At the time of writing all I could show you was a video of 360desktop as it hadn’t even been released, but that was enough to get me hot under the collar.
Since that day I have been eager to get my hands on this application, and last Friday I received an email from the guys at 360desktop which invited me to download and try it.

I was at work when I got the email and couldn’t wait to get home to play around with it.
Once home I excitedly downloaded and installed 360desktop (which went straight forward,) and played around with it for a while.

So what exactly is 360desktop?

360desktop is like having a panoramic workspace which allows you to slide left or right through 360 degrees giving you extra screen space for all your open applications, windows and widgets. The image or picture that you see on your screen is basically several images stitched together and cleverly designed to spin in a complete circle.

The application is currently in beta mode, and to be honest I found it to be rather limited in what it can do, and like all beta programs is buggy. You only have a choice of 2 wallpapers and you cannot create anymore, apparently this option is to come. You can also add widgets, which are small applications that can give you extra functionality to your desktop, but I couldn’t get them to work. I found my applications opened up ok in 360desktop but when some of them were maximised in size, I couldn’t get 360desktop to scroll. There is also a program update button but when I clicked on it, I received an error message and was unable to connect to their server to check for the latest updates.
There are a few other options, for example, you can control the speed of the scrolling desktop, and panning sensitivity but thats about it.

Update: 360desktop have just released 3 new wallpapers, take a look.

Overall I was a bit disappointed with this application, sure it looks nice but functionality wise, it has very little to offer. But, and I feel there is a big but, I would certainly keep my eye on this program as I think it has great potential and may go far. When the guys at 360desktop add more features to it, and smooth out the bugs I will definitely be trying it again.

If you would like to take it for a spin , and I recommend you do, then you can download it here. Please back up your system before you do download and install it.

Have you tried 360desktop, what do you think of it? Let me know in the comments box.

What are the benefits of upgrading to FF3?
Do you know any of the new features Mozilla have incorporated into the browser?
After speaking to users at work and friends, most can’t even tell the difference, other than having some annoying problems.

I played it safe and have been testing FF3 for a few weeks, but still use FF2 as my main browser.
What has really frustrated me with FF3 is that many of my essential add-ons are not compatible, and I have had to try and find alternatives.

I decided to find out just what is actually new in FF3, and to determine whether or not to continue using it. Listed below is my findings.

1. According to Mozilla, FF3 has been in development for the past 3 years, and had “15,000 changes to improve performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability.”
15,000 changes, wow, that is some development, but where are the changes?

2. FF3 is claimed to be around 2.7 times faster that FF2. Mozilla state that “This is due to improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in continued improvements in performance, compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3.”
This is great news for many of us who use these applications.
Have you found it to be faster? I have but I don’t think it is twice as fast.

3. FF3 has less memory leaks, therefore uses less memory, leading to an increase in performance. This is good news if you found FF2 a bit on the slow side, especially when loading flash based videos. I have found FF3 loads flash videos almost instantly. If you haven’t tried watching flash videos, go to YouTube and click on a video just to see how fast it really is.

4. FF3 now stores your bookmarks, history, cookies and preferences in a secure database format which prevents loss to any of your data if the computer crashes. I think that should also include, if Firefox 3 crashes .

5. Clicking on the site identity button, which is to the right of the web address bar, should enable you to see who owns the site and how secure it is, and in some instances the company address. Unfortunately most sites don’t give out this information and below is what you normally see.

If you click on the ‘More information’ button, FF3 does display a handy dialog box which allows you to see if the website is storing cookies on your computer, and if you have any passwords saved for that site. You can also block or allow images, cookies, pop up windows and much more, making this a very handy tool indeed.

6. Stronger phishing and malware protection; if you go to a web site that FF3 recognizes as having viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware you will get a warning message as shown below.

I am not sure how accurate this works, but if used with McAfee SiteAdvisor, is an excellent combination to keep you safe from online threats.

