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Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla Jetpack contest winner harnesses GPU power to process data

by Lee Mathews Nov 6th 2009

Mozilla Labs has announced a winner of the Jetpack .5 contest. While Jetpack is known primarily as a framework for allowing coders with a web development background to put together add-on type enhancements for Firefox, the winner 's project wasn't your run-of-the-mill sidebar hack.

Alex Miltsev's submission was jetpack-to-CUDA, and it provides Jetpack developers with a simple way to offload intense processing tasks to GPUs. CUDA (demo video above) is NVidia's parallel computing architecture - and with CUDA-capable chips in more than 100 million PCs, Miltsev's handiwork could enable some seriously cool (and powerful) Jetpack add-ons to be developed.

The runners up (not to take anything away from them) were much more standard Jetpack offerings - a Google Translate extension, link shortener and sharer, and Twitter client.

Kudos to Miltssev for his creative entry! Here's hoping we see some truly awesome things in future versions of Firefox and Jetpack as a result.

Tags: add-ons, addons, cuda, extensions, firefox, jetpack

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers

Embed a (very) basic Twitter client in Google Chrome with the ChromedBird extension

by Lee Mathews Nov 5th 2009

Hot on the heels of my roundup of 15+ great extensions for Google Chrome, I've already found some more that deserve to be mentioned. First on the list: ChromedBird.

You probably guessed from the name, but yes, it's a minimal Twitter client which you can access from Chrome's main toolbar. It hides inside a little birdie button until you want to check your stream or post an update.

ChromedBird displays the last 5 tweets in your stream and allows you to post updates - and that's it. Links you paste into your updates are automatically shortened using bit.ly. Sure, it's a pretty stripped-down Twitter experience, but it's still nice to have close at hand when browsing with Chrome.

ChromeBird is a little buggy, but it's a very early build. I'll turn a blind eye, since we only get extension support in somewhat buggy dev builds (click here to download) of Chrome (or Chromium) right now anyway.

You can find the ChromedBird .crx over at ChromeExtensions.

Tags: .crx, chromium, dev channel, DevChannel, extensions, google chrome, GoogleChrome, twitter

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers

Customizing Chromium with Userscripts gets way easier in nightly build

by Lee Mathews Nov 4th 2009

You won't notice this change in Google Chrome just yet, even if you're running the developer channel. But if you happen to be one of the intrepid souls who routinely download and roll the dice on Chromium nightly builds, you've now got a much easier way to install Userscripts.

In past releases, you had to manually save Userscripts into your Chromium (or Chrome) Userdata\Default folder. Not any more! Now, all you have to do is click on the .js download link for any Userscript. Once saved, Chromium automatically converts the script to a Chrome Extension.

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Tags: chromium, extensions, google chrome, GoogleChrome, userscripts

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Filed under: Features, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Google, Browsers, Lists

15+ great Google Chrome extensions

WindowsMacLinuxby Lee Mathews Nov 2nd 2009

We've already mentioned other ways to power up Google Chrome. Before extensions arrived on the developer channel, Userscripts and bookmarklets were your only options. Both are still great ways to add some kick-ass functionality to Chrome. If you're running the stable or beta builds, you may want to stick to them for now.
Now, onto the extensions!

If you have a favorite that I left off, feel free to share it in the comments!
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Tags: add-ons, bookmarklets, browser, browsers, chrome-4, chromium, developer-channel, extensions, features, google chrome, google-chrome, GoogleChrome, lists, productivity, UserScripts, utilities

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Filed under: Security, Beta, Browsers

Web of Trust (WOT) extension now available for Google Chrome

by Lee Mathews Oct 8th 2009

It's starting, people. Big name browser addon developers are starting to show Google Chrome some love. So far, we've seen AdSweep, RoboForm, LastPass (a personal favorite), and a few others.

