Skip to Content

Free TUAW iPhone app -- try it now!
AOL Tech

Add-On posts

Filed under: Utilities, P2P

How do you download torrentless torrents? Use Magnetiser for Firefox

Want to download torrents without downloading a .torrent file first? You can do it with Magnet links, which are supported in a bunch of major torrent clients, including uTorrent and Vuze (formerly known as Azureus). Instead of using a .torrent file, the magnet protocol uses DHT and the torrent's hash, so you've essentially got a torrentless torrent. Magnet links can be tricky to find, but a new Firefox add-on called Magnetiser lets you pull them from Torrentz or isoHunt.

With Magnetiser installed, go to any torrent detail page and click the "magnetise" button in your toolbar. You should be prompted to pick a torrent client that supports magnet links, and then your download will start. As TorrentFreak points out, this is pretty cool when a .torrent file has been removed, but Torrentz or isoHunt still have the hash data. You can add trackers to Magnetise manually, but it comes preloaded with the most commonly-used trackers, so it should work right out of the box.

Magnetise isn't up on the Mozilla add-on index yet, but TorrentFreak has linked to the .xpi file, which you can download and drag to Firefox to install.


[via TorrentFreak]

Filed under: Social Software, Humor

Thumbs down! Firefox users can now "dislike" posts on Facebook

You might have seen the various petitions on Facebook to add a "dislike" feature to the site, to complement the "like" option in the News Feed. Well, Facebook hasn't listened. However, if you're a Firefox user, you can add a thumbs-down feature to FB with (what else?) a Facebook Dislike add-on.

It sounds kind of silly to keep track of your own dislikes, but it turns out that the extension feeds them into a database, so they'll be visible to anyone else who has it installed. The dislikes blend in seamlessly with the Facebook News Feed, appearing right below regular likes. It looks as if the members of those pro-dislike Facebook groups should be downloading Firefox and checking this extension out.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Productivity, Browsers

Make your Firefox more like Google Chrome with Pin Tabs

One of the slick visual elements of Google's Chrome browser is pin tabs. They're those compact tabs that're only as wide as a favicon, and they save a ton of space in your tab bar. You could point out that Firefox doesn't have this feature, but I'd give you the Firefox fanatic's standard answer: there's an add-on for that! For Chrome-style mini-tabs in Firefox, grab the Pin Tab extension.

Pinning a tab using ctrl-click shrinks it and moves it to the left of your tab bar. A pinned tab is preserved across all sessions, and you can't accidentally upset it using the address bar. If you enter a new URL while a pinned tab is selected, that URL opens in a new tab instead. You can pin tabs by dragging them to the left of the tab bar, and unpin them by dragging them to the right. Pinned tabs save a ton of space, since they're several times smaller than regular ones, so this add-on is ideal for those who have dozens of sites open at once.

[via gHacks]

UPDATE: The developer of this add-on seems to have taken it down for right now.

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity

Tabberwocky is a slick tab management add-on for Firefox

Tired of accidentally closing important tabs in Firefox? Tabberwocky, a useful tab-manager add-on, lets you protect a tab, open a duplicate tab next to the original, and lots more. Tabberwocky can move the 'close tab' button to either side of a tab, highlight unread tabs, retain a tab's history when you open a link in a new tab -- and that's just the beginning! This tiny 25kb add-on has a list of options about a page long.

Tabberwocky's main competition is the popular Tab Mix Plus add-on, which offers very similar features. What Tab Mix plus has that Tabberwocky still doesn't is the session manager, so you can save and restore sets of tabs and windows, even after a crash. Tab Mix plus has been known to slow down Firefox's performance on some systems though, so Tabberwocky might be a lighter alternative to try if you've been having problems with TMP.

[via ghacks]

Filed under: Design, E-mail, Google

Declutter your Gmail setup with Minimalist Gmail

Minimalist Gmail is a Firefox plugin that gives you control over whether to hide or show each part of the Gmail interface. You can take out individual buttons and menus and, yes, even ads. There are Greasemonkey scripts that do similar things, but not every Firefox user has delved into userscripting, so this simple add-on makes a nice alternative.

One of the nicest things about Minimalist Gmail is the way it handles chat. You can hide the chatbox, but as long as you're signed into chat, you'll still see new messages if they come in. If you're using other Gmail skins, Minimalist Gmail might be compatible with those, too. It works with my favorite clean Gmail look, Helvetimail.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: Web services, Google, Social Software

Google Wave gets a notifier add-on for Firefox

That was fast! Google Wave's barely been available for a week, and there's already a Google Wave Notifier extension for Firefox. The notifier sits in your status bar and shows the number of waves with unread messages in your inbox (not the total number of unread messages, mind you). It's small, unobtrusive, and checks for messages at an adjustable interval.

Of course, you can also manually refresh the notifier. Double-clicking it will take you to Wave, so you can deal with those unread messages. It's a pretty basic extension, but it's the first one out of the gate, and Google hasn't released anything official with similar functionality.

Filed under: Productivity

Brief RSS add-on makes Firefox's Live Bookmarks usable

Live Bookmarks in Firefox are a great idea in theory, but in practice they're a clumsy solution for in-browser feed reading. Brief is an add-on that breathes some life into Live Bookmarks with a nice-looking, usable front end. Setting up Brief is a quick and painless process: just install the add-on and point it to a folder full of RSS feeds. A toolbar button and a status bar button (with your unread items count) will automatically appear, and clicking either one pops open the reader.

Brief's not a bad little reader, either. The layout is attractive, and having a reader inside Firefox means you can quickly click through to the full versions of articles. If you're a CSS whiz, you can even customize the Brief's appearance. I recommend turning on the option to open Brief in a new tab. Otherwise, it can quickly become annoying when it loads in your active tab and takes you away from a page you still wanted to look at.

[via InstantFundas]

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity, web 2.0

Juice brings a smart research toolbar to Firefox

Juice is a Firefox add-on that makes it easier to go off on browsing tangents and get more information on things you find on the web, without opening new windows or browser tabs. When you highlight and slightly drag text from webpages, Juice pops open a sidebar that shows you relevant entries from Wikipedia, Amazon.com and more. That way, you never have to leave a tab to look something up. You can also watch videos - and even playlists - in the Juice sidebar.

You can also set Juice as your default search engine in Firefox - or just start Google queries with "juice" - to see your search results in Juice instead of in your main tab. On top of its usefulness as a multitasking tool, Juice also connects with Facebook, so you can share links and media from the sidebar. Unfortunately, Juice doesn't really reveal how it does its magic, and there's no way to add or subtract from the list of sites it searches. Even with a lack of customization, though, you'll love Juice if you hate opening new tabs for quick research tasks.

[via ReadWriteWeb]

Filed under: Utilities, Browsers

Navigate your Firefox history effortlessly with History Tree

History Tree is a (Windows only) Firefox add-on that makes your browser history easier to navigate by displaying it as a tree diagram. It gives you a quick visual layout of the tabs and windows you've opened, and lets you find the page you're looking for even when the browser's back button won't reach that far. You can also switch to a page thumbnail view that makes it easier to find the page you need at a glance.

Like any good history browser, History Tree has a search function, but you might not need to use it. Its information is color-coded according to whether each page is currently open and whether it's accessible via your back button. Each page in the tree is also timestamped, so you can look for pages according to when you last saw them. If there's a page you don't recognize, you can click on the ? button or a thumbnail. If the tree's too cluttered, you can collapse part of it, display just one tab at a time, or set a filter to show only part of your history (only your current open tabs, for example).

[via Ghacks]

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Mozilla's Test Pilot program opens to public

Mozilla Labs has finally finished up work on their Test Pilot program and is now looking for help from Firefox users of all levels. For those of you that don't know, the program is designed to help Mozilla test ideas to continue developing Firefox.

The program was originally announced in January and little was known about it at the time. Mozilla Labs is now ready to get started and today revealed that interested users can now "opt-in" by downloading a special Firefox add-on.

Once you're a member, you will be able to choose what you want to test, whether that means what interests you or what you think needs the most work. It's your call. You're also given the freedom to choose whether you want to submit your results or just test the features for yourself.

The cool thing about the program is it gives average users access Firefox's newest features and user interfaces prior to release. If you want to get a behind the scenes look and help test new features for Firefox, head on over to Mozilla Labs and sign up!

Filed under: E-mail, Mozilla, Browser Tips

Integrated Gmail simplifies the view for minimalists and Google junkies alike

Integrated Gmail
If there's a Gmail equivalent of adding a zillion toolbars to your browser, then I'm the poster boy. I've added so many lab features and gadgets that my Gmail functions rather... differently. But I'm all about simplifying, and the Firefox add-on Integrated Gmail does just that while also giving you a window into more Google services in a top-down view. The pic above shows you "minimalist" mode and is an incredibly slimmed-down version of Gmail, Reader and Calendar. Integrated Gmail also supports custom URLs and Gadgets like Remember the Milk, so you're not just stuck with Google stuff like Picasa, Notebook, etc.

Be aware that this does a lot of fancy Javascript work to make things happen, so a few Labs features will cause conflicts. I had enabled the ability to move nav columns around, which it didn't like. Also, even in settings you'll see Reader, Calendar, etc. So if you're not keen on seeing this in every single screen, you're kinda stuck with it.

That said, if you live in Gmail and you need a simplified dashboard, this is a nice little add-on to Firefox. The developer is asking for $5 donations, which is pretty reasonable for keeping your mind uncluttered.

Filed under: Utilities, Browsers

Yip is a unified notification system for web apps

When a desktop app does something that needs your attention, you know about it because of system-wide notifications. With web apps, on the other hand, it's easy to miss something that happens when your apps are open in another window or tab. Yip aims to solve that problem by offering a unified web app notification system in Firefox.

Yips is a Firefox port of the notification APIs from Fluid and Prism (the two major ways to turn web apps into desktop apps). With the Yip add-on installed, Firefox will display alerts in your browser window for web app events like an incoming message in the popular multi-chat app, Meebo, or a new reply in the Twitter client Filttr. In fact, Yip will work with practically any site that supports either Fluid or Prism notifications.

If you're a Mac user, you get an added bonus: Yip is compatible with Growl, so you can customize it just like any other set of Growl notifications. With the popularity of web apps continuing to rise, it's somewhat amazing that a unified notification system hasn't been implemented at the browser level. Will we see something like Yip as a standard feature?

Filed under: Utilities, Productivity

Foxden divides one browser tab into multiple pages

With the advent of tabbed browsing, almost everyone has multiple sites open in the same browser window. With the Foxden extension for Firefox, you can take things a step further: multiple sites in the same tab. Activating Foxden opens a window with whichever sites you pick, laid out however you want them.

Foxden works really well as a place to check Twitter, Gmail, Tumblr or one of your favorite blogs, all at a glance. Foxden's also not limited to websites: you can also put in the location of a file on your hard drive, like a text file you dump notes into. The setup for Foxden isn't all click and drag: you actually have to do some typing, but it's pretty simple, and there's a straightforward tutorial you can access from the preferences window.

[via Webware]

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Freeware, Browsers

Easier backtracking in Firefox 3 with History Submenus


I don't refer to my browsing history all that often, but there are times when I need to go back and find a particular something that I just can't remember by name. Firefox's default Today/Yesterday/every day this week setup isn't really the tidiest way to go back three or four days, and it's hard to search when you can't recall what to search for.

History Submenus makes the task a bit easier by providing today and the last seven days (by default) as separate menu choices. Its options allow you to specify the number of items to display, including individual entries at the top of the history menu, days to include as submenus, and recently closed tabs.

The add-on also provides quick access restoring tabs and windows from your previous browsing session. Though it's listed as working with Firefox 3-3.1b3, it works fine in more recent (less stable) builds as well.

[via Elite Freeware]

Filed under: Browsers

How to selectively clear Firefox history

Forget about this siteFirefox 3.1 or 3.5 or whatever it's called these days, includes a feature that lets you delete just some information from your web browsing history instead of clearing your entire history file in one fell swoop. All you have to do is open the history section in your bookmark library or in the "most visited" sites section in your browser toolbar, right-click on a site and select "Forget About This Site."

But if you want the same functionality without upgrading to a beta version of Firefox, you can check out the Close 'n forget add-on for Firefox 2 or 3.0.

You can configure Close 'n forget to to remove cookies from a web site when you forget it. And you can even have it delete every page you've visited in a browser tab, which makes the add-on a bit more powerful than the built-in Firefox 3.5 feature.

[via Mozilla Links]

Featured Time Waster

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

View more Time Wasters

Featured Galleries

Defective by Design, London: Protest Pictures
Microsoft Security Essentials
Chromium Pre-Alpha on CrunchBang Linux
Safari 4 Beta
10 Firefox themes that don't suck
IE8 RC1
Download Squad at the Crunchies After-Party
Download Squad at the Crunchies
WordPress 2.7
Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals
Windows 7 Hands On
Comodo Internet Security
Android First-look: Amazon.com MP3 Store
Android First-look: Twitroid
Google Reader Android
Android Hands-On
Twine 1.0
Photoshop Express Beta
Mozilla Birthday Cake
Palm stuff
Adobe Lightroom 1.1

 


Follow us on Twitter!

Flickr Pool

www.flickr.com

More Tech Coverage

AOL Radio

Joystiq

TUAW

Daily Finance

Autoblog

Urlesque

Engadget

WoW

Switched.com

FanHouse