I'm a big fan of Google Docs, to such an extent that I don't have any productivity suite installed on my Mac at home – I just use Google Docs for everything. This is why I was happy to read that Google is adding 12 new file types to Google Docs Viewer, the tool you've been using so far to open PDF files that you found online or were attached to an email message.

The 12 new file types supported by Google Docs Viewer are the following:

• Microsoft Excel (.XLS and .XLSX)
• Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 / 2010 (.PPTX)
• Apple Pages (.PAGES)
• Adobe Illustrator (.AI)
• Adobe Photoshop (.PSD)
• Autodesk AutoCad (.DXF)
• Scalable Vector Graphics (.SVG)
• PostScript (.EPS, .PS)
• TrueType (.TTF)
• XML Paper Specification (.XPS)

Thanks to the support for these types, from now on you'll be able to open all the major Microsoft Office formats (DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS and XLSX) plus a bunch of important document and image formats like PSD and AI right in Google Docs Viewer – a faster and safer option that downloading them to your hard drive and opening them on your computer.

Happy Valentine's Day! There's good news for all you love birds out there, and this time it's brought to you from Google. A few days ago, the internet search giant launched its very own portal focused solely on helping couples plan their wedding day: Google Weddings.

In a way, it might sound weird that Google's getting into the wedding business. That was certainly my first thought when I heard the news. If you take a moment to think about it though, it does make sense. You can use Google Docs to access a myriad of different pre-made wedding templates, for example. Create a website with Google Sites to share important information with your guests. Even create announcements with Picnik or organize and share photos on Picasa with your friends after the event.

With all the great web apps available through Google, it's actually quite a convenient way to get organized for your special day. The best part about it is that a lot of people already make use of these tools now, so they'll be familiar when you get started planning for this new event. For those who don't, Google has very kindly made a Google Weddings tutorial page to help get you started.  For an event that's notorious for often being incredibly complicated to plan, things just got a little simpler thanks to Google.

So, it's the Packers versus the Steelers this year, is it?  If you get a lot of grief from friends who want you to attend their Super Bowl party over all others, how exactly do you choose between parties?  I am apathetic about football games in general, no matter how important or hyped-up, and so I base my football-related decisions on food. In this instance, Foodily might just be able to help you make an informed choice come Super Bowl Sunday.

Although not a catalog geared specifically toward Super Bowl food recipes, typing that specific query into Foodily's search box generates well over 15,000 results. Each recipe comes with a list of ingredients, cooking directions, and the ability either to like or save recipes for later viewing. What makes Foodily stand out even further, however, is the ability to list recipes and even entire menus on a Facebook events invitation. Expected attendees can also add to the list to generate an even more accurate menu of options. See the potential?

Make your friends work for your attendance at their Super Bowl party! Tell them to let you know what they're planning on making before you accept an invitation using Foodily. Warning: This may decrease the number of invitations you actually receive in subsequent years (although depending on just how much you like football, this might not necessarily end up being a bad thing!).

For those of you who actually do get revved up for Game Day, James has pointed out some great ways to prepare for the big day with his iPhone Super Bowl Survival Kit. And for those like me who are far more interested in the food aspect of the entire affair, check out Niamh's post on the best food apps for Mac, as well as her picks for the best recipe software all-around. Game on!

If you’re an enthusiastic Google Docs user like me, you’ll be happy to know that our favorite online document editor just got a facelift.

The new Google Docs design is much more similar to Gmail now, with a sidebar on the left featuring quick accesses to the Home page, the Trash and the list of starred items, and a couple of handy buttons to create new documents or upload them from your hard drive. Home can be configured to show only the documents you want to see.

Another new feature in Google Docs is collections. You can now organize documents in collections, and easily share them with your friends. Also, filters have been improved: the top tab bar already lets you filter by type – separating documents from images and videos – and the More options tab gives you more possibilities to filter files: by visibility or ownership.

Finally, if you click anywhere in the row of a given file (not the title, as that will open it) you’ll see a details pane on the right, displaying information about the selected file: who’s got access to it, in which collection it is stored and when it was last viewed or modified, along with a small preview of the document’s content.

There are several ways to do work for charity: you can donate food and clothes to people in need in your neighborhood, join an NGO or even buy software. Yes, you did read that: buying software can also help people.

Just like the Humble Bundle helped raise money for the Child’s Play Charity, the Bundlelytic charity bundle enables you to help those in need with just a mouse click. In this case, half of the proceeds will be used to help the victims of the recent floods in Queensland, Australia.

The bundle includes 9 useful Windows applications, which together have a value of $299 but which you can get for just $49.99. The programs included in the pack are:

• Paragon’s Partition Manager 11 – A powerful disk management tool to setup multi-boot systems, create system images and more.

• SafeWallet – Store all your sensitive data (passwords, credit card numbers and so on) in this encrypted vault with support for syncing with most mobile phones.

