Windows 7 Shamrocks Theme Pack
Microsoft uses the Windows Personalization Gallery to not only let customers running the latest iteration of the Windows client customize their desktops with unique imagery, but also enable companies to do brand advertising on the users’ computers. However, the Redmond company is also feeding national pride with a range of themes featuring local content from countries around the world.
The latest addition to the collection of Windows 7 themes is the Shamrocks themepack, offered just in time for the Saint Patrick’s Day celebration on March 17th.
The Shamrocks theme brings to desktops a few wallpapers that are bound to resonate with Irish nationals more than with other users of Windows 7. As the theme’s label implies, the content features a lot of green and the shamrock, both symbols of Ireland. Saint Patrick’s Day, also referred to as St. Paddy’s Day or even Paddy’s Day, is an annual celebration of Saint Patrick, without a doubt the most prominent patron saint of the island.
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Windows 7 Life Theme
Windows 7 users that have been keeping an eye on Softpedia already know that Microsoft has been releasing a steady flow of personalization content. The latest Windows 7 theme made available by the Redmond company is titled Life, and comes courtesy of the Discovery channel and BBC.
The theme pack in question is available for download, as many others, free of charge via the Windows Personalization Gallery, the company’s central hub for offering themes designed to allow customers to customize their Windows 7 desktops.
“Bizarre, beautiful nature from Discovery Channel,” the short description of the Life theme, which will leave users with a feeling that the images should have been accompanied by more information, reads. Of course, the same is not the case with many themes on the Windows Personalization Gallery, but this specific example feels like it needs the added touch of the Bing wallpaper hotspots.
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Windows 7 RTM Lacy Hearts Theme
With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, Microsoft is helping Windows 7 customers celebrate love right on their desktops. In this regard, the Redmond company has made available for download a new desktop theme designed to integrate seamlessly into the desktop of their Windows 7-power computers. The Lacy Hearts is, as the software giant has put it, “A dreamy theme for Valentine’s.” The theme pack is available as a free download via the Windows Personalization gallery website, along with the vast majority of themes that Microsoft has made available for the successor of Windows Vista.
Themes are personalization items unique to Windows 7, and not available for previous releases of Windows operating systems. Essentially, the packs feature multiple wallpapers, which can be scheduled to swap one another at specific intervals, but also color and sound schemes for the platform. This is the case of Lacy Hearts. Read more
GDrive Coming Soon?
Rumours of the fabled GDrive have been circulating for at least the last three years but just recently there seems to be a marked increase in chatter, with several normally reliable pundits predicting an announcement this year, so let’s add to the buzz.
But what it is it? We’ll, if you haven’t already worked it out, the GDrive is a multi-gigabyte online storage facility provided by Google. It’s not a new idea and several companies already offer such a service, but for a fee, and that’s the key difference. Everyone expects GDrive capacity to be free, and there would be plenty of it, possibly enough to match the kind of hard drive capacities we’re used to on desktop PCs. If that happens something magical and a bit scary could occur. Read more
Vista Sidebar for XP
Maybe you’ve been putting off upgrading to Vista, but quite like the look of the operating system? Well, we’ve already shown you how to upgrade XP to look and feel like Vista, but one thing has been missing, the Sidebar, which hosts the famous’ Gadgets’. These are small desktop applications and utilities that have proved to be one of Vista’s most popular features. Now they’re yours, for free, with the Windows Sidebar Real One Pack. It’s not just a copy but the original Sidebar, rescripted for XO, so it looks and behaves just like the real thing, you can download gadgets, funky clocks and so on from Microsoft and all of the other goodies developed for the original.
Picture This, Easily
As you may know you can make icons manually out of ordinary JPEG and bitmap images, by fiddling around with the size and format. It’s easy enough, just a bit time-consuming but why bother? Here’s a simple one-click solution, called Easy PictureIcon. Just select your image and it is automatically converted to the three commonest sizes (16 x 16, 32 x 32 and 48 x 48 pixels). All you have to do is decide if you want to compress trim or fit, select background transparency, and where to save it. Go on, give your desktop a makeover, and don’t forget, you can change the icons in most applications simply by replacing them with one of your choosing, providing it’s the same size and has the same filename.
Free Firefox Wallpapers
Good news for Firefox fans out there. If you are getting bored with your wallpaper, we’ve got something cool to spice up your desktop. We’ve crawled deep into the Internet and this weekend, we present you with some of the nicest Firefox wallpapers you’ll ever find. Get your fingers ready on the mouse wheel, here’s 70+ nice and beautiful Firefox wallpapers. Full list after jump. Read more
Microsoft Reinvents the Mouse
It’s not often that Microsoft comes up with an interesting looking peripheral, and it has been responsible for its fair share of horrors in the past but that might all be about to change with the Arc Mouse. The curved, crescent shape doesn’t look very promising but by all accounts it is very comfortable to use. The best bit is that it folds up, reducing its size by around a half, making it idea for notebook users and those with limited desktop space. Arc Mouse will be available in red or black and it goes on sale in the US in a couple of months for around £30. That’s a bit steep when you can get a perfectly decent standard mouse for a tenner but if it turns out to be as comfortable and easy to use as some early testers claim then it could well be featuring on many Christmas pressy lists.
Opera 9.50 Fixes Fiesta
On its official website, Opera describes the latest version of its browser as “beautifully engineered”. However, it looks like Opera 9.50 was made available to end users before the cooking process was ready. After the release of the gold version of Opera 9.50 on June 12, 2008, the feedback starting pouring in, and it was not a pretty sight. As a direct consequence of the user input, Opera is now scrambling to make available version 9.51, designed to resolve all the issues introduced with Opera 9.50.
“Discover the new standard in Web browsing. Download Opera today to get the fastest and most powerful Web browser available and make the most of your time online,” is a message on the official Opera welcoming page. And while the evolution of version 9.5 over its predecessor is indisputable, the fact is that so are the many problems plaguing the browser. June 25, 2008 saw the offering of Opera 9.51 Build 10074 Release Candidate 1, and as of June 30 users can also grab Opera 9.51 RC2 Build 10080. Read more
Dell Goes Green
Like car manufacturers PC maker’s boastings used to be all about price and performance but the times they are a-changing and market leader Dell is now talking up the future energy efficiency of its products. Dell is aiming for a 25 percent reduction in power consumption on its desktop and laptop machines by 2010 – compared with today’s models – and leading the way will be a new range of ultra small machines, previewed recently at a Los Angeles environmental conference. According to CNET News the tiny PC uses a new mini ITX form factor motherboard, codenamed Eklo, which results in a system unit box that is around 80 percent smaller than current desktops and uses 70 percent less energy.
