Lifehacker’s post about the Top 10 Mac Applications That Should Be On Windows gave a good overview of the various programs many people wish were in Windows. However, I just wanted to add that although Fluid is a great single-site browser app, there is a Windows alternative that is not Prism. (I tried Prism in Linux and wasn’t impressed.)

Courtesy of makeuseof.com

Bubbles is free single-site browser app for Windows. It’s very simple to use and even has a few added features to further improve the SSB experience.

On a related note, if you use Linux you actually have another option for SSB. Google Chrome’s Application Shortcuts are easy to use and configure (as a matter of fact, there’s almost no configuring needed).

1. Go to the page you wish to turn into a webapp
2. Click the Page button (The button that looks like a piece of paper)

Screenshot

1. Select “Create Application Shortcut”
2. Choose where you would like the shortcut to be
3. Click “Create”

And, there you go! You should have a webapp on your desktop or in your Applications menu that you can use. If you decide you don’t want the application anymore, just delete the shortcut.

One thing you’ll probably notice is that the icons Chrome chooses aren’t normally the highest of quality. However, Linux makes it very simple to change the icon image for any shortcut on your computer.

1. Right click on the icon
2. Select “Properties”
3. Click the icon Image
4. Search and choose your new icon image

Screenshot

Update: Google Chrome in Windows now supports application shortcuts!

I spent the first two weeks in my new apartment without Internet. Thankfully, Gmail has e-mail forwarding which can make your Internet-less days a little less stressful. (Granted, in order to use it you will need to plan ahead and make sure you’re somewhere with Internet for at least five minutes.)

Even if you can’t reply to e-mail messages right away, knowing that someone has replied to your message, that class is canceled, or that something important has happened at work—there are many situations where this can be a useful thing.

Gmail has a feature which allows you to forward incoming e-mails to a given e-mail address. For instance, since I use AT&T, I forward e-mails to <10_digit_phone_number>@txt.att.net. You can find the e-mail address format for your phone by checking the website for your phone’s provider, or checking websites such as makeuseof.com.

Screenshot

However, this feature comes with a disclaimer. If you subscribe to lots of e-mail lists, alerts, etc. you will probably get quite a few oddly formatted, URL-heavy text messages sent to your phone. If you’re like me, and you’re using Gmail’s forwarding feature because you don’t have a data plan, you will need to exercise a bit of caution and make sure not to click the links. Also, if you get a lot of e-mails, you might want to selectively forward the “important” e-mails using Gmail’s built-in filters.