Magic Folder is a plasmoid for KDE that enables you to organize your files effortlessly. All you need to do is to drag and drop the file(s) onto the Magic Folder and it will move them to the destination you have pre-defined. There is no limitation to the type of file that it supports. You just set the rules and it will work magically.

To use the Magic Folder, we have to first download it (a plasmoid file) from KDE-app.org and install it in your KDE system. (If you have no idea how to install plasmoid, here’s the detailed instruction)

After you have installed the plasmoid, drag the widget to your desktop. You should see a big folder as shown in the screenshot below:

Sorting your images files

Click the Magic Folder to open the configuration window. Click the first button (the file icon with a plus sign). From the dropdown, select “Image Files”.

You should see a list of all the image extensions available. Next, select the destination folder. This is the place where you want to store all your image files. That’s it. Whenever you drag and drop an image file to the Magic Folder, it will be moved to the destination folder you have defined. Similarly, you can do that with all video, audio and text files

Advanced Options

Other than the default set of rules, you can also create your own rule. For example, you might want to sort all PDF files to your ebook folder. To do that, select “Anything” from the dropdown. At the regex field, enter “*.pdf” (without the quotes). Make sure that the “wildcard” box is checked. Lastly, select the destination folder. That’s it.

Other options that you can configure include whether the rule should be case-sensitive or not. In this case, “.pdf” is not the same as “.PDF“. Also, you can select whether it is a copy-only or to move the file over to the destination.

More powerful feature: Scripting

If you think the above features are all the capabilities of Magic Folder, then you are wrong. The most powerful feature of Magic Folder is that you can get it to run a script whenever you drag and drop a file onto it. For example, you can drop a zip file onto it and get it to run a script to unzip the file and sort the content within. While writing a script may be too technical a thing for most users, for power users, this can be a very handy tool. There is basically no limit to what you can do with it.

To get it to run a script, simply point the destination to the script and put a check beside the box “Destiny is a script”.

Magic Folder

Not anymore. Wazala makes setting up your own online store a breeze.

The concept of Wazala is similar to Ecwid. You create an online store on Wazala, embed the widget onto your existing site, and voilà, your online site is now up and running. There is no need to setup another e-commerce site, nor do you need to reconfigure your site for shopping cart functionality.

One thing I like about Wazala is that it is elegant and simple to use. After you have created an account (required your credit card info, but comes with 15 days trial), all it takes is just 5 mins to set up and deploy your online store. You can customize almost everything from the store logo, background color, company info, shipping options, to the payment mode. It doesn’t matter if you are selling physical goods or digital products, you can add all that into your product inventory in Wazala.

Setting up your product details is just like writing a blog post. You just fill in the product name, description, add product images, all other miscellaneous info. Once you are done, simply click the “Add” button and it goes live instantly. Unfortunately, there is no ways for you to upload a csv/xls file for your products. If you have thousands of products, it will take a great deal of time to finish updating your inventory. And there is no export feature as well.

Wazala is beautifully implemented in that it is elegant and doesn’t interfere with the working of your site. For example, if you are running a blog, you can embed Wazala as a widget in the sidebar. When your readers click on the product, it will appear as a popup. Navigation of the product inventory and purchases can be made within the popup. Once’s done, they just close the popup and return to your blog.

Make your online store presence count

Other than putting the store on your site, there are also several ways to increase the visibility of your store. Your store can be accessed on the Wazala site, with the url http://your-store-name.wazala.com.

Known as Wazala Touch, your Wazala store is also optimized for the touch device, specifically iPhone and iPod Touch. The look and feel looks exactly like a native app.

If you don’t have a website, you can also add your store to your Facebook page. Simply add the Wazala app and enter your store key.

Conclusion

Wazala has indeed put in plenty of effort to make the whole process a breeze and the end result is definitely very polished. While it will not replace the traditional e-commerce software, it is bound to win over plenty of users who are not tech savvy and are looking for a solution that just works.

I’m not going to go in depth into Appbrain here. Here is a post to reference if you want a more detailed explanation of how Appbrain works. I will talk about the key differences between the 2 though.

