Photo a composite of images by Lecate and daveynin.

Why put homebrew on the Nintendo DS? It’s portable, has dual screens including a touch screen, and it’s as powerful as any previous-generation smartphone or PDA. If you already have a DS, homebrewing is a great way to get more out of your device than just fun and portable game play.

What do you need to dabble in DS homebrew? If you followed our guide to easy Nintendo DS backups, you’ve already got everything you need for Nintendo DS homebrew: a DS unit, a flash cart, a microSD card, and a card reader. If you don’t have those things, make sure to check out our previous guide and refer to the “Why Back Up and What You’ll Need” section. Even if you’re not interested in backing up your games and just want to run homebrew, read over the first half of the backup guide and you’ll be up to speed on how flash carts work and which one you should consider buying.

A small note before we continue further. The point of this guide is to highlight great homebrew applications that can make your Nintendo DS do more than simply play games. The point of DS homebrew is to expand the utility of your Nintendo DS, not to replace other bigger, more expensive, and more capable devices.

Installing Homebrew Applications

Installing homebrew applications is easy-peasy. Unless the readme file or the web site for the homebrew app in question provides specific instructions on how folders should be organized and arranged, you can just dump the homebrew app anywhere on your SD card. As long as all the files that came in the package you downloaded stay together in the /whatever-homebrew-app/ folder, you shouldn’t have any issues. Make sure to read the readme.txt, if included, to double check!

Homebrew Applications

It may have been designed as a tiny and single-purpose device, but the Nintendo DS has a surprisingly diverse homebrew community. DS homebrewers love pushing the limits of the device and coming up with new ways to squeeze a little extra life out of it. Though you may need to do some heavy searching in Google, you can find NDS applications for nearly any task you can think of—though many of the homebrew apps are highly experimental. We've collected the following homebrew applications to showcase their utility, novelty, or both.

Colors!: One of the most polished homebrew applications for the DS is Colors!, a homebrew application that has been ported to nearly every portable device around. The video above is a demonstration of the sketchbook capabilities of Colors! Not only can you create images in Colors!, but you can replay the entire process as a video. If you’re only going to play around with one homebrew application on the DS, this is a great one to show off how great homebrew can be.

MoonShell: MoonShell is a fantastic multimedia player for the DS. It supports MP3, WMA, OGG, MIDI, and low-bit rate AAC among other audio formats, JPG, BMP, PNG, and GIF image files, and video files. Unfortunately you can’t just plop your AVI files on a microSD card and be done with it. You’ll need to convert any movie files you want to watch on your DS into the native DPG format it supports. MoonShell includes a basic converter, DPGenc, or you can download third-party tools like BatchDPG. Since the official MoonShell page is in Japanese, you’ll probably want to read up on it at Wikipedia and DS-Extra.

DSOrganize: DSOrganize is an ambitious DS-based organizer and collection of tools. It has a web browser, file browser, address book, to-do list, notepad, calculator, a database of homebrew applications—a perpetual work in progress—and an image/audio player that supports popular formats like JPG, PNG, MP3, WAV, and more. If Colors! is the most polished homebrew application out there, DSOrganize is by far the most feature packed.

Instant Messaging and Social Networking: You’ll find no shortage of homebrew tools for connecting to social networks and sending instant messages. The following list will take you to the instruction manuals for the applications courtesy of the homebrew site DS-Extra, when available.

• DSTwitter – If tiny Twitter updates aren’t a perfect match for the little DS, what is?
• Fb4nds – Simple Facebook browsing and updates on the DS.
• Beup Live – Access MSN Messenger on your DS.
• CIIRC – Old school IRC chat on your DS.
• JabberDS – Chat using Jabber-based server, like Gchat.

DS Weather Report: DS Weather Report is a little weather reporting application for the DS that downloads weather data via Wi-Fi. It supports over 40,000 locations worldwide and gives a current detailed report—including sunrise and sunset times—and an overview of the next five days.

DSWiki: What homebrew community worth its salt would skip over porting the entire Wikipedia library to their device? DSWiki requires a microSD card with 4GB free to store the copy of Wikipedia, but once you’ve got it on there you can search, bookmark, and browse links and sub-pages just like you can from your computer.

Remote Touch: Remote Touch allows you to control your PC from your NDS. As the video above demonstrates it isn’t a remote VNC tool, it’s more like the popular phone-as-touchpad applications for iOS and Android phones. You can control your interface, media players, and even games.

AirScan: AirScan is small homebrew app that turns your NDS into a Wi-Fi sniffer. Don’t expect a pretty GUI like many phone-based sniffers have, but do expect lots of great information, like what type of security the access point has, latency, and other useful tidbits.

Emulators

Building emulators for the Nintendo DS, already a gaming system with a comfy directional pad and buttons built in, was a no brainer. You can find emulation apps for most older consoles and even some novel—but not very practical—emulators for old computer systems like the MacOS.

