Unity Tomboy Lens Available For Ubuntu 13.04, Supports Dash Previews

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unity Tomboy Lens has been updated to work with the latest Unity available in Ubuntu 13.04</b>. Also, the lens now <b>supports Dash previews</b> so you can quickly take a look at your note contents by right clicking the note in Dash.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvSOnuZegX8/UZzFaiW-UEI/AAAAAAAAPVE/WryKFbClzdo/s1600/unity-tomboy-lens.jpg" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Unity Tomboy Lens" border="0" height="178" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZvSOnuZegX8/UZzFaiW-UEI/AAAAAAAAPVE/WryKFbClzdo/s320/unity-tomboy-lens.jpg" title="Unity Tomboy Lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The lens allows you to search and open notes via Unity Dash and the notes show up both in the Tomboy lens as well as in the home lens.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite its name, <b>Unity Tomboy Lens also supports Gnote</b>. Important note about this though: <b>if both Gnote and Tomboy are installed, only Gnote notes will show up in Dash</b> so if you want to use it with Tomboy, make sure Gnote is not installed (if Gnote was installed, log out and log back in after removing it - a simple Unity restart wasn't enough in my test).</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/unity-tomboy-lens-dash-preview.jpg" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Unity Tomboy Lens Dash Preview" src="http://img.netupd8.com/unity-tomboy-lens-dash-preview_thumb.jpg" title="Unity Tomboy Lens Dash Preview" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unity Tomboy Lens - Dash preview</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For those not familiar with Tomboy and Gnote, these are note-taking applications that allow linking between notes, support note synchronization, are extensible through plugins and more.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity Tomboy Lens in Ubuntu 13.04 or 13.10</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Unity Tomboy Lens in Ubuntu 13.04 or 13.10 Saucy Salamander by using its official PPA, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:remi.rerolle/unity-lens-tomboy<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install unity-lens-tomboy</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, log out and log back in and the new lens should show up in Dash. When opening Dash, the Tomboy indicator will be launched if it's not already running - that's because the lens needs Tomboy to be running.</div><br />If you encounter bugs, report them @ <a href="https://github.com/rrerolle/unity-lens-tomboy/issues?page=1&state=open">GitHub</a>.

Unity Tomboy Lens Available For Ubuntu 13.04, Supports Dash Previews

Unity Tomboy Lens has been updated to work with the latest Unity available in Ubuntu 13.04 . Also, the lens now supports Dash previews so y...

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Desktop Search Tool `Recoll` Updated With Significant Improvements

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aTGk9w39_AA/UZYpOqB95yI/AAAAAAAAPSk/qmr2FB7lZiM/s1600/recoll-ui.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Recoll" border="0" height="238" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aTGk9w39_AA/UZYpOqB95yI/AAAAAAAAPSk/qmr2FB7lZiM/s320/recoll-ui.jpg" title="Recoll" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.recoll.org/">Recoll</a> is a full text search tool for Linux that comes with a Qt GUI, an Ubuntu Unity Lens and it can also be used via command line. The application can find keywords inside documents as well as file names.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">This featureful desktop search tool can index a huge number of file types. Besides text, html, maildir and mailbox (Thunderbird, Evolution), Gaim and Purple log files, Scribus files, man pages and Dia diagrams which it supports natively, Recoll can also index by using external helpers: Abiword, Microsoft Offic XML, LibreOffice, SVG and Gnumeric files, Okular annotation files, PDFs, MSWord, PowerPoint and Excel files, CHM, EPUB, archives like tar, zip and rar, ics, postscript, RTF, TeX, dvi, djvu, audio and image file tags and more. For more info, see the Recoll <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/features.html">features page</a>.</div><br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z1QgxSNZFTk/UZY04uNVHmI/AAAAAAAAPTE/FNleVgRGks4/s1600/recoll-adv-search-user-prefs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Recoll search tool" border="0" height="142" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z1QgxSNZFTk/UZY04uNVHmI/AAAAAAAAPTE/FNleVgRGks4/s320/recoll-adv-search-user-prefs.jpg" title="Recoll search tool" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Recoll 1.19 advanced search filters and user interface preferences</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Recoll supports wildcards (*, ?, []) as well as advanced searches such as: <br /><ul><li>"OR", "AND" operators</li><li>search for autor, e.g.: <i>author:"george orwell"</i></li><li>search by size, date, mime or format</li><li>search inside a folder, e.g.: <i>dir:/home/andrei/Dropbox</i></li><li>more</li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To use these advanced searches in the Recoll UI, select "Query language" next to the search term. For the Unity Lens, simply type the query in the lens search field. You can use the Advanced Search dialog (<i>Tools > Advanced Search</i>) to use such filters without having to manually enter them in the search field.<br /><br />For more info, see the Recoll <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/usermanual/usermanual.html#RCL.SEARCH.LANG">user manual</a> (chapter "3.5. The query language").<br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Recoll 1.19</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Recoll 1.19 has been <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/release-1.19.html">released</a> a few days ago</b> (and now updated to 1.19.2 due to some bugs found in the initial 1.19.0 release), <b>with many new features and improvements, such as:</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">indexing can now use multiple threads which should bring a major performance boost for multiprocessor machines with big indexes;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">it's now possible to use "OR" with "dir:" and wildcards have been enabled</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the advanced search panel now has a history feature. Use the up/down arrows to walk the search history list;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">new results popup menu to display sub-documents for a given document, useful to display email attachments;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">new GUI configuration options to enable "search as you type" and to disable Qt auto-completition in the simple search string which was confusing at times;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">better video files support;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">new web browser <a href="https://github.com/koniu/recoll-webui/">interface</a> that uses the Bottle Python Web framework for the server side and the Recoll Python module and it can be self-contained so you don't have to run apache or another web server to use it. Please note that for me, the new web interface didn't work in Ubuntu 13.04 (bug reported);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">new filter to index and retrieve Lotues Notes messages;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the first indexing ran after a new Recoll installation will now firstly index data that is more likely to be searched, so you can start searching before the indexing is completed;</li><li>implemented cache for last file uncompressed. This will much improve usage, e.g. for people fetching successive messages from a compressed mail folder;</li><li>there is a new recursive explicit reindex option available for the command line indexer;</li><li>improved handling of filters during indexing resulting in less subprocesses;</li><li>extended file attributes are now indexed by default. As a side effect, Recoll now uses st_ctime, not st_mtime to detect file changes; </li><li style="text-align: justify;">more!</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Recoll in Ubuntu</h2><br /><b>Ubuntu users can install the latest Recoll by using its official PPA:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:recoll-backports/recoll-1.15-on<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install recoll</code></pre><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BClf67-Y69Q/UZYsGxFST6I/AAAAAAAAPS0/Vzr9iDVc2L4/s1600/recoll-lens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Recoll Unity Lens" border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BClf67-Y69Q/UZYsGxFST6I/AAAAAAAAPS0/Vzr9iDVc2L4/s320/recoll-lens.jpg" title="Recoll Unity Lens" width="320" /></a></div><br />To also install the <b>Recoll Unity Lens</b>, use the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install recoll-lens</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>After installing Recoll Lens, log out and log back in or restart Unity</b> by pressing ALT + F2 and entering "unity".<br /><br />The Recoll Lens doesn't support Dash Previews yet and in Ubuntu 13.04 on which I've tested the latest version on, the icons that show up in the lens have an ugly black background - hopefully this will be fixed soon.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Next, you need to start the Recoll GUI</b> - the first time you run it, it will automatically <b>start indexing the files</b> in your home folder. If you want to configure the partitions / folders Recoll should index, from the Recoll menu select <i>Preferences > Indexing configuration</i>. Also check out the Indexing schedule in the same Preferences menu for configuring how often Recoll should index the new or changed files.</div><br /><br /><b>For other Linux distributions, see the Recoll <a href="http://www.lesbonscomptes.com/recoll/download.html">downloads page</a>. </b></div>

