An alarm can be very handy for computer users, not only to signal the end of the work day but also other events. Say you have an appointment or business meeting in ten minutes, a lunch break or need to wait another five minutes before your coffee is ready. While you could do that by looking at the clock or your watch regularly, an alarm would make it less work intrusive.

Ghacks reader Odio just mentioned the Windows Gadget Alarm Clock which adds alarm functionality to the Windows operating system. When you first install it you will only see a red clock on your desktop. A click opens the configuration menu where you can configure the looks and alarms.

First thing you need to do is to click in the enable alarm check box to enable the functionality. Then you either need to select a time period, e.g. five minutes from now, or a specific time of the day. The alarm clock displays the set alarm above the current time.

A click on the Wrench icon opens the options. Here it is possible to change the color of the clock, the alarm sound, the alarm loop and the appearance of the clock on the desktop. The clock uses a 24-hour style by default which can be changed to a 12-hour time conversion convention (am / pm). The default sound of the alarm is not well suited for that purpose (Windows Balloon on the test system). It is advised to select another audio file for the alarm sound.

The desktop alarm clock is a handy gadget for Windows. It is on the other hand rather limited in functionality. There is for instance no option to configure multiple alarms or recurring alarms. Options to link the alarm functionality to calendar applications provided by Outlook would be handy as well.

Windows users can download the Alarm Clock gadget from the developer website. Check out How To Uninstall Gadgets In Windows 7 for uninstallation instructions.

Users who visit the Windows Live Gallery page are now redirected to a Looking for gadgets page that states that the “Windows Live Gallery has been retired” in order “to focus support on the much richer set of opportunities available for the newest version of Windows”.

The informational page furthermore states that Microsoft “is no longer supporting development or uploading of new Gadgets”. Some desktop gadgets are still available for download as part of the Windows Personalization Gallery, but no where near as much as before.

It may come as a surprise that Microsoft decided to retire the Windows Live Gallery before the official release of the Windows 8 operating system. While it may make sense to get the majority of developers to develop with Windows 8 compatibility in mind, it means at the same time that Vista and Windows 7 users have less options when it comes to downloading and adding gadgets to their operating system.

The Redmond company wants developers to switch from developing gadgets for Windows to developing Metro-style apps for the upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

Windows Developer Preview allows you to leverage your existing skills and code assets so you can create great experiences for your customers. Gadget and web developers can now use their HTML5 and CSS3 skills to build native Windows apps. .NET Developers can use XAML, C#, and Visual Basic to build beautiful Metro-style apps. Game developers can use the power of DirectX 11.1 to build amazing, immersive gaming experiences. Driver developers benefit from increased productivity with the new, integrated Visual Studio development environment.

Not all developers on the other hand will have enough resources to build apps for an operating system that has not yet been released. It is also unclear how well Windows 8 will do, considering the controversial move to the Metro user interface.

Microsoft’s move to shut down the Windows Live Gallery is on the other hand not the immediate end for existing and future gadgets. Developers and companies on the other hand will have to find hosting for their gadgets if they did rely on the gallery up to this point to host and promote their gadgets.

Microsoft on the looking for gadgets page suggests to use the companies own CodePlex project hosting service as a new home for Windows gadgets.

What’s your take on the retiring of the Windows Live Gallery?

The first consideration is probably the price. While iPhones are likely to be the more expensive, it’s not certain which phones offer the best value for money. The tens of thousands of apps that can be downloaded to extend its usefulness for example enhance the iPhone, making it an even more useful device. While the Blackberry has a similar scheme, its app store is lightly stocked compared to the iPhone. So although you may consider a Blackberry to save a few bucks, this might actually be through serious compromise to functionality.

We should also consider the Blackberry OS7 operating system that the new RIM handsets will run on. This is a definite improvement over previous operating systems, but it’s actually not that much different to OS6 found in last year’s original Blackberry Torch phone. The new operating system was originally called OS6.1, but RIM revised this to the OS7 with claims that the upgrade was so big it deserved to be labelled as a brand new operating system. Whether this is true or not, RIM could be accused of using marketing techniques to sell it’s devices based on inflated software advances.

Regardless of whether RIM actually did create a new operating system, or merely upgraded an existing one – it really doesn’t matter that much, because it won’t be around when RIM move to their new “next-generation” OS called QNX. This software is already in use on the Blackberry PlayBook tablet computer, so it won’t be long before it replaces OS6, OS6.1 or OS7, whatever they want to call it. So, buying a Blackberry today may seem almost like buying old technology.