• Divvy – A must-have for productivity junkies, this app lets you organize all your active windows in the most comfortable way.

• Altaro Oops!Backup – Create backup copies of your important documents, and go back to any of their previous versions at any time.

• System Speedup Pro – Fix the most common problems in Windows with just one click, and remove suspicious processes and junk file as well.

• novaPDF Professional – Fully featured app that lets you convert any document to PDF through a virtual printer driver.

• EASEUS Data Recovery Wizard – Recover accidentally deleted data from corrupted or reformatted partitions, USB drives, and memory cards.

• Returnil System Safe – Crate a safe virtual environment on your system to test potentially dangerous applications.

• Pixo – An original image editor that lets you apply effects to your photos as if you were painting over them.

If you decide to buy the bundle, you’ll automatically be entered into a draw to win a 250GB ioSafe portable hard drive and one of 100 copies of Nitro PDF Professional. So you see, you have nothing to lose and lots to win: good quality software, a handy portable hard drive and of course, helping people.

Three months after it first hit the stores, Microsoft have finally launched a free trial of Office 2011 for Mac. The 30 day trial is fully functional and gives users a long overdue opportunity to decide whether they are willing to invest up to $280 on the full version. I tested the beta version back in April and you can see my in-depth review of the final release here.

Many Mac users will ask why has it taken Microsoft so long to release a trial version of the popular office suite. Is it just Microsoft being typically awkward with Apple users or some kind of marketing ploy? The reasons behind the seemingly belated release are unknown, but if you haven't tried it yet and are still on Office 2008 it's definitely worth taking a look at. Office 2011 is a far more polished, OS X-integrated suite with the massive bonus that you can now use Microsoft Outlook.

The popular cloud-based file-sharing software brought to you by the folks at Box.net has gotten a new look. If enhancing user experience was the end goal, simplicity was definitely the theme.

Similar to other file-sharing and collaborative programs like Dropbox and Microsoft SharePoint, Box allows users to share files across computers, tablets, and mobile devices. Often viewed as an alternative to the better-known Dropbox service, Box developers claim their application offers more enterprise-friendly features, including role-based access to files. In addition, quite a bit of net clutter has been removed from Box’s web-based interface, which should allow users to view their files even more easily.

Box has also added real-time activity updates and a Box Apps Marketplace where more than 150 third-party apps can be downloaded to increase Box’s usability even more. In addition, a new collaborative discussions tab specifically for conversations about projects (as opposed to just specific files) has also been unveiled.

The new interface is currently available via invitations, which are in the process of being sent to Box’s approximately 5 million users. Currently Box users have the option to switch between the new and old versions of Box at their whim. It’s advised to start getting used to the new interface now though, as the old version will be phased out at the end of February.

Being a sucker for keyboard shortcuts, I was surprised to read on The How-To Geek that Facebook has its own set of keyboard combinations - and I didn't know about them!

Not surprising, though; I don't use Facebook that much, and when I do, I just check the Wall for the latest updates and rarely browse any other section. But just in case you're interested, here's the list of all currently available keyboard shortcuts for Facebook.

Alt+1: Facebook's homepage

Alt+2: Your Facebook profile page

Alt+3: Friend requests

Alt+4: Messages

Alt+5: Notifications

Alt+6: Account page

Alt+7: Privacy settings

Alt+8: Facebook's page on Facebook

Alt+9: Facebook Terms of Use

Alt+0: Facebook Help Center

Alt + ?: Enables Search

Alt+m: Compose a new message

These shortcuts work best on Chrome. If you're using Firefox, you have to add Shift to the Alt combination, and if you're using Internet Explorer, you need to press Enter after each combination. Who knows, maybe these keyboard shortcuts will help you become more efficient while browsing the least productive website in the world...

Got a new Windows 7 PC? Here are our top five free applications that no self respecting PC user should be without!

VLC: If you want to play a video file, this killer application can take almost any format you care to throw at it. As well as being flexible, it's surprisingly powerful, allowing you to use subtitles, re-sync audio tracks and more. If that wasn't enough, VLC is also incredibly lightweight when compared to Windows Media Player or iTunes. Check out our full review here.

Photoscape: Digital photo editing and polishing needn't be as complex as Adobe Photoshop. As Elena says in her review, Photoscape is a really excellent photo editing tool that includes just about everything you need to view, optimize, edit, print and have fun with your photos, all for free. It's a great way to get started with digital image editing.

Chrome: Are you reading this from Internet Explorer? Stop right there and download Google's Chrome. Cleaner, faster, more lightweight and modern, Chrome has become the best all-round browser out there. As it's open source, there are also some great Chrome-based browsers out there, like my personal favorite Rockmelt.