Desktop Search Tool `Recoll` Updated With Significant Improvements

Recoll is a full text search tool for Linux that comes with a Qt GUI, an Ubuntu Unity Lens and it can also be used via command line. The ap...

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How To Install Unity Smart Scopes In Ubuntu 13.04 [PPA]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 13.04 was supposed to get a new Unity <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SmartScopes1304Spec">Smart Scopes</a> feature, which eventually <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/03/29/smart-scopes-not-landing-in-13-04-will-land-in-13-10/">didn't make it</a>, but if you don't want to wait for Ubuntu 13.10 to try it, you can install it right now in Ubuntu 13.04, by using a PPA.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Smart Scopes tries to provide a better and smarter Dash search experience by adding various scopes that return relevant data depending on the search terms.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://img.netupd8.com/unity-smart-scopes_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Smart Scopes Ubuntu Unity" border="0" height="181" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y2PSYvcN3pY/UXfZoVmG4oI/AAAAAAAAPDQ/kV1og-USK7s/s320/unity-smart-scopes_1.png" title="Smart Scopes Ubuntu Unity" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a name='more'></a><b> </b> </div><div style="text-align: justify;">Installing the Smart Scopes, you'll get some new categories and sources on the home lens. When you search for something, Dash tries to automatically select the right categories and sources for your search term so for instance if you search for "Pink Floyd", Dash will automatically select the "Music", "Reference" (which in turn selects the Wikipedia source, among others), "Files & Folders" and so on. Or if you search for "Barcelona", it should display the weather, etc. You can also manually select / deseelect categories or sources.<br /><br /><br />Below you can see a search for "pink floyd" without manually selecting any source in the sidebar filter:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://img.netupd8.com/unity-smart-scopes_3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-738C6AcZrDw/UXft0KYnjmI/AAAAAAAAPDo/g-13UeC0B50/s320/unity-smart-scopes_3.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Smart Scopes did figure out this is music-related and displayed my Pink Floyd albums and some online info about Pink Floyd (among others), but it also displayed some applications.<br /><br />And here's the same search again, with some custom sources selected in the filter: </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a rel="image_group" href="http://img.netupd8.com/unity-smart-scopes_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Smart Scopes Ubuntu Unity" border="0" height="179" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DI0v-iskolM/UXfZtLgsE1I/AAAAAAAAPDY/ICy3LW8NS9I/s320/unity-smart-scopes_2.png" title="Smart Scopes Ubuntu Unity" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;">That looks a lot better and that's pretty much how the default search results should have looked like. The default search results are ok considering the Smart Scopes feature hasn't been officially released and it's still work in progress, but hopefully the scopes will be smart enough in the future so we won't need to manually select any categories.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Smart Scopes video</h2><br />To understand exactly how this works, watch the video below:<br /><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PB3oJga1kLQ" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB3oJga1kLQ">direct video link</a>; for more videos, subscribe to your <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/nilarimogard">YouTube channel</a>)</center><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><i>Remember, this feature is under development so it may change by the time it's added by default in Ubuntu.</i></b></div><br /><br /><h2>Supported scopes / sources</h2><br />Currently, the PPA provides the following scopes / sources:<br /><ul><li>Audacious</li><li>Banshee </li><li>Calculator</li><li>Chromium Bookmarks</li><li>Clementine</li><li>Colour Lovers</li><li>Dev Help</li><li>DeviantArt</li><li>Facebook </li><li>Files & Folders</li><li>Flickr</li><li>Evolution</li><li>Firefox Bookmarks</li><li>Gallica</li><li>Google Drive</li><li>GitHub</li><li>Gmusicbrowser</li><li>Google News</li><li>Guayadeque</li><li>IMDB</li><li>Launchpad</li><li>Manpages</li><li>Music Store </li><li>Musique</li><li>OpenClipArt</li><li>OpenWeatherMap</li><li>Picasa</li><li>Remote Videos </li><li>Rhythmbox </li><li>SoundCloud</li><li>Shotwell </li><li>SshSearch</li><li>Texdoc</li><li>Videos </li><li>VirtualBox</li><li>Yahoo Stock</li><li>Yelp</li><li>Zotero </li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;">These are all the sources used by the Smart Scopes feature for now but more will be available in the future.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>How to install Unity Smart Scopes in Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b>The Smart Scopes feature wasn't added by default in Ubuntu 13.04 because it's not completely ready</b></span> so if you decide to use the Smart Scopes PPA, you must be aware that this feature is currently under development and some things can break, some scopes might not work and also, Unity and Compiz will use more system resources. Also, in my test, after installing the Smart Scopes, the Unity Friends Lens has stopped working!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you're ok with the above warning, let's proceed with the installation:</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>1. To add the Unity Smart Scopes PPA and install the new Smart Scopes feature in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-unity/experimental-certified<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get dist-upgrade</code></pre><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Important:</b> for the last command above, make sure no packages are removed except for the <i>unity-lens-shopping</i>. If the command tries to remove more packages, it means something is broken on your system and you need to fix it so do not proceed with the installation!</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> To make sure the packages we've installed from the PPA are not overwritten if newer lenses / scopes land in Ubuntu 13.04 (the PPA will be updated eventually if that happens, but it's better to use this so things don't break), install the following package:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ubuntu-unity-experimental-certified</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>3.</b> And now run "sudo apt-get upgrade" which will actually downgrade the packages to the version from the PPA, if they are older than the ones available in the official Ubuntu repositories (if any; at the time I'm writing this, the packages that will be downgraded are the Unity Files Lens and Gdocs / Gdrive Scope):</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get upgrade</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>4.</b> Once all the packages are installed / upgraded successfully, restart your system (a simple Unity restart or logout doesn't seem to be enough).</div><br /><b>Report any bugs you may find, <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/unity/+filebug?field.tags=100scopes">HERE</a>.</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Revert the changes</h2><br /><b>If you want to remove the Smart Scopes and go back to the lenses / scopes used by default in Ubuntu 13.04, use the following commands:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ppa-purge<br />sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntu-unity/experimental-certified</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For me, ppa-purge <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ppa-purge/+bug/1142289">doesn't work</a> in Ubuntu 13.04 if the purged PPA has a package that's not available in another source (like in the official Ubuntu repositories): it segfaults instead of purging the PPA. If that's the case for you too, you can revert the changes manually, using the following commands:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo sed -i 's/^deb/#deb/g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ubuntu-unity-experimental-certified-raring.list<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get remove ubuntu-unity-experimental-certified<br />sudo apt-get install gir1.2-dee-1.0/raring gir1.2-unity-5.0/raring libdee-1.0-4/raring libdee-dev/raring libunity-common/raring libunity-core-6.0-5/raring libunity-dev/raring libunity-protocol-private0/raring libunity9/raring unity/raring unity-common/raring unity-lens-applications/raring unity-lens-files/raring unity-lens-music/raring unity-lens-photos/raring unity-lens-video/raring unity-lens-friends/raring unity-scope-musicstores/raring unity-scope-video-remote/raring unity-services/raring unity-scope-gdocs/raring unity-scope-gdrive/raring</code></pre><br />The first command above disables the PPA. Then, we update the software sources and remove "ubuntu-unity-experimental-certified" which we've installed to pin the packages from the PPA (under step 3). And finally, the last command above downgrades the packages that were upgraded from the Smart Scopes PPA and automatically removes all the scopes that were installed from the same Smart Scopes PPA.<br /><br />And finally, restart the system.

