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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Power Meter Plus provides constant laptop battery updates

Power Meter PlusIf you use a Windows laptop, you're probably familiar with the battery icon that hangs out in the system tray. It provides a bit of information about your battery status at a glance. But just a bit. It typically shows you if the battery is full, around half empty, or mostly empty. You have to scroll your mouse over the icon to get a more accurate reading.

Or you can install Power Meter Plus. This free utility for Windows XP and earlier releases provides a detailed battery meter which is always present on your desktop. The meter is partially transparent, so you can see through it. And it lives on the right or left side of the screen. If you need to access something hiding under the power meter, just move your mouse over it and the meter will jump to the other side of the screen.

As your battery power drains, the meter will get brighter. And you can configure Power Meter Plus to show notifications when the battery reaches critical levels.

[via gHacks]

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Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

CiviballsI 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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