7. Firefox 3 now integrates with your anti virus software, and will inform your program when downloading executables.
Which hopefully means more secure downloads.

8. One feature I have always found handy in Firefox, is the ability to increase the text, as some web page fonts can be small and difficult to read. However if you increase the text to much, it does not always wrap around an image correctly and can make the page unreadable.
In FF3 you now have the option to scale the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Which ever settings you change, will be remembered whenever you return to that site. To increase the images as well as the text,  click on View > Zoom and then either tick or untick the option ‘Zoom Text Only’.

9. Improved download manager. In my article ” The 2 Free Greatest Download Managers on Earth,” I wrote about the best 2 freedownload managers on the internet. Although FF3 download manager is not as good as these free applications, they have improved it. You can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection. A search button has been incorporated so you can easily locate any of your downloads, and also search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are shown in the status bar as your files download.
If you right click on any of your downloads you can go back to the download web page, pretty neat.

10. Bookmarks has been beefed up, and to bookmark a page simply click on the star icon in the address bar, and it will add the web page to the ‘Recently Bookmarked’ option which is under the Bookmarks menu. A second click lets you file and tag your web pages, with an option to associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
You can quickly view your most visited bookmarked websites, and also any that your have recently bookmarked, all within a few clicks of the mouse.
You can now install bookmark add ons which can add a multitude of features to your bookmarks.
Lastly, you can now backup or import your bookmarks with one click.

11. Firefox will now automatically check your add-ons, plugins, and disable any that are not compatible. I have also noticed that FF3 will not let you install any add-ons that are not compatible with it. Which will hopefully make your computer more secure and safer from attacks.

12. You can now easily resize the search bar by simply dragging it to the left or right. Handy if you actually want to see what you are typing in the box.

13. Smart Location bar or the Awesome bar. You will either love it or hate it, however, most people don’t know how to use it, and ignore its options, but let me explain how it works.
The Smart location bar is the box where you enter the web site address at the top.
If you type words in the address bar, (not website addresses), Firefox will start matching those words against your local history and bookmarks, with web pages that you have previously viewed or stored. The more bookmarks and history you have, the better and smarter the Awesome bar becomes.
However, if you don’t use bookmarks or you constantly clear your data after every session then the Smart Location bar will not be of much use.

14. Firefox 3 has a new graphics and text rendering architecture, which basically means that graphics and fonts in web pages are supposed to look better and smoother. I cannot really see any difference myself, can you?

There are many more new features in FF3, and for a more complete list click on ‘Whats New in Firefox‘. Also for a quick video of FF3 click here.

Going back to my original question ‘Is it Worth the Upgrade?’ After a few weeks of using FF3 and making a few tweaks here and there I think it is, and have used Firefox 2 less and less. Ok FF3 has still got bugs, but for me it has never crashed, and I am sure the guys at Mozilla will sort these problems out.

So which version do you prefer Firefox2 or 3?

Take a look below at some of the features of these great applications, download them, try them, and let me know which one you like best.

Free Download Manager
As I wrote before this is my all time favorite download manager, in terms of features there is very little that this software can’t do.
1. Free Download Manager is compatible with Firefox, Internet Explorer and various other browsers. It has many features and I recommend that you first read the helpful guide, to get started. Once you have learned the basics, which wont take long to learn the world is your oyster, well the internet is anyway .

2. With FDM (Freedownloard Manager) you can easily download files, whole web sites from any remote server via HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and even using BitTorrent protocol.

3. One of the reasons I really like this application is the Flash Video Download option. Simply go to your favorite video website, whether it is YouTube, Google video etc, find the video you want to download, then go to FDM, click on the Flash Video Download tab, click on the Add download button (the round blue icon on the top right with the cross on it,) and FDM will automatically download the video file. But it doesn’t stop there. You can choose to save it in AVI, FLV, WMV, MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4 format, and even choose the bitrate (which will affect the quality of the video.) You can also preview the audio/video files before download is completed and convert the file format after download.

