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Apple just rejected the Google Voice iPhone application from App Store distribution, the most recent in a long line of questionable moves, and the message is clear: If you want a device that won't lock you out of innovation, skip the iPhone.

Photo by rore.

Lest We Forget

There's no question that this brilliant little piece of hardware has sparked a revolution in the world of mobile computing and cellphones, and, likewise, there's no question that consumers have benefited from that. I've been a believer in the iPhone from the start (hell, I even co-wrote a book on the stupid thing), but despite all the missteps Apple has made along the way, it always at least seemed plausible that they were holding out on apps or making unpopular decisions with some sort of good reason. (That was probably always willful ignorance, and Apple's culture of secrecy just makes it that much easier to assume there's some Very Special Reason for their bad decisions.) Still, I've never regretted buying an iPhone until now.

Refusing Competition

Over the course of the day, most people have speculated that Google Voice was rejected from the App Store at AT&T's behest. The reason? Apple's official line is that Google Voice duplicates features already on the iPhone—namely the Phone and Messages app. Of course, none of that holds water, considering the App Store is already full of alternate SMS apps and apps like Skype that sport a telephone dialer.

So what separates Google Voice from the other, already-approved tools that offer similar features to the iPhone's default apps? As far as we can tell, the main issue is competition. AT&T doesn't see Joe Schmoe's SMS Big Keyboard Deluxe (it's a real app) as much of a threat to the colossal ripoff that is text messaging, for example, but people may actually want to use Google Voice.

From another angle, Apple only seems concerned with duplication of features if an application competes with an app that they already made. If you're competing with another non-default third-party application, you can go and duplicate all you want (hence the oft-cited Fart apps). Still, if a Google Voice app actually does duplicate the functions of the telephone/SMS applications that ship with the iPhone, I want to know how I can use my iPhone to check my Google Voice inbox, send messages via Google Voice, or get my voicemails transcribed with what Apple and AT&T are offering. And do not send me to a crappy iPhone 1.0 webapp.

The real problem, then, is that Google Voice, and all it offers, is actually much better than what AT&T offers.

Forget About Innovation

It's unfortunate, of course, because Google Voice doesn't actually stop anyone from using AT&T. It's not a VoIP app (yet), so you still need AT&T for it to work at all. Again, it simply improves on what the iPhone already has. It would actually make AT&T—and the iPhone—better. From my perspective as a consumer, that in turn makes the iPhone a much more attractive device. Since it's been rejected on the iPhone but approved for Android phones and BlackBerrys, that in turn makes both of those devices that much more attractive.

Sure you can switch carriers if you're not happy—as long as you're willing to empty your pockets to drop out of your contract. That's always been the case. But Apple/AT&T have never sent such a clear message in the past about just how restrictive they'll get if they feel threatened by an application. Those of us who were once excited at the seemingly limitless potential of the App Store now know where we stand.

Apple would like you to believe that the goals of the App Store approval process are lofty ones—that they're only approving innovative apps and that the only reason they don't approve apps is to protect you from bad software or, horror of horrors, confusion. Because god knows it'd be confusing as hell to use a better phone application than what came with the phone. Meanwhile, thank god we can pass our time with iWet T-Shirts (borderline NSFW).

It's All About the Software

As far as I'm concerned, there's two things that set the iPhone apart from its competition: 1) It's got great hardware, and 2) It's got the most third-party applications.

The first issue is a hurdle for other phone providers/phone manufacturers to figure out; some already have matched the iPhone's hardware (as far as its guts go, the iPhone and the Palm Pre aren't all that different) and others will eventually.

The second is where Apple is really asking for it. The more alienated developers feel—especially good developers who're trying to build something new and innovative (as opposed to those looking to join the Fart app gravy train)—the less time they're going to spend playing iPhone App Store roulette. Which means that if you want a phone where you can expect some real innovation, you should probably skip the iPhone.

Isn't This a Bit Familiar?

The iPhone is a full-on computer in your pocket, and in many ways is more capable than your regular old PC. Imagine, if you can, that Microsoft tried dictating what browser you had to use on Windows. Oh right, that happened. Except they didn't refuse to allow you to use any other browser just because it duplicated the features of their default browser. And as Wired points out, Apple is inviting all kinds of regulation with this kind of mindset. And it hasn't just been about Google Voice:

Apple and AT&T are living dangerously though. Apple has also forced video services like Slingbox to cripple their applications because of purported concerns over data usage, while approving ones from paying partners (e.g. Major League Baseball) that would put more strain on a network than Slingbox's would.

If the iPhone's default applications were better than those submitted by Google or by some other third-party developer, then people would use them. If not, then that's a sign that they need to make them better—not a red flag that they should start pulling apps left and right from the App Store because of "duplication."