OpenOffice: If you're looking for a free alternative to Microsoft Office, this is it. You'll be able to edit and save files in Microsoft-compatible formats, so there is no need to worry about not being able to open or use documents. With everything you'll need from spreadsheets to word processing, it's one of the most impressive free downloads you'll find.

CCleaner: There's no escaping chores, even on PCs in 2011! Luckily, tiny toolbox CCleaner can make the experience pretty painless. With little set up, you'll be able to clean your browser history, space wasting temporary files and lots of recent file lists.

So you got an iPad for Christmas? Congratulations! It's really a state-of-the-art gadget, wonderfully designed and with lots of apps available to customize it. Talking about apps, this may be the first question that pops into your head when you start using your iPad: which apps should I download? There are literally thousands of them on the App Store, so let us recommend just five - the five essential apps you should install on your brand-new iPad.

Instapaper - An excellent tool that saves web pages for later offline reading. Instapaper is the perfect way to read those long articles you never have time for, while commuting, queueing or waiting for the doctor. The articles in Instapaper are optimized for perfect readability, and can be sent from over 130 other apps.

Flipboard - Check social networks like you never did before. With Flipboard you can see what your friends are up to on Facebook and Twitter, read the latest articles on your favorite Google Reader feeds and see the most recent photos shared on Flickr in a totally different way: a completely customized magazine, created on the spot for you.

Air Video - If space is an issue to watch videos on the iPad. AirVideo is the solution. With this awesome app you can watch all the videos on your computer without having to sync them with the iPad. Video is streamed over air and converted in real time! Air Video works with almost all video formats and is packed with features.

Kindle -The iPad version of Kindle is optimized for this gadget's gorgeous screen, enabling you to read Kindle books on a neat, easy-to-use interface. You have access to the entire Kindle catalog with over 750,000 titles, including best-sellers and new releases. Plus all your books, notes, bookmarks and more are synced via Amazon.

Plants vs. Zombies - There are excellent games for the iPad, but Plants vs. Zombies is probably one of the best you can get. The HD version looks amazing on the 6'' screen, and the game is as insanely addictive as its iPhone version. Will you be able to get rid of all 26 types of zombies threatening your home?

If you like cooking and have a Mac, but you haven't yet decided to combine the two, you really need to take a look at some of recipe software right now. To take the pain out of the process and maximize your time in the kitchen, we've done the hard part and whittled the field down to the very best.

MacGourmet is, as Nick so succinctly puts it, a cook's dream. Designed to look and feel a lot like iTunes, it's easy to use and very customizable. Sharing is definitely its strong point - you can use it to publish directly to blogs, and export easily to your iPhone, so making shopping lists couldn't be easier.MacGourmet comes with recipes to get you started, and also has a feature for taking notes on your wine and food, so you'll always be sure to get the most out of your time in the kitchen.

YummySoup! - pretentious name aside - is another attractive, easy-to-use option, but the major attraction here is the ease with which you can use it to import recipes from websites, which is perfect if that's where you do most of your foodie research. It also comes with an impressive selection of recipes pre-included, which means that as soon as you install YummySoup!, you can get cooking.

SousChef is a great looker, and makes it very easy to import recipes with drag and drop and excellent tagging. In addition, it has a major feature that you don't get in other similar apps - a text to speech function so you can have the recipe read out as you cook, keeping your greasy fingers far from your shiny Mac! It even supports voice commands or a remote, so you can start and pause the recipe as you need.

Yum! is a very popular cooking app on Softonic. It's not quite as slick as some of the others, but it's obviously doing something right to make it to the top of our download rankings. It makes adding and creating a very visual experience, with lots of editing options and a feature that lets you add your own images of the delicacies you cook up in the kitchen.

Recipe Box is by far the lowest-tech app on the list, but that's because some people, quite rightly, like to keep things simple. This app lets you add and edit recipes, and makes it easy to print. You can also make up shopping lists, and unlike other apps, comes with ingredient, preparation and measurement dictionaries, so you can keep your cooking offline if you want or need to.

MS Office has been the leading Office suite for as long as I can remember. The problem with it is that it doesn't come cheap at anything up to almost $500 depending on the version and license you want. In the old days, there wasn't much you could do but shell-out the cash but nowadays, there are several free or cheap alternatives out there. Here are 5 of the best. Note that they're all also available on Windows, except NeoOffice and iWork which are Mac only.

OpenOffice

Whenever people ask me what I can recommend as a free alternative to Microsoft Office, I'll frequently recommend OpenOffice. OpenOffice is a multi-platform and multilingual office suite that is compatible with all other major office suites (meaning it will open and edit Word, Powerpoint documents etc) and best of all, its absolutely free to use.

ThinkFree Office

ThinkFree Office looks and feels very similar to MS Office and in some aspects seems to have copied it directly, especially in the way the word processor looks. ThinkFree Office consists of three segments. Write (word processor), Show (presentation tool) and Calc (a spreadsheet tool) and allows you to export to PDF. Unfortunately, despite the name Think Free Office isn't free but it's cheaper than MS Office.