Although we're sure you'll have fun with all the emulators available, we sorted the following list in order of how smoothly the emulators loaded on our test system—in fairness, however, they all worked remarkably well. As with any kind of emulation, you should expect odd quirks from time to time, like strange-sounding background music or sprites that layer or fill in oddly.

• NesDS: If you’re craving some old-school Mario Brothers action, NesDS turns your Nintendo DS into a 1980s-era NES.
• Lameboy: Why limit yourself to the stable of current generation portable Nintendo games? Lameboy emulates the Gameboy and Gameboy Color on your NDS so you can finally catch all those Pokemon.
• SNEmulDS: SNES emulation on the NDS isn’t perfect but it’s pretty darn good. Expect occasional issues like weird music playback and background textures that don’t fill in all the way.
• jEnesisDS: Playing Sega Genesis games on your Nintendo portable? It might have been sacrilege back in the day, but now it’s downright awesome.
• NeoDS: No way you could have ever afforded a Neo Geo system in its prime? Now’s your chance to take it for a spin.

Homebrew Games

If you’d prefer to skip over the legal murkiness of playing emulated games on your Nintendo DS, you’ll find no shortage of great homebrew games. The NDS homebrew gaming community is actually more bustling than the application community, a natural extension of the NDS’s primary function as a gaming platform. We hardly have the room to highlight all the great homebrew games out there, but we’ve rounded up a few of our favorites to share with you.

• Quake2DS: A well done port—seen in the screenshot above—of Quake II. Note: The Quake II port requires an inexpensive memory card in the slot-2 of the DS or DS Lite. See the Quake2DS web site for details.
• MegaETK-TD: Fun Mega Man clone for the DS.
• 15th Floor: A mystery game in the vein of Myst and Hotel Dusk. Compelling gameplay, hard to believe it’s homebrew.
• Jelly Blocks: Remake of popular flash games like Bejewled and other touch-the-colors type games.
• Super Smash Bros Rumble: A homebrew version of the popular Super Smash Bros franchise. Plays like an SNES version of Super Smash Bros.
• DS DOOM: Can any homebrew-enabled platform be considered serious without a port of DOOM? Relive the classic on the DS.

For more homebrew gaming fun, check out the homebrew games directory at Filetrip.net and DS-Extra.

There are so many great homebrew applications and games for the NDS we’ve likely overlooked quite a few gems. Sound off in the comments with your favorite homebrew applications and help your fellow readers get more out of their Nintendo DS units.

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The new Google Image search has a Switch to basic version link at the bottom of the page, but it doesn’t stick, so if you prefer the old view, you’ll have to scroll all the way down there every time. The_Doc offers the solution:

If you don’t like the new Google Image Search design, add:

&sout=1

to the URL to use the the “basic” (i.e. old) version. Update your bookmarked keyword searches accordingly.

So, for example:

http://images.google.com/images?q=puppy

…would become:

http://images.google.com/images?q=puppy&sout=1

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Haughton Crater, located in the Canadian arctic, is an extreme environment that simulates Martian conditions – otherwise known as a planetary analog. Tiffany just happens to have both extreme expedition and near-space suit experience, so she’ll be spending a week at a remote research station operated by the Mars Institute and sponsored by SETI and NASA.

Among the cool things she’ll be doing while in the field are landscape documentation, prototype space suit testing, simulating pressurized rover traverse missions, surveying new aircraft landing sites, and characterizing the geology of the Moon, Mars and NEO-like terrain. Many of these activities are even being planned using Google Earth!

Tiffany will be blogging about her adventures as Internet connectivity in the station permits. Check out her first post and follow her blog, Voices from Space, to keep up to date, and we’ll also ask her to share a full report complete with favorite stories and photos when she returns.

Posted by Deanna Yick, Lat Long Blog Team

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Ear Candy does this for a few different sound “events,” including sound files, movies, and VoIP calls. It’s basically a volume manager for PulseAudio, the new (but not necessarily loved) audio system for many Linux distributions. Ear Candy has a few other tricks up its sleeve, too, like automatically switching your mic input and audio output to USB headsets when they’re plugged in (which is, unfortunately, not something most Linux desktops do perfectly well on their own). It’s certainly not bug-free, but I found it pretty cool to watch my Big Star soundtrack automatically phase down when I clicked on an emailed YouTube link.

Ear Candy is a free download for Linux systems only. Ubuntu users can add a PPA for updated installations, while other Linux systems can install from source.

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Grab the app you want from a full-fledged browser on your desktop, then drop it in Dropbox on your system. I created an Android Apps folder for the purpose, but it’s not necessary. Then open up the Dropbox app on your Android phone, navigate to that .apk file you downloaded, and click it there. Your phone will open up its installer, and you’ll be all set to go. You’ll also need to have non-Market sources enabled in your Applications settings.

