I tested Apple’s Magic Mouse with Windows 7 not long after I bought the device a few weeks ago. It paired through Bluetooth with no issues as expected, and works well, but lost was the scrolling I enjoy with a finger flick on my MacBook. Obviously, it’s a driver issue and I never thought twice about it — why expect a Mac-specific function to work in Windows, right?  Luckily, someone else looked into it and hacked a method to get the magic on Windows.

UNEASYsilence peeped a pair of modified bits from Apple’s latest Bluetooth Update and word is that they add touch scrolling to 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows. Although geared for using Windows in Bootcamp, folks are reporting success on non-Apple hardware as well. So far, it’s reported that vertical scrolling is working in a few apps like Firefox and Internet Explorer 8, but no multitouch mousing is here yet. If you’d rather not go the hacked route, Microsoft’s own Sidewinder X8 mouse driver could do the trick as well. I haven’t had time to try either method yet, since I don’t run Bootcamp. I have paired the Magic Mouse with the Windows 7 partition on my netbook though, so I expect a little hackery later today.

Here’s a handy Ubuntu tweak that simulates one of my favorite Windows 7 features: Aero Snap. This is the user interface feature that automatically resizes application windows when you drag an app to edge of your workspace. Drag a window to the top and it snaps into a maximized view. Move an app to the left or right edge and it automatically resizes to take up half of your space. It’s one of those features that I originally thought I wouldn’t use, but I find that I hit a several times a day when using Windows 7. Like registry bloat, it grows on you.

Besides having a killer name, OMG! UBUNTU! has the specifics on how to enable this feature in Ubuntu. The directions look pretty straight-forward — you essentially need to enable Compiz and then tweak a few commands in the Compiz Config Settings Manager. The downsides? Lifehacker says you won’t be able to drag windows into other workspaces, which sort of makes sense since you’d be dragging beyond the edge of your primary workspace. And windows might get fluky on a secondary monitor. Neither of these would keep me from making the mod, but I don’t have Ubuntu on anything at the moment. My poor netbook is already dealing with a triple-boot environment with Windows XP, Windows 7 and Moblin. Adding Ubuntu would probably blow up the device.

Today is the day that Esquire’s Augmented Reality application hits newstands. Using a software download and image codes in the magazine, you can get a dose of AR. It’s an interesting concept although I’m not sure it adds value just yet. Still, when I saw a video demonstration of it, I thought was pretty wild to see. And then I got to thinking — if the software keys off of a simple black and white image in front of a webcam, could I duplicate the effect with a quick drawing?

Sure enough, my first attempt — which isn’t even all that neat of a drawing — did the trick as I tried it on camera. In the video you’ll see the Esquire AR software pick up my hand drawn image, which is really just an 8 x 8 set of cubes. There’s a little meter in the AR software to show how well it’s tracking the AR image and my sketch is getting 100%! I like how you can turn and tilt the AR code and the software moves the images to match on screen. Chalk this one up with the remote controlling a car with an iPhone bit — it’s not very valuable, but it was fun to try! I may have to run out and buy the magazine to see what other AR bits they have.

So is anyone else besides me using the new bookmark sync feature in Google Chrome? I’m using it with the beta version of Chrome for Windows and also on my Mac. On OS X, the latest version Chrome itself doesn’t support the bookmark sync feature, but the latest build of Chromium does, so that’s what I’m using. But what if you’re using a computer that doesn’t have Chrome and you can’t install it? How then can you get your precious bookmarks from the cloud? It’s actually quite easy when you notice that your Chrome bookmarks also get synchronized over to Google Docs.

