The Daily Download

JAlbum for Windows and Mac users is a long-time favorite free Web album generator. There's no wizard to direct you through the process, but a quick look through the menus will be enough to get you started creating image collections online.

To begin, specify the original image folder, set the album-destination folder, select the images, and generate the album--it's really not more complicated than that. Using the integrated FTP client, you can upload your album to your Web site or you can use the integrated Web server to serve your album from your computer. The JAlbum site also lets you post your projects to their Web hosting service for free, as long as you don't mind registering your name and e-mail address. There are several great-looking templates and skins to choose from, with more skins available online from JAlbum.

Recent versions include a lot of new tools, notably a photo editor for basic manipulations such as red-eye removal and cropping. If you've been looking for a new way to post your photos, JAlbum is a great choice with an extremely easy-to-use interface and plenty of options to create the perfect album.

I have to admit that I don't use Apple's Dashboard widgets very often. Though I know there are several useful widgets available I think it might be that, in my business, I often search for a stand-alone solution to whatever the particular problem might be before thinking of Widgets. In other words, I think it's mostly just habit that I moved away from the Dashboard. But I came across an excellent free widget today which just might make me spend more time with widgets.

Switch through the tabs to check your schedule and enter data

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Organized, from iSlayer.com is a handy and elegant calendar widget which helps you keep your schedule organized. On the spare, but sleek tabbed interface you'll find handy world clocks for different time zones; Notes for reminders and thoughts; Events to give you a heads up of the days appointments; and a ToDo tab for todo lists. Each of the categories are very smartly done, with options like the ability to show due dates for your todo lists, and the ability to create multiple calenders for separate tasks. What's more it shares the same database as iCal and Mail, so whatever changes you make you know you're always in sync.

Organized is a free Widget for Mac OS X 10.5, but in the interest of the continued development of cool programs, I should point out they politely request you consider a donation. I think once ... Read more

In general, I'm not much of a fan of desktop-enhancement software. I like programs such as TweakUI that let me change the aspects of Windows that are extremely annoying to me, but I generally ignore desktop components such as wallpaper, themes, sounds, and all that jazz.

Despite my reservations about "needless" desktop enhancements, however, a new public beta for the software 360desktop intrigued me with its promises of "unlimited desktop space" and the ability to save any part of the Web directly to my desktop. After creating a System Restore point in case my Windows XP machine exploded, I tentatively gave 360desktop a spin.

Surprisingly, 360desktop did better than my (rather low) expectations and delivered a smoother, cleaner product than I expected. There is still a general feeling of "Do I really need this?" but after exploring my new 360-degree desktop environment and adding a few Web widgets, I can certainly see the appeal.

If you're stressed out, you can leave the backside of your 360dekstop pristine for meditative purposes.

(Credit: 360desktop/Duane Loberg)

The short of it is that 360desktop turns out to be darn fun, if you have the RAM to handle it. It's the sort of cool visual application that will amaze easily impressed coworkers and family members. Whether it's worth the resource consumption likely depends on how much you like to play with your desktop.

Installing and running 360desktop is simple, although it does place a shortcut on your regular Windows ... Read more

ThunderBrowse remains one of the best plug-ins for Mozilla Thunderbird. It's a favorite of mine, but if you haven't tried it recently there are some excellent new features worth noting.

If you've never used it before, ThunderBrowse lets you open Web links in Thunderbird's preview pane. It's that simple, which is why it's such an useful tool to have. From social networking friend invites to quickly scanning that hometown article sent by Your Dear Ma, ThunderBrowse cuts out huge chunks of time from your work flow by speedily opening HTML pages in its own browser. The plug-in adds a simple URL bar to the e-mail preview pane, with Forward, Back, Refresh, and Go buttons, and a customizable hot key combo will open the browser in a separate window.

Newer features include tabbed browsing, making it possible to keep the source e-mail message open while looking at the link it included, viewing the source code, and in-page search support via CTRL-F. JavaScript support is now included, but it automatically deactivates when it detects e-mails loading and then reactivates for other Web sites. ThunderBrowse also supports loading Thunderbird extensions directly, a useful trick to have, and its own bookmarks. All in all, that's not too shabby for surfing the Web from your e-mail client.

PassPack is a password-saving service I first checked out back in January of last year. This past week it released a really cool and smart password-saving tool that exists separately from your browser and lets you manage your passwords while offline. It also syncs up with PassPack's cloud storage to let you access your shared passwords, then sync them to multiple, authorized computers.

The application's claim to fame is that you can access your passwords while offline and without the use of your browser. If you don't feel like installing a new, standalone app, you can get similar functionality by trying out the offline version of PassPack that takes advantage of Google Gears to let you do this while away from an Internet connection.

Since Adobe's AIR is cross-platform (download for Mac or Windows), PassPack's developers have chosen to spend more time developing it than the browser-based Gears iteration. Plus, if you're a user of multiple browsers, including some that fall outside the Gears love (like Opera (download for Windows or Mac)), the desktop application will work without issues.