Android Market key features

The Android Market is the newest of the 2, so there is room for improvement. There ARE a couple features that reign superior over Appbrain. The first and most notable is the on click installation for apps.

One click installations

The one click feature works like magic. When you are logged into your Google account on your computer, all you need to do to install an application is click INSTALL. Within seconds you will see the little download arrow appear on your Android phone or tablet.

Same layout

Both the mobile application and the web version of the Android Market have the same layout. This is very comforting to may people who like familiarity. If you are use to using the Market on your device, using the web version of the Market will be a very simple transition.

Tabs

When you are looking at a specific application, there are tabs across the top letting you easily jump to: permissions, reviews, whats new (changlog) or the overview.

Appbrain key features

Appbrain has had a little more time to hone in on some really useful features. Many people, myself included, like to install apps just to see what they do. Appbrain gives you a lot of sharing options the Android Market does not.

Sharing apps

Aside from the basic ways to share links to an application (email, Facebook, Twitter Buzz), Appbrain gives you a few other ways to let people know about an app you find.

• Being able to scan the QR code and easily download the app is great. Each application has a QR code to the Appbrain page.
• Appbrain provides a link to email and another for foums that use BBCodes.
• The third style link is HTML code. This code is for displaying a widget for the application on your webpage. I have used these before and they look and work great in an article talking about a specific application.

Syncing

Appnrain offers an application in the Android Market. Once you sign in on both Appbrain and the mobile app, you are ready to sync. It may take a minute for the first sync. After, you will be able to see, from the website, all of the applications installed on your device(s). If you need to master clear your Android device, you can re-install apps easily.

Installing from the web

While it is a couple more steps than using the Market, applications can be installed right from Appbrain’s webpage. You simply pick which application(s) you want to install and add them to the list of apps on your device. Then, on next sync, you can install the apps on your device.

While this seems like a lot more work, this method is a good way to batch install several apps at a time.

Sorting

Sort apps is a little different with Appbrain. You have filters for:

• Specific countries
• Male or female users
• Certain age ranges
• Recommended for you

Being able to search differently than the Android Market allows, helps you discover more applications to better suite you.

Conclusion

While the Android Market is shiny and new, my preference is still Appbrain. I do not doubt the web version of the Market will improve over time. Currently, features like the QR codes, syncing and the more advanced search will keep me using Appbrain.

Which one of these two ways of searching for and installing Android applications do you like better and why?

KDE’s power management is controlled by an application called PowerDevil. There are three ways to access and manage PowerDevil:

1.System Settings module
2.Plasma Battery Monitor widget
3.Krunner plugin

System Settings

The PowerDevil System Settings module is found under the “Advanced” tab in the “Advanced User Settings” section. Click on “Power Management” to start it.

There are three side tabs:

1. General Settings – Here you can configure global settings that will apply to all profiles, such as “lock screen on resume”. It also allows you to assign profiles to certain situations. For example, when your laptop or netbook is unplugged, the “Powersave” profile is assigned by default.

The last button sets notifications. For example, when the laptop is unplugged, a system tray notification will pop up.

The “Advanced Battery Settings” tab allows users to set custom battery power levels.

2. Edit Profiles – Each profile has a plethora of settings, allowing users full control over the system’s power management. Here are some key features:

Disable desktop effects, if active – This is commonly used for lower-power situations. KWin desktop effects will use more CPU and GPU power. By enabling this setting, KDE will temporarily disable effects until the power profile changes.

Action settings – Pressing the power button, closing the laptop lid, or pressing the suspend key all have actions assigned to them, and PowerDevil gives you the ability to change those actions or disable them completely.

Screen – Dimming or turning off the screen can save power and extend the life of the screen. In this tab, you can set the specific times for each state, as well as the default brightness level for the given profile.

CPU – With multi-core systems, you can disable one or more of the CPUs when a profile is activated. If you have CPU scaling enabled, you can also set the scaling policy to run the CPU at a slower speed when on battery power.