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It’s a very simple, almost more proof-of-concept app than anything else, but it does the trick quite nicely. Now, instead of having to open up your browser and use Google Docs to edit or upload documents, you can edit them in your favorite word processor and save them to a virtual drive in Nautilus. Any documents you save there will automatically show up in Google Docs, and you can drag any documents off of the drive to save them locally on your computer. Just install the program and head over to Applications > Accessories > Google Docs Connection to mount the drive. You'll have to enter your username and password every time, but overall it's a small price to pay if you're not a fan of Google's webapp. Hit the link to try it out.

Google Doc Mount is a free download, Ubuntu 10.04 only.

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Linux isn’t quite like Windows or Mac, as there are many, many distributions, usually running on one of two desktop systems (GNOME or KDE). We’ve chosen to write this list up from the perspective of a standard, GNOME-based Ubuntu user. Ubuntu is what the Lifehacker editors use, it’s what most of our Linux-leaning readers use, and it's generally popular and frequently updated. Many of these apps can be downloaded and installed on other Linux systems, of course—check the Download link, or search out its name in your own system's package installer.

If you are using Ubuntu, you can also install these apps by clicking the "Install in Ubuntu" link after each item. It's a link that prompts your own Ubuntu system to search out and install an app from its own repositories—with your permission, of course. You may be asked on your first install to allow your browser to open up an Ubuntu app to handle the link, but go ahead and agree with it, and you'll be installing apps with one click after that. We've also placed aggregated installer links at the bottom of each section, and a mega-installer at the bottom of the post, so you can install multiple apps at once.

Some other apps (Chrome and Dropbox) require a download, some are pre-installed in Ubuntu, and others may require the enabling of an extra repository or two for certain third-party apps, but we’ve explained how to do so in a previous Ubuntu feature (short version: open “Software Sources” from the System/Administration menu).

Now let’s get straight to the goodies:

Productivity

GNOME-Do: If you’re familiar with Quicksilver, a key element of our Lifehacker Pack for Mac, you’ll have a sense of why application launcher GNOME-Do is so handy and great. But GNOME-Do does much more than object-verb launching. It comes packed with a host of plug-ins that can launch chats, upload or open Google Docs, shorten a URL or send a tweet, and on and on. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

OpenOffice.org or GNOME Office Suite: We are not in love with OpenOffice.org, by any means. The internet is full of places where you can read what people dislike about Sun Microsystems' open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office suite—slowness, toolbar overload, a few features that are essential to certain trades. Still, for all its shortcomings, OpenOffice does get the job done in most cases, most of the time, and it's robust in ways that are hard to imagine for entirely free software. If you want a lighter, faster alternative for simply opening files and cranking out work, the offerings in the GNOME suite—AbiWord, Gnumeric, and so forth—will suit you fine. Or just use Google Docs or Zoho. [Download: OpenOffice, GNOME Office] [Install Gnome Office in Ubuntu]

gedit: It’s built into nearly any Linux OS that runs on GNOME, and some that don’t. It’s a compact but customizable text editor, one that’s great for jotting down quick notes, editing system files, writing code outside a full-fledged development environment, or otherwise editing straight-up text. It can be made up with plug-ins to auto-complete, snap open files, and otherwise work like TextMate, but even on its own, it’s a good tool to keep handy. [Download]

AutoKey: Text replacement gives you the power to type five letters—like kpadd—and fill in a whole mess of repetitive or hard-to-remember text—like "Kevin Purdy / 123 Mayfair Lane / SomeTown, NY 12345"—wherever you happen to be typing. AutoKey isn't a pure equivalent of Texter for Windows or TextExpander for Mac, but it has its own features to recommend it. Users can pick a hotkey, text snippet, or tray menu shortcut for each expansion they create, and learn a rudimentary scripting language to insert customized text. Just like Linux itself, AutoKey is an open book. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

[Install the Productivity pack in Ubuntu] (GNOME-Do, Gnome Office, Autokey)

Internet/Communication

Firefox/Chrome: Firefox's the default in most Linux browsers, and is likely the most tested and stable on Ubuntu and other platforms. But, just as on Macs, Chrome is growing up quickly, offering a very, very fast experience on Linux, and makes strides in integrating with the OS every day. So let's call it a tie—both are easy to love. [Download: Firefox, Chrome]

