technologies to slow down, or as
palliatives. The origami project, a href="http://www.jooyounpaek.com/foldloud.html"iFold Loud/i/a,
comes to mind. You actually stitched circuits onto sheets of folded paper, such that a given user's
manner of folding would close the circuits and release specific human vocal harmonies. The possible
combinations aren't just beautiful to the ear; they're soothing./p/b pThere is that kind of
notion./p !--more-- pbBut not, as you were saying, in a practical fashion. More in a fanciful
fashion. Like iSelf-Sustainable Chair/i, this object presents a far-fetched way of relaxing, which
more interestingly offsets our pace of living than an object we could buy from a store for stress
relief./b/p pSome people ask about iPolite Umbrella/i, "So when will we see it on the market?" And
I groan, "Oh, I don't really think it would work that well on the market."/p bpI think the fact
that you're not distributing them as such also lends to how they function conceptually as
art-objects – to their being singular ideas manifest./p/b pYeah. I think it's
about the statement. You mentioned the origami work. It reflects some of my personality, but this
foldout doesn't really tie into my past work./p pbHow do you mean?/b/p pIt's a very design-oriented
work. The object isn't really tied into any context./p pbWell, it's tied into a historical
context./b/p pYes, it is tied into a historical context, but not necessarily into the daily mundane
experiences that a lot of my other work ties into. So I'm having a hard time connecting it to the
other work. iFold Loud/i was more about exploring technology with my personality, in my way. I made
it as my ITP thesis project. I could have gone more in the direction of fine art, but I wanted to
take the chance to use technology and see where it ended up./p bpBut there's also an everyday
reference. I grew up in the States and we didn't make origami, but we would play games with folding
paper, like predicting our futures. Even origami is something that is made in Japan as a way to
pass the time. So while it's definitely more of a niche reference than those in your other works, I
think that there's still a connotation of the everyday. But I agree with you. It is more to the
side. I don't think this means that it's more of a design object, though. I think it actually very
much engages with contemporary conceptual art strategies by taking a method of folding, an idea of
sound production, and the idea of origami as hardware, and drawing an axis between these points.
This seems like a very contemporary approach. I couldn't speak to how much it engages with the
design world, but I think it's very relevant to contemporary art./p/b pYes, thank you./p centerimg
id="image1645" src="http://rhizome.org/imagebase/article/2130/foldoudsmall.gif"
alt="foldoudsmall.gif" //centerbr / centeriImage: JooYoun Paek, Fold Loud/i/centerbr / bpIn the
text on your website, you describe the work as having a "meta-technological aesthetic." What do you
mean by that?/p/b pThe technology isn't hidden. It forms the exposed circuits, so you can actually
see how it's working. The technology is bubbling up. It has a different sensibility than most
devices, where things are hidden behind a button and you don't know how you trigger the events on
the screen./p bpSo given that iFold Loud/i marks something of a departure form previous work, has
the stuff you've been making since been more in line with it?/p/b pWhat's interesting is that I'm
still working in the way I used to, and Fold Loud is developing as a side-project. For the Eyebeam
Fall show, "Untethered," I had two pieces. One was called a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2831757646/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNot-Bicycle
Cover/i/a, which is a bicycle cover that camouflages your bike. It's a small cover that looks like
a pile of garbage bags that you can unfold, pump up, and inflate. The other project was called a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/eyebeam/2899668716/in/set-72157607128132407/"iNothing In It/i/a.
It's a little bag, and when you open it, it releases the sound of objects. When you close it, they
disappear. And when you open it again, you hear different sounds. But when you look into the bag,
you see that there's nothing in it./p bpAre all the sounds from public, urban space?/p/b pThere are
a lot of these sounds. There is also the sound of a ticking clock./p pbWhat informed the sounds
that you used?/b/p pI was thinking a lot about this. Should I have the sound of someone telling a
story? Should I have the sound of someone singing? I actually tried to minimize that effect and use
the sounds of random objects to not convey too much of a specific story. With a story you have to
listen from the beginning to the end, but these sounds should make sense anytime you open the
bag./p bpAll the sounds are also things that might be heard as the bag is carried around, so it
seems appropriate to collapse them into a mobile, personal belonging. It makes it seem like the
sounds you hear have actually been collected by the bag./p/b pInteresting./p bpSo I have to ask:
how was it practically made, given that you can't see anything inside?/p/b pI ideally wanted
everything to be self-contained within the bag, but for this show I had to make it quickly, so the
audio system is beneath the pedestal and the bag is made with a zipper sensor. The concept of the
piece relates to the idea that what's in the world is only there because of your belief, and if you
start to believe in different ways, things will change. So it was about making you recognize the
notion of what you’re believing in - that your belief is really creating the world. Nothing
else. /pimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/rhizome-fp/~4/473940998" height="1" width="1"/
pIt's two days before Christmas, say, and you're at your parents' place. You've endured an evening
of awkward conversation and then they go to bed and you stay up alone drinking eggnog, which with
every new glass gradually transforms into straight brandy. You fall asleep on the couch and wake up
about 4 a.m. with a pounding headache. The 5-CD changer is still cycling through the Christmas
tunes the 'rents had put on all those hours ago; you're disoriented, and you're feeling ill. This
track, by Turk Dietrich of the New Orleans-based drone duo a
href="http://www.myspace.com/belongmusic" target="_blank"strongBelong/strong/a, who put out a nifty
a href="/article/record_review/48698-belong-colorloss-record-ep" target="_self"strongvinyl-only
EP/strong/a this year, is what it sounds like. It's from the download-only a
href="http://www.myspace.com/illstaytilafterchristmas" target="_blank"strongemI'll Stay 'Til After
Christmas/em/strong/a comp, which benefits Amnesty International./p p object
classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" width="300" height="110"
codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0"
param name="wmode" value="transparent" / param name="src"
value="http://media.imeem.com/m/CJLnEJ_-F-/aus=false/" /embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash"
width="300" height="110" src="http://media.imeem.com/m/CJLnEJ_-F-/aus=false/"
wmode="transparent"/embed /object /p p[from emI'll Stay 'Til After Christmas/em; a
href="http://www.myspace.com/illstaytilafterchristmas" target="_blank"strongavailable
now/strong/a]/p pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/s86VaOPdmHjiekOusHbXHZBeCDg/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/s86VaOPdmHjiekOusHbXHZBeCDg/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/pitchfork/today/~4/9IqcUCY-vlM"
height="1" width="1"/
Each episode of MAKE: television includes in-depth profiles of prominent Makers. Here's a quick
preview of an upcoming profile of Minneapolis Art on Wheels. Ali Momeni and his fleet of mobile
video projectors transform public spaces into real-time sound and light shows on a massive scale.
View the clip above, get the M4V and/or
subscribe in iTunes.
Don't forget to leave a comment; we want to know your thoughts.
To find out broadcast times and dates in your city, call your local public television station and
request "Viewer Services." Or just log on to www.makezine.tv, where we'll stream full episodes in January.
a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/minneapolis_art_on_wheels.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890"
/Read more/a | a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/minneapolis_art_on_wheels.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890"
/ Permalink/a | a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/12/minneapolis_art_on_wheels.html?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890#comments"
/Comments/a | a
href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/portable_audio_and_video/?CMP=OTC-0D6B48984890" /Read more
