One of the great things about blogs is that they’re often a great source of the latest news before it’s officially been announced. Time is therefore of the essence when blogging and one way to significantly speed-up your blogging response time is by adding a blogging widget to your dashboard. Mac users are spoilt for choice in this respect - widgets exists for just about every major blogging platform including Blogger and WordPress. Here are 5 of the best free blogging widgets for Mac OS to help you break the story first:

Blogger Widget

Google only offer 2 widgets for Mac - one for Gmail and the other for their user friendly Blogger blogging platform. This simple widget allows you to write text and publish it directly although annoyingly, it doesn’t allow you to add links or images.

WordPressDash

WordPress fans can use this simple widget to post and publish text although again, no images or linking is possible. You can however select which category you want to post under.

Dashalytics

If you are constantly monitoring the performance of your blog then Dashalytics offers you instant access to Google Analytics stats. Note that you need to have registered for a Google Analytics account first. Each widget can only monitor one site at a time but you can have multiple sites open to monitor multiple widgets. Read on…

Windows: Photoshop is undoubtedly the industry standard in digital photo editing software. Its latest version, Photoshop CS4, includes a beautifully redesigned interface plus tons of new features, such as suppor for 3D object editing, new Adjustments and Masks panels, fluid canvas rotation, smoother pan/zoom and the amazing content aware resizing, among others.

iPhone: Do you often waste your time looking for new wallpapers for your iPhone? Download Background and save your time for something else. This app features a collection of hundreds of wallpapers for your iPhone or iPod Touch, all conveniently classified into categories and downloadable with just a simple tap.

Mac: Are you looking for a free alternative web suite? SeaMonkey is a web-browser, advanced e-mail and newsgroup client, IRC chat client, and HTML editor in one. The suite is divided into three tools - a navigator with tabbed browsing, mail and newsgroups with powerful spam filters and a composer for web design. It’s everything you need in one great suite!

ZoneAlarm is one of the world’s longest standing security and firewall solutions but a one year license for the pro version usually costs a hefty $40. Tomorrow however, developers Check Point will be giving away ZoneAlarm Pro 2009 absolutely free for one day only to celebrate their 15 year anniversary.

At the moment, the ZoneAlarm website displays a banner advertising the fact that there will be a new promotion in November without specifying exactly when it will be but sites such as IntelliAdmin are reporting it will be tomorrow. It also promises 50% discounts in Check Point’s online shop.

ZoneAlarm Pro certainly offers one of the most comprehensive security solutions available including firewall, anti-spyware, id theft protection, root and boot protection, wireless network protection and special security features for online gamers. Personally, I’ve always found it a rather intrusive and bloated security package that ends up blocking just about everything including traffic that you want to receive but it is at least effective.

If you find that the Check Point site is down tomorrow, then keep trying throughout the day as it will probably be overloaded by users taking advantage of the offer.

 This week Google announced the release of Ancient Rome in 3D for Google Earth. This new layer loads a 3D model of Emperor Constantine’s Rome, 1688 years ago.

Switching the layer on is relatively straight forward, just open the ‘Layers’ tag in the side panel of Google maps, open ‘Gallery’ then tick Ancient Rome in 3D. Then, when you zoom into Rome (the Google Earth zoom in from space is still one of the coolest things about this)  there will be a tone of yellow building icons floating above the city. From here, click on any building, then the Ancient Terrain link, followed by the Ancient Roman Landmarks and buildings links. After a little loading time, the 3D model will start to pop up on your screen. Then, you’re free to explore. My PC slowed down considerably for this, I think you´ll need a really high spec machine to look around smoothly, but regardless, the effect is pretty good.

Another nice Google Earth add-on I found was the animated political boundaries. I know, it sounds thrilling, but it’s an interesting way to see the way borders change over history. Borders are superimposed onto the Earth, and as you move the time bar along, the borders move, so you’ll see empires flowering and disappearing, countries expanding and contracting until you reach 2008. All you have to do is download the .KML file, and it will automatically open in Google Earth. It looks reasonably accurate to me, but I’m sure there are things missing that people could get very angry about! Check it out and see!

The last Google Earth toy I found is less likely to educate or offend - it’s the Geogreeting site. Someone, or some people with far too much time on their hands, have scoured Google Earth and found buildings with the shapes of all the letters of the alphabet, and with Geogreeting, you can enter a message and send it to your friends and family, who’ll receive an animated e-card with your message.

