Espier Launcher Makes Your Android Phone Look Just Like iOS [Android Downloads]

By Whitson Gordon Oct 17, 2011 3:30 PM 14,357 24

Android has some great advanced features, but if you prefer the simple, beautiful home screen look of iOS, Espier Launcher gives you the best of both worlds by recreating the iOS experience on your Android device—without Apple and their walled garden.

Espier is actually a very solid launcher for Android. It's smooth, has lots of nice features, and does a remarkable job of looking exactly like iOS. You don't have an app drawer, which may be annoying for some, but you get iOS-style icons in a 4x4 grid with a dock at the bottom. If you swipe up on the home screen, you get an iOS-style fast app switcher, where you can close running apps and, if you swipe to the left, even change brightness, Wi-Fi, volume, and other quick settings. Even the folders work exactly like they do in iOS: just drag one icon onto another to create a folder, and when you tap on it, it'll pop up in true iOS style. It also has a search function in the same place you'd find Spotlight on iOS, though it didn't work quite as well as we'd have liked, putting apps all the way down at the bottom and filling the results with unimportant things (like tracks on Last.fm, if you have it installed).

Overall, though, if you like the freedom that Android gives you but prefer iOS' somewhat more polished interface, you won't be disappointed by this launcher. I'm pretty stunned at how well it imitates iOS, where many other theme packs and similar apps fail. Although, if you're looking for a slightly more Android-like experience with iOS-like looks, you can't go wrong with the previously mentioned MIUI ROM, either.

Espier Launcher is a free download for Android 1.5 and up.

Espier Launcher | Android Market via AddictiveTips

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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Justbeamit Makes Transferring Large Files Super-Easy [Webapps]

By Alan Henry Oct 14, 2011 4:30 AM 6,191 11

When you have a large file or group of large files that you want to send to someone, but you don't want to clog up your Dropbox account and you don't have time to just drive over to your friend's house with a USB drive, Justbeamit is a new web service that lets you upload a file, get a private link, and send it to a friend. When they open it, a private peer-to-peer download session will start and they'll grab the file from you over the web.

Justbeamit makes the process easy on purpose: all you have to do is drag and drop the file you want to share into your browser window, and the webapp will give you the URL you can send to your friend. You'll be able to watch the progress while your file is uploaded, and when it's finished, you'll see a "waiting" indicator, meaning the service is waiting for the recipient to download the file. When they visit the link, Justbeamit opens the connection between you and the recipient and lets them download the file.

The service is dead simple to use, and doesn't require that you sign up for an account of any kind. The only downside is that because the service is little more than a gateway, the sender can't leave the page until the download is complete, and once both parties leave the page, the transfer link is useless, so if there's a problem, you'll have to start over. Even so, the service works and is incredibly easy to use.

Justbeamit | via AddictiveTips

You can reach Alan Henry, the author of this post, at alan@lifehacker.com, or better yet, follow him on Twitter or Google+. Related Stories

Linkify Plus Makes Text Links Clickable in Almost Any Browser [User Scripts]

By Whitson Gordon Oct 12, 2011 4:30 PM 6,969 9

Chrome/Firefox/Opera/Safari (Greasemonkey): If you're tired of plain text links that you have to copy and paste in your address bar, free Greasemonkey script Linkify Plus will turn all URLs and email addresses into clickable links.

There isn't much more to it than that—just install the extension, and you should find most HTTP, HTTPS, and mailto links become clickable. It requires JavaScript to be enabled on each site it works on, so if you disable it for certain sites, Linkify won't work. This shouldn't be a huge problem, but you can try the alternative Linkify ting if you'd rather not have the JavaScript caveat. Linkify ting doesn't work on mailto links, though. We've mentioned Linkify once before, but it no longer comes with Greasemonkey, so we thought it was worth providing a link to its replacement.

Linkify Plus is a free download, works in most modern browsers. Firefox users will need the Greasemonkey extension to use it, and Safari uses will need the NinjaKit extension.

Linkify Plus | Userscripts.org via GHacks

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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USB Guard Makes Sure You Never Forget Your Flash Drive When You Shut Down [Windows Downloads]

Windows: If you find yourself leaving your flash drive in your work computer and cursing yourself after you arrive home, USB Guard will make sure you always remember to take your flash drive with you.

USB Guard is completely portable, so you don't need to install anything to run it. Just start it up and it sits in your system tray and monitors the external drives plugged into your machine (you can set it to monitor specific drives if you so choose, too). If you go to shut down your computer and one of those drives is still plugged in, it'll show a prompt, reminding you to unplug it before you leave. That way, you'll always have it with you, wherever you go.

USB Guard is a free download for Windows only.

USB Guard | via AddictiveTips

You can contact Whitson Gordon, the author of this post, at whitson@lifehacker.com. You can also find him on Twitter, Facebook, and lurking around our #tips page.
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