How To Install Unity Smart Scopes In Ubuntu 13.04 [PPA]

Ubuntu 13.04 was supposed to get a new Unity Smart Scopes feature, which eventually didn't make it , but if you don't want to wait ...

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Install Friends App (Gwibber Rewritten In QML) In Ubuntu 13.04 Or 12.10

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Gwibber, the microblogging client available by default in Ubuntu, has been rewritten in QML recently and is now called Friends App. </b><br /><br />Also, Gwibber Service (the backend) and the Gwibber Unity Lens have been replaced with "<a href="https://blogs.gnome.org/kenvandine/">Friends Service</a>" and Unity Friends Lens and the new packages have landed in the Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail repositories for a while, but they <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/ubuntu-1304-raring-ringtail-final-beta.html#comment-852897951">didn't work properly</a>, at least for me, until a couple of days ago.<br /><br />Gwibber used to be installed by default in Ubuntu, however, the new Friends App isn't (though the Friends Lens is installed by default) available by default in Raring and I'm not sure if it will make it, but you can easily install it via Ubuntu Software Center. <b>Below you'll find instructions for installing the new Friends App in Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a>Here are a few Friends App (and Unity lens) screenshots:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-app.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Friends App" border="0" height="295" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3IPt9rpYlUk/UWgUHMq3ggI/AAAAAAAAO88/aPG5QFASJvg/s320/friends-app.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-app_2.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Friends App" src="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-app_2_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-lens.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Friends Unity Lens" src="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-lens_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-lens-preview.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Friends Unity Lens Previews" src="http://img.netupd8.com/friends-lens-preview_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As you can see in the screenshots above, the new Friends App uses the Ubuntu Phone OS design so it's not exactly optimized for the desktop: there's no longer a menu (to add your Twitter, Facebook, etc. accounts you must go to <i>System Settings > Online Accounts </i>manually), at least for now, or toolbar and there's a large "Timeline" text on top of the application which is pretty annoying on the desktop. However, the new version is very fast and has some nice effects, smooth scrolling, etc. </div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Gwibber QML in Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Friends App is still work in progress: some features may be missing, you may find bugs and so on. Also, please note that the Friends Unity lens didn't work in my test under Ubuntu 12.10 (but it does work in Ubuntu 13.04).</b></div><br /><br />To install Friends in Ubuntu 12.10 or 13.04, follow the following steps:<br /><br /><b>1. Install Friends App (Gwibber rewritten in QML).</b><br /><b><br /></b> <b>Ubuntu 13.04 Raring Ringtail:</b> all you have to do is click the button below:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="apt://friends-app"><button class="thoughtbot">Install Friends</button></a></div><br />Alternatively, you can also install Friends via command line:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install friends-app</code></pre><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For <b>Ubuntu 12.10</b>: installing Friends will remove the old Gwibber application! Also, you'll need to add the Ubuntu SDK and QT 5 PPAs (which will install quite a few packages) as well as the Super Friends PPA:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:canonical-qt5-edgers/qt5-proper<br />sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-sdk-team/ppa<br />sudo add-apt-repository ppa:super-friends/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install friends-app unity-lens-friends</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> You may need to restart your computer or else Friends might not work (this could be avoided by killing the existing Gwibber Service process in Ubuntu 12.10, launching the Friends process, restarting Unity, etc., but to avoid any issues that could result in Gwibber not working, a system restart is recommended).<br /><br />Report any bugs you may encounter @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/friends">Launchpad</a>. </div><br /><br /><h2>Reverting the changes and returning to the old Gwibber in Ubuntu 12.10</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To remove Friends App and reinstall the old Gwibber back in Ubuntu 12.10, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install ppa-purge<br />sudo ppa-purge ppa:super-friends/ppa<br />sudo apt-get install gwibber unity-lens-gwibber</code></pre>