3. Capabilities – The capabilities tab is essentially an information center that provides you with valuable information about your mobile computer. It will tell you what power features and actions are enabled and available.

Plasma Widget

The batter monitor widget displays the percentage of battery power remaining and tells the user if the cord is plugged in or not. Left click on the battery icon to bring up a quick access panel. From there, you can change the brightness, power profile, enable suspend or hibernate, and access the previously-mentioned system settings module. Right clicking brings up configuration options for the module.

Krunner

Krunner is an advanced command and application launcher. With it, you can quickly access settings, enable power actions, or change the system state. You can access it by pressing Alt+F2 or right clicking on the desktop and clicking “Run Command”.

Screen Brightness: To change the brightness of the screen, type “Screen Brightness ##”, replacing ## with a percentage number. For example: Screen Brightness 65. If you type “screen brightness” with no number, it will give you general options like “dim screen by half” and “turn off screen”.

Power Profile: Simply type in “power profile”, and Krunner will give you a list of profile options.

Power Governor: If enabled, this allows you to set the CPU governor profile.

Suspend: Type “suspend” and then select “Suspend to Disk” or “Suspend to RAM”

Troubleshooting

Q. My suspend and/or brightness keys do not work
A. Make sure you have KHotkeys enabled in System Settings/Advanced/Service Manager. If it still does not work, you may need to consult your distribution’s documentation on hotkeys for your particular laptop.

Q. I have an Nvidia card, and the GPU does not run at full speed. Where do I configure that?
A. If you are using Nvidia’s proprietary drivers, configure it with nvidia-settings.

Q. Suspend does not work, works only once, or freezes/crashes the laptop.
A. Linux suspend support will vary depending on the device. Check your distribution’s help documentation or forums.

KDE PowerDevil makes power management easy and completely integrated with the KDE graphical interface. Because of this, users can create their own Krunner plugins or Plasma widgets to interact with it. As Linux becomes more popular, particularly on netbooks, PowerDevil should play an important role.

The Device Notifier Widget is located on the KDE panel, but may be anywhere on the panel, depending on the default setup of your Linux distribution. It can sit on the panel as an icon, like the application launcher, or reside within the system tray. To add it to the system tray:

1. Right click on the tray and click “System Tray Settings”
2. Click “Plasma Widgets”
3. Check “Device Notifier” and click “OK”.

Connecting Once

For most removable media, you will only want it to connect on a per-use basis. Once a device is inserted or attached, the Device Notifier will popup over the system tray icon, showing you the device. If you do nothing, it will slip away after a few seconds. At any time, you can click on the icon to see the devices again.

For every device, it will provide three pieces of information:

1. The type/size and name of device
2. The amount of available storage space
3. The number of available actions you can perform with the device.

To the right of the device information, you will see an icon that looks like a plug or connector. Clicking it will immediately mount it but will not perform any further actions. This is useful if you want it mounted but do not necessarily want to access it at the moment.

Click anywhere else on the device to bring up the actions menu. Some example actions are: “Download photos with…”, “Open with File Manager”, “Play Audio CD with Amarok”, and “Copy with K3b”.

Once you are finished using your removable device, you need to unmount it before removing it. First make sure you are not accessing it with any applications. Although KDE applications will communicate with each other and automatically detect an unmount, others may keep the device busy and prevent you from unmounting it. To proceed, click the up-arrow icon that looks like an eject button.

Automatic Connections

If you find yourself connecting the same devices frequently, you may want to consider making them mount automatically. For example, I have an external 250GB hard drive that is always at my desk. When I login to KDE, I want it mounted already.

To access the Device Notifier settings, right click on the icon and click “Device Notifier Settings”

“General” options tell the widget to display removable, non-removable, or all devices. “Device Actions” is where you can add, edit, or delete actions associated with media and device types.

In order to configure automatic mounting, click on “Removable Devices”. At the top are general options that will apply to all devices. In order to automatically mount any devices, check the first box to enable auto-mounting. The sub-settings underneath it are optional but may be useful, depending on your situation.

