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July 27th, 2012Top Story How to Get Mountain Lion's Best New Features on Windows By Walter Glenn Apple's release of Mountain Lion (aka OS X 10.8) has dominated the news since yesterday's release, but have no fear, Windows fans: Lifehacker's got your back. The new version of OS X has some slick features to be sure. Here's how to get them in Windows. Note: For those features that don't have a direct analog between Mountain Lion and Windows, we aimed to deliver a comparable feature that'll at least get you headed in the right direction. Enjoy, and let us know if you know of any better alternatives at the end of the post. Notification Center What it does: Mountain Lion's Notification Center works much like the Notification Center in iOS 5, consolidating alerts and messages from various apps into a single bar that slides down the right side of your display. Using System Preferences gives you a central location for controlling what apps can send notifications and what kinds of notifications they can send. Windows 7 workaround: Windows 7 does not provide a built-in substitute for Notification Center, but that doesn't mean you're out of luck. Our favorite tool for consolidating messages in Windows is the previously reviewed Growl for Windows. Long a favorite on the Mac, Growl for Windows made the scene a few years ago, offering a unified and highly customizable system for wrangling your notifications into one place. You can customize which notifications appear and what sounds they make. You can even send notifications off to your phone. Growl integrates with a number of apps, but for others you'll need to install small utilities or browser extensions to make it happen. The downside of this is that you may end up running several additional background services in Windows and cluttering up the notification area on the Windows Taskbar. But, in our tests we found Growl itself and the additional services we needed to be pretty light on system resources. Growl for Windows is free, though, so try it out for yourself and see if it's right for you. Coming in Windows 8: Windows 8 will have a different take on the notification center. The primary way to keep tabs on your apps is by viewing live tiles on the Metro screen. These tiles update regularly to let you know the latest news from an app. Windows 8 also will have pop up notifications that appear along the right side of your screen. Developers will be able to tie into this notification system so that notifications are better unified. Right now, though, it doesn't look like Windows 8 will provide a single window like Mac's Notification Center for easily browsing past messages. And we'll just have to wait and see what's in store for Growl on Windows 8. iCloud (and Documents in the Cloud) What it does: iCloud is Apple's foray into the world of cloud storage and it is tightly integrated into Mountain Lion. iCloud has long offered synchronization and backup of personal information like mail, contacts, and calendars. It also provides an online location for backing up your iOS device, effectively freeing you from having to connect with a desktop computer. With Mountain Lion, iCloud now offers storage space for documents (5 GB for free, but you can buy more). Access to iCloud document storage is built in to Finder and can be accesed directly from many apps. iCloud also now provides synchronization of user settings for unified login across multiple desktop Macs. Windows 7 workaround: Windows 7 users (and Mac users, for that matter) can take advantage of many different cloud storage services. iCloud itself is available for Windows, though in more limited form than on the Mac. You can sync Mail, Contacts, Calendars, and Tasks with Microsoft Outlook, as well as your bookmarks and photo stream. But there's no provision for document storage in iCloud for Windows. Fortunately, Windows users have plenty of options in that area. Longtime Lifehacker favorite Dropbox provides a dead simple way to synchronize documents with the cloud and with pretty much any other device you can name. Microsoft's SkyDrive, Google Drive, Box, and many others also provide a similar service, so you'll have to decide which one is right for you. Coming in Windows 8: In Windows 8, cloud storage and synchronization will be more tightly integrated. If you create a Windows Live user account, Windows 8 will use that to synchronize user settings and preferences for a unified logon experience. You will be able to logon to any Windows 8 device and see your own desktop, set up the way you like it. SkyDrive will find a featured place in open/save windows, making it easy to use it for document storage. The door is open for app developers to build other online services into their apps and for cloud storage providers to build access to their services into Windows 8. So, expect to see easier and more integrated ways to save documents to