Install Friends App (Gwibber Rewritten In QML) In Ubuntu 13.04 Or 12.10

Gwibber, the microblogging client available by default in Ubuntu, has been rewritten in QML recently and is now called Friends App.  Also, G...

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Get Movie Information And Play Trailers In Ubuntu Using Unity Movie Lens (With Previews Support)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7A4KCW3H_o/UHb5C3DOe8I/AAAAAAAAKqY/Fxa3BthazPo/s1600/movie-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity movie lens" border="0" height="209" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j7A4KCW3H_o/UHb5C3DOe8I/AAAAAAAAKqY/Fxa3BthazPo/s320/movie-lens.png" title="unity movie lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/las-peliculas-al-tablero-con-unity-lens-movie-en-ubuntu/">Lorenzo</a>, who has developed many useful Ubuntu tools (appindicators, lenses, etc.), has released yet another cool Unity lens with previews support: a Movie Lens.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Unity Movie Lens can be used to search for Movies and using the Previews feature (which can be accessed by right clicking on a search result) available in Ubuntu 12.10, you can see various movie information like the movie cover, rating, genre, artists and a movie description.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3rEkes5BL0/UHb5HxXHNfI/AAAAAAAAKqg/LN6toA1eW_k/s1600/movie-lens-preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity movie lens" border="0" height="208" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S3rEkes5BL0/UHb5HxXHNfI/AAAAAAAAKqg/LN6toA1eW_k/s320/movie-lens-preview.png" title="unity movie lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The lens doesn't have any filters yet, but it does have one more very useful feature: from the movie preview, you can select to <b>view the movie trailer in Totem</b> (if installed), without having to open a web browser.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unity Movie Lens uses the <a href="http://themoviedb.org/">themoviedb.org</a> API (unfortunately IMDB doesn't have an API) so it supports multiple languages. Therefore, if you have Ubuntu installed in a language other than English, the movie description should be displayed in that language, if themoviedb.org supports it. However, for the search queries, it's best to use English to make sure you get proper search results.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><br /><h2>Install Unity Movie Lens with Previews support in Ubuntu</h2><br /><b>To add the PPA and install Unity Movie Lens in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal, use the commands below in a terminal:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install unity-lens-movie</code></pre><br />Once installed, restart Unity using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>setsid unity</code></pre>Or log out and log back in.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/las-peliculas-al-tablero-con-unity-lens-movie-en-ubuntu/">atareao.es</a></i></div>

Get Movie Information And Play Trailers In Ubuntu Using Unity Movie Lens (With Previews Support)

Lorenzo , who has developed many useful Ubuntu tools (appindicators, lenses, etc.), has released yet another cool Unity lens with previews s...

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Alternative YouTube Video Lens Updated With Previews, More [Ubuntu 12.10]

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSkIFOo9HTM/UHQAJBK9JGI/AAAAAAAAKjg/vyb74J8UH5Q/s1600/youtube-scope_11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sSkIFOo9HTM/UHQAJBK9JGI/AAAAAAAAKjg/vyb74J8UH5Q/s320/youtube-scope_11.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/youtube-scope-for-unity-video-lens-with.html">while back</a>, <a href="http://www.atareao.es/">Lorenzo</a> has created an alternative video lens and YouTube scope for Unity, which can be used to easily search and play YouTube videos using an external player of your choice.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unity in Ubuntu 12.10 does have its own video lens, but it only supports YouTube Shows, Movies and Educations, so most YouTube results won't show up in the default Ubuntu video lens.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Lorenzo's YouTube lens/scope has been updated for Ubuntu 12.10 recently, getting proper video previews</b> (I say "proper" because the default Ubuntu 12.10 video lens previews are kind of broken) which display the license, view count, likes and dislikes, the video description along with a video image and options to play the video using the player selected from the YouTube scope settings or open it in a web browser - check it out:</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3Gouw_CtA/UHQAQCX9QeI/AAAAAAAAKjo/vnl1is8_kJA/s1600/youtube-scope_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7z3Gouw_CtA/UHQAQCX9QeI/AAAAAAAAKjo/vnl1is8_kJA/s320/youtube-scope_2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For those not familiar with this YouTube scope, besides being able to easily search for YouTube videos,<b> it comes with a tool that lets you select an external player for viewing YouTube videos</b>, so you don't have to open your browser (and without Flash). In the latest version, more players are supported and <b>you can download videos as well</b>, feature for which <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/07/update-youtube-dl-to-get-it-working.html">youtube-dl</a>, a command line tool to download YouTube videos, is used.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdh-D8OCb3I/UHQAe_dcumI/AAAAAAAAKjw/LkkkjSBejdQ/s1600/youtube-scope-gui.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="229" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fdh-D8OCb3I/UHQAe_dcumI/AAAAAAAAKjw/LkkkjSBejdQ/s320/youtube-scope-gui.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>The new version also comes with speed improvements and better search results, along with other new features, such as:</b><br /><ul><li>filter videos by length (short: less than four minutes, medium: less than twenty minutes, long: videos longer than twenty minutes)</li><li>filters for HD or 3D videos</li><li>new supported video players like Totem or SMPlayer</li><li>option to download videos which supports selecting the downloaded video format</li></ul><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install YouTube scope/lens in Ubuntu 12.10</h2><br /><b>Add the PPA and install the alternative YouTube scope/lens in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal using the following commands:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses <br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install yavol scope-youtube youtube-dl</code></pre><br /><b>Once installed, restart Unity:</b><br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>setsid unity</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To configure which video player to use for viewing YouTube videos, launch Yavol from Dash</b> (shows up as "yavol-scope-youtube-configurator"). In my test, VLC didn't work properly, so I suggest using something like Totem or Minitube to play the videos.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>via <a href="http://www.atareao.es/ubuntu/unity/scope-youtube-yavol-quantal-quetzal-y-previews/">atareao.es</a></i></div>

