Long go the time where WinZip and WinRAR were almost the only options as extract managers for our operating systems. Nowadays there are a plethora of other options, many free to use, at least non-commercially. One of my favourites compressors / extractors is 7-Zip, the reasons being it’s free and open source under the GNU LGPL license (can be used for commercial use) and the compression ratio of the 7z format is higher than zip for example.

The only thing I don’t like about 7-Zip is that it lacks a bit of eye appeal. It surely doesn’t matter at the end of the day if it gets the job done, but in our endless search to make our desktop look better and more appealing 7-Zip app could do with a little tweaking. This is were 7-Zip Theme Manager comes along to save the day app.

The application is very simple and easy to use. Extract the contents of the compressed file and run 7zTM.exe. You will get the theme manager like the one in the picture below. There are several themes to choose from. You can also change the file type association icons.

I’m using the Buff icon theme, suits my theme style!

7-Zip Theme Manager

Website: 7-Zip Theme Manager

This isn’t exactly news… but I’ve seen some people using this widget on several screenshots and decided to share the source, I’m talking about HTC Home. HTC home is a widget for windows that resembles the HTC Android Sense home screen, specifically the integrated clock and weather widgets.

I own an HTC and I like Sense a lot (some people don’t, but hey, not everyone has to like fish, right?), but for the my desktop, personally I think it’s an overkill and it doesn’t fit that well into the windows theme. But if you are into this sort of widgets (I don’t even use the windows default ones, too much clutter to the desktop, I like to keep it clean) now you know how to get it.

Source: Lifehacker

Download: HTC Home

The quality of the pictures is amazing with a 1920×1200 resolution, so it fits even the largest screens (like my 22′ inches LCD!). If you like the wallpapers on this packs but prefer to keep your custom theme, you can always change the theme only in the Windows 7 options. If you need to know how to modify your Windows 7 installation to allow the use of custom themes, go here.

Microsoft Nature photographs theme by Mike Swanson

Source: Download Squad

I’m not a frequent Bing user, I stand by the old and reliable Google, a matter of habit I suppose. There is one thing where Bing is far superior to Google page, the backgrounds. The Bing images are always outstanding.

Knowing this, Microsoft decided to gather their best Bing Images and create an official Bing.com Windows Theme that feeds your desktop images through RSS. The feed is updated weekly with 2 photos during 3 months. There is a Bing Watermark but it’s not very obstructive. I’ve downloaded all of the 5 themes on the Microsoft website and love them all. I specially appreciate Bing’s Best.

Download Fresh Bing Wallpapers for Windows

Source: Lifehacker

DeviantArt released this week an online Drawing App. Muro is 100% flash free, it’s pure HTML 5 and works on all modern browsers. There is a lot already present on Muro like several brushes (you get more if you’re registered on DA). Because it works on devices like iPad it should be really useful for those devices, specially because a lot of the drawing apps outthere are done in pure flash (and we all know that Steve Jobs don’t like Flash!).

Muro features include:

• deviantART’s free HTML5 powered drawing app
• 21 brushes, each uniquely programmed
• Basic and Pro modes, both free
• Intuitive layout and functionality
• Supports all HTML5-enabled browsers including the iPad
• Submit drawings directly to your deviantART Gallery
• Convenient design allows more focus on your art
• Join fellow deviants in a public forum to share drawings
• Start private threads in your group’s Admin Area and enjoy picture comments

Muro won’t replace your Photoshop for sure, but it doesn’t want to. It’s the perfect app to use on the go on less powerful devices to doodle.

Link: DeviantArt Muro.

… suggested by Google! It’s true, Google has posted on their official blog a list of Googles favourite extensions for Google Chrome.

Their choice consists of 19 plugins (odd number), among those I would like to recommend:

Turn Off the Lights: Fades the page to improve the video-watching experience.

Slideshow: Turns photo sites such as Flickr, Picasa, Facebook, and Google Images into slideshows.

Readability: Reformat the page into a single column of text.

Soon I’ll make a post with my favourite Google Chrome extensions too. This Google’s list allowed me to discover some new ones I didn’t now before.

Google chrome is now my main browser for more than a year. Extensions were the only thing holding to Firefox, since then I’ve never looked back. Firefox is no my backup browser. Even Firefox acknowledges how superior Chrome interface is, since the latest version of Firefox 4 showcases a UI totally similar to Chrome and Opera to an extent.

One of the coolest features of Windows 7 is the ability to rotate a selected group of wallpapers. I use it a lot because I like to change my wallpaper a lot (sometimes depending on my mood). If you are not on Windows 7 or would also like the ability to rotate wallpapers from external sources like Flickr, John’s Background Switcher is what you’re looking for.

John’s Background Switcher can switch the wallpapers from several different sources:

• Individual pictures on your computer.
• Flickr
• Facebook
• Vladstudio wallpapers
• DeviantArt
• Photobucket
• Picasa
• Google
• Zooomr
• Etc…

JBS stays in your system tray and changes the wallpapers from the source(s) and time intervals you choose. JCB works on all Windows versions, 32 or 64 bit.