Why You Should Care

At the end of the day, this isn't simply a Google Voice/iPhone problem—it's a concern for everyone, iPhone owner or not, with an interest in the latest and greatest crop of smartphones. Google's Android OS may be open source, but that doesn't mean they're above pulling apps when pressured by carriers. Right now the non-iPhone manufacturers and carriers are much more willing to allow anything on their platform because, frankly, they're desperate to get some of the attention the iPhone already has. That doesn't mean that'll always be the case.

Every now and then, we like to go on grumpy, long-winded, opinionated rants. We're far from the definitive voice, and your feelings may differ, so feel free to air your thoughts in the comments.

iPhone/iPod touch: Yesterday tech site TechCrunch reported that Apple blocked an official Google Voice app from the App Store; meanwhile, they also kicked unofficial versions (like previously mentioned GV Mobile) out the door. But you can still get GV Mobile for free.

The catch: You've got to be willing to jailbreak your iPhone. Why? Because Apple is demonstrating that they're perfectly happy locking out any application or tool that will improve your iPhone experience in ways that don't gel with their corporate synergy. (Yeah, we said corporate synergy—nice work, Apple.)

The developer of the recently kicked-out-of-the-App-Store GV Mobile has decided to go ahead and release GV Mobile for free rather than let his work go to waste (it should show up in Cydia sometime today or tomorrow). It's a small consolation that you can now get this unofficial app via Cydia on a jailbroken iPhone—especially since we'd really kill to see what the official Google Voice app from Apple would have looked like—but it's better than nothing. Guess that's one more reason for us to keep on jailbreaking our iPhones.

Wow [Sean Kovacs]

You might need a scanner every so often, but they're far too big for their occasional usefulness. If you've got an iPhone and some time to cut cardboard, you can ditch some paper and capture documents without the glass bed.

University of Cincinnati student Kyle A Koch frequently synced his iPhone and backed up his iPhoto library, but wasn't so hot with the paper and study material organization. Since he knew he was reliable with iPhone images, he put his industrial design studies into practice and crafted cardboard-based docks that elevate the phone just enough to properly frame and capture 8.5x11 documents.

You can order a customized, pre-assembled version of Koch's scanner apparatus in cardboard or medium density fibreboard, but Koch also includes a free EPS file for downloading and DIY building. It builds roughly 15 inches tall and long, and would seem to be pretty cheap to build. Combined with a universal capture/OCR tool like Evernote and the powerful camera on an iPhone 3G S, it's definitely a work-able scanner solution for those who only need a few documents in digital form now and again.

iPhone Document Scanner
Ponoko showroom - iPhone Document Scanner [Kyle A Koch via Twitter / Kevin Lim]

Bill Gates drops a lengthy blog post explaining how he gets things done, Microsoft style, using three monitors to watch an inbox, read or write documents, and browse the web. Spoiler: He also digs SharePoint, LiveMeeting, and other MS apps.

Photo by batmoo.

Gates writes that he gets at least 100 emails per day from Microsoft employees, and "many more" from customers and partners. How does he filter all that information across three large flat-screen displays?

I keep my Outlook 2007 Inbox open on the screen to the left so I can see new messages as they come in. I usually have the message or document that I'm currently reading or writing in the center screen. The screen on the right is where I have room to open up a browser or look at a document that someone has sent me in e-mail.

That's not so atypical from the standard three-monitor setup, but it is interesting how he devotes two entire screens to message streams and the messages themselves. A lot of the rest of the post reads like endorsement copy for Office products like SharePoint, LiveMeeting, and other peripheral Office apps, but we don't doubt that Gates truly does appreciate the "unified communications technology" that puts everything into one Outlook bin. Next time you're up for blogging, though, Bill? Post screenshots.

Do you get things done like Gates, or do you find his methods a bit too integrated? Read through his work routine description, then tell us your thoughts in the comments.

Office Hours: How Bill Gates uses Office [Inside Office Online blog via Lifehacker Australia]

Windows/Linux: ImgBurn is the most popular CD and DVD burning tool among Lifehacker readers, and with the newly released version 2.5, it's even better.

You can hit up the full changelog for an in-depth look at the changes, but the biggest feature update is an Advanced mode that gives you more fine-grained control over the layout of files on the disc. You can now rename files, add new folders, and more, directly inside ImgBurn. (As the changelog puts it, "you're no longer limited to burning an existing folder structure on your hard disc as-is.")

Apart from that, you'll notice all kinds of added support for file types and error handling, slightly tweaked or improved features, and a handful of fixed bugs. We already love ImgBurn as is, and while this update isn't boasting any terribly sexy new features, it's great to see that the freeware favorite is still under active development.

ImgBurn is freeware, works on Windows and Linux (using Wine).

ImgBurn [via Download Squad]

Even though your iPhone snaps pictures at pretty decent resolutions (2048x1536 from the 3GS, 1600x1200 on previous iPhone versions), your device automatically resizes photos to a measly 800x600 when you go to email them. Here's how to fix that.