In the box below those settings, you will see “Device Overrides“. This section allows you to setup automatic mounting for specific devices, such as my external hard drive. In the first tree, it will show currently attached devices, including internal drives and their partitions. Find your device, and check “Automount on login”, “Automount on attach”, or both options.

In the second tree, you will see “Disconnected Devices”. Device Notifier will remember all of the devices you have ever connected. Using this, you can configure devices you might not have at the moment, but it also can be a security risk if you do not want a device to be listed. To remove one, select it and then click the “Forget Device” button at the bottom. When you are finished configuring, click “OK”.

Other Places to manage devices

KDE applications are smart and will be aware of devices as they appear. They also allow various degrees of device management, depending on the application. These applications include:

• Dolphin (mount/unmount; show/hide from “Places”)
• Kickoff and Lancelot menus (mount/unmount)
• Other apps, such as Amarok and Digikam (mount/unmount; retrieve data)

KDE’s device management system is designed to provide ease of use while still offering flexibility and a variety of options. With it, you should rarely, if ever, need to drop to the command line to manage a removable device.

In no particular order, here are a few that I have recently encountered and are worth mentioning.

Countdown Widget

With my graduation less than a month away, this widget is the perfect reminder of how many projects I have to finish before I complete my courses. But the widget itself can be used for any sort of countdown: your birthday, payday, anniversary, or anything else you want to remember.

It is a simple widget, and you can install it directly within KDE’s Add Widgets dialog.

1. Right click on the desktop
2. Click “Add Widgets”
3. Click “Get New Widgets”
4. Click “Download New Plasma Widgets”
5. Find “Countdown” and click “Install”
6. Drag the countdown icon to your desktop.

Wallpaper Clock

Another extraordinary KDE feature is the ability to use a wide variety of desktop wallpaper plugins. Rather than having a plain image as your wallpaper, you can have a slideshow, the weather, and even an interactive map of the world.

Wallpaper Clock is an add-on that connects to vladstudio.com and allows you to install their wallpaper clocks, which show the time and date in creative ways. The wallpapers are updated in real time (pun intended), changing every minute without any flickering or noticeable repainting.

You can install wallpaper clock using the normal widget installation procedure, but the actual widget will appear in your Plasma Workspace settings.

1. Right click the desktop and click “Desktop Activity Settings”.
2. Click the dropdown menu next to the label “Type” and find “Wallpaper Clock”.
3. To install new wallpaper clocks, click “Get New Wallpapers”
4. After you have downloaded the ones you want, click “Close”
5. Select the wallpaper you desire and click “OK”.

Pulse (KWin effect)

Pulse is a visual effect for KWin (KDE’s window manager). When a window appears, it zooms in and pulses with a fading ghost image of itself. When I first tried it, I found it a little overwhelming. Every window that appeared made me a little woozy, but after I turned the settings down a little, I found the effect rather refreshing. Every time a window appears, I notice it, and the effect adds a nice bit of life to the desktop. Not everyone will be able to tolerate the flashing, but for those who want to add a little spice to their desktop, this is a good effect to accomplish that goal.

Unfortunately, there are no easy ways to install KWin effects. You will have to compile this one from source, but that only takes a couple of minutes. If you are comfortable with the Linux command line and wish to proceed, be sure to follow the standard KDE building instructions.

mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
make install

There are many other useful KDE add-ons available for download, and you can install many of them from within the KDE dialogs. For all others, visit KDE-Look.org and KDE-Apps.org.

What this plugin does?

The WordPress Widget Changer plugin adds a dynamic widget to your sidebar. You can configure it to show a specific widget for a specific page/post. In the front page, the dynamic widget will not show anything. There is only the static sidebar. However, when a specific page/post is loaded, the widget that you specified will also appear on the sidebar.

Benefit of this plugin?

This plugin allows you to micromanage your ad or the information that you want to show to your readers. You can now display a targeted ad to a specific post that you have written.

For more information on this plugin, check out the plugin homepage or download the plugin here.