As you (hopefully) recall, last Thursday I told you about Notepad++, a text program that was very lightweight and great for coding. I couldn’t really find a comparable program for the Mac, that is until I found Smultron.

Just like Notepad++, it’s a TextEdit replacment, but does a whole lot more. You can have multiple documents open and a viewer on the right pops up. But it’s more powerful feature is when it comes to coding. I mentioned how I used Notepad++ for working on the KNDS website. I took those same documents I worked on before and did some work with them in Smulton. I tried using a few other programs, but Smultron really made it easy to use.

And as mentioned, Smultron isn’t just limited to coding. Why pull up Word when you have to? Smultron allows you to quickly create simple text documents on the fly.

In short, if you are doing something simple, or something very advanced, Smultron is your answer on the Mac. Smultron is Mac OS X only, and free to use.

Smultron [Tuppis]

Good Morning- and for those of you (like me) in the US, Happy Memorial Day- While you enjoy your day off, take a moment to remeber the reason of Memorial Day. That said, let’s go- it’s Manic Monday:

•  Is the Pirate Bay mad about the recent verdict? Let’s just say they want a new judge…
• Harvard professor Charles Nesson tells judge that P2P filesharing is “fair use”.
• In fact, he is demanding the RIAA repay $100 Million. Interesting….
• The reality? Artists don’t want the pirates disconnected…
• On to Apple news, they’re building $1 billion server farm.
• And are Macs going to be soon available in Walmart?
• 300 Movies on one disc? Don’t laugh- it’s coming!
• One new twist with a family death- dealing with their Facebook page.
• Finally, Google can now predict when you will quit. There goes the element of surprise…

And that’s weeks Manic Monday. Stay tuned for more content, and be sure to check back later this week- there will be an announcement regarding the website (not a huge change). Enjoy!

WINDOWS ONLY – Calling all programmers! If you need to quick edit a webpage or a piece of code, but don’t have the time to open up your IDE, then give Notepad++ a try.

Notepad++ is a free source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

By optimizing as many routines as possible without losing user friendliness, Notepad++ is trying to reduce the world carbon dioxide emissions. When using less CPU power, the PC can throttle down and reduce power consumption, resulting in a greener environment.

Sounds cool to me! Actually, I recently discovered it while working on the website for KNDS, and it’s great from a programming standpoint- you can easily see code and lay it out in such a way that edits are a breeze. And of course, you can make a plain text document with Notepad++.

Notepad++ is Windows only (I have a similar Mac program I’ll show off next week), and (of course) is free. Code on!

Notepad++ [Sourceforge]

MAC OS X ONLY: Apple makes it pretty darn easy to switch your desktop wallpaper. Just a couple of clicks, and it’s done. But what if you want to change the wallpaper of your login screen? I’ve shown you before, but Loginox makes it easier.

All you all do is drag the image you want to use into the window and click the Set new login image button. You’ll have to enter your password. The application requires a 2560×1600 resolution wallpaper image- so you may have to do some prep work before hand

That said, it really does take the guess work out of this hack. Loginox is Mac OS X Leopard only, and is 100% free.

Loginox [via Lifehacker]

Good Morning- while still caught on the waves of the new Green Day album, it is Monday which means it’s time for Manic Monday.

• Apple’s been updating the music store… except for one part.
• World’s fastest CPU clocked at 128 gigaflops. That’s fast.
• Mozilla has copied Chrome’s multi-processes for each tab. Buy hey! Less crashes!
• Creative Labs Charges “Maintenance Fee” For Rebate
• Copyright Group: No Need to Hear P2P Site’s Defense. Not so fast!
• Was Google Hacked?
• All we know is there was a major problem at Google.
• And yes, Computers do suck at math.
• Oh, 200Mbps Internet doesn’t mean you get 200Mbps.
• But that’s okay, Sony’s CEO doesn’t like the Internet.

And that’s this week’s Manic Monday. A new website design, and finals are done which means WFG will be alive and kicking for the summer. Enjoy!

A little midnight snack… if you will

Our good friends at Apple have released Mac OS 10.5.7 Update. It’s a rather large update, I will admit (450MB):

The 10.5.7 Update is recommended for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and includes general operating system fixes that enhance the stability, compatibility and security of your Mac. For detailed information about security updates

You know where to go to get it: Go to your Software Update (and I would recommend doing it overnight since it is so large). Check out Apple’s site if you want more info.

It’s time once again ladies and gents for an Office Tip. For the most part, Microsoft Word is a pretty snappy program. But if you happen to have lots of images in your document, it then becomes slower than molasses in the middle of January (in North Dakota). If you don’t need to see the pictures (ie: You know what they are and don’t need to be moved), you can enable one of my favorite features called Picture Placeholders.

In Windows (Office 2007):

1.) Click on the Home Button (the office icon)
2.) Click on “Word Options” on the bottom of the pop-up.
3.) On the left side, select “Advanced”
4.) Scroll down to “Show Document Content” and check the box by “Show Picture Placeholders”.

If you’re use the Mac version of Office (Office Mac 2008):

1.) Go to the Word menu and go down to “Preferences”
2.) Click on “View”
3.) Check the box by “Image Placeholders”

And just like that, you’ve sped up word.

Use Image Placeholders to Display Documents Faster in Word [The How-To Geek]

Since we are celebrating 5 years of Wired For Gadgets, I feel it’s long overdue for a new look.

I will be implementing it in the few minutes and will be working out bugs throughout the night. Be sure to comment if you see something that doesn’t look right!

Good Morning- for those who know how to read the Wired For Gadgets About Page, you then know that yesterday was important (I decided to celebrate today). Yesterday marks five years of Wired For Gadgets. Those of you who know the history of the website, WFG was spawned out of JakeBechtold.net, which later became JakeBechtold.com.

So, I’ve taken Today’s Manic Monday to show off my favorite posts from the last five years (last 4 years of archives- the first year was lost ).

• iPod Accessory Replacements (February 1st, 2006)
• Quickly Import Your Music with iTunes (The original – March 25, 2006)
• “Copy Link Text” Firefox extension (June 3rd, 2006)
• Download and Convert videos from YouTube (June 10th, 2006)
• Help Desk: Organize Favorites (First ever Help Desk – June 2, 2007)
• Wired For Deals: RAM Rip-Offs (June 21, 2007)
• Can’t Touch This: Fix the iTouch Wi-Fi (October 10th, 2007)
• MythBusting: 85W Apple Charger in place of a 60W? (July 31st, 2008)
• Causes Birthday Wish: The Result (March 17th, 2009)
• Safari 4 Beta vs Firefox 3.10: Why Firefox is still better… (April 28th, 2009)

Since I have close to 1,000 posts, these were hard to pick. Thanks so much for a great 5 years! Let’s make it 10!

Time for an iPhone/iTouch tip. With a device such as powerful as the iPhone or iPod Touch, you’ve got to have it secure. Turns out Apple put the feature right into the iPhone.

Here’s how you can enable it:
1.) Go to Settings >> General >> Passcode Lock
2.) To enable it, enter a 4-digit passcode.
3.) Enter it again to confirm.

From there, you have all sorts of options: You can change how often you need the passcode, and even the Erase Data feature, which will delete your data from the device after 10 failed attempts to get in.

Not only is this cool, but it’s a great way to keep your iPhone or iPod Touch safe and secure- especially from any would-be thieves. Enjoy!