4. FDM can connect to the Internet at a scheduled time, download the files you want, and when its finished disconnect or shut down your computer.

5. FDM works in 3 different modes – depending on your usage you can set it to light, medium or heavy. By default, it is set to light mode which is ideal if you want to download some files, browse the internet and also use different applications all at the same time.

6. HTML Spider. This is a really handy tool if you want to download whole web pages, whole web sites, images from any website, or CSS files. It can also be adjusted to download files with specified extensions only.

7. Portable Mode, if you want to use Free Download Manager on different computers, you can easily create a portable version and avoid the need to install and configure the program on each computer.

8. The Opinions tab, before you download a file you can click to see if anyone else has downloaded that particular file, this enables you to know whether the file or download is malicious. If you have downloaded a file and know it is safe you can post your opinion to let everyone else know that it is safe to download.

I could go on and on about this application but to truly appreciate it you need to download it yourself and try it, after all it is free. Click here to download Free Download Manager.

Orbit.

1. Orbit download manager is not as sophisticated or feature rich as FDM, but never the less an excellent free download manager. It is compatible with Firefox, Internet Explorer and various other browsers.

2. Orbit supports HTTP/FTP/HTTPS/RTSP/MMS/RTMP protocols, which means you can download any files, music (including MP3,) images, videos (including .wmv,) from the likes of YouTube, Yahoo, Pandora, Myspace, etc.

3. Small and resourceful, when Orbit is downloading, it typically uses less than 3MB of memory and 3% of the cpu (central processing unit,) so it wont use up all your system resources and slow your pc down to a halt. Orbit is also only around 2MB in size, great news if you don’t have a large hard drive.

4. Orbit uses Extreme download acceleration therefore making downloading files extremely fast. This mainly depends on your Internet connection speed, and the program settings. However I found it to be pretty fast.

5. The Grap++ module will automatically detect any download links on the page, including audio, video, or flash files (FLV or SWF), you then have the option to download any, or all of the files with a click of a button. To use Grap++ you need to open it first before you open your web browser.

6. There is nothing more frustrating than downloading a large file for it to suddenly stop, which means you have to download it all over again. Orbit (and also FDM) can resume broken downloads. So you needn’t start the downloading process from the very beginning after casual interruption.

7. Automatically Detects and downloads flash video. If you hover your mouse over a flash video or flash file (FLV or SWF,) a small download button (which reads ‘GetIt’) will be displayed allowing you to instantly download the video. This is a really great idea, and if you don’t want to download the video just click on the cross to close the button.

8. This neat software application also comes with download scheduling which is useful if you have a lot of files to download and don’t have the time to download them all at once.

To download Orbit click here.

Overall, both of these free download managers have a lot to offer, if you like many features and options then Free Download Manager is the one to go for.

So which Free download manager do you like the best?

Google Toolbar has been out for quite a while, and I have never really been that interested in trying it, as I thought it was just another gimmicky toolbar for my Firefox browser.
How wrong I was, this toolbar is feature rich, easy to use, and has many options to personalise to your every need.
The Google toolbar can be used with Firefox or Internet Explorer version 6 or higher, and is very easy to install. After installation, the Google toolbar will appear under the Internet Explorer or Firefox toolbar.
Google toolbar has many features and the one I am going to start with is the search facility.
Google’s search box has more options than the Firefox offering, what’s more you can replace it by clicking on settings > options and then click on the layout tab, then choose ‘Replace Firefox Toolbar’. This also saves on space.
When you type a word in the search box, and click on the down arrow you have the option to search for images, groups, news, froogle, and other categories. The only downside is that you can only search using Google and none of the other search engines, however most people only use Google anyway.

Google toolbar has many buttons which lead to some great content, from games to stocks and shares, what’s more you can add or remove as many as you wish.

