Unfortunately, OS 4.5 isn’t widespread yet in the states. It’ll come, I’m sure, but for now many are using upgrades from foreign carriers which have already released the beast. For these people, Elecite has some new themes, as we find out via our buddies at Phones Review. They are: Distinct, Scion, and Scortched. They’re definitely killer themes, and I only wish I had a 4.5 device to try them on. We’ll set you up with some eye candy after the jump.
| Distinct | Scion |
| Scortched | Lucid |
The newest iteration of the Nintendo DS, the Dsi, has come out of hiding! The company's new handheld gets a 17% bigger screen (measuring in at 3.25 inches), a .3 megapixel camera, an SD memory card slot, and “audio enhancements” like the ability to listen to mp3s, adjust pitch and playback.
The DSi will also feature built-in browsers and a DSi shop. Pricing categories at the shop for DsiWare include Free, 200 points, 500 points, and a “Premium” 800 points. New DSi owners will get 1000 points to spend at the DSi Shop before March 2010. I. Want. It. Now. Get the rest of the story from our brother-in-arms, Kotaku! [Kotaku]
The next version of Ubuntu's free Linux operating system, dubbed "Intrepid Ibex," is due out Oct. 30, but the beta release is up for grabs. Although the desktop hasn't been reshaped, the features tweaked just a little bit, and most of the work focused on compatibility and usability (not that those are bad things, by any means), there are still some neat new tools and tweaks that are worth checking out. Read on for our picture-filled take on the new Ubuntu.
The basics of putting a live CD in your drive, trying the desktop or installing the system are basically the same as with Hardy Heron, with a few welcome differences. The most confusing/imposing part of the process, the partition editor, shows you a graphical view of what you're doing, thereby explaining what each option does a lot better.
Ibex also supports importing browser data, backgrounds, music and pictures from Windows XP and, new to this version, Vista. Once you've installed the system and booted up, you might notice a new setting in the multi-boot menu: "Last successful boot." That's an indication that Ubuntu keeps track of which Linux kernels actually work for your system, and lets it delete old ones and prevent them from cluttering up the boot menu.
There's a chance, however small, that Ubuntu 8.10 might just get the graphical overhaul that was promised for 8.04. Ibex uses a slightly updated version of the brown/orange-centered "Human" theme—status bars glow, a few icons were changed, and buttons have a warm glow. Other than that, the desktop is a pretty familiar affair:
What you will notice around your desktop are the improvements to Nautilus, the baked-in file browser and desktop manager. Tabbed browsing is the biggie, but there's also easy-eject icons placed in the sidebar for hot-plugged drives and partitions, and the built-in encrypted private directory.
A lot of tweaks have been made to Ubuntu's network manager, which was more than a little finicky with certain wireless cards and non-standard set-ups. It now handles 3G and cellular connections better, doesn't freak out at having multiple connections (e.g. wireless and wired), and contains many other fixes. I particularly like the "Auto Linksys" mode, which is great for traveling or setting up at less-tech-inclined spots. (Edit: Turns out 8.10's "Auto" mode can actually be set to any router SSID it finds; "Auto HomeRouter," for example.)
External monitors and graphics in general have gotten a good bit of attention, and, at least in the case of my ThinkPad/LCD combo, I got a kind-of-working setup right from boot-up. In general, Ubuntu has worked at killing off the need to ever have to manually hack around in the archaicxorg.conf file—the entirety of my Ibex file is thumbnailed at right (Edit: Taken from the VirtualBox install I did for boot-up screenshots, but the copy on my hard-installed Ibex is nearly identical). Having said that, I still had to manually tweak the resolution on my LCD monitor, and a logout/reboot messed my taskbars some, but I could easily drag and drop windows between screens. Unfortunately, that's only just below par for a modern OS, so let's hope a great settings tool gets written or revamped soon.
Finally, the administration window for enabling proprietary devices—NVidia graphics cards, wireless chips without open-source drivers and the like—has gotten a bit more explanatory as to what it's doing, and offers a choice of drivers for those experiencing bugs. Not sure if I enjoy seeing this much imposing text to just get 3D desktop effects working.
Here's a few of Ubuntu 8.10's other highlights:
sudo something or make another change.