Web of Trust is now onboard as well, announcing the release of their extension today. I've written about WOT before -- it's a great addition for anyone wanting a bit of added security and safety when they browse. It's listed in my 6 Windows tools to prevent PC problems on your own and 14 useful Firefox addons.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with WOT, it's a kind of community-powered rating service. Users submit trust, privacy, reliability, and child safety scores for sites they visit. When you browse a site that's in the WOT database, you'll see the result of those ratings in easy-to-understand color coding. Green is good, red is bad, yellow means exercise caution.

If you happen on a particularly bad site, WOT will block it completely and display an alert page instead and give you the choice to bail out or disregard the warning and continue.

The WOT .crx extension for Chrome can be downloaded from the Wiki, though it's a bit hidden in all the text. Here's a direct download link to make things easier for you. Like other recent extensions, you'll need to be running Chrome's developer channel build to use WOT.

Tags: crx, extensions, google-chrome, privacy, ratings, security, trust, web-of-trust, web-safety, wot

Filed under: Utilities, Mozilla, P2P, Browsers

MediaFire pees on Skipscreen's boots, seeks to ban Firefox add-on

by Lee Mathews Oct 7th 2009

When I wrote about Skipscreen back in April, I figured it was probably the kind of add-on that someone, somewhere wouldn't like. Possibly the free hosting providers whose roadblocks Skipscreen is designed to circumvent.

Fast forward to today, and that's exactly the case. MediaFire has decided that Mozilla needs to remove the add-on from its directory immediately, citing violations of the MediaFire TOS. Skipscreen hijacks bandwidth, they say. It acts like a robot/spider/retrieval app -- which we forbid, they say. It reformats our web pages without our consent, they say.

The last claim I find particularly weak. Why? By their logic, if you've designed a MediaFire CSS remix and posted it to Userstyles.org, that makes you a nasty little thug.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has already penned a response on Skipscreen's behalf, spelling out in great detail how the add-on functions within MediaFire's rules. Technically, anyway. Whether or not the letter wins Mozilla's favor remains to be seen.

Both the takedown request and EFF response have been posted on Skipscreen's blog - have a look, and share your thoughts in the comments!

On a deliciously ironic note, Skipscreen supporters have decided to strike back by uploading copies of the Firefox addon to MediaFire servers. I see what you did there.

Tags: downloader, extensions, firefox-addon, mediafire, rapidshare, skipscreen

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Chrome gets a real extension manager in dev channel build

by Lee Mathews Sep 30th 2009


While it's not quite as "pretty" as the add-on manager built in to Firefox, at least it's there. Yes, Google Chrome has a built-in extension manager - for those of you running the developer channel build.

To access the page, just head to the wrench menu or type chrome://extensions in the omnibar and hit enter. Chrome (or Chromium) will display a list of all your installed extensions (yes, LastPass an alpha out for testing and you can read about it here on Download Squad). Any extension can be disabled, uninstalled, or reloaded (presumably in the event one decides to crash like a Sea King helicopter).

It's definitely nice to see a full-featured extension interface appear in Chrome. Now all we have to do is wait for developers to port over some of our favorite Firefox add-ons - or create some killer new ones.

Tags: chrome, chromium, crx, dev-channel, developer, extensions, google, google-chrome

Filed under: Security, Google, Beta, Browsers

LastPass extension for Google Chrome now available, and it rocks

by Lee Mathews Sep 30th 2009

A number of Download Squad readers have been echoing the same sentiment in recent posts about Google's browser: as soon as LastPass is available, we're leaving Firefox for good.

Well, gang, grab your parachutes, it's time to bail! The LastPass crew has released an alpha version of their Google Chrome extension, and it rocks. Check out the screens after the break!

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Tags: 1password, add-ons, chrome, chromium, extensions, google, google-chrome, lastpass, password, password-manager, roboform

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Beta, Browsers

Extensions now enabled by default in Google Chrome dev channel, now where are they?

by Lee Mathews Sep 10th 2009


Did Google just take the next step in making extensions play a more interesting role in Google Chrome? Possibly, but at least now we can trim our command line switches down a little.
Those of you running Chrome's bleeding-edge developer channel builds can now drop the --enable-extensions switch. They're now supported by default.