Thunderbird: Most of you are using web-based mail these days, and Evolution may be deeply integrated into GNOME, but it’s hard to beat Thunderbird as a desktop email client. From its support for Gmail features like archiving to its large library of add-ons, Thunderbird’s got you covered no matter how you manage your email workflow. Even if you primarily use webapps for mail, you can’t go wrong backing up your email through a desktop client, nor accessing it through IMAP when Gmail goes down. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Pidgin: Ubuntu has picked up Empathy as a default messaging program, and, while it’s a stylish, intriguing app, it’s nowhere near as convenient and fleshed out as Pidgin. Pigin gives you total control over multiple chat accounts and your buddy list, can be used with multiple Windows or Linux PCs, and also integrates into Ubuntu’s new “Me” menu. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Skype: Sure, there are a lot of different ways to video chat nowadays, but Skype is by far the most popular, what with its cross-platform availability and, frankly, media hype. But it’s free, works well, and chances are your friends all have it too, so it’s nice to keep around. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Transmission: Transmission is the default BitTorrent client in Ubuntu, and with good reason. It’s not quite as feature-rich as the Mac version, but it’s super lightweight, fast, and still has a lot of convenient features like automatic port forwarding, speed limiting, scheduling, and a handy web UI for when you aren’t near your computer (or, if you’re more a fan of SSH, command-line support). [Download]

[Install the Internet/Communication pack in Ubuntu] (Thunderbird, Pidgin, Skype)

Media

Flash Player: It’s never run quite as well on Linux as on Windows or Mac (and it isn’t so great on those either), but until HTML5 really comes to fruition, it’s necessary for streaming video or using a lot of interactive web pages. Of course, you can keep it’s resource hogging at bay when necessary with FlashBlock for Chrome and FlashBlock for Firefox. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

VLC: Media player VLC was voted the best desktop media player by you guys, and with good reason—not only does it play pretty much any file you throw at it, but it can rip DVDs, stream media to other computers, and even play YouTube videos (and much more). It’s a must-have application for anyone that watches video on their computer. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Handbrake: It doesn’t matter whether you’re throwing some video on your mobile device or ripping that Blu-Ray disc to your media center, open source Handbrake is one of the best video encoders around. Unfortunately, the latest version of Handbrake doesn’t work with the new version of GNOME, and the Handbrake team has yet to catch up, but you can install some (likely less stable) snapshots using this method. [Main Site]

GIMP: Ubuntu recently dropped GIMP, the open-source, full-fledged image editor from its default installations, due to its size and complexity. The thinking went that most casual photo edits could be made with the F-Spot photo manager. Well, kind-of-sort-of-not-really. GIMP may have a dense number of options, but F-Spot’s photo handling and somewhat sparse options make it less than ideal for actual editing—cropping, lasso-grabbing, drop-shadowing, and the like. GIMP has its flaws, but it gets regular improvements, and you'll be glad it's there when you need it. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Rhythmbox: Music players are a very personal thing—that's why there are so many, after all. We can see why Linux users would variously love them some Banshee, Exaile, or even Songbird, discontinued for Linux development but living on in the Nightingale project. But when it comes down to what loads, syncs, and plays your music, offers extensibility, and fits nicely into a GNOME/Ubuntu desktop, we have to go with the default Rhythmbox. Beyond basic functionality, Rhythmbox now has a very nice built-in music store, one that automatically syncs your purchases to a free Ubuntu One cloud service. Like iTunes for Mac, it’s not a perfect product, but it probably works for the widest number of uses. [Download]

[Install the Media pack in Ubuntu] (Flash, VLC, GIMP)

Utilities

Dropbox: If you have more than one computer (or tend to use other computers often), Dropbox is a must-have. It adds a Dropbox folder to your user folder, which will be constantly synced to Dropbox’s servers. Thus, any files you add to this folder (or folders you link to it) will be synced to your Dropbox folder on other computers, as well as be accessible from the web. Nowadays, most smartphone platforms also have a Dropbox client from which you can download your files, so it’s pretty useful for pretty much anyone with files to access, among its many other clever uses. [Download]

Conky: Much like the more publicized Mac favorite GeekTool, Conky is a super customizable system monitor for your computer. Not only can you put system stats such as CPU, memory, and network stats on your desktop, but you can even add weather updates and mail checkers. It’s a great way to stay productive while keeping track of everything going on behind the scenes. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Wine: Despite your best efforts, chances are you’ll still need to run a few Windows applications from time to time. One of the best ways to do so in Linux is Wine, a compatibility layer that offers support for a number of Windows applications. What’s great about Wine is that it lets you run these apps in your regular window manager as if they were Linux apps, and doesn’t suck up a ton of resources like a virtual machine. However, not all programs work with Wine, but for the ones that do, it’s usually the optimal solution. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

VirtualBox: When Wine can’t run that Windows program you need, free virtualization software VirtualBox will. Since it’s a full Windows environment, it supports almost any Windows program, albeit at the cost of slowing down the rest of your system a bit. It’ll do the trick when you need it to, though, so it’s useful to have at the ready. Note: the download version from VirtualBox offers a few benefits (like USB device handling) over the open-source version installed via Ubuntu. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

