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Alt-Tab Thingy is a free tool that replaces the venerable Alt-Tab function, also known as the Task Switcher, in Windows. Alt-Tab Thingy is a much more capable and flexible tool. It still lets you switch rapidly between programs and windows, but it's highly customizable, with numerous settings and options, and it adds some useful extras. It breathes new life into an old Windows feature.

Alt-Tab Thingy's system tray icon accesses its two main interfaces; one is an extensively tabbed Settings dialog, the other an enhanced version of the Windows Task Switcher box with an optional Preview Pane. The … Read more

Even as the big automakers start making plug-in electric vehicles, ALTe PowertrainTechnologies is one of many companies seeking to carve out a business converting fleet vehicles to plug-in hybrids.

The Auburn Hills, Mich.-based company said today it has signed a partnership with Manheim, which sells autos through online auctions, to market retrofit trucks and vans to be extended-range electric vehicles.

ALTe Powertrain Technologies plans to convert trucks, such as a Ford F-150, into a hybrid and increase fuel efficiency by as much as 200 percent. The major components of its powertrain are a 20 kilowatt-hour lithium ion battery pack, … Read more

There's no doubt that Windows 7 is the most polished operating system Microsoft has released, but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. This collection of free utilities great and small will give you tools to change a significant amount of Windows 7's behavior, from the look of the Start button to hulking out Windows Explorer with FTP powers.

Before we get to gritty fine-tuning apps, let's start with some of the more-aesthetic ones. The aforementioned Windows 7 Start Button Changer is a one-hit wonder. Calling it a "wonder" may be a … Read more

Alt+Tab Tuner gives you granular control over Windows 7's Alt+Tab preview and window-switching hot-key combo. That's pretty much all it does, but it's an incredible depth of fine-tuning.

Users can adjust the margins on the top, bottom, or side of the global preview window; change the number of columns and rows that those previews appear in; and change the amount of spacing between each preview thumbnail. Users can also tweak the program icon location and size; the preview thumbnail size; the milliseconds the global preview window takes to fade out; and the opacity of the … Read more

Sony has taken the wraps off of a new line of streaming audio products, dubbed "Altus." The four debut products will be available through Best Buy starting in September (and sonystyle.com in the meantime), and the retailer also had a hand in their development. All of the products use Sony's proprietary S-Air wireless technology to communicate with one another, which means that other S-Air-compatible products--including many of Sony's recent home theater and home audio systems--can stream audio to the Altus products.

The initial Altus line is as follows:… Read more

This collection of free utilities for Windows will energize your corners, introduce tagging for files, and allow you to move and resize program windows in a Windows 7 style via your Alt key.

TaggedFrog tags your files, but keeps the tags to itself--there's little cross-over with Windows Explorer. You can drag and drop from Explorer, though, and that makes adding tags significantly easier. It does nothing automatically, which means there's little chance of a file getting mistagged and lost in the tag cloud. You can batch tag files from the Scan and Tag option under File, and batch … Read more

Whenever a next-generation version of a product is launched, inevitably you get comparisons to the previous model--and what the older model did better. Well, in the case of the Kindle 2, the nitpicking is in full swing as several blogs have taken up the debate over whether the Kindle 2's text is lighter than the original Kindle's.

On Joe Wikert's Kindleville blog, one reader lodged the following complaint:

Side-by-side, the K1 text is bolder and jumps out at you. It's as if the low fidelity, dot-matrix-like typeface of the K1 is better suited for the reading experience than the feathered, crisp, 16-shades of gray of the K2. After 30 minutes of reading on the K2, my eyes get tired and I actually experience mild dizziness, headaches. Never experienced that with the K1.

In the Mobileread forums, a reader posted that he had decided to return the Kindle 2 after he noticed "low contrast on text as compared to kindle 1...text on kindle 1 is really good it is dark and somewhat thicker than kindle 2 at the same font size, menu is normal on kindle 2." He said he spoke to a Kindle representative (we assume a customer service person), who said he'd heard complaints from other Kindle 2 users as well.

On Amazon, there's a thread titled, "Amazon: Please make the text darker on Kindle 2!"

The thread's starter, BMK, is calling for an e-mail campaign to encourage Amazon to update the firmware on the Kindle 2 to fix the alleged problem.

"Kindle 2 is capable of producing darker text than the default setting, which is light, thin, and difficult to read for many people. Customer Service has reportedly told at least one person that the standard text could have been a darker shade of gray/black than the one that was chosen."

So, what's the deal? Are people imagining things or is there really an issue? … Read more

It adds new functionality to your mouse, there's little to learn, and it's free. AltMove Manager is a mouse and desktop enhancement manager that can move and resize windows that are locked, grab a screenshot, and magnify a window under the mouse. You can easily add a few others through the Actions menu.

As an executable, the app doesn't need to be installed--just run the executable for the shortcuts to be in place. The regular settings include some standard program options for running the executable at start-up and keeping it on top. Advanced settings let you move … Read more

This simple utility enhances Windows' ALT-Tab functionality by displaying screenshots of open windows along with their icons. TaskSwitchXP Pro's familiar Windows XP-style interface is accessible from the system tray or by using the conventional ALT-Tab hot key. The icons are arranged in a vertical list on the right, while a snapshot of the selected window appears on the left.

TaskSwitchXP Pro is extremely handy, especially with multiple instances of a particular application. The graphic display makes it much easier to choose the right window. You'll find an assortment of settings for customizing the program's appearance, choosing and … Read more