How does it work?

Gnome Pie is triggered by keyboard shortcuts. Then a “pie” appears on the screen. By default there are five kinds of pies. One is a main menu pie which ports your main menu entries to a pie. The others are a media playback pie, a bookmarks pie, a window controller pie, applications pie and a session pie. There is an option to add custom options as well.

Here is gnome-pie in action :

How can I try it !!

You can install gnome pie on Ubuntu by adding a PPA. Run the following to do so:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:simonschneegans/testing
sudo apt-get update sudo
apt-get install gnome-pie

Arch Linux users can install gnome-pie from this AUR package. Others can find the code hosted at Github.

Web browsing software – Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is a good internet browsing option. It is a more secure browser then some of the other common browsers, and is also highly customizable, with countless toolbars and customizations. You don’t need to trick it out though, it works well as a basic browser as well. Download Mozilla Firefox 6.

Video player – Miro

Miro is a much more robust video player than your pre-installed Windows Media Player, and plays any type of video. It also allows you to search, play, and download YouTube videos, as well as other videos. Download Miro here.

Instant messaging – Pidgin

Pidgin is a great software to help you integrate your different IM accounts, making your instant messaging easier and simpler. Download Pidgin here. You can also check top pidgin plugins you must use.

Word processing – Open Office

Open Office is a full office suite, the free equivalent to Microsoft Office. With Open Office, you can use word processing, presentations, graphics, databases, and more. Download Open Office here. You can also check the other free word processing softwares.

DVD ripping – Handbrake

Handbrake allows you to rip a DVD to your computer, allowing you to watch it even when you don’t have the disc with you. Download Handbrake here.

Graphics and photo editing – GIMP

GIMP is the free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. It allows you to edit photos and create graphics. It is definitely a great program, and has more features than many photo editing or graphic design software programs that cost money. Download GIMP here.

Sound recording – Audacity

Audacity allows you to record audio through your computer, as well as allowing you to do simple audio editing. You can also use it to convert tapes and records to CDs. Download Audacity here. You can also check top free digital audio editors.

FTP client – FileZilla

FileZilla is a simple and easy to use program that allows you to manage web files over a FTP connection. FileZilla makes it easy to transfer files between your computer and your website, both ways. Download FileZilla here.

Email client – Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird is a good option for those who want to have their email downloaded to their computer rather than only having it online. It is similar to Microsoft Outlook, except it is – need we say it – free. Download Mozilla Thunderbird here. You can also check top free email clients.

Archiving – PeaZip

PeaZip allows you to archive files in many different file formats. It also allows you to unzip other archives. This is great to help you manage your files to take up less disk space. Download PeaZip here.

You can also check our list of Free Digital Audio Editors.

The paid plans are also changing. The current Mobile plan to Music Streaming for Android and iPhone will now include 20GB of storage built in for $3.99 per month. Existing mobile plan subscribers will be instantly upgraded to the new Music Streaming plan and automatically get the 20GB of storage. You can still buy additional storage as you need it, in the same 20GB increments and at the same price of $2.99 per month. The web interface is also set to be revamped. It comes with improved navigation and help section.

The Ubuntu One App developer programme is also open now. People with ideas for cloud based applications can join the programme here.

Thats it. Beats dropbox !!

Now Ubuntu one defenitely has better storage plans and features than dropbox. So make the switch friends.

Mozilla believes that the web can displace proprietary, single-vendor stacks for application development.  To make open web technologies a better basis for future applications on mobile and desktop alike, we need to keep pushing the envelope of the web to include — and in places exceed — the capabilities of the competing stacks in question.

To that end, we propose a project we’re calling “Boot to Gecko” [http://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G] (B2G) to pursue the goal of building a complete, standalone operating system for the open web.  It’s going to require work in a number of areas.

The framework

The project is focused on the handheld/tablet/mobile experience, but will prototype some stuff for PCs as well. A stripped down Android kernel (not a full blown Linux kernel) will be used to set up a bootable system. Android graphics layer is also to be used. The hope is to have better device support on Android as hardware manufacturers are expected to come out with device drivers for android considering the current boom in the market.

Mike Shaver, VP of Technical Strategy for the Mozilla Corporation, says:

We want to take advantage of the work we’ve already done (and are doing) on Android, and the ease of getting devices that are known to work.  Specifically, we’re looking at Tegra 2 devices because they have hardware acceleration of open audio/video formats, and they match what we’ve got automated testing running on.

Project aims to develop APIs for exposing device and OS capabilities to content. These can be used to develop telephony, camera, bluetooth related web apps. Developing a privilage model is also on the cards to ensure a secure platform. The project itself will come out with applications on the platform to prove out and prioritize the power of the system. All the applications on the platform would be locally cached web applications.

Shaver explains,

This isn’t just about the web apps you have today. It’s about having your contacts manager, camera, gallery, dialer, SMS app, GPS-integrated maps, launcher etc. be hackable using web tech. That work will help on desktop as well, since many of those pieces are on desktop/laptop machines — if you write OS-specific code to get to them, and you’re allowed by the OS to interpose your version of it.

