Google has announced to the public that they will have a Google Desktop Gadget Contest. If you are one who has the skills and innovation to make it big, then this is your time to earn some prizes! Cash prize of up to $5,000 is there for you to lay your hands on.

Before I go into more detail, take note that the contest will end in one month’s time, which is July 31, 2006. The top three prizes are $5000, $2000 and $1000, respectively. The winners of these prizes will be announced on August 21, 2006.

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Apple has released a Mac OS X Update 10.4.7 Intel to the public for download. The world’s most advanced operating system, which is capable of running on Intel processors, is what you may be looking for. Mac OS X Tiger delivers over 200 new features which make it easier for you to find, access and enjoy everything on your computer.

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As the title suggests, Vibe Streamer is basically a free mp3 streaming server which allows users to connect and stream their music over the internet, using only a standard web browser.

Some of us might be worried if this is illegal. Well, according to the FAQ, your Vibe Streamer server is meant for personal use to make it possible for you to reach your own (legal) music collection from wherever you are. Therefore, it is not in any way part of a file sharing community, such as KaZaa or BitTorrent. Furthermore, your files are kept safe and private with only users who have the username and password, could access to the server.

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Want to “own” your personal Office Suite? Well, you could either purchase Microsoft Office off the shelf at any retail store, or perhaps you could try out the open source version of OpenOffice.org, a multi-platform and muti-lingual office suite.

OpenOffice.org is compatible with other major office suites, including Microsoft Office. Furthermore, with open source, it is free to download, use and distribute. You do not need to pay to have a copy of OpenOffice.org

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For anyone who is nothing but into Skype, you should not miss this Skype Email Toolbar for your personal email client. With this Skype Email Toolbar, users can integrate all the Skype and email contacts together in one handy place. Furthermore, it is quicker and easier when making Skype calls to people who have emailed you, and even call those who are not using Skype, with SkypeOut.

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Some of us may have assumed that Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 could be the final beta release before the release candidate version is made public, but no. Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 today. Presumably there are some bugs to be fixed in IE 7 before the final version is announced.

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If you have any old computers lying around, why not use it as a firewall, to protect your network, or perhaps your computers with personal data. Though, Linux comes to the initial choice when deciding to set up a firewall server, there is even a quicker way by just obtaining a particularly software that is based on GNU/Linux operating system, and thus catered its function as a firewall.

SmoothWall Express is an open source firewall distribution based on the GNU/Linux operating system. As an ideal choice for security system, Linux has been well proven to be secure, highly configurable and available free as open source.

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With Yahoo Messenger 8 with Voice for Windows Beta released only recently, Yahoo Messenger for Mac 3.0 Beta 1 has also shone the light to the public.

The beta version has a new look and feel in the Macintosh OS X. Several new features have also been incorporated in within, which includes Avatars, sounds and image displays. In the oncoming future, integration with Windows Live (MSN) Messenger is possible.

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Gnash is a GNU Flash movie player. Till now it has only been possible to play flash movies with proprietary software. While there are a few other free flash players, none supports anything higher than SWF v4 at best. Gnash is based on GameSWF, and supports many SWF v7 features.

Located on the Free Software Foundation’s Savannah project support server, the main developers are able to access this file such that bugs can filed or viewed in CVS.

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Finally, after several months since the last release of Skype for Linux version, Skype 1.3 Beta for Linux is released!

At first, I thought after eBay acquired Skype, that will be the end of any Skype for Linux platform. Any slight hopes were almost diminished when the last release was dated on 25 October 2005. Anyway, this is a great surprise for Linux users.

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