articles in Portable Audio and Video/a | a
href="http://digg.com/submit?url=blog.makezine.com%2Farchive%2F2008%2F12%2Fminneapolis_art_on_wheels.htmltitle=Minneapolis%20Art%20on%20Wheels%20-%20MAKE%3A%20televisionbodytext=%20Each%20episode%20of%20MAKE%3A%20television%20includes%20in-depth%20profiles%20of%20prominent%20Makers.%20Here%26apos%3Bs%20a%20quick%20preview%20of%20an%20upcoming%20profile%20of%20Minneapolis%20Art%20on%20Wheels.%20Ali%20Momeni%20and%20his%20fleet%20of%20mobile%20video%20projectors%20transform%20public%20spaces%20into%20real-time%20sound...topic=tech_news"
/Digg this!/a
img src="http://c.fsdn.com/fm/screenshots/67899_thumb.png" align="right" alt="Screenshot"
hspace="10" vspace="10" gtkaml is an XML syntax and an XML parser that extends the Vala.Parser and
transforms all your XML tags into a valid Gtk+ UI class. It features a compact XML syntax for
describing the way Gtk widgets are laid out in a (new) custom widget you're creating. Code
"islands" (written in Vala) are used for widget signal handling and other
methods/signals/properties that you're introducing. It doesn't depend on an external library at
run-time, and it is much more readable than the usual UI boilerplate. hr / strongLicense:/strong
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) hr / strongChanges:/strongbr / Valacompiler was upgraded
to 0.5.2. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/DdOytSlTFqOcnmvb8uOcEGD_9ac/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/DdOytSlTFqOcnmvb8uOcEGD_9ac/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshmeat/feeds/fm-releases-global/~4/kl75Caq-tpw" height="1"
width="1"/
img src="http://c.fsdn.com/fm/screenshots/67899_thumb.png" align="right" alt="Screenshot"
hspace="10" vspace="10" gtkaml is an XML syntax and an XML parser that extends the Vala.Parser and
transforms all your XML tags into a valid Gtk+ UI class. It features a compact XML syntax for
describing the way Gtk widgets are laid out in a (new) custom widget you're creating. Code
"islands" (written in Vala) are used for widget signal handling and other
methods/signals/properties that you're introducing. It doesn't depend on an external library at
run-time, and it is much more readable than the usual UI boilerplate. hr / strongLicense:/strong
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) hr / strongChanges:/strongbr / Valacompiler was upgraded
to 0.5.2. pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/3CwGGlVqbIgi53-ANbZOJ1uOdLU/a"img
src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~a/3CwGGlVqbIgi53-ANbZOJ1uOdLU/i" border="0"
ismap="true"/img/a/pimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/freshmeat/feeds/fm-releases-unix/~4/kl75Caq-tpw" height="1"
width="1"/
Master paper sculptors cut, fold, glue and otherwise transform sheets of paper in various colors,
sizes and textures into complex creations that mimic architecture, nature, the human form and
subjects that are purely the products of their own fertile imaginations. pa
href=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/XnhZrqgaBfFILjd6wKeWHCBWGCY/aimg
src=http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/XnhZrqgaBfFILjd6wKeWHCBWGCY/i border=0 ismap=true
//a/pimg src=http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~4/D-mFffJnlSo
height=1 width=1 /br[a
href=http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/02/papercraft-creative-paper-art-design-sculpture/
title=linklink/a] [a
href=http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/container/technology/popular/~3/D-mFffJnlSo/15_Absolutely_Astonishing_Papercraft_Artists_50_PICS
title=moremore/a]
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bestof2008_01.png" width="494"
height="290" Mobile phone operating systems and a reheated web browser war: that's how we'll recall
the year 2008 when it comes to software. From brand new to revamped browsers and mobile platforms
and apps, 2008's been good to technophiles who like their data in the cloud and accessible wherever
they are. Let's take a look back at this year in software, and some of the best new and improved
applications, web services, and mobile platforms that were born in 2008. Looking back at the last
12 months, these are the apps that get a gold foil-wrapped chocolate coin from us this year. iPhoto
by a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee/1947414336/"Gaetan Lee/a./i/p pbr clear="all"/p
h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Firefox 3/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/firefox3-sq-thumb_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Not only did you swoon over the release of Firefox 3
because of a href="http://lifehacker.com/392160/top-10-firefox-3-features"the "AwesomeBar" and the
rest of the "Had no idea I needed this but now I love it!" features/a it offers, but because the