Download: John’s Background Switcher [1.80MB]

Whether you you’re a programmer or simply an enthusiast having a good Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is fundamental. Why is that? Well if programming is part of your work as with any task on life you want it done quickly and painless, a good IDE helps you achieve exactly that.

But a good IDE or in this context, a good text editor is helpful for anyone not just “professionals”. The default Notepad from Windows just doesn’t cut it for more than reading a README type of file.

Notepad++

There are lots of alternatives when choosing an IDE. But if the panoply of alternatives is huge the decision factors in my opinion are rather easy to follow: Price / Power ratio. Basically we want a powerful IDE and preferencially Free. I wouldn’t mind paying a just value for a good IDE, but not the absurd amount of money some Software costs like Dreamweaver (although Dreamweaver is a powerhouse). If you own a Mac there are some good options like Textmate or Coda for about 50-70€. If you use Windows like me, Aptana is a good choice, but I’ve never been a big fan of Java Plataform powered Software, so my vote goes for Notepad++.

Why Notepad Plus?

Remember the Ratio? Price / Power. Well, Notepad++ it’s free and opensource. Regarding power, it’s very powerful, supports most probably every language you’ll ever need and it’s expandable with plugins. The only thing I don’t like in Notepad++ it’s its default look. But even that is perfectible changeable. So, why Notepad++?

• 1. Free – Because the best things in life are free!
• 2. Powerful – Because we need features to improve our workflow.
• 3. Lightweight – Resource hogs are never welcome.
• 4. Flexible – Easily expandable by plugins to fit our needs.
• 5. Opensource – Because the best things in life are opensource… oh wait..

Improving Notepad++

So why should we change the appearance of Notepad++? There is nothing wrong with it but it feels too stock and white backgrounds make my eyes bleed. If you’ll spend countless hours in front of a program let’s at least make it more enjoyable and useful, that way our workflow will probably increase and if not at least our desktop will look prettier.

First think I always do when I reinstall Notepad Plus is to change the theme. I prefer darker to light themes, as they are softer on the eyes (as I referred previously).

Changing Notepad++ Theme

The most recent versions of Notepad++ already bring some neat themes you can use. Monokai (in the picture) is one of them.

To choose your theme open notepad++ and go to Settings > Style Configurator… > Select Theme. The rest is pretty much self explanatory. You can also change the font setting but make sure on the Language you are on Global styles and on the Style you are on Global override. In order for your font to apply to your theme you need to tick Enable global font option and also Enable global font size.

When I chose a different theme for some reasons it kept reseting back to default theme or not saving my font choices. But we can change our theme other way around making sure our options are saved. We replace the original stylers.xml . This way we even choose other themes available in the Internet. Textmate has a lot of nice themes that can be easily converted into notepad++. Joyboner has a nice little tutorial on how to do this easily.

Changing Notepad++ Toolbar Icons

The default toolbar Icon is ok I guess, but ok is the new… meh! Jokes aside, this is something we can improve just for eye candy happiness. Notepad++ website tells you how you can change the default Toolbar Icons but for some unknown reason it didn’t work for me initially (it had to do with Windows7 Administrator permissions, so run your notepad++ as administrator). But I found a way to make it work. Right now I’m using Notepad++ Tango Skin by duxii.

It’s fairly simple to install, just follow duxii’s instructions:

* First Extract the downloaded zip file!

* Just open Notepad++ and go to settings and compare them with my settings (“01_settings.bmp”)

[* Now choose one of the themes to make notepad looking more awesome. I have chosen "bespin".]

* Now we will change the notepad++ icons

- Go to your notepad++ installation path and change the file “NppShell_01.dll” to “old_NppShell_01.dll”.

- Now start the sfx file (02_changeicons.sfx)
1. As destination folder chose the install path of notepad++ (for me this is “C:\Programme\Notepad++\”)
2. Overwrite all files
3. If an error appears that any file could not be overwritten you have to start windows in save mode an do this again

- The sfx file has already done most of the things. You only have to do one more thing:
1. Rename the “03_toolbarIcons.xml”-file to “toolbarIcons.xml”
2. Press Windows-R
3. No a window will appear: write following into it:
%APPDATA%\Notepad++
4. A folder will open. Copy the renamed “toolbarIcons.xml” into it.
5. Now open this file with notepad++
6. Look at the screenshot “04_finish.bmp” and do what on the screenshot is standing!

* Restart your Computer and start Notepad++ & voila your notepad++ is in beautiful tango style.

Plugins

A way to know how flexibly and customizable a software program can be is by checking if it supports plugins and the amount of support given by the community. Notepad++ is one of this cases. There are enough plugins to make your notepad even more powerful. You can find the “official” plugins on Notepad++ Plugin Central Website or even install them directly through the Plugin Manager. The Plugins I find the most useful from Plugin Central are these ones:

QuickText is specially useful since is a Code Snippet manager. You need to install it manually it can’t be installed directly by the Plugin Manager.

