5 Useful Gmail Tips You May Have Never Heard Of

Gmail, as of now, is one of the most popular webmail clients out there. Since its launch in 2005, it has managed to rekindle the dying interest in web-based email. The Google-owned service provides a huge amount of features to its users; thus, giving it an edge over its competitors like Hotmail, Yahoo Mail and AOL. However, many new users are completely unaware of how to get the most out of Gmail.

So, if you are new to Gmail, or just an advanced beginner, here are some useful tips that could take your Gmail experience up a notch or two:

Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot": 11 Great Features You Can Expect to Find

In the past few weeks, we have covered a lot about Ubuntu 11.04 as well as its controversial Unity interface. However now, it’s time to take a look at the future of Ubuntu, which is 11.10. Despite being a standard release, Oneiric Ocelot, the upcoming version of Ubuntu will include many important changes. With the somewhat unexciting response Ubuntu Natty received after its release, the onus is now on developers to make sure Ubuntu reaches its 200 million users goal as early as possible.

After a great Ubuntu Developer Summit in Budapest, developers have already started working on new features that have been outlined for Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot". Here are 11 such features that are expected to be included in the final version:

10 Chrome Extensions to Enhance your YouTube Experience

Don’t get tired of watching angry hamsters with light-sabers? Or cats jamming on a piano? Then, it’s a good time to admit that you’re a YouTube addict. Don’t worry though, you’ll find plenty of other people suffering from this problem (including me…shhh!). So, to feed your hypnotized mind, here’s a list of some cool Google Chrome extensions that will take your YouTube addiction to the next level.

1. Turn off the lights

We’ve already talked about all the cool YouTube movies. And, if you’re already heading out to grab that huge bowl of popcorn, then wait up and take a look at this plug-in first. Turn off the Lights is a Google Chrome extension that does exactly what it says – it turns off the lights when you’re watching a YouTube video. This means, you won’t be seeing any of those flashy adverts that surround a video. Furthermore, the extension comes with a lot of options which you can configure. Say for example, you want to change the opacity; then, you can do that easily by going to the extension’s option page. You can also configure which parts of the video page get dimmed. The coolest option however, is the one that dims the lights automatically once the video starts. Grab the extension HERE.

The State of Gaming on Linux

We recently covered the best paid games that are out there for Linux. We know that the list was too small and disappointing for any Linux fan. The size of the list can only be attributed to the lack of any major progress in this area for years. To be honest, most of the games that are available for Linux are graphically poor with loose plots and terrible AI levels. However, before you start bashing Linux developers for that, let's take a look at why gaming sucks so badly on Linux.

Bad Graphics support

We've touched upon the problems the Linux desktop is facing right now and one of them is vendor lock-ins. Due to lack of Linux-ready laptops and Desktops in the market, big hardware companies like NVIDIA and ATI are lax when it comes to releasing drivers for their graphic cards. This, in turn, leads to poorer and buggy performance as compared to the experience you get while using the same card on Windows. ATI, for example, was infamous for its terrible buggy drivers for Linux. However, with time, ATI started putting a lot of effort in the Linux department but the work is far from complete. Issues like memory leaks and crashes still haunt regular users and newcomers alike. NVIDIA on the other hand, has been quite agile as far as releasing drivers is concerned; however, they aren't that perfect either. A little tinkering here and there by the new user and the desktop becomes completely unusable. Developing games for such systems is very difficult for developers as they can't really be sure whether their game will work or not. Thus, making a hi-res 3D game still seems like a distant dream.

TimeVault: A Smart Linux Backup Software

For anyone who has owned a Mac in the past few years, it is unlikely that you are not familiar with the wonderful Time Machine backup system that Apple has implemented on Mac OS X. The beauty of this backup software is that the backups are taken in a differential manner rather than backing up the entire system with every backup. This means that you use your backup storage more effectively. This also means that you have more versions of your backed up data available for restoration.

