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Posts with tag customization

Google Rolls Out 'Themes' for Gmail

by Tim Stevens, posted Nov 20th 2008 at 9:40AM

Google Rolls Out Themes for Gmail
Google is certainly not a company satisfied to leave a product well enough alone. Gmail, the already hugely popular free online e-mail service, has seen a number of upgrades in the past few weeks. First, it was integrated text messaging, then came easy to use video chat, and now Google is releasing a series of themes to make your Gmailing experience a little more aesthetically pleasing.

Google enabled people to apply custom themes to the Google.com search page many months ago, and since then, a variety of colorful and fanciful styles have been added to let you personalize your search. It's similar here, with Gmail starting with 30+ themes that range from wood-grained to modern and sophisticated. To enable a theme, click on the "Settings" link at the top of the page and click on "Themes." Don't see the link yet? Fear not; Google's doing their typical thing of rolling it out slowly -- it should be there in a few days.

And why is the company being so generous with the feature upgrades lately? Maybe they're still trying to make up for that painful downtime... [From: The Official Gmail Blog]

Paper Shredder Roundup 2008

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jan 11th 2008 at 9:51AM


Someone here at the Switched has a bit of an obsession, if you hadn't noticed yet. We just can't help but cover every novelty or development in the world of paper shredders. Sadly there was nothing as powerful as this $30,000 shredder on display at CES, but there were a few noteworthy entries into the world of document destruction.

Whether they were pretty, paranoid or just plain weird, they made it to our Class of 2008: Paper Shredders Edition gallery. Check it out.

Gallery: Shredders at CES

  • Colors and face plates
  • Slim is in
  • How paranoid are you?
  • Hello Kitty?


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Graffiti-Splotched Gadgets All the Rage In 2008

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jan 8th 2008 at 11:01AM


Sure, iPods are cool, but they're just not the status symbol they once were, and there's nothing cool about having sleekest slimmest laptop on the market if everyone else has one, too.

Companies are realizing this and know that people, especially fiercely independent Americans, have a need to be different. So, as a way to make their products stand out (and their customers feel a little more unique), consumer electronics producers have taken to decorating many of their goods with graffiti and modern-art inspired graphics, intricate etchings, vaguely Japanese designs, and yes, even leather.

We wandered around CES and snapped pictures of some of the coolest examples of decorative electronics and customization options available to try and make you the consumer feel a little less like just part of the herd.

Gallery: Custom Design Gadgets



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Customize YouTube Player to You

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Jul 20th 2007 at 5:37PM

Customizable YouTube Players: Finally!
Embedded YouTube players are those ubiquitous bastions of crappy camera work and pre-teens lip-syncing to pop hits. Embedding on your own Web site allows you to display any content available on YouTube without the burden of having to host it yourself. Sure they're functional, but not very fun. Same gray and red color scheme, same YouTube layout and related videos.

Rejoice: YouTube has heard the MySpace crowd's cries to be able to alter everything with garish colors and self references. The new customizable embedded player from YouTube lets you name and describe your own player, choose from nine different color schemes, pick either classic layout, or a layout with related videos on the right (pictured), and the content, which can be your own videos, a custom playlist or your favorites.

From TechCrunch

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