Alternative YouTube Video Lens Updated With Previews, More [Ubuntu 12.10]

A while back , Lorenzo has created an alternative video lens and YouTube scope for Unity, which can be used to easily search and play YouTu...

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Ubuntu 12.10 Gets Option To Disable Online Search Results In Dash [Unity 6.8.0]

<div style="text-align: justify;">Unity 6.8.0 has been <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/quantal/+source/unity/6.8.0-0ubuntu1">released</a> in the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal repositories today, along with updated default lenses, bringing many bug fixes as usual, along with an <b>option to disable online results from showing up in Dash</b>.<br /><br />Starting with the latest Unity 6.8.0, you can disable Dash online search results by going to <i>System Settings > Privacy > Search results</i>, and setting "When searching in Dash - Include online search results" to OFF:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w3-O0ZKkzbA/UG4FBrVknpI/AAAAAAAAKfk/kp_vDp98u4E/s1600/unity-dash-privacy.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-w3-O0ZKkzbA/UG4FBrVknpI/AAAAAAAAKfk/kp_vDp98u4E/s320/unity-dash-privacy.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The option was added to Activity Log Manager (the privacy tool that lets you disable various files or other items from showing up in Dash)  a while back, but it required Unity 6.8.0 along with updated lenses to work. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Suggestions still show up in the Applications Lens after turning the above option to OFF, but these aren't really "online" results as they come from the Ubuntu Software Center.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Here's how the home lens looks like, after setting the "When searching in Dash - Include online search results" option to OFF:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2TiL7MinjJ8/UG4FH_kKTcI/AAAAAAAAKfs/TlsZMNeZIA4/s1600/unity-home-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2TiL7MinjJ8/UG4FH_kKTcI/AAAAAAAAKfs/TlsZMNeZIA4/s320/unity-home-lens.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />And when the option is turn ON (this is the default behaviour):<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vYLsMD4gAho/UG4GeyCQoAI/AAAAAAAAKgU/IdMnN6sZ1tU/s1600/unity-home-lens_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="206" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vYLsMD4gAho/UG4GeyCQoAI/AAAAAAAAKgU/IdMnN6sZ1tU/s320/unity-home-lens_2.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The solution to disable online search results in Dash used in Ubuntu 12.10 is far from ideal, since you can't simply disable one online lens or scope and continue to use the others, but it was implemented in a hurry because of user <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-lens-shopping/+bug/1054746">complaints</a>, so it's understandable. <b>For the next Ubuntu  version, we might see a lot more options that lets you control what shows up in each lens, like the mockups you can see below:</b></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1vEdB_mII5E/UG4GVa7cqKI/AAAAAAAAKgE/dIQz8k913Oc/s1600/unity-settings-panel-files.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1vEdB_mII5E/UG4GVa7cqKI/AAAAAAAAKgE/dIQz8k913Oc/s320/unity-settings-panel-files.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mockup</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bYEOLkvyQNo/UG4GWDhKl3I/AAAAAAAAKgM/V8_iqg4AJB8/s1600/unity-settings-panel-home.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="201" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bYEOLkvyQNo/UG4GWDhKl3I/AAAAAAAAKgM/V8_iqg4AJB8/s320/unity-settings-panel-home.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mockup</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>Mockups via Sam Hewitt @ <a href="https://launchpad.net/~unity-design">unity-design</a> mailing list</i></div>

Ubuntu 12.10 Gets Option To Disable Online Search Results In Dash [Unity 6.8.0]

Unity 6.8.0 has been released in the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal repositories today, along with updated default lenses, bringing many bug ...

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Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 2 Available For Download

