Productivity Sauce

Jul 15, 2009 GMT

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Jul 10, 2009 GMT

A task manager is probably the first thing you might want to install on your Android device, and you won't find a better tool for the job than Astrid. This open source task management utility sports not only a cute application icon -- it also offers all the tools you need to efficiently manage your tasks. A user-friendly interface makes it extremely easy to create new tasks and edit existing ones. The task editing screen of Astrid's interface is split into three sections: Basic, Dates, and... more »

Jul 09, 2009 GMT

Being a proponent of open source software, I've always found it annoying that the device I use most of the time -- my mobile phone -- runs some closed source proprietary system. Moving to Nokia N95 that runs the soon-to-be-open-source Symbian OS improved things slightly, but I still wanted to have something more Linux-like, open, and tweakable. That's why I followed with interest the release of Google's Android platform. The system itself did look rather promising, but, as it often happens, the first Android-powered handset turned out to be a somewhat underwhelming device. Worse yet, it has never made... more »

Jul 03, 2009 GMT

NoteCase has always been an indispensable application in my productivity toolbox. So the news that NoteCase's developer ceased its development sent me scrambling for a replacement for this excellent note-taking tool. It didn't take me long, though, to discover KeepNote. Similar to NoteCase, KeepNote is a hierarchical note manager, which means notes in the application are organized in notebooks and subnotebooks that act as nodes in an hierarchical tree. You can... more »

Jul 01, 2009 GMT

While StarDict touts itself as "the best dictionary program for Linux and Windows," it has a serious challenger to the title called GoldenDict. On the face of it, GoldenDict looks like any other dictionary application. But dig deeper, and you'll discover a few rather neat features that make it not only a rather competent dictionary but also an excellent research tool. For starters, GoldenDict supports a wide range of dictionary formats, including StarDict... more »

Jun 29, 2009 GMT

Need to whip up a quick screencast? You might want to use Krut for the job. This cross-platform screen recording tool has virtually no learning curve, and offers a few useful features that can help you to create high-quality screencasts with consummate ease. Krut is written in Java, so you have to install the Java Runtime Environment on your system before you can run the utility. Krut requires no installation, and you can launch the application by simply running the KRUT.jar file.

Jun 26, 2009 GMT

Linux distributions designed for netbooks are a dime a dozen these days, so one really has to pull something extraordinary out of the hat to impress the mobile crowd. While Jolicloud's main goal is not to awe Linux geeks, the new distribution does offers a radically different take on a system for your netbook that might appeal to the non-technical user. Jolicloud has been in development for quite some time, and its developers managed to keep it under tight wraps, carefully dispensing invites to a few chosen users. Recently, yours truly found... more »