Windows 8 Immersive Metro UI Theme for Windows 7

One major lasting impression of Windows 8 demo by Microsoft is the new immersive Start Screen which is based on Metro UI design that first applied on Windows Phone 7. The new Windows 8 Start Screen features live tiles which are touch-optimized, and is radically different from traditional Windows desktop in terms of colors, fonts, layouts, designs and other visual styles.

Well if you like the visual styling of Windows 8, and want your Windows 7 to look similar to Windows 8 Start Screen, there is already a theme that transform your current Windows desktop to Metro UI with tile-based visual styling. The customized theme is named Windows Metro IM, created by jaycee13.

Windows Metro IM theme is the successor of Windows Metro theme, and is based on user interface inspirations from MetroTwit, Zune and Windows 8.

Note that the Windows Metro IM theme does not actually add a Windows 8 Start Screen functionality to Windows 7. Instead, the theme only does what a Windows theme does, that is changing the appearance of Windows components so that it looks similar to Windows 8 immersive user interface.

Windows Metro IM theme is currently supporting only 32-bit (x86) Windows operating system only.

Here’s the guide on how to install the Windows Metro IM theme onto Windows 7:

1. Download the Windows Metro IM theme package: windows_metro_im_by_jaycee13-d3id3o5.rar
2. Extract the RAR package.
3. Go to Packages -> Uxtheme Patch folder.
4. Right click on UniversalThemePatcher-x86.exe and select Run as Administrator.
5. In the “Universal Theme Patcher”, click on the all 3 Patch buttons for shsvcs.dll, themeui.dll, and uxtheme.dll.

1. Restart the computer.
2. Go to Theme folder, and copy both Windows Metro IM folder and Windows Metro IM.theme file to %WinDir%/Resources/Themes.
3. Double click on Windows Metro IM.theme file to install and activate the Windows Metro IM theme on the computer.

Steps above will install the Windows Metro IM theme. Continue steps below if you want to modify system files to make Windows Explorer and Start Menu even more similar to Windows 8

How to Modify Windows Explorer System Files:

1. Take ownership and grant yourself full control permissions for %WinDir%\System32\Shell32.dll and %WinDir%\System32\ExplorerFrame.dll.
2. Backup the files by renaming and adding a .old extension to the end.
3. Copy the patched version of Shell32.dll located in Packages\System Files\Shell32 (for x86 SP1 and Pre SP2) and ExplorerFrame.dll located in Packages\System Files\ExplorerFrame (for x86 Pre SP2) or Packages\System Files\ExplorerFrame (for x86 SP1) folder (select correct version that matches your current version) to %WinDir%\System32\ folder.
4. Restart the computer.

If you’re not comfortable to modify the system files manually, Windows Theme Installer can get the task down automatically:

1. Go to the Packages -> Windows Theme Installer folder.
2. Right click on Windows Theme Installer.exe and select Run as Administrator.
3. Select and tick the check boxes for Shell32.dll and then click on Browse button to select the patched version of Shell32.dll located in Packages\System Files\Shell32 (for x86 SP1 and Pre SP2) folder to replace original version.
   Select and tick the check boxes for ExplorerFrame.dll and then click on Browse button to select the patched version of ExplorerFrame.dll located in Packages\System Files\ExplorerFrame (for x86 Pre SP2) or Packages\System Files\ExplorerFrame (for x86 SP1) folder (select correct version that matches your current version) to replace original version.
   
   1. Click on Install Theme to automatically replace the system files.
   2. Restart the computer.
   How to Change the Start ORB (Start Menu):
   1. Go to the Packages -> Start Orb Changer folder.
   2. Run the Windows 7 Start Button Changer v 2.6 (for SP1 and old W7 version without update).exe.
   3. Click on Select & Change Start Button and select start orb.bmp file located in Packages\System Files\Start Orb BMP folder.
   
