Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on June 04, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

With the Firefox 3 release right around the corner I thought this would be a good time to look over the extensions available, and see which ones haven’t been updated. There’s actually a descent amount that still need to be updated before they will work with the final release, but if you look around many have pre-release versions that they are getting ready to roll out.

So what we’ve got for you today are instructions on downloading/installing extensions that aren’t officially compatible, a list of extensions that currently have Beta versions that work with Firefox 3, and finally a few extensions that already appear to be extinct. The lists are by no means comprehensive, but I also figured that everyone can chime in below with your own findings.

–Forcing Compatibility–

Using the trick we’re about to show you it’s possible to bypass any compatibility checking, which means you’ll be able to install (not necessarily run) any extension. This is obviously not recommended for everyone, and you should only use this as a last-ditch effort.

1. In the Address Bar type about:config followed by the Enter key. Continue through the warning message if it’s shown.
2. Right-click in the main area, and select New -> Boolean
   
3. Enter extensions.checkCompatibility into the box that appears, and click the OK button.
   
4. Then choose false in the next window.
5. Now you can install any extension, but remember that they are not guaranteed to work. I’ve seemed to have pretty good results with this though.

One problem that you might notice is that when you go to install an extension that’s not compatible with your version of Firefox the “Add to Firefox” button will be grayed out. This is quickly remedied by going to the “All Versions” page, and you’ll find a link to that following the description of the add-on:

Once on that page you can download the most recent version of the add-on without the site checking what version of Firefox you’re running, but you’ll need to follow the steps outlined above before being able to actually install it.

–Currently in Development–

I know that some of you are waiting for certain extensions to get upgraded before you’ll make the jump to Firefox 3, and so I’ve assembled a list of eight rather popular ones that will definitely have new versions coming out. Each of these already have a pre-release version publicly available, which may persuade you to make the switch a little early.

• Sage [Homepage]
  This is the much beloved RSS feed reader, but it hasn’t been updated since January 2007. Someone else has begun reworking it to make it play nice with Firefox 3, and the new version can be downloaded here.
• FEBE [Homepage]
  You can use this to backup your extensions, and for some people it’s a rather critical extension to have. They are currently working on the next milestone release, and the Beta version is available which works with Firefox 3.
• FireFTP [Homepage]
  Ever want to have an FTP client in your browser? With FireFTP you can, but you’ll need to download the preview release if you want Firefox 3 compatibility.
• FoxyTunes [Homepage]
  Controlling your media player has never been so easy, but Firefox 3 users were starting to get worried that this add-on wasn’t going to be updated. Despite not having released a new version in almost a year they do have FoxyTunes 3 Beta publicly available, which includes Firefox 3 support.
• Firebug [Homepage]
  Most web developers absolutely love this extension, and the good news is that a version for Firefox 3 is right around the corner. If you’re a bit anxious you can hop on over and download Firebug 1.2 Beta.
• ColorfulTabs [Homepage]
  Make your tabs more identifiable with this extension, and Firefox 3 users will find a Beta version here.
• Tab Mix Plus [Homepage]
  It’s safe to say that this is the all-in-one solution for anything you want to do with tabs. And work for a Firefox 3 version is always going on.
• Smart Bookmarks Bar [Homepage]
  Save some room on the Bookmarks toolbar by only showing icons. The latest release, available from here, is compatible with Firefox 3.

–All Good Things Must Come to an End–

There are a handful of extensions that I have come across which you shouldn’t hold out too much hope for. These three look like they will become extinct:

• VideoDownloader [Homepage]
  With this extension you can download videos from 60+ movie sites, but it has been kicked back into the “experimental” stage (meaning you’ll need a Mozilla account to download it) even though it has an astounding 13 million downloads. It would likely be one of the most downloaded extensions right now, but it hasn’t seen an update in nearly 2 years. So don’t get your hopes up for this one.
• MinimizeToTray [Homepage]
  A lot of people are going to be disappointed to hear that the MinimizeToTray extension doesn’t work with Firefox 3, and it doesn’t look like there are any plans to fix it. The last update was in October 2006 just in time for Firefox 2, and there’s been no mention of a new version being worked on. Yikes!
• Tab Groups [Homepage]
  This project didn’t last very long, and that’s disappointing because it’s an extension that I really enjoyed. It’s only had one release, and there’s no sign that the developer is still working on it.

–Overview–

And now we turn the keyboard over to you, our trusty readers. Let us know in the comments below which extensions you’re holding out for, and which ones have pre-release versions that you’ve been tinkering with.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on March 02, 2007 by CyberNet.

I’m not sure how I missed it, but on Wednesday Opera revealed a new “speed dial” feature that is currently available in their latest weekly release (thanks to XPGeek in our forum for pointing this out!). It’s actually been two-weeks since Opera announced that they were going to offer a unique feature in the next release, but they didn’t want to say what it was. After reading about the Speed Dial feature I felt like I had to give it a try because it sounded really nice.

The whole point of Opera Speed Dial is to make visiting your favorite 9 websites as easy as possible. Instead of opening a blank tab Opera will always show your Speed Dial sites along with corresponding thumbnails (pictured above). That way you can always see what is going on with your favorite sites.

Once you startup the latest weekly build of the browser you need to create a new tab to adjust your Speed Dial sites. Then you can click on any of the blank numbers and select a website from the list of your most frequently visited, or if it’s not listed you can manually enter in a URL. If that still isn’t easy enough for you then maybe you’ll want to drag an open tab onto a Speed Dial slot, which also happens to work.

After you get all of the slots filled that you want to, there are some things you should know that can help you out. First, you can remove any of the thumbnails by right-clicking on them and selecting “Delete” or by pressing the “X” in the upper-right corner. The next thing that you’ll probably find useful is refreshing the thumbnails, and you can refresh all of them by pressing Ctrl+R when viewing the Speed Dial page (you’ll see all of the pages as they load which is super cool). A specific Speed Dial site can be reloaded by right-clicking on the thumbnail and selecting the “Refresh” option.

Opera Speed Dial isn’t just about the thumbnails though, just like a phone you can instantly access your phone numbers thanks to the speed dial feature. To do this in Opera you can press Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 to open the corresponding site. I really like having keyboard shortcuts for my favorite sites.

One last thing that I wanted to mention about the new feature is that the search box located above your Speed Dial sites is used the same way as the search box located in the browser. It does not search the content of the sites that are in your Speed Dial list, but is there merely because the most common thing people do when creating a new tab is perform a search. Since Opera has teamed up with Yahoo! on this feature the search box is set to their search service by default, but it can always be changed in the search settings:

While I’m really impressed with this feature, I think the Opera team can take it one step further. They should let users right-click on a folder of bookmarks and have all of those bookmarks shown as thumbnails in a tab similar to Speed Dial. I would also like to see a feature implemented where Opera actually monitors the content of specified Speed Dial sites to notify you when a site has been updated, and then highlighting that thumbnail in the Speed Dial site. Those are the two ideas that initially popped into my head that would make it even more useful for me, but I’m sure most people will like the feature just the way it is.

Don’t be surprised if a Firefox extension emerges that does the same kind of thing.

Download the latest weekly release of Opera

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

Related Posts:

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We’re expecting to see plenty of new features crop up for folks that have rooted their new Nook WiFi, but it looks like those not willing to go that far can still expand their options a little bit. As it happens, the new Nook has an experimental web browser of its own, which you can access simply by typing a URL into the search bar. Of course, Barnes & Noble has likely kept this feature under wraps for a reason, as actually browsing the web using it seems to be somewhat hit and miss — see for yourself in the video after the break courtesy of The eBook Reader.

Continue reading Web browser found hiding in latest Nook, no root required (video)

Web browser found hiding in latest Nook, no root required (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 09 Jun 2011 13:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink CNET  |  The eBook Reader  | Email this | Comments

The latest version of a Chrome browser may not be quite the event it once was since Google switched to a six-week release schedule, but the company seems to be plenty pleased with the just-released Chrome 12 nonetheless, which it’s dubbed “safer and snazzier.” That’s because the browser now boasts a number of new measures to prevent malware and phishing attempts (and give you more control over data stored on your computer), as well as support for hardware accelerated 3D CSS, which will let you try out things like Aardman Studio’s “Shaun the Sheep” HTML5 experiment pictured above (and linked below). And if you’re reading this in Chrome, chances are your browser has already updated itself.

[Thanks, Christoff]

Google rolls out ‘safer and snazzier’ Chrome 12 web browser originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Chrome Blog, Chrome Experiments  | Email this | Comments

With Google’s fleet of Chromebooks making their way to market, Mozilla Labs has decided to release a similarly browser-based desktop interface, known as the Webian Shell. As of now, the prototype app consists of a screen-encompassing web browser, which essentially replaces your desktop interface. There’s an address bar running across the top of the screen, a clock in the bottom right corner, and a tab button for all your web apps. Developed as part of the company’s Mozilla Chromeless project, the tool was written entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and, unlike Chrome OS, is designed to run on top of existing operating systems, rather than replace them. For now, the Shell is still in an early phase of development, looks pretty spartan and can’t control a system’s hardware. Mozilla, however, says it has plans to incorporate multiple home screens, split screen views and an on-screen keyboard, among other features. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users can download the Shell now, from the source link. Otherwise, you can just head past the break to see a brief demo video.

Continue reading Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)

Mozilla’s Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Digitizor  |  Webian.org  | Email this | Comments