Meanwhile the Apple iPhone seems to just gain in popularity, despite blunders from Apple. A few years ago, when boarding a train or a bus, every other person had a Blackberry. It was the in thing to have for a businessperson. But now, the roles have reversed and now everyone is sporting a new iPhone 4, complete with its seemingly easy to use interface and multiple exchange server connections. No longer is the Blackberry a work phone and the iPhone a mere plaything. The iPhone has become a full-blown need to have device for many executives.

So has RIM fallen behind the times with its Blackberry phones? Have they failed to move ahead with technology quick enough? Some seem to think so, and even the die-hard Blackberry fans of old are seriously considering whether they are planning to be true to their faith, or whether they are willing to jump ship and sail off to new frontiers.

One of the biggest changes in Rainmeter 2.0 is the new unified installer which combines 32-bit, 64-bit and portable installations. The installer detects the Windows version of the PC and will pre-select the correct installation settings. Runtime libraries, other missing plugins or dependencies are installed automatically during installation.

The default third party skins that shipped with Rainmeter 1.4 have been removed and added to a separate download page. This reduced the size of the installer further and gave the skin developers options to release skin updates directly without having to wait for a Rainmeter updater.

Skins can be installed with a double-click after they have been downloaded if they are offered in the new skin format with the extension .rmskin.

Rainmeter 2.0 Feature Overview

• Rainmeter can now recognize and install skins automatically if they are provided in the right format.
• Illustro, a new set of default skins has been added
• Skins now support text input which means it is now possible to search, tweet or do other text input related tasks.
• Installer is lighter and a portable install option is now available.
• New plugin integration with the CPU temperature monitor CoreTemp.
• New tools for skin developers.

The new version of Rainmeter 2.0 is available for download at the official homepage of the project. Here it is also possible to read documentation or download skins from the theme gallery. Another good website for themes is the Rainmeter Deviant Art user group. (via)

Gadgets are installed just like other applications with the difference that they are added to the gadget listing and the desktop automatically.

The first question that may arise is about the save location. Where are gadgets stored?

There are, as usually, two answers to this. It depends if the gadget has been installed system wide or only for a specific user.

• Systemwide gadgets: All gadgets of this kind are usable and accessible by all system users. They are stored in the folders C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets, C:\Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or for 64-bit systems in the folders C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Shared Gadgets and C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets
• User specific gadgets are installed only for, and usually by, a user of the system. These gadgets are stored in the user folder, more precisely under C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets

Gadgets are stored as .gadget files which are basically zip archives that have been renamed.

How to uninstall gadgets

The best option is to uninstall them in the gadgets menu. A right-click on the desktop and the selection of Gadgets opens that menu. All installed gadgets are displayed and it is possible to activate them here or uninstall them. A right-click on a gadget opens a context menu with options to uninstall the selected gadget from the operating system.

A confirmation dialog is displayed with options to go ahead with the uninstallation or cancel it.

It can happen that a gadget cannot be uninstalled properly from the gadgets interface. Deleting the file in the gadgets directory is then an option to remove it from the operating system.

I’m going to share my findings about a few of these fantastic gadgets here and my hope is that those of you who are gadget geeks like me, will write about your experiences with these and with the other ones that I haven’t had a chance to try out yet. There’s just too much cool technology for any one man to try it all.

So, what exactly constitutes a gadget. A gadget is any sort of ingenious thing-a-magig that performs a useful or interesting purpose. Any gadget lover will tell you that what makes a great gadget great isn’t so much what it does, as how it does it. That’s why a gadget that automatically cleans and folds your clothes with electricity might not be as great as a gadget that uses hot air to clean out your ears, because it is the technology behind the gadgets that makes us love them. Hot air is much more interesting than electricity – in terms of my gadget mind.

Here is some of the greatest of the many gaggles of gadgets that I’ve come across recently. Maybe you will want them, maybe you will hate them, but one thing is for sure, they are interesting.

Here’s a gadget that got may attention. My American and Canadian colleagues often have to travel to the UK for business, technology conferences, and IT workshops. Of course, they always bring their laptop, PDA, and smart phone with them. The problem is that while the technology has gotten smaller, the plugs in the UK remain some of the biggest in the world. Someone had to come up with a gadget to fix this problem…and they did.

