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plug-in posts

Filed under: E-mail, Google, BlackBerry, Mobile Minute, Beta

Mobile Minute: BlackBerry may get an enhanced Gmail plug-in


Gmail on the BlackBerry has come a long way in a short while. When I first starting using the Java app (as opposed to the site in BB's rather crummy browser on my 8800) it was pretty limited. Only one draft email at a time, limited support for some of Gmail's best features, etc. Now, however, it works... better. You can star items, check archives, move things around a bit, work in offline mode and create multiple drafts. I'm not saying it is perfect, but mobile users are conditioned to being second-class netizens when it comes to application features. But this may change.

Google is experimenting with an enhanced Gmail plug-in that will supposedly bring conversations, labels, stars and so forth available on lesser beasts than the iPhone. Speaking of iPhone, I'm still amazed there's no native Gmail app seeing as how Apple's Mail tool doesn't "do" much with Gmail's features (stars, labels, etc.) and the mobile Safari version is superior in almost every way to Apple's Mail. Perhaps Google will release a proper iPhone app around the time they release this now-beta plug-in. We'll keep you posted on both fronts.

In the meanwhile, if you're a power user who likes to try new things, you can sign up for the RIM Beta program and see if they let you play with new stuff.

[via Engadget and BerryReview]

Filed under: Utilities, Yahoo!, Search

Inquisitor search plugin now available for Firefox

Safari users have been enjoying the search-as-you-type extension Inquisitor for a long time, and now Firefox users can, too. Although it was originally developed independently for Safari by David Watanabe (creator of apps like Acquistion and Newsfire), it was acquired by Yahoo! back in May. Apparently, that resulted in a preview of a Firefox version, which seems to work just as well as its Safari counterpart. If you like the idea of instant search results, displayed as you type, give it a try.

Inquisitor for Firefox
is still in preview, so you'll have to sign up or log in to download. Once installed, it goes in your list of search engines, and is enabled by default. If you decide you don't like it, just click the Inquisitor icon next to your search bar and switch back to whichever search engine you were using before.

The only drawback of the latest versions of Inquisitor, depending on how you look at it, is that they use Yahoo! Search by default. You don't notice this so much when you're going straight to a webpage from the Inquisitor results, but you definitely do when you perform a full search. (You can choose between Yahoo! and Google in the add-on's preferences, however.)



[Via Cybernetnews]

Filed under: Photo, Utilities, Macintosh

Get your photos from iPhoto to Flickr with FFXporter


If you use iPhoto, and you have a Flickr account, but you don't have a way of getting your pictures from one to the other, you might want to give FFXporter a look. It's a free iPhoto plugin that -- just as the name would indicate -- exports files from your iPhoto library to Flickr. Although there are other ways of getting this done, I have yet to find another free one that works as well.

FFXporter preserves a lot of the data that iPhoto and Flickr can both use, like keywords (tags on Flickr) and EXIF info. Since it's a plugin, you won't have to open another app to get the job done, you can upload pictures right from iPhoto. Probably the most useful feature is set support, so you can batch upload a bunch of photos at once, and add them all to the same set on Flickr.

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Security, Mozilla, Freeware, Browser Tips, web 2.0

Firefox add-on stops accidental MySpace encounters: it's actually useful!

amionmyspace.com?
Have you ever accidentally visited MySpace? Yeah, we probably have too, though, it was never a noticeable problem. In fact, we can't even remember it happening, but it seems like it has to have happened... right?

Well, this Firefox add-on promises to detect MySpace in Firefox, and provide a pop-up menu to stop unsuspecting web-browsers from hitting up the social network. The plug-in is obviously a joke, but we found a great use for it anyway -- avoiding phishing.

It's called AmIOnMySpace.com? and it can be used to detect the real MySpace site. If for any reason the message doesn't pop-up upon first visiting the social network, you're not on the real site. The biggest problem with using this as a way of avoiding phishing sites is that it doesn't alert users when leaving MySpace, so it's still possible to get attacked from within.

[via Digg]

Filed under: Video, Adobe, Freeware

Quicktracks for Adobe Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements now a freebie

Here's a great deal for all you Adobe Premiere Pro and Premiere Elements users out there. SmartSound has decided to make the music score plug-in Quicktracks available as a free download. One of the great features of this software is the ability to "customize" a track for the length of your clip. For example if your clip is 46 seconds but the music track is 60 seconds, Quicktracks will automatically re-compose the music to fit the length of your clip. This gives you a smooth ending that sounds like it was originally created for the new length. Sweeeeet.

With the free download you receive 10 royalty-free music scores for use in any of your projects. Need more music? You will also have access to the SmartSound music library to sample tracks and purchase what you like, all from right within Quicktracks. You can't beat the price so go add some music to your production!

Filed under: Audio, Developer, Fun, Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Apple

Find concerts with iTunes with iConcertCal

search concent venues with itunes
iConcertCal in add-on for iTunes--both Mac and PC--that monitors what kind of music is played in a user's music library, then generates a calendar of upcoming events in your city that would be of interest to you. The iConcertCal scours the web searching for bands that match up to your library, syncs it up, and updates the calendar once a week. Installation is easy; the seven steps outlined on the site take a few minutes to complete. Its developers built it for one specific reason: They were sick and tired of missing concerts for their favorite bands in their area. With the tool being relatively new, the team has sent up a suggestion form for you to fill out if you have any comments.

[via webware]

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Utilities, Web services, Google

Google Toolbar Notifier bug

google toolbar bugLooks like there could be a little buggy hanging out in Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. IE issues some kind of warning when another application tries to change the default search engine settings, and Google Toolbar Notifier looks to be the culprit. Apparently, this little application runs even when it has been disabled or shutoff says Ionut Alex.

Google is busy working on a fix for this issue at the moment, since they were only made aware of the problem recently.

Filed under: Developer, Internet, Google, Open Source

Google Maps Network Engineer plug-in

google engineer map toolA new plug-in has just been released that lets network engineers look at the active internet nodes that are communicating with local nodes like web, email, wireless, voip, WAN and application server nodes. The tool was built so that engineers could get better grips on their data including troubleshooting, faults, restoring services, and network uptime.

Through this new plug-in that accesses a tool built by WildPackets called the OmniAnalysis Platform, network engineers can get a greater in depth look at the geographic location of where the nodes are coming from. The plug-in pulls data through the OminiAnalysis application. The OmniAnalysis application is an opensource piece of software that has an API and SDK goodies so users can create their own uses that speak to their specific requirements.

The plug-in for Google Maps is free to all users of OmniPeek.

Featured Time Waster

Graveyard Shift - zombie-busting Time Waster

With Halloween fast approaