Your Windows system tray and Mac OS X menubar have become prime real estate for highly functional micro-applications that provide easy access to information, settings, and tasks. Here are our top ten favorites for both Windows and Mac. More »

We’ve showed you how to search specific sites straight from the address bar using keywords, but it turns out that same feature can be used to actually add events to Google Calendar. Here’s how to do it. More »

If Outlook’s attention-grabbing desktop pings are the main reason you stick with it, Google Calendar might surprise you. After enabling a Labs feature and a Chrome setting, you can get similar notifications so you don’t miss that meeting (or lunch outing). More »

iPhone: Cell phones have revolutionized last-minute planning but the process is still kludgy. Last-minute phonecalls and text messages aren’t the best solution for shifting your party gears. Plannr offers simple and unified group planning with instant RSVPing, integrated mapping, messaging, and more. More »

Get Your Calendar in Gmail

One of the most useful integrations available for Gmail and GCal users, the Google Calendar gadget puts upcoming events on your email sidebar. To turn it on, just enable the Google Calendar gadget in Gmail Labs. Click on the Options link to configure which calendars you want to display events from, and schedule events directly from Gmail using the gadget’s Add link. (Gmail Labs offers lots of other app integrations, like YouTube previews in Gmail, the ability to create a Google Doc from an email conversation, Picasa image previews, Google Docs as well as a Google web search gadget.)

Put Your Gmail Messages on Your Calendar

Gmail Tasks’ killer feature is how it can act as a bridge between your email inbox and your calendar. If you add a Gmail message to your Tasks list (just choose “Add to Tasks” from the “More Actions” drop-down) and add a due date, that task shows up on your Google Calendar on that date. Even if Gmail’s Tasks module isn’t your primary to-do list app, this is an easy way to “schedule” email you don’t need to deal with right now but does have a deadline in the future.

Get Google Docs in Your Calendar and Gmail

Courtesy of Google Calendar Labs, you can easily attach Google Docs to any event—like the batting lineup for the company softball game next week. In GCal's Labs area (in Settings), just enable the "Attach Google Docs" feature.

Gmail has had built-in integration with GDocs since back in 2006; any time you have a Word document or spreadsheet email attachment in a message, Gmail gives you an “Open as a Google Document” link next to it. You can also convert an entire Gmail conversation to a Google Doc by enabling the Gmail Labs’ “Create a Document” feature.

Get Google Profile Feeds in Google Reader

Google’s newish Profiles tool offers an interesting integration into Google Reader: the ability to associate people with the feeds they create. When you configure your Google Profile and enter the web sites where you've set up shop, the feeds available for those sites appear on your profile—as well as in Google Reader. When you're following someone in Google Reader, you can easily see their blog and social network feeds alongside their photo and bio thanks to Google Profiles. From the ever-so-specifically-labeled "Browse for Stuff" section in Google Reader, click on the "People You Follow" tab to browse the folks you care about and subscribe to feeds they're creating.

Get Your Google Voice Text Messages via Gmail

Just this morning the Google Voice team added email integration with your text messages. As Kevin reported, you can now get your GV text messages forwarded to your email (Gmail or not) and respond to them from there, without ever touching your Google Voice tab or your phone.

Get All Your Google Apps on iGoogle

You can't mention integrating Google apps without giving iGoogle a nod. GApps addicts' homepage of choice, iGoogle offers Gmail, Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Gmail Tasks, and Google Voice gadgets for the ultimate, all-in-one, Google apps jumping-off spot. (In fact, last week during the Gmail outage, iGoogle's Gmail gadget was still working—even when the proper Gmail webapp was down.)

…Not to Mention Integration Add-ons and Your Browser Sidebar

Beyond in-webapp ways to access Google apps data across products, you can also hook up browser extensions like Integrated Gmail or iGoogleBar for Firefox. Alternately, for easy Google apps access no matter what web site you’re on, put your browser’s sidebar to good use.

What other ways do you use one Google app’s data in another? Shout it out in the comments.

Gina Trapani, Lifehacker’s founding editor, likes finding new ways Google Apps inform one another. Her weekly feature, Smarterware, appears every Wednesday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Smarterware tag feed to get new installments in your newsreader.

Amahi is really a repository you add into an installation of the Fedora Linux system, but when you do, it gives that system a whole new look and purpose. From a web interface you can access from anywhere on your network, Amahi can organize and offer up access to movies, music (with streaming to iTunes and other players), photos, calendars, Outlook systems, and any old files you’re in need of. Amahi can also set up a VPN for your household network, giving you remote access to your files without too much more geeky configuration than the standard setup.

Amahi can run on pretty much any system that Fedora 10 can install on—that's about a 1.0 GHz processor and 256MB of RAM minimum. The developers are working on versions for Fedora 11 and Ubuntu, but for now, Fedora is just the base of home server that doesn't require an expensive license purchase or mastery of Linux to install. Free to download, works on any x86-based system.

For starters, the post and accompanying video say it’s best not to feel locked down by labels. Instead, try to treat expiration dates more as suggestions since they concern the quality, not safety of your favorite foods. Items marked according to a “sell by” label are generally good for several days past that date, while “use by” dates indicate when that food will begin to lose its freshness. “Best if used by,” however, is what it sounds, meaning you should try to stick to the date indicated.

According to the video, milk is often good for a few days after its expiration date (we’ve all experienced this), and yogurt for a few weeks after its label says to discard. Eggs can be enjoyed up to five weeks after the stamped date. (You can also test an egg’s freshness by placing it in a cup of water. A fresh egg will sink, and a bad egg will float.) Canned goods fare even better. Technically, they’re good forever, even if dented. You should, however, avoid cans that are rusted, leaking, or have broken seals.

Hit up the below post or check out the above demo for more expiration tips, and if you’re looking for more ways to test your food’s freshness, check out previously mentioned tool StillTasty.

I don't know about you, but every other week we go through the fridge and wonder what needs to be thrown away, playing the guessing (or sniffing) game with everything. The table of condiments—made to look just like a periodic table from chemistry class—tells you the shelf life of those bottles in your fridge. Did you know taco sauce can stay good for 2 years, or pickles last for 6 months? Use a permanent marker to write the date you bought the bottle, and you'll no longer have to play guesswork with your food.

Readers should note that the page itself has a big disclaimer about the accuracy, and the table was meant to be a bit of fun so you'll want to exercise a bit of caution—but we've looked through the list and it seems to be fairly accurate, even a little conservative in some spots. Beg to differ? Let your fellow readers know where it's wrong in the comments. For a much more detailed and robust tool, check out previously mentioned StillTasty. Thanks, Tamar!

The MSK wizard (as it’s called) can create custom pages with any image or text you want, build an attractive calendar, or make your address book Moleskine-friendly. MSK produces a PDF for whichever page type you're creating that—in theory—you can easily print out onto your Moleskine pages (or maybe onto a page you'd cut out and past into your Moleskine). The webapp is new, and I ran into a few bugs when trying to import events, but overall it's a cool service for the serious Moleskine junkie. It's too bad Moleskine doesn't offer an option to print the pages and incorporate them directly into the book for you when you buy it, but we can dream, can't we?

The application was created by reader Greg Todd, who wrote the application for his own use—but decided to release it for the rest of us to enjoy. Using the application is simple—just enter in your Google account information, click the Download button to get your list of calendars, and then select the ones you want to display. The only small issue is that Windows Vista users will need to select a different sound file in the options panel since the default one doesn’t exist on Vista—a small price to pay for an excellent application that bridges the gap between Google Calendar and your Windows desktop. Thanks, Greg!

GMinder is free and open source, available for Windows only. Google Desktop users can also check out the powerful Google Calendar gadget, and readers using Firefox should check out our own Better GCal extension.