The resized pictures may be enough under certain circumstances, but if you want your pics to make it through your email in their full glory, it's a simple matter of copy and paste.

As weblog Geek stuff points out, the resizing only happens when you share photos from your photo library via your iPhone's traditional Share button—which imports the resized pictures into an empty email. Instead of taking that route, either tap and hold on a single picture and then tap copy or select multiple pictures in album view and tap the Copy button at the bottom of your screen. Then head back to the home screen, fire up Mail, compose a new email, and paste the photos into the new message. Rather than the smaller, resized pictures, you'll get the full resolution versions. Good to know!

Email Full-Resolution Photos from the iPhone [Geek stuff via Just Another iPhone Blog]

An enjoyable bout of foodie one-upmanship has yielded not only one "reverse-engineered" home recipe of KFC's 11 herbs and spices, but an improved version of fried chicken that strips out the MSG. Get the napkins ready and see for yourself.

Ron Douglas, author of the recently published America's Most Wanted Recipes, claims to have nailed down a home recipe that most people can't tell apart from Colonel Sanders' widely available version. Still, it's a bit disappointing to learn that you can't quite replicate the ultimate fast food guilty pleasure without loading your chicken skins with Accent, a.k.a. monosodium glutamate, and using a high-pressure deep fryer.

So the Word of Mouth blog at the Guardian UK crowd-sourced a remix of Douglas' seasoned flour coating, resulting in a version host Tim Hayward finds "very, very good." It lacks the "facepunch" of mouth-filling flavor, known as umami, but it's apparently quite agreeable—and Hayward lists both spice mixes, so you can give in to your overwhelming cravings if needed.

Have you tried either recipe? Have your own pan-fried chicken recipe passed down under lock and key that you want to open-source? By all means, tell us about your chicken in the comments.

The Word of Mouth KFC challenge [Guardian UK via Serious Eats]

Since the release of his new book Making It All Work, David Allen has updated his original GTD workflow chart to include the new elements from the book.

Peter Mara, an attendee at this year's GTD Summit, snapped a great picture of an updated GTD flowchart. The new chart includes an updated layout and elements from Making It All Work, like the 3-fold nature of work.

Check out the link to Peter's Flickr account below to get a closer look at the chart. If you happen to know where a PDF file of the chart resides for download or purchase, share the link in the comments—we've searched high and low to no avail.

GTD: The Workflow Map [via OrganizeIT]

Instant messaging has become so ubiquitous, an entire generation of internet users is probably unaware there was ever life without it. Check out the following five most popular instant messengers to to help you communicate across networks and the world.

Last week we asked you to share your favorite instant messenger with us, and now we're back to share the top five candidates for the title of Best Instant Messenger. The following instant messengers all support multiple IM protocols, more than we could reasonable list in every single entry. If you'd like a quick way to compare clients while reading over the list, check out the extensive instant messenger comparison chart at Wikipedia.

Digsby (Windows, Free)

Digsby's widespread popularity has recently taken a few lumps after they began including crapware in their installer and offering affiliate money to users who help them spread said crap. Despite these two moves, which have left quite a few users grumbling, Digsby is still a chat client with quite a lot to offer (and you can skip the bloat with the right download). Digsby supports multiple chat networks and allows you to merge your friends' multiple usernames into one unified entry on your contact list. When you have Digsby minimized to the system tray, you'll receive notification-style pop-up bubbles when messaged that you can reply right in. Digsby also supports email notifications for popular web-based email services through IMAP and POP3. Social networking isn't left out, either, as Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn can all be viewed and updated via Digsby.

Adium (Mac, Free)

Adium is an open-source chat client for Mac OS X. Adium supports multiple chat and social networking services like AIM, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, Yahoo! Messenger, MySpace, and Facebook, among others. Thanks to integration with the Mac OS, Adium can pull from your address book to populate your contacts list, use system themes, and issue system notifications including Growl notifications. Adium also has support for all kinds of plug-ins and the hundreds of "Xtras"—Adium's label for customization packages. If you'd like to keep things private, Adium also supports encrypted chat via Off-The-Record Messaging and is the only client in the Hive to have native support for it—though Pidgin and Trillian can take advantage of it via plug-in.

Pidgin (Windows/Linux, Free)

Pidgin is another open-source offering with a great feature set and support for popular chat networks such as AIM, ICW, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger, among others. You can download a variety plug-ins to enhance your chat experience by keeping spam away, encrypting your conversations, connecting to social networks, and more. Pidgin doesn't have the most bells and whistles of the clients represented in this Hive, but its open-source code, cross-platform availability, and portable version keep many people coming back to use the streamlined tool. If Pidgin is the apple of your IM eye, be sure to check out our ten must-have plug-ins to power up Pidgin.