launch itself was a grass-roots community-driven effort towards making software history. Indeed, on
June 17th of this year, the makers of Firefox a
href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2008-07-02.html"set a new Guinness World Record
for most software downloads in a given day/a, at more than eight million downloads of the new
browser iteration in 24 hours. If you haven't dug into the advanced functionality Firefox has to
offer, check out our a href="http://lifehacker.com/396312/power-users-guide-to-firefox-3"power
user's guide to Firefox 3/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Google
Chrome/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/thumb160x_gchrome.png"
width="135" height="135"While Mozillians and Firefox users celebrated across the globe over the
summer, no one knew that search powerhouse Google was in the software development lab cooking up
their own lean, mean browsing machine that would forsake all of the fox's bells and whistles (and
extensibility) to run Javascript-based applications lightening-fast. On September 2nd, Google
released the first beta of a href="http://google.com/chrome/"Chrome/a, their new web browser which
they hope you'll make your window to the web and all its apps. Our own in-house a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5055406/browser-speed-tests-the-compiled-up+to+date-results"browser
speed tests show that Chrome is indeed speedy/a, and we're seeing a significant uptake on Chrome
usage by Lifehacker readers. (Last month's browser breakdown for Lifehacker readers was 62%
Firefox, 22% IE, 8% Safari, and 6% Chrome. Not bad for a browser that's been out only a few
months.) For more Chrome goodness, see our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5045904/the-power-users-guide-to-google-chrome"power user's guide to
Google Chrome/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"iPhone 2.0 and the
App Store/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/iphone20-sq-thumb_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Yeah, yeah, the iPhone launched in 2007, but this year the
iPhone 2.0 software and the new iPhone 3G model with a faster data plan and GPS came out to hype
almost as big as the original iPhone launch. The combination of an operating system that finally
ran third-party apps officially plus pinpointy GPS goodness set the bar for what users can expect
to get from the next generation of smartphone with a fast internet connection, full-on browser, and
spot-on location-awareness. Plus, dozens of the apps available for the phone are free. At first, we
were a href="http://lifehacker.com/395171/how-your-location+aware-iphone-will-change-your-life"in/a
a href="http://lifehacker.com/398338/iphone-20-gets-you-laid-and-more"love/a. Later, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/398658/why-youre-better-off-avoiding-the-iphone"we had our doubts/a.
The iPhone 2.0 launch did start to show some of the cracks in the Apple armormdash;several of the
earliest versions of the software were crash and freeze-prone, requiring many users to uninstall
apps and reset their phone software to fix maddening keyboard delays and application crashes.
Meanwhile, Apple's approval-only App Store left a few applications out in the cold. Still, the
iPhone 2.0 software created a compelling mobile platform and app marketing campaign that made Aunt
Bertha really want to try that Neil Diamond song out on Shazam.br clear="all"/p h3
style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"iPhone 2.0 Jailbreak Utilities and Apps/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/cydia-thumb.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" What with the App Store limitations and Apple's insistence
on ruling over what you can and cannot do on your phone, it's not surprising the enthusiastic
"jailbreak" community soldiered on this year, continuing to offer installers and non-Apple-approved
applications for your iPhone even in the face of the mainstream iTunes App Store. We take our hats
off to these intrepid hackers, who offer such lovely functionality as the ability to SSH into,
theme, and download video clips to your phone; if you haven't jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch,
here are a few of our picks of best a
href="http://lifehacker.com/400148/iphone-20-jailbreak-apps-you-cant-find-in-the-itunes-store"iPhone
2.0 jailbreak apps you can't find in the iTunes Store/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%;
margin-top: 20px;"Google Android/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/android-logo-sq.png" width="135"
height="135" Google's answer to Apple's proprietary iPhone hardware and software came in the form
of their very own touch mobile phone operating system, Android, which launched this past October.