Windows: Do you miss having video in Google Talk? You can now have it in a couple of clicks! Simply install the Google Voice and Video Chat plug-in and you’ll be able to have video chats with family and friends right in Gmail’s interface. You’ll enjoy a high quality of image and crisp clear sound, with no need to go through painful configurations.

Mac: If you’re not a big TimeMachine fan then MimMac is a fast, easy-to-use, and comprehensive backup and cloning utility, designed to make backing up, synchronizing, merging, and cloning your data as painless as possible. With MimMac, there’s no need to set up complex scripts, or navigate a bloated interface just to do simple tasks such as running multiple simultaneous operations or excluding items from your backup operations.

iPhone: Things can really get difficult when it comes to transferring files from the computer to your iPhone. Install Discover and you’ll be able to access and browse contents in the iPhone through any web browser, and also transfer and share files from iPhone to iPhone in a very easy way. Discover uses WiFi so you’ll get a decent transfer rate.

Sometimes you don’t need to apply highly complicated effects to your photos to make them stand out. A simple sketch look like the one explained in this tutorial is more than enough to make a dull image look fancier and more original. Plus it’s really easy to apply! Want to learn how? Follow these simple steps and you’ll be creating beautiful color sketches out of your photos in no time.

Read on…

Alongside fighting piracy, games companies are widening their targets to include the rental, and second-hand game markets.

In an interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Epic Games’ (makers of Gears of War)President Michael Caps complains that piracy has stopped them making PC games altogether, and the second hand market is pushing developers towards solutions that stop it. Recently, and organization representing the games industry in Belguim managed to change the law to make game rental there illegal.

I can totally understand companies being worried about piracy, although their response has often been to punish the consumer, but stopping rental and second hand purchases is ridiculous. I’m yet to hear the motor industry make similar complaints about second hand cars, and video rental has been the norm for years.

It is especially painful to hear this kind of mean spirited stuff from an industry that is in such good health - still growing quickly, and predicted to outsell video and music this year in Britain alone. With a generally young demographic, this is impressive. The idea that sales will improve if gamers can’t try out games, as people often do with rental, or sell their old games to buy new ones, is pretty bad.

Google Talk started out as a minimalist chat client that was soon successful among people precisely due to its simplicity in functions and design. It grew in popularity together with Gmail, to the extent that it was later on embedded into the webmail interface and also began offering support for voice chats. The next logical step was video, which Google Talk just added today and is slowly rolling out to all Gmail accounts – including mine!

After checking that I already had video chats enabled on my Gmail account, I downloaded the necessary plug-in and grabbed hold of my webcam. There was no lengthy configuration process required: simply plug your cam, select a contact in the Gmail box and click on “Start video chat”. However if you want to check video chat settings or need troubleshooting, there’s a new area in the Gmail configuration menu where you can check the video, audio and microphone settings: click on Settings and then on the Chat tab and you’ll be right there.

Google Talk video chat offers an impressive sound and image quality. Even in full-screen mode (which you can enable by clicking on the small square on the top left corner of the video window) image remains clear enough and, above all, is never bumpy or clunky. Streaming is in fact smooth and continuous, and so is sound: even with the mic far away from us we had clear-cut audio during the whole chat.

The video window is minimized on the bottom right corner and cannot be moved – something I found a bit annoying. Of course, you can always pop the window out but that means you have two windows instead of one, which is not that useful anymore. The standard text chat takes place right under the video window, with the usual format and tools.

Google Talk has left a very good taste in my mouth after testing it for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if it started gaining users quickly and was – in the long run – a serious competitor for other popular voIP tools. It does have one requirement though (a Gmail account) but I’m not sure if a free 7-GB Google-powered webmail account can exactly be called a requirement. It’s simply something everyone should have.

Windows: Here again to ruin the lives of many an armchair soccer fan is Football Manager 2009. The latest release of the oh-so addictive football management simulation is the most in-depth ever. As well as updating the huge player and team database, the latest version adds a new 3D game view, improved transfer system, heightened media management features, and much more.

Pocket PC: Lost in the Pyramid recaptures the magic of those classics in the form of an imaginative quest in which you star as Indiana Bones, a famous archeologist who has a dream one night about a pyramid. After waking up, you must go to consult a psychic who reveals where to start your mission, then it’s off into the wild unknown to explore the mythical building of your dreams.