Click on the news button and Google opens up a webpage with the latest news, if you click on the down arrow next to the‘Top Stories’ field you have the option of news from anywhere in the world (over 40 countries). Also on the same page at the left hand side under the header ‘Top stories’ you have 8 news categories to choose from, which range from world down to entertainment.

There is a Spell checker button which checks the spelling of text you type on any web form, you can also add another spell checker button which when clicked, opens up a new page, and if you type in a word, not only does it check the spelling but you have the option of Thesaurus, Dictionary and Encyclopedia.

Click on the Gmail button, and after you enter your username and password you have access to your emails. You can also add buttons to access Hotmail, Yahoo mail or AOL mail.

The Page rank button is not very accurate, but if you click on the down arrow next to it you have the option to find similar pages, or there is a backward link option that searches websites that link to the one you are currently viewing, which can be very handy.

Auto fill button will automatically fill in your details on any webpage requesting it, with your name, address, email, credit card details, and more, but all is optional.

The Word Find button lets you type any word into the Google toolbar search box, and when pressed will find each occurrence of the word on the current web page. Every instance of the word will be highlighted. This can be very useful.

I could go on all day about the features and options of Google toolbar, but I would recommend that you download and install it. You can then see for yourself how useful this toolbar is.

As I wrote earlier Google is very customisable, buttons can be added to access Google Calendar, Google Video, and Google Finance. What’s more, there’s an online gallery containing a large number of additional buttons that people have created.
You can download Google Toolbar from this link.

Most home users have on average between 2GB and 20GB of video files on their computer hard drives, either downloaded from the internet, or from video cameras, that are never seen again, or shown to family and friends. This is because either they don’t know how to transfer the files, or haven’t got the right tools for the job. Maybe you have a home movie you would like to transfer to your PSP, iPod or even on to Dvd, but are in need of the right software to convert it, and don’t know where to get it from or don’t want to pay for it.
Then look no further as I trawled the internet to find you the best 3 free video conversion tools money can’t buy. Well maybe these software websites might accept a little donation.
They are in no particular order .

MediaCoder

This free application converts most video/audio files from one format to another.
If you need to transform media files between formats, shrink files with little quality loss, or even extract audio from video files then this application can do it for you.

MediaCoder will convert files between media formats giving you a great deal of control over the output. So for example if you have a file that you would like to convert so it can be played on a portable media player, MediaCoder will do the trick.
MediaCoder offers many advanced features, and is a great application for advanced users or users who like to tinker with media files.

Features:

• Convert to and from many audio and video compression formats and re-multiplex into various container formats in batches
• Full control over transcoding parameters, you can learn about audio/video encoding and play with various codecs
• Strong decoding capability for partial or corrupted contents
• Simplified Users interface for popular mobile devices (e.g. PSP, iPod)
• Fully standalone, no dependence on system codecs/splitters
• Improving compression / reducing size for audio/video files
• Converting for audio/video playback devices (digital audio player, MP4 player, mobile phone, PDA, PSP, VCD/DVD player etc.)
• Extracting audio tracks from video files
• Ripping audio/video discs
• Repairing corrupted or partial downloaded video files

Whats more this free application converts all these file formats and more, MP3, Vorbis, AAC, AAC+, AAC+v2, MusePack, WMA, RealAudio, FLAC, WavPack, Monkey’s Audio, OptimFrog, AAC Lossless, WMA Lossless, TTA, WAV/PCM Xvid, MPEG 1/2/4, Theora, Flash Video, Dirac, RealVideo, Windows Media Video, AVI, MPEG/VOB, Matroska, MP4, PMP, RealMedia*, ASF, Quicktime, CD, VCD, and DVD.

Mediacoder has many features, and is not really for beginners, however, there is plenty of online help, and if you would like to be able to convert just about every type of media files, then this could be the application for you. Click on the link to go to the MediaCoder Webpage.

Apex Video Converter
This is a simple program which is very easy to use and converts AVI, DivX, XviD, MPEG, WMV, MOV, ASF, QuickTime , RM, RMVB into AVI, DivX or XviD formats only.
Key features :

• Set the start and end of the video clip to get your desired segment to convert .
• Supports large video files, larger than 2GB.
• Supports Batch Conversion.
• Select to automatically shut down your PC after conversions

As I wrote earlier this is a basic program, however it does the job well and converts the files very quickly, you can also set the frame rate, video size and if needed trim your clip. If you want more functionality then you can upgrade, but at a price. Click on the link to go to the Apex website.

Avi2Dvd
This tool easily converts any Avi/Ogm/Mkv/Wmv/Dvd video file in to a Dvd/Svcd or Vcd that you can watch on TV. It uses a 5 tabbed menu that simplifies the whole process for creating your DVD. This program allows you to add your own MP3 audio tracks as menu background music, include subtitles, and also has a Dvd menu editor. It is reasonably fast, very easy to use and also Vista compatible.

Features:

• Supports multiple audio-streams and up to three textual external subtitles
• Supports DV-AVI videos, so it can handle captured avi’s from digital video cameras
• Avi2dvd can also produce semi professional dvd menus with chapter/audio/subtitles

This is a very capable piece of software if all you want is to do is watch your video on Dvd/Svcd or Vcd. Well worth a look. Here is the website.

Do you use another free video converter and consider it better than those above?
Then let me know in the comments just below.

This is were Meebo comes into its own because it doesn’t have to be installed, meaning that you can access your chats on any PC anywhere in the world with a compatible Web browser, (the app works with IE 5x, 6x and 7x, Firefox and Safari).

It’s very easy to set up, all you have to do is create an account, don’t worry as your information will not be used for any other purposes, then logon with the username and password that you created. This then allows you to use AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ and Jabber all at once if you wish.

Meebo has become vey popular, with users exchanging over 80 million instant messages daily. In addition, Meebo has been named to the following lists:
-Time’s Top 50 Coolest Websites for 2006
-PC World’s The 100 Best Products of 2006
-PC World’s The 100 Best Products of 2007
-Top 100 Webware sites for 2007

If you are wondering how secure Meebo is, then this Web 2.0 Ajax application encrypts log-in passwords using JavaScript, decrypting the server side with OpenSSL.
Now you can use Meebo within Firefox using this plugin, or you can even use it within Netvibes.
Head on over to Meebo and give it a try.
Happy chatting.

5. Gmail encryption as the name suggests this plugin encrypts all your emails and stops anyone from viewing them, even Google. It is a Greasemonkey script and for anyone who hasn’t heard of Greasmonkey, this is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. Hundreds of scripts are already available for free. And if you’re the tinkerer sort, you can also write your own. Here is the link for more info and to download. I have entered Gmail encryption at number 5 as in my opinion it is the hardest plugin to install and configure but worthwhile if you need to use it.

gmail-encryption.jpg

4. Drag and drop is an add on for when you need to attach a file in an email. Rather than trying to browse for the file which can be quite annoying it allows you to drag and drop files directly into the attachment box, very handy as you can drop multiple files into it.

3. Gmail Manager allows you to logon to multiple Gmail accounts at once and receive new mail notifications. It displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets, it is highly customizable and all within Firefox.

gmail-manager.png

2. Gmail skins allows you to customize various settings on Gmail for example the colour, and its layout, see below for more features:

* Change the colour/skin of your inbox
* Integrate your Google homepage alongside your inbox. This allows you to view weather reports, rss feeds, news headlines flickr recently added, Google calendar module etc from your inbox.
* Easily insert images from your Picasa web album into your emails.
* Insert smileys/emoticons and images in to your emails.

