May, 2007 - Softonic English

Export Firefox Livemarks to Google Reader

At the moment, Google Reader seems to be the best feed reader out there. You can add as many tags as you want to a feed, search for subscriptions inside the reader and preview posts without having to open them. You can’t beat Google search capabilities.

Here’s a tip for those of you that have decided to make the switch from Firefox Live Bookmarks to Google Reader. We’ve found a little Firefox extension, OPML Support, that will give Export/Import capabilities to the Firefox Bookmarks Manager for OPML files. It’s fairly easy to transfer your Firefox Live Bookmarks to your Google Reader, just follow these steps:

Install the OPML Support extension and restart your Firefox

In Firefox, click ‘Organize Bookmarks’ in the Bookmarks tab at the top – this opens up the Bookmarks Manager
In the Bookmarks Manager, click ‘File’, ‘Export’, then ‘OPML’-this will open up the OPML Support window
At the top, where it says ‘What do you want to export?’ you should select Livemarks
Don’t click ‘Export livemarks as bookmarks’
If you want to use Firefox folder names as tags in Google reader, select ‘Maintain folder structure when exporting’. If you choose ‘Export links without folder data’ you’ll have to tag all your imported links in Google Reader
It’s a good idea to click the box ‘Remove possibly invalid characters from titles and descriptions’ – this will clean up your feed titles a bit
Click OK and select a good location to save the Export file

Ok, that’s all you need to do in Firefox. Now open up your Google Reader and click on the ‘Import/Export’ tab in ‘Settings’. All you’ll have to do is browse for the OPML file and upload it. Depending on whether you’ve kept the folder structure while exporting or not, you probably will have to do a bit of cleaning up, erasing tags, moving your new feeds in categories and deleting obsolete ones. After that you’re set to go with Google Reader!

UPDATED: Windows Live Messenger 8.5 leaked

Windows Live Messenger fans will be excited to hear that the forthcoming Vista optimised version of the chat tool has already been leaked onto the internet. An internal build of Windows Live Messenger 8.5 has been unearthed by Spanish fansite Messenger Addictos.

The unofficial version is in Spanish although you can convert it to English by copying the old language file (msglang.dll) over the new one (msglang.8.5.1235.0517.dll). The installation directory has also been changed to a dedicated ‘Windows Live’ folder i.e. C:\Program Files\Windows Live\Messenger.

As with most Live Messenger releases, this one features a revamped interface which has been optimised for Vista. It also features a completely new installer program. According to mess.be (which carries the rather original tagline ‘Don’t Mess With B.A Baracus – Mess With MSN Messenger’), the new version also features something called ‘Windows Live Folders’ in the ‘Sharing Folders’ window. This means that you can upload folders from your PC to Messenger to either share publicly or personal use.

This move suggests that this release of Messenger is Microsoft’s attempt to take it into Web 2.0 territory by allowing people to access their personal folders online. The change to a Windows Live installation folder also suggests that Microsoft intend to consolidate the ‘Windows Live’ brand. Note that you should scan these files for viruses before installing them and that messenger plug-ins or Messenger Plus! do not work with this unofficial version. If you don’t feel safe doing this, you can participate in the official beta testing (if you get selected) by signing-up at the Microsoft Connect website.

Update: Windows Live Messenger is now available in public Beta form! (thanks, dwergs)

Use your screensaver as a wallpaper

Wouldn’t your Mac look cool if you could use your screensaver as a wallpaper? Wallsaver is a very simple, one click application that serves exactly this purpose. You can set your screensaver as wallpaper in one click and restore it to the original background simply by pressing restore. If you really like your screensaver, you shouldn’t have to wait a few minutes to enjoy it. Set up Wallsaver and you’ll be able to enjoy it all the time.

Tomb Raider Anniversary: 10 years of Lara Croft

Lara Croft commemorates her 10th birthday and invites you to join the celebration with a new action-packed adventure: Tomb Raider Anniversary. Help Lara explore ancient settlements in Peru, Greece, Egypt and other mysterious lands while searching for the mythical Scion and fighting dangerous supernatural creatures. Only the fittest will survive!

Get tabbed-up with Windows Explorer

QTtab It seems that nowadays, it’s all about the tabs. Whether it’s tabbed browsing in Firefox or Internet Explorer or adding tabs to your favourite programs, everyone is tabbed-up. And why not? Tabs save having multiple windows open and you can easily keep tabs on what you’ve got open at any moment. One thing however that sorely lacks this function is Windows Explorer, but fear not – there is a solution.

QT Tabbar is a small application which adds tabs to Windows folder browsing. This cool little add-on means that, rather than have several different folder windows open all over your desktop, you can browse everything within one. It also includes a neat little function called ‘Subfolder Tips’ which opens folders within folders without even touching them. So for example, right-clicking on a folder will reveal exactly which folders are inside via a series of drop-down menus. You can progress like this until you’ve found exactly what you want via just one open folder.
Not only does this all save clicking time, but having fewer windows open keeps your desktop tidier and reduces RAM usage. Once you’ve tried this, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without it in Windows.

