After checking out 10 slick new themes for NetNewsWire yesterday, we started going on a themes kick. Many of our favorite applications, from VLC to Firefox are skinnable. Today, let's take a look at chat and social networking application Digsby.
Digsby already ships with a decent looking set of skins. But if you'd prefer Digsby to look like Windows Live Messenger, or a native OS X application (even though Digsby doesn't currently run on OS X), you can install user-generated skins.
Digsbies.org has a list of skins available, plus a series of conversation themes and emoticon sets. The site is an unofficial Digsby community, don't expect to get tech support updates from the Digsby team at Digsbies. But you can find a wealth of information at the Digsbies wiki, IRC channel, and blog. There's also a Digsby wish list where you can vote for the features you'd most like to see in future releases. The actual developers may or may not ever actually read your comments or pay attention to your vote. But if you have something you really want to get off your chest, Digsbies could be the place to do it.
Your co-workers use MSN Messenger, your family is partial to AOL Instant Messenger, and your friends use Google Talk. There are plenty of utilities that let you keep in touch with all of your contacts regardless of the IM platform they're using. But while we love Digsby, Trillian, Pidgin, and Adium most of the time, there are a few features missing from those apps:
Support for voice and video chats
The ability to invite friends from different IM networks into a single chat room
And that's where Instan-T comes in. This multi-protocol chat client for Windows supports AOL, Google, Yahoo!, and MSN Messengers. It also supports voice and video chat across each network, although we've found that feature to be a bit finnicky. When we tested out a voice chat, we were able to the person speaking on the other end, but she couldn't hear us. We'll chalk that up to a hardware problem.
Probably the most interesting thing about Instan-T is that it lets you set up a chat room that you can invite contacts from any service to participate in. Just click on a contact name and select multi-person chat. They'll receive an invitation with a URL to click on that will open up a Flash-based chat room, which also features voice and video support.
We'll be honest. The Instan-T interface is a little cluttered and confusing when compared with other multi-protocol chat clients. But the application definitely shows promise. If you want to try the service without downloading and installing anything, you Instan-T also has a Meebo-like web based instant messenger. The web client supports Internet Explorer and Firefox, which means you should be able to access the service whether you're using Windows, Linux or OS X.
Desktop social networking client Sociagami has added two features that were noticeably absent from earlier builds: Twitter integration and support for updating your status from the application. When we first looked at Sociagami a few months ago, the software provided an attractive (but RAM-heavy) tool for interacting with your Facebook and MySpace contacts. You could see all of the latest status updaes in one place, navigate through your friend list in a slick browser, or view the latest photos uploaded by your contacts.
But without the ability to update your own status, Sociagami wasn't nearly as useful as other desktop social networking tools like Digsby. The latest version includes a handy status update tool that lets you post to Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter simultaneously. If you only want to update one service, just uncheck two of the boxes.
The new Twitter client works pretty much exactly as you'd expect. You get a list of recent messages from your contacts in one window, and you can sift through your contact list in the browser. One thing that sets Sociagami apart from Digsby is the fact that you can see all of your latest Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook messages in a single window.
But while Digsby already has a reputation as a RAM-heavy application, at least that utility also gives you email notification alerts and an instant messenger application, two features that Sociagami lacks. Still, we're happy to report that Sociagami continues to get a bit better with each release, so we're not ready to give up on this application just yet.
Still trying to figure out if you want to raise your bid for Yahoo! or if you'd rather just buy Jerry Yang some flowers, apologize, and then see if Google is busy Saturday night? Well then, you've obviously had so much on your plate that you might have missed a few other stories this week. So without further ado, we bring you some of our favorite stories from the past 7 days:
Shady business practices work: Apple dramatically increases Safari users Apple got a lot of bad press a few weeks back for bundling the Safari web browser with its software update utility for Windows. Many PC users who thought they were just updating Quicktime or iTunes found themselves with a new web browser they never asked for. But you know what? It looks like it may have worked, because Apple tripled the number of Safari users on Windows.
Flipping the Linux Switch: Xfce, the hidden gem of desktop environments Sure, GNOME and KDE get all the attention. But that's because they hog the limelight, while unassuming little Xfce toils away in the background doing what needs to be done. Xfce is a simple desktop environment for Linux that includes everything you need, and nothing you don't.
Digsby adds support for Facebook Chat Facebook recently launched a chat service that lets you communicate with other Facebook users in real-time -- but only when you're visiting the social network's web site. Now you can use desktop chat client Digsby to chat with your Facebook contacts whether you're on the web site or not. You can also use it to keep up with your AOL, MSN, Yahoo! AND Google Talk contacts.
Gramlee - Website for people who can't write good If the automated spelling and grammar checking features in your word processor aren't enough to make your text readable, Gramlee can help. The web service is staffed by real people who will whip your prose into shape. Just remember, submitting your crappy 10th grade English paper and paying someone to rewrite it for you is wrong. Easy, but wrong.
Michael Dalesandro, CEO of Where I've Been - DLS Interview "Where I've Been" is both a popular Facebook application and a popular web site that lets users share their travel experiences, find travel tips, and plan future trips. We caught up with CEO Michael Dalesandro to ask him a bit about the site's success.