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIR_GTNpczo/UGRBbUDbw2I/AAAAAAAAKY0/Qj9-q0YET58/s1600/ubuntu-12.10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DIR_GTNpczo/UGRBbUDbw2I/AAAAAAAAKY0/Qj9-q0YET58/s400/ubuntu-12.10.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal beta 2 has been made available for download today.</b><br /><b><br /></b> There are quite a few changes in Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2, including a new Unity version which brings some more polish and tweaks along with 3 new Unity lenses, Amazon and Ubuntu One Music store webapps installed by default, a new default wallpaper, but also some LightDM and Messaging Menu changes. Read on to find out more!</div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><h2>Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 video</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As usual, we'll start with a video in which you can see some of the changes available in the latest Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal beta 2:</div><br /><center><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6mfmHxjzF6g" width="560"></iframe><br />(<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mfmHxjzF6g">direct video link</a>; for more videos, subscribe to our <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/nilarimogard">YouTube channel</a> or like us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/webupd8/app_57675755167?ref=ts">Facebook</a>)</center><br /><br />Also see: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/ubuntu-1210-quantal-quetzal-beta-1.html">Ubuntu 12.10 beta 1<br /></a><br /><br /><h2>Changes in Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 since beta 1</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A new Unity version is available in Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2, which brings new gradients, new ordering for the home lens, as well as some <b>new animations for Dash Previews and window minimize</b>.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cmwJwYKs9rc/UGQYoXuronI/AAAAAAAAKWY/ZszYJgtClN0/s1600/dash-image-preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 previews" border="0" height="204" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-cmwJwYKs9rc/UGQYoXuronI/AAAAAAAAKWY/ZszYJgtClN0/s320/dash-image-preview.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 previews" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You can see these new animations in the video above. It's worth mentioning that the minimize animation is slow at first, but gets faster as the user minimizes more windows.</div><br /><b>Other Unity changes include:</b><br /><ul><li>coverflow is no longer used for the music available for purchase in the Music Lens</li><li>new artwork for missing album covers in the Music Lens</li><li>"unity --reset" has been removed</li><li>the workspace switcher and removable devices icons can now be moved on the launcher</li><li>new gradient, tweaked highlight box and shadows</li><li>lots of bug fixes </li></ul><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Three new lenses are installed by default with Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal beta 2: a "social" (Gwibber) lens, a photo lens and a shopping lens:</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">- The <b>social lens</b> can display results from Twitter, Facebook and Identi.ca, nicely organized in various categories: Messages, Replies, Photos, Videos, Links and Private:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9NhU6olVqM0/UGQY0dOFdsI/AAAAAAAAKWg/UGVFc9_u5yA/s1600/social-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 social lens" border="0" height="205" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9NhU6olVqM0/UGQY0dOFdsI/AAAAAAAAKWg/UGVFc9_u5yA/s320/social-lens.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 social lens" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The <b>Dash Previews feature works with the new social lens</b>, and it doesn't just allow the user to preview the tweets or Facebook posts, but you can also like a post or retweet without leaving Dash:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9gW3PK7GFPk/UGQY4JhgKDI/AAAAAAAAKWo/mxJG2QdGXbg/s1600/social-lens-preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="205" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9gW3PK7GFPk/UGQY4JhgKDI/AAAAAAAAKWo/mxJG2QdGXbg/s320/social-lens-preview.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">- The new <b>photo lens</b> displays images from various accounts you've enabled in Online Accounts, like Picasa, Facebook or Flickr as well as local photos. You can filter the results by date or source and that's about all the photo lens can do. And of course, the preview feature works with this lens too:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PSLEs_Eh-Ng/UGQlJPK9iDI/AAAAAAAAKXQ/EKBlnrVa6E4/s1600/photo-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="202" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PSLEs_Eh-Ng/UGQlJPK9iDI/AAAAAAAAKXQ/EKBlnrVa6E4/s320/photo-lens.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">- Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 ships with a <b>shopping lens</b> which displays commercial content into Dash search results and is only visible when the user performs a global search from the Dash home screen and there are matching suggestions to show. The shopping suggestions differentiate from the rest of the items by using a badge which displays the price:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Adzz8yR-Bjo/UGQlOK_4g2I/AAAAAAAAKXY/eW-Srj6v-GQ/s1600/shopping-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="198" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Adzz8yR-Bjo/UGQlOK_4g2I/AAAAAAAAKXY/eW-Srj6v-GQ/s320/shopping-lens.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The shopping lens isn't the only way Canonical tries to make more money - there are also<b> two new webapps pinned to the Unity launcher in the latest Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2, for Ubuntu One Music Store and Amazon:</b></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EaG8Z-zeMZE/UGQlTBNGDEI/AAAAAAAAKXg/-6-P-mWLhr0/s1600/amazon-ubuntuone-icons.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="197" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-EaG8Z-zeMZE/UGQlTBNGDEI/AAAAAAAAKXg/-6-P-mWLhr0/s320/amazon-ubuntuone-icons.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The new social and photo lenses are very slow on my computer and it takes minutes to display some results and sometimes nothing loads at all. The weird thing is, the shopping lens results load instantly, even though it's also an online feature. Mmm. This, hopefully, will be fixed by the time the final Ubuntu 12.10 version will be released, but even so, is it worth having so many online features in Dash? There are many users with a limited Internet connection which I'm sure won't appreciate these new features, but luckily, an option turn off at least some of these online results should land soon.</div><br /><br />Another Unity change is the addition of a<b> close button as well as the window title in the window spread</b> (on hover):<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X9NWlz8yvTI/UGQlbzESaXI/AAAAAAAAKXo/0rwF3ZFxhic/s1600/spread-close-button.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="180" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-X9NWlz8yvTI/UGQlbzESaXI/AAAAAAAAKXo/0rwF3ZFxhic/s320/spread-close-button.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">This isn't "The Spread", as <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/03/new-unity-spread-design-for-ubuntu-1210.html">announced</a> a while back, but the regular spread, and it looks like the new implementation which is supposed to improve Unity task switching won't make it into Ubuntu 12.10.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As for the new <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/07/install-new-ubuntu-webapps-technology.html" title="Install The New Ubuntu WebApps Technology In Ubuntu 12.04 Or 12.10">"WebApps" technology</a>, the feature is available by default, but there are no webapps preinstalled besides Amazon and Ubuntu One Music but hopefully they will be available soon, at least via Ubuntu Software Center.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Messaging Menu has received a minor, but useful change: <b>the status icons are now displayed as emblems</b> on the envelope icon:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXjYhE0zohk/UGQliyUOp4I/AAAAAAAAKXw/-zpFzxHl-rs/s1600/messaging-menu.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="245" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HXjYhE0zohk/UGQliyUOp4I/AAAAAAAAKXw/-zpFzxHl-rs/s320/messaging-menu.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">With Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2, there's a <b>new default wallpaper</b> which continues to use the same colors as the previous wallpapers - <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/new-default-wallpaper-lands-in-ubuntu.html">not a popular choice</a> among the Ubuntu users it seems:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn_zmIXnj6k/UGQlnjcsUdI/AAAAAAAAKX4/cJgAlxYmh8k/s1600/wallpaper.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="180" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Kn_zmIXnj6k/UGQlnjcsUdI/AAAAAAAAKX4/cJgAlxYmh8k/s320/wallpaper.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>LightDM has gained support for remote desktop logins by default</b>. This is currently done through the Ubuntu Single Sign On service:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TMWzqvS4GkM/UGQnWn0BhPI/AAAAAAAAKYA/nczBNUUqaEo/s1600/remote-login-lightdm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TMWzqvS4GkM/UGQnWn0BhPI/AAAAAAAAKYA/nczBNUUqaEo/s320/remote-login-lightdm.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cZpRkzduWkI/UGQnXkpY9MI/AAAAAAAAKYE/klDz5ehqZWk/s1600/remote-login.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" border="0" height="153" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cZpRkzduWkI/UGQnXkpY9MI/AAAAAAAAKYE/klDz5ehqZWk/s320/remote-login.png" title="ubuntu 12.10 screenshot" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Default applications</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2 ships by default with Nautilus 3.4.2, Firefox 15.0.1, Thunderbird 15.0.1, LibreOffice 3.6.1 (now with built-in global menu support), Ubuntu Software Center 5.3.14.2, Transmission 2.61, Deja Dup 24.0, Shotwell 0.13.0, Rhythmbox 2.97, Gwibber 3.5.90, Gedit 3.5.3, Totem 3.4.3, Brasero 3.4.1, GNOME Control Center 3.4.2 and Empathy 3.5.92 on top of Unity 6.6.0 and GNOME 3.5.92 (some 3.6 components have landed already).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quantal beta 2 uses the Ubuntu Linux Kernel 3.5.0-15.23 based on the v3.5.4 upstream Linux kernel, Xorg server 1.13.0 and mesa 9.0.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As for those who do not want to use Unity, GNOME Shell 3.6 is now available in the Ubuntu 12.10 official repositories.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>LiveCDs dropped</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">With Ubuntu 12.10, there are no more CD-sized images available. The new ISO size is 800MB, so it won't fit on a CD anymore, so users will have to rely on DVDs and USB to install the latest Ubuntu version.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Download Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu 12.10 is pretty stable, but there are some known issues! For instance, on systems using ATI Radeon 9200 graphics, you'll get a black screen on boot (a work-around is to add "nomodeset" to the kernel command line). So make sure you check out the official <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuantalQuetzal/TechnicalOverview/Beta2">release notes</a> before installing / upgrading to Ubuntu 12.10.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you've installed a previous Ubuntu 12.10 milestone (like alpha 3 or beta 1) or a daily build and you've updated the packages through the Update Manager (now called "Software Updater"), you already have beta 2 so there's no need to reinstall it.</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuantalQuetzal/TechnicalOverview/Beta2">Download Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2</a></div><br /><br /><b>Up next:</b><br /><ul><li>Final Ubuntu 12.10 release - October 18th</li></ul>

Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 2 Available For Download

Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal beta 2 has been made available for download today. There are quite a few changes in Ubuntu 12.10 beta 2, inclu...

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Evernote Ubuntu Client `Everpad` Gets Unity Previews Support

<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://github.com/nvbn/everpad">Everpad</a>, an application that integrates the popular note taking service `<a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a>` with Unity through an AppIndicator and Unity lens, was updated recently, the new version bringing a cool new feature for Ubuntu 12.10 users: <b>support for Unity Previews</b>, being one of the first unofficial lenses which takes advantage of this new feature.</div><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XhI32-BDnaA/UGGW1JXUbRI/AAAAAAAAKP8/mEGEafIcPxo/s1600/everpad-unity-preview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="everpad unity dash preview" border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XhI32-BDnaA/UGGW1JXUbRI/AAAAAAAAKP8/mEGEafIcPxo/s320/everpad-unity-preview.png" title="everpad unity dash preview" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The Unity Previews feature for Everpad isn't limited to text - if you've attached an image to your note, the Everpad lens displays an image preview too. There's also an "Edit" button which opens the Everpad note editor, but hopefully, Unity will support basic editing inside the lens in the future, so applications such as Everpad can work entirely inside the lens, without the need of external UIs.</div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Everpad in Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04 or 11.10 (but obviously, the Previews feature won't work in Ubuntu 12.04 or 11.10), use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvbn-rm/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install everpad</code></pre><br />More info about Everpad in our initial post: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/everpad-integrates-evernote-with-ubuntu.html">Everpad Integrates Evernote With Ubuntu Unity (AppIndicator, Lens)</a>

Evernote Ubuntu Client `Everpad` Gets Unity Previews Support

Everpad , an application that integrates the popular note taking service ` Evernote ` with Unity through an AppIndicator and Unity lens, was...

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Everpad Integrates Evernote With Ubuntu Unity (AppIndicator, Lens)

