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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Txtot Reminds SMS Text Messaging Sending On iOS Devices

Occasionally, you may experience the difficulty to remember and tend to forget to send text messaging which could be important and if you wonder how you can get around with this, here is a simple app which was released recently to serve as reminder. Named as Txtot, or Text on time, it allows users to schedule a reminder so that the SMS text messaging can be sent without miss at a predefined time just like I do for wishing people their birthdays.

Being designed with a simple interface, users will no longer need to set a separate reminder and within the text messaging interface itself, there is a new field that users can enter the date and time on when the message is intended to be sent. Once set, the timer will start counting and when it reaches the specific time, it will prompt up a reminder asking for users’ confirmation if they still want to send the text message. If the answer is yes, simply press on the button will bring up the pre-configured messages in native iphone message.app ready to be sent.

Txtot is free for download from App Store and the only pre-requisite is it needs iPhone 4.2 firmware update for the app to work correctly.

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Google Announces Google Wallet [NEWS]

Google today announced and demoed Google Wallet, an app that turns your phone into your wallet. The company has partner with Citi, MasterCard, First Data, and Sprint to make it possible for you to tap, pay, and save using your phone with Near Field Communication (NFC).
Google says it is building an open commerce ecosystem, and will develop APIs to enable integration with numerous partners. Unfortunately, Google Wallet is only initially compatible with the Nexus S 4G on Sprint. The search giant does not have a release date for Google Wallet other than “soon.”
Although we’ve known Google has been interested in NFC technology for a long time now, it was confirmed with the release of Android 2.3 (codenamed Gingerbread) late last year. Solid details around Google’s mobile payment platformleaked two months ago, and now it’s finally official.
Google Wallet is supposed to make it easier for consumers to pay for and save on the goods they want, while giving merchants more ways to offer coupons and loyalty programs to their customers. Oh, and Google also claims it bridges the gap between online and offline commerce.
At first, Google Wallet will only support Citi MasterCard and a Google Prepaid Card, which you’ll be able to fund with another payment card. This means you’ll be able to tap your phone to pay wherever MasterCard PayPass is accepted. Google Wallet will also sync your Google Offers, which you’ll be able to redeem via NFC at participating SingleTap merchants, or by showing the barcode as you check out.
The mobile app will be able to store your credit cards, offers, loyalty cards, and gift cards, without the bulk or additional weight. When you tap to pay, your phone will also automatically redeem offers and earn loyalty points for you. Google hopes the app will one day store things like boarding passes, tickets, ID, and keys.

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Skype Down and Causes Client App Crash (Stopped Working)

Skype has been in the news lately for acquisition by Microsoft at astronomical price. Some has said Microsoft will ruin Skype, and the proof seems coming too soon. Skype is now currently down for a major outage for quite a number of Skype users, especially users who are about to log into the Skype. To make matter worse, upon launching and attempting to sign into Skype client, the application automatically shut itself down, with error message “Skype has stopped working,” caused by unknown problem.

The issue seemed to affect Skype users worldwide randomly regardless of platform. Windows, Mac OS X and Linux Skype clients all seem unable to login to Skype network. In Windows, the Skype program will stop responding, and auto close itself, giving an impression that you may need to reinstall Skype.

But when you attempt to download the setup installer of Skype, the Skype website appears to be down as well, or taken a very long time to load, or display error message saying “Hi – Our server has taken a short break.”

If you still stayed logged into Skype, apparently you not spare from the issue too. It’s reported Skype users have intermittent issue when making voice or video calls. In addition, the status of contacts apparently are not updated too. It means that people who are affected and unable to sign in or those who just logout still appears as online.

Skype apparently is aware of the problem and has tweeted the following:

Some of you may have problems signing in to Skype and making calls. We’re investigating and hope to have more details to share soon.

Despite the Microsoft Windows error message is saying that Windows will notify you if a solution is available, but don’t hope much. It’s probably better to follow @Skype for notification when the telephony service is up again. It’s almost an hour since incidents started to be reported, yet no cause and solution is found yet.

For thousands of people worldwide affected by Skype outage, the only thing can do for now is wait, and pray that union with Microsoft does not mean bad luck for Skype.

Update: Skype has posted a new tweet stating that “thanks for your patience – we’ve identified the problem and will be rolling out a fix soon.” If you can’t wait, there is report that the skype will work if you delete the following file \Users\%UserName%\AppData\Roaming\Skype\shared.xml (in Windows 7 or Vista), \Documents and Settings\%UserName%\Application Data (in Windows XP) or~/Library/Application Support/Skype/shared.xml (in Mac OS X).

Skype has made the above workaround official at Skype blog. Here’s the detailed step-by-step guide:

Windows Vista and Windows 7

1. Close Skype.
   1. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
   2. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
   1. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
   2. Type control folders and click OK.
   3. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
   1. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
   2. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
   3. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Windows XP

1. Close Skype.
   1. Right-click the Skype icon in the system tray (at the bottom right of the screen)
   2. Choose Quit.
2. Ensure that “Show hidden files and folders” is switched on.
   1. Click Start and then Run….
   2. Type control folders and click OK.
   3. Select the View tab and ensure relevant entry is enabled.
3. Locate the shared.xml file.
   1. Click Start, type run and press Enter.
   2. Type %appdata%\skype and click OK.
   3. Delete the shared.xml file.
4. Restart Skype. The shared.xml file will be recreated.

Mac OS X

1. Quit Skype.
2. Go to the folder ~/Library/Application Support/Skype/
3. Delete the file shared.xml (it will be recreated once you open Skype again, this is fine).
4. Start Skype.

Anyway, lucky Skype users who are still able to login to Skype network, just DO NOT sign out or restart your computer, if you don’t want to have your Skype app crashes, for now.

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