Feb 02

WrapUp: iOS Style Scrollbar in Chrome, AirPlay for Windows Media Center, and More

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on May 30, 2011 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–

Google walletGoogle Wallet Coming to Your Phone
Google will be turning your NFC-equipped phone into a digital wallet that is packed with coupons, membership cards, and credit cards.

 

Amazon mac storeAmazon Launches Mac Download Store
Amazon is now selling Mac software downloads with some titles that even Apple’s own Mac App Store doesn’t have, such as Microsoft Office.

 

Gmail people widgetGmail Will Display Related Contact Information
A new feature that Google is rolling out in Gmail will show information (off to the right of an email) about the contact(s) in the message you’re reading.

 

Youtube homepageYouTube Streams 3 Billion Videos Each Day
As YouTube rolls by their 6-year anniversary they announced that over 3 billion videos are watched every day, and 48-hours of footage is uploaded every minute.

 

Yahoo mail redesignYahoo! Mail Redesign Leaves Beta
Yahoo! Mail has over 277 million users, and they will all get to experience the new interface that marks the first major update in over 5-years.

 

WolframalphaWolframAlpha Adds Medical Information
I am constantly amazed at the amount of information pouring out of WolframAlpha, and last week they announced that medical data has also been added. Now you’ll be able to find out interesting medical stats, such as how many patients suffer from a particular illness each year.

 

Windows phoneMicrosoft Shows Off Features in Windows Phone Mango Update
According to Microsoft there will be “hundreds of new features” coming in the new Windows Phone Mango update due out later this Fall. Some of the features include IE9, multitasking, threaded conversations, and speech-to-text support.

 

DropboxDropbox Crosses 100 Billion File Mark
Dropbox hit a huge milestone with over 100 billion files having been saved by their service, and another 300 million being added every day.

 

Square ipadSquare Launches iPad App
Square’s new iPad app gives users the ability to accept credit card payments using a powerful register-like application.

 

–Tips, Tutorials, and Reviews–

Chrome scrollbariOS Style Scrollbar in Google Chrome
This awesome extension will shrink the size of the scrollbar in Chrome, and does it for both the main reading area as well as any scrollable areas inside the page.

 

Firefox formsSubmit Forms to New Tabs in Firefox
With the TabSubmit Firefox extension you can submit forms in a way that a new page is opened up. When is this useful? I’d use it when doing searches on a site or in a forum so that the search results page opens up in a new tab.

 

Evernote chrome extensionEvernote Extension for Chrome Updated
The new Evernote Chrome extension has added the ability to auto-detect the body of an article making it easier to clip only the content.

 

Airplay media centerAirPlay for Windows Media Center
With the help of this free addon users can actually stream video directly from their iOS device to any Windows Media Center PC.

 

Audio compressionBulk Convert Audio Files on a Mac
xACT is a free utility that will let you bulk convert over a dozen different types of audio files to the MP3 or AAC format on your Mac.

 

Fly or driveCompare the Cost of Driving vs. Flying
The Fly or Drive Calculator is a great way to determine whether it is more cost effective for you to drive or fly to your destination.

 

–Downloads–

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Oct 19

Why the CyberSearch Extension has been Discontinued

Posted in: Today's Chili

This article was written on March 22, 2011 by CyberNet.

cybersearch_fulllogo.png

I’ve been getting at least a dozen emails a day asking when the CyberSearch extension would be getting updated for Firefox 4, but I have some bad news for everyone. Our extension was made possible thanks to Google’s Web Search API, but they deprecated it back in November 2010 in favor of a new JSON Custom Search API. From a developer’s point of view this kind of thing happens all the time… old technologies are replaced with new technologies. Generally these improvements are for the better, but in this case they put some restrictions in place for anyone using the new API:

Usage is free for all users, up to 100 queries per day. […] Any usage beyond the free usage quota will fail if you are not signed up for billing. Once you have enabled billing, you will be billed for all requests at the rate of $5 per 1000 queries, for up to 10,000 queries per day. If you need additional quota, please request additional quota from the console.

The CyberSearch extension basically performs a query every time you pause for a second while typing in the Firefox address bar. I’d estimate that the 100-query limit they are imposing will be hit by our extension every second given that there are over 80k daily users. So it would likely cost us thousands of dollars a day to keep this running… assuming Google would even approve a rate limit as high as what we’d need. Since we don’t make any money off the extension you can see how that isn’t really feasible.

So why is CyberSearch still (intermittently) working for some people? Google’s blog post from last November says that they are in the process of phasing out the older APIs, and as a result they are “tightening up the enforcement of the rate limits” as time goes on. Unfortunately that means you will likely see the extension inconsistently working, and that has been the root cause of 99% of bug reports being submitted to us. In my tests about half of all requests being made would return an error saying the extension exceeded the rate limit quota.

Thanks to everyone who provided support and troubleshooting during the development of CyberSearch! It was a fun ride, but unless Google changes their policy this will have to be the end of the road.

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

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