Cross Platform YouTube Music Player - MusicTube!

For the good or worse, by using online video sharing services such as the extremely popular YouTube for instance, we can watch or listen to thousands or millions of songs without having to pay a penny :). Although I don't use it that often (because I have a limited-bandwidth internet connection, damn!) but if you use it quite often then would it be nice if we could have a dedicated application that lets us listen/search & manage all the music files on YouTube from our desktop with ease?.

In that case, I'm pretty sure there are quite a few already but I came across this one called "MusicTube" and it's awesome!. It's a cross-platform application written in the Qt GUI toolkit and supports MS Windows, Mac OSX and Ubuntu at the moment.

Although it's not fully Open-Source + not entirely free either (you'll have to buy it after the trial period) ... but it's a pretty cool utility which could be worth trying, for some. 

Main features...

*. As said, the UI is designed using the Qt toolkit and looks quite simple and easy to use. Although I'm using the Windows version rather than the Ubuntu one because it gave me a dependency error (concerning Qt of course) while trying to install it in Ubuntu 11.04.

*. Search (with automatic suggestions) and manage playlists (with Shuffle or Repeat functions). 

*. Display album art, artist name, etc.

*. Even supports video!. 

*. Although it's still kinda really new (somewhat in a beta stage) but still things like the seek bar, etc worked really well (with speed I might add). 

*. Automatic Lyrics support.

*. Change volume levels.

*. Copy the currently playing file's link. 

*. Only play "Live" performance or switch to "Cover" mode which only plays the remixed ones.

*. Shows different versions of the same song.

Well, that's about it for the features. Although it would've been nice if there was a feature to download the files (perhaps it's in the premium version). But other than that, I'm really impressed with its performance concerning the fact that it's relatively new and all that. 

Anyhow, if interested, you can get it from this official MusicTube page. It's supposed to work in Ubuntu 10.04 and up but as said before, it gave me errors while trying to install it under 11.04 Natty Narwhal. Other than that, if you want to keep listening to millions of songs (both video and audio) all the time for free (well, you gotta pay for the app) by using the YouTube online video sharing service ... then MusicTube is a pretty cool tool, me thinks :D. Enjoy!

Free Cross-Platform Hardware Monitor: "Open Hardware Monitor"

When it comes to finding a bit of an advanced piece of software that lets you monitor your hardware with details such as Temperatures and CPU Clock speeds, etc... well, both MS Windows and GNU/Linux do have their fair share without a doubt :).

For instance thanks to the advanced hardware integration support in GNU/Linux kernel  (Windows is certainly not second to anything) if you're looking for a dedicated app to run under Ubuntu, then Psensor is something worth trying.

But if you're searching for a cross-platform hardware monitor that runs in both GNU/Linux and MS Windows, then Open Hardware Monitor is a pretty cool application. Although it's still in its beta stages, yet I just downloaded it and installed in Windows 7 and already is quite impressed with it. 

Main features...

Note that some of the "sensors' are missing in my PC, since it's still in beta, I totally forgive OHM though :D ... (more below)

*. CPU Clock speeds (bus speed, cores and core speeds) and temperatures. 

*. CPU load. 

*. GPU core voltages. 

*. GPU core memory frequency, clock speed and temperatures. 

*. Enable/Disable Plots. 

*. GPU load: This is one of the main benefits that I love about these hardware monitors since still neither GNU/Linux nor MS Windows lets you see how much of your VGA cards' processor (or GPU) is being used. I used this to measure my Radeon HD 6250' performance while playing a 1080p video since Windows 7 only shows the CPU speed but in reality it's the GPU that plays the content. So a pretty handy feature but not everyone would use it though. 

Also note that we still cannot change the date update intervals  which is another important features that it's missing currently...

*. HDD temperatures.

*. Save reports to disk or upload and share. 

*. 3D looking Widget: You can add selected hardware "models" to this widget (supports transparency) and drag it around your desktop, etc. 

*. Shows up-to-date info such as temperatures in the notification area (once manually enabled of course).

These are the ones that were shown in my Acer Aspire One 722. But I think since OHM is still in beta stage and the hardware support might not be as widely spread as some of the commercial ones thus other things such as fan speeds, RAM related information, etc were "missing" in my PC (but OHM certainly do have those features listed in their home page's screnshoots). 

So, it's certainly not the best out there. But then again remember it's still under active developments (in beta) thus we should give the developers sometime to add those hardware support.

Anyhow, as said, this is an opensource (GNU/GPL licensed actually) app that runs in both GNU/Linux and MS Windows (XP, Vista and 7, including both 32-bit and 64-bit versions). So if you're looking for a completely free yet pretty useful hardware monitor software but can cope with the fact that some functions may not be working properly but surely, the Open Hardware Monitor software utility is a project that's worth mentioning. 

If interested, get it from this OHM home page. 

Best Cross-Platform File & Archive Manager: PeaZip!

Both MS Windows and GNU/Linux desktops do come with file and archive managers of their own. Specially concerning Windows (since GNU/Linux has some excellent built in tools) if you're looking for a free & OpenSource yet one of the best file archive managers then PeaZip is an extremely impressive one!.

This is not just an archive manager actually but is also a file manager as well. But since Windows Explorer is pretty darn good, PeaZip won't be able to impress much here. But it lets you securely delete, encrypt or split your files as easy as just right clicking on them!.

