Yesterday Google announced the latest incarnation of its popular toolbar, whilst dually claiming its ability to be "as unique as you are". Indeed, a whole raft of customisable features has been added, ranging from personalised buttons for your favourite websites to incorporated spelling and query suggestions whilst you search. Perhaps the niftiest feature is the ability to share web pages via gmail, SMS and Blogger at the click of a button.

No doubt Google will be keeping tabs on just how unique you are being, yet it’s hard not to be a little impressed by these new additions. Unfortunately, until out of Beta, this will only be available for those running Windows XP with Internet Explorer 6.0.

Get it here.

For those who have the presence of mind to back up their data but are too stingy to pay for an effective program, the release of WinBackup 1.86 as a free download will come as welcome news. Although lacking the fancy features of the recent 2.0 version, this handy program will back-up, protect, and store your precious data with the minimal space or bother.

Those left crying after having a life’s work wiped from their PC now have no excuse.

Download and more details here.

Getting excited about desktop wallpapers is a rare feeling, yet this free batch manages to give your desktop some real class. They are of high resolution which means reduced distortion, and come in the standard sizes of 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200, whilst the more technically evolved can benefit from a widescreen size of 1680x1050. New images are added on a daily basis; however you’ll have to start paying once you’ve exhausted the first free twenty. Available here.

Awesome High Resolution Wallpapers [Digg]

Google Earth has tons of add on's to make your virtual trips around the world even more enjoyable. These downloadable 3D buildings come courtesy of Dr. Andrew Hudson-Smith, one of the many people enhancing this already powerful program. Simply download the kmz file to fly into the model in Google Earth and you will start to build-up a 3D map of the capital’s most recognisable landmarks .With new buildings being are added frequently, you’ll only wish the whole of Google earth could be like this.

Obviously, Google Earth is required. Get them here.

The quality of most online TV players available on the web can leave a lot to be desired, yet this little program actually seems to deliver some kind of service. Granted, some of the channels are unavailable and grainy at times, but not being able to access Estonia's premier rock channel might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Indeed, from
Albania to Vietnam, there's a staggering amount of content to wade through. And, although the UK is limited to snippets of BBC news and shopping channels, there's enough to keep the average person occupied for the 14 day trail at least. The only drawback is it's insistence that you use Realplayer for media playback, but if you can put up with this it's little more than a tenner for the full purchase.

Find it here.

The Onion, those fine purveyors of silly yet telling news, have entered the podcast arena with a batch of news stories read by Doyle Redland. With titles such as “God Worried Apocalypse May Not Live Up To Expectations” and “Scientists Say Venom Taken From Politicians Could Provide Medical Benefits”, the transition to audio has thankfully not compromised the quality. Get them here for laughs-a-plenty. If you've been living behind a rock for the past year and are unsure how to play a podcast, any of these three programs will fo the job with little bother:

iTunes
Juice
Blogmatrix Jager

Over 100,000 “lost” tracks, spanning forty years of music will be made available to the public through Universal Music. Rare and previously unattainable music from artists including Marianne Faithful, Fairport Convention and Jacques Brel will be made available by mid February, followed by a further 10,000 albums over the next three years. This will include material dating from the very beginnings of recorded music, bringing a little more diversity to downloadable music along the way. iPod’s ready.

Download plan for deleted tracks [BBC]

Figures published today by NBC and ABC in America suggest that iTunes may be already transforming the face of TV. Having cornered and colonised the music downloads market, TV shows such as The Office and Lost have seen their audience figures jump by as much as 15% since they were made available for $1.99 through the iTunes music store. It’s funny now to think that Steve Jobs was initially skeptical about a video iPod, but alas it seems the man with the golden touch has struck again.

iTunes boosts prime time ratings for NBC, ABC [iLounge]

The nice people at SiteAdvisor have trawled the web in search of bad downloads, in the hope that it will stop us from doing the same. After visiting over a million websites and completing over 140, 000 download tests, they’ve published a handy list of the worst offenders for our important attention. Downloads are given their own “nuisance rating” which lets you know how far a download will go in messing up your computer. Very useful indeed.

The Web's Download Disasters, Inaugural Edition [SiteAdvisor blog]

Get it here.

This text to speech program goes further than most voice synthesizer programs out there on the web. Just type in a bit of text into the box, select your preffered accent and gender, and Loquendo will download it to your media player and play it back to you. With over eight languages and accents to choose from, the results are pretty impressive and go way beyond the Stephen Hawking-like delivery we are all so familiar with.

If you’re on a slow connection or your upload speed leaves a lot to be desired, this little program might be the answer. Pando uses your existing email account and bypasses email attachment limits, letting you send huge files and folders. It’s free, and all the recipient has to do is have Pando installed too.

Get it here.

The major drawback with flash sites such as Google Video and YouTube is that they seldom publish a link for a direct download. So, with Google recently announcing the arrival of it’s paid for video store; why not transfer all the free stuff as well?  To do this you will need to download a handy Firefox extension called Greasemonkey. Very basically, Greasmonkey lets you add bits of DHTML ("user scripts") to any web page to change its behavior. Once installed, restart your browser, right click on the links below, and select “Install User Script”. Now every time you go to Google Video or YouTube, you’ll see the handy “download flash video” in the top right hand corner. Then simply click and use at your leisure.

Greasemonkeying with Google Video and YouTube [sandbox films] 

Those long running arguments in the pub can now finally be settled with this free and simple music identification program. Either play a song through your PCs microphone or directly plug in an external music source (eg. Radio), and Tunatic will check the song against its database and name the tune. The database is regularly updated by Tunatic’s army of users, and you are encouraged to do the same.

Get it here.  

There was a time when cover art was an important part in the buying journey of any self-respecting music lover. Leafing through the packaging, reading the sleeve notes, admiring the art work was all part of the experience. Thankfully, findmycover.com brings back a little personality in this day of monolithic music libraries. Simply type in an artist or album name and it will retrieve the corresponding artwork, then just download and transfer it to your preferred media player.

Fancy getting that little bit extra for your license money? The BBC continues to impress with its online endeavours, recently announcing the availability of its news archive as free downloads. Although still in its trail stages, you can freely download over 80 video clips spanning fifty years of monumental history. Whether its England’s defeat of Germany in the 1966 world cup, riots in Tiananmen Square, or the fall of the Berlin Wall; the BBC actively persuade you to use them as you please, telling us “Don't just consume, create!”.

Get them here to do just that.