   How to Install Fonts

   There are several fonts namely segoeuisl.ttf, ZegoeCapsBold_0.ttf, ZegoeLight-U_0.ttf, ZegoeUISemiBold-U_0.ttf, ZegoeUI-U_0.ttf and ZegoeUI-UBold_0.ttf. To install the fonts, just copy them to %WinDir%\Fonts folder.

   Updates, when available, can be downloaded from deviantart.com.

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URL Droplet Downloads Files from a Web Address Straight to Your Dropbox

URL Droplet is a simple webapp that allows you to paste in the download link for a file and have it download straight to your Dropbox, so you can deal with later. Using the webapp, a user could start a large download while out on their mobile phone, on a company computer at work, or just sitting at an internet cafe.

The downloaded file is saved in the main Dropbox directory—if it were saved to public, anybody could see what you've been getting. Because of this, URL Droplet needs access to Dropbox, so you should be comfortable granting permissions to third-party apps. 

URL Droplet

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Read Local News From Any Part Of The World With Newspaper Map

International news sites and channels cover the big stuff mostly and occasionally the little news but they still can’t know a story better than the locals. Newspaper Map is an app that lists over 1000 local newspapers from different countries in 63 languages. You can search for newspapers by name or you can pick them by location from an interactive world map. Newspapers can be filtered by language and can be searched by entering an address, city or state.

Newspaper map indexes the newspapers that users have added to its database. The site only shows newspapers that have an online version. To view a newspaper, pick a country and click a balloon, balloons are color coded to represent the language the newspaper is in. An info window will pop up and show you the name and translation options for the newspaper along with a preview of the site. Clicking on the newspaper name redirects you to the newspaper’s site. The site uses Google Translate to translate the news on a site. You can enter the name of a newspaper to search or choose a language to filter newspapers for a particular language.

You can view old newspapers (from before the internet was around) by clicking the Historical button. The site shows you digital libraries that exist in various countries and have scanned editions of historical newspapers. The Historical feature is still in Beta so the newspapers are limited but the feature going through dusty old newspaper copies at the library.

Visit Newspaper Map

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JumpPad Is A Mac Style Launchpad For Windows

JumpPad is a Mac OS X style Launchpad clone for Windows. It uses features like hot corners, adds start menu shortcuts to the launcher by default, has configuration options for icon size, folder paths to add shortcuts from and a reasonable memory footprint of 25 MB. It scans for specified folders and lists the available shortcuts to the launcher.

Closing the launcher (from X button) displays the configuration options which can be used to assign folders containing shortcuts (e.g. the Desktop) so that icons from a specific directory are displayed. You can assign upto 6 folders for this purpose. It is worth mentioning here that at the moment, this app does have afew issues and it can take a considerable amount of time after being launched. It took me a while to figure out the problem, which is in fact related to the number of directories and sub-directories that it requires scanning before displaying the launcher. This may be the reason due to which some users (using the previous version) have not expressed any issues with this app while others have had problems working with JumpPad. A solution to this issue is to add directories with minimum amount of shortcuts and sub-directories, in order to make it work. The developer too has mentioned that “If you have a folder with a LOT of files, JumpPad may Seem to Freeze, but this is not the case. It’s simply gathering all of the information that it needs”.

JumPad only works on Windows 7.

Download JumpPad

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MyStream Lets You Share Your iPhone’s Music Without Sharing Headphones

Listening to a music with a friend comes with a few problems. Sharing headphones might be a little gross depending on ear cleanliness, plus you only get one earbud per person. MyStream is an app that lets you share that music wirelessly to your friend's iDevice so you can both listen to the same music at the same time.

MyStream's music-sharing abilities are also really nice if you're working with others who want to listen to your music. Maybe you want to share spoken word content with other people in the car, but without playing it on the car stereo. There are a lot of use cases for this app if you think of them, but each one is a little bit niche. Nonetheless, there are plenty of circumstances where MyStream can really come in handy. It's a good app for you and your iDevice-carrying friends to have in case you want to use it, seeing as it's free.

