Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on July 20, 2007 by CyberNet.

Yesterday Opera Watch “tagged” me so that I would write about 5 things that could make Opera better. This is kind of like a game, and since I can normally come up with a list of improvements for nearly any application, I thought it would be kind of fun. The key is that I have to tag 5 people at the end of this article so that the cycle continues.

The problem that I had was coming up with just five. Now don’t get me wrong, Opera is a great browser and I use it on a daily basis, but that doesn’t mean I can’t point out the areas they could improve on or excel in. Since the Opera team is so willing to listen to user suggestions I thought that I would give my top 5 recommendations, as well as all of the other things that I think they can do to make their browser stand out even more.

Here are my top 5:

1. Inline spell checking – Firefox has it, IE has it (with IE7Pro installed), and it is the first complaint that I always hear when people try Opera…”where’s the spell checking?” Opera has to get this feature soon because it is something power-users have become addicted to because of Firefox. Come on…this is the hottest thing since sliced bread!
2. Online bookmark syncing – Let’s face it, the web is a social place these days. Bookmark management is frequently done online with services like Google Bookmarks, Del.icio.us, and many others but, Opera doesn’t offer support for any of those. They need to develop some sort of bookmarks API so that users can create bookmark add-ons that work with the various services.
3. Better looking default theme – You know, I have yet to see a truly amazing browser theme that knocks my socks off. I think Opera can do it, and if I had to say which theme I think is the best out of all the browsers I think I would give that to Internet Explorer 7…especially running under Vista with the sweet transparency. Opera needs to rework their current theme, and maybe even throw in some Vista pizzazz by adding some of the cool transparent effects. You only have one chance to make a first impression!
4. New notifier – I actually think there should be a toolbar item available that is dedicated purely to notifications. That way users can choose where they want it to appear (since Opera does a great job of letting you customize the positioning and appearance of toolbars and toolbar items). Instead of having sliders, you could have notification balloons. It would be like having a System Tray for your browser…how cool would that be?
5. Toolbar/sidebar for widgets – Opera does support widgets but to use them right now isn’t really convenient. What they need to do is create some sort of sidebar or toolbar where people can dock their widgets. A good example of where this would be useful is with the weather. The docked widget could show the current weather, and then it will expand to the fullsize version if you hover over it or click on it…kinda like how the Vista sidebar works for some of the gadgets.

And then here’s my “not so important” wishlist:

1. An updater – I just don’t like having to re-download the entire browser for a simple update.
2. Better support for Greasemonkey scripts – People complain about Opera not supporting extensions, but I really don’t think that they need to. You can do a lot with Greasemonkey scripts, and Opera does a great job of supporting most of them. The ones that are really loaded up with features though seem to flop in Opera and don’t do a thing, so I think they could add some better Greasemonkey support or come up with an online converter to possibly fix (or point out) where the issues are.
3. Opera syncer – Synchronize my bookmarks, passwords, widgets, tabs, form data, and almost my entire Opera profile with a service that Opera sets up. That way I can keep all of my Opera profiles in sync.
4. Bookmark tagging – Folders are nice for bookmarks, but tagging support would also be pretty cool. Of course, I would still want the ability to structure my bookmarks into folders.
5. More site-specific settings – There are a lot of URL-specific and site-specific settings that you can adjust by pressing F12, but why can I not change the default font or zoom amount from that configuration screen?
6. Hide the Menu Bar – Internet Explorer 7 ditched the Menu Bar, and did it in a nice way. I think Opera can do the same (or offer it as an option) so that I don’t have to get an “Opera Button” to do it for me.
7. Duplicate bookmarks – If I’ve already bookmarked a site Opera should notify me. I’ve got hundreds of bookmarks and I’m sure that there are quite a few duplicates in the mix.
8. Select multiple tabs – It would be awesome if I could Ctrl+click or Shift+click on tabs to select multiple ones at the same time. Then I could rearrange the selected tabs all at once or even close them.
9. Right-click menu customizer – The only way to customize the right-click menu in Opera is to alter an INI file. There should be an easier interface for doing this. People probably wouldn’t use this often, but I’m sure they would use it.
10. Google gadget support – There are a lot of cool Google gadgets that I would like to use as widgets, such as the one for Google Talk.
11. Refresh bookmark favicons – The ability to refresh all of the favicons for my bookmarks with just a single click. It seems like a lot of my bookmarks don’t even have icons yet.
12. RSS reader support – Opera has the built-in RSS reader, but I don’t use it. They need to make it easy to subscribe to feeds using an external reader much like how Firefox does it.
13. Better developer tools – This is very much a lacking area for Opera…but I’ve heard that help is already on the way in an upcoming version.

It may seem like I’m picking on a lot of different areas that Opera is lacking, but there is one thing that you’ll notice isn’t on the list…performance! Opera brings down the house when it comes to performance even though it is already very feature-packed. I think that there are a few areas that they can improve on, and some unique features that they can throw in to lure some new users over from other browsers. After all, if users are willing to switch to the Firefox browser what’s to say they wouldn’t also be willing to switch to another browser like Opera?

