LifeHacker :: Social

This Week's Most Popular Posts [Highlights]
Lifehacker loading down your RSS reader with more noise than signal? Switch to our trimmed-down top stories feed to skip the extras and get right to the good stuff. Don't care about Mac-only...
Who Needs Icons? [Featured Desktop]
Reader skarhead187 has submitted several desktops to the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell pool, and the thing that always stands out most—aside from a great eye for minimalism—is that...
YouTube Gets Full-Length Episodes of Star Trek, MacGyver [YouTube]
YouTube is now offering 15 50-minute episodes of classic TV shows including Star Trek, MacGyver, and Beverly Hills, 90210 with "prominent new ads." Coupled with YouTube's newly-launched theater view,...
Integrate Launchy with Wget [Download Managers]
Reader Justin writes in with a clever idea for quickly launching downloads with the popular command-line download manager, wget. His method: Make wget available to Launchy, then pass the URL of the...
Touchless Adds Multi-Touch to Your PC with Your Webcam [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Microsoft Office Labs has released an open source multi-touch application framework called Touchless that uses your webcam as the input. Right now the Touchless Demo lets you play with...
Yahoo Calendar Beta on Track to Challenge Google Cal [Screencasts]
Tester invites started going out to the dramatically-overhauled new Yahoo Calendar beta, and we were one of the lucky ones to give it a spin. The new look and feel brings YCal into 2008 (finally!)...
InSSIDer Detects Wireless Networks [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free applicaiton inSSIDer scans networks within reach of your computer's Wi-Fi antenna, tracks signal strength over time, and determines their security settings (included whether or not...
Sponsor Shout-out [Thanks Sponsors]
Thanks to this week's sponsors: Adobe, Casio, Chevy Fuel Solutions, Energizer, Gyration, HP TouchSmart, IE8, The Last Remnant, Little Big planet, Sharp Aquos, Starwood Hotels, T-Mobile, and TiVo....
Step Up to the Soapbox, This Thread is Open [Open Thread]
It's Friday—finally!—which means it's time to let your hair down, loosen the tie, and get nuts in the comments. We're opening up our weekly say-anything comments thread here, where you...
MeetWays Finds a Meeting Place in the Middle [Maps]
MeetWays is a Google Maps mashup with one simple but useful goal in mind: to help you find the perfect meetup point. In use it's simple—just enter the your address and the address of the person...
Lifehacker Confessions: The Tips and Tricks I'm Not Using [Friday Fun]
Reading Lifehacker can inspire you to reboot your computer habits, your workflow, your workspace, and even your home life. Believe me, I should know. About a year ago, I was a messy-desked,...
Adium Updates to 1.3.2, Fixes Bugs [Adium]
Popular open-source chat application Adium has released a small update packed with bug fixes, including better support for MSN Messenger, status updates, and more. If you're on OS X and you're not...
OpenOffice.org 3.0 Final on a Server Near You [OpenOffice.org]
If our first look at OpenOffice.org 3.0 has you salivating for the official download of this free Microsoft Office replacement, the final release has already been pushed to a mirror near you (like...
GPass Boosts Browsing Privacy, Circumvents Censorship and Filters [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application GPass helps you bypass censorship and blocked web sites by tunneling network traffic through encrypted proxy servers. After you install GPass, launching an application...
TrayEverything Stashes Programs in the System Tray [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: TrayEverything is a lightweight portable application that minimizes windows to the system tray even when the program lacks native support for being parked in the tray. In addition to...
Writing Tips from an Economist [Writing Tips]
The Stepcase Lifehack blog pulls out a trusted tome, Deirdre McCloskey's Economical Writing, and extracts some wisdom from an accomplished economics professor on writing tight sentences that are...
JPEGCrops Makes Bulk Cropping Images a Breeze [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: If you need to crop a lot of JPEG images in a hurry, JPEGCrops is an invaluable freeware tool. Almost every image program offers the ability to crop images, resize them, and oftentimes...
ASApp iPhone Site Rounds Up Crucial Airport Data [Airports]
Travel site WhereTraveler offers a free, iPhone-optimized site that compiles all the data you need to know before running out to catch a plane or while waiting at the airport. The ASApp tool shows...
Houdini Manages Hidden Files on Your Mac [Featured Mac Download]
Mac OS X only: You already know the command-line method for revealing hidden files on your Mac, but you have to Google the correct command every time—but free application Houdini saves you the...
Finetuna Shares Images for Group Comments [Image Editing]
Free image notation service Finetuna isn't a robust photo editor in the mold of Picnik, but it does make it easy to share notes on images, photos, and other graphics files. Without sign-up or log-in,...
Get a Third Party to Help You Declutter [Clutter]
Sentimental attachment, old ideas you can't let go of, familiarity—all these things and more can keep you from truly getting the junk in your house and in your workspaces out of the way. A...
Zoho Mail Launches, Offers Offline Access Through Gears [Email]
Zoho Mail, a web-based email client long in private beta in the Zoho office suite, is now publicly available. Those with Zoho accounts and Google Gears installed will notice that you can hit an...
Help Wanted: Lifehacker Interns [Announcements]
Lifehacker's on the hunt for a couple of dedicated and passionate interns to help us out behind the scenes. Are you a total rockstar? Do you want hands-on experience working backstage at a leading...
SonicSwap Streams and Shares Your iTunes Playlists [Streaming Music]
New webapp SonicSwap hosts your iTunes playlists on the web and streams the music in them free and legally without requiring you to perform tedious file uploads or use any of your computer's upload...
Gmail Labs Adds Advanced IMAP Controls [Gmail]
Google adds another opt-in feature to its roster of Gmail Labs experiments: Advanced IMAP Controls, a way to selectively decided which of your Gmail labels are available to your IMAP client plus...
Experimental Extensions We'd Like to Go Mainstream [Experimental Firefox Extensions]
Finding new and useful Firefox extensions is a passion of ours, but sometimes we run across extensions adorning the daunting "Experimental" moniker at the Firefox Add-ons web site. We try to avoid...
Best Windows Firewall? [Hive Five Call For Contenders]
Your excellent antivirus application prevents nasty files from infecting your computer with all kinds of baddies, but when it comes to securing your computer against malicious attacks, that's not the...
Mac Security Update Out Today [Mac OS X]
Hit up the old Software Update on your Mac this afternoon, because Apple's posted a Security Update to Leopard 10.5.5 that includes vulnerability plugs and bug fixes; the direct download is available...
Nodobe Viewer Brings Lightweight, Inline PDF Viewing to Firefox [Featured Firefox Extension]
Firefox only (Windows/Mac/Linux): Firefox extension Nodobe Viewer is an inline document viewer for Firefox intended to replace the bloat of plugins like the dreaded Adobe Reader. Nodobe Viewer...
Political Streams Tracks Hot Election News [Politics]
Microsoft Live Labs launches Political Streams, a constantly-updating page of hot stories in politics right now in the news and on blogs. Similar to Twitter's Election site in that it gives you...
Xbox 360 Fall Update Coming November 19th [Xbox 360]
The Xbox team has officially announced November 19th as the release date for the new Xbox experience. Why do we care? Because the update brings support for Netflix Watch Instantly video streaming,...
Battle of the Tricked-Out Computer Desktops [Lifehacker Faceoff]
Ever since we started the Lifehacker Desktop Show and Tell group on Flickr, readers have been contributing and explaining their computer desktop settings in droves. A few times a week we pick out one...
Application Monitor Automatically Restarts a Crashed App [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Application Monitor is a free utility that monitors user-specified applications to ensure they're running. If a program is not running, Application Monitor restarts it. Let's say, for...
Netflix Charging $1 More for Blu-Ray [NetFlix]
DVD rental service Netflix is adding a $1/month charge, starting Nov. 5, to any accounts that have higher-def Blu-Ray discs in their queue, or have turned on a preference to get Blu-Ray discs....
Tuesday's Apple Event May Bring a Cheaper MacBook [Apple]
If you're thinking about buying a new Mac laptop, wait a week. Apple's got some announcements scheduled for this coming Tuesday, the 14th, and there may be a recession-friendly (read: lower-cost)...
Make Your Own R-Strap for Camera-Slinging Convenience [DIY]
The R-Strap, a $44 sling for DSLR cameras that hooks into the tripod socket, makes it easy to keep a camera slung low during idle moments, then quickly bring it up for shooting without scraping your...
The Budget Calculator Breaks Down How Much You Can Spend [Economy]
CNBC's On the Money weblog has put together a simple budget breakdown calculator to help you rein in your spending in the face of the financial crisis. The flash-based calculator uses CNBC's personal...
DIY Das Keyboard, Swanky Stealth on the Cheap [Keyboards]
The $130 Das Keyboard is one of the most popular keyboards for Lifehacker readers, but if you're short on cash you can make one yourself. Do-it-yourselfer Jon Lee put together a tutorial on how to...
Shoeboxed Now Auto-Tags Your Submitted Receipts [Shopping]
Previously mentioned receipt organizer Shoeboxed now auto-scans your mailed or e-mailed receipts and categorizes them—"Clothes," "Food," "Retail," and so on—based on the merchant or...
Transfer Files Lightning Fast With FastCopy [Featured Windows Download]
Windows only: Free application FastCopy is a portable replacement for the standard Windows Explorer file copying mechanism. FastCopy's interface is rather cluttered but the file transfer speeds are...
Test Your Web Mail's Password Recovery (Before Someone Else Does) [Email]
CNET's Michael Horowitz runs down the ins and outs of securing and restoring access to your Gmail, Yahoo, or Hotmail account, whether it's been infiltrated, locked you out, or you're just looking to...