Unless you have your own fully functional time/space travel machine, there's only so much you can do in any given month. That's why we're helping you plan ahead, with the official io9 guide to October. It includes conventions, movies, TV shows, book releases and author appearances. Plus a handy printable PDF version!
You can download the whole thing as a printable PDF here.
Additional reporting/research by Katharine Duckett. Graphic design by Stephanie Fox.
Well, things aren't looking too great economy-wise. We might just be headed for a depression, which means you'll need to start changing your lifestyle. While you may start out by changing your lifestyle in subtle ways, you need to be mentally prepared for the fact that more, well, drastic measures may be necessary in the not-too-distant future. Luckily, I've hand-picked 10 gadgets that may be necessary in our frightening, Lehman-Brothersless future.
10. The first thing you're gonna want to do is start saving money. This Tomy RPG Piggy Bank makes saving money fun by featuring a simple game on the front that utilizes the money you insert into it. Make saving a game, you'll be more apt to do it! [Link]
9. A good way to save money is to stop using so much electricity. This energy saving remote lets you cut the power to all of your home theater electronics that suck up juice even when they're off. This should save you precious dollars every month. [Link]
8. Not everyone will be as responsible as you, and they may get desperate and try to steal your precious financial documents. Keep them locked up in this really intense hard drive/safe combo. It's fireproof and waterproof, so you can be sure nothing will happen to your data. [Link]
7. It's not just your digital property that you need to protect, its your physical property as well. This lock uses your fingerprint to allow access, so only you and your family will be able to get into your house when the looting and rioting begin. [Link]
6. OK, so they've cut the power to your home and you've barricaded yourself inside. You obviously can't go to the grocery store for food as all of the stores have been overtaken by roving bands of weapons-wielding former stock brokers, so you should ensure you've got plenty of non-perishable food to last you through the financial crisis. [Link]
5. So they set your house on fire, forcing you to flee into the woods. What you'll need is a tent that's quick to set up and quick to pack up when you hear the sounds of the bloodthirsty brokers crashing through the underbrush. This self-pitching tent sets itself up in the air as you throw it, allowing you to set up camp quickly and easily. [Link]
4. You'll want to be able to know the weather and charge your phone while you're on the run, and this is the device to do it for you. Assuming the national weather services haven't been overrun and destroyed, you'll be able to check on the forecast while charging your gadgets with this. [Link]
3. You need to escape the city, where all the former bankers are based, and since cars are susceptible to bombs and rocket launchers, you'll need something a bit more tough. The Rhino can withstand just about anything that's thrown at it and keep you and whatever is left of your family safe inside. [Link]
2. OK, so you needed to get out of the Rhino and dole out some punishment man-to-man. This recoilless auto shotgun can fire off 300 rounds per minute, making quick work of anyone with a blue shirt with white cuffs flecked with human blood around. Just make sure to pick up plenty of extra ammo while you're at it. [Link]
1. So you didn't make it. That's disappointing! You can at least leave a lasting memorial to yourself with your last near-worthless American dollars by purchasing this digital tombstone with your dying breath. It can display videos on its LCD monitor of you in happier times, buying gasoline for less than $150 a gallon and owning a house that actually has some value. Maybe in heaven things will be like that again. For your sake, I hope so. [Link] [Top image via Pink Tentacle]
Windows/Mac/Linux (all platforms): GIMP, the free, open-source graphics editor, has come out with a 2.6 version, and it's put some significant changes into the editor's interface and back-end operations. New to this version are support for 32 bits per color channel and a new GEGL-based backend (turned on and off in the preferences), polygonal and sectional selection with the Free Select Tool, better handling of windows, toolbars, docked tools, and menus, and a "brush dynamics" sub-menu that gives creators serious control over their pixel-pushing tools. Those are just a few of the many changes in this release. GIMP 2.6 is a free download for Windows, Mac, or Linux platforms, though it's only (officially) available as source code at the moment. Read on for help installing GIMP 2.6 on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems.
sudo dpkg -i * command on them.The changes in 2.6 are welcome to many long-time users and, most likely, anyone held back from adopting the free editor because of technical restrictions. What most of us are seriously looking forward to, however, is the serious user interface overhaulpromised for future editions.