But the plugin I really advice you to install is one called Zen Coding. Zen Coding is just amazing, words can’t describe it you have to see for yourself. With Zen Coding and QuickText you’ll find yourself writing doing repetitive tasks in php, html or anything you’re working on in a breeze. No other plugins will increase your efficiency and workflow as much as these two.

Conclusion

Be it notepad++, windows notepad, coda, aptana or anything else, you need to familiarize and be comfortable with your tools of the trade. The perfect IDE is the one that no only allows you to do the job but aids you in doing it “faster, better, stronger“. Notepad++ is an amazing piece of software. It’s very expandable and flexible as you’ve seen by now. It’s one of the few great options in Windows, at least in the Free price range. But you have to know that Notepad++ is not perfect, well it is for html, CSS or small projects, but for serious projects it lacks important features as error detection, if you really need a full featured IDE SmashingMagazine wrote a really nice post about IDEs. But in the end the Pros are a lot more than the Cons so Notepad++ is a great option if you’re looking for a Free IDE.

The current look of my notepad++ it’s like this:

So, what’s your preferred text editor / IDE and why?

Download: Notepad++

I just watched the yet to be released Photoshop CS5 Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek and all I got to say is… WOW! This is the kind of thing that can make some people really happy and a lot of jobs seem obsolete.

Check the video after the break.

Content-Aware Fill Sneak Peek

If you pay attention to mobile and tech news, you’ve probably ear about the new Windows Phone 7 Series, a pompous name for the successor of the old Windows Mobile 6 (also known as WinMo).

Windows Mobile OS

Windows Mobile 6 interface hasn’t age graciously, specially after the iPhone arrived and suddenly it became clear how unfriendly WinMo was to use in a Phone. The Iphone interface is not to brag about to be honest, but it works and it has that Apple touch where every item is carefully crafted giving it an expensive look, both in term of UI and hardware. The problems with Windows Mobile is that isn’t user friendly at all. It feels like Windows XP in your pocket but that shouldn’t be the goal of a mobile operating system interface. If you were used to Windows operating systems you would probably get the hang of Windows mobile in a snap but you would certainly became a bit frustrated right away when you realized how hard is to press any interface element without the use of a stylus.

Windows Mobile 6 UI

Using a styles was something very common in the “old days” of Smartphones, but today with the advancement of touch screens, specially capacitive ones using a styles is something more inconvenient than useful. The thing is the WinMo interface was design around the use of a Styles and for example HTC knows that, providing you with a Styles in almost every WinMo device they released, the same can’t be said for their Android devices. HTC tried to surpass Windows Mobile 6 limitations by forking Windows UI with something they’ve called SenseUI, giving a similar user experience to Windows or Android devices.

Microsoft understood that it was being left behind in this exponential growing market and quickly “answered” Google and Apple releasing a preview of its new Windows mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series.

The new Windows Mobile

Understanding how limited Windows Mobile 6 interface was in term of user navigation experience, Microsoft redesigned Windows Mobile from the ground up coming with something in the line of what they did in Zune, clean, minimalist design with a strong typography oriented design. The main screen information is displayed in a mosaic with big click-able thumbnails to access other UI areas. Personally I really don’t like how it looks. There are other ways to present information in a clean way without making it look cheaply done. But undeniable it should be a lot more finger navigation friendly than its precedent.

The new Windows Phone 7 Series UI

Windows 7 Series design has been codenamed Metro. Some earlier concepts of Metro have been recently published by Microsoft at MIX10 showcasing the design evolution of the Metro UI. It’s clear that Microsoft wished Metro to be a clean interface since the very begging with Typography elements being a central part of the UI. Strangely I think the earlier concepts of Metro do look a lot more pleasant looking than the final version. In this concepts it’s clear transparencies were use extensively something that you hardly find on the retail version of the User Interface. Maybe Microsoft wanted to set their design apart from what it’s commonly used today (see Aero in Vista or Windows 7 or even the Android platform).

Metro earlier concepts

It’s possible to built an UI around typography, if you search for typography works you will be amazed how further you can go only playing with type sizes, types, color and position. The thing is Microsoft decided to make a really minimalist design, contrary to what you see in Windows Vista or 7, I would understand if the goal was to make a lightweight platform, but it isn’t the case since Windows 7 Series will have some pretty demanding specs, so why not opt for something with a more cutting edge look? It’s possible to have Looks without sacrificing functionality.

Metro earlier concepts

Conlusion

In the end and BEFORE trying out the new Windows 7 Series Operating System, I do think that comparing it to Android or iPhone OS it’s already losing. I do love customization in any Interface and apparently it isn’t one of Metro’s strong points. It remains to be seen how easy it will be for companies like HTC to customize W7 Series in their own way. Considering it will be released without Copy and Paste… at least I want to be able to change more than the wallpaper! The thing with Windows 7 Series is that it tries too hard to be different from iPhone or Android. Microsoft doesn’t have to prove anything or reinvent the wheel every time they release an OS. Time will tell how the OS will mature and if my claims are right or wrong.