Brian's Blog » 2009

Facebook info to Outlook

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Category : Software, Web/Tech, Windows, Work, Life, etc.

In an effort to link up my outlook contacts to Facebook, I have been searching for an app to sync photos and birthday info. There are a couple good ones for the iPhone, but I haven’t really found a good PC client that will handle that until I found Fonebook.

Fonebook will transfer contacts from Facebook to Outlook and if you don’t have the contact in Outlook, you can add it. One of the limitations is that it doesn’t add email or phone numbers due to a limitation in Facebook, but those aren’t that hard to add manually. All in all, Fonebook is a great windows application, and I would recommend you download and try it today.

Fonebook Download

-Brian

Desktop Customizations

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Category : Software, Web/Tech, Work, Life, etc.

Tags: customize, desktop, windows

How do you have your desktop arranged on your computer? Me personally, I like a fairly clean desktop, so I don’t have many icons on it. I am running Windows 7 beta, so the only icons I have on my desktop now are the trash and two links to remote desktops, along with the Weather Gadget. Here is a screen shot.

I like a minimal desktop and I have all my most used programs pinned to the taskbar, and my other programs I use are pinned to the start menu. There are people out there who like to customize even more, so here are a few examples from posts on Lifehacker’s Featured Desktop Series that I liked the most.

The Compartmentalized Desktop

This is a desktop done by Lifehacker reader Kseve, see his full desktop photos on his Flickr set.

If you want to get a desktop like this read the full Lifehacker Post.

The Heavenly Desktop

I like this one as well, see how it’s done here.

There are quite a few more on Lifehacker so read on and see what you like and don’t and post your screenshot links of your desktops in the comments.

-Brian

iTunes Smart Playlist Obsession

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Category : Software

So I’ve been obsessed with getting the best mix of music possible and scouring the interwebs for the best solution with smart playlists in iTunes. I think I’ve finally found it with the Ultimate Playlists mix. I have been rating my songs as much as possible, and I put a lot into Play Counts and Skip Counts, so here is the mix. First I created a playlist folder called Ultimate Playlists, then I made the following smart playlists inside.

(I put stars in front to bring them to the top. These are also created using the most current version of iTunes.)

Music Only
Latest 180
Never Skipped
Newest Hits
Newest Songs
Popular Songs
Top 70
Top Last Week
*Discover Mix
*Good Mix
*Popular Mix

Here is the breakdown in screenshots.

Music Only

Latest 180

Never Skipped

Newest Hits

Newest Songs

Popular Songs

Top 70

Top Last Week

*Discover Mix

*Good Mix

*Popular Mix

So, there they are, if you have any questions or suggestions for new smart playlists please post them in the comments below.

-Brian

Windows 7 Upgrade Details for XP and Vista Users

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Category : Software, Web/Tech

Tags: Microsoft, windows 7

Here’s the scoop on your upgrade options if you haven’t yet upgraded to Vista.

Upgrading from XP to Windows 7

Pros: According to tech site Ars Technica, XP users can purchase a cheaper "upgrade" version of Windows 7, despite XP’s version gap. (Normally only users who purchased the latest OS get the cheaper upgrade option.)

Cons: Windows XP users will have no direct upgrade path. That means that in order to upgrade to Windows 7, you’ll have to do a fresh installation of Windows 7 and manually migrate your files and apps to Win7-so you’ll want to make sure to back up XP before upgrading or just dual boot XP and Windows 7.

Upgrading from Vista to Windows 7

Pros: Unlike XP, Vista users do get a direct upgrade path to Windows 7, so your files and apps should migrate to Win7 without any problems. (You should always backup before upgrading to be safe, and just to hedge your bets, you may also still want to dual boot Vista and Windows 7 rather than installing Windows 7 over Vista.) Vista users will also get the cheaper upgrade price.

Cons: It probably won’t affect most users, but the Vista-to-Windows-7 upgrade paths are actually limited by version in the following ways:

        * Windows Vista Home Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium
        * Windows Vista Business to Windows 7 Professional
        * Windows Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate

If you don’t follow one of those three upgrade paths, you’ll have to perform a fresh install.

Go over to Ars Technica to read the full post.

Hotmail Enables POP3 for U.S. Users

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Category : Web/Tech

According to an “inside” source at Microsoft, POP3 access for hotmail users has been turned on. This means that you can get your hotmail in your favorite client or have Gmail fetch it.

Here is the settings as posted by the Windows Live team:

POP server: pop3.live.com (Port 995)
POP SSL required? Yes
User name: Your Windows Live ID, for example yourname@hotmail.com
Password: The password you usually use to sign in to Hotmail or Windows Live
SMTP server: smtp.live.com (Port 25)
Authentication required? Yes (this matches your POP username and password)
TLS/SSL required? Yes

This also goes without saying that I believe Windows Live Hotmail is a bit behind the times in offering it’s users more than the web access to get their mail, so good job Hotmail.