Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 07, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

One of my favorite additions to the Firefox 3 browser (currently in Beta) are Smart Bookmarks. There’s a good chance that you’ve played with things in other applications that are similar to Smart Bookmarks. For example, iTunes (and many other media players) have what are referred to as Smart Playlists. These are playlists that automatically assemble themselves based on specific criteria, such as the “most played” and “recently added” media. Smart Bookmarks are very similar since they can show you things like your most visited bookmarks or your recently added bookmarks:

Just a few weeks ago we showed you how to quickly restore the default Smart Bookmarks that come with the browser, but did you know that it’s also possible to make your own? Thanks to the new bookmarks backend that Mozilla has implemented it’s actually pretty easy for you to create your own Smart Bookmarks once you understand how they work. An extension will inevitably come along that makes this a no-brainer, but it will take you no time to catch on to manually creating them.

The first thing we’re going to do is show you the steps needed to create a new Smart Bookmark, and then we’re going to give you an overview of the query syntax you’ll want to use to take things up a notch.

–Creating a Smart Bookmark–

There are a few different ways that you can create a Smart Bookmark, but I’m going to show you the one that I believe is the easiest.

1. Open up the Bookmarks Organizer by going to the Bookmarks Menu, and click the Organize Bookmarks option.
   
2. Click the Organize Menu and choose the New Bookmark option:
   
3. Now you need to type in whatever name you would like for the Smart Bookmark. In the location field, however, is where you will insert the specialized “URL” which we’ll cover in the next section. This screenshot shows an example location that will return the top 10 bookmarks you visit the most:
   
4. The Smart Bookmark that you just created should now be visible in the Bookmark Organizer, and you can place it wherever you would like. The content will dynamically change based on the criteria that you specified in the previous step.
   

–Smart Bookmarks Queries–

In Step 3 above you were told to insert a specialized URL into the location field of the bookmark. This is really the thing that differentiates a Smart Bookmark from a regular bookmark. Each location field for a Smart Bookmark will start with “place:” followed by a few parameters that tell the bookmark what its contents should contain. You’ll also notice that each parameter is separated by an ampersand (&).

Want some examples? Here are a few to get your creative juices flowing:

• 10 Most Visited Sites:
  place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=10
• 10 Most Recent Bookmarks:
  place:queryType=1&sort=12&maxResults=10
• 15 Most Visited Bookmarks:
  place:queryType=1&sort=8&maxResults=15
• 10 Most Visited Sites with “CyberNet” in them:
  place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=10&terms=cybernet
• 5 Most Visited Sites at the cybernetnews.com Domain:
  place:queryType=0&sort=8&maxResults=5&domain=cybernetnews.com

Looking at some of those examples there is a good chance that you picked up on how the queries work. Over at the Mozilla forum they have begun assembling a rather comprehensive list of parameters that you can use with the queries, but there are quite a few that most of you won’t use when creating these manually. Here are some of the more useful ones that I used in the examples above, along with a brief description of the values that go with them:

• sort – This is used in all of the examples above, and this is what determines the order in which the bookmarks are sorted. A majority of the examples I gave use a sort value of “8″, which organizes the results according to the largest visit count first. Here are all the values that you can use with it:
  • 0 – Natural bookmark order
  • 1 – Sort by title, A-Z
  • 2 – Sort by title, Z-A
  • 3 – Sort by visit date, most recent last
  • 4 – Sort by visit date, most recent first
  • 5 – Sort by uri, A-Z
  • 6 – Sort by uri, Z-A
  • 7 – Sort by visit count, ascending
  • 8 – Sort by visit count, descending
  • 9 – Sort by keyword, A-Z
  • 10 – Sort by keyword, Z-A
  • 11 – Sort by date added, most recent last
  • 12 – Sort by date added, most recent first
  • 13 – Sort by last modified date, most recent last
  • 14 – Sort by last modified date, most recent first
  • 17 – Sort by tags, ascending
  • 18 – Sort by tags, descending
  • 19 – Sort by annotation, ascending
  • 20 – Sort by annotation, descending
• queryType – This is also used in all of the examples above. It’s used to specify whether you want to search the History (a.k.a. sites you’ve visited), Bookmarks, or both.
  • 0 – Searches only your History
  • 1 – Searches only your Bookmarks
  • 2 – Searches both your History and Bookmarks
• maxResults – Use this to specify how many results you want returned.
  • 0 – Return all results
  • 1 to ?? – Any number besides “0″ will indicate the number of results you want returned
• domain – Specify the domain of a site, such as “cybernetnews.com” as seen in the example above.
• terms – Word(s) that you want to search for. From what I gather it searches most areas of your sites/bookmarks including the title.

The different parameters that I just covered are only a small amount of what’s actually available, but they are the ones that have proven to be the most useful to me. If you get overly ambitious you can checkout the full selection.

–Overview–

It’s inevitable that there will be an extension that makes it easier to configure these Smart Bookmarks, but it’s actually not that hard to manually create them. Although it could get tedious if you wanted to make a bunch of them.

Now we would like to turn things over to you. Let us know in the comments what kind of concoctions you come up with so that more of us can benefit from your infinite wisdom!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Restore Firefox 3 Smart BookmarksYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummarySpace Saving Extension for Firefox Bookmark Toolbar UsersYour Week in Review with Sunday’s SummaryHelpful Tip: Recover Lost Bookmarks in Firefox 3

This article was written on May 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

Last year on May 31st we saw Google push Google Gears out the door, their open source browser extension project. One of their goals with the project was to provide a way for web applications to interact naturally with your desktop. More recently they decided to drop the “Google” part of the name and just go by “Gears” so that people realize that it’s for everyone to get involved with. People have accepted Gears well because it does offer amazing functionality and now Yahoo wants to do something similar with new software called Yahoo! BrowserPlus.

Like Gears, Yahoo says that Yahoo! BrowserPlus was designed to extend the capabilities of your web browser, “to make richer web experiences possible.” What they mean by this is that they want people to be able to drag and drop from their desktop to their browser. They want to make uploading files easier, and more efficient, and they say they want to “secure acquisition of feeds and information, and native desktop functions.” Sounds similar to Gears, doesn’t it?

Now we know that Gears has allowed web applications to come offline, so does this mean that Yahoo! will eventually use BrowserPlus to enable web apps to come offline? They could, and they’d be smart if they did. What both Google and Yahoo (and others) are trying to do is bridge the browser and the desktop together so that they don’t feel completely separate. Yahoo mentioned that they’d like to be able to support native desktop notifications which would be so nice – an example of how this could be used is with email. Say you have a Yahoo Mail account. When you received a new email message in your inbox, you would be able to receive a notification on your desktop saying so.

At this point Yahoo says that because it’s just a “Sneak Peek”, you can only run BrowserPlus on sites operated by Yahoo! or its partners, but once they’ve received some feedback and improve the software, they’ll open it up. They currently support Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac Leopard, and Mac Tiger (Intel only). It’ll definitely be interesting to see what kinds of web applications developers are able to come up with, that take advantage of Yahoo! BrowserPlus and have desktop capabilities.

To see BrowserPlus in action, checkout the Demos page where you can see how it’s used in a Photo Uploader for Flickr so that users can drag, crop, rotate, tag, and upload photos to Flickr from a web page. Two other demos are available (an IRC Client, and a JSON Inspector) as well.

Source: Webware

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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Ever wondered what the World Wide Web’s illustrious history would look like if plotted in timeline form? Well, thanks to Google’s “Evolution of the web,” you won’t have to. The delectable chart traces the evolution of HTML, the web technologies that came alongside it and the browsers that’ve held it all together — all in a seriously meta HTML5 package. Ready for a trip down memory lane? Hit the source, friend, and revel at how far we’ve come.

Visualized: an interactive timeline of the web originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 20:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Evolution of the Web  | Email this | Comments

This article was written on June 12, 2008 by CyberNet.

Earlier this year we posted some mockups of the Firefox Mobile that looked a lot like the Safari browser does on the iPhone. I think everyone expected other companies to copy their interface since Apple has received a lot of praise for their browser being “usable,” but it looks like Mozilla is finally making use of the recently hired Aza Raskin who’s well known for Enso (review) and Songza (review).

Aza put together a demo video that shows off a direction Mozilla might be taking with Firefox Mobile, and it not only looks nice but is also different from how the iPhone operates. One thing that they really focused on doing was utilizing the entire screen on a mobile device, after all there’s normally not a lot to work with. For that reason there’s essentially no visible buttons most of the time, and instead they are tucked away on the sides of the screen. Watch the video to see what I mean:

The new tab system is pretty cool, huh? They were definitely clever with how they designed that, and anyone that’s used any sort of mobile browser before would probably agree that being able to organize your tabs in this way would be extremely helpful.

I’m still wondering if hiding the buttons off to the side is the best way to go. For example, when scrolling vertically on my iPhone it can sometimes be difficult to scroll perfectly up and down. With a browser like this I would probably be showing the menu a lot more than I’d like to when all I want to do is move around the current page.

What still amazes me is that the mobile browsers still haven’t attempted some kind of gesture system for navigating, just like mouse gestures on a regular computer. You’ll obviously still need to have some sort of buttons available, but throwing in four or five gestures could possibly account for a majority of the things a user wants to do (back, forward, bookmark, new tab, etc…).

Is this the mobile browser you’ve been waiting for?

Read more about the new design at Aza’s blog [via Lifehacker]
Thanks to “Googler” for the tip!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on September 28, 2009 by CyberNet.

Welcome to the WrapUp by CyberNet. This is a collection of news stories, downloads, and tips that we have collected over the last few days, but never got around to writing about. Don’t forget to send in your own tips, or just leave a comment on this page if you think you’ve got something we should include.

–News–

Another Browser Migrates to WebKit
The WebKit rendering engine is on a roll. Safari started the whole thing, and then Google Chrome thought it would be good to use, then just recently Maxthon followed up with support, and now Epiphany. Sure, Epiphany may not be the most popular browser since it’s Linux-only, but that’s besides the point. What this shows is a growing trend of browsers migrating over to WebKit, which could prove to be a positive thing for users. If WebKit is established as a common rendering engine we may start to see an increasing number of sites making sure they work well with it. We might finally be able to pick a browser based upon the features it offers instead of whether it can display sites properly.

Phoenix BIOS Boots PC in Seconds
Phoenix has developed a BIOS that can “POST” in a mere one second, which leads to an overall fast boot time. They used a Lenovo T400s with an SSD, and it was able to reach a useable Windows 7 desktop in just 10-seconds. It’s not quite as fast as resuming from standby, but this can make having to restart your PC much less painful. I look forward to seeing this available in the future.

Dropbox Hits 2 Million Users; 1 Million Active
I have to admit that Dropbox is one of my favorite services. The main reason I like it so much is the fact that they offer 2GB of online storage that can be used to keep all the files I upload in sync across all my machines regardless of the OS. I was actually surprised to see that they only have 1 million active users… they definitely deserve more than that.

–News in Brief–

Wii Price Cut Available on Amazon
Amazon is already showing the price cut on the Wii, bringing it down to $199. To top it off they are also throwing in a $25 Amazon gift card with it.

Microsoft’s New Prototype “Wall”
Want a glimpse of the future? Here’s a new video put out by Microsoft demonstrating yet again what our offices may look like tomorrow. And by tomorrow I mean 50 years from now.

Firefox 3.6 Provides Tools for Better Support
Mozilla is adding an about:support to their browser that will give the users details about their Firefox setup that can be provided when they are in search of support.

DirectX 10.1 vs. DirectX 11
The difference between these two versions of DirectX doesn’t appear to be that great, but it might be more significant at higher resolutions.

Hide Read Labels in Gmail
A new Labs feature in Gmail will let you show only those labels that have unread items.

Video Interview with Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer sits down with TechCrunch and talks about Yahoo, Zune, and more.

FeedDemon 3.0 Released
The final version of FeedDemon has made it out the door, and is complete with Google Reader synchronization.

Microsoft’s Tablet… the Courier?
Rumors are that Microsoft is working on on a new kind of tablet PC that could be pretty amazing if the “leaked” image ends up being real.

Google Taps into IE with Chrome Frame
A plugin for Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 offered by Google lets web pages render with Chrome.

Picasa 3.5 Gets Name Tags and More
The new version of Picasa can identify the people in your photos, and will also let you geotag them.

Push Gmail for the iPhone and Windows Mobile
Both iPhone and Windows Mobile users can receive push email notifications if they’re using Gmail thanks to the new Exchange/ActiveSync support.

Netflix Makes Out Like a Bandit with their $1 Million Competition
We’ve covered the Netflix $1 million competition before, and we may see other companies following their lead. It’s said that if you look at everyone involved in the competition that Netflix was getting “Ph.D.’s for a dollar an hour.”

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Auto Shutdown Firefox and More
I’ve seen extensions to shutdown Firefox after your downloads are done, but this one is rather unique. How so? First off it can integrate with the popular DownThemAll extension. Second, you can specify command line operations you want executed before your computer shuts down. Now that’s impressive.

GIMP is Getting Single-Window Mode
If you follow me on Twitter you know how excited I was last week when it was announced that the next version of GIMP would include a single-window mode. That’s right. Should you choose to you’ll no longer have windows floating all over the place. Not only that but the new version will also have several other great improvements that actually make me excited for the next release.

XPize Polishes Up XP
If you’re still holding off on upgrading your copy of XP then maybe you should consider giving it some new life with XPize. It updates a lot of the icons so that they are much more modern, and comes bundled with some themes that can even skin your login screen. It’s a completely free way to make your PC feel a bit more up-to-date.

Evernote Beta for Windows Gets a Facelift
I use Evernote all the time to take notes when I’m on the go, at home, or at work. The great thing is that Evernote stays in sync no matter where I’m at, and now the refreshed Windows version has some of the features only the Mac version had. The most prominent example is probably the thumbnail previews that go along with the awesome three-pane view.

–Tips in Brief–

How to Try Out Microsoft Office Web Apps
If you’re impatient and want to try out Microsoft Office Web Apps these are the instructions you need to follow.

Top 10 Ways to Get More From a Cameraphone
Here’s a variety of different ways you can use your cameraphone to ensure that it’s put to good use.

Create Beautiful Drawings with Livebrush
Got some artistic talent? This free app will transform that talent into a digital form.

Force IE to Use Chrome Frame
If you really like Chrome Frame you can force IE to always use that to render websites. Or, you know, you could just use Chrome.

CNet Techtracker Checks for Software Updates
Yep, another app that will check for updates to the software you have installed on your computer.

Selectively Block Flash Animations in Chrome
This will block all Flash animation on websites until you explicitly approve them.

Tux Paint: Great Image App for Kids
This is a pretty cool app for kids because it makes it simple for kids to find the various tools they need to draw.

Digsby Gets New Twitter Features
My love for Digsby has diminished a bit, but the new Twitter functionality is pretty cool.

John’s Background Switcher Updated
The new version includes a bunch of features including Google, Yahoo, and Bing image search results.

3 Tools to Manage Virtual Drives
Get some virtual drives hooked up to your PC with these free programs.

–Downloads–

• AIM 7.0.11.2 [Mirror]
• BurnAware Free 2.4 [Mirror]
• Digsby Build 65 ^Beta [Mirror]
• Drupal 6.4 [Mirror]
• FeedDemon 3.0.0.41 [Mirror]
• FileZilla 3.2.8 [Mirror]
• Google Chrome 4.0.213.1 ^Beta [Mirror]
• Google SketchUp 7.1.4871 [Mirror]
• iTunes 9.0.1 [Mirror]
• Mandriva Linux 2010.0 ^RC1 [Mirror]
• Maxthon 3.0.48 ^Alpha [Mirror]
• Maxthon 2.5.9.1883 [Mirror]
• Miranda 0.8.7 [Mirror]
• Notepad++ 5.5.0 [Mirror]
• Opera 10.10.1792 ^Beta [Mirror]
• Paint.NET 3.5 ^{Beta 1} [Mirror]
• Picasa 3.5.79.67 [Mirror]
• RSSOwl 2.0 ^RC1 [Mirror]
• Sandboxie 3.39.20 ^Beta [Mirror]
• Thunderbird 3.0 ^{Beta 4} [Mirror]
• uTorrent 1.8.4.16667 [Mirror]
• uTorrent 2.0.16625 ^Beta [Mirror]
• VLC Media Player 1.0.2 [Mirror]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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