Unlike the iPhone, this new mobile platform is open source and will run on various handsets going
forward. Right now Android's first release is only available on the HTC G1 handset; you can see our
a href="http://lifehacker.com/5064117/a-hands+on-first-look-at-google-android"hands-on first look
at Google Android running on the G1 here/a. As an iPhone user frustrated by limited apps,
crashiness, and lack of copy and paste, Android is like a breath of fresh air. Even though the
mobile OS is still very new, its open-source nature has led to hundreds of new apps. See our pick
of a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5075332/best-android-apps-to-boost-your-mobile-productivity-so-far"best
Android apps to boost your mobile productivity/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%;
margin-top: 20px;"Digsby/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/digsby-logo_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" One of the few software apps on this list that's not open
source or made by a ginormous company, new instant messenger client Digsby took chatters by storm
with its ability to a
href="http://lifehacker.com/354345/consolidate-im-email-and-social-networking-with-digsby"consolidate
your IM, email, and social networking in one place/a. Even though the Digsby beta only went public
in February, by April it was already a
href="http://lifehacker.com/375391/five-best-instant-messengers"one of our readers' top five
favorite instant messaging tools/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"XBMC and Forks/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/xbmc-logo-sq_01.png" width="135"
height="135" We were really late to the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) party when we showed up last year
and a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center-299809.php"installed
it on our old classic Xbox/a, but since then we've been hooked on this rich, open-source media
center. Luckily, just because those old black boxes are becoming obselete doesn't mean the XBMC
software project has died off. Just the opposite: XBMC has forked into several neat branches that
run on various hardware platforms so you can enjoy the same media center goodness without hacking
an old Xbox. Check out a few launches from various factions of XBMC developers this past year that
have warmed our hearts:/p ul lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/5051874/xbmc-atlantis-beta-1-released-for-all-platforms"XBMC 'Atlantis'
Beta 1 Released for All Platforms/a/li lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/5095241/plex-7-adds-itunes-and-iphoto-support-and-more"Plex 7 for Mac
Adds iTunes and iPhoto Support and More/a/li lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/396382/boxee-is-xbmc-with-newer-look-and-social-flair"Boxee Is XBMC
with Newer Look and Social Flair/a/li /ul br clear="all" h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Ubuntu Hardy Heron/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/hardyheron-logo.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Another year, another Ubuntu release, and they just keep
getting better. Seriously, you have to love the free, open source operating system that manages a
new major release on a yearly basismdash;something Apple and Microsoft, companies you pay hundreds
of dollars to for the privilege of using their software, don't pull off. If you've tried Linux on
your desktop before and killed the partition in frustration, only to slink back to Windows, it's
time to give it another go. This year's flavor, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/383769/hardy-heron-makes-linux-worth-another-look"version 8.04 Hardy
Heron makes Linux worth another look/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Gmail Labs, Gadgets, and Themes/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/thumb160x_thumb160x_thumb160x_thumb160x_smallish_smallish_smallish_smallish_gmailenvelope.png"
width="135" height="135" Our favorite web application on the internet, Gmail, continues to burn
down barns and rip up the competition with continual iteration and feature adds. This year, Gmail
added a "Labs" section to your account, a safe way for power users to enable "experimental" power
features to their email while keeping everyone else's safe from harm. Truthfully, when I a
href="http://lifehacker.com/395211/gmail-gets-13-experimental-new-features"attended the Google
press event announcing Gmail Labs/a back in June, I had my doubts about whether or not the
featureset would ever expand beyond the initial 13, and if it would go beyond eye-candy games like
Snakey to, you know, actually useful stuff. Turns out it did. Six months later, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5052060/what-gmail-labs-features-do-you-have-enabled"ten more Gmail
Labs features/a are available in your account, including a super-useful Gadgets feature that lets
third parties embed their apps into your inbox. (Like a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5101139/bitly-offers-in+gmail-url-shortening-gadget"Bit.ly/a or a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5084502/add-your-basecamp-projects-to-gmail"Basecamp/a.) Later, Gmail
launched a href="http://lifehacker.com/5093536/gmail-updates-its-look-adds-themes"themes/a as well
as a href="http://lifehacker.com/5100649/gmail-google-desktop-gadget-now-available"a Google Desktop
gadget/a. In the midst of all this, the Gmail security team took the time a
href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2008/11/gmail-security-and-recent-phishing.html"to
respond to a breach/a that several users had experienced and blogged about online. Clearly there's
someone home at Gmail; this is a rapidly-evolving product that any webapp developer should use as
an example on how to iterate quickly.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Honorable Mentions/h3 pMaking best-of-year lists is always difficult because you risk leaving
off really deserving items. At least two that go in our honorable mentions bin are the a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5042312/ubiquity-prototype-offers-a-natural-language-web-command-line"Firefox