–Who I’m Tagging–

So according to the rules I’m supposed to tag 5 people who will write about the top 5 things that they would like to see in Opera. Then they repeat the cycle, and it essentially becomes like one of those chain letters you receive in an email.

So who am I tagging? Well, one thing that Daniel really stressed in his article was that they want to hear some feedback from people who don’t use Opera as their default browser. I’m not exactly sure what browser everyone is using, but I do know some Firefox fans that I thought I would throw in. So without further ado here are the 5 people I am tagging:

1. Kyle from Kyle’s Cove – He’s an enthusiast when it comes to technology, and I’m sure he can come up with some good suggestions.
2. Firefox Extension Guru – He’s really on top of Mozilla-related browsers, so he would know some things Firefox users would like to see.
3. Percy Cabello from Mozilla Links – If Mozilla has done it, he has written about it. Maybe he wouldn’t mind throwing in his Opera feedback!
4. Brad Linder from Download Squad – He writes about all kinds of technology news and software, so this should be a natural thing for him.
5. Pieter De Decker from the Offtopic Blog – He’s written several Linux-related pieces here on CyberNet, and I’m sure Opera would love to hear what a dedicated Linux user thinks would make the browser better.

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on March 20, 2008 by CyberNet.

Tutorial Thursday

One of the things that I’ve come to realize with using a computer is that you can never have too many ways to launch an application. The Quick Launch bar is probably one of the most famous ways of doing so, and I’ve seen people who have a Quick Launch bar that takes up more than 50% of the Taskbar. Crazy, I know.

Did you know that you can add toolbars, such as Quick Launch, to your desktop? You can, and it’s actually rather nice because you can have it dock to one side of the screen or even float around on your desktop. And why stop at just using it for Quick Launch? We’ll show you how you can add any folder to a floating or docked toolbar on your desktop!

–Add a Toolbar–

Create a new folder on your desktop (or using an existing one) and drag it to one of the sides of your screen. Windows will automatically turn it into a toolbar which we will further customize in a minute:

–Moving the Toolbar–

If you don’t like the fact that the toolbar eats up so much room you have two options available. The first is to right-click on the toolbar and set it to automatically hide. This will force the toolbar to only appear when your mouse hits the edge of the screen where it is located.

The alternate method, and the one that I prefer, is to drag the toolbar off the side of the screen so that it is no longer docked. I actually didn’t realize that this was possible until just a few days ago when one of my friends told me about it. To do it you need to click on the edge/border of the toolbar with your mouse (not on the portion where you resize it), and then drag it into the middle of the desktop. This diagram shows exactly where you need to click:

Even though the toolbar looks like a window it doesn’t actually show up in the Taskbar, and so you don’t have to worry about there being additional clutter.

–Customize the Toolbar–

Now that you have the toolbar positioned where you want it lets make it useful. If you right-click anywhere in the toolbar you can go to the Toolbars menu to select any pre-made toolbars, such as the Quick Launch one. That’s right, you can have all of your Quick Launch icons show up on your desktop instead of or in addition to the Taskbar!You can also use the New Toolbar option to browse for a folder on your computer to be added.

In the end here’s what my toolbar looked like after removing the “New Folder” that we temporarily added, I put the Quick Launch on there, and I browsed for the “My Computer” folder on my machine:

I normally remove the Show Title and Show Text features (located in the right-click menu) since both of those will consume quite a bit of room on your toolbar. You can also change the size of the icons (I’m using large ones in the screenshot above).

By adding the “My Computer” folder I have quick access to all of the drives on my computer, including USB drives that I might add and remove quite frequently. If there is too much to show in any of the toolbars there will be a small arrow along the bottom to display a flyout menu for the rest of the contents.

Pretty cool, huh?

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on July 13, 2012 by CyberNet.

I’m not a huge fan of Adobe Air apps as I have stated countless times in the past, but it seems as though some of the best Twitter clients are all powered by it. The one I am talking about this time around is called DestroyTwitter, and while the interface looks extremely simplistic there are actually a fair number of options that you can customize. Even the theme selection that’s available is impressive given how well each of them were thought out (including ones made specifically for Reddit, Facebook, and Vimeo fans).

if you’re just going off my screenshot above you might be thinking that this is a single-column interface, but you’d only partially be right. You can get to the other columns (Mentions, Search, and Messages) by clicking the appropriate tabs, or you can make the window wider and as it expands those sections will each start to come into view. For most monitors if you made the app full screen you should have no problems viewing all four columns at the same time.

Here is a rundown of some of the other features as highlighted by the developer:

• Powerful and Lightweight
  DestroyTwitter packs in a ton of features while leaving an unbelievably small footprint. How does memory usage as low as 25mb sound? What about an installer under 1mb?
• Filter the Noise
  Tired of reading where your friends are? Filter Foursquare/Gowalla and you’re good to go. Someone on a tweeting spree at an event? Filter them or the event’s hashtag. 
• Auto-Complete Usernames
  Anyone who can remember all of their friends’ usernames deserves a trophy. Lucky for you, you only need to know the first few letters.
• Preferences Galore
  Font too small? Try medium or large. Don’t like icons? Get rid of them. Hate the notification sound? Choose from the five others. Need to read 200 tweets every 30 seconds? Done. 

DestroyTwitter Homepage (Windows/Mac/Linux; Freeware)

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on January 03, 2012 by CyberNet.

I know a bunch of people who customize the appearance of their desktop, but many don’t know that Windows 7 supports themes that rotate between desktop backgrounds and automatically adjusts the color of the Aero interface. The thing most users don’t know is that Microsoft actually has a site that offers Windows 7 themes. The themes are broken up into various categories including holidays/seasons, landscapes, automotive, and much more. In all there are about 180 available including a theme for Angry Birds.

If you’re running an older version of Windows that doesn’t support themes you can always jump on over to Microsoft’s desktop background page that includes over 200 high-quality backgrounds you can grab. Many of them are really amazing and are definitely worth browsing if you haven’t done so already.

Browse Windows 7 Themes
Browse Desktop Backgrounds

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com

This article was written on August 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

Time Saving Tuesday

Could you imagine using a computer without having shortcuts? Probably not, and that’s why shortcuts play an important part in how we use our computers. Now what if there was a way to manage your shortcuts in a way that gives you the fastest access possible to all of the apps you use the most? 8Start is exactly that and more…

I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of application launchers before, but I promise that this one is different. Its goal is to put all of your favorite shortcuts at your fingertips.

–Using 8Start (Windows only)–

It took me about 15-minutes to get used to how 8Start works, and so I thought it would be important to explain a few things first. The three most frequently used terms are categories, groups, and buttons. Here are definitions for each (using the picture to the right as an example).

• A button is an icon, which is what you would expect. You can customize the size of the buttons just about any way that you want.
• A group is a collection of several buttons. In my example screenshot, “Browser” and “Games” are considered to be two groups.
• A category is a collection of groups, and they almost feel like tabs to me. In my example screenshot “General” is the selected category which contains the groups “Browser” and “Games”. Then “CyberNet” is another category that I could switch to, and therefore expose more shortcuts.

After I had that figured out, it took no time at all to setup 8Start the way that I wanted it. One of the best things is that you can configure a keyboard hotkey or mouse shortcut that launches your 8Start. Anytime that you bring up the program, it is displayed underneath the mouse, and that is the reason why this is so great. It minimizes the distance that you have to move your mouse to open your favorite applications.

Here are a few more screenshots of different categories that I created with smaller buttons:

–Adding Buttons–

Creating and arranging buttons in 8Start isn’t quite as easy as dragging and dropping stuff around, but it is still pretty convenient. The configuration screen has all of the tools that you need to create categories, groups, and buttons:

It’s also easy to add some of your Internet Explorer favorites to 8Start. I wish they offered the option to use Firefox bookmarks as well, but I’m not one to complain. 🙂

Once you get familiar with how the organizer works, you’ll probably be able to step up to the file explorer view. This is where you can drag and drop shortcuts from anywhere onto your computer and organize them yourself into the proper structure. If you have a ton of shortcuts that you want to organize, this method will be a lot easier:

When using the file explorer view, don’t get confused by the numbering scheme that 8Start uses, because all you have to do is drag-and-drop shortcuts into the proper folder. Then when you’re all done just hit the “Apply” button back on the Organizer. 8Start will automatically name the files in the correct format, and you don’t have to do a thing.

–Customizing Buttons–

You can customize just one button, a group of buttons, or all the buttons in an entire category. 8Start offers a great interface for picking the size and layout of the button(s), so that if you want the text to go along with the icon that is a piece of cake:

–Configuring Settings–

There aren’t many settings to configure, but there are enough to satisfy most power users. You can do things like create a keyboard hotkey to use the middle mouse button for launching 8Start. Perhaps the best thing, however, is that you can choose which of your drives you want to show the remaining hard drive space for.

–Change Skins–

Lastly, there are a variety of skins available for 8Start so that you can make it fit well with the look of Windows. I went through most of the skins, but I found myself going back to the default because of its simplicity and classy look.

–Overall–

I haven’t been using 8Start very long, but I’m already getting it worked into my routine. It’s one of those apps that you have to remember to use, and after a little while it will become second nature.

If it becomes hard to use computers that don’t have 8Start installed, don’t worry, you can have it installed to a Flash drive and it will use relative paths to point to all of the shortcuts. So you can even use this as an application launcher for all of your portable apps!

8Start Homepage

Copyright © 2014 CyberNetNews.com