The folding plug. Yes, you heard that right. A plug that folds up into a smaller plug. The technology behind this one actually breaks my interesting technology rule, but the fact that I never thought of folding the plug but only making it smaller is what makes this gadget great.

So, how does it work? The plug body actually has two swivel pins on it that fold out to be horizontal or vertical. What that means is that when you are traveling, you don’t have those big awkward pins sticking out. You just have a simple and easy to pack plug.

Not bad as gadgets go. Not completely necessary so it qualifies but it does have a useful function.

Another odd technology gadget is the development of zinc paper which doesn’t need ink. This is a massive invention. Devices like the Polaroid PoGo Digital Instand Mobile Photo Printer (whew!) can make your photos on the go without having to worry about ink cartridges. It’s small enough to carry with you and get this, they were smart enough to make it work with not only digital cameras but also with just about any cell phone that has a camera.

How does it work? There are dye crystals in the zinc paper which only come out when they are heated to a certain temperature. So, the device uses focused heat (from lasers!) to cause the different parts of the paper to expose different colors. Wow! That is cool technology. Anything with lasers has an automatic plus in my geek mind. Each print takes less than 60 seconds to be complete. Geeks love to time gadgets too.
One big problem with gadgets is that they usually need to have batteries. I can tell you from experience that I hate throwing batteries out. They are made of cool materials like lithium and nickel and it’s just a shame to toss them. I’ve been a fan of rechargeable batteries for a long time, but the problem is that when I use rechargeable batteries not only do I need to have a big heavy charger, but I also need to have plugs, adapters, and in most cases electricity.

Energizer has hit the nail on the head with the Energi To Go package. It can be used to provide power to my netbook, laptop, phone, pda, and my battery charger. It uses a wide collection of tips, sockets, and adaptors. Not only that, but they promise that they will cover and charge any device and to prove it they offer to make new tips and adaptors for any gadget, machine, or electronic device they missed out on. So maybe I can get them to make a tip that will recharge my robot! We’ll have to see about that one though. One problem is that Energi To Go still has to be powered by something…

Don’t worry though, I have the solution. Voltaic Solutions offers you the ultimate in solar backpacks that can charge anything (including an Energi To Go). These backpacks harness the power of the sun to charge all your items and to make sure that you don’t get caught out in the wild with no way to charge your cell phone. Of course, with this gadget, suddenly you don’t need to have the folding plug or the Energi To Go adaptor, so maybe you should just cut to the chase and get one of these awesome trekking bags that doubles as your power source.

You just never know if you are getting VHS or Betamax anymore. It might be a Commodore 64 or more likely it will be a Tandy.

And that’s the problem with gadgets and being obsessed with them. Just as soon as you think you have the perfect gadget, someone comes along and makes a better one or makes the perfect gadget unnecessary for you. Too bad, anyone want to buy my solar calculator collection?

Gadgets are displayed on the desktop all the time. It is possible to hide them by right-clicking the desktop and selecting View > Show Desktop Gadgets to switch between visible and hidden mode.

windows 7 gadgets

It is furthermore possible to change the opacity of individual desktop gadgets. Allowed values range from 20% to 100%. The gadget is always displayed with a 100% opacity regardless of its custom value if the mouse is moved into its window.

gadget 20 percent opacity

The guys over at Windows 7 News have now found a way to make individual desktop gadgets invisible on the desktop.

The process involves some basic hacking of system files and terminating a system process. Users who feel uncomfortable doing that should stay away from the change.

The process is divided into five steps:

• Set the gadget’s opacity to a distinct value.
• Kill the Windows Sidebar task.
• Open the settings configuration file.
• Change its opacity to 1%.
• Start the Windows Sidebar task.

Steps 1 and 2 are easily done. Just set the opacity of a gadget that you want to make invisible to 20%. The value should be different from other values to make identification easier. The sidebar.exe process needs to be killed to be able to make the changes in step 3 and 4.

Please note that all gadgets are removed from the desktop once the process has been terminated.

Locate the settings file, it is usually located in C:\Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Settings.ini.

Open the document and search for the text PrivateSetting_GadgetOpacity=”{20}”. Replace 20 with the opacity value of the gadget that you want to make invisible. Change the value to 1 and save the file.

Now restart the sidebar.exe process and watch the magic happening.

Pretty cool, eh? It is possible to change the opacity of all gadgets that should be made invisible in one go to optimize the process.