Meebo (Web-Based, Free)

Meebo is a web-based instant messaging solution. Rather than requiring you to install a client on your computer, you handle all of your instant messaging affairs through the Meebo web site (although they do have a lightweight system tray notifier available for Windows users). Registration is optional if you're using a single service like AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, Google Talk, or MSN Messenger; you can simply use your credentials for that service to log into it through Meebo. If you want to build a more fleshed out profile that logs into multiple services at once, you'll need to sign up for a free Meebo account. One bonus for people behind a corporate firewall, assuming that your firewall isn't blocking the actual Meebo site, is that as long as you can use secure web sites (those with the https:// designation), you can connect to all your favorite chat services.

Trillian Astra (Windows, Basic: Free, Pro: $25)

Trillian seemed to all but disappear from the instant messaging scene for a while there, but it's come back in full force with the beta-release of Trillian Astra (which most were suspecting may have been vaporware). Trillian Astra has an extensive feature list, although some of the juicier features are disabled after 30 days if you don't upgrade to the Pro edition. Trillian supports the regular customers like AIM, Google Talk, ICQ, and MSN Messenger, as well as Facebook, MySpace, Skype, IRC, and Twitter. While video and audio support are notably lacking from most of the entries in the Hive, Trillian circumvents the problem of trying to play nice with 3rd party protocols by sporting its own video and chat service that is run through the Astra network.

Now that you've had a chance to look over the contenders for best instant messenger, it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:

Which Instant Messenger is Best?(poll)

Have a plug-in for your favorite instant messenger you just have to share? Can't believe your favorite didn't make the cut? Sound off in the comments.

U.S. citizens may be notoriously bad at using up our vacation days, but even if you're just taking off a few days this summer, make the most of it with these 10 vacation tips.

Photo by mikety28.

10. Save Money with a Staycation

Times are tough, but just because things aren't looking so hot in the finance department doesn't mean you can't enjoy a nice vacation. Consider planning a staycation. It may not seem as exciting as exploring exotic new places, but just because you're at home doesn't mean you can't explore your own home as though it were a foreign land. Photo by carlock_family.

9. Prepare Yourself for Travel Abroad

Let's say you do have a good reserve of spare cash for your vacation and you're ready to go abroad. Chances are you've already done your share of planning, but for a little extra help fitting in with the natives, check out web site Travel Etiquette for tips on how to behave properly in different countries. If you're heading somewhere where they don't speak your language, brush up on a few common phrases at BBC Languages' Quick Fix, and make sure you learn the proper phrase for "Where's the ATM?" since according to MSNBC, you're likely to get your best exchange rate there—though you may want to let your bank know you'll be doing this ahead of time. Last, fill up your suitcase with just the good stuff when you're heading back from abroad. Photo by Al Ianni (Away).

8. Handle Your Jet Lag

If you're traveling across time zones, jet lag can rob you of precious fun-time, so take a look at British Airways' jet lag calculator for tips on how to adjust your sleep schedule beforehand so you don't end up napping through the good stuff. If you haven't planned ahead enough, try wearing sunglasses or starving yourself to fend off jet lag. Finally, if you didn't plan ahead at all, a few jet lag cures (like melatonin) may be just what the sleep doctor ordered. Photo by Ann Chou.

7. Hit the Open Road

Of course, flying isn't the only way to get somewhere when you head out on holiday. Perhaps instead of flying the friendly skies, you may want to enjoy one of the best scenic drives in the U.S. The cost of gas is still a consideration, so figure out how much it'll cost you at web site Drive Pricing—or simply stay close to home with a vacation within 71 miles. You may have to do a little more planning to survive a long road trip, but there's nothing like a classic road trip. Photo by NOIZE Photography.

6. Deal with Overload When You Get Back

Nobody wants to think all that much about what's waiting them when they return from a relaxing vacation, so if you can manage it, just take a full-on email sabbatical and skip the full inbox altogether. If that's not an option, it may be time to empty your inbox with the Trusted Trio—or if that's not your style, see how our readers sort through vacation email buildup. And now that you're back, check out how your peers kickstart work mode after returning from a vacation. Photo by DeaPeaJay.

5. Make the Most of Your Vacation Photos

If you haven't snapped some great photos, how will you ever remember what you did? (Or prove you were there?) Take a few words of wisdom from the New York Times' on how to be a better photographer when on vacation, or if you're really serious about your photography, take Fodor's advice and set up a shooting itinerary (and use a map to keep track of them). If, despite your best efforts, you've got other tourists cluttering up your otherwise masterful snaps, try web site Tourist Remover or Wired's Photoshop guide to removing tourists from travel photos. Photo by mandj98.