Mac: Need a smarter way to manage your iPod? Floola is a freeware application to efficiently manage your iPod or your Motorola mobile phone (any model supporting iTunes). It can be run directly from your iPod and needs no installation under Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Floola supports all most common used features including podcasts!

A while ago, when Google Chrome came out, we found a way to add Chrome’s best features to Firefox by using certain add-ons that mimic Chrome’s new tab page, download manager and Incognito mode . But the truth is that this trick can be extended to other web browsers as well. That is, you can use Firefox extensions to get features from the competition without having to switch to a different browser.

The following extensions will enable you to have the best from each web browser (Opera, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari) while sticking with your dear old Firefox. Choose the ones you like best and tailor Firefox to your taste.

Opera

This is by far the browser with most features included by default, so you’ll need a bunch of extensions to put Firefox on the same level.

Fast Dial

This is Opera’s homepage, where you can set your favorite websites for quick access. You can have the same in Firefox with the Fast Dial or Speed Dial extensions, and also with online services such as Homepage Startup.

Sidebar

Firefox has already a sidebar where you can load Bookmarks and History, but the Opera Sidebar is much more functional. This difference can easily be solved with the All-in-One Sidebar extension.

Tab preview

Would you like to have a sneak preview of any opened tab just by hovering your mouse over it? You can have that in Opera… or install the correspondent Firefox extension, such as Tab Scope or Tab Popup.

Download Manager

You can have something similar to Opera’s download manager by gathering all your downloads under a single tab with Custom Download Manager or even transforming Firefox into a BitTorrent client with FoxTorrent.

Other features

• For a smoother scrolling, get SmoothWheel.
• Display useful info on the status bar with Extended Statusbar.
  
• Control Firefox with your mouse and FireGestures.

Google Chrome

The most recent newcomer to the so-called battle of the web browsers. You can now take advantage of all its features by adding the following extensions to Firefox.

Google Chrome Theme

Having a Chrome-based Firefox theme will grant you much more space for web browsing. The basic features are included in Chromifox, but if you want further functionality you can use Chrome Package (experimental).

New page

Unlike Opera’s Fast Dial, Chrome’s new page includes the most visited websites, not the ones you select by yourself. If you want to have this in Firefox too, simply download Auto Dial.

Download bar

Chrome’s download bar may seem an innovative feature, but the truth is that you could already have it in Firefox ages ago, just by installing the DownloadStatusbar extension.

Other features

• For more compact menus, get Tiny Menu.
• Have an Incognito mode in Firefox with Stealther.
• Want a Chrome-style new tab button? Use New Tab Button on Tab Right.

Read on…

Few would be foolish enough to say that Apple’s iPhone App Store hasn’t been a roaring success. Users have flocked to the store in their millions and there are now thousands of applications available for users to download. Virtually all the other mobile systems operators have now wised up to this closed-market approach too. Google released its Android Market a couple of weeks back, and work on similar download platforms from Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices.

On the surface the benefits of these app stores for mobile software developers are obvious: your product is instantly available to the entire user-base of that platform, users can buy software with a single click, it cuts down on time spent creating web pages and eStores, among lots of other advantages. In reality though, the App Store isn’t quite the dream ticket developers had hoped for, and some are already getting ticked off with it, most notably Opera, which has just been told that it can’t release its Mini web browser on the iPhone. The fact that Apple has appointed itself as the God-like figure who decides whether apps are worthy enough to go on the site has enraged many developers, including Chuqui who feels that its tactics may put smaller developers off even bothering to develop apps for the iPhone.

I’m sorry, Apple, but I just don’t get it. It’s not even the NDA, it’s the lack of any significant communication about how things are being decided. People could live with it (not be happy, but live with it) if they just could find out before committing development time whether something would be approved. but they can’t. That’s a serious inhibitor to the developer ecosphere - but is that perhaps what Apple wants, to shift the iPhone world and the app store towards fewer, larger developers, without actually admitting it.

It’s not just the issue of approval that’s bugging software authors either. As developer Steven Frank notes, there are lots of freedoms that app makers traditionally enjoy that are being compromised by the app store model. While he recognises the merits of the App Store, he argues that his list of basic rights as a developer are being “used as toilet paper” by Apple. Here you can see how his list of “inviolable principles” for developers are rendered redundant by the App Store platform. Read on…

Windows: Whether you’re a regular screencast producer or just need an easy tool to record video on your screen, Camtasia Studio is the perfect choice. This complete suite helps you record, edit, produce and share videos in a simple way. The latest version, Camtasia Studio 6, features support for HD video, MOV video editing, finer control over video effects and other features.