I had deleted the downloaded gadget installation file but noticed that the gadget was still listed in the gadget list. Figured that it had to be stored somewhere if it appeared in that list and decided to search for the gadgets location in Windows.

Turns out there is more than one location where Windows 7 and Windows Vista are storing gadgets. The common locations for saving gadgets in Windows are either Program Files\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets or Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows Sidebar\Gadgets.

The third party gadget that I had installed was stored in the AppData folder where all third party gadgets had been saved by Windows. Each gadget is stored in its own folder and it is possible to copy that folder and add it to another Windows installation so that the gadget becomes available there as well.

Hope this helps anyone running Windows Vista or Windows 7 to locate the gadgets in their operating system as well.

Windows 7 has changed gadgets on the Windows platform by removing the sidebar limitation that was introduced in Windows 7. Windows 7 Gadgets can be moved freely on the desktop by the user providing more customizations for the user.

The users who do not like gadgets usually point out that they use system resources that could be better used otherwise and that there are not lots of gadgets that they would like to use.

The Chameleon Glass collection is a package of 15 Windows 7 gadgets that use a glass interface, that is an interface that fits nicely into every desktop background and color scheme the user might be running on the PC system.

The 14 gadgets for Windows 7 provide the following functionality:

- calendar : resizable desktop calendar
- clock : analogue desktop clock
- control : shutdown, restart or lock your pc from the desktop
- cpu : monitor the cpu and ram load of your rig
- email : check your pop3 account for new mail
- netbars : monitor your bandwidth usage through a graphical bar
- netstats : monitor your bandwidth usage through textual info
- notescolour : coloured postit notes
- noteswhite : white postit notes
- onedrive : monitor free space for any drive on your pc
- radio : listen live to DI or SKY fm streams, or add streams yourself
- recyclebin : with spinning recycle icon when full
- stats : shows online/offline state, uptime, localIP, date, wifi strength, battery status
- weather : shows current weather conditions + a 5 day weather forcast in the flyout

Each is provided as a single gadget filetype after extraction. A simple double-click on a file will install the gadget in the operating system. It will automatically be displayed in the upper right corner of the desktop from where it can be moved to any place on the desktop.

Some gadgets offer configuration options. The Internet radio gadget for instance comes with a list of radio stations and the option to add custom Internet radio stations to the listing that can be played directly from the desktop. The same is true for other gadgets like the weather gadget where a city or region can be selected.

Chameleon Glass is a nice looking gadget collection for the Windows 7 operating system. The download – with a size of 14 Megabytes – is directly available from the developer’s Deviantart page.

Facebook Explorer

Facebook Explorer is a popular gadget that can be used to read new messages that are posted by friends at the Facebook website. It is furthermore possible to set or delete the current status of the user’s Facebook account from within the gadget. The gadget needs to be authorized before it can be used. This is done during setup where the gadget will display links to Facebook so that it can be authorized. A Facebook login is necessary for that authorization.

My Outlook

A gadget that displays Outlook information including incoming appointments and tasks, a search box to find contacts, incoming mails with options to reply, forward, delete, open or save attachments and more.

GMail Reader

The Gmail Reader gadget will check a configured Gmail account for new emails regularly. It will display a summary of the latest 20 received emails and notify the user with a sound alert if new emails have arrived in the Gmail account.

Twitter Explorer

The Twitter Explorer gadget will display the latest messages that the logged in Twitter user received with possibilities to reply immediately to those messages and to open links that have been posted in the messages. The gadget offers a search and filters to only display replies or mentions.

Messenger Gadget

The Messenger Gadget displays Windows Live Messenger account information. It displays contact status information and allows the user to start chat session and update the status right from the Messenger gadget.

Pop3 Checker

A handy gadget for users who use Pop3 email accounts informing the logged in user about new emails that arrived in the email accounts.

Skype Gadget

The Skype Gadget is a little informative gadget for the Skype voice over IP software. It displays the status of each contact in Skype with possibilities to immediately initiate a chat or call with the selected user. It is furthermore possible to dial any number in the gadget as well.

And that’s it. These seven gadgets should come in handy for Windows 7 and Windows Vista users. Let us know in the comments if you use these or others in the supported operating systems. You can check out the Windows Live Gallery for thousands of additional gadgets for both Windows 7 and Vista.