4. Get Your Laptop Travel-Ready

I'm a firm believer in unplugging as much as possible during a vacation, but who am I kidding—most of us still travel with our laptops. Keep it safe in your luggage by securing it for air travel, and grab a TSA-checkpoint friendly laptop bag to expedite your trip through security. Before you leave, try minimizing your need for the laptop in the first place with some smart vacation auto-responders in Gmail that'll notify everyone that you're out (so you don't have to deal with messages that aren't important). If it is important, try something like AwayFind so people who desperately need to get in touch with you can. On the other hand, if you're just looking for a quick but refreshing weekend trip, consider trying a battery-only weekend to help restrict your computer time to the bare minimum. (You're supposed to be on vacation, after all!) Photo by joey.parsons.

3. Streamline Your Packing

When it comes to lugging around all your bags, we're major proponents of the one-bag philosophy of traveling light. In fact, web site One Bag is an excellent go-to source for all-things-packing, offering packing lists and methods—like the wrinkle-free bundle method—to help you make the most of your luggage. You can also put your MacGyver chops to use when traveling by repurposing items for your packing purposes (stuff souvenir maps in a water bottle, for example). Photo by Digiart2001 | jason.kuffer.

2. Find Cheap Tickets

If you're only goal is cheap tickets without much hassle, take a look at our Hive Five Best Travel Sites for a quick glance at some of the best places to find a great deal—or just head straight to Kayak, our readers' (and our) favorite travel site. If you want to play the odds, Bing Travel's Farecast predicts whether the price of a ticket will rise or drop over time, helping you determine the best time to buy. On the other hand, if you've got an open calendar and just want to get out of town, web site Voyij (pronounced "voyage") can find very cheap tickets for flexible travelers. Frequent fliers, check out Placely and MileMaven to get the most from those frequent flier miles. Photo by alex-s.

1. Get the Best Seat on the Plane

If there's one thing we hate, it's starting off and ending our vacation with a suffocating airplane ride. Head to web site SeatGuru before choosing your seats to find the best seat on your plane. (It shows which seats have extra legroom, outlets, and which are just a touch too close to the bathroom, for example.) If you're booking too late to get your pick of the litter on seats, low-cost carriers are now offering the most legroom (believe it or not). Last but certainly not least, if worst comes to worst and you're stuck in an airport waiting out delay after delay, get to know Rule 240 and score some meal vouchers, a hotel room, partial refunds, and more. Photo by Allerina & Glen MacLarty.

Are you a master traveler or vacation planner? Share your expertise in the comments.

It may not have the words "DON'T PANIC" inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover, but our Bookworm's Guide to the Lifehacker Galaxy is a compilation of some of our favorite book related hacks, projects, and tricks.

Photo by Ian Wilson

What to Read... What to Read...

Photo by japanese_craft_construction

On some days it's tough to decide what to read. For the younger ones, it's easy to find reading lists, but what about the rest of us?

There's WhichBook, which makes suggestions based on what you're in the mood for. Do you want a disturbing yet down-to-earth-story? Or something short and unusual? Just move a series of sliders around and WhichBook does the rest.

And sure, you can discover books based on ones you've just read and loved, but then again, you can try LibraryThing's Unsuggester to get book recommendations based on what you've disliked.

Get Your Reading Material for Few or Zero Dollars

Photo by nertzy

Now that you've figured out what to read, it's time to get your book. By taking advantage of the fact that most booksellers have their new coupons and deals come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can save quite a few pennies. You can just wait until Thursday to grab a bargain after comparing the offers.

But what if you're not in the mood to run out to a store and would be satisfied with an e-book? Project Gutenberg is always great for those, especially with their Top 100 Books section. Personally, I download a book regularly and keep an open window to switch to when I need a brief break from moderating the comments. (Alice in Wonderland has my attention today, if you're curious.)

If you need some company on the commute or would rather listen to your books than read, check out LibriVox, which has a collection of public domain books read by volunteers.

And on those days when you really, really, really need to get an assignment done an hour from now and you've only read 15 pages of the book? Don't panic. WikiSummaries has you covered with free, collaborative CliffsNotes-style summaries.

On the other hand, if you just want to do some deal hunting, we've also rounded up the best places to save money on textbooks.

DIY Through and Through

You're the DIY type and want to make your own book rather than buying one? No worries; you've got plenty of options, whether you want to print public domain books or the novel you wrote (heck, you can even turn your blog into a book).

Go nuts and bind your own books (in as little as five minutes even) or reuse that old office paper for your DIY masterpiece.

Turn Old Books Into Furniture, Clocks, and Hiding Places

It can be tough to part with old books. I once worked in a bookstore, and every time an order came from the corporate office to toss out certain books, I got a little bit teary-eyed. But if you're willing to sacrifice the occasional hardback, we've featured plenty of ways to reuse old books—such as turning them into a bar (though you'll need about 700 or so books for that). If you want to go a step further, you could even deck out that book bar with some invisible book speakers and extra book furniture (and even vases).

