Windows: We recently detailed two ways of getting Mac-like multi-finger scrolling on a Windows laptop, involving little open-source apps and hacked drivers. Touchpad giant Synaptics actually offers its own app, Scrybe, that provides multi-finger scrolling, along with gesture-style application launching.

The big catch to Synaptics’ own Scrybe app is that it’s fickle. You need to have a Synaptics touchpad on your laptop, you need Synaptics-approved drivers installed, and, depending on your hardware/software setup, Scrybe may or not play nice. On my ThinkPad T61p, I installed Scrybe after removing my hacked drivers and TwoFingerScroll app, and I did get two-finger scrolling and three-finger motions working. The settings interface, though, had graphical and display problems, so I couldn’t quite guess at what gesture I was setting my different applications to launch with.

Click the images below for a larger view.

Update: Turns out the actual application launching and gesture settings are contained in a little system tray panel app, which you can right-click to set up. This didn’t appear for me until my second system restart:

Many of our commenters, however, have had better luck with Scrybe, getting the kind of “write an ‘a’ with your finger to launch Amazon.com” experience detailed at Scrybe’s web page. There will likely be a follow-up post here about Scrybe’s offerings, but in the meantime, you can check it out yourself, if you’d like scrolling and gesture powers without having to make slightly gray-area moves. It’s a free download for Windows systems with Synaptics touchpads.

Windows/Linux: Sleeping your computer is a useful way to save energy, but free utility SonarPM takes power management an awesome step further: It puts your computer to sleep automatically when you walk away from your desk—using sonar.

Almost any computer with speakers and a microphone can take advantage of this software, so most laptops are good to go. It works by emitting an inaudible frequency from your speakers, and detecting echoes with your microphone, determining whether you are sitting at your desk or not. If you get up, your computer will see that you have done so and automatically put your computer to sleep. Sure, you could always just use a hotkey, but this requires literally no energy on your part—and it’s sure to be a heck of a conversation starter.

The program is open source, so if you’ve got some tinkering skills, you can make it do all sorts of things when you walk away (as described in the video above by Tinkernut). If you just want the sleep functionality, you can still download and install the package and use it as-is (if you’re a Windows user, that is—Linux users need to compile from source—check the instructions on the site if you need help doing this). It doesn’t necessarily work with every microphone and speaker equipped computer, so test it out to see if it does with yours—you may need to calibrate it a few times before it works well (it took me a few tries and a little bit of waiting afterward before it started working in Windows on my MacBook Pro).

Sonar Power Manager is a free download for Windows and Linux systems. Sleeping your computer whenever you walk away seems a little heavy handed (do I really want to put my computer to sleep when I’m going to get a glass of water?), but the possibilities are endless, and if you are interested in bending it to your will, Tinkernut’s guide is an excellent place to start.

I have a daughter, aged 1.5 years. I guess watching me play with my phone, on my desktop clicking and tapping, on my laptop doing the same, all resulting in beeps and screen flashes captures a child’s interests and imaginations. So what can you do when they are this young but insist they need to use the PC. Lots, actually. And none of the solutions damage your settings or files. After all you want to encourage them as much as possible.

First up, BabySmash!

This is a program that gives them instant gratification for all their random and wild clicks on the mouse and taps on the keyboard. It takes up the full screen and locks them out of any of the desktop items.

Features Smash on any keys Draws letters, shapes, numbers Keeps babies happy Won’t harm your computer New features added often

It offers a settings dialog so you can tune the “experience”. You may need to buy a new keyboard after a while though if your child is like mine. Or dig out an old one for them.

Its really good for hand-eye coordination. She is learning to control the mouse movement better and realize each key is different for a reason.

Soon she will be writing on the blog.

Its a free download and you can get it here – Baby Smash!

Secondly, Animal Sounds for Android

The desktop is only one part. So you need something for your phone too. I use Animal sounds to teach her the spellings, sounds and images of a particular animal. It doesn’t lock out the screen but has taught her what a touch screen is and how to use it with swipes.

Its an effective way of keeping her entertained and learning at the same time.

There is of course an options screen, again where you can fine tune things a little. Especially the sound control.

To get it, search for Animal Sounds on the market place and its free.

Here is their website – Linkedin Profile

Thirdly, Baby Go for Android and Blackberry

This one is good because it locks out your mobile screen so they can only learn and play. The creators website is fantastically designed. Below are the feature differences between the paid and free version. For me the free version is enough for now. I am sure she will grow out of it though and I will have to get the super version.

The site doesn’t indicate that its available for Android but a market search will show it up.

I hope these have been useful and if there are some better ones out there, let me know in the comments.