For MyStream to work, all you have to do is be on the same network as anyone else running the app and their devices will show up in the list of available streaming devices. One person needs to put a playlist together and the other person needs to connect to it. That's all that's involved in the sharing process.

The main disadvantage is that the listener's audio lags behind the source audio. It's only about a difference of one second, which shouldn't really be a deal breaker for anyone, but you'd think MyStream would be able to offset the source based on information from the listener's device. That's probably easier said than done, but it would be nice if the two devices could play the streams almost completely in sync with each other.

All of that said, we're talking about an app that works pretty well for providing its intended solution. At a price it might cause an adoption roadblock that would limit its usefulness, but for free MyStream is a pretty worthwhile download.

 MyStream (Free) | iTunes App Store

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Watch the Entire Apple WWDC Keynote

Missed the keynote, or want the total, second-by-second recap of all the new stuff Apple talked about today? No worries, you can relive the entire keynote right here: [Apple]

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Apple Reveals iCloud At WWDC 2011, And Its Free!

Apple has finally revealed iCloud at WWDC 2011. Steve Jobs defines this service as: "iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your device. It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it to all your devices." Managing content between our devices is never going to be the same again, thanks to iCloud.

iCloud will automatically store daily content such as your books, photos, videos, app data, music bought from iTunes and device settings via Wi-Fi. The Documents in the Cloud app will store projects that you make in the iWork suite and will sync it seamlessly across all your iOS devices.

PhotoStream is going to be a new gallery in the Photos app of your iOS device and will sync all the pictures that you take with Mac computers, other iOS devices, Apple TV and even Windows PCs. As soon as you take a picture on your iPhone, it will automatically be synced to other iOS devices, Mac computers and even Windows PCs as well as being stored in the cloud for 30 days.

iCloud will not be serving any ads to its users. iCloud is going to be offered free for all users and will be implemented in all devices running iOS 5. Users will get free storage of 5GB for contacts, mail and calendar. PhotoStream doesn't count.

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iOS 5 Features, Availability – Everything You Need To Know

iOS 5, Apple’s new mobile operating system, was shown off at WWDC. As expected, the new version includes a brand-new notifications system, and system-wide social integration. Here’s everything you need to know:

Features

Notifications Center: all current iOS users know that the current notifications system was showing its age. Apple has turned that around by building a new system, which unobtrusively displays all notifications at the top of the screen, even during games, and on the Lock Screen. By sliding them down, users will be able to visualize all unread notifications, or dismiss them completely by hitting an "X" button next to them. Very straight-forward. Notification can include missed calls, voice mail messages (which can be played right from the Notifications Center and even notifications from other Apps.

This system is very similar to MobileNotifier, which isn’t surprising, since the company has recently hired its main developer.

Reminders: this feature, as the name implies, allows users to set different reminders for different times of the day, and different places. Thanks to the geolocation support present in devices, users can now configure Reminders to pop up a notification at a certain time and at a certain place, and even sync across devices using iCal. It’s really to-do lists on steroids!

Enhanced Safari: The iOS browser now looks a lot more like its desktop counterpart, with a few extra features of its own. Tabbed browsing now looks identical to the way it looks on the Windows and Mac versions, with tabs displayed across the top, at least on the iPad. The new Safari also brings the Reader feature, displaying a website’s content in an easy text only view, but unlike what happened before, users are now able to bookmark content onto a "Reading List" for later or send it to friends.

Twitter Integration: as rumored, the new iOS 5 includes deeper system-wide integration with Twitter. While there’s no support for other social networks, this feature is integrated with many apps, including the Camera App, allowing you to quickly tweet out what you’re working on. You can log into Twitter from System Preferences. It’s a single log in.

