Take a look at some screenshots.

You’ll need to sign into your free Pandora account to get started and see your stations. Make a new recommendation-driven station based on an artist; check out the suggest-as-you-tap search drop-down.

Once a song starts playing, you can give it the thumbs up or thumbs down (which informs Pandora’s future recommendations), or tap the up arrow to get more options, like…

The ability to bookmark the song or artist, buy the track from iTunes, or share your station via email.

Turn your device to get into Cover Flow view, which works just like native iTunes (though I noticed a little flickering in the background album covers in my test).

Tap on the top right button to get artist details (shown here) and song details (shown below).

When you’re wondering why Pandora included a recommendation in your station, the song info will tell you.

The Pandora 2.0 app is a free download for the iPhone or iPod touch only.

• Source: Lifehacker

On the same exact computer, where I’m triple-booting Vista, XP, and now the Windows 7 beta (build 7000), I ran a set of startup tests to pit the beta against the rest, using my previous measurements. Here’s what I found.

The hardware: My test system has an Intel Core 2 Duo processor running at 3.16GHz with 4GB of RAM. Windows XP, Vista, and the Windows 7 beta build 7000 are all installed on the same, physical SATA hard drive (partitioned, of course).

The test: Since I’m triple-booting the three operating systems, I used a simple handheld timer to get my numbers, starting at the “Choose your operating system” screen (which comes after the BIOS startup) and ending at a fully functional desktop in my first set of tests, then the user login screen in my second. I timed each OS startup three times and averaged the results to account for my fat fingers.

Test Set 1: From Boot Choice to Fully-loaded User Desktop

For this test set, I created a non-Administrator user account with nothing in startup, and set Windows to automatically log into it on boot. These numbers start at the OS boot choice screen, and end at a fully-functional, user desktop. This isn’t a true test of how long a desktop would render in real-world usage, because most people DO have programs in their startup. But these tests are to compare Windows version performance, not third-party software. That all said, the numbers:

Here you can see that for the first time, Windows is offering a sub-30 second start time on pretty standard modern hardware, for the first time in at least a long time (if ever, I don’t have a copy of Windows 95 or 3.1 to test). Of course, Microsoft claims that Vista boots in under 30 seconds already, but that’s not the case on my tower; and only 23% of you say that your system boots in under 30 seconds. It should go without saying that this has a whole lot to do with exactly how beefy your hardware is.

Test Set 2: From Boot Choice to User Login Screen

This test measures the amount of time from the boot OS choice screen to the user login prompt only, hence the shorter times.

The Results

As you can see, the Windows 7 beta took 4 seconds off the time it takes to render a usable desktop as compared to the Win7 Preview, which adds up to a 12-second difference from Windows XP. The beta shaved 3 seconds off the boot time to login prompt as compared to the preview build.

I can hear the comments already—”are we really talking about THREE SECONDS?” Yes, neither of these are earth-shattering improvements, but they are clear and consistent speed boosts, and hopefully they’re a sign that things will get even faster since Windows 7 is still in beta.

Anyone out there move over to the Windows 7 beta full-time? What are your impressions? Post ‘em up in the comments.

• Source: Lifehacker

In exchange for the DRM-free tracks, Apple will reportedly allow labels to push three tiers of pricing. Older songs from the archives will likely get cheaper than 99 cents, songs that are newer and “midline” (i.e. not big hits) will inhabit the familiar 99 cent mark, and newer, bigger hits will fetch higher, unnamed dollar amounts.

If announced at the Macworld conference today—which our gadget-obsessed cousins at Gizmodo are, of course, covering live—there could also be over-the-air 3G downloads coming to iPhone owners, and DRM dropped from everything in the iTunes store on launch. As Greg Sandoval at CNET points out, though, that leaves a question mark on tracks already purchased through iTunes.

Will variable, DRM-free pricing make you a (new or returning) iTunes customer? Tell us your take in the comments.

• Source: Lifehacker

What’s changed? Kaelri explains:

I’ve added:

• RSS reader.
• Gmail notifier.
• Calendar by ~limpet.
• System/battery graphics using ecqlipse 2 icons.
• Tray clock replacement.
• Quick-edit button for Notes.
• Application launcher. Useless to anyone with Launchy or StandaloneStack, but it’s pretty, and way too much fun to play with. (You can see what it looks like in the deviantArt screenshot.)
• Assorted doodads and revisions.
• Fixed the Location bug plaguing Enigma and HUD.Vision.

