It’s a timer. That’s all it does. It counts time backwards, and lets you know when time is up. It doesn’t have multiple timers, timer presets, notification templates, or vibration patterns. It also can’t pull in a music stream off the Internet and play it when the time is up. It’s just a timer – and often, that’s exactly what I need.

These days, Ubuntu and other modern Linux distributions usually install without a hitch (and without requiring any knowledge), but as you move forward using them, you will inevitably come across all sorts of terminology that isn’t always clearly explained. That’s why I’ve prepared a quick list of the most important terms you should know about Linux, each explained in the simplest possible way.

Thanks to a recent Gmail search update, it is now easier than ever before to search for messages by size and date. For example, you can now search for larger:5m to yield all messages that have attachments larger than 5MB. Better yet, you can combine this with the older_than operator and search for size:5m older_than:1y, thus yielding a list of all messages older than a year and larger than 5MB.

Up until Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) came along, Android’s interface felt somewhat less polished than iOS’s. But with Android 4.0, Google made a clean break with the previous visual style for Android, introducing Holo – a clean, dark theme, with thin typography and a very modern look. With Holo came a new default launcher, and when Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) came out, that launcher just kept getting better.

Windows 8 is upon us! Excited, I’ve installed the shiny new OS and tried to install my first app from the new Store, only to be notified that my “purchase couldn’t be completed” (it was a free app) and that “something happened”. Really, that’s what the message says. Here’s what happened so you are forewarned….

After years of writing for tech blogs, I’m almost programmed to always hunt for the latest and greatest app or technique for getting work done. But as it turns out, the most productive people often don’t use the shiniest gadgets and apps. Many stick to tried and true hardware and software, and just get the work done. How do I know this? I read The Setup, an fantastic blog which shows how real people get work done.

One of the most magical things is, you’ve got a nice, crisp piece of paper, you put a benzene marker on it, it just looks gorgeous — says Corel Painter Master Greg Banning. But the thing is, those things are toxic. So you’re working overnight trying to get something done, and in the morning you’re just stoned. That’s what drove Greg to start using Corel Painter more than thirteen years ago.

TWOTHIRTY, says the smartphone. Just like that — with no space, all in capital letters, with the latter part bold. Yes, it’s longer than 2:30, but it’s somehow… swankier, too. But that’s a matter of personal taste. Minimalistic Text, a free widget for Android, would let you create a widget that says “2:30″ just as easily as one that says “TWOTHIRTY.” Heck, you could have have one that says “TWO30″ if you really wanted to go crazy.

Every now and then, I write a wallpaper column. I usually pick a theme and go scour the Web in search of talented artists who have created beautiful wallpapers around that theme. And one of those times, a thought suddenly stuck me. We have some very talented photographers right here on MakeUseOf. Why not share their work with our audience? And with that, this post was born.

Some days, I feel like I’m swimming through molasses when I’m trying to work. Endless piles of email, tasks waiting to be done, little details, and general confusion from all directions. One good way to get a grip on days like that is to sit down and just make a quick list of stuff that needs to get done. No elaborate hashtags, nesting, recurring tasks or dependencies – just a plain old list.

I’d like to start this post with a small request: Hit Win+D for me. I’ll wait here. Go ahead, do it. Okay, done? What did you see? Was it a hot mess of cluttered icons for every application that felt like throwing its icon on the desktop when you installed it? Or perhaps you’ve given up on desktop icons altogether, opting to just hide them all so your wallpaper shows through in its full glory?

Stealing is wrong. Downloading software illegally, without paying for it, and then using it, is wrong. There are no two ways about it. That said, I can’t help but feel that some companies want you to break the law. Take Adobe for example, whose discriminatory international pricing scheme actively encourages piracy. In truth, companies sometimes derive important advantages from users stealing their software — widespread adoption being just one example.

I’ve long since fell in love with sliding/swiping keyboard, as my SlideIT review from a year ago shows. But when people hear “swiping keyboard,” SlideIT isn’t usually the first name that comes to mind: Swype is. It’s interesting to note how well-known this powerful sliding (or swiping) keyboard is, especially since it’s not even available on Google Play. But is Swype’s reputation justified, or is it mostly hype?

Remember that iPhone app called Say Anything? It basically lets you write anything in a huge typeface across your device’s screen, so you can just wave your phone around the bar instead of trying to shout and be heard about the din. Well, if you’ve got an Android device, you’re not out in the cold! Just install Embiggen and you can enjoy the same sort of cutting-edge in-your-face typography action.

Even if you’re not overly geeky, you probably have a rough idea of how much memory and what sort of processor your computer has. But what about its other statistics? For example, do you know your RAM bus speed? This may sound esoteric, but if you’re thinking of upgrading your RAM, it’s something you really need to know. Then again, if you are a serious geek, you may be in need of a tool you can tote around on a USB stick for diagnosing hardware on friends’ and colleagues’ machines. CPU-Z is a free and powerful hardware detection tool that can do just that, and it’s available as a portable version, too.