One current weak point with the AIR app (that's due to be remedied soon) is that any locally created passwords will not sync back up with your central PassPack account, so if you're intending to add any new ones you should do that in the Web version instead. The tool also requires the use of an incredibly strong packing password that will roll ... Read more

Because not everyone has a Nokia N95 or comparable luxurious 5-megapixel camera (including me,) most of us have to grudgingly accept our camera phones' variable output quality or take the time to fix photos of emotional value. (Or blackmail value, which is also extremely powerful.)

There are a ton of tips out there for improving mobile phone images, and most of them involve a proficiency in advanced image-editing tools and a working knowledge of the parameters required for a dizzying number of tools. That's surely a fun challenge for digital photography enthusiasts of all levels, but what about those with limited time on their hands who just want a quick, reliable fix?

Though subtle, the image on the right exhibits lighter corners and smoother, brighter tones. Compare the curtain noise, for instance.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Mobile media editors

Artifacts from JPEG compression are common problem spots. You've seen those choppy edges and gradients, and abundant digital noise. You've also no doubt noticed that contrast, sharpness, and color quality routinely suffer. There's always trying to eliminate them with an editing app built for mobile media, like Roxio Media Manager, which comes included in my BlackBerry desktop software. However, I found that neither the basic tools to manually or autocorrect photos adequately fixed exposure, saturation, and sharpness; nor did it reverse the glaring red-eye in individual or batch modes.

The freeware app Mobile Photo Enhancer performed much better. A sometimes laggy processor, the app nevertheless noticeably improved photo ... Read more

If you're a Windows user you know full well the tight integration among Microsoft products that has made the operating system a little less than friendly when it comes to tying in various Web apps. E-mail in particular is one of those actions that will usually pop up Outlook or Outlook Express, forcing you to either install a third-party mail app like Mozilla's Thunderbird or go in and tweak your registry.

If you're a Gmail user, and looking to get that same level of integration in Office documents and elsewhere on your system check out gAttach (download). This simple program will append all your mail extensions, getting them to open up in Gmail instead.

One thing that's nice is that it'll simply tack onto whatever browser you've got open, or simply open your default one if you don't have it running. It'll also suck in multiple files at a time (up to Gmail's 20MB limit of course).

Yahoo mail users can also take advantage of a sister product called yAttach, which will do the same thing, although you can't have both installed at once.

See also: Set Web e-mail as default Firefox e-mail

[via FreewareGenius via Lifehacker]

Once installed you've got an easy way to tweak your mail settings in Windows to open up in Gmail instead of Outlook or other default programs.

(Credit: CNET Networks)

Formerly one of the most popular and customizable third-party clients for AOL Instant Messager, Adium faded from the public eye during development. The supercharged new version emerges from hibernation as Adium X. It supports multiple services, including AIM, Yahoo, MSN, and Napster. Part of what made the original Adium so attractive was its multitude of options, which still forms the core of this revision.

Adium allows for an incredible level of customization, with near-infinite tailoring of the user interface to make the buddy dock and chat windows look and behave as you wish. Adium supports group chats, displays your status in several ways including the iTunes status which surfaces whatever song you're listening to at the moment, uses emoticons specifically tailored to the chat platform you're on, and does file transfers. Unfortunately, the transfers are wonky and need more work.

The latest version improves the contact list and features a refined, tabbed interface. Under the hood, the program is now powered by the same open-source core as multiplatform client Pidgin. Despite some quirks, Adium X should please fans of the original and snare new chat aficionados.

Good, then bad, and now good again, Winamp has had a bit of a roller coaster life. The last few updates, starting about version 5.3, took some long-needed steps to improve the old-school media player, with support for AAC encoding, CD burning, and a robust file-management system. The latest, 5.51, ups the ante with strong support for portable devices, including iPods, the capability to sync non-DRMed files to your PC from your device, an optional new interface layout, and a built-in browser for media discovery.

Clicking on an artist's name will get you related headlines and Web sites in a separate pane. There's podcast-catching support, device synchronization that lets you tweak the sync list while in progress, and continued support for AOL's excellent Shoutcast. The new Bento layout is worth mentioning, too, because it gets the venerable llama away from the old modular format. The joined panes for the browser, media player, artist list, album list, and more make Winamp instantly more visually appealing. There's also an Auto-Tag feature, which will download metatags from the Gracenote database.

If you want MP3 encoding and full-speed CD burning, you have to shell out $19.95 for the Pro version. However, there are other problems. Automatic album art download support is spotty at best. More importantly, there are some stability issues when playing videos, and occasional program crashes were far more common than they should be. Winamp 5.51 is no iTunes killer--not yet. It has become, ... Read more

This simple utility enhances Windows' ALT-Tab functionality by displaying screenshots of open windows along with their icons. TaskSwitchXP Pro's familiar Windows XP-style interface is accessible from the system tray or by using the conventional ALT-Tab hot key. The icons are arranged in a vertical list on the right, while a snapshot of the selected window appears on the left.

TaskSwitchXP Pro is extremely handy, especially with multiple instances of a particular application. The graphic display makes it much easier to choose the right window. You'll find an assortment of settings for customizing the program's appearance, choosing and defining hot keys, and accessing the program. TaskSwitchXP also is available in several languages.