skin

Finally, hard drives have cottoned on to the whole personalization deal and realized that color choices are not enough. Seagate's Pimp My Drive initiative is partnering with MusicSkins to offer vinyl skins to dress up your storage drive, just like notebooks and handsets.

There's a bounty of skins--about 161--to pick from at MusicSkin's Seagate page, for what seems to be $20 each. Or you can get a skin from the cryptkeeper when you're buying a FreeAgent Go drive. From Bob Marley to John Lennon to Adult Swim and even personal photos and images, the good thing … Read more

Nicky's World Productions Windows Media Player Skin offers an alternative to the bland appearance associated with the music player. This fun skin streamlines the popular media program.

The program's interface will be fairly simple to master for anyone who has operated Windows Media Player before. All the normal command buttons are there, though changing albums or seeing which song is playing requires users revert back to the program's Full Mode. Since this is only a skin, there is no Help file to guide you. The skin basically takes the core functions of the Media Player and shrinks … Read more

ObjectBar is a customizable toolbar that allows users to add and remove various elements. We found it to be a nice addition to our Windows experience.

The toolbar itself can be customized with an assortment of themes and skins, and the ability to tweak the toolbar's contents means that the interface can be just about whatever a user wants it to be. However, the interface with which the user manages the toolbar could be better designed. It's easy enough to add and remove programs, but other functions, including changing themes and skins, aren't so intuitive. The program'… Read more

MakeUp Pilot offers users a chance to improve photographic idiosyncrasies by applying digital makeup. The program is incredibly easy to use, but results vary.

We were impressed with this program's simple interface where users are immediately treated to a six-part tutorial showing how to use the makeup. Lasting only a few minutes, users will have a familiarity with various makeup applications and adjustment tools after the tutorial. For those who need more insight, a Help file is available. Applying makeup and improving picture quality was a mixed bag, with tools ranging from eyeliner, rouge, powder, lipstick, eye color, and … Read more

Ace reporter Caroline McCarthy joins the show today to give us a little preview of South by Southwest, while we ream Justin Yu for totally being a pushover on our competing podcast "Bore Out Loud." Caroline says there isn't really much scheduled that will be ground-breaking this year, but that's because The 404 isn't there.

McCarthyism says that she's got the connection to get us on "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon." We think we can get on if Diggnation can get on. Letterman ain't having us after a week with U2.

Jeff and Caroline have a pale-off. It's pretty damn close, but we've got to say Jeff wins this one. He temporarily blinded Wilson yesterday when he sat underneath a light when shooting the brand new Nintendo DSi. Speaking of which, CNET gets an exclusive first look at the device, and we think Jeff is a believer now. It only took 100 million Nintendo DSs to get it done. Also, check out Jeff on Loaded today, where he gives his first impressions of the new Resident Evil 5.

Finally, we end the show on a classy note. A man has managed to get a USB flash drive installed on his prosthetic finger. The jokes ensue when Justin comments that he'd love to get a USB drive attached to a certain peripheral on his body. This is truly the home of the "Nerdy dirty."

Our contest is still going on. Send in your suggestions to the show. We love hearing them, especially the international ones. Much praise goes to brisebanelistener for quite possibly one of the funniest voice mails ever!

This completely customizable clock lets you dress up its clock face with your own pictures. Though it took us a little time to load our picture, we found it a fun alternative to the staid system clock.

Custom Skin Clock appears on your desktop as a plain, analog clock with directions to right-click to add an image. Doing so introduces a menu that lets you adjust the clock's size and transparency. You can also choose to keep the clock on top of whatever you're working on at the moment. The Customize Clock option introduces a new interface that … Read more

If you're glued to your computer, you should make it as inspiring as you can.

That was our goal back in September 2006 when we first put together a collection of top desktop enhancement apps.

Since then, Microsoft's spiced-up graphics have added a charm to Vista that XP out-and-out lacked, but is the blue look you, or can you still do better? We've picked out the best free and free-to-try downloads to give you a brightly colored taskbar, animated wallpaper, and dynamic cursor options for your XP or Vista box. Check out the desktop eye candy in … Read more

Despite the fact that I finally caved and purchased a second-gen iPod Touch, history will tell you that I'm no iPod fangirl. Still, one thing the iPod has going for it that no other MP3 player can match is a seemingly endless array of third-party add-ons.

There are hordes of cases; gaggles of speakers; and a shocking supply of docks, recorders, FM transmitters, and other feature-adding devices...not to mention all those apps for the Touch and the iPhone.

Over the past several years, there have been a number of iPod accessories that tempted me to bow to the … Read more