your favorite cloud storage providers, as well as sites like Facebook and Flickr. Notes and Reminders What it does: Notes and Reminders are two of the new Mountain Lion features many Mac users have been waiting for. Both are very much like their iPad counterparts - simple and effective. Notes lets you organize text notes and images. Reminders lets you create reminders for things you need to remember. Both sync with iCloud, though you can also set up a separate notebook for each e-mail account you have configured on your Mac. While the apps themselves are quite simple, it's the iCloud synchronization that gives them power, especially if you use multiple Macs or iOS devices. Windows 7 workaround:Windows 7 users (and Mac users) have many options for duplicating and even extending these features. The number of cloud-based, dedicated note taking apps has exploded in recent years. These range from the straightforward text note app SimpleNote up to "everything buckets" like Evernote. Both of those, and many other note taking apps, feature cloud and local storage and the ability to sync with a range of devices. If you'd like to explore your options, check out the five best note taking applications according to Lifehacker readers. To-do apps provide another avenue to Windows 7 users for both note-taking and reminders. As with note-taking apps, the number of options when it comes to to-do apps is overwhelming. The best, like Lifehacker favorite Astrid, allow you to set reminders, track tasks, take notes, and share with others. Most of the popular to-do apps also let you view and enter notes, reminders, and tasks from anywhere - desktop, web, phone, and tablet. Check out the best to-do apps and decide which is most suited for you. Coming in Windows 8: At this point, it's tough to tell whether Windows 8 will offer dedicated notes or reminder apps. Microsoft OneNote will be available in an Metro version when Office 2013 ships. It supports online storage via SkyDrive and will have apps for most platforms. Many of the top note-taking and to-do apps will likely appear as Metro apps. Some, like Evernote, already have their Metro versions available for the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Dictation What it does: Dictation is front and center in Mountain Lion. Dictation is enabled by default. If an app can accept text input, you just press the function (fn) key twice, start talking, and press the function (fn) key again when you're done. As in iOS, dictation in Mountain Lion is handled server-side, meaning it requires an Internet connection to work. It will accept up 30 seconds of speech at a time, sends that information to Apple's servers (along with a bit of personal information like your first name and anyone you mention in your speech), and displays the text onscreen when it returns. It all happens very fast and is pretty accurate. It seems perfect for entering short bits of text. For longer pieces, if you're used to other systems that show text on the screen as you speak, it can be a little disconcerting to see nothing there until after the server gets back to you. Windows 7 workaround: Windows has long had dictation built in and it works very well. You can use it to issue basic system commands as well as to dictate text. It also works in pretty much any app that accepts text. In Windows 7, dictation is not turned on by default. You can turn it on by running Windows Speech Recognition, which you can find in All Programs>Accessories>Ease of Access, or you can just press the Start button, type Speech, and it will show up in the results. When you run it, a small widget appears at the top of your screen. Click the Microphone button to turn listening on and off. Right-click the Speech Recognition button in the notification area of your taskbar to configure options. Coming in Windows 8: Windows 8 dictation will work largely the same as in Windows 7, though it has been improved to support issuing commands in the new Metro interface. Messages What it does: In Mountain Lion, Messages replaces iChat and provides much the same functionality, allowing you to set up multiple accounts for different chat services and work with them all in one app. The most important addition in Messages is support for the iMessage protocol used by iOS. You can also sync messages with iOS devices using iCloud, which is handy if you want to start a conversation on one device and finish it on another. Windows 7 workaround: For Windows 7 users, there is no client that supports iMessage and there's no telling whether one will appear in the future. If you're looking to chat between PC and smartphone, Google Voice, Skype, and even Facebook chat offer a lot of the same functionality as iMessage. Google Voice would be our first pick out of these. You can access it via the web site or using the official Google Voice Chrome extension. There are also a number of Google Voice desktop clients. Our favorite is