Mac: Do you want to share your iTunes collection with your friends? Mojo not only allows you to share iTunes library with others, but it will also let you download tracks from other people’s libraries. With an interface reminiscent of both iTunes and a messaging client, Mojo is easy to work with. It will display all libraries, that is if you have found others to connect with, in a list. So get sharing now!

Smartphone: Having a GPRS Internet connection on your phone is great, but the temptation of using it all the time can cause headaches when it comes to getting your phone bill through. A good way of keeping track of your data transfers is through Spb GPRS Monitor, which is actually able to give you a projection of the charges by calculating your GPRS usage.

Geography was a hard nut to crack for me when I was at school. I had lots of trouble to memorize all those capital cities, monuments and famous places all over the world, together with their correspondent location on a map. I’m sure everything would have been much easier if I had known this game back then!

The Traveler IQ Challenge tests your general knowledge of Geography by challenging you to place world capital cities and famous landmarks on a world map. The game starts off with really easy spots but it becomes increasingly difficult as you progress through the game. Plus you need to be quick, as the final score is not only based on how near the actual location is from your mark, but also on how fast you clicked on the map.

The good thing about Traveler IQ Challenge is that it can be customized to play with certain world areas only (Europe, America, Asia, Oceania, etc.), with special locations (UNESCO World Heritage sites) or even with other elements such as country flags or geotagged images that you must locate on the map.

Want to give it a try? Head over to the Traveler IQ Challenge website and check how much you know about our planet! By the way, I’m glad to announce I reached level 8. My Geography teacher at school would be proud of me.

Windows: If you want to be fully protected while browsing the web, either you install several different software tools or you choose Comodo Internet Security. This comprehensive application includes a firewall, an antivirus tool and a spyware monitor which will protect your privacy and your whole system from any online threat.

Mac: The developers claim the Opera browser is the most fully-featured Internet power tool on the market. Opera includes pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, integrated searches, and advanced functions like Opera’s groundbreaking E-mail program, RSS Newsfeeds and IRC chat. And because users have different needs, you can customize the look and content of your Opera browser with a few clicks of the mouse.

Pocket PC: Hallelujah for YouTube and all the clips of old TV shows we can now enjoy! What’s more, it’s now possible to access video on the move using a program such as vTap. This smart app provides a means of searching several online video sites, previewing, then watching them from one environment. You can even use it to search Wikipedia more quickly.

I like to think I’m pretty web-savvy; I have blogs, exist on Facebook, MySpace, Last.fm and so on, but have never really understood what the big deal about Twitter was. I imagined it was like Facebook status updates, without the rest of Facebook, and mostly used by people for whom the next big thing is already out of fashion

This is the first of a series of posts where we’ll write about the techy things that for some reason or another we’ve never done.

So, after signing up I let Twitter search through my Gmail address book (I never feel comfortable doing this, but it’s so easy!) and it found a whole one of my contacts there! Still, you have to start somewhere…

While one friend is better than none, it isn’t enough to get a feel for what Twitter can do. The annoyingly twee introduction video told me I could stay close to my friends and family by telling them ‘I was having a coffee’. As my family and friends weren’t there, and invites could take a while to come to fruition, I headed back out into the internet for some advice.

On makeuseof.com, I found an article recommending some sites to improve your Twitter experience. The first ones to catch my eye were Twitter search and monitter. These are nice ways to keep up with what’s happening on Twitter. Stick in a search word, and you’ll see what people are Twittering about that subject. Some of the Twitters aren’t interesting, some have links to cool stuff I hadn’t seen. Monitter is much better in this respect (and you don’t even have to join Twitter), as it feeds you live results, on three simultaneous search terms, it’s like an online internet ticker.

There are lots of Firefox add-ons for Twitter, to allow you to post and receive messages without opening it in the browser. One of them is called Twitbin, and I can’t bring myself to use something called that!

I really wasn’t expecting to like Twitter, but I quickly found myself being drawn in. I can see how you’d get addicted to it (’Confessions of a Twitter addict’ will be written soon), and was really surprised to discover it might even be useful. But I guess I’ve come too late to Twitter to be cool.