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Mac OS X only: Universal application launcher and then some Quicksilver has a pretty shaky future, so we were both surprised and thrilled to find a new release of Quicksilver boasting, among other things, improved performance.

Rather than simply bringing Quicksilver up to spec with Snow Leopard (like the last maintenance release), Quicksilver 1.0 Beta 57 actually comes complete with some fixes and improvements. For whatever reason, the release isn’t currently available on the Quicksilver homepage, but the changelog on software download site MacUpdate lists a ton of changes, including claims of performance boosts:

Default compiler changed to Clang, Apple’s and the Open Source community’s next gen compiler. By doing that a 20 to 40% increase in runtime speed was gained while managing a catalog library with approx. 13k items. Quicksilver also feels a lot snappier too.

Not bad for an application that’s not really in active development anymore (and whose creator is busy working on Chrome OS). I’ll venture to say that the new build does feel a touch faster, but speed is always a tough call, so let’s hear how the new release feels to you in the comments.

Update: As some readers have pointed out, this build seems to have come from the active development of Quicksilver that’s going on over at GitHub. It’s great to see that users are actively developing the open-sourced app.

Quicksilver is a free, open-source download for Mac OS X only. If you’re new to Quicksilver, check out our beginner’s guide.

Last minute packing is a great way to forget something important. Never forget anything in your toiletries bag by establishing a permanent one for easy packing.

You know what products you like to use, and you know from previous travel experience what products and grooming tools you’ll bring with you. Rather than pack and repack your toiletries bag every time you hit the road. you can save time and the frustration of arriving somewhere only to find out you’ve left something behind by packing a permanent toiletries bag.

At wikiHow, the public-sourced how-to guide site, they have guide to building your permanent toiletries bag including making a list, gathering duplicates of all your favorite items you use at home and handy little tips like keeping a 3×5 card in your toiletries bag. As you deplete items on the road, you can write them down on the 3×5 card for an instant shopping list when you return home.

Check out the full guide at the link below for more tips and tricks. Have your own time and frustration-saving travel tip? Let’s hear it in the comments.

Filed under: iPhone, App Review

At the risk of invoking a round of reader rage, I’ll admit that I’ve never really been that hyped on the idea of MMS on the iPhone (and, by the way, get off my lawn). If I want to send someone a picture, I’ve got their email address; I’ll just send them a picture. No big whoop.

I do have some friends and colleagues who ‘came up’ on mainline camera phones and they gleefully pop pics back and forth via MMS. I also appreciate the ability to decode the snapshots my wife sends from her Motorola RAZR, but overall I wouldn’t rate it among the top iPhone features I was eager to get from AT&T (not like the ongoing lack of tethering, which is making me grind my teeth in my sleep).

That prejudicial attitude may have made me a little skeptical when I met with FunMobility’s CEO Adam Lavine this week to get a preview of his company’s new free app FunMail [iTunes link], which promises to leverage the Semantic Media Project and add appropriate imagery to your MMS messages, short emails, Facebook wall posts, et cetera. It’s available in the US App Store as of last night.

Sure, the app is simple enough to use (once you register and accept the company’s TOS, which may subject you to occasional text messages from them if you don’t opt out) — type in your message, and the system gives you the text (up to 140 characters) atop your choice of image from a list of five, sourced from FunMobility’s licensed libraries along with Creative Commons remixable content from Flickr and other repositories. If you want to include a hidden search term, putting it at the end of the message with a double-hash (##) will tell FunMail to search those words without including them in the sent message. You can send it to any mobile phone number in your address book, to email recipients, or to your Facebook friends or wall via Facebook Connect. The result is a little bit inspirational office poster, a little bit LOLcat, and in some ways strangely intriguing… but not really, you know, useful.

Continue reading FunMail adds instant images to Facebook status & MMS

TUAWFunMail adds instant images to Facebook status & MMS originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Recently, there have been some rumors swirling around about Skype becoming open source (for Linux), originating with a French blog.

The news has continued to spread, so Skype representatives have posted an entry on the Skype for Linux blog clarifying the situation. Sort of. Without going into too much detail, Skype says that an open source version of the Linux client is being developed. This is not the same thing as the Skype code itself becoming open source.

Skype for Linux has always lagged behind in development from its Windows and Mac counterparts and users of certain Linux distributions can have problems installing Skype in part because the client is rarely updated frequently enough to work with the latest kernel iterations. Moreover, because Skype is a proprietary application, it isn’t installed by default in most Linux distributions and finding it in repositories (even multi-verse repositories) can be difficult.

Skype makes a point to mention “an open source UI” — which makes us think that it will just be the GUI libraries that will be open sourced, not any of the underlying VoIP or communications libraries. In other words, it might be easier for the Gnome or KDE teams to integrate Skype into the existing X-Windows platforms, but the base of what makes Skype work will still be closed off.

Regardless, any chance at an open source client is good news for Linux users, because at least the community will have a shot at making the client more compatible and easier to install.

Do you use Skype on Linux? What do you think of Skype opening up some of its code? Let us know!

Tags: Linux, open source, Skype, skype for linux, voip

Filed under: Cool tools, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch

When TextExpander touch for the iPhone was announced, one of the exciting aspects was the SDK to allow other developers to integrate TextExpander’s technology into their iPhone apps.

The new version of WriteRoom for iPhone now includes TextExpander support. With this announcement, SmileOnMyMac has announced that they will be selling TextExpander touch for $1.99 until September 30 at 12 noon Pacific Time, a 60% discount off the regular price of $4.99.

WriteRoom for iPhone 2.1 includes other updates as well, as noted on the development blog:

• TextExpander support.
• Optional startup password.
• Settings are now accessed within app.
• New option to lock screen orientation.
• Sync service is out of beta and is open sourced.

If you purchase WriteRoom for iPhone ($4.99 on the App Store), you’ll get a $5 off coupon that can be used to purchase either WriteRoom ($24.95) or TaskPaper ($29.95) for Mac.

TUAWTextExpander touch on sale to celebrate WriteRoom for iPhone integration originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not a clever hack any of us want to have to use, but the Art of Manliness blog has a homebrew fix for the next time your restroom trip ends in disaster.

Photo by powerbooktrance.

When a toilet clogs, the first jobs are stopping water from flowing to prevent an overflow and finding a decent plunger. Then again, if you’re visiting a friend’s place and might feel embarrassed returning from the bathroom with such a request, some hot water from a bathroom sink might do the trick. Need more firepower? Add in dishwasher detergent to put things right:

Add a few cups of hot water to the toilet bowl before you start plunging. After you pour the hot water in, let it sit for a few minutes. To put it mildly, the heat helps break the, um, stuff up. This will make unclogging the toilet with the plunger much, much easier. The heat from the hot water can sometimes break up the clog without plunging, so this could be a good tactic to use if you a clog a toilet at a friends house and you don’t want to face the embarrassment of asking for a plunger.

The blog post, sourced from a Roto-Rooter representative, offers more good-to-know tidbits about properly using a (warmed and un-stiffened) plunger and using tools like an auger for the really bad, um, breakdowns. If you’d care to be so discrete as to share your own toilet emergency fixes, we’ll welcome them in the comments.