1. Gmail Drive, this is my top unofficial app (it is actually a Shell Namespace Extension) and works pretty well. It creates an internet hard drive (or virtual drive) which is displayed in Windows Explorer and you can drag and drop your files onto. If you logon to your Gmail account you will see that all the files you have put in your virtual drive will appear as attachments. The link that I have supplied explains how to keep your inbox folder declutted.

gmail-drive.gif

There is another plugin that I have come across but have not tried it yet, and that is Better Gmail. On the web page it states this is ”A comprehensive suite of Gmail enhancements, including skins, saved searches, keyboard macros, secure access, attachment icons, attachment reminders, label colors, signature floating and more.”
I would be interested to know if anyone has used this Add on.

Had a chance to try any of them?

What do you think?

1.Quick launch your applications, on the task bar you can put a shortcut to your most used applications and files here, which can be launched in one click. Here’s how, right-click the taskbar and choose Toolbars>Quick launch. Now you can customise it to contain only the applications and/or files that you want to open by dragging them out of the Start Menu and onto the Quick launch bar. You can delete those not needed by right clicking and choosing delete.
2.Tidy up your desktop, I often laugh to myself when I see other people’s computer desktops as they seem to be so cluttered with files and programs etc that they cannot see the background. Not only does this look really messy but it takes toll on your memory. If you don’t use them all why not clear them up by creating a folder which is very easy to do. Right-click the desktop and choose Arrange Icons By>Run Desktop Cleanup Wizard. This will place the icons that you have chosen into a folder named ‘Unused Desktop Icons’, which you can rename, any files that have not gone into the folder just drag them in. Now isn’t that much neater, give yourself a pat on the back for a job well done.
3.Get straight to your desktop in a jiffy, do you sometimes end up with lots and lots of applications open and then decide that you need to get to your desktop fast, and then try and minimise everything in order to quickly get to it? Simple, press the Windows key and (M) simultaneously and tadaa your there, to get back to where you were press Shift + Windows key + (M) simultaneously.
4.Get to them .com sites faster, Web sites that end with .com for example http://web.archive.org/web/20070712094656/http://web.archive.org/web/20070712094656/http://www.amazon.com/ can be accessed that bit quicker by typing just the name in the address bar and then hit (Ctrl) + (return) for example informationaddicts then the shortcut, this will save you seven strokes.
5.Double clicking mayhem, I don’t know about you but double clicking each time to open up a program, folder or file is a bit of a chore rather than just single clicking. There is an answer and all you need to do is go to Control Panel and find folder options, check the box that says ‘Single click to open an item’ and click OK and there you have it, one click wonder.
6.CCP shortcuts, What are you talking about you may ask? Highlight some text or an image and try (Ctrl) + (C) for copying, or (Ctrl) + (X) to cut and (Ctrl) + (V) to paste. You can also use (Ctrl) + (Z) to undo your action or (Ctrl) + (Y) to redo your action.
7.Use your Windows Key, When you are at work and want to quickly log off your Computer press (Windows) + (L) it works a treat, also to bring the run box up press (Windows) + (R). Pressing (Windows) + (E) brings up Explorer.
8.Use the tab key, this key is a general purpose key as it can be used to help you navigate through things. It can be used to move from one field to another in different applications. Another good idea is if you have a lot of programs, files, etc open, pressing (Alt) + (tab) will scroll you through each one of these.
9.Make you own shortcut keys for your favourite applications, Here’s how, Right-click the desktop and select New > Shortcut. Browse to the program that you want and then give a name to the shortcut. A new icon will appear on your desktop. Right-click it and select Properties, click the Shortcut Key field and press (Ctrl) and the letter that you want to use to activate the program. Now using (Ctrl) + (Alt) and the letter that you choose will open it.
10.More shortcuts can be found, click Start > Help and Support, then in the search bar type ‘keyboard shortcuts’ hit the search or arrow button then in the results click on ‘Windows keyboard shortcuts overview’.
What shortcuts do you use? Share them with us.

Give MindMapping a go (there is lots of info on the internet and many books on the subject, try Amazon) and let me know how you get on.