Tilda or Yakuake: As modern and user-friendly as Linux has come from its roots (and, believe it or not, that’s a very long way), many users will still need access to a terminal. Tilda and Yakuake are snappy, drop-down terminals inspired by first-person shooter games that you will grow to love. They’re both customizable in shape, size, and appearance, and save you the trouble of having to switch windows when you just want to fire off a quick command or two. Yakuake is built for KDE, and has the edge on looks and sleekness; Tilda’s a bit more utilitarian, but doesn’t require installing extra libraries. [Download: Tilda, Yakuake] [Install Tilda in Ubuntu] [Install Yakuake in Ubuntu]

p7zip: It’s basically 7-Zip for Linux. Install it, and you’ll be able to compress and de-compress pretty much any archive file around, including disk images, Mac OS packages, and the .rar and other segmented files found around the wild web. Best of all, you can just right-click on files to compress or de-compress them, if you don’t want to get your hands dirty in the terminal. [Download] [Install in Ubuntu]

[Install the Utilities pack in Ubuntu] (Conky, WINE, VirtualBox, Tilda, p7zip)

Optional (For Beginners)

Ubuntu Tweak: (Ubuntu only) It doesn’t do things by the Linux book, and some of the things it does to your system might make for a slightly messy situation if you go the upgrade route for the next Ubuntu release. But Ubuntu Tweak makes it really, really simple to do a lot of things Linux beginners are looking to do. Install popular third-party apps and plug-ins (from the app or its online app “store”), make system configuration tweaks that would otherwise require terminal editing, clear up disk space, configure the notoriously obtuse Compiz 3D graphics, and otherwise jump right into using and enjoying Ubuntu. [Download]

And here’s a terminal command, for you old-school Linux types:

(Don't worry if you've got some of these apps installed already—Ubuntu will ping you to let you know it's already there, then move on).

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So what’s new in the updated Bing Webmaster Tools? Everything. With your feedback in mind, the Bing Webmaster Team decided to hit the reset button and rebuild the tools from the ground up.

The redesigned Bing Webmaster Tools provide you a simplified, more intuitive experience focused on three key areas: crawl, index and traffic. New features, such as Index Explorer and Submit URLs, provide a more comprehensive view as well as better control over how Bing crawls and indexes your sites. Index Explorer gives you unprecedented access to browse through the Bing index in order to verify which of your directories and pages have been included. Submit URLs gives you the ability to signal which URLs Bing should add to the index. Other new features include: Crawl Issues to view details on redirects, malware, and exclusions encountered while crawling sites; and Block URLs to prevent specific URLs from appearing in Bing search engine results pages. In addition, the new tools take advantage of Microsoft Silverlight 4 to deliver rich charting functionality that will help you quickly analyze up to six months of crawling, indexing, and traffic data. That means more transparency and more control to help you make decisions, which optimize your sites for Bing.

We have good news for all the veteran users of the Bing Webmaster Tools. Your existing Webmaster Center accounts have been automatically upgraded to the new tools. This means that starting today, you’re already a registered user of the new Bing Webmaster Tools. There’s no need to create a new account, change ownership verification codes, or re-enter site data. If you don’t have a current account, you can easily sign-up and register your sites to begin using the new tools.

This is only the beginning; we have many more features planned for release in the coming months. These are your tools, so send us your feedback, suggestions, and questions to help guide how the tools evolve. As always, you are encouraged to comment here in the blog or post your feedback and questions to the Bing Webmaster Tools & Feature Requests forum.

– Anthony M Garcia, Senior Product Manager, Bing Webmaster Tools

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This is why we built Google Images in 2001. We realized that for many searches, the best answer wasn’t text—it was an image or a set of images. The service has grown quite a bit since then. In 2001, we indexed around 250 million images. By 2005, we had indexed over 1 billion. And today, we have an index of over 10 billion images.

It’s not just about quantity, though. Over the past decade we’ve been baking deep computer science into Google Images to make it even faster and easier for you to find precisely the right images. We not only finds images for pretty much anything you type in; we can also instantly pull out images of clip art, line drawings, faces and even colors.

There’s even more sophisticated computer vision technology powering our “Similar images” tool. For example, did you know there are nine subspecies of leopards, each with a distinct pattern of spots? Google Images can recognize the difference, returning just leopards of a particular subspecies. It can tell you the name of the subspecies in a particular image—even if that image isn’t labeled—because other similar leopard images on the web are labeled with that subspecies’s name.

And our “Similar colors” refinement doesn’t just return images based on the overall color of an image. If it did, lots of images would simply be classified as “white.” If you’re looking for [tulips] and you refine results to “white,” you really want images in which the tulips themselves are white—not the surrounding image. It takes some heavy-duty algorithmic wizardry and processing power for a search engine to understand what the items of interest are in all the images out there.

Those are just a few of the technologies we’ve built to make Google Images more useful. Meanwhile, the quantity and variety of images on the web has ballooned since 2001, and images have become one of the most popular types of content people search for. So over the next few days we’re rolling out an update to Google Images to match the scope and beauty of this fast-growing visual web, and to bring to the surface some of the powerful technology behind Images.