In TimeVault, the developers have tried to create a similar system for Linux-based machines. Because Mac OS is based on a system similar to that of Linux, this is quite possible. Tools such as rsync allow you to do this. However, TimeVault wraps all the fine tools with a nice looking graphical front end. Let's take a look at TimeVault and take it for a test drive to see what it's capable of.

Top 5 Social Media Applications for Linux

We’ve covered a lot of applications for Linux, but we haven’t really touched upon the social media applications out there for this platform. When the whole tweetmania started, there were only a handful of social media apps for Linux, and those too were mostly Adobe Air-based. However, quicker than expected, a large amount of social media applications started coming out for this often ignored platform. But, despite there being a myriad of such applications, we have chosen to cover only the best ones.

Here’s a look at the top 5 social media apps for Linux:

Linux Desktop vs. The Rise of Tablet Computers and Smartphones

Ever since Steve Jobs announced the ‘revolutionary’ new iPad, the computing world has seen many important changes. First of all, the iPad surpassed the Linux userbase in just one year since its release. As unbelievable as it sounds, Linux users are neither happy nor surprised. The fact remains that despite the community’s best efforts, Linux’s reception still remains poor. And, even though we’ve covered before most of the problems the Linux desktop is facing right now, there is another issue we haven’t really touched upon. That is, the competition Linux has been getting from smartphones and tablets.

There of course, is no problem with competition. However, with the rise in the consumption of smartphones and tablet computers, the importance of desktop is slowly waning. Linux on the other hand, is just starting out on its quest for world domination. Will Linux be able to match these new and ‘viral’ trends in technology? Or, will it go down as an operating system that was never meant for normal users? If you ask me, I think Linux has a fair chance of beating the hell out of these tablets and smartphones. Here’s my side of the argument:

10 Cool and Useful Google Chrome Tricks You Must Know

It’s been a while since we wrote something about the fastest browser in the world, Google Chrome. Even though the soon-to-be-OS browser comes with one of the simplest UIs around, there are quite a few tricks that you can learn to get the most out of it.

Here’s a look at some of the coolest and most useful Google Chrome tricks that you should know:

1. Add home button to Toolbar

A petty annoyance users face after installing Google Chrome or Chromium is the absence of a dedicated ‘Home’ button on the toolbar. Almost all the major browsers have that button; however, Google sticking to its minimalist policy decided to leave it out. Don’t fret though as you can easily enable it by following these steps:

5 Truly Bizarre But Handy Uses of Linux

Linux is everywhere. From desktops to laptops, from tablets to mobiles, and from servers to garden sprinklers. Wait! Garden what? Yes, that's right fellas, Linux-powered garden sprinklers do exist. Being a very customizable and open operating system, Linux has found itself being used in places even Linus Torvalds had never expected. Here are five such bizarre uses of the world's most trusted operating system.

1. Garden sprinkler system

Do you have a garden? Do you forget to water your garden? Do you have Linux? Are you a born nerd who hacks a lot of things? If answer to all the above questions is yes, then this next hack is something you might fight useful. Apparently, some really smart guy who forgets to water his garden, has managed to make an electronic garden sprinkler automatic using the sheer power of Linux.

He uses a standard electric sprinkler valve and garden hose adapters to control the flow of water using a parallel port based C program in Linux. The scheduling part is done by running a cron job. If you're interested in making one for yourself, then take a look at the guide published HERE.

3 Latest Android Superphones To Satisfy Your Smartphone Lust

Ever since Android OS was launched, technology has taken a revolutionary turn especially in the smartphones department. Companies like HTC, Samsung and Motorola have been jockeying for position to get to the top spot and have thus delivered some of the coolest and most awesome smartphones - superphones if you will - that run the famed mobile operating system.

With these companies trying to outdo each other, we see Android smartphones getting released on a regular basis. Keeping up with that many phones can be challenging so I’ll save you some time by giving you the 3 latest Android superphones that will satisfy your smartphone lust, for now.