Entire development will be in the open and code will be released in real-time.

The framework sounds like this (I might be wrong. Correct me if I am) :

[Stripped down Android Kernel] + [Mozilla APIs to expose devices] + [Web Apps]

Sounds like Chrome OS ??

The technology defenitely sounds different from Chrome OS to me. Just the fact that Chrome OS is Linux based makes it different. Also Chrome OS launches into a browser as we know it. But it must be inferred that with the power of new, to be developed APIs, B2G should enable standalone web applications. Additionally, Chrome OS is currently aimed at netbooks while B2G will target handheld device market

Only time can tell if Chrome OS and B2G will battle it out to be the dominant web based OS of the future. Using a google product (android) to challenge another (Chrome OS) would be funny.

So…

This is an exciting announcement of an ambitious project. This could very well make the modern web technologies the heart and soul of the future devices. Go Mozilla Go.

Adding Blogs

You can get started by adding your blogs. You can do so at Settings > Configure Blogilo > Blogs. Say you have to add your wordpress blog, fill the url field with “wordpress.com” and fill out your username and password. Then click auto configure and bazzingaa you have your blog configured. Click OK and then you will see your posts displayed in the right panel. Rest of it is just straight forward. Edit your post and click “submit”. It has an option to save draft or to publish straight away !! The same applies for blogger and other supported APIs (listed in the Advanced tab of the Blogs menu).

Composing Blogs

Blogilo features a visual editor, an HTML Editor and a preview tab. All standard text and multimedia formatting is available in the editor interface. Blogilo even imports saved categories and you can select categories from the right panel. Post options like summary and editing permalink is also available. Multimedia inserted is uploaded onto blog servers and named metuculously (which I am very impressed with).

Installation

Blogilo is available in the repositories of most Linux distributions. A windows edition is also available. Visit http://blogilo.gnufolks.org/download/ and start blogging quicker and more efficiently !!

Every moment is precious when a woman expects a baby, even moments of pain. Count kicks of your baby and make record measurements of waist every day with Pregnancy Tracker iPhone app. It includes many features and the pregnancy seems nicer as you use it. Price: Free

iPregnancy is an iPhone application purchased by 100,000 customers. The fact that the application has been remaining in the Top 25 for the whole year already speaks for itself! This is not just a heap of theory you can find in the books or online, it helps users track the pregnancy with 2D and 3d images. Price: $3.99

Pregnancy & Baby Development is another useful app for iOS device that lets you pursue the wonderful story of your future baby formation. You will follow the development of your child from the day of conception to the day of birth. Price: Free

When baby is expected in the family it is hard to think of anything else. Pregnancy Countdown with Facebook Connect will not only provide you with remarkable tools, but features the countdown timer of your pregnancy period. Besides, you will be able to keep your close people informed about the condition of future mother and rid them of worries. Price: Free

While the due date is coming you should think in advance about the hustle you are going to have in the first week of baby’s life. You will be overwhelmed with duties and will not have enough time for organizational tasks such as baby’s arrival announcements to your family members and close friends who are eager to congratulate you on the occasion. Download Stork.cc for free and forget about this problem. This application was created to bring a happy news about baby birth to friends and relatives in a timely and amusing way. What is required from happy parents?

1. Add recipients from their contacts or manually enter them.
2. Enter baby’s name, weight & height, date & time, gender.
3. Snap a picture of the baby and send the announcement!

Hopefully , you will like these apps.

There are a lot of tools for learning foreign languages and during this process various tools are required. Fortunately, many mobile apps have been released to help us with it.

Language Translator by Piet Jonas is one of them. You can apply to this tool when you need to translate either separate words, or the whole sentences and phrases. It is even possible to translate the whole paragraphs with it. You can go to any country with this application and be sure that you will be able to understand any text written in foreign language. The number of supported languages is really impressive. Price: Free

Do you want to enrich your vocabulary? When you are far away from your computer, you can apply to mobile application instead. IThesaurus is at your service in this case. There are about 140 entries in it and you will have access to synonyms which will help you sound more persuasive. Integration with social networks will help you to share definitions with friends. You can work over your pronunciation simultaneously as this feature is included into the app as well.

The next app will be a perfect alternative to the apps mentioned earlier because this application combines the features of those both apps. WordBook English Dictionary and Thesaurus will not only give information and demonstrate the way words are pronounced, but will check your mistakes too! Price: $1.99

It is known that the best way of learning new information is through a game. If you like to play with words, WordSearch Unlimited HD Free will grant you 3 exciting levels of gameplay with up to 16 hidden words. You will revise lists of words which are used in the most popular categories, therefore, the words used in the game will never be forgotten. Choose the theme you prefer and play the game for fun and education on your iPad device. Price: Free

Speaking about methods of learning, it should be said that in spite of technological breakthrough, the same techniques are still actively used. The students of MIT decided to change the situation and created PowerVocab! If you are looking for the power achievable by words, this is what you need. Unique approach to learning was provided for you with the help of this app. Customizable learning algorithms will alleviate the process thanks to interactivity provided. You will not find such individual learning approach anywhere else. If you need English to GRE, GMAT or SAT exams, to get a better job or for some other reason, do not waste time and acquire this application. Price: Free

Use the impression you can make on others with the help of words to your advantage. Well chosen words are able to motivate people around you and bring good result.

So no more free CDs ?

Not really. Canonical promises to make a large number of Ubuntu CDs to Ubuntu Local Communities (LoCo). A shipit like program will be started soon. Obviously, LoCos can more effectively redistribute CDs amongst people who need them. So people who are not yet a part of any LoCo might want to join one or even create a new LoCo. You can see here for more details on Ubuntu LoCos and their activities.

What with the extra money ?

Canonical also has hinted about a free online Ubuntu trial. This will be powered by cloud computing system. New users can try out Ubuntu without even downloading it !! It will be really awesome for a migrant from windows to try out Ubuntu from his browser before making the switch.

Yes. Its sad that Shipit closes down. But you have to admit that it is not really *that* important to have it either. Lets look forward to the trial on cloud system !!

One important detail about music refers to lyrics. And it’s not the poetical reference that so many people risk to associate with it, but it’s simply the practical need of having a song’s lyrics displayed on the screen. I am sure most of us have been in the situation where we are just hearing the tune with no clue about the lyrics going on.

And as always, we have a cure for this! There are free softwares available in the market which find the lyrics automatically  for a song  (which we are playing, of course!) and display it along with the song in the Media Player (Windows Media Player / iTunes / WinAmp etc.) which we commonly use. The two most popular among these are :

• Lyrics Plugin (More info can be found on one of our previous articles here.)
• MiniLyrics

In this post, we would be telling you more about MiniLyrics, and how it is better from Lyrics Plugin. The awesomest thing about MiniLyrics it that it shows synchronized lyrics (Highlights and displays the current line playing in the song) and it works with almost all the commonly available media players.

The download link for MIniLyrics can be found here.

[WARNING : MiniLyrics is a shareware and its free version has virtually no expiry date, but it sure shows up a pop-up screen whenever you open it, but it closes down in a single click. Ask me, its worth it.]

MiniLyrics appears first in a side part of your player as well as in the system tray. What’s good is that you can move it wherever you want on the desktop, be it exactly next to your player or as a stand-alone component in a desktop area that you will find more convenient for lyrics displaying. You will see that Minilyrics remembers its last position.

I have always been the admirer of minimalist design, fortunately, MiniLyrics’s window is also integrated a Windows Media Player’s Visualization. Neat, isn’t it! Also, this also gives you an option whenever you want to see lyrics for a song or not.

Since, MiniLyrics finds the lyrics off the Internet, you need to have a working Internet connection to get it locked and loaded. And if you are behind a proxy (like I am), you need to configure it in ( Right Click > Preferences > Internet > Use Proxy). Overall, besides it being a nagware sometimes, it is a pretty useful tool for all of us to have and, quite frankly, there’s nothing I couldn’t be satisfied about.

What Dropbox does is to create configuration files in your Home folder with information about your account. It does not allow multiple account configuration in the same Home folder. Hence what we will do is to run the Dropbox setup from the terminal for which we will set a changed $HOME variable. (smart huh? )

Say X and Y are the Dropbox accounts we need to run it simultaneously on our Linux machine at home.

• So first install Dropbox. Installers can be obtained from the Dropbox website.
• Create folders X_dropbox and Y_dropbox in any location you wish. For this example I assume that the folders are created in Desktop.
• Open a terminal and run the following commands

Source code

export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/Desktop/X_dropbox
dropbox start -i

This will start the Dropbox setup process. Enter the account details of the Dropbox User X. Use typical settings and then a folder called Dropbox will be created inside the folder X_dropbox. This folder is the user X’s synced folder. A Dropbox icon will appear in your GNOME notification area.

• To set up user Y’s account, run the following commands

Source code

export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/Desktop/Y_dropbox
dropbox start -i

This time enter account details of user Y. Again the folder Dropbox inside Y_dropbox acts as the synced folder. Note that an additional Dropbox icon has popped up in the GNOME notification area !!

The next time you reboot, you will have to run the above commands without the “-i” option in second line. So it is better if you write it into a file, make it executable and add it to the start up applications. For this particular example, the file, say automate_dropbox.sh will look like this :

Source code

export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/Desktop/X_dropbox
dropbox start
export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/Desktop/Y_dropbox
dropbox start
export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/

Make this executable using right click > properties > permissions > allow execution or by running the command :

Source code

chmod +x automate_dropbox.sh

Now add it to start up applications from system > preferences > start up applications. Click on add, and give a name and browse to the file automate_dropbox.sh. This will ensure that dropbox starts up, without you typing in any command.

Now you are running multiple Dropbox instances using different accounts simultaneously !! Go on and sync as much as you want !!

Source code

export HOME=/home/$USERNAME/Desktop/X_dropbox
dropbox start -i