production

Free up items in the Taskbar

I use both Windows and Mac machines at my desk for testing and reviewing software for each platform. While both platforms have their advantages and disadvantages, I recently found a simple program that fixes one of my pet peeves about Windows.

One small Windows XP and Vista interface quirk that has always bothered me is the inability to move items in the taskbar. Though it might not bother other people, I always like having my programs set up in a certain way--Outlook on the left, my browser after that, my chat program, and then other programs to the right of … Read more

Pageonce: Bring your bank, Netflix accounts to you

If you wanted to check your bank balance, Netflix queue, and eBay purchases from your BlackBerry or iPhone, which would you start with first? If you answered "all three," take a look at Pageonce, which we've spotlighted in this First Look video.

After logging in on your phone, you'll be able to view what is essentially a stylized RSS feed of your financial, social-networking, travel, and shopping accounts, the details of which are secured from prying eyes in a number of ways. Pageonce for iPhone comes in a free, ad-supported version and in a pro version … Read more

What to expect at SXSWi, part 1: Marketing and launches

This is part one of a four-post series.

It was a sort of worlds-collide surprise when I heard recently from a few guys from my hometown whom I've known since college. They wanted to talk to me about this month's South by Southwest Interactive Festival, that annual everyone-goes-there digital culture bacchanalia in Austin, Texas, which runs from Friday through next Tuesday.

You see, these friends of mine had recently started working at a company called JagTag, which creates barcode-based marketing campaigns for clients like sports teams and apparel brands. They're hoping to spread the word about the … Read more

Dropio jumps into 'the stream,' goes real-time

When Facebook announced that its news feed would turn into a real-time "stream" of updates and media, it became clear that the Twitter-like model of fast-moving information flow was gaining a real foothold in the dot-com world.

Now, file-sharing service Dropio has opted to turn its "drops"--the pages where people can drag and drop any number of multimedia files and then password-protect them--into streams optimized for collaborative work. If you're working in one of them, it updates instantly for all users.

There's also a new feature, much like in Google Docs, Zoho, and … Read more

Top 5 Most popular products

This week's Top 5 looks at the most popular products as determined by you. These are the products that you visit most on the CNET Web site. We just look at the traffic over the past month and count down the review pages with the most pageviews. And, man, do you like phones.

We're also doing another giveaway this week. Watch the video to hear the question. Winner gets a robot once touched by Veronica Belmont. Post your answer in the comments below. First correct answer wins the 'bot.

Microsoft takes hosted business software overseas

Microsoft said Monday it is expanding online services to businesses beyond the U.S. borders.

Microsoft, which has long discussed selling online services to businesses, began offering hosted software services to U.S.-based companies of all sizes last fall.

The software giant will begin selling its Business Productivity Online Suite, which includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Office Live Meeting, in 18 additional countries beginning April 1.

The hosted service will be offered in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, in addition … Read more

Top products you can't live without

A month ago I counted down the top 5 tech products I couldn't live without. I got so many great responses on the blog, that I decided to tally them up and count down the top 5 products you can't live without.

So watch the video, enjoy the list, and then come right back to this blog and try to guess what the number 6 would have been. If you're right, and you're the first person to respond here, you'll win that lovely wireless mouse I showed off in the video.

Update

Congratulations to HipHop4Prez … Read more

Double Vision lets you watch Hulu in Excel

Double Vision (download) is the latest tool for people who don't like doing work while at work. This small piece of software lets you casually surf the Web inside of other programs, then hide the window with a simple keyboard shortcut.

The browser itself is just a reworked version of Internet Explorer, although it won't import any bookmarks from there. You can, however, enter in any Web address, or pick from a small selection of sites from Double Vision's content portal.

What makes the software so special is that you can control the transparency of the browser … Read more

Write without distraction

JDarkRoom is a free, full-screen text editor that's designed to help you focus on your writing by eliminating distractions. When you open JDarkRoom, your screen goes completely black except for a blinking green cursor. By design, JDarkRoom gives you a limited feature set, with support for only basic word-processing functions such as cut, copy, paste, undo, and line and word count. JDarkRoom opens quickly (although not quite as quickly as Text Edit) and offers many options for fonts, auto-saving, and screen and type color. Its interface can take some getting used to (for example, it uses some nonstandard keystrokes, … Read more

App to reduce distraction

Isolator is a small, simple application designed to enhance your productivity by reducing visual distractions. Isolator can blur, cover up, or hide all other application windows and the dock, with a quick keystroke or by clicking on Isolator's icon in the menu bar.

You can set blur intensity, background color, opacity, and fade speed, and you can choose from several options for how Isolator is activated and whether it opens on start-up. The developer behind Isolator has done an excellent job of adding functionality in successive updates (like the blur effect and support for multiple monitors) while making sure … Read more