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I was so mesmerized with my new Apple Magic Mouse yesterday that I neglected to share an interesting, yet wacky, problem. I bought the new mouse to get away from typing and navigating on my MacBook. I already had an Apple Bluetooth keyboard, although I hadn’t used it in nearly a year. So I just bought the mouse. As I was setting up my more traditional setup, I realized that my keyboard wouldn’t power up. That’s to be expected, I thought. After all, the batteries have been sitting in there for a year. So I swapped the batteries and… nothing. No little green light to tell me the power was on. No keyboards found in the Bluetooth settings on my Mac. I really thought that the keyboard was shot and was quite annoyed, since I had just come from the Apple store. Then I did a little online research and found dozens of people with the same problem…

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What perfect timing on this tip from The Apple Blog. I’ve been looking at moving away from my MacBook trackpad and keyboard so I’ve been researching Apple’s new Magic Mouse. There’s nothing wrong with the inputs on my MacBook — I’m simply looking at my home office workspace from an ergonomic standpoint. I’m not sure how ergo the Magic Mouse actually is, but I do know that it actually loses some key functionality. Namely, without the side buttons, there seems to be no way to use Exposé or Spaces with a Magic Mouse. How that’s actually “magical” is beyond me…

It turns out you can regain some of the lost magic using MultiClutch — a freeware Mac app we’ve previously covered — provided that you’re willing to give up other functionality. Essentially, you can use MultiClutch to re-map the left and right swipes for Exposé and Spaces. You’ll lose ability to swipe forward and back between web pages, but that’s a personal decision. I’m not sure which way I’d go, but at least I have the option if I do move to the Magic Mouse.

Even though my Palm Pre supports Facebook contact info through the webOS Synergy function, I’ve barely used it. The main reason is because most of my Facebook friends aren’t people I contact outside of Facebook. But the Events functionality of Facebook is becoming more useful as I reconnect with hundreds of old classmates — as a group we use the Events function for impromptu meetings and formal events like reunions. The only problem is that I live by my Google Calendar. By that, I mean: if it’s not on the calendar, I don’t know about it, nor can you expect me to be a part of whatever event you think I know about.

Thank goodness for this tip from Sean Bonner that Lifehacker found: it’s actually quite easy to add your Facebook Events to a Google Calendar account. On your Facebook Events page, look for and tap the “Export Events” option. Facebook will show you a URL — just copy it. Hop into your Google Calendar and look for the “Add” option in the “Other Calendars” section. Click “Add”, then “Add by URL,” and paste the event URL address you copied from Facebook. That’s it. Once done, you should have a new calendar called Facebook in your Google Calendars.

Bear in mind that this is a one-way sync from Facebook Events to your Google Cal. You can’t add Events in Facebook with this method. However, on the Google side, you can choose to show or hide this calendar or customize the color and notification methods. Even better — if your phone can sync with Google Calendar, you can get the Facebook Events on your handset. Thanks to the Agenda homebrew app on my Palm Pre, I have my Events showing with all of my other appointments. Yup, that last event proves I’m not a young man anymore, considering I graduated high school in 1987.

I am fortunate to be able to work at home. It has a lot of advantages, not the least of which is the 30-second commute. There is a sense of empowerment in being able to work in my own home office, primarily because I can control the environment in which I work. I have honed that environment to the point that it suits me perfectly, so it’s appropriate to share what I learned works well for me. Note that what works for me may not work for you, we’re all different in many ways and have different needs.

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Here’s a nice Windows 7 tip from the How To Geek — with a little registry tweak you can adjust the how quickly or slowly Aero Peek thumbnails appear. By default, Aero Peek is programmed to show an application thumbnail when the mouse hovers over the app for a half second. That’s 500 milliseconds to the programmer types out there. And you can modify that 500 number by finding this registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced

To mod the time, simply run type regedit in your Start menu to run the registry editor. Note: although this is a very minor change, it always makes sense to backup your registry before making any changes. You never know what might get hosed up and a backup can save the day.

Once you have the registry editor open, just navigate to the key path above. Look for and double-click on DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime, which should show the default value of 500. Here you can edit the Aero Peek delay time in terms of milliseconds: 1000 would be one second, 0 would be instant, etc… Not only will your live thumbnails appear faster — or slower, if you want — but the Show Desktop function in the far right of the Taskbar will follow the same time delay.

Most netbooks don’t include an integrated optical drive for CDs or DVDs. That’s done to keep the price down and simply because there isn’t much space for the drive. That makes for a challenging install problem with a new operating system. Microsoft recognizes this and created a solution — through its online store, netbook owners can purchase a downloadable copy of Windows 7 in .iso format.

But that’s only half the battle because you still have to get the bits installed. That’s where the WUDT comes in.

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