Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Activate Alt-Tab Switching With Just Your Mouse [Autohotkey Tip]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/5PgNHfj2Jrk/activate-alt+tab-switching-with-just-your-mouse

Windows only: Reader Zarek writes in with an excellent tip for switching between open windows using just the mouse—all it takes is a couple of lines of AutoHotkey code.

The script binds one of your extra mouse buttons combined with the mouse wheel to activate Alt-Tab or Shift-Alt-Tab, depending on which way you are scrolling the mouse. To set this up for yourself, you'll need to create a new AutoHotkey script or paste the following into your existing one to activate your 5th mouse button:

XButton2 & WheelDown::AltTab
XButton2 & WheelUp::ShiftAltTab

If you would rather use the 4th button, you can substitute XButton1 in the code where you see XButton2. If your mouse doesn't have any extra buttons, Zarek still has you covered—this solution will activate Alt-Tab using the middle mouse button combined with the scroll wheel—although it's a little more difficult to use and (one commenter notes that it makes the middle mouse button not work correctly, so use this one with caution).

Update: yourbuddypal in the comments notes that you need a tilde at the beginning of the line, per this AutoHotkey forum post. Thanks!

~MButton & WheelDown::AltTab
~MButton & WheelUp::ShiftAltTab

Where this tip becomes really useful is for readers using Windows 7—once you've activated the Alt-Tab dialog you can simply hold your mouse over ! any of t he preview thumbnails to see the entire window through Aero Peek—very useful when you have too many applications running at once. Thanks, Zarek!

For more AutoHotkey fun, read how to turn any action into a keyboard shortcut, or turn your capslock key into a dedicated minimize button. Got your own useful AutoHotkey trick for managing open windows? Care to share your scripting skills with the rest of the class? Dazzle us in the comments with your wisdom.



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Skype 4.1 Beta Adds Screen Sharing and Other New Features [Downloads]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/bgn2J2P95mo/skype-41-beta-adds-screen-sharing-and-other-new-features

Windows only: Popular video and voice chat application Skype has just released a new beta version for Windows users featuring several cool new features, most notably the addition of a screen sharing feature that allows you to share your desktop with any contact.

In addition to the screen sharing, Skype 4.1 beta adds contact sharing, birthday reminders, call and video quality improvements, and more; you can find the full release notes here (PDF alert!). As Download Squad points out, new features generally hit the Windows version of Skype before the Mac version, but in this case, Macs have had Skype screen sharing since January.

To share your screen, just fire up a chat with a contact and then hit the Share button. After that, you can choose whether you want to share your entire screen or Skype may just become the new family helpdesk support app of choice. Note: The user you're chatting with must also be running Skype 4.1.

Skype 4.1 beta is a free download, Windows only.



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Google Expects 18 Android Phones This Year: All the Flavors Explained [Android]

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/VznWxUPenD4/google-expects-18-android-phones-this-year-all-the-flavors-explained

Google/Android's Andy Rubin said at the Google I/O conference that Google expects 18-20 Android phones this year from 8 or 9 manufacturers—and those are just the devices they know about. But it's gonna be slower going in the States because of the custom Android builds that carriers want.

(The custom builds frighten us, on multiple levels.)

More interesting, perhaps, is how they fall along the Android lines—there are apparently three ways for a manufacturer to put Android on their phone with varying levels of Google control (though all are free). The "no strings" version anyone can grab, but it doesn't have Google's apps. The "small strings" version includes an agreement to distribute Google's apps, and 12-14 are this flavor.

The final one, aka the Google Experience, is like the G1—you've got Google apps and an agreement from both the carrier and phonemaker that they won't restrict access to the Android market at all. You can spot these phones by the Google logo literally branded onto them. (These are the Android phones you probably want.)

So, maybe 2009 will be the year of Android after all. Maybe. [NYT]



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Google Ion hands-on and unboxing

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/google-ion-hands-on-and-unboxing/

Looks like Chris' hatred wasn't totally unfounded. We just got our hands on a Google Ion -- which as you can tell is a spitting image of the HTC Magic -- complete with 30 days' worth of T-Mobile service on an included SIM card. It's not a public release model, but seems fully capable. Yes, it's got Cupcake, and while the portrait keyboard seems more cramped than the iPhone's, we found it very comfortable to type in landscape mode. Form factor wise, this thing is as sexy as hardware gets -- light, sleek, and thin. The only thing that exceeds our love for it right now is its own love for fingerprints -- seriously, the entire body and screen attract them like flies to honey. Colorful similes aside, hit up the gallery below for all the pics you could ask for.

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Google Ion hands-on and unboxing originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 16:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New Intel Core i7 CPUs show up unannounced

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/27/new-intel-core-i7-cpus-show-up-unannounced/


Intel's Core i7 has become somewhat of a mainstay in the most recent wave of gaming rigs, but it's been quite awhile (in processor years, anyway) since we've seen any new siblings join the launch gang. We'd heard faint whispers that a new crew was set to steal the stage on May 31st, and those rumors are looking all the more likely now that a few heretofore unheard of chips have appeared online. The 3.06GHz Core i7 950 is shown over at PCs For Everyone with 8MB of shared L3 cache and a $649 price tag, and it's expected that said chip will replace the aging Core i7 940. Moving on up, there's the luscious 3.33GHz Core i7 Extreme 975, which is also listed with 8MB of shared L3 cache but packs a staggering price tag well above the $1,100 mark. If all this pans out, this CPU will replace the Core i7 Extreme 965 as Intel fastest Core i7 product. Just a few more days to wait, right?

[Via PCWorld]

Read - Core i7 Extreme 975 listing
Read - Core i7 950 listing

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New Intel Core i7 CPUs show up unannounced originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 May 2009 20:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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