If you've only got one or two books to send to their doom, give them new life as clocks, iPod carriers, or secret hiding places.

Repair Your Old and Beloved Books

Photo by Zevotron

Who are we kidding, though, some books are just way too special to send to the repurposing bin. For those books that have a special meaning for you, consider repairing them once they hit old age.

DIY Book Storage and Shelving Solutions

Now that you've tossed out the old books, given them new life, or turned them into something new, you may as well make the piles of books you've got left look more appealing. Try something like this DIY invisible book shelf, for example. (Which even looks great under staircases!) For a quick and dirty solution, you could also turn a wire hanger into a book or magazine rack.

If you'd rather keep your books on a regular shelf instead of lining the walls, try making some DIY CD-case bookends. They're slim, tidy, and cheap.

Get Your Ducks Books In a Row

Photo by karindalziel

Keeping track of your favorite reads can get difficult quickly. Thankfully applications such as Books (Mac OS X only), Tellico (Linux only) or BookBump are there to help. All three are intuitive and so simple to use that you could run your own library.

Oh, and if you decide to free your books from the confines of your home, you can still keep track of them with BookCrossing.

Read Like a True Lifehacker

Photo by eflon

Everything's organized on your shelves, but there's still the matter of improving how you actually read these things. First step: Maybe you want to learn to double your reading speed—or if time's an issue but you don't want to speed up your reading, take the lazy route by finding quick reads.

While you're reading, you can keep your place(s) with a multi-threaded bookmark (if you're looking for something that looks less kinky, try DIY magnetic bookmarks).

If you're the studious type, take some time to learn how to mark up a book and even to enjoy books a bit above your reading level.

Your Turn

Did we miss any of your favorite book hacks and tricks? Do you have a particularly stunning library to show off? Take full advantage of our comments and include some pictures to share with your fellow bibliophiles.

When we showed you how to master highlighting text with your mouse, commenters were quick to point out keyboard alternatives. Considering keyboard shortcuts are our first and only serious love, here's a few handy ways to select text without leaving the keyboard.

Photo by liveandrock.

The battle between keyboard lovers and mouse lovers may never end (it's a personal thing), so we here at Lifehacker like to give equal time to both sides. (Okay, let's be honest—keyboard shortcuts generally get more than their share of time over the mouse.) If you felt left out by our previous text selection tips for mousers, let us make it up to you with the following keyboard-centric text-selection tips.

Universal Key Combinations

These key combinations should work in most every application:

• Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right arrow: Select text by whole words. (Swap Alt/Option with Ctrl for Mac users.)
• Shift+Up/Down arrow: Select text by entire lines
• Shift+Page Up/Page Down: Select one screen's height of text
• Shift+Home/End: Select all the text from the current caret position to the beginning or end of the current line. (Mac users, try Cmd+Shift+Left/Right arrow.)
• Ctrl+Shift+Home/End: Select all the text from the current caret position to the beginning or end of the document. (Mac users, Cmd+Shift+Up/Down arrow should do the trick.)
• Ctrl+A: Select the entire document (Swap Cmd with Ctrl if you're on a Mac.)

Microsoft Word Specific

Once again, Word shines when it comes to text selection, offering more than just the standard key combinations:

• Ctrl+Shift+Up/Down arrow: Select text by paragraphs. (Cmd+Shift+Up/Down arrow on Mac.)
• Ctlr+Shift+F8: Begin selecting a rectangular block of text—use the arrow keys to size the rectangle; cut, copy, or press Esc to exit this selection mode. (Does not seem to work on Mac.)
• F8: Press repeatedly to expand the selection from the current word to the current sentence, then the current paragraph, and finally the whole document (Shift+F8 will shrink the selection); cut, copy, or press Esc to exit this selection mode. (Does not work on Mac.)

Share your own keyboard tricks in the comments.

Windows only: Mozilla released their version 3.7 theme mockups only a few days ago, but you don't have to wait for the 3.7 release to enjoy them—a motivated user already created a lookalike theme that you can install now.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

Installing this theme isn't quite as simple as you are probably used to—you'll need to first enable the All-Glass Firefox extension for the Aero effects, the Personal Menu extension to hide the menubar and add the Tools button, the Stylish extension for a tweak that fixes the text, and then drag the mockup theme's *.jar file into the add-ons window to install it.

Once you've successfully completed all of the steps—which are detailed on the download page—you should have an impressive browser style that looks very similar to the screenshot. Thanks, Brendan!

Firefox 3.7 Mockup Redux 2.0 [deviantART via Tweaking with Vishal]

Remember when Google was handing out free business cards earlier this year to promote profile pages? Now Google Voice is running a similar promotion, handing out 25 free business cards to the first 50,000 users to sign up.