Update: Microsoft has retired the Windows Live Gallery in preparation of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system. You can read more about the topic here: Microsoft Retires Gadgets In Preparation Of Windows 8 Launch

A new week recap will be published on each Monday from now on giving short but precise information about the posts (max of one per day) that have been published at Otakugadgets in the last seven days. On to the posts:

• Sony Vaio VGN-NW125J/T: HD, Thin and Light with a Low Battery Life – Sony is one of those companies that give a lot of attention to the appearance and the details of their laptops. Apple of course leads the industry in this (read Jobs is) but Sony is a good second in the design aspect. From their Vaio series of high-end laptops comes the well-designed and good looking Sony Vaio VGN-NW125J/T.
• 5 Recent Voice Controlled Gadgets That Are Totally Cool! – Voice control is not what it used to be at one point. Back in the days when it was first introduced as part of mobile phones and other gadgets, it was still in its nascent stages. At that point, it was nothing more than a gimmick. This I can say from first-hand experience with older Nokia phones. The accuracy was nowhere near usable and well, it was not something you would want to rely upon.
• Altec Lansing Expressionist Series Speakers: Double Barrel or Single Bass, Take Your Pick – A lot of people these days are making a permanent shift to laptops. There are various points as to why everyone is leaving their desktops but the main reason is the compactness and the portability. Laptops are fast becoming as powerful as desktops and hence it is easy to understand why people who wouldn’t make the switch earlier are doing it now. While laptops can match desktops spec to spec now, there’s usually one thing missing when people make the switch and that is audio.
• Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv4-1465dx: Runs longer and heavier – The Hewlett-Packard Pavilion dv4-1465dx is another laptop that is focused on being a great 14-inch laptop for students. As you might already know, students demand specific things from their laptops and the recent run of student friendly laptops try to conform to those demands. This particular portable has the advantage of a really long battery life. It has a huge battery that is likely to last you all day and for real.
• Dell Studio S1440-022B: If you want budget and slim minus an optical drive, this is it – The Dell Studio S1440-022B is targeted at school students who are looking for a budget laptop. This new offering from Dell does something quite bold and does away with the optical drive altogether. As a result, the laptop becomes much slimmer and weighs less as well.
• RIM (Research In Motion) BlackBerry Curve 8520: A Cheaper Curve – The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 is the model that comes after the Curve 8900. It is a lot like the 8900 with some of the features missing. Physically the design of the Curve 8520 looks a lot like the Curve 8900 but the former has enough new features that set it apart.
• 8 Eco-Friendly ways of turning your gadgets green – I have recently been noticing a lot of new Eco-gadgets (or green gadgets if you will) in the market. A year or two back, these genuine eco-friendly products were barely practical let alone cool. But all that has changed. They are now looking pretty sleek and you can actually use them if you can get them. They aren’t always available and they are not available everywhere. If you do get them rest assured that that they are pretty cool and very practical.

Let us know if you have any tips or requests. We would love to hear them.

This all occurred to me when I recently bought my Palm Pre. After buying the device and returning to the car, I expected to use the same car charger I used for my previous Blackberry Curve to charge my new device. But when I opened the USB 2.0 jack I found out I was out of luck. So on my way to South Carolina I had to stop by a Sprint store and shell out nearly $30 for a charger. Why couldn’t Blackberry, Palm, Apple and Samsung agree to use the same type of charger?

That might have been one case, but it’s not the first, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who gets frustrated when they have to buy a million and one variations of the same cable to do the same damn thing. I’m not saying we have to compromise performance, but just like all (well almost all) cell phone manufacturers have agreed to use either miniSD or microSD in their devices, it’s the same thing that should be done to stuff like headphone jacks chargers and better yet accessories.

I have no idea what Google and HTC were thinking when they didn’t equip a standard 3.5mm jack on the G1. Or why do we need to have ‘Apple Certified’ accessories for our iPhone’s. Yes I know the answer, its just a way for these companies to make more money even after they sell a device, because since Apple and Sony have certified accessories for their iPod and PSP line (respectively), you’ll notice that they will void your warranty if they can prove you used an accessory that was not approved by them And of course the certified accessories are more expensive cause the manufacturers are going to transfer their licensing fees to the consumer.

Thankfully there has been progress especially with Bluetooth, FireWire, CF card, eSATA and of course the indispensable Universal Serial Bus. I’m sure it’s going to take a while before I’m able to transfer my Palm Pre battery to my Motorola Q or worse notebook, or use the same charger I have plugged into my notebook for charging my cellphone, but at least some progress is here. Will ya speed it up though?