previously mentioned GVNotifier, which provides a nice, unified interface for sending and receiving messages, checking your voicemail, and connecting calls. There are also plenty of chat apps that allow you to connect to different chat services. Pidgin is our favorite here at Lifehacker. It's free and open source and it supports most IM networks you can think of. It also supports third-party plugins for integration with services like Twitter, Last.fm, and many more. You also have plenty of other options. Digsby, Trillian, and Miranda are all solid offerings. Share Sheets What it does: Share Sheets provide an easy way to share from both apps and the Finder. They work much like the Share Sheets you see scattered across apps in iOS. Apps that support Share Sheets have a sharing button that opens sharing options pertinent to whatever you're looking at. For example, Safari allows you to quickly share sites with Messages, Twitter, and e-mail recipients. In Finder, Share Sheets let you do things like sharing files with friends or uploading files to popular online services. Windows 7 workaround: In Windows 7, you can duplicate the functionality of Share Sheets in any web browser by using extensions like AddThis. AddThis gives you a drop down menu with a customizeable (and huge) list of sites and services where you might want to send a web page. Or, you can ditch your extensions for bookmarklets, which Lifehacker features tips on often. Windows 7 users also have great options when it comes to sharing from the desktop. Many online services have Windows apps that let you drag and drop files and some even extend the Send To menu you can get by right-clicking a file. One of our favorites around here, though, is Click.to, which redirects contents from your clipboard to a number of desktop apps and online services. You can even use it to upload photos or files. Just select text or an image in any app, or select a file in Windows Explorer, press Ctrl-C to copy, and Click.to pops up a bar with options on where to send the file. You can use it to save bookmarks, perform Google searches, share things with social networks, and even upload entire text files to online note apps. It supports just about anything you can copy. Coming in Windows 8: Windows 8 does not have a direct corollary to Share Sheets. Sharing is still handled at the app level. However, many of the same tools you can use on Windows 7 will continue to work with Windows 8 and will likely be updated to the Metro interface. AirPlay Mirroring What it does: AirPlay Mirroring is a new feature of AirPlay that allows you to send your Mac desktop to an HDTV using Apple TV as a go-between. This is a handy feature for tossing web pages, email, or even videos over to your big screen for more relaxed viewing. It should also find a lot of use in schools or meetings for sharing your screen more easily with others. Windows 7 workaround: You can duplicate this functionality right now on Windows 7 using AirParrot for Windows. As with AirPlay Mirroring, AirParrot for Windows requires that you use an Apple TV as the go-between for mirroring your desktop. If you don't have an Apple TV, you can always connect your computer directly to your TV. Security and Privacy Settings What it does: Though there are plenty of new security features in Mountain Lion, the primary features revolve around handling apps from the App Store. By default, you can only install apps that are verified by Apple and downloaded from the app store. Mountain Lion will allow you to install apps from other sources as an option and does not apply these same controls to apps you don't get from the app store. Mountain Lion also provides a single control panel where you can control permissions for apps (like what personal data they can access). Apps are also sandboxed so that they have limited access to the rest of your system. Windows 7 workaround: For Windows 7 users, these features really don't apply. There's no app store for Windows 7. You can download and install programs from pretty much anywhere. In Windows 7, permissions are controlled at the app level and you only get whatever control the app developer provides. Coming in Windows 8: In Windows 8, all that changes. You can only download Metro apps from the app store. Period. As in Mountain Lion, Metro apps run sandboxed. Unlike in Mountain Lion, Windows 8 provides no central location for controlling app permissions. That happens on an app-by-app basis. Windows 8 does still allow you to download and install any desktop app from pretty much anywhere; it's only Metro apps that will be limited. So, there you have it. You won't be able to get Windows 7 working exactly the same. But with a few tools and tweaks, you can do a lot to duplicate the new features in Mountain Lion and, in some cases, even improve upon them. Have any of your own favorite new features we skipped or a better way than we covered? Let us know in the discussions!