The Enigma 1.1 ZIP archive includes config files for Samurize and Rainmeter, fonts, a Windows theme, and more. Unzip it to get the full installation instructions. Nice work, Kaelri! The Enigma 1.1 customization package is a free download for Windows only.

• Source: Lifehacker

After downloading the Install-It package, you’ll want to extract its files to somewhere you can reach, like your desktop, and open up the Install.ini file in your favorite text editor. This file is simply a list of program descriptions and the locations of their installer files. If you’re creating a disc full of useful installers, just replace the default examples with your chosen verbiage for each app and the location/names of the setup files. You separate those two items with a comma, using slashes where necessary, and end each line with a semi-colon.

Here’s an example Install.ini I made for a supposed Windows XP re-installation:

Copy all your installer files and Install-It’s files into a CD-burning app, such as CDBurnerXP, and fire away.

Now you’ve got a CD that, on most computers, will pop up with a list of programs that can be installed without anyone having to guess which icon or cryptic filename means. If a computer isn’t set to auto-start when it detects an autorun.inf file, though, you’ll have to point the computer to install.exe—not a problem, though, if you’ve put each application in its own directory.

Install-It is a free download for Windows systems only.

• Source: Lifehacker

The short version of the research and studies cited is that we all do it, in varying amounts, to protect our fragile egos. It’s a two-way victory: If you ace a project, you did great despite your car having trouble, your cat dying, being sick, and not having hardly heard the initial presentation. If not, well, hey, you know why.

If you’re a regular self-handicapper, though, you can grow too attached to whatever you use without knowing it, whether it’s alcohol, rule-defying, sleep-deprivation, or whatever convenience you cling to. Those who study self-handicapping, though, offer a seemingly devious way to go at it another way and benefit—namely, get someone else to deliver your excuses:

In a recent study, James C. McElroy of Iowa State University and J. Michael Crant of Notre Dame had 246 adults evaluate the behavior of characters in several workplace anecdotes. The participants’ impressions of a character began to sour after the second time the person cited a handicap.

“What happens here is that if you do it often, observers attribute your performance to you, but begin to view it as part of your disposition, i.e., you’re a whiner,” Dr. McElroy wrote in an e-mail message. “But you can avoid this happening if someone else does the handicapping for you, and surprisingly enough, even if they do it often.”

Which cliched excuses and handicapping preambles do you wish you could banish, whether in yourself or co-workers? Let’s hear your take on pre-emptive defeat in the comments. Photo by pattista.

• Source: Lifehacker

Not much seems entirely new with Mr. Uptime, available both at its Mozilla home and official page, but that’s probably a good thing. As we noted when we last checked it out, the Firefox add-on can also monitor sites and alert you when specific text appears or disappears from a site, making it more than just a monitor of web hosting power. But next time a big, time-sensitive promotional give-away happens and you can’t grab it in the first few tries, you’ll be glad Mr. Uptime also does its basic function so well.

Mr. Uptime is a free download, works wherever Firefox does. Thanks, ScaryMike!

• Source: Lifehacker

Press L and you see a picture of a lion. Press R and you see a movie of a rooster. Keys that have no symbolic link for children like the page up and page down keys produce rising and falling guitar sounds. Numbers show the number on the screen. The only caveat is that it doesn’t lock the mouse. This is fine on a single monitor setup, because you can’t click through the images or access the start menu so clicking wouldn’t accomplish anything. On a multiple monitor setup however it only locks the primary screen, the mouse is still effective on the other screens. It would be nice if the program did a simple poll to see if other monitors were active and darkened/disabled them. Still if your toddler isn’t a proficient mouse user it should work fine. CrazyLittleFingers is freeware, Windows Only. Photo by John A. Ward.

• Source: Lifehacker

• Source: Lifehacker

In exchange for the DRM-free tracks, Apple will reportedly allow labels to push three tiers of pricing. Older songs from the archives will likely get cheaper than 99 cents, songs that are newer and “midline” (i.e. not big hits) will inhabit the familiar 99 cent mark, and newer, bigger hits will fetch higher, unnamed dollar amounts.

If announced at the Macworld conference today—which our gadget-obsessed cousins at Gizmodo are, of course, covering live—there could also be over-the-air 3G downloads coming to iPhone owners, and DRM dropped from everything in the iTunes store on launch. As Greg Sandoval at CNET points out, though, that leaves a question mark on tracks already purchased through iTunes.

Will variable, DRM-free pricing make you a (new or returning) iTunes customer? Tell us your take in the comments.

• Source: Lifehacker