New Mail client: similarly to what happened in Lion, the iOS mail client is also receiving an upgrade. The App now supports draggable addresses, as well as the ability to flag messages and search them and dictionary lookup, by tapping on a word and selecting "Define".
iMessage: it’s like iChat for iOS users. It lets you send text messages, photos, videos and even have group conversations, similarly to any other messaging client. This application is also a great new example of how Notifications Center, since this App interacts beautifully with it. With this out the gate, I one is left to wonder what will happen to iChat.
Independence from computers: Previous versions of iOS required users to connect them to a computer in order to set them up, update them or sync them. iOS 5 will put an end to all that, by allowing users to update the device over-the-air. There’s also a new set-up wizard for new devices, allowing them to be configured for the first time without the need for a desktop computer. Can those who hate iTunes finally proclaim victory?

Tens of small additions: iOS 5 includes a number of small improvements, such as direct game downloads in the Game Center, a new optional keyboard, enhancements to the Music App on the iPad and an enhanced Camera app.

Availability
If you’re a developer and have an iPhone 4 or 3GS, a 3rd or 4th generation iPod touch or a first or second-gen iPad, you’ll be able to grab iOS 5 from Apple Developer Center today for testing purposes, so you can get your Apps ready for many of the features we’ve talked about, such as Notifications Center.

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AeroWallpaperChanger Keeps Windows’ Color Scheme in Sync with Your Wallpaper

If you like to keep your wallpaper changing all the time, Windows' Aero Glass might look a little weird if its color doesn't match your wallpapers. AeroWallpaperChanger is a simple app that cycles through your wallpapers and changes Aero's color scheme to match.

Just install the program, start it up, and pick your wallpapers you want to cycle through. Then, on the "Other Settings" tab, make sure to check the "Change Aero Color" box. It's a small tweak, but a pretty cool one if you're into tweaking the interface of your system.

AeroWallpaperChanger is a free download for Windows only.

Download

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iPad 3 To Sport Quad-Core Processor?

There’s speculation that Apple is planning to introduce an iPad with a quad-core processor in order to remain at a competitive advantage with its competitors, which are looking to adopt quad-core technologies themselves.

Speculation began on article on the Microprocessor Report, a magazine related to microprocessors, and later analyzed by Tiernan Ray on Barron’s. The article speculates that Apple,

which makes all its processors in-house for its iOS devices, might be working on making its next-generation processor, presumably the A6 (since the current one is known as A5), quad-core:

The other large point Gwennap makes is that the roadmap for Apple’s chips may become more complex. It’s safe to assume Apple will make the next processor, presumably the A6, as a quad core part, sometime next year, in order to compete with quad core chips from Nvidia and others.

Four cores is definitely ground-breaking in the mobile industry, and unimaginable just a few years ago. Such an advancement would make a small handheld such as the iPad essentially as powerful as desktop computers are today.

While the A6 will most likely find its way into the next iPad, the article cautions that it likely won’t be the case with the 2012 iPhone, possibly the iPhone 5, since such a powerful processor would run the risk of overheating inside the smaller iPhone case. Instead, the future iPhone would use the A5, possibly an enhanced version of it, until Apple develops a more efficient quad-core chip:

that chip will likely be too hot and too large to run in an iPhone, he surmises. That might mean Apple has to use a different chip for the 2012 version of the iPhone, perhaps a shrink of the A5 chip.

Apple’s competitors are trying to further their game with better and faster chips. Just recently, NVIDIA introduced Kal-El, a quad-core mobile processor capable of displaying incredibly realistic graphics. It’s expected for it to be all over Android tablets as soon as it becomes availabl

e.

Meanwhile, iPad 2 sales remain strong, with 4.69 million devices sold last quarter. In total, the company sold 90 million iOS devices last year and is projected to sell as many as 146 million this year. Following Apple’s traditional release timeline, a next-generation iPad isn’t expected to come out before the first quarter of next year.