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July 27th, 2012Top Story 5 Ways To Be A Massive Jerk To Your Opponents In Video Games By Patricia Hernandez Maybe you reached your skill plateau despite constant practice. Maybe the odds are against you. Maybe you're just a terrible human being. Whatever the reason, you need to win, and you need to win bad—no matter what the cost. Perhaps at the cost of my morality and integrity, I'm here to help. Here are five ways to screw your opponents over in games, ranging from silly, amusing ways to downright horrible tactics. 5: Trash-Talking How to dole it out: Let's start with the cornerstone of all shady win-practices: trash-talking. Now, it's easy to to dole out a long list of expletives, but there's an art to trash-talking, see. You need to make sense, first of all. It's very common to hear folk talk up a nonsensical storm. As for what to say, the narrative you want to construct is one of superiority and intimidation. You want to do this without being too annoying or stupid—listen to any 13 year old on Xbox Live for a 101 on what NOT to do. Unless you want to sound hilarious and have no one take you seriously, that is! The big question is if you want to be offensive, like the folks who played Gears of War 3 with me were. This will rattle the opponent. Most importantly, while part of the idea is to psych the competition out, you don't want to overtalk your skill—if you lose, you'll end up that much more embarrassed. How To Deal With It: If you're on the other end of trash talking, I'd advise against retaliation: usually, that sort of thing just escalates endlessly. You're better off trying to focus. If trash-talking bothers you, you can usually mute the person, if not set your console to avoid that person in the future. But if you simply can't let something go, pay attention to what the other person is saying. Chances are, it's completely ridiculous and makes no sense. Point that out and hopefully they'll stop. Confidence is key for both dishing it out and standing your ground when it comes to trash-talk. 4: Get a buddy on your side How To Dole It Out: Teamwork always wins. Always. Get someone to coordinate tactics with you and double-team other people. The person doesn't even have to be on your team-sometimes, that even makes it better. Who cares if you're the Boomer in Left 4 Dead. Vomit and slash at your "teammates" for the good of humanity if it means you anger everyone in the game's lobby. My favorite type of dubious teamwork is getting a friend to come over at a predetermined location, and setting explosives on them. I've done this in Battlefield games, but any game with remote detonated bombs will do. Then, they run over to the enemy team, tell me when they're in position, and I set it off. Every game has similar troll-y things you can do to mess with the other team—creativity is required to figure these 'strategies' out. How To Deal With It: If you're on the receiving end here, there are two options. One, you recruit someone to be on your side to fight fire with fire. Two, you retreat and find a match with a more even playing field. 3: Use The Game To Your Advantage How To Dole It Out: Sometimes, the game itself will have ways to troll other players built-in. Sometimes, like in New Super Mario Bros Wii, the point of multiplayer is the trolling and the fun that arises from it. In these cases, don't be afraid to be a dick! That's why the game exists, really. Let's take Spelunky, for example. When playing multiplayer in Mossmouth's roguelike, you can pick other players up. Maybe you're sick of the leader buying all the good items for themselves. Welp, you can just throw them into some spikes to get rid of them. Their treasure is all yours now! How To Deal With It: If you have to deal with this sort of thing, my condolences. As I said, these are the types of game that have trolling as a feature and playing any other way feels boring by comparison. Why not indulge? It's there to use, after all. Don't worry, nobody can think less of you for it. 2: Induce a Choke How To Dole It Out: This is where things get interesting—and potentially, morally wrong. But I'm not here to judge or endorse, just to inform. A large part of playing games is the performance. If you can't carry out the motions, then you're done. The thing is, it's insanely easy to get someone to choke. There's a whole science to it, even. Distraction is one of the key methods, and there are multiple ways to do it. Have you ever heard any of the "you are now aware of ___" sayings? Like, being aware of your breathing, your blinking, that sort of thing? You can go a step further and be specific. Ask someone the intricacies of an action or behavior they perform regularly—like a reload or a melee. Chances are, they won't be able to stop thinking about it and go into 'paralysis through analysis.' Or, they'll get so concerned with directing an automatic action, it'll become impossible not to screw it up. Studies show that asking someone to actively monitor their actions while playing hinders performance. Choking can also be induced by pointing out insecurities that have roots in social misconception. You may hear stereotypes around race and gender and know for a fact that they're not true, but thinking about them at all can have a serious effect on your performance. If you want to be a particularly awful person, this is the sort of thing you can bring up. Studies have also shown that even the slightest mention of "your mother" can have surprisingly successful results. Use with caution. How To Deal With It: The best thing you can do to avoid a mental psych-out is to clear your mind and focus on getting in the 'zone.' The more meditative and zen-like you can be, the better. Counting backwards can be good for this. 1: Cheat How To Dole It Out: Finally, we get to the mother of all shady tactics: cheating. There's multiple ways to cheat. If you're playing locally, you can screenwatch or physically mess with the person you're playing with. Setting your game or avatar to have handicaps for just you can help, too. Playing online, it's a bit more difficult to successfully cheat: it's not as if the developers want you to ruin other people's experiences. Still, there are a variety of tools if not services for purchase that can allow you to do all sorts of game-breaking hacks. The only question is how comfortable you are sleeping at night, you stinking cheater, you. You don't have to wonder if you'll be widely dislike when you're found out. Count on it. You either have to be okay with constant match hopping, or sneaky enough to not be found out. How To Deal With It: If you have a cheater in your match, just leave. Really. It's not worth playing a match that is completely unfair and not fun. Make sure to use whatever options are available to you to report the offender, and try to go into servers that specifically look out for and protect against this sort of thing. Hopefully, you don't go out there and completely ruin the experience for everyone—but sometimes, you just got to win, right? You know what they say. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Photo credit: Wavebreakmedia ltd/Shutterstock

RPGs Deserve A Better Class Of Criminal The Main Man Behind the PlayStation 3's Trippy Dyad Is Answering Your Questions Now 5 Ways To Be A Massive Jerk To Your Opponents In Video Games Phantasy Star Online 2 is Fun, Frantic, and Free-to-Play The Ladies of Uzbekistan Bring Japanese Emoticons to Life Fantasy Art so Beautiful it Should be Painted on a Crumbling Old Church There's A Multiplayer Source-Engine 'Slenderman' Game In The Works More Stories on Kotaku »

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Daily Investor Briefing: Wall Street rallies on stimulus hopes...