Here’s what’s new in this refreshed design of Google Images:

• Dense tiled layout designed to make it easy to look at lots of images at once. We want to get the app out of the way so you can find what you’re really looking for.
• Instant scrolling between pages, without letting you get lost in the images. You can now get up to 1,000 images, all in one scrolling page. And we’ll show small, unobtrusive page numbers so you don’t lose track of where you are.
• Larger thumbnail previews on the results page, designed for modern browsers and high-res screens.
• A hover pane that appears when you mouse over a given thumbnail image, giving you a larger preview, more info about the image and other image-specific features such as “Similar images.”
• Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it. Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context.
• Optimized keyboard navigation for faster scrolling through many pages, taking advantage of standard web keyboard shortcuts such as Page Up / Page Down. It’s all about getting you to the info you need quickly, so you can get on with actually building that treehouse or buying those flowers.

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Installing the interface will require first installing a web server software that can run PHP and a copy of Virtualbox running along with the included vboxwebsrv utility, but once you’ve got the application up and running you can manage all of your virtual machines through a web interface that works almost exactly like the desktop client.

phpVirtualBox is free and open source, works on any platform that can run PHP scripts. Readers should note that we’ve not yet tested this ourselves, so if you’ve used this before, be sure to leave some helpful notes for your fellow readers in the comments.

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With efforts like rich snippets and the search answers feature, we’re just beginning to apply our understanding of the web to make search better. Type [barack obama birthday] in the search box and see the answer right at the top of the page. Or search for [events in San Jose] and see a list of specific events and dates. We can offer this kind of experience because we understand facts about real people and real events out in the world. But what about [colleges on the west coast with tuition under $30,000] or [actors over 40 who have won at least one oscar]? These are hard questions, and we’ve acquired Metaweb because we believe working together we’ll be able to provide better answers.

In addition to our ideas for search, we’re also excited about the possibilities for Freebase, Metaweb’s free and open database of over 12 million things, including movies, books, TV shows, celebrities, locations, companies and more. Google and Metaweb plan to maintain Freebase as a free and open database for the world. Better yet, we plan to contribute to and further develop Freebase and would be delighted if other web companies use and contribute to the data. We believe that by improving Freebase, it will be a tremendous resource to make the web richer for everyone. And to the extent the web becomes a better place, this is good for webmasters and good for users.

We look forward to working with the talented Metaweb team. We’ll be sure to share details on our progress in the coming months. In the meantime, if you’re interested to learn more about Metaweb’s technology, we encourage you to check out a helpful video they’ve posted on their blog.

Posted by Jack Menzel, Director of Product Management

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Firefox Home securely syncs your browser data to the cloud so you can access it anywhere. Bookmarked web sites, your browser history, even tabs left open are all synchronized to your iPhone. At The Mozilla Blog, the announcement blog of the Mozilla Project, they detail the simple steps required to setup Firefox Home.

1. Install Firefox Sync, a free add-on for Firefox, on your desktop.
2. Restart Firefox and follow prompts to create an account with both a password and a secret phrase.
3. Go the App Store on your iPhone and search for “Firefox Home” or install it directly from iTunes.
4. Launch Firefox Home on your iPhone. You’ll be prompted to enter your Firefox Sync account info. Enter your username, password and Secret Phrase and tap “Done.”
5. Enjoy!

From there out all your bookmarks, browser history, and the open tabs on your desktop will be shared with your iPhone and other Apple devices. You can view the sites directly in Firefox Home, launch them in Safari, or share the links via email. For more detailed install instructions you can visit the Mozilla help file for Firefox Home here or visit the link below for more information. Firefox Home is a free application and works wherever your iPhone/iPod Touch do.

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Sure, if you just need to remember to look at a message or reply to the sender, stars and labels are more than enough to remind you. But sometimes, if you have a rather long or important message that you need to attend to later, you might want to jot down a few notes as to why that message is important, or what you need to do to follow up. We’ve shown you one way to add notes to Gmail, but this Chrome extension gives a bit more functionality, showing notes in a popup and syncing them with Google Docs.

Gmail Notes only shows itself in your address bar when you’re viewing a conversation in Gmail, so it stays out of the way when you’re browsing elsewhere. Clicking on it will create a new note in a popup, which you can edit, save, and access later on just by returning to that conversation. You can also view all your notes in Google Docs from any computer or browser, even if it doesn’t have Gmail Notes installed. If you’re regularly swamped with email, it’s a good way to spend less time asking “Why did I star this?” and more time getting things done.

Gmail Notes is a free download, works wherever Chrome does.

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ACTA is an extreme copyright treaty that threatens to establish a world of border iPod and laptop searches for infringing music and movies; jail sentences for downloading; universal network surveillance; and whole-house Internet disconnection orders served on ISPs against customers who are accused (without proof) of violating copyright law.