<div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://evernote.com/">Evernote</a> is a note taking service in which the notes can be text, images, voice memos, handwritten notes or file attachments. There are Evernote clients available for Windows, Mac OSX, Android, iOS and WebOS, but there's no official Linux client.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Linux, you can use <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2011/02/evernote-for-linux-nevernote.html" title="Evernote for Linux: NixNote (previously Nevernote)">NixNote (previously Nevernote)</a>, an unofficial Evernote client written in Java but if you want something lightweight, you should try <a href="https://github.com/nvbn/everpad">Everpad</a>, a new Evernote client that integrates nicely with Unity.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SSnSGXpb_kE/UFMJkJxzTHI/AAAAAAAAKIk/2UNoQvf7F6o/s1600/everpad-indicator.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="everpad indicator" border="0" height="219" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SSnSGXpb_kE/UFMJkJxzTHI/AAAAAAAAKIk/2UNoQvf7F6o/s320/everpad-indicator.png" title="everpad indicator" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Everpad is an Ubuntu AppIndicator that you can use to take notes and synchronize them with Evernote's servers as well as display your current Evernote notes.</b> Currently, it supports notes, tags, notebooks, file attachments (remember there's a 60 MB monthly limit) and places.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">And even if you don't plan on using the Everpad Ubuntu AppIndicator, if you're an Evernote user you should install Everpad since it comes with a nice<b> Unity lens</b> which you can use to quickly search & display notes:</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RpXMUAf4sAQ/UFMJqMBx_WI/AAAAAAAAKIs/8UauE6AFlCI/s1600/everpad-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="everpad evernote lens" border="0" height="210" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RpXMUAf4sAQ/UFMJqMBx_WI/AAAAAAAAKIs/8UauE6AFlCI/s320/everpad-lens.png" title="everpad evernote lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The Everpad lens supports filtering by notebooks, tags and places and it should become even more useful with Ubuntu 12.10's new "previews" feature.<br /><br /><b>Update:</b> the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/09/evernote-ubuntu-client-everpad-gets.html">Everpad lens has got previews support for Ubuntu 12.10</a>!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lens is automatically installed when you install Everpad, but if you don't want to use it and only want the AppIndicator, you can disable it using <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/06/lens-toggle-quickly-enable-disable.html" title="Lens Toggle: Quickly Enable / Disable Unity Lenses Without Removing Them">Lens Toggle</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I_-9MCx7ZC4/UFMOwRWWPrI/AAAAAAAAKJQ/mxKwxVjZSII/s1600/everpad-new-note.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="everpad evernote create new note" border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I_-9MCx7ZC4/UFMOwRWWPrI/AAAAAAAAKJQ/mxKwxVjZSII/s320/everpad-new-note.png" title="everpad evernote create new note" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everpad: settings dialog and the new note dialog</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Everpad in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Everpad Ubuntu PPA supports Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04 and 11.10. Add the PPA and install Everpad using the commands below:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nvbn-rm/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install everpad</code></pre><br />Once installed, launch the AppIndicator from Dash, click it and select "Settings and Management" and on the Settings tab, click "Authorize". This will open a new tab in your default web browser, where you'll have to authorize Everpad with your Evernote account.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That's it. Now clicking the "Last sync..." indicator menu entry will force Everpad to synchronize your note with Evernote.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">For the Everpad lens to show up, log out and log back in.<br /><br /><b>If you encounter issues, report them @ <a href="https://github.com/nvbn/everpad/issues?state=open">GitHub</a>.</b></div>

Everpad Integrates Evernote With Ubuntu Unity (AppIndicator, Lens)

Evernote is a note taking service in which the notes can be text, images, voice memos, handwritten notes or file attachments. There are Eve...

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Unity News Lens Gets Local News With Geolocation, More

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0se2F2Po5U8/T_Qwxy-plmI/AAAAAAAAJO4/jRpetj1doIE/s1600/news-lens_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity news lens" border="0" height="214" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0se2F2Po5U8/T_Qwxy-plmI/AAAAAAAAJO4/jRpetj1doIE/s320/news-lens_2.png" title="unity news lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Unity News Lens lets you search Google news from Dash and it currently supports 61 countries. The lens was updated recently, and it now includes local news, topics and top stories with up to 100 results. </b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">The updated News Lens uses geolocation for local news to define the language used based on your country, but you can also use your session language by selecting <i>Language > Current</i> from the Unity News Lens filter.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lens will fallback to English and world news for countries not supported by Google News, but the news will be as local as possible, according to the Unity News Lens changelog.</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vkDTjNlRVwo/T_Qw3yHfndI/AAAAAAAAJPA/miblYM5m57k/s1600/unity-news-lens.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="unity news lens" border="0" height="211" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vkDTjNlRVwo/T_Qw3yHfndI/AAAAAAAAJPA/miblYM5m57k/s320/unity-news-lens.png" title="unity news lens" width="320" /></a></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Unity News Lens in Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install unity-lens-news</code></pre>Once installed, log out and log back in.<br /><br />Report any bugs you may find @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/onehundredscopes">Launchpad</a>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><i>first image / info via David Callé @ <a href="https://plus.google.com/u/0/117867558830601601230/posts/7Cu6hoiHZ1S">Google+</a>.</i></div>

Unity News Lens Gets Local News With Geolocation, More

Unity News Lens lets you search Google news from Dash and it currently supports 61 countries. The lens was updated recently, and it now incl...

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Lens Toggle: Quickly Enable / Disable Unity Lenses Without Removing Them

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t7-4Olu8VEo/T-HTKPeZulI/AAAAAAAAJJQ/uy0FXU4hOS8/s1600/lens-toggle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="lens toggle" border="0" height="170" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-t7-4Olu8VEo/T-HTKPeZulI/AAAAAAAAJJQ/uy0FXU4hOS8/s320/lens-toggle.png" title="lens toggle" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Ubuntu doesn't have a built-in settings GUI to disable Unity lenses and the only way to remove a lens from Dash is to uninstall it. <b>If you only want to temporarily disable some Unity lenses, you can use an application called Lens Toggle</b>.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Lens Toggle</b> comes with a very simple user interface from which you can select to <b>enable or disable some or all installed Unity lenses, including the default Applications, Files, Music and Video lenses</b>. The application may be simple, but it's very useful now that there are so many Unity <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/38772/what-lenses-for-unity-are-available">lenses available</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Lens Toggle in Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:aking1012-com/lenstoggle<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install python-lenstoggler</code></pre>Once installed, launch LensToggle from Dash.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>After you've made some changes, click the Apply button in Lens Toggle and restart Unity</b> (by typing "setsid unity" in a terminal) <b>or log out and log back in</b>. That's required because the application doesn't restart Unity automatically.</div>

Lens Toggle: Quickly Enable / Disable Unity Lenses Without Removing Them

Ubuntu doesn't have a built-in settings GUI to disable Unity lenses and the only way to remove a lens from Dash is to uninstall it. If y...

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