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What lenses are available for Unity?
If the lens has (a) scope(s) remember to add them to your answer as well.
136 Answers
12 NextAsk Ubuntu
A lens to search and interact with Ask Ubuntu.
Instructions:
0Dash-based Calculator
The scope works using GCalctool – the default calculator installed in Ubuntu. With such a robust backend the scope is capable of handling most basic mathematic operators and requests such as ‘+’, ‘-’, ‘%’, ‘sin’, ‘pi’, etc.
Currently still in testing
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-utilities unity-scope-calculatorMore Information @ OMG! Ubuntu
Bugs should be reported @ with the term [calculator] placed at the beginning of the subject line.
4Google Books
A lens to search books and authors on Google Books.
Instructions
Pirate Bay Scope & Torrent Lens
The technology itself is perfectly legal, but it has been debated if its implementation in connection with copyrighted material or otherwise illegal material makes the issuer of the bittorrent file, as opposed to the copyrighted material itself, liable as an accomplice or infringer.
Allows you to search torrents without opening a browser, and allows drag and drop to transmission for downloading. You can also filter by torrent type (music, video, ect.) and size.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-scope-piratebay python-lxmlMore information found at OMG! Ubuntu
For information as to what a Torrent is, take a look at this question.
Ubuntu Cities Scope
Gets you a Map, the time, temperature and wind-speed in almost any city in the world for you in the dash.
Temperature is in Celsius and Fahrenheit and wind-speed is in kilometers/hour and miles/hour.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-utilities unity-scope-citiesMore on this scope at OMG! Ubuntu and OMG! Ubuntu Update
Recoll Lens
Recoll is a full text search desktop tool which indexes the contents of many file formats including OpenOffice, MS Office, PostScript, MP3 and other audio files, JPEG and more. Besides regular searches, Recoll also lets you perform some advanced operations like searching for the author, file size, file format as well as operators like "AND" or "OR".
Unity Recoll Lens lets you use Recoll from Dash, without having to open any additional GUI. The lens comes with a few filters like Text, Spreadsheet, Presentation, Media or Message, but for more advanced searches, you'll have to manually enter the Recoll search query. Examples: author:"john doe" metallica OR megadeth /2007 (all documents from 2007 or older) dir:/path/to/dir (filters content from /path/to/dir directory).
Installation
Unity Recoll Lens is available in the Recoll backports PPA. To add the PPA and install Unity Recoll Lens, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:recoll-backports/recoll-1.15-on sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install recoll-lens recollOnce installed, you'll have to start the Recoll GUI (just search for Recoll in Dash) and let it index your files. Once it finishes, log out, then log back in and you should see a new Recoll search lens. The Recoll search results don't show up just on the Recoll lens but also on the home Dash, when performing a global search.
2Wikipedia Lens
The Wikipedia Lens is pretty self-explanatory: it allows you to search Wikipedia for various articles.
Instructions
This lens is available in a PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.10, and can be installed using these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-wikipediaYouTube Scope & Lens
Allows you to search and filter YouTube videos from the Dash. Now opens video in VLC (if installed as well).
You can configure
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/lenses
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install yavol scope-youtubeOnce both elements have been installed you will need to log out and back in before they show up.
You can configure viewer or to download with yavol-youtube-configurator:
Read more at OMG! Ubuntu
1Unity Music Lens for 11.04
"Unity Music Lens uses Zeitgeist to search for music played on your computer and displays it in a Unity Lens."
Starting in Ubuntu 11.10, the Music Lens also lets you search the Ubuntu One Music Store.
Instructions
For Ubuntu 11.04, run the following in a terminal (source):
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-music-lensThe Music Lens comes preinstalled in Ubuntu 11.10 and later.
3Web Sources Lens
This lens lets you perform a web search from your desktop without having to open a separate browser first. You type in your search terms and select which "source" you want to use to search with.
Instructions
Add ppa:cscarney/unity-web-place to your Software Sources, then run in a terminal:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-place-websearch
(Source)
Google Docs Lens
The Google Docs Unity Lens can be used to search in all your Google Docs files, open them in a browser and sort your documents by various criteria such as file type or ownership.
Instructions
It can be installed from the Web Upd8 main PPA. Installation:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gdocsYou need to enter your password manually. Just do:
gksu gedit /usr/bin/unity-lens-gdocs.py And enter your password then run the lens:
unity-lens-gdocs.py
setsid unityAdult Lens & Porn Scope
It should go without saying that in-order to use the lens you must be of legal age within your country or province.
The following ‘Adult Lens and Scope’ set which lets you search, filter and watch adult videos directly from the Ubuntu desktop.
The lens is accessible by clicking on the ‘X’ icon in the bottom row of icons in the Dash.
You can enter search terms to find specific videos and/or use the variety of filters to help narrow down your searches or interests.
Installing
The lens and scope are available to install from a dedicated ‘Adult’ PPA.
From OMG! Ubuntu
1Reddit Lens
As described by a post on WebUpd8:
A Reddit user has created a cool Unity Lens for Reddit (a website where you can find what's new and popular on the web with a very active Linux section). By default it displays /r/linux, /r/ubuntu, /r/iama and of course, the main stories.
The search field for the Unity Reddit Lens is basically a filter for Reddit categories so if for instance you want to see the top stories in the /r/technology category, search for "technology"...
Instructions
Unity Graphic Design lens
Unity Graphic Design lens is a specialized tool, aimed towards designers, acting as a global place that can easily offer various resources needed for design, all in the comfort of the Dash.
The lens comes with four scopes:
Designs gather data from Dribbble, website also known as Twitter for designers (here you can abundantly find various images suited for a wide range of tastes and needs)
Palettes, 1-click adds color pallets to GIMP/Inkscape
Icons opens the vast iconfinder's icon collection to get an icon, click on it (it will open in your default web-browser)
Brushes scope brings deviantart into the lens
Add the following official PPA (Oneiric, Precise)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-graphicdesign unity-scope-colourlovers unity-scope-deviantart unity-scope-dribbble unity-scope-iconfinderThen log out and back into have it activated. Read more about this at iloveubuntu.net
Gwibber Lens for Unity
Gwibber Lens for Unity lets you to search, view and access posts, replies, messages and even images posted on your favorite social networking applications.
Instructions
Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04 LTS
Click to install: unity-lens-gwibber
Ubuntu 11.04
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gwibber-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-gwibber(source)
Unity DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo is a search engine that provides a clean interface together with a no-tracking privacy policy. It uses information from crowd-sourced sites (such as Wikipedia) to augment traditional results and improve relevance. The search engine policy emphasizes privacy and does not record user information. With users free from being profiled, this search method effectively breaks out of "the filter bubble" so that all users are given the same search results, not a set that has been tailored (filtered) to what the engine thinks the individual user wants to see.
With Unity DuckDuckGo you can search DuckDuckGo from Ubuntu Dash.
Instructions
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:w-vollprecht/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install duckduckgo-lensLog out or reboot!
1Tomboy Lens
The Tomboy Lens provides a number of basic features.
The Lens itself presents a note-only overview of your saved notes for easy launching, along with a ‘New Note’ entry for the creation of new notes.
The search bar within the Lens lets you search through the contents of all of your notes so you can whittle down and find whatever it is you’re after.
Add to your software sources:
ppa:More information found at OMG! Ubuntu.
Unity Calendar Lens
Allows you to easily search and access your calendar. Unity Calendar lens categorizes its events in Recent and Upcoming, events filterable by Personal and Birthdays & Anniversaries.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-calendar-lensIf you want to use Unity Calendar lens with Thunderbird install Lightning extension
sudo apt-get install xul-ext-lightningMore information found at iloveubuntu.net.
1Unity Dictionary Lens
The Ubuntu Dictionary is an Unity Launcher plugin that allows you to find the meanings and definitions of words directly from the Unity Dash, using the GNOME Dictionary tool.
To install the Unity Dictionary Lens plugin in your Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating system, open a terminal window (hit the CTRL+ALT+T key combination) and paste the following commands (one by one, hitting Enter after each one):
Instruction
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y unity-dictionary-lensYou will also need to restart your session after the installation. Be aware that this is only available for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin).
(SOURCE)
1Unity Web History lens: Firefox and Chrome History in Unity Dash
Source: iloveubuntu.com
Browsing the web is a daily activity, where thousands and thousands of webpages are visited, helping us to obtain informations related to subjects of interest, downloading packages, etc.
Unity Web History lens gathers, categorizes and displays one's visited webpages in the Dash, allowing users to easily access visited webpages by simply typing a word and opening (by clicking on it) the desired item.
Taking advantage of the fancy card view, the Web History lens displays its items with per-website-icon, title and link, consequently, the user easily identifies with increased accuracy the relevant items.
Unity Web History lens organizes the searched&found item in proper categories, like Recently Visited Websites, Most Popular Websites, but, if no words are typed in the search area, only the Firefox Bookmarks are exposed, thus presenting itself with a clean initial look that pulls the required data only on demand and, in the same time, presents the immediate option to access the bookmarks without any typing action.
In order to gather data, the History lens needs scopes/sources, without scopes, the lens offers only Firefox's bookmarks, without an actual web history and, so, reducing its utility.
In the same PPA, it is available a packaged Zeitgeist Firefox datasource, that, once installed, pushes the Firefox's web history into the lens (no further tweaks or separate packages needed), transforming Unity Web History lens into a full-fledged powerful tool to access one's desired websites at a press of a button, remembrance-aware, enhanced time endurance, proper exposing, etc.
Furthermore, as a handy addition, Chromium/Chrome's web-history can be displayed into the lens, by simply installing its Zeitgeist plugin, available in the Chrome Web Store.
A definitely interesting aspect of the mentioned lens is its ability to log and display the downloaded items, too, meaning, downloading the package unity-5.12.tar.bz2 from launchpad via Firefox web-browser, logs and displays the package unity-5.12.tar.bz2 just like a website but, clicking on it, opens the archive with Ubuntu's Archive Manager, as when opened from the usual desktop/Nautilus folder.
How do we use Unity Web History lens 0.4? Open the lens and type a word, then click on a relevant searched&found item, action that will open it via Firefox, furthermore, in order to trigger more accurate results, the user is to use the available filters (Last Day, Last Week, Last Month, Last Year).
How do we install Unity Web History lens 0.4? Add the following official PPA (Precise, Quantal)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-web-history-lens zeitgeist-datasource-firefoxand restart the computer.
Bugs can be reported on
Cooking Lens
Searching for offline and online recipe's from unity has never been easier.
- Current support for:
PLEASE NOTE:
I have to remove the support for following sites, due to "copyright violation":
- Cooksunited.co.uk (Recipes website for the UK, about 13,000 recipes)
- Chefkoch.de (Recipes website for Germany, about 200,000 recipes)
- Cooksunited.nl (Recipes website for the Netherlands, about 2,825 recipes)
Use an older software package to still use these sites.
Install it from the Scope Packers PPA
Click to install, if ppa added: unity-lens-cooking
PS: I wrote it my self. I hope you enjoy it. You can visit the project on Launchpad for more info.
SSHSearch-Lens
This lens parses the ~/.ssh/config and ~/.ssh/known_hosts file to simple start the gnome-terminal and open a ssh connection with the fitting host-name and/or user.
If you would like to search in the known_hosts file you should disable hostname hashing in /etc/ssh/ssh_config (HashKnownHosts no). Otherwise this lens only uses ~/.ssh/config to find possible host-names.
Installing
The lens is available to install from the ‘Scopes Packagers’ PPA.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-sshsearchFeatures and examples could be found in the README file.
0Unity Bliss Lens
This lens puts applications into category folders in the dash, similar to the old GNOME 2 Applications menu categories.
According to Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen (the lens' creator) from this OMG! Ubuntu article:
“This is a very simple implementation of an apps lens for Unity. It can be used as a replacement for the default apps lens if you want something simpler, or it can be used as a solid starting point for writing your own lens.
Bliss is by no means official or anything. It is a quick hack to showcase how you can go about this, mostly intended for developers who want to do their own thing. That is also why you wont find a PPA for it (not from me at least)”
Instructions for installation:
- Download the package from by clicking the green button on the right side of the page.
- Extract the package into your home folder.
Run the following in a terminal:
cd unity-lens-bliss-0.1.3 ./configure –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc make sudo make installLog out and back in to see it in the Dash.
(Adapted from this answer.)
Spotify scope
Spotify scope adds extra resources to Ubuntu's default Unity Music lens, displaying Spotify songs when a particular item is searched.
Spotify scope depends on spotify-client-qt, tool that must be installed before the scope.
A definitely interesting innovation about the above mentioned scope is the marking of its items, meaning one can easily differentiate between songs provided by Banshee and Spotify's, the latter featuring a Spotify symbolic icons.
The usage is simple, properly oriented towards its corespondent application, meaning, playing a Spotify song is as simple as clicking on it (the item will be opened via the Spotify client).
Install
First, install the Spotify client (download the package and install it via Ubuntu Software Center).
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-scope-spotifyActive the scope by logging out and then logging back in.
Information from iloveubuntu.net
1Grooveshark Lens
The Grooveshark Scope can be installed in Ubuntu 11.10 by adding the following PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppaThen install the scope:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-scope-groovesharkUnity News Lens
With Unity News Lens you can do Google News searches from Dash. It shows news in the language that is currently default in your system, but you can read news in other languages too.
Instructions
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install unity-lens-newsLog out or reboot to have it working!
Unity Binary Clock
This unconventional lens displays the time in binary format. Just add up the orange dots and you get your current time.
Add the following official PPA (Oneiric, Precise)
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:markjtully/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-binaryclock-lensRead more about it at iloveubuntu.net
Pidgin Lens
The Ubuntu Pidgin Lens is a very useful Unity Launcher plugin that allows users to search and interact with their Pidgin contacts (buddies).
Instructions
This lens is available in a PPA for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.10, and can be installed using these commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install unity-lens-pidginFind The Perfect Time to Stargaze
To help make the planning of stargazing activities from specific locations easier a new Unity lens has been created by developer David Turner.
With a click or a button press you are able to preview location visibility data from the Clear Dark Sky website without the need to open your browser and head to the website.
Clear Dark Sky claim to offer ‘the most accurate and most usable forecasters of astronomical observing conditions’ in North America.
What Can it Do
Getting data on a location is straightforward: just open the lens and enter a location.
If numerical weather charts are supported in your queried region you will see two sets of results returned:
- ‘Clear Sky Chart’ tiles
- Current and next day night-time weather conditions
Clicking on either or the result tiles opens your default browser on the relevant cleardarksky.com page. Download
The Clear Dark Sky lens is distributed as a .Deb installer and can be downloaded from the project’s Launchpad page @
Academic Lens
The new version (for Quantal and Raring only) is available in the 100 Scopes PPA. Install as follows:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:scopes-packagers/ppa sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install unity-lens-academic unity-scope-pubmed unity-scope-scholar unity-scope-zotero unity-scope-jstor unity-scope-sciencedirectSource: Mark Tully on Google+
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