keyboard interface prototype Ubiquity/a, and photo-sharing site a
href="http://lifehacker.com/377598/flickr-adds-video"Flickr's launch of short video clips/a in
April./p pNow, you tell us which one of these apps impressed you the most in the year two thousand
and eight./p pscript type="text/javascript" language="javascript"
src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/1160637.js" /scriptnoscripta
href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1160637/"Which new or improved app impressed you the most
in 2008?/abr span style="font-size:9px;"( a href="http://www.polldaddy.com"polls/a)/span/noscript/p
pIf you can't get enough of best-of lists, hop into the time machine and see our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-new-and-improved-apps-of-2007-332617.php"top
10 new and improved apps of 2007/a, and our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/best-of-2006/geek-to-live--the-best-apps-of-2006-221920.php"best
apps of 2006/a and of a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-best-apps-of-2005-144388.php"2005/a./p
pAnything you would have included on this list that we left out? Tell us about it in the
comments./p br style="clear: both;"/ a
href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79p=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79p=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=cDx19c1S"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=ZTEOZvTR"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=6Kfin5AZ"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=6Kfin5AZ" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com/~f/lifehacker/full?a=Sg3nuEAr"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=Sg3nuEAr" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/TRlejqKX0-0" height="1" width="1"/
pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/bestof2008_01.png" width="494"
height="290" style="display:block;" / iframe
src="http://digg.com/api/diggthis.php?u=http://digg.com/software/Lifehacker_Best_New_and_Improved_Software_of_2008"
align="right" frameborder="0" height="82" scrolling="no" width="55"/iframe Mobile phone operating
systems and a reheated web browser war: that's how we'll recall the year 2008 when it comes to
software. From brand new to revamped browsers and mobile platforms and apps, 2008's been good to
technophiles who like their data in the cloud and accessible wherever they are. Let's take a look
back at this year in software, and some of the best new and improved applications, web services,
and mobile platforms that were born in 2008. Looking back at the last 12 months, these are the apps
that get a gold foil-wrapped chocolate coin from us this year. iPhoto by a
href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gaetanlee/1947414336/"Gaetan Lee/a./i/p pbr clear="all"/p h3
style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Firefox 3/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/firefox3-sq-thumb_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Not only did you swoon over the release of Firefox 3
because of a href="http://lifehacker.com/392160/top-10-firefox-3-features"the "AwesomeBar" and the
rest of the "Had no idea I needed this but now I love it!" features/a it offers, but because the
launch itself was a grass-roots community-driven effort towards making software history. Indeed, on
June 17th of this year, the makers of Firefox a
href="http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/press/mozilla-2008-07-02.html"set a new Guinness World Record
for most software downloads in a given day/a, at more than eight million downloads of the new
browser iteration in 24 hours. If you haven't dug into the advanced functionality Firefox has to
offer, check out our a href="http://lifehacker.com/396312/power-users-guide-to-firefox-3"power
user's guide to Firefox 3/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"Google
Chrome/h3 pimg src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/thumb160x_gchrome.png"
width="135" height="135"While Mozillians and Firefox users celebrated across the globe over the
summer, no one knew that search powerhouse Google was in the software development lab cooking up
their own lean, mean browsing machine that would forsake all of the fox's bells and whistles (and
extensibility) to run Javascript-based applications lightening-fast. On September 2nd, Google
released the first beta of a href="http://google.com/chrome/"Chrome/a, their new web browser which
they hope you'll make your window to the web and all its apps. Our own in-house a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5055406/browser-speed-tests-the-compiled-up+to+date-results"browser
speed tests show that Chrome is indeed speedy/a, and we're seeing a significant uptake on Chrome
usage by Lifehacker readers. (Last month's browser breakdown for Lifehacker readers was 62%
Firefox, 22% IE, 8% Safari, and 6% Chrome. Not bad for a browser that's been out only a few
months.) For more Chrome goodness, see our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5045904/the-power-users-guide-to-google-chrome"power user's guide to
Google Chrome/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"iPhone 2.0 and the
App Store/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/iphone20-sq-thumb_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Yeah, yeah, the iPhone launched in 2007, but this year the
iPhone 2.0 software and the new iPhone 3G model with a faster data plan and GPS came out to hype
almost as big as the original iPhone launch. The combination of an operating system that finally
ran third-party apps officially plus pinpointy GPS goodness set the bar for what users can expect
to get from the next generation of smartphone with a fast internet connection, full-on browser, and
spot-on location-awareness. Plus, dozens of the apps available for the phone are free. At first, we
were a href="http://lifehacker.com/395171/how-your-location+aware-iphone-will-change-your-life"in/a
a href="http://lifehacker.com/398338/iphone-20-gets-you-laid-and-more"love/a. Later, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/398658/why-youre-better-off-avoiding-the-iphone"we had our doubts/a.
The iPhone 2.0 launch did start to show some of the cracks in the Apple armormdash;several of the
earliest versions of the software were crash and freeze-prone, requiring many users to uninstall
apps and reset their phone software to fix maddening keyboard delays and application crashes.
Meanwhile, Apple's approval-only App Store left a few applications out in the cold. Still, the
iPhone 2.0 software created a compelling mobile platform and app marketing campaign that made Aunt
Bertha really want to try that Neil Diamond song out on Shazam.br clear="all"/p h3
style="font-size: 120%; margin-top: 20px;"iPhone 2.0 Jailbreak Utilities and Apps/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/cydia-thumb.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" What with the App Store limitations and Apple's insistence
on ruling over what you can and cannot do on your phone, it's not surprising the enthusiastic
"jailbreak" community soldiered on this year, continuing to offer installers and non-Apple-approved
applications for your iPhone even in the face of the mainstream iTunes App Store. We take our hats
off to these intrepid hackers, who offer such lovely functionality as the ability to SSH into,
theme, and download video clips to your phone; if you haven't jailbroken your iPhone or iPod touch,
here are a few of our picks of best a
href="http://lifehacker.com/400148/iphone-20-jailbreak-apps-you-cant-find-in-the-itunes-store"iPhone
2.0 jailbreak apps you can't find in the iTunes Store/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%;
margin-top: 20px;"Google Android/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/android-logo-sq.png" width="135"
height="135" Google's answer to Apple's proprietary iPhone hardware and software came in the form
of their very own touch mobile phone operating system, Android, which launched this past October.
Unlike the iPhone, this new mobile platform is open source and will run on various handsets going
forward. Right now Android's first release is only available on the HTC G1 handset; you can see our
a href="http://lifehacker.com/5064117/a-hands+on-first-look-at-google-android"hands-on first look
at Google Android running on the G1 here/a. As an iPhone user frustrated by limited apps,
crashiness, and lack of copy and paste, Android is like a breath of fresh air. Even though the
mobile OS is still very new, its open-source nature has led to hundreds of new apps. See our pick
of a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5075332/best-android-apps-to-boost-your-mobile-productivity-so-far"best
Android apps to boost your mobile productivity/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%;
margin-top: 20px;"Digsby/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/digsby-logo_01.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" One of the few software apps on this list that's not open
source or made by a ginormous company, new instant messenger client Digsby took chatters by storm
with its ability to a
href="http://lifehacker.com/354345/consolidate-im-email-and-social-networking-with-digsby"consolidate
your IM, email, and social networking in one place/a. Even though the Digsby beta only went public
in February, by April it was already a
href="http://lifehacker.com/375391/five-best-instant-messengers"one of our readers' top five
favorite instant messaging tools/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"XBMC and Forks/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/xbmc-logo-sq_01.png" width="135"
height="135" We were really late to the Xbox Media Center (XBMC) party when we showed up last year
and a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/transform-your-classic-xbox-into-a-killer-media-center-299809.php"installed
it on our old classic Xbox/a, but since then we've been hooked on this rich, open-source media
center. Luckily, just because those old black boxes are becoming obselete doesn't mean the XBMC
software project has died off. Just the opposite: XBMC has forked into several neat branches that
run on various hardware platforms so you can enjoy the same media center goodness without hacking
an old Xbox. Check out a few launches from various factions of XBMC developers this past year that
have warmed our hearts:/p ul lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/5051874/xbmc-atlantis-beta-1-released-for-all-platforms"XBMC 'Atlantis'
Beta 1 Released for All Platforms/a/li lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/5095241/plex-7-adds-itunes-and-iphoto-support-and-more"Plex 7 for Mac
Adds iTunes and iPhoto Support and More/a/li lia
href="http://lifehacker.com/396382/boxee-is-xbmc-with-newer-look-and-social-flair"Boxee Is XBMC
with Newer Look and Social Flair/a/li /ul br clear="all" h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Ubuntu Hardy Heron/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/hardyheron-logo.png" width="135"
height="135" align="right" class="right" Another year, another Ubuntu release, and they just keep
getting better. Seriously, you have to love the free, open source operating system that manages a
new major release on a yearly basismdash;something Apple and Microsoft, companies you pay hundreds
of dollars to for the privilege of using their software, don't pull off. If you've tried Linux on
your desktop before and killed the partition in frustration, only to slink back to Windows, it's
time to give it another go. This year's flavor, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/383769/hardy-heron-makes-linux-worth-another-look"version 8.04 Hardy
Heron makes Linux worth another look/a.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Gmail Labs, Gadgets, and Themes/h3 pimg
src="http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/12/thumb160x_thumb160x_thumb160x_thumb160x_smallish_smallish_smallish_smallish_gmailenvelope.png"
width="135" height="135" Our favorite web application on the internet, Gmail, continues to burn
down barns and rip up the competition with continual iteration and feature adds. This year, Gmail
added a "Labs" section to your account, a safe way for power users to enable "experimental" power
features to their email while keeping everyone else's safe from harm. Truthfully, when I a
href="http://lifehacker.com/395211/gmail-gets-13-experimental-new-features"attended the Google
press event announcing Gmail Labs/a back in June, I had my doubts about whether or not the
featureset would ever expand beyond the initial 13, and if it would go beyond eye-candy games like
Snakey to, you know, actually useful stuff. Turns out it did. Six months later, a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5052060/what-gmail-labs-features-do-you-have-enabled"ten more Gmail
Labs features/a are available in your account, including a super-useful Gadgets feature that lets
third parties embed their apps into your inbox. (Like a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5101139/bitly-offers-in+gmail-url-shortening-gadget"Bit.ly/a or a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5084502/add-your-basecamp-projects-to-gmail"Basecamp/a.) Later, Gmail
launched a href="http://lifehacker.com/5093536/gmail-updates-its-look-adds-themes"themes/a as well
as a href="http://lifehacker.com/5100649/gmail-google-desktop-gadget-now-available"a Google Desktop
gadget/a. In the midst of all this, the Gmail security team took the time a
href="http://googleonlinesecurity.blogspot.com/2008/11/gmail-security-and-recent-phishing.html"to
respond to a breach/a that several users had experienced and blogged about online. Clearly there's
someone home at Gmail; this is a rapidly-evolving product that any webapp developer should use as
an example on how to iterate quickly.br clear="all"/p h3 style="font-size: 120%; margin-top:
20px;"Honorable Mentions/h3 pMaking best-of-year lists is always difficult because you risk leaving
off really deserving items. At least two that go in our honorable mentions bin are the a
href="http://lifehacker.com/5042312/ubiquity-prototype-offers-a-natural-language-web-command-line"Firefox
keyboard interface prototype Ubiquity/a, and photo-sharing site a
href="http://lifehacker.com/377598/flickr-adds-video"Flickr's launch of short video clips/a in
April./p pNow, you tell us which one of these apps impressed you the most in the year two thousand
and eight./p pscript type="text/javascript" language="javascript"
src="http://static.polldaddy.com/p/1160637.js" /scriptnoscripta
href="http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1160637/"Which new or improved app impressed you the most
in 2008?/abr span style="font-size:9px;"( a href="http://www.polldaddy.com"polls/a)/span/noscript/p
pIf you can't get enough of best-of lists, hop into the time machine and see our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-new-and-improved-apps-of-2007-332617.php"top
10 new and improved apps of 2007/a, and our a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/best-of-2006/geek-to-live--the-best-apps-of-2006-221920.php"best
apps of 2006/a and of a
href="http://lifehacker.com/software/geek-to-live/geek-to-live-best-apps-of-2005-144388.php"2005/a./p
pAnything you would have included on this list that we left out? Tell us about it in the
comments./p br style="clear: both;"/ a
href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79p=1"img alt=""
style="border: 0;" border="0"
src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79p=1"//a img
src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=c25b27e9cc47fec6e2837e6756c1da79" style="display:
none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/div class="feedflare" a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=cDx19c1S"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=120" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=ZTEOZvTR"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?d=41" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=6Kfin5AZ"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=6Kfin5AZ" border="0"/img/a a
href="http://feeds.gawker.com:80/~f/lifehacker/full?a=Sg3nuEAr"img
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/lifehacker/full?i=Sg3nuEAr" border="0"/img/a /divimg
src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~4/TRlejqKX0-0" height="1" width="1"/
)
and reject those that you are not interested in
(
)