What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below.

We figured that a gadget and hardware website would fit perfectly in our portfolio, as we love to write about things that we love and are passionate about. Hah, that sounds a little bit stupid. Still, if you want to keep the motivation to write for a website after a month or year you need to be passionate about the niche. Or, you need to be one of those professional writers who can write about everything without problems.

Otaku Gadgets is on the other hand an experiment as we never operated a blog where the contributions were mostly coming from writers that we hired. We made sure to hire professional writers who are also passionate about the things that they write about.

The design of the site and pretty much everything is temporary for now. We have the intention to change to a custom design in the future but this will be fine for now. I would be very happy if you would pay a visit to the site. You can subscribe to the RSS feed if you like and I encourage you to voice your opinion on the site. Is there something that you love, like, do not like, hate? Keep in mind that it is a work in progress.

It is funny how some things turn out. I met Everton back in 2005 when we created our first websites and we have become good friends over time. It is very likely that this is not the our last project.

One of those options is the Ubuntu-derrivative gOS Gadgets. This operating system is dancing around the edges of something really quite special. What this flavor of Linux offers that is different than others is a set of “Gadgets” to place on the desktop that are interactive and, in some cases, work in conjunction with the users GMail account to display such tools as their Google Calendar on their desktop.

But how does it fare? The idea alone sounds outstanding. Does it deliver? Let’s take a look.

Installation

The installation of gOS Gadgets was simple. Download the ISO from the gOS site, burn the ISO,  Boot up the Live CD, click the Install icon, and wait until the installation completes. Don’t go too far during the installation or you’ll miss the process. The gOS installation is very fast. One interesting note is that, upon completion of the install, I didn’t have to reboot.

Post Install

I installed gOS Gadgets on a laptop that is known for being a pain to configure wireless network on. The laptop is a Zonbook from Zonbu (a company that started out with a great idea that didn’t seem to gain any traction.) I was fairly surprised when wireless network came up with little to no problem.

Once wireless was up and running I could run updates and start playing around.

Initial Reaction

Almost Default Desktop

My first thought of gOS Gadgets was that it was fairly slick for a young distribution (gOS itself isn’t young, but Gadgets is).  Although some of the gadgets were useless (a growing flower that you had to take care of???), some of the gadgets (like the Google Calendar, the Battery monitor, and the Weather Report) were nice additions.

But overall my initial impression was it seemed an awful lot like the Dashboard feature of OS X (which of course was nothing more than a rip off of now-defunct Superkaramba. I also was a bit disappointed that gOS is no longer based on E17 (but that is nothing more than personal taste.)

In the image above you can see a gOS Gadgets desktop that has had only a few minor tweaks. I removed some of the useless gadgets (I left the flower so you could at least get a glimpse), I added a second panel at the bottom of the screen, and shrunk the size of the top panel. Now the desktop is nearly up to my unfortunate standards.

One aspect of gOS Gadgets that really shocked me was how easy it was to change the resolution of the screen. from the main menu you can go to the System Preferences submenu, click on the Preferences submenu, and click Screen Resolution to open up a tool that will change your resolution without having to log out of X. You can test different resolutions with ease. I cycled through every resolution to test to see if X would konk out – it didn’t. Big thumbs up!

For a while I was frustrated because I couldn’t figure out how to add gadgets. But after playing with gOS Gadgets for a while I finally figured out how to add gadgets. To do this you right click the Gadgets icon on the panel. This needs to be much more user-friendly. A menu entry would help this cause quite a bit.

Final Thoughts

The gOS Gadgets release is fun. Who is it for? This is the operating system marketed for the “google generation”. Who is the google generation? Anyone who has trouble pulling themselves from facebook, youtube, twitter, etc. Texters, tweeters, and general hipsters will find gOS Gadgets a thrill to use.

I will probably leave this OS on my old “beater laptop” to see how far I can take it. If you have any curitiosity about where the OS is heading, give gOS a look. It’s not ideal but it’s certainly fun. And since it is based on Ubuntu 8.04, you know it’s reliable.

Since this is Ghacks, there’s a pretty good chance that your ‘must-have’ is tech-related. If it is, why not share your wish with the rest of us? Maybe you want a new souped-up computer for your gaming needs, or that fancy new mobile phone. How about the latest portable media player?