	Click to View in Browser 07/27/2012 Wall Street rallies on stimulus hopes NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks surged on Friday, driving the S&P 500 to its highest level since May 4 as hopes increased that the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank may provide further stimulus. Cautious consumers, foreign trade curb second-quarter growth WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Economic growth slowed in the second quarter as consumers spent at their slowest pace in a year, increasing pressure on the Federal Reserve to do more to bolster the recovery. Apple, Samsung take patent fight to crucial trial SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd take their battle for mobile supremacy to court on Monday in one of the biggest-ever technology patent trials, a case with the potential to reshape a fast-evolving market they now dominate. Exclusive: Huff Post executive Lauren Kapp to exit after just three months (Reuters) - Lauren Kapp, one of Arianna Huffington's key advisors at the Huffington Post Media Group, is leaving the company, effective August 1. JPMorgan's Dimon reshuffles his management team NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon reshuffled his management team, signaling that the biggest U.S. bank is preparing for life after its famed boss leaves. Facebook's value slides by $10 billion; outlook unclear (Reuters) - Investors wiped $10 billion off the value of Facebook Inc on Friday, taking the recently listed shares to a new low, after the social network offered no forecast and analysts said mobile investments would put future earnings under pressure. Exclusive: Carlyle, CVC, TPG weigh final bids for Getty NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three private equity firms, including Carlyle Group LP and CVC Capital Partners , are weighing final bids for Getty Images, as the auction of the digital media company enters its last leg, according to people familiar with the matter. Petronas raises Progress Energy offer after rival bid (Reuters) - Progress Energy Resources Corp said Malaysia's state oil company Petronas has agreed to raise its offer to buy the Canadian natural gas producer by 8 percent after Progress received an unsolicited proposal from a third party. Analysis: Buffett's ResCap bid gives him bond upside too (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is bidding on a bankrupt mortgage lender that it may not want, in what some investors and observers view as an effort to make more money on Berkshire's stake in the company's bonds. Spain discusses state bailout; ECB seen writing off Greek debt BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Spain has at last conceded it may need a state bailout and policymakers are considering writing down Greek debt to their central banks, European officials said on Friday, as markets anticipated radical new action to pull the continent out of its debt maelstrom. Related Video Wealth Strategies: Off the Beaten Track Tech. Stocks Speedo replaces 'shark' suit with torpedo design Related News See you in two weeks: When couples take separate vacations Five strategies for a mid-summer portfolio overhaul A daily digest of breaking business news, coverage of the US economy, major corporate news and the financial markets. Register Today   The latest Reuters articles on M&A, IPOs, private equity, hedge funds and regulatory updates delivered to your inbox each day. Register Today   » MORE NEWSLETTERS - 3 Times Square New York, NY 10036 USA © Copyright 2010 Thomson Reuters Ensure delivery of Reuters Newsmails, add mail@nl.reuters.com to your address book. Details Subscribe to other Reuters newsletters. Unsubscribe from this newsletter. Follow us on Twitter Friend us on Facebook Forward to a friend