Let's hear from our GIMP, and Photoshop, users: What must-have feature is still missing from the open-source editor? What would you do differently if you were in charge of interface design? Share your gripes and glad-hands in the commments.
GIMP 2.6
Here at the Ninendo Media Summit in San Francisco, NOA President Reginald Fils-Aime stated that the Nintendo DSi would not make an appearance in the US until "well into calendar year 2009." He cited the popularity of the current DS Lite as the primary reason for the prolonged release of the new system. For those (like me) still clunking away on the original DS, the wait just got a little more tortuous.
Customizing the appearance of your Windows installation can be frustrating, because both Windows XP and Vista are limited to the Microsoft's default themes out of the box. However, with a bit of tweaking under the hood, your Windows setup can try on a wider range of looks than come pre-installed. Let's take a look at how to patch your Windows installation to allow customized styles, and a few places to find new and interesting styles online.
When talking about the physical appearance of Windows there are two terms that are distinct but often used incorrectly in place of each other. Visual styles, which have the .msstyles file extension, are the files which supp;y all the information about how the interfaces within Windows should look. The toolbar skin, start button skin, borders, buttons, etc. are all stored in the visual style. Themes contain a visual style along with additional settings such as icons, wallpaper, etc. Later, when browsing for goodies, keep in mind that a theme pack will have further customization than a visual style pack.
Throughout the tutorial you'll need to be able to access the menu within Windows where you can chane your themes and visual styles. The following screenshots are from Windows XP but the essential menus are nearly identical in function in Vista, too. For reference, here is how to access both:
XP: Right-click Desktop -> Properties -> Themes Tab (or Appearance Tab for Styles)
Vista: Right-click Desktop - > Personalize -> Themes
Although you'll most likely find a new style that you really enjoy, on the off chance that you don't, make a backup of your current theme for you to restore later if necessary. Backing up only takes a moment and will allow you put things back exactly as they were before you started customizing, right down to the wallpaper. From within the Themes tab click Save As and name your theme whatever you'd like. Save it in a safe place.
Patching your system for themes allows you to use non-Microsoft approved visual styles. At the very root you're simply replacing the Uxtheme.dll with a modified version that doesn't verify if the style has been signed by Microsoft. It used to be that patching your Windows installation was a hassle, a small one, but a hassle nonetheless. Now both Windows XP and Vista have patching programs available that make it no more hassle than clicking a button and rebooting. There are various programs that can do what the free patches do with some additional functionality thrown in, but they are hardly worth the $20 and up fees they command.
For Windows XP, download the Uxtheme Multi-Patcher. Run the file, click through the prompts and reboot.
For Windows Vista, download VistaGlazz. Run the file, click through the prompts and reboot.
Both patching programs will allow you to reverse the process should anything go wrong by simply running the program again. (However, I've been patching Windows installs for years without a hitch.)
The best way to verify if your patch job has been successful is to browse some of the great repositories of visual styles and select a few to try out. Below are some samples of the most popular styles at DeviantArt.com. Before you begin downloading through, a quick overview of where the files go is in order.
If a style pack is zipped up properly then installing it is as simple as unzipping the files into the C:\Windows\Resources\Themes directory. Check when you open the zip file if the files have nested directories. If you install a visual style or theme and something is amiss, check the following list to ensure the files ended up in the right place:
.Themefiles must be in the/Themes/folder, not within any subfolders..MSStylesfiles must be in their own sub-folders. If the style name isNewStyle.msstyles, then sub folder in/Themes/must be/Themes/NewStyle/- If your style pack came with a
shellstyle.dll, that also goes within it's own subfolder, i.e./Themes/NewStyle/shell/- If you have any problem with loading a style or theme, go back and double check for spelling and capitalization. The names are case sensitive. If a file has a combination of upper and lower case letters, the folder name you place it in must be spelled exactly the same.
Now let's take a look at some popular third-party visual styles in action.
Luna Element 5.0.5 by tornado5
For more visual styles, check out the following resources:
If you have a little bit more time and would like to grab a theme hot off the press, check out the active forums where style designers throw up their newest work:
