Hasta La Gadget!

This article was written on May 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Google Gears, now known as simply “Gears,” entered the browser scene last year about this time. One of their goals was to provide a way for web applications to interact naturally with the desktop, and provide a way for web applications to come offline. It’s done well over the last year and many people have embraced it. Up until now, those using the Opera web browser were unable to embrace it because support wasn’t offered for it. The good news today coming from Opera is that not only will they support Gears for their desktop browser, they will also be supporting Gears for their mobile browser.

For Opera users, this is pretty big news because previously you had to be using Firefox or Internet Explorer 6 and above to take advantage of Gears. And of course not only will this be available for desktop users, but mobile users as well which is huge. In the official Press Release from Opera, CEO Jon von Tetzchner says,

The forthcoming Opera Mobile 9.5 with Gears will usher in a new era for the Web on mobile devices. Together, these products will create new ways to bring applications to life on mobile devices. Developers will be able to use this along with Opera Dragonfly to develop and debug compelling applications for any connected environment.

As someone who is a fan of Opera, it’s great to see that they are looking for opportunities to extend the browser. People love Opera Mobile in particular, because it’s stable and works great. When you pair the two together (Opera Mobile with Gears), it makes for a great combination, but when you pair both Opera Mobile and the Opera Desktop version together with Gears, it makes for an even better combination.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on November 12, 2007 by CyberNet.

As expected Google released their Android Software Development Kit (SDK) today. It provides all of the tools needed to start creating applications that run on the next generation mobile operating system, and Google is getting their checkbooks out to help ensure that Android won’t be a flop…

–The $10 Million Contest–

Google has caught the attention of developers around the world by announcing a $10 million contest that will be awarded to some of the best Android applications. The money will be distributed equally between two Android Developer Challenges:

• Android Developer Challenge I: Submissions from January 2 through March 3, 2008
• Android Developer Challenge II: This part will launch after the first handsets built on the platform become available in the second half of 2008

In the Android Developer Challenge I, the 50 most promising entries received by March 3 will each receive a $25,000 award to fund further development. Those selected will then be eligible for even greater recognition via ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.

–Android Screenshots–

These are screenshots of Android running on what looks to be a Blackberry-like device:

(Click to Enlarge)

–Touch Screen Android Screenshots–

Android includes an iPhone-style browser that is Webkit-based. It provides a browsing experience similar to what you would expect from a desktop computer. You can zoom in and out of the websites at your own leisure, and it even includes a website history browser that appears to be a sibling of the iTunes Cover Flow:

(Click to Enlarge)

–The Video–

Finally, here is the video that Google provided with live demonstrations of both the regular and touch screen uses of Android:

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on January 23, 2008 by CyberNet.

Web Browser Wednesday

There was a lot of excitement when we wrote about the Greasemonkey script that could be used to switch between multiple Gmail accounts. At that time Thilak commented about a Firefox extension that basically accomplished the same task. With it you create user profiles that you can switch between, and it uses a different set of cookies for each of the profiles.

Since most sites store session information in cookies this is a good method for switching between multiple accounts, whether it be for email, shopping, or just about anything. That’s when it hit me that you can manipulate cookies using JavaScript as well, and I figured there had to be a way to create a bookmarklet to do almost the same thing as the extension.

Before we dive into the bookmarklet lets take a look at the Firefox extension more in depth:

–Firefox Extension–

The extension is called CookieSwap, and once installed you can create multiple profiles that can be used to manage different identities from around the web. They are all controlled from the Status Bar where you can select which identity you want to use.

This is great for switching between multiple email accounts without needing to login to each one, as well as making it easier for several different people to all use the same browser. For example, each person in your family could have their own profile, and then each of them wouldn’t have to constantly bother with logging in and out of websites.

The good news is that all of your information is stored in a cookie, which ensures that no one can see your password in plaintext. Well, that’s at least the case for sites that are designed properly.

One downside that I’ve found to using this is that there’s no way to restrict the cookie swapping to a particular site. The first time you create a new profile you’ll start with a blank slate, and you’ll need to go login to all the sites you want enabled for that particular profile. So it may not be the optimum solution if all you want to do is switch between several different accounts on one particular site.

–Bookmarklet–

Huh?: A bookmarklet is a small JavaScript program that can be stored as a URL within a bookmark in most popular web browsers, or within hyperlinks on a web page.

We figured there had to be a way to create a bookmarklet to swap between cookies as well, but on a per site basis. As always we didn’t want to reinvent the wheel if we didn’t have to, so we searched around to see what we could find. Jesse Ruderman came to the rescue with a bookmarklet that he wrote to transfer cookies from one browser to another. We took that bookmarklet, modified it a bit, and created something that we think you’ll enjoy.

Here’s how it works. First you’ll need to drag this link into your bookmarks, or right-click on it and select the bookmark option:

Backup Cookies

Now head on over to the site you want to “backup” the cookies for. Click on the bookmarklet you just created, and you should see something like this:

Bookmarking that will store your existing cookies for that site in the form of a bookmarklet. To restore the particular cookies for the site just run that bookmarklet.

Important: You must be on the site corresponding to the bookmarklet before running it. Otherwise your the cookies will not be updated. For example, if you backed up your Yahoo! cookies make sure you are on the Yahoo! website before running the bookmarklet.

In the example pictured above I was logged into Yahoo!, I ran the “Backup Cookies” bookmarklet to save my existing cookies. I was then able to logout of Yahoo! and run the new bookmarklet to restore all of my login credentials. It’s really that simple.

It’s pretty cool how something as simple as cookies can be used to restore your login status, but it’s something you also want to be careful with. Doing this would also mean that if the information ended up in the wrong hands that it could do some severe damage. For security reasons I recommend that you be especially cautious if you synchronize your bookmarks with a third-party online service.

Hat tip to Thilak for pointing out the Firefox Extension!

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on June 19, 2008 by CyberNet.

Apple has good reason to celebrate today after iTunes reached its five billion songs sold milestone. Five billion songs is a lot if you think about it. To put it into perspective, here are a few examples involving the number five billion…

• Five billion seconds translates out to about 158.5 years
• Five billion minutes translates out to about 9,505 years
• Five billion feet translates out to about 946,969 miles
• Five billion pints translates out to about 625,000,000 gallons
• As of June 2008, the world’s population is estimated to be just under 6.7 billion, which means the number of songs downloaded from iTunes isn’t THAT far off from the World’s population

What’s interesting to note is that in early 2008, over 4 billion songs had been sold when they were celebrating their 5th birthday. If they’ve already reached over five billion, they’ve experienced quite a bit of growth over the last several months.

Aside from celebrating the five billion songs milestone, Apple is also celebrating the fact that they rent and sell over 50,000 movies each day. Clearly they sell more songs than they do movies, but that’ an area where there is plenty of room to grow. We have yet to try out iTunes for renting or buying movies, but those who do seem to be satisfied.

Congrats to Apple and iTunes. 7 years ago when iTunes first launched, who would have thought that it would have become so popular? Five Billion is definitely a big milestone and helps explain why it is that they are the largest music retailer in the United States.

Apple Press Release

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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This article was written on January 10, 2008 by CyberNet.

I’ll give you a heads up that this extension is really just for those of you who heavily use the built-in Firefox search box. The Organize Search Engines extension will help remove some of the clutter from the search box drop-down menu.

How it works is rather simple. From the drop-down list you select the Manage Search Engines where you will be presented with a window to reorder the sites you currently have setup (on the left side of the screenshot above). In addition to being able to reorder the sites, you’ll also be able to create new folders to organize your search engines. Once done the end result will be a less cluttered menu of search engines (on the right side of the screenshot above).

This isn’t something that I would actually use myself because I hardly use that search box as it is. I have keywords setup so that I can always use the address bar to do my searching. How many of you actually use the browser’s built-in search box for searching a variety of sites?

Download the Organize Search Engines extension [via How-To Geek]

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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