Photo via TechCrunch

Presumably you'll need a Google Voice account, then point your browser to https://www.google.com/voice/promo/iprint. (We've also been told you can find a small link to this offer on the bottom of the left sidebar when you're logged into your Google Voice account.) The offer is limited to the first 50,000 orders, and Google picks up the shipping, so it's all free. Granted, 25 business cards isn't all that much, but if you're looking to ease your transition to Google Voice, it could be a good start.

Unfortunately I'm having trouble getting access to this offer on my account (I'm clearly cursed, because I had the same problem with the last free business cards offer), but we've received loads of emails from folks who had better luck.

Update from a Google Voice employee on Twitter: had to turn off the biz card promotion: too many requests!, our partner got overloaded! Will bring it back shortly. bear with us! Thx!

Free Google Voice Business Cards [Google]

The good news: Google Latitude—the Maps feature that finds your nearby friends on a map—is now available on the iPhone. The bad news: It's only available as a web application, so it doesn't currently work with the Google Maps app.

To try it out, just point your iPhone's browser to http://google.com/latitude and allow Safari to use your current location. Latitude will use your iPhone's GPS to locate you and add your location to Latitude's database. Assuming you've got friends using Latitude, when you tap on the See Map button, you'll see yourself and friends on a Google Map in Safari.

While it's very cool that iPhone users can join in the fun on Latitude, it is a bummer that it's not an integrated native application—either inside Google Maps proper or its own standalone app. (The same way that it's unfortunate that there's no native version of Gmail Mobile for the iPhone, despite the fact that Gmail Mobile in Safari is pretty solid.) Still, it works very well on the location front, and while I'm having a bit of a time adding friends successfully, it shows promise.

Google Latitude. Now for iPhone. [Google Mobile Blog]

According to the Harvard Business blog, you can organize an eight-hour work day and keep it on track by creating a ritual that'll only take a total of 18 minutes each day.

Photo by koyochi

Harvard Business blog's Peter Bregman outlines three steps on how to avoid those days when you can barely remember what you intended to accomplish by the time you reach for your keyboard:

STEP 1 (5 Minutes) Set Plan for Day.
STEP 2 (1 minute every hour) Refocus..
STEP 3 (5 Minutes) Review.

Basically, you'll start the day off right by grabbing a sheet of paper and writing down the goals which you can realistically accomplish that day. The important part is to immediately assign time slots to those tasks by order of importance and difficulty because these designated times make you more likely to accomplish your goals and give you a way of tracking your progress once every hour. At the end of the work day, you'll take a few minutes to review not just the last hour, but the entire day. Did you stay on track? What can you do differently tomorrow to retain or improve your productivity?

Check out the full details on this time management ritual on the Harvard Business blog and tell us about how you organize your days and prevent slumps in productivity. Do you have a ritual or do you fly by the seat of your pants and hope for the best? Share your workday time management successes (or failures) in the comments.

An 18-Minute Plan for Managing Your Day [Harvard Business Publishing]

Windows only: Until Google graces us with a real extension manager, an enterprising user put together an impressive batch file that can handle enabling, disabling, or even uninstalling Google Chrome extensions.

Once you've downloaded the batch file, you can simply double-click to open it up in a command prompt window, where you'll be presented with a menu that allows you to enable, disable, or uninstall extensions, or even run Chrome with extensions enabled. It's definitely not the ideal way to deal with add-ons, but it's a great, workable solution until Google puts a real extension manager together—and you have to admire those kind of batch scripting skills.

Hit the link for the download, and remember to right-click the batch file download link and Save As, giving the file a *.bat extension.

Chrome Extension Manager [Chrome Plugins via Techie Buzz]

If you love Gmail and you happen to be a disciple of the Getting Things Done philosophy, reader Chris Zimmerman details how he employs a couple of Gmail Labs features to transform Gmail into an impressive GTD inbox.

Ed. note: Everything below comes courtesy of Chris, who details how he uses previously mentioned Gmail Labs features like Gmail Superstars. and Multiple Inboxes to get things done.

Gmail Setup

Using Superstars & Multiple Inboxes:

1. Enable both "multiple inboxes" and "Superstars" in Google Labs
2. Then in general settings, set your stars up like this:

   
   

   These are used to represent, in order from left to right:

   • Red Bang - Needs Immediate Action/Scheduling, search query: has:red-bang (or l:^ss_cr)
   • Yellow Bang - Needs Action/Non-Immediate, search query: has:yellow-bang (or l:^ss_cy)
   • Red Star - Scheduled on Calendar, search query: has:red-star (or l:^ss_sr)
   • Orange Arrows - Delegated, search query: has:orange-guillemet (or l:^ss_co)
   • Purple Question - Needs Further Follow-Up or Research, search query: has:purple-question (or l:^ss_cp)
   • Purple Star - Some Day/Long Term, search query: has:purple-star (or l:^ss_sp)
   • Green Check - Completed, search query: has:green-check (or l:^ss_cg)
   • Green Star - Archive, search query: has:green-star (or l:^ss_sg)
   • Blue Info - Archive as General Reference Item, search query: has:blue-info (or l:^ss_cb)
3. Then I set the settings of my multiple mailboxes up like this:

   
   

   • The idea is, nothing should sit with a "red bang" for very long. For me at least, if it isn't scheduled, it probably won't happen, so I want stuff on the calendar as soon as possible.
   • Once your Inbox is set up it looks great and automatically sorts things into the proper piles like so:

   
   

   
   

4. I then also use labels to define Contexts, Projects, and Resources - Prefixed with a C/ or a P/ or R/ respectively:

   Context Examples:

   • C/Appointment
   • C/Community
   • C/Computer
   • C/Consciousness
   • C/Errands
   • C/Exercise
   • C/Home
   • C/Offline
   • C/Phone
   • C/Private
   • C/Travel

   Project Examples:

   • P/Company Site
   • P/Source New Building
   • P/Board Outing
   • P/Spring Vacation

   Resource Examples:

   • R/Jones, Steve, Attorney
   • R/Zoning Board
   • R/Thomas, Joe
5. Toggling the stars quickly puts things in the right action pile for fast processing. Tagging them with context and project labels, I know what I could be working on and how to move projects ahead.
6. I also save common searches in my toolbar using this Gmail bookmarklet generator. Using the same search queries from above, you generate bookmarklets you can drag right to the toolbar. As an example, say I want to quickly see all mail that's been delegated (the orange arrows); I go to the site, and enter l:^ss_co as my query, like so:

   
   

   "Title" is the word that will appear in the button, so I keep it simple and stick to what I am looking for.
   After I hit "generate", here's what I got:

   
   

   Then I just dragged it to my toolbar.

   I took it a step further, and put my common searches in and created a folder for all of them, like so:

   
   

   Clicking on any of the bookmarklets takes me directly to whichever search I need.

Thanks for the great writeup, Chris! Got a similar implementation of your own? Let's hear it in the comments.

Depending upon the font size of a document and your hand-eye coordination, it can be difficult to position the mouse cursor exactly where you want it when selecting text. Here's how to quickly select text blocks with minimal fuss.

Photo by quinn.anya.

You may have been using some of these text-selection tricks ever since you fired up a computer with a mouse, but chances are you'll find something below that you didn't know before.

Select By Words Instead of Characters

Instead of simply clicking and dragging your mouse, double-click the first or last word you want to highlight and hold down the mouse button on the second click; then just drag the mouse as usual when selecting text and voilà—you're selecting whole words rather than individual characters.

I've tested this method with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Word, Wordpad, and Notepad—but it's probably an OS default, since it works in virtually any program I can think of. You can get Word to do the same thing by default—without double-clicking—via the Edit tab in the Options dialog, but it's an all or nothing affair. The option is checked by default; turning it off gives you greater flexibility for text selection once you know this trick.

Select Whole Paragraphs or Documents

Most applications will also select an entire paragraph with a triple-click. Similar to the above method, if you triple-click before dragging the mouse, only whole paragraphs will be highlighted. This can be a quick way to select an entire document by triple-clicking the first paragraph and dragging down to the last.

More Selection Options Using Word

While the above tips work most anywhere, Word seemingly has no end of different ways to select text. Here are just some found by experimenting with different key combinations while clicking and/or dragging with the mouse:

• Shift+click: Select from the current caret position to the mouse cursor location
• Alt+double-click: Select from the beginning of a word to the mouse cursor location
• Alt+click-and-drag: Select a rectangular block of text
• Ctrl+click: Select an entire sentence; once one sentence has been selected this way, Shift+click or Ctrl+click-and-drag can be used to expand the selection to multiple contiguous sentences

If you've got your own text selection tricks, share them in the comments.

Windows only: Free application MetatOGGer is an advanced MP3 (and OGG Vorbis, FLAC, Speex, Musepack, Windows Media, WavPack, and Monkey's Audio) tag editor that can automatically tag your music by creating audio fingerprints and comparing them with online database, MusicBrainz.

(Click the image above for a closer look.)

And while MusicBrainz already has its own dedicated application for this (the previously mentioned Picard), we've always found Picard to be a little clunky. MetatOGGer, on the other hand, seems quite a bit more user friendly. Likewise, MetatOGGer can automatically search out and add lyrics to your tags from web site LyricWiki.

This one didn't make our list of the six best MP3 tagging tools, but then again, we didn't even know it existed. And while it may not be as efficient as something like MP3Tag (our Hive Five winner), it does show a lot of promise.

MetatOGGer is freeware, Windows only, requires .NET 3.5 SP1. If you give it a try, let's hear how it worked for you in the comments.

MetatOGGer translated (original French page) [via FreewareGenius]