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View Google Reader In Pure Reader Layout From Firefox & Chrome

Google Reader is a great way to keep up with different subscriptions, but if you were to count the things about Google Reader that kept you using the service, the interface might not make the list for some people. Pure Reader is an extension originally designed for Safari to make Google Reader more appealing, now Firefox and Chrome users can get that same clean structured look for Google Reader with Pure Reader’s extension for Firefox & Chrome.

The extension is simple, once installed, you can view your feeds in this very simple and clean application-style layout. Created originally for Safari, other developers created Pure Reader extensions for the two browsers. Since the extensions were created by different developers, the extension may have more features in one browser than the other. Both extensions resizes the Home, Add new subscription, shared items, starred items links to small buttons on the top bar. The Firefox extension is the better of the two, it gives you great design and functionality. In Chrome the extension causes these buttons to overlap the Google mail, calendar, documents etc links and in Firefox, the link no longer appear on the top as per the original Safari extension.
Chrome users might not get too excited about it since adding a new feed or viewing starred items might prove a bit difficult. While Google’s links still appear on top, they are not functional, you can use Google Reader functions if you can make out the buttons. If I were a Chrome user (and I am), I might not want it but then I can always view my feeds in Firefox. There’s nothing wrong with a little browser betrayal once in a while.
Install Pure Reader For Firefox
Install Pure Reader For Chrome
Visit PureReader Website

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Google Drops Support For Old Browsers

Web companies like Google, WordPress or Facebook are suddenly realizing that old web browsers may have a serious impact on the support they offer. While everyone applauds the companies for dropping support for Internet Explorer 6, the feelings may be mixed when it comes to Google’s announcement to discontinue support for additional browsers.

According to the official Gmail Blog, Google will drop support for the following browsers and their predecessors: Firefox 3.5, Internet Explorer 7 and Safari 3. Dropping support does not mean that users will be blocked from using Google services, but it does mean that Google may develop and implement features that no longer work in those browsers.

To put it in plain words: When Google develops new features and services, the company will not test them using the browsers they dropped support for.

Support will be dropped on August 1, and Google notes that “may have trouble using certain features in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Google Docs and Google Sites” from that day on, and that users may notice eventually that “these apps may stop working entirely”.

From August 1 on, Google will only support modern browsers. For them, that is Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari, and only the two newest versions of each browser will be supported. When Firefox 5 comes out, support will be dropped for Firefox 3.6, with Firefox 6 support for Firefox 4 will be dropped and so on.

Most features will continue to work in dropped browser versions for a long time to come. Chance is, users will be able to use those browsers indefinitely. Only features that require new technologies like HTML5 may not work in those browsers, drag and drop file uploading or desktop notifications come to mind.

No mentioning of Opera anywhere in the announcement, it is as usual ignored by Google.

What’s your take on this? Is this the right step to force users to update their browsers more frequently?

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Microsoft Publishes First Official Windows 8 Video

Information about Microsoft’s next version of Windows have been limited to indirect sources including job postings, Windows 8 leaks or third party sites that got insider information. Yesterday Microsoft published a first demonstration video showcasing Windows 8 at the AllThings D9 event. The first official Windows 8 video concentrates on the new tablet user interface that Windows 8 will ship with. Desktop users may however rest assured that Windows 8 will ship with a standard interface as well.

The tablet UI runs separately from the standard Windows desktop, making use of its own applications. These apps are written in HTML5 and JavaScript, which may come as a surprise for some users who would have expected the interface to use the the same environment as the latest Windows Phone.

The interface has been designed to be fully compatible with touch capable devices and screens. The start screen displays custom applications, like weather reports, stock quotes or the latest emails that the logged in user has received. Touch is used to open apps, bring additional apps to the front and for practically every other operation imaginable.

The start screen replaces the standard Windows start menu. It is fully customizable and will show up to date information and live notifications next to static contents. The switching between apps is fluid, which you will see when you watch the video that demonstrates the touch capabilities.

The touch interface supports multitasking. This is demonstrated by resizing Microsoft Office to make room for Twitter on the sidebar in the video.

