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A new taskbar status application BatteryBar adds a slick looking battery life meter to the Windows taskbar. It comes with detailed battery life information and some gorgeous eye candy in a mouse over dialog.

(NOTE: Also check out the BatteryBar PRO review here!)

Once installed, activating BatteryBar is as as easy as could be. Simply right-clicking on the taskbar and choosing Toolbars -> BatteryBar from the menu. The meter button changes from blue to green when you are on battery power, and clicking on the meter button switches the display between actual time remaining or a percentage view. The percentage meter is calculated using a statistical prediction that keeps a history of how quickly your battery usually drains to more accurately predict battery life—so the time remaining may seem a little odd at first.

When you’re running on battery, BatteryBar shows the percentage bar in green, yellow, or red, depending on how much battery power is remaining. The bar displays the time left on your battery in Hours:Minutes.

Battery is discharging with 2 hours, 46 minutes of battery life remaining.

When charging, the percentage bar is shown in blue to indicate charging, and the estimated time to full charge is shown. The bar turns black and shows “On A/C” when fully charged.

Battery is charging with 46 minutes until the battery is fully charged.

Features

• Vista style – The toolbar is using the same look and feel as the Vista taskbar buttons
• Statistical time prediction – BatteryBar monitors your battery and keeps a history of how long it takes for your battery to charge and discharges. That information is used to more accurately predict the life of your battery
• Translations – BatteryBar fully or partially supports 13 languages. Anyone may volunteer to translate BatteryBar to additional languages
• Detailed Battery Info – BatteryBar is now capable of collecting detailed information about your battery, including max capacity (mW), current capacity (mW), charge rate (mW), discharge rate (mW), and more.
• Automatic Update – BatteryBar will check for new versions at startup and automatically download the new version

Everything listed above comes in the free version. The pro version adds the following:

• Low battery and critical battery notifications and audio alerts
• Customize 20 settings, including changing the font, low battery warning levels, and more.
• New features in future versions that will only be available in the Pro version

Check out my review of BatteryBar Pro here!

Download the free BatteryBar from http://www.osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html.

Spb’s Mobile Shell is a must-have for Windows Mobile users. It’s design improves the use of Windows Mobile smartphones dramatically, as well as adding some much needed eye candy. You can check out my review as well as how you can customize it in my previous post Customize SPB Mobile Shell 2.0.

Version 2.1 contains mostly bug fixes in this new release, although there is a new data connection indicator on the Professional Now Screen, along with support for voicemail, hardware keyboards, and 320 x 320 screens. If you’ve got v2.0, this is a free update.

What’s New:

• Data connection indicator on the Professinal Now Screen

• Voicemail support

• 320×320 screens support

• Hardware keyboard support

• Stability bug fixes

Product page: http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/mobileshell/

CSS Web Design Examples, Tutorials and Other Resource

CSS Beauty is not only an active database for well-designed CSS sites but it is also a way to connect designers with potential clients and a source for web design and general aesthetic inspiration.

Web Design Inspiration is a collection of screenshots showing excellent web designs. It is well worth browsing simply for graphic and web design inspiration.

Web Creme is a very simple site and easy to follow on RSS: screenshots are posted, often more than once per day, of truly impressive web designs.

Unmatched Style is a source for businesses and designers who seek inspiration from particularly attractive, interesting and progressive web designs.

Design Firms is one of many sites on which you can find designers directly but your best bet might be a simple Google search or simply contacting the author of a design found through one of the above-listed design inspiration sites.

25 Beautiful Minimalist Web Designs shows the awesome power of simplicity when it comes to web design – more isn’t necessarily better.

24 Great Niche Galleries has screenshots with descriptions and links to various galleries that you might want to see for more web design inspiration.

10 Great Web [Re]Designs of 2007 features mostly popular and mainstream sites you may already be familiar with but also provides some useful analysis.

Best of CSS 2007 is another great screenshot-packed eye-candy collection of cool web designs from last year – worth bookmarking for future inspiration.

I’m big into customizing my desktop. I’ve been an Object Desktop user for years… and I’m in love with Windowblinds. I was stoked when I first heard about Vista’s Gadgets, but after running Vista I can tell you that they suck, take up space, and use up memory. It’s basically useless eye candy. Thankfully, disabling it is pretty simple. Just right click on the side bar or side bar icon, select properties and uncheck the “Start Sidebar when Windows starts” checkbox. Done. You’ll have to reboot to notice the effect, to close it without rebooting simply right click on the icon and select exit.