Main features...

*. Can handle all the OpenSource fire archive formats such as:

7z[18],7z-SFX, FreeArc's ARC/WRC[19], bzip2: bz2, tar.bz2, tbz, tb2, gzip: gz, tar.gz, tgz, PAQ8F/JD/L/O,[20] LPAQ, ZPAQ, QUAD/BALZ, tar and WinRar and WinZip formats. Interestingly PeaZip has a file archive format of its own called "PEA" with all the modern features.

More than an archive manager...

*. Split and Join.

*. Add passwords.

*. Encrypt.

*. Hash check.

*. Create self extracting archives.

*. Has a portable version thus you can just put it into your USB drive or HDD and take it anywhere (it won't touch the Registry of the OS while running which is a standard feature for portable apps, I think).

*. Run MS Windows built in system tools directly from its file explorer, such as: Disk Defrag, Disk cleanup, System benchmark, task manager, etc.

*. Create "keyfiles" using random secure algorithms.

*. Open Command-prompt inside any folder (while using PeaZip as the file manager).

*. Integrate its feature into the "Sent To" sub-menu are just a few to mention.

As said before, as a file manager, it's not as impressive as the default one in the Windows but as an archive manager, it is super excellent! ;-). It has few built in themes (one in particular for the Win 7 users too).

So, if you're looking for an archive manager that can deals with almost all the popular archive (including e-mail handling) formats and few additional ones such as securely deleting files/folders and want all those features in a singe application which should also be free and opensource (oh cooome on! :P), then PeaZip is the one to go for without a doubt. Get it from this PeaZip Home page.

Free Cross-Platform Screenshot Tool: Screenie!

Most of us honestly don't be needing these type of dedicated screenshot capturing tools because we can use the built in photo manager or a painting application that comes with your operating system to do that.

But if you deal with screenshots a lot (just like me :D) and wondering about how to create screenshots that are angled + 3D looking reflections which you usually see with commercial applications "branding", then Screenie is one of the best, free tools that you can use.

One of the best things about Screenie is that it's a cross-platform tool that's written using the Qt toolkit and not only in Ubuntu (or GNU/Linux) but you can even use it under MS Windows and Mac OSX too.

Main features...

*. Supports Left, Middle and Right angled pictures.

*. Change offset, angle and distance of each picture.

*. Change Reflection opacity/angle.

*. Manually define R/G/B colors.

I obviously don't have a taste but this is what you can do with it... :)

That's about it for features!. You can install Screenie in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal (might also work in 11.10, 10.10 and 10.04, not sure since I didn't test them) by using the below command in your Terminal window.

sudo apt-get install screenie-qt

For the MS Windows users please visit the Screnie official home page. And big thanks to the developer Ariya (who's a very active Qt/KDE developer) for this excellent tool.

And I don't think anyone would need a tutorial on how to use it... but two things. Once opened, you have to drag the pictures to the Screenie window to load them + once you're done, just right click on it and you'll see the "saving" window.

But remember, Screenie is actually a basic screenshot composer rather than an advanced utility like Shutter, thus you cannot crop/resize your screenshots. So make sure to do those things before you drag-em-in to Screenie :). 

So, if you've been looking for a simple, free and yet effective screenshot tool that can be used on different OS environments, then Screenie is certainly an excellent little application.

BleachBit 0.9 Is Released, How to Install it in Ubuntu Linux?

Few hours after my little CCleaner (system cleaner for MS Windows) bragging ;-), I checked for updates about BleachBit and realized they in fact has released it to a new version which makes it now the 0.9!.

If you're a bit new, then Bleachbit is another excellent cross-platform (yep, you can use it in both GNU/Linux and MS Windows) free utility, that lets us remove unnecessary files (such as cache and other temporary settings) of a lot of individual applications from a singe "command center" window :).

It cleans the web browser cache, cookies, history (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Chromium and a whole lot others!), GIMP, OpenOffice (although LibreOffice ain't supported yet), MS Office, Gnome 2 and the Gnome 3/Shell desktops search and history, Skype, TeamViewer, Yum (Fedora's default software manager), Wordpad, Winrar, Winzip + a huge list of other apps as usual.

"one place to rule them all!" ;-)...

Just like with CCleaner, under GNU/Linux, it also has the ability to analyze and clean missing program shortcuts, clean memory and the swap file, APT's temporary files, cleanup the free space and files in the Trash ... are again very few to mention.

New features in the 0.9 version...

*. Bug fix related to Thunderbird 5 in GNU/Linux.

*. Removes recently used files entry in Gnome 3.

*. Wallpaper erasing bug (errrr) fixed under Gnome 3.

*. GNU/Linux Kernel 3 support... are among the main ones considering the GNU/Linux users.

You can click on that "Preview" icon anytime to see a preview cleaning which displays things like how much space you'll be recovered, which settings are gonna be cleaned, etc ...

Although BleachBit is in the official Ubuntu repositories but they haven't come up with the 0.9 update yet. But luckily, Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, 10.10 and 10.04 users can install BleachBit 0.9 version by first downloading the appropriate ".deb" package from here.

Then after the installation completes, just double click on it and follow the on-screen instructions. That should do it. So as a final note, if you're looking for a comprehensive system cleaner for Ubuntu ... then BleachBit is one of the best without a doubt!.