Why Google Chrome OS is Crucial for the Linux Desktop

As Google Chrome OS nears a grand release, everyone is excited about a brand new operating system entering the monopolized desktop market. On the other hand, Mark Shuttleworth has set a target of 200 million Ubuntu users in the next four years. With Ubuntu 11.04 ‘Natty Narwhal’ not being as good as expected, Shuttleworth’s plans, if not impossible, may seem a bit too ambitious.

Many people believe that Chrome OS’s release can further hamper Ubuntu’s stagnating growth. However, if we consider the recent desktop trends, and if everything goes well for Google, Chrome OS might actually be the magic boost Ubuntu so desperately needs. Here’s why:

7 Nifty Tricks to Get the Most out of LibreOffice Writer

Since the death of OpenOffice and the release of Ubuntu 11.04, LibreOffice has gained a lot of popularity in such a short amount of time. Though there is not much of a difference between LibreOffice Writer and its Oracle-owned predecessor, there are some tricks that can help you get the most out of it. Here's a look at 7 such tricks.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly About Unity

A few days ago, Canonical released the latest version of the world's most popular distribution, Ubuntu. Aptly titled Natty Narwhal, Ubuntu 11.04 is the Linux community's bravest attempt at pushing the boundaries of the Linux desktop. Also, being a complete departure from the traditional desktop, Natty brings along changes that are good, sometimes bad, and even ugly at times. Here’s a look at these changes in a little more detail.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Android Tablet Computer / Netbook

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer at first sight will make you wonder if it is a tablet or a netbook. Seriously, is it a tablet or a netbook? What exactly is the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer to begin with?

That folks, is kind of hard to answer. With the ASUS Eee Pad, you can type on a full keyboard making you forget that you are using a Honeycomb tablet - with a keyboard and a trackpad -just like a netbook or a laptop with Honeycomb. So, what is it really?

The General Idea

The Transformer is ASUS’ 10.1-inch tablet (there you go, it’s a tablet after all) with Android 3.0.1, which happens to be the latest released version of Google's Honeycomb. Under the hood, it’s got a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor running at 1GHz to power its operation. But why is it called Transfomer?

No sir, it doesn’t transform into a robot as you might have expected. It gets its name from the optional keyboard dock which may I remind you is neither a Bluetooth keyboard nor a fancy tethering system. It is a full-fledged, albeit undersized laptop-style keyboard, with a hinge, that transforms this Android tablet to so much more, hence the moniker “Transformer”.

The Tech Source Guide to Getting RSS Feeds in Your Browser

If you are one of those folks fed up of visiting your favorite blogs or sites time and again, then RSS feed readers provide a quick and easy way to keep up with them. We've covered open-source desktop feed readers before; however, they're not that convenient for people who use multiple operating systems or distributions. So, here's a way to keep up with your favorite blogs and news sites right from your browser using an RSS feed reader.

So, what is RSS?

Really Simple Syndication in other words RSS, is a format for web feeds that helps in publishing frequently updated works like blog entries, news headlines, audio and video. All this is done in a standardized format. An RSS document, more commonly known as a “feed”, includes full or summarized text along with its metadata like publishing dates and authorship. In short, you get access to the latest news and your favorite blog updates without visiting the original website and still, not miss a single update.

10 Reasons Why the Linux Desktop is Still Flapping its Wings

A few weeks ago, the Linux Foundation chief Jim Zemlin openly said that bashing Microsoft is 'like kicking a puppy’, every Linux user saw some amount of truth to that. If some disagree, they can always look at Android, Amazon's Kindle, and a bucket load of Linux-based gadgets that have sprung up in the market recently. Also, when it comes to servers, Linux has managed to beat Microsoft hands down. The conformation came straight from the horse's mouth when Steve Ballmer admitted that Linux's server share is 60% as opposed to Microsoft's 40%. Having said all that, Linux desktop's market share stands at a meager .71 % in the United States, which is even less than Apple iPad's userbase. So, what are the reasons why the Linux desktop is still far behind its server counterpart? Why the Linux desktop still isn't winning? Let's take a deeper look at the problem.