Download Squad Week in Review

by Brad Linder Feb 9th 2008

Whether you're looking for a beta invitation code to a hot new service, tips on making the most of your email service, or a Valentine's day present for that special someone in your life, we've got you covered. Here are some of our favorite Download Squad articles from the week that was.

Invites for Digsby and SugarSync

This week we looked at two new services in private beta. Digsby is desktop application that lets you manage multiple email, IM, and social networking accounts. It's sort of like Pidgin plus an email notifier and a desktop client for Facebook and MySpace. And we've got 5,000 invites to give away.

We also have about 500 invites for SugarSync, another new desktop/web service. SugarSync lets users synchronize files between their computer, mobile device, and a web server. Just add contact/calendar sync and we'd be in heaven.

Email user interface advancement - Emailers Anonymous

Google made a lot of waves when it launched an email service a few years ago. The idea of a web mail account that measured storage in gigabytes rather than megabytes was pretty revolutionary at the time. But vast amounts of storage aren't the only thing that set Gmail apart. In this week's edition of Emailers Anonymous we take a look at threaded messaging and how it changes the way we think of email.

Readyboost technology for Windows XP

One of the innovative features of Windows Vista is the ability to use a flash card or USB thumb drive too boost system performance. But if you don't want to "upgrade" to Windows Vista from XP, there's hope. Eboostr is a third party application that lets you store cached information on up to 4 drives to speed up Windows XP performance.

Introduction to PSP Homebrew

This week we started off a series looking at Playstation Portable hacking and homebrew development. In part one of our series, we review some of the history of PSP hacking. In future installments we'll teach you how to downgrade your firmware and install custom applications.

And here are a few more stories you may have missed this week:

Tags: digsby, dsl, ebay, eboostr, email, homebrew, psp, readyboost, sugarsync, valentine's-day

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

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