Black Friday is nearly upon us here in the U.S. Getting anxious to snatch up all those unbeatable deals? Make sure you get a head start on your holiday shopping preparations with these useful Black Friday apps:

Black Friday Wish: A lot of great Black Friday deals are being advertised online and in the newspapers. They’re difficult to organize without making quite a mess, however. That’s where Black Friday Wish can step in to help. Create a wish list based on categories of items you’re interested in purchasing. You can even notify your friends about specific deals via Twitter, Facebook, and email.

Black Friday Survival Guide: Everything you need to know to get the best Black Friday deals comes in this sleek little app. Much like Black Friday Wish, you can organize your purchases into a shopping list. This app goes a step further though, in that all newspaper advertisements have been scanned in so you can view them right on your device. There’s even a news section to keep up with the most up-to-date deals as they’re announced.

Black Friday App: Simple in name and style, yet this app takes Black Friday holiday shopping one step further by allowing you to make online purchases of the deals you find (if the particular store has the option to do so). This app is perfect for people who prefer not to endure the mayhem and endless lines in actual stores this Friday.

TGI Black Friday: Another black Friday app with a great look and features, this app allows you to browse great deals by store, category, or product. Click on an interesting product and visit the store for more details. You can then email the link to yourself or or add it to a list. Take care when using this app, however, as sometimes the prices it lists are not the same as what individual stores are advertising.

Amazon Price Check: This isn’t technically a Black Friday app, but it gets the job done nonetheless. If your device has a built-in camera, you can scan in product bar codes, or even snap a picture of the product you’re interested in. You can also compare prices in stores with Amazon.com’s U.S. inventory and prices. If Amazon has the better deal, buy online through the app in a few simple clicks.

These apps are great supplements to your other tried and true Black Friday strategies, and the best thing about them is they allow you to prepare in advance. Black Friday can be a pretty crazy experience, especially if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for or where to go to get it if you do. These apps simplify the process, allowing you to organize your shopping expeditions before you set out and, in some cases, even shop from your home instead.

If you’re among the multitudes of people who plan to find the greatest deals possible this Friday, best of luck to you. In the interim, Happy Turkey Day and enjoy the holiday weekend!

Disclaimer - this is not really a game! ProjectoAlfa is a free online music tool that's beautifully simple and really addictive.

You begin with a silent grid of grey squares. Click them, they light up and chimes will sound. ProjectoAlfa is an endless loop, so the patterns you light up will can create hypnotic, rhythmic loops that you can change on the fly. This is one of those toys that doesn't really make sense until you try it. It's both relaxing and maddeningly addictive! You don't need to be musical at all, just create patterns on the grid and see what happens!

Play ProjectoAlfa here.

November 15 marks the halfway point of National Novel Writing Month. In theory,  writers should have hit or exceeded 25,000 words by the day’s end. And in an ideal world, we’d all be completely on track.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I happen to be a few words behind (give or take three thousand). It’s at this point in the process when throwing in your hat and moving on to greener pastures begins to look pretty tantalizing. Nonsense, though! With these motivational tools, you’ll be back on track.

If you’re anything like me, you linger over sentence structure, agonize over adjective options. That’s not really the point when it comes to NaNo. This is why I’ve found the web-based Write or Die application to be an essential tool.

The concept is simple: Pick a word count goal and the time you have available. Then, while the Write or Die app clock starts ticking down, write as much as you can! Depending on the settings you choose, your browser screen will 'encourage' you to pick up the pace by flashing warning lights. When your time’s up, you can even choose to continue writing if the motivation’s still there. In my experience, it usually is. Once you’re done, you’ll be led to a screen that gives you your statistics, and even allows you to add code to your online journal to display how much you wrote and in how much time.

This app is a lifesaver when you’re strapped for time. For people constantly on the run, here are a few other apps for your iPhone or iPod that will also give you a motivation boost:

WriMoDemon: Essentially a word counter, WriMoDemon allows you to input your daily word count and will tally your new adjusted daily goal to keep you on track to hit that elusive 50,000 mark. It also reminds you how many days you have left, your completion percentage, and the words you’ve been averaging per day. This app is available for free in the iTunes app store.

WriteChain: Brought to you by the creators of How Not to Write, WriteChain is a word count tracking tool that also reminds you to maintain regular, daily writing practices.  Simply type in a word count goal and meet it on a daily basis. You can also take notes on your writing sessions within the app itself. While normally $0.99 in the iTunes app store, it is being offered free for a limited time.

These tools should help keep you motivated and pushing toward your ultimate word count goal. If there are other tools you use to help keep you motivated for NaNo, comment and let me know. Good luck, and happy writing!