Of course, that assumes you've bothered to enable them in the first place. After using Chrome almost exclusively for about a month, I found that I had amassed a nice collection of Userscripts and bookmarklets but had yet to find a truly interesting extension. XMarks is getting close, and the LastPass team is also hard at work.

New updates to the developer documents have also been published, so perhaps that will help things take off.

At any rate, it's the "first step in [the] launch process," according to Chromium developer Aaron Boodman. Next stop: the beta channel.

Aaron's blog post also indicates that the UI may change by the time the jump to beta happens. That'd be nice, because the puffy, light-blue bar at the bottom of the browser window? It's not going to win any UI beauty contests.

Tags: add-ons, chromium, dev channel, DevChannel, extensions, google-chrome

Filed under: Utilities, Web services, Browsers

Greasemonkey to Firefox add-on converter: why bother?

by Jay Hathaway Sep 2nd 2009

Firefox users love their extensions, and Greasemonkey is one of the coolest. The ability to run Userscripts that change the appearance of virtually any webpage is some powerful stuff.

But what if you want to install all those userscripts as separate add-ons? Well, there's a userscript-to-xpi converter that – Wait a minute.

Why the heck would you want to install your userscripts that way? Loading up Greasemonkey is a lot faster than individually converting your scripts, and it also gives you access to any preferences that might come with them. Converting them to extensions seems like it would bog down your add-ons list, on top of being a royal pain the butt.

If you still want to go through with it, for some reason, the converter is an easy web form and seems to work pretty well.

[via gHacks]

Tags: add-ons, extensions, firefox, greasemonkey, scripts, userscripts, xpi

Filed under: Google, Browsers

Make GMail handle mailto: links in Google Chrome

by Lee Mathews Aug 27th 2009

While Firefox has built-in support for making GMail your default handler of mailto: links, Chrome has not yet implemented such a feature. Strange, really, since it's Google's browser. Then again, it still doesn't have a version of the Google Toolbar.

Fortunately, Chrome does support Userscripts which makes hacking this in to your Chrome setup is no big deal. Over at the Chrome Plugins forums, one user has contributed a simple script [download] that automatically converts mailto: links to the GMail compose mail URL. Remember, Userscripts for Chrome go in your User Data\Default\User Scripts folder.

Further along in the forum, user PAEz contributes a Chrome-friendly .crx [download] extension for ultra-easy installation. Just download the file and click the install button when Chrome asks if you're sure you want to, and you're set. This version also defaults to opening your message in a new tab rather than a separate window.

Remember, depending on your version of Chrome you run and which iteration you decide to use you might need to add a switch to your Chrome shortcut. Right click and choose properties, and append --enable-extensions or --enable-user-scripts after chrome.exe on your shortcut's target.

Tags: chromium, crx, default mail client, DefaultMailClient, extensions, gmail, google chrome, GoogleChrome, mailto, userscripts

Filed under: Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Make Firefox 3 or 3.5 look like the Firefox 3.7 new theme mockup

by Lee Mathews Jul 24th 2009

Well, that sure didn't take long.

Just days ago Mozilla posted a few conceptual images displaying a new default theme for Firefox 3.7. Thanks to DeviantArt user Boneyard Brew and his friends, you can now tweak your existing Firefox 3 install (provided you're not running 3.6) look pretty dang close to the mockups.

You'll need to grab a couple things to pull off the transformation:
The end result is pretty faithful to the mockup. Pull the switcheroo and confuse your pals - tell them you got your hands on an early pre-alpha (Make it more convincing with a quick Titlebar Tweak)!

[via Tweaking with Vishal]

Tags: add-ons, extensions, firefox-3.7, skiins, skinning, themes

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Windows, Macintosh, Browsers

10 Safari plugins that could make you drop Firefox

WindowsMacby Jay Hathaway Jul 20th 2009

Wait, Safari has plug-ins? Yes, it's true! When it comes to choosing a browser, a lot of people consider Safari because of its speed and standards support, but ultimately settle on Firefox for one reason: plug-ins. Firefox has a plugin for everything, and it's hard to live without them once you get used to the added functionality. Some of the best plugins have Safari equivalents, though, so take a look at these and see if it changes your mind about Apple's browser.

Glims

Glims is the pinnacle of Safari plugins, adding a whole Swiss Army knife of features to your browser. Glims does tabs really well, letting you open links in a new tab instead of a new window, and choose whether new tabs open on the left or the right. It restores tabs from previous sessions.

It adds thumbnails to Google and Yahoo! search results. It lets you change search engines, and adds configurable search suggestions. And, as if that weren't enough for one plugin, It also allows you to enable full screen mode. You can adjust all of these features in the preferences, so don't skip Glims just because it sounds like more than you need.

Saft

Saft is a direct Glims competitor, offering a slightly different (and a bit more extensive) set of features. The two plugins tend to conflict, so take a look at what both have to offer before you decide which one to install. It's also worth noting that the full version of Saft costs $12.

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Tags: add-ons, extensions, glims, greasekit, inquisitor, plugins, safari, saft

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Filed under: Windows, Office, Productivity, Freeware, web 2.0, Windows x64

Add Twitter support to Microsoft Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010 with TwInbox

Windowsby Lee Mathews Jul 14th 2009

One thing that surprised me about Outlook 2010 (apart from that whole HTML rendering fiasco) was the lack of any social features - like Twitter, for example.

TwInbox began life as OutTwit a couple years back, and it's steadily improved over that time. The current version is a 490kb add-in that works in Outlook 2003, 2007, and even the 2010 Technical Preview (if you hadn't guessed from the screenshot).

The usual Twitter client features are included. Highlight a message and you can retweet,or send a reply or direct message to the sender. URLs can be automatically shortened using TinyURL, and TwInbox can even handle uploading pictures and other file attachments. Searches are also supported, allowing you to receive updates for certain keywords from users you aren't following.

Perhaps best of all, tweets behave just like any email messages once they have arrived. That means, of course, they are fully searchable and you can also utilize Outlook's and use the rules wizard to organize, filter, and prioritize your stream. Want to share a tweet with co-workers? Highlight and forward it as you would with a standard email.

If your company uses Twitter for customer relations and happens to run Outlook as well, TwInbox is a great way to centralize communications.

Apart from all the practical applications there are for TwInbox, it's also a fabulous way to discreetly tweet from your cubicle at work. Not that any of you have neighbors with wandering eyes...

[via Cybernet]

Tags: add-ins, desktop-twitter-client, extensions, microsoft-office, outlook, twitter

Filed under: Google, Open Source, Browsers

Yahoo's Delicious proves Chrome extensions are....Boring.

by Lee Mathews Jul 3rd 2009

When I was looking over my news feeds yesterday morning, I though I had spied some exciting news. A few sites were reporting about a new Delicious extension for Chrome. Some of them trumpeted its arrival as proof that Chrome extensions were real.

I found that statement a little odd, because AdSweep has been around since early April. Didn't that pretty much prove the "reality" of Chrome extensions?

To make things even less exciting, the Delicious extension is about as un-noteworthy as they come. If you've got the 'Bookmark on Delicious' bookmarklet in Chrome already, guess what? The extension does the exact same thing. All it does is create a Delicious icon at the end of your address bar instead of on your bookmark toolbar.

I don't know about you, but that's nothing to get worked up about. Google's three example extensions? Equally yawn-worthy.

Heck, I'm still waiting for integration with Google services. Anyone else wondering where the support for things like Google Bookmarks is? It is their browser, after all.

Don't get me wrong - I love Chrome's speed and minimal UI, but after this long I thought we'd see some much more interesting extensions. If you know one, please share it in the comments. I'd love to see it!

Tags: addons, bookmarklets, delicious, extensions, google-chrome, yahoo

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