While some modern browsers include built-in spell checkers, and some operating systems include built-in spelling and grammar checkers, there are people out there using operating systems and browsers that do not have these features.

If you’re looking for some help with your writing and don’t have access to Microsoft Word or a similarly-powered word processor, there’s a solution available on the web called After the Deadline. The site (at the memorable URL polishmywriting.com) offers spelling and grammar help, and even writing style suggestions.

Continue reading After the Deadline polishes your writing on the internet

After the Deadline polishes your writing online originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sears Holdings (NASDAQ: SHLD), a retailer whose competitive colleagues include Target (NYSE: TGT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), wants to improve its brand equity and find a new path to growth. As such, it’s willing to employ all kinds of initiatives, especially ones that will form a nice image with the consumer during this dreadful economic contraction.

According to The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Sears is trying out a program that offers protection against the risk of investing in an pricey appliance during a time when job security is not as secure as it used to be.

The program will run for a specified time period beginning next week, and the basic gist is this: buy an appliance priced $399 or higher on a Sears credit card and, and if you lose your job, Sears will credit one twelfth of the cost each month. Still no job after one year? Keep the appliance, your debt will be forgiven.

Continue reading Sears offering hedge for consumers who lose their job — good idea?

Sears offering hedge for consumers who lose their job — good idea? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I normally use Yahoo! Pipes to combine multiple feeds into one, but that’s like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer compared to FeedMingle. It’s a single-use site that does nothing but combine feeds and spit out the results in RSS, Atom, JSON or HTML widget flavors.

FeedMingle will autodetect feeds if you’re lazy like me and just feel like putting in the main URL of a site. It doesn’t matter whether you input the Atom or RSS URL anyway, because you have your choice of output formats. The feeds that FeedMingle creates work fine in a few readers I tested, but I’d like to see them distinguish which source feed each item came from.

Combine multiple feeds into one with FeedMingle originally appeared on Download Squad on Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Gmail Mobile just received a couple of updates that bring it even closer to the full Gmail experience: keyboard shortcuts and faster autocompletion for contacts. When Google says “keyboard shortcuts,” the emphasis is on the “keyboard” part. You’ll need to have an Android phone with a physical keyboard, like the G1, to use them. If you do, Gmail on your phone now supports all the same shortcuts you can use in desktop Gmail, so you can navigate your mailboxes or jump to the next message with a single keypress.

Faster autocompletion can be used by Android and iPhone users alike. Autocompletion has been reported on some blogs as a new feature, but Google’s own blog post advocates that addresses just complete faster now, thanks to caching of results from previous address book searches. This means that possible addresses should now come up as you type, making it even quicker than before to send a message from Gmail Mobile.

Gmail Mobile gets shortcuts and faster autocompletion originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’re running Windows and you like to use several apps and windows at once, but also frequently need to access files stored on your desktop, the developers of Desk Topmost feel your pain. Even keyboard shortcuts that get you to the desktop collapse what you’re working on to the taskbar and make you dig it out again. Desk Topmost doesn’t — it just puts the desktop on top.

Floating the desktop on top of everything else gives you easy access to whatever icons you need there, while leaving your Windows in place. It’s sort of like a different take on the Mac’s Expos

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Somewhere between the vagueness of to-do lists and the complication of calendars, there’s Superminder . It’s a easy email and SMS reminder service that looks great and works will a minimum of fuss. Set a timezone, give it an email and a mobile number, and away you go. Reminders just get a name, a date, a time, and a delivery method, and you can forget the rest. It’s like iCal without the “cal.”

The strength of Superminder is in its simplicity. The most obsessive modern design gurus will love the look and intuitive feel of the UI. The only thing I have the ability to knock it for is that you’ve to pay for SMS reminders, but even that isn’t the worst thing. SMS shortcodes are obscenely high-priced, and designer geeks have to eat. Plans range from $4 for 15 SMS messages to $25 for 100, or you can always use Superminder via email for free.

Between to-dos and calendars, there’s Superminder originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 06 Jun 2009 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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“I’m gonna be a champion!!’

Yes, you are Little Mac. As long as you’ve got a handy application like Shoutbox Timer installed on your personal.

The free application lets you create a workout routine that plays back on your personal screen with audio notifications, verbal cues, and, of course, a timer.

I imagine this could be very handy for someone running any kind of exercise class, but I like to think of it being put to use in the workplace. Picture the look on your coworkers’ faces as they see you responding to prompts like “uppercut,” “roundhouse,” or “combo breaker” in the confines of your cubicle.

If only Bobby had been able to use this program prior to shooting the “Raging Bird” episode of Animaniacs (clip after the break).

There are a couple stipulations to run Shoutbox: the .Net 3.5 Framework and The Eye of the Tiger.

Go get ‘em, killer!

Continue reading Shoutbox Timer helps you train like a champion

Shoutbox Timer helps you train like a champion originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Postbox is a powerful email client based on Mozilla’s Thunderbird, and, like Thunderbird, it now supports extensions. The selection of add-ons is limited right now, but it includes some useful ones: ReminderFox handles reminders and to-do items. Minimize to Tray is just what it sounds like, allowing Windows users to put Postbox in the system tray. Nostalgy adds keyboard shortcuts, and MozBackup backs up your messages and settings. This is a good start, but it’ll interesting to see what other useful extensions pop up now that the door is open.

The latest build of Postbox also adds a long list of other useful features. If you’re switching from Mail.app, you can now easily migrate your settings to Postbox. Postbox will now also pull pics for your contacts from OS X’s address book or from Twitter. Several performance upgrades and repairs of annoying issues from earlier versions are also in place now, so it looks like a good time to take into account giving Postbox a try.

Mozilla-based email client Postbox finally gets add-ons originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 01 Jul 2009 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a while since we first looked at ToodleDo, an excellent web-based task manager. But as cool as ToodleDo is as standalone web page, it’s the integration with other services like Google Calendar that make it a task manager like this really useful. Recently ToodleDo launched a gadget for Gmail that makes it easy to view, create, or sort your tasks from Gmail, which is a killer feature for anyone who leaves Gmail open all day as they go about their other tasks.

In order to use the ToodleDo Gmail gadget you’ll need to enable the Gadgets feature in your Gmail Labs settings. Google also offers its own Tasks application which you can also view in the Gmail sidebar. But while you can easily create tasks from email messages with Google Tasks, you don’t have as many options for sorting and filtering apps as you get with ToodleDo.

[via WebWorkerDaily]

ToodleDo gadget brings powerful task manager to Gmail originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you have the capability to install software on your work personal, by far the easiest way to move files back and forth between your home and work personal would be a file synchronizing product like DropBox. But if you don’t, what’s the best way to move a relatively big file between two remote personal? For small files, email is usually the answer, and for users of Gmail that expands to files of up to 25 MB in size. But with what can often be a massive catch: Gmail won’t allow you to transfer executable files, even if they are inside a zip archive.

However, if you’re simply wanting to move a file between personal, you can exploit the fact that Gmail doesn’t actually scan a file to see if it is an executable until you actually try to send the email containing the file. This means that you’re free to attach any file up to 25 MB in size to an email in Gmail, as long as you don’t send it. You can then log into your Gmail on another personal, and download the attached file, without ever running into the executable file restriction.

Of course, the other easy way around Gmail’s limitation is to change the file extension of the file you’re sending. If you’ve an executable file inside a Zip archive, and you change the archive’s file extension from .zip to .zzz, for example, Gmail doesn’t know what a .zzz file is and does not scan it. Voila, you can now easily send executable files through Gmail.

Using Gmail as an impromptu drop-box for any file type originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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