Another point of interest is whether you envision yourself owning the desired gadget soon. If not, what’s stopping you? Is it the lack of finance, logistical difficulties (like the product not being available where you live) etc. Or is it that you simply can’t justify buying the gadget because you already have a similar one in perfectly good condition.

I’ll start the ball rolling on this one. One thing I really want to have is a good portable media player. I was supposed to get one this Christmas but things haven’t worked out as planned since the person who was bringing it has been unable to do so. Now, I’m starting to have second thoughts.

What about you? What’s on your wishlist for the holidays? Let me know.

The prices for the watches start by roughly 8900 Yen which is about 80 US Dollars to more than 99000 Yen which would be more than 900 US Dollars. Most watches on the other hand are sold for $80-160 which is quite reasonable in my opinion.

It definitely takes some time to get accustomed to this new way of reading the time especially if you purchase one of the crazy blinking models that do not resemble a watch at all. Take a look at a few models to get a feeling for what they have on offer:

I guess people would have a hard time figuring out the exact time on any of the above watches.Would you get one of those?

The video below is a demonstration by Director of Envisioning Ian Sands who explains various features and the technique behind the Microsoft Touchwall product. The software used to run the show is called Plex running on the Vista plattform. The other equipment was a plexiglass screen, a rear projector, an infrared camera and three infrared lasers.

The user can interact with the content on the screen in an organic fashion, unlimited zooming, watching videos, flipping through pictures and a lot more. The potential is amazing. The Touchwall does look incredible in my opinion and it is a shame that Microsoft has no plans on marketing the product.

Crunchgear has a lot of additional footage about the product on their website.

But everyone has to make the decision on his own and I know that several of my friends are actually using the Windows Vista sidebar. The following is a list of gadgets for the Windows Vista sidebar that could find some fans among you.

All links lead directly to the download page at Windows Live that contains a download link, description, rating and user comments. One question that I would like to ask if you, if you use Windows Vista, also use the Vista sidebar and if you do which gadgets have been added to it. Lets start with a few new gadgets for Windows Vista.

Outlook Info displays several information about Microsoft Outlook including the number of unread emails, to-dos and a link to the calendar.

The Media Player gadget for the Vista sidebar offers control elements and drag and drop functionality. Looks ok if you are using Media Player as your main software player.

The Magic Folder helps you categorize files by moving them automatically into the right folder if you drop them onto the gadget. This means that picture files will for instance be automatically moved to the pictures folder.

Dictionary Gadget returns a word definition if the user enters a word or phrase in the text box.

CT Control is one of those gadgets that display system information but also some additional features like quick access to shutdown, log off buttons and a timer.

Screen Snaper is a gadget that provides functions to take screenshots.

I think it would be best to describe what I want to do with it and what it should definitely support hardware and software wise. Some of you are most likely PDA experts and it would be wonderful if you could point me into the right direction with some suggestions and probably brands that I should take a closer look at.

I basically need the PDA when I’m on the road to check E-Mails, write notes and use it for accounting purposes which means that it should at least support some kind of Excel / accounting software with import and export options. What I really want is a PDA with a way to quickly add text to it. I hate for instance writing SMS on mobile phones because of the layout – most likely because of my clumsy fingers.

It should support WLAN as well and a battery that lasts for more than a few hours. What I do not need is a phone, mp3 player, video player, game capability, fancy designs, mobile navigation, radio and the like.

I really do not care about operating system, a bigger screen would be nice but is not a must, it should at least support some kind of flash memory cards that I can use to store files on. Last but not least I do not want to pay more than €400 for it which equals around $600.

My own research which only took a look at the features but not at the usability lead me to the PDAs HP iPAQ 200 and HP iPAQ 100. Do you have experience with those two devices or know of other PDAs that would be a good choice for my needs ?

To get into more detail: The paper keyboard consists of three layers of paper. Conducting paths are printed on the top and bottom paper while the middle paper separates the other two. The middle paper has holes that connect the two other papers when a key is pressed which basically has the effect that the signal is send to the computer.

The paper keyboards use the Open Source software Autohotkey to define and change the keyboard shortcuts. This means you do not purchase a normal keyboard which you can use to type but a specialized keyboard.

Autohotkey is however not the only possibility to use the paper keyboard. Using an USB Adapter would be another solution, softwares that have the support build in and self created scripts that interpretate the keys presses two other possibilities.

This means that the paper keyboards should be plattform independent.

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