It has been negotiated in secret over protests from MPs, Congressmen, MEPs, public interest groups, technology industry associations, archivists, educators, groups representing people with disabilities, poor countries, and anyone who isn’t an utter corporate lickspittle.

But it continues to function in secret, and it continues to leak. The current leak shows the negotiating position of all the participating countries. The US does not cover itself in glory here — but then, it was Obama’s White House that intervened to keep the treaty secret, citing “National Security.”

ACTA so transparent, the text still has to be leaked

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Android is the latest mobile OS to take the world by storm, but everyone doesn’t have access to the latest mobile devices.  Thankfully, there’s an easy way to run Android on your Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.  Google provides an Android emulator with their SDK, which is designed to let developers test their apps on Android before running them on handsets.  We can use this to test drive Android on our computer, here’s how to do it.

Getting Started

The Android Emulator requires Java to run, so if you don’t already have Java installed on your computer, download it and install as normal.

Note: When installing Java, make sure not to install any crapware it tries to sneak in like the worthless Yahoo toolbar.

Then, download the Android SDK from Google, and make sure to select the correct version for your computer.  Once it’s downloaded, unzip the files as normal. In Windows, run the SDK Setup.exe program to get started running Android on your PC.

The SDK will check Google’s servers for available packages.

If you see an SSL error message, click the Settings tab on the left in the SDK and AVD Manager window that opened in the background.  Here, uncheck the Force https box, click OK, and then reopen the setup.

Now, the Package Installer will open.  You can choose what you want to install, and then click Install to begin installing the Android emulator on your computer.

By default, all of the SDK platforms, samples, and APIs will be selected for install.  This can take quite a while to download, as several versions of Android are currently available.  If you only want to play around with Android, choose the version you want.  You’ll want the SDK Platform Android your.version.  Then click the Reject bullet on all the other entries, and click Install.  We wanted to try out the latest Android 2.2 as well as the older 1.5, so we downloaded both of them.

Once you’ve started installing, you’ll see a window showing the download and installation progress.  This may take a few minutes, depending on your Internet speed. You’ll have some little Androids in your taskbar, but unfortunately they don’t show the download progress.

Setup an Android Emulator

Once the download is completed, you can setup an emulator to test drive Android on your computer.  Select Virtual Devices from the left menu, and then click the New button on the right.

Enter a name for your virtualized Android, and select the version of Android you want to use from the drop-down menu.  This will only show the version you installed previously, so you may only see one version listed depending on your selection.

Enter a size under the SD Card entry; this is a virtual SD card that’s actually an IMG file that Android will use to store your settings and files in.  Then, select a screen size from the skin options.  The default is a standard, Nexus One-type display, while the others are different sizes including even a BlackBerry-style device.

Click Create AVD when you’re finished.

The program may appear to freeze while it is creating the AVD, so just wait until you see the confirmation window.

You’re now ready to run Android on your PC!  Select your new virtual Android, and click Start on the right.

You can choose to scale the display if you’ve chosen a larger screen size than your monitor will fit, and then select Launch.

Android will now begin to load in your emulator.  Several command prompt windows may open, and then you’ll see the emulator itself.  Notice that the default, large screen size will display a keypad and virtual buttons on the right side of the emulated device.

Android may take several minutes to load, especially on your first run.  After a while, the boot screen will switch to an Android boot animation.

Finally, you’ll be presented with your new Android home screen!  Use your mouse as you would normally, though remember that you don’t need to double-click to open apps.

You can open pre-installed apps from the launcher menu, though unfortunately these emulator images do not include the Android Marketplace.

View your favorite websites in the browser, and they will render just as they would on an Android device.  Note that you can enter text using the on screen keyboard in the emulator, or with your standard keyboard.  Since this is an emulator, you may notice some lag in entering text.

You can also install Apps that are directly available online.

Default apps such as Email work great, and you can even see most of the device settings in Android.

Click and hold on the home screen to change the background or try out widgets.

You’ll even see the nifty Android Lock screen if you leave your virtual machine alone for a few minutes.  Just click the arrow and drag it to the other side of the screen to unlock.

You can always repeat the steps later to create a new Android virtual machine.  Here we’ve created an Android 1.5 virtual machine with the QVGA screen size.

We did experience a few crashes in our tests, and the emulator felt somewhat sluggish, but in all, it’s fun to try  out a new mobile OS before spending money on a new phone.

Launch Android Virtual Machines Later

Anytime you want to launch your Android virtual machines in the emulator, just run the SDK Setup.exe as before, and select them from the Virtual Devices list.  Alternately, you can launch an emulator directly from the command line.  To do this, browse to your Android SDK folder and open the Tools folder.  Press the Shift key and right-click, and then select Open Command Window Here.

Now enter the following in the Command Prompt, substituting the name of your Android virtual machine for your_device:

emulator @your_device

Create a Shortcut For Your Android

Alternately, right-click on the Emulator.exe in the SDK Tools folder, and select Create Shortcut.