The press release confirms that Internet Explorer 10 will be the default system browser of Windows 8. It also confirms that the Windows 8 operating system will be fully compatible with “all Windows 7 logo PCs, software and peripherals”.

The Windows 8 video demonstrates the touch interface of the new operating system. Microsoft states that the video showcases only a few elements, and that the company intends to reveal a lot more on the developer event BUILD which takes place September 13 to 16 in Anaheim.

The improved onscreen keyboard, that seems to have taken inspiration from Microsoft’s ergonomic keyboard, the ability to switch between the touch interface and the standard mouse – keyboard desktop, as well as apps multitasking and integration on the start screen appear to be the biggest new features showcased in the video.

One interesting thing to note is that Microsoft has uploaded the video to Youtube, and that the title of the video is Building “Windows 8″ – Video #1 . Yes, quotation marks are used but it is nevertheless interesting that the company uses the term Windows 8 and not Windows Next or another term for the video title. (via Microsoft unveil Windows Next Tablet UI, Windows 8 News)

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mPPP Is a Web-Based MP3 Search Engine That Slurps Music Straight to Dropbox

When there's a song you really want to listen to you generally want to find it pretty quickly. mPPP is a super simple search engine dedicated to finding songs for you to download. If you find one you like, it'll upload it directly to your Dropbox.

When you get to mPPP's (pronounced MP3, by the way) main and only page, you just search for what you want. It'll find music from various sources. Sometimes those sources will provide actual music files and other times they'll be YouTube videos, but mPPP will convert them automatically so, as far as you know, you're just getting an MP3 file.

If you have a Dropbox account, this search engine gets really interesting. You can simply click the Dropbox icon to log in and then click it again to send the song you're currently playing to your Dropbox. Of course, this means providing your Dropbox credentials to a third-party site which always comes with its own security risk. If you don't want to do that, you can always just download the file.

While this works well once you get the hang of it, the interface is so simplistic that it's actually a little hard to understand at fist. The play button is a power symbol and the Dropbox button both logs you in and sends a file to your Dropbox—but only if a song is playing in the player that is collapsed at the bottom of the screen. All of that said, the search aspect is very simple and these Dropbox features are worth the hassle. It's very cool once you get it to work.

mPPP

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Apple to unveil iOS 5 at WWDC '11 on Monday, June 6

We knew that Apple was going to hold the Worldwide Developer Conference or WWDC '11 on June 6 but could only guess what it would be about. Well, we no longer have to guess as Apple has just released a PR confirming the list of things that will be addressed in the keynote by Steve Jobs and Apple executives.

First of all it would be Lion, the next version of the Mac OS X operating system. Then they would also be talking about iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud service. But what we are interested in most is iOS 5.

So what can we expect from iOS 5? Well for starters, full integration with Apple's iCloud services. We might also see that revamped multitasking system that was leaked a while back. And for the love of God a new notification system! Apart from these your guess is as good as ours.

After the event, Apple would surely make iOS 5 available to developers as they usually do for them to test their applications and report any bugs that they may encounter and then soon it will be released for the general public

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Apple to unveil iOS 5 at WWDC '11 on Monday, June 6

We knew that Apple was going to hold the Worldwide Developer Conference or WWDC '11 on June 6 but could only guess what it would be about. Well, we no longer have to guess as Apple has just released a PR confirming the list of things that will be addressed in the keynote by Steve Jobs and Apple executives.

First of all it would be Lion, the next version of the Mac OS X operating system. Then they would also be talking about iCloud, Apple's upcoming cloud service. But what we are interested in most is iOS 5.

So what can we expect from iOS 5? Well for starters, full integration with Apple's iCloud services. We might also see that revamped multitasking system that was leaked a while back. And for the love of God a new notification system! Apart from these your guess is as good as ours.

After the event, Apple would surely make iOS 5 available to developers as they usually do for them to test their applications and report any bugs that they may encounter and then soon it will be released for the general public

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