GnoMenu 2.8 Released

GnoMenu - a menu with themes support which we just covered a few days ago - version 2.8 was released. The new version doesn't come with many new features but it comes with one big improvement: a new default program list widget called iconview which makes the GnoMenu a lot faster than before.

Other changes in GnoMenu 2.8 are: distro logo now has 3 diferent states, pressed, hover and normal, more translations and the usual bug fixes.

Install GnoMenu 2.8 in Ubuntu from the official PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnomenu-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnomenu

GoogleCL: Manage Any Google Service Via Command Line (Linux)

I was just reading about GoogleCL at Lifehacker and after testing it for a while I realized it's actually very useful.

Using GoogleCL - a command line tool to manage all the Google services -, you can upload photos to your PicasaWeb albums, post to your Blogger blog, modify Google Calendar events, add contacts, manage your Google Docs (upload, delete, and so on) and even upload videos to YouTube. Unfortunately it doesn't come with support for Gmail.

This can have many uses, other than the obvious ones: you could automatically back up your documents on Google Docs, completely manage your Google Calendar using a script or automatically backup your photos to PicasaWeb.

The instructions on Lifehacker are for any Linux distribution but if you're using Ubuntu, all you have to do to install GoogleCL is download the .deb file.

For other Linux distributions, download Gdata Python Client and GoogleCL source code and install it each of them using the following command (you must run it in the directory of each of the 2 packages mentioned above):

sudo python setup.py install

Using GoogleCL is very easy. For example, to upload an image to PicasaWeb into the album named WebUpd8, you would run this command:

google picasa post --title="Web Upd8" myimage.png

Please note that the first time you use each Google service, a link will be displayed on the command line - you'll have to copy this link into your browser to link GoogleCL with your Google account. But this will be required only once.

See a lot of examples on using GoogleCL, here.

Turpial 1.3.3 Final Released [Native Linux Twitter Client]

After a long period of testing, Turpial (native Linux Twitter client) 1.3.3 has been released, this new version bringing many new features such as: multiple language support (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Traditional Chinese and Taiwanese, French, German, Italian, Norwegian and Russian), proxy support for the Twitter API, spell checker, added support for Yfrog services, img.ly, Mobypicture and twitgoo to upload images, zi.ma, SigueMiLink and ur1.ca short urls, fixed the bug that prevented you to close Turpial from the notification area and many more.

If you've been using Turpial from the development PPA, you already have most of the new features but the final version also comes with many fixes.

Initially version 1.3.2 was released today but because of a bug, the version was bumped to 1.3.3 which comes with a fix.

Turpial 1.3.3 is not yet available in its PPA, but we've uploaded it to the WebUpd8 PPA so you can easily install it using the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install turpial

You can also manually download the .deb file if you don't want to add the WebUpd8 PPA.

Equinox Gets Its Own Ubuntu PPA (Both The GTK Engine And Themes)

Equinox is an amazing new GTK engine which is already used by the Elementary GTK theme and many others.

Until now, Equinox was only available to download via Gnome Look but starting today, both the Equinox GTK engine and the themes developed by the GTK engine creator (Equinox themes and Equinox Ubuntu themes) got their own PPA so you can stay up to date with the latest version.

(One of the Equinox Ubuntu themes)

To add the Equinox Ubuntu PPA, use the following command in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox && sudo apt-get update

Then, to install the Equinox GTK Engine, Equinox-Themes and Equinox-Themes-Ubuntu, use the following command:

sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-equinox equinox-theme equinox-ubuntu-theme

Install Shotwell 0.5.91 In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx [Photo Manager]

Like we told you a few days ago, we'll be backporting some packages from Ubuntu Maverick for Ubuntu Lucid. One application I really like is Shotwell, a photo manager which will be made default in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat. The current version available in the Shotwell PPA is 0.5.2 but the version in Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat is already 0.5.91 - a development build for Shotwell 0.6 which is about to be released soon.

Here are the new features in Shotwell 0.6 (these features are already available in Shotwell 0.5.91):

• Basic RAW support
• Image zooming
• PNG support
• Support for EXIF, IPTC, and XMP
• Edit with external editor

To be able to easily install the latest Shotwell versions from Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx, we've set up a PPA for Shotwell only. To install Shotwell 0.5.91 in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid, simply paste the following commands in a PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/shotwell && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install shotwell

Remember, the Shotwell package was backported from Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat meaning we did not change anything in the packaging source - so fo any bugs, don't report them here but on Launchpad. If there are any bugs, there's nothing I can do! Although I didn't notice any major bugs so far, but who knows.

Eco: New Bisigi Project GNOME Theme

Eco is a new theme added to the Bisigi project. It is based on Shiki Colors and comes with a beautiful wallpaper, 2 GTK and Metacity themes (but only 1 available in the Bisigi PPA) and an icon pack.

To install all the Bisigi themes in Ubuntu, simply use the following PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bisigi/ppa && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bisigi-themes

Or install just the new Eco theme:

sudo apt-get install eco-theme

How To Sync Extensions In Chromium Browser

The Chromium developers have been working on extensions sync for some time, but this feature only became functional today. However, it is not available by default for now so you must manually enable it. Here is how to extensions sync in Chromium.

Firstly, make sure you have the latest Chromium from the dev channel installed. Ubuntu users can install it via the Chromium daily PPA.

Then, to enable extensions sync, you must create a new desktop or panel shortcut and in the command field, enter this:

chromium-browser --enable-sync-extensions --sync-url=https://clients4.google.com/chrome-sync/dev

Then start Chromium using this new shortcut. And of course, do the same for the second computer to sync the extensions.

Then simply enable it via Chromium menu > Set up sync > Customize sync...

Important note: this feature is experimental for now so you will probably find bugs or it might not work at all.