This shortcut would actually only run the emulator in Command Prompt and not load an actual virtual device.  We’ll need to change the properties to do this, so right-click the emulator and select Properties.

Next, select the Shortcut tab, and then scroll to the end of the Target box.  Enter the name of your virtual Android as before, as @your_Android after the emulator.exe, and then click OK.

Now you can launch your Android directly from your Desktop or Start menu.

Whether you’re a developer who wants to write the next greatest app for Android or are simply are curious about Android and would like to try it out without buying a new phone, the Android Emulator is a great way to get started for free.  It is also a great way to try out new versions of Android if you have an older device. We were disappointed that the Android Marketplace wasn’t included. but check back in the next couple days and we’ll show you how to run it in the emulator!

Also, don’t forget; if you’re using an aging Windows Mobile phone, you might be able to turn it into an Android phone.  Check out our tutorial on how to Run Android on Your Windows Mobile Phone.

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The Google Operating System blog hears word, and receives screenshots, of Google testing out a multi-account log-in system, though it’s limited to Gmail, Calendar, Reader, Docs, Sites, and Code at the moment. The multi-sign-on also disables Gmail’s offline mail, but perhaps there’s an update coming along on that front, too. Perhaps this is part of the “long and complicated process” that Google team members said was in the works back in March.

Update: A Google spokesperson wrote us about this post with the following statement:

Back in May we announced that we will be rolling out changes to our infrastructure for Google Apps accounts, giving Google Apps users access to many more services. We’re currently testing this feature with many customers to get feedback on the user experience. We look forward to bringing this big improvement to the rest of our customers soon, but we have nothing further to announce at this time.

Update 2: It appears our own Gina Trapani had pointed out a Google/Google Apps “parity” in the works, but Google Operating System’s post shows how the multi-account log-in actually looks, and points out the Offline Gmail limitation.

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I remember seeing an article where someone had made a Google Voice port using Adobe Air and I finally found it .  So in the meantime, before Google decides to bless us with a dedicated GV app here’s one that should work on Windows and Linux. (Full disclosure:  I am currently running it on Ubuntu and it’s all good.)

NOTE: Quick Fix for Those of us Who Want/Need a Google Voice (Desktop) App originally appeared on AndroidGuys.

AndroidGuys is looking for summer interns! Check out bit.ly/AGinterns

You May Also Enjoy…

• July 12, 2010 — Google to relent and finally let tablets get the Android Market? (4)
• July 7, 2010 — Search Pretty Much Everything with All in One (4)
• March 23, 2010 — Google Voice Goes Real Time (56)

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Throughout this process, one message has come through loud and clear: people are hungry for better and faster Internet access. With that in mind, today we’re launching a new site called Google Fiber for Communities, where you can learn more about fiber networks and keep up-to-date on our project. You’ll also be able to advocate for common-sense federal and local policies that would help fiber deployments nationwide.

We also wanted to thank every community and individual that submitted a response, posted a YouTube video, started a website, joined a rally or otherwise let their voice be heard. We were so honored by the grassroots enthusiasm across the country for this project that we put together a short video to say thank you:

As we explained back in March, we plan to name our target community or communities by the end of the year. We still have some work ahead of us before we’re ready to make that announcement, but in the meantime, we hope this site helps to keep the conversation going.

Posted by Minnie Ingersoll, Product Manager

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Tech blog ReadWriteWeb details the new Edit in Picnik feature (which we still aren't seeing in our Picasa accounts—so it's probably one of those slow rollouts):

Picnik allows users to perform basic photo editing functions like cropping and resizing pictures. In addition, users can add effects, stickers and frames to their pictures. For an additional fee of $4.95 a month (or $24.95 a year), users can get access to more advanced editing tools and additional effects, fonts and stickers. Until now, Picasa users only had the option to edit photos in the Picasa desktop application.

It’s a nice addition to Picasa Web Albums, especially since Flickr has had Picnik editing capabilities since the end of 2007. The question remains as to whether or not Flickr will keep its Picnik integration now that Google owns Picnik, but that’s not of much concern to Picasa users. What is strange is that Google’s making advanced Picnik editing a premium service. I suppose that any editing is better than nothing, though.

As I mentioned, we’re still not seeing this in our Picasa accounts, so it may be one of Google’s slow rollouts. If you are able to kick the tires on the new feature, let’s hear how you like it in the comments.

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Now the Minister is declining requests from his local mainstream press to defend his own bill, which ignores the results of his own public consultation, wherein an overwhelming majority of Canadians were against protecting “digital locks” on ebooks, movies, games, and music: “Moore, who besides being heritage minister is also the Conservative MP for Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam, refused to comment on Bill C-32.”

Chicken.

Canadian copyright bill opens up debate on digital locks

(via Michael Geist)

(Image: Soy Sauce Chicken, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from fotoosvanrobin’s photostream)

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