This Week's Top Downloads

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Every week, we share a number of downloads for all platforms to help you get things done. Here were the top downloads from this week.

Ever wish you could find out whether someone actually opened that email you sent, or whether they just ignored and trashed it? A service called Bananatag can tell you-but if you find that a little creepy, we've got the lowdown on how to protect yourself too. More »

Android has what seems like a billion different weather apps available, but when it comes to getting the most information in an easy-to-read fashion, WeatherBug is the best around. More »

The iPhone has a remarkable number of weather app options, and you'll find a ton that suit different needs depending on what you want. That said, one shines brighter than the rest, and Accuweather is one of the best full-featured weather apps on the store. More »

iOS: ZenAwake ditches loud, sharp alarm sounds or music in exchange for a kinder, gentler way to bring you out of a night's sleep. Ten minutes before you're scheduled to wake, the app sounds a gentle chime. More »

Google Chrome likes to use memory and give your processor a good workout if you keep a handful (or more) tabs open on a regular basis. This can have a negative impact on the speed of your computer, and certainly the life of your laptop's battery. More »

Plex, one of our favorite desktop media servers (and yours, too) just took the wraps off of a major overhaul Plex/Web, its streaming service that makes all of your media easily available across all devices. More »

Chrome: Chime is an extension for Chrome that intercepts your notifications for popular services like Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, and others, then puts them all together into a single drop-down menu in Chrome that you can click to see them at once. More »

Windows/Mac/Linux: Free and open source office suite LibreOffice got a major update today. LibreOffice 4.0 can attach comments to selected text in documents, import Visio and Microsoft Publisher files, get Firefox Persona themes, and much more. More »

OS X: We love text expansion because it can save you hours of typing every day, and fortunately OS X offers a wide variety of apps. The downside is that they generally cost a bit and lack a feature or two another has. More »

Android: One of the great things about Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean is that you can long-press the home button to switch apps or close apps running in the background. More »

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This Week’s Most Popular Posts: February 1st to 8th

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This week we fixed our sucky smartphones, sold our stuff for money, jailbroke iOS 6, and celebrated Lifehacker's 8th birthday. Here's a look back.

Sometimes, smartphones can be a boon for your personal productivity, but other times it's amazing how much trouble they have performing simple tasks. Here are ten things your phone probably sucks at, and how to make it work better. More »

We've shown you how to kick your clutter habit, but why trash all of those things you don't need when you could make some money off of them? In this guide, we'll walk you through how you can appraise your items, where to sell them to make the most cash, and how to avoid geting screwed in the... More »

This week marks Lifehacker's 8th birthday, and to celebrate we put the call out to you to help us determine what some of our best tips, tricks, and guides from the past eight years have been. More »

We've all done it. When our glasses are smudged up we reach for the corner of our shirt and clean them off. You probably even know that's the wrong way to clean glasses, but you do it anyway. More »

Since kicking off the How I Work series last summer, nothing has been praised by our interviewees as many times as Evernote. (Seriously, we counted.) The free, cross-platform app does just about anything you could want to stay productive: More »

Jailbreaking is a process that changes little by little with each iOS upgrade. Rather than always publishing new guides, we're simply going to keep this one up to date. More »

With the new jailbreak for iOS 6, it's time to start playing around with all the great apps and tweaks on your newly freed device. Here's a look at some of our favorites available in Cydia for iOS 6. More »

Whether you need to learn a new skill or language to advance your career, or you just want to learn something new and broaden your horizons, lifelong learning is important. More »

January is the biggest discount month of the year, but a lot of the winter sales carry over into February-not to mention a few new sales thanks to annual trade shows. More »

Let's be honest: there's no weekend project that's both as fun and practical as building a computer, especially when you have so many options. Whether it's a home theater PC, a workstation, or something else, it's a great way to spend a day (or two) off. More »

Ever wish you could find out whether someone actually opened that email you sent, or whether they just ignored and trashed it? A service called Bananatag can tell you-but if you find that a little creepy, we've got the lowdown on how to protect yourself too. More »

Building a media center is a killer way to watch or stream your favorite movies and TV shows, but if you miss being able to watch live TV-and record it so you can watch it later-you can turn your XBMC box into a personal video recorder (PVR) with just a bit of setup. More »

I've heard of productivity systems like Getting Things Done or the Pomodoro Technique, and everyone seems to swear by them. Do I really need to learn one of these complicated systems to be productive? More »

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