10 alternatives to MSN Messenger

While nowadays most of the chatting you do doesn’t require downloading a client, some of you may still prefer to have the application on your PC, just to have your contacts and chat history available, even when you’re offline. About 10 years ago, everybody seemed to be on MSN, but since then new alternatives have emerged and old competitors have made significant improvements. Let’ see if we can convince you to ditch MSN for one of these other IM clients.

Pidgin – Only recently this client was known as Gaim, until it was forced by legal constraints to give up the name. The client was rebaptised as Pidgin and in the process upped to 2.0 and improved its interface. This multi protocol client features Buddy Pounce, an alert mechanism to notify you when friends send messages or come online.

Yahoo! Messenger – MSN’s biggest competitor, Yahoo! Messenger now offers VoIP PC to PC or PC to phone. The “Audibles”, a sort of animated and talking emoticons exclusive to the IM client, will either turn you off completely or make you laugh.

MySpaceIM – Aimed at the MySpace crowd, this IM client makes sure you’re never farther than a click away from your My Space page and best friends.

Trillian – This is one of the most innovative clients out there. Cerulean Studios are working on an online version of their IM clients that should blow the roof off of other applications. The current version is known for one of a kind features like server-less connection, “Instant Lookup” or videoconferencing. You can also customize the client thanks to all the skins available online.

Miranda IM – This is probably the lightest IM client you’ll find. Miranda needs no installation and will use up a minimum of resources when run. The client is multi protocol and can connect to ICQ, AIM, MSN or Yahoo among others.

AOL Instant Messenger – AIM is still up there with the best clients and offers features like 500+ buddy list, video and audio chat and text messaging to mobiles. AOL hopes to make AIM the “most viral, social and popular” IM application around. Will it succeed?

Star Messenger – Similarly to Miranda, Star Messenger is a discreet little IM client that handles multiple protocols and uses up very few of your PC’s resources.

Meetro – This IM client has often been perceived mainly as a dating tool. Meetro connects you with other Meetro users who live close to you so you can chat them up, and why not, invite them for a cup of coffee. The client allows for extensive customization of your own profile, like setting your favorite food, books you read, and even sexual orientation.

Google Talk – Half way between a messenger and a VoIP app, Google Talk is as simple and efficient as most of Google’s creations. The client integrates into Google Desktop and can show what tracks you’re listening to on iTunes.

ICQ – The most popular IM client in the 90s, ICQ probably never recovered from MSN’s rise. The new version brings a complete redesign and extensive customization. You can add a number of skins, create your own avatar and write down extensive information about yourself in the profile section. ICQ also has its own animated smilies, called “Tzers”. Overall, more cosmetic changes than actual improvements in the new version, though.

Resize your images for free with VSO

With digital cameras offering more and more megapixels, resizing photos becomes almost a compulsory task before attempting to publish or send any of them by email. VSO Image Resizer provides you with a quick, easy way to resize your images, either one by one or in batches. You can also rename files, insert watermarks and create copies.

Add mood tags to your music with Moody

Moody Moody gives you the chance to organize your music library according to your moods. Whether calm, happy or sad, associate a feeling to a song in iTunes. Then all you have to do is select your mood in Moody and the program will automatically play all the songs that correspond to it. You can even combine moods and set tags to particular songs.

Firefox 3 Alpha 5 release to include Places

Firefox 3 continues to grow quickly and steadily. Only a month after the last Alpha release, Mozilla developers have scheduled the new Alpha 5 version to be launched this coming Friday, June 1st.

The great news about this coming Alpha is that it will include Places, a new bookmark and history feature which was initially planned to be implemented in Firefox 2 but had to be postponed.

Places is based on the SQLite database engine so it’s incompatible with previous Firefox versions’ bookmarks. If you’re already using any of the Firefox 3 alpha releases, you’ll have to export and import bookmarks manually into the new Places system. Remember to create a backup copy of your bookmarks first! Alpha versions are development stages and should be used only for testing purposes, not for daily web browsing.

In any case, while we wait for the final version of Firefox 3 to be released late this year, here’s a tip for good old version 2 I just found out: if you want to have more than one homepage opened when launching the browser, just enter their addresses on the Preferences window separated by pipe symbols, as you can see in the image published on this post. An easy trick to make Firefox even more useful!

YouTube to launch new video player

newyoutubeplayer YouTube is about to receive a makeover. A new embedded video player for the world’s most popular video sharing website is about to be released and will include features from Google Video Player, according to NewTeeVee.

A series of exclusive screenshots, such as the one shown here, have been published on Google Blogoscoped. The most significant change will be a series of thumbnails representing related clips splashed along the bottom of the screen. What’s more, if the video is embedded in a blog and you want to watch one of the related clips, you can watch it in the very same player without being re-directed to the YouTube site. In addition, the URL and embedded code will be available via red sidebar buttons although this will reduce the size of the video a touch.

The fact that users can now watch related clips within embedded players will be a huge bonus. In theory, this also means that traffic through the main YouTube site will be decreased which will hopefully stop it getting overloaded with users. However, one question is whether we will have the option to remove the related thumbnails at the bottom of the screen. If one of the related clips is unsavoury or undesirable, do you really want it splashed all over your blog or website?