TypeRacer: Competitive typing test - Time Waster TypeRacer could be the best online typing test ever. The web game turns the typing test into a game, and pits you against a handful of other players. Sure, it's not particularly accurate. The tests are too short to properly gauge how many words you can crank out in a minute. But you'll be amazed how quickly you can type when you see another player hot on your tail.
Wrongcards: e-cards for the insensitive If you're the sort of person who always has a hard time finding Hallmark cards that adequately express your feelings, you might want to check out Wrongcards. The site specializes in e-cards that are just... wrong. But funny. But oh so wrong.
Del.icio.us releases Firefox 3 beta plugin Firefox 3 beta has been making the rounds long enough now that we know many Download Squad readers have started to use it as their primary browser. But there are a ton of useful plugins for Firefox 2 that don't yet work with Firefox 3 beta. And up until this week, the popular del.icio.us plugin was one of them. But you can finally cross that one off the list of incompatible plugins, because it's back, and it's better than ever.
While there are several desktop instant messaging applications that allow you to chat with Facebook users, Digsby is one of the first 3rd party applications to add support for Facebook's new native chat feature. Digsby pushed out an updated version of its chat/social networking/email notification application this afternoon. The latest update brings the list of supported instant messengers to:
AOL
MSN
Yahoo!
Google Talk
ICQ
Jabber
Facebook
The Facebook chat feature supports status messages, popup notifications, and buddy icons. The latest Digsby release also features updates for Yahoo! Mail with support for international email addresses and support for the beta version of the Yahoo! Mail web site. The update also fixes all known issues with Proxy support.
Been so busy reading passport records of presidential candidates that you haven't had time to keep up on the week's geekier news? Not to worry, we've got you covered. Here's a few of our favorite stories you might have missed:
Flipping the Linux Switch: Installing and configuring Linux
This week we had a twofer in our Linux 101 series. First up, we wanted to show you just how easy it is to install Linux. Once upon a time, making the switch from Windows to Linux may have required some technical wizardry, complete with the latest model broomstick, but no more. Modern distros like Ubuntu make installation a breeze. But once you've got Linux up and running, you might notice that there's no support for common file types like MP3s, so you might want to take a look at another part in our series which shows how to do some basic configuration and tweaking of a fresh Linux installation. Download full version of FairUse Wizard DVD ripper for free
This week we discovered that one of our favorite DVD ripping applications, FairUse Wizard was available for free for a limited time. Normally FairUse Wizard comes in two varieties, a limited free edition, and a full featured commercial version. But if you download the full version now, you can save a few bucks. No telling how long this deal will last, so go ahead and grab it while you still can.
Digsby, the instant messaging, social networking, email super-tool we first told you about last month launches its public beta today. That means you can sign up without an invitation code. The latest version of the Digsby client also has ton of new features:
Twitter support
Audio and video chat through a partnership with ToxBox
Spell checking
New "listening to..." status box will automatically update your status with currently playing songs from iTunes or Winamp
Block contacts by right clicking in the IM window
If you're still not exactly sure what Digsby does, it's basically a single application that lets you communicate with your IM contacts, friends on Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter, or anyone else thanks to email notifications. You can configure Digsby to display a pop up alert every time you receive an email, every time a friend sends a message via Twitter, or every time someone changes their MySpace or Facebook status. You can also see a list of recent updates in each category.
Digsby historically has been a bit of a memory hog compared to lighter weight instant messaging programs like Pidgin. But considering just how many features Digsby has that Pidgin lacks, the memory use doesn't seem excessive.
The application is available for Windows XP and Vista. Mac and Linux clients are in the works.
Just a week after Digsby widened its private beta by giving away 5,000 invites to Download Squad readers, the development team has already issued 4 new builds of the chat, email, and social networking client. Probably the most significant new feature is support for proxy settings to help users get around corporate firewalls.
There are a ton of other bug fixes and minor new features as well, including:
A fix for "connection lost" issue when logging in
A fix for MSN Messenger IMs not being sent
A fix for Digsby getting stuck while loading skins during the login
A fix for freezes while logging into Yahoo! Messenger
Ctrl + Backapsace now deletes one word at a time in the input box
If you already have a Digsby account, you can either download the latest client from the Digsby home page or just fire up Digsby on your PC if it's already installed. The client will download all the updates automatically. While the lack of proxy support was one of the main complaints we heard from users last week, there's one other issue we'd love to see Digsby work on: The program's large memory footprint. Digsby can easily use 70MB or more at launch. Considering how many functions the service has, that might not seem like a lot, but similar applications like Pidgin use just a small fraction of the RAM that Digsby does.
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.
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.
We're suckers for all-in-one applications. That's why we were excited to check out Digsby, a new all-in-one utility for managing multiple IM, e-mail, and social networking accounts. Digsby just launched in private beta this week, but we've got 5000 invites to give away to Download Squad readers. Keep on reading to find out how to get yours.
Digsby is a desktop client that lets you chat with contacts no matter which IM service they use. It also includes an e-mail notifier, and a pop up screen for keeping track of Facebook and MySpace updates. You can even add a Digsby chat window to your Facebook page so that anyone viewing your profile can send you instant messages which you can reply to using Digsby.
Still trying to figure out if you want to raise your bid for Yahoo! or if you'd rather just buy Jerry Yang some flowers, apologize, and then see if Google is busy Saturday night? Well then, you've obviously had so much on your plate that you might have missed a few other stories this week. So without further ado, we bring you some of our favorite stories from the past 7 days:
