Friday TechTips

Friday TechTip – Growl (also get a free MP3 from Amazon)!

Today’s tip highlights Growl, a unified notification system for both Windows and Mac. Us Mac fanboys users have had Growl to keep us company for a long time and alert us anytime an IM arrives, email lands in the inbox, a new track starts playing in iTunes, etc. Growl for Windows is now up to version 2.0 and there’s a new beta version out. Growl is handy because it allows you to turn off the default notification system (assuming one already exists) in your favorite application and channel all notifications into Growl. This gives you one utility to alert you to new system events. Did I mention that you can customize Growl’s appearance? There’s even a plug-in giving Growl the ability to use text-to-speech to give you a voice alert, perfect for your cubicle mates! All kidding aside, I really like Growl and appreciate it’s low profile appearance versus the default Outlook notifier.

Growl’s Home – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/default.aspx

App Plug-Ins – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/apps.aspx

Growl Displays (skins) – http://www.growlforwindows.com/gfw/displays.aspx

Bonus Tip!

Amazon is currently giving away a free MP3 of your choice in recognition of gaining over 1,000,000 followers on Twitter (http://twitter.com/amazonmp3). To claim your MP3, go the celebration site and follow the directions. You’ll need to press a button which brings up a pop-up box where you enter the code (FIRSTMIL) which is displayed on the page. This gives you a credit to then go purchase your song.  Why not download your favorite song to kick off the weekend?

Free MP3 site – http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=dm_tw_firstmil?ie=UTF8&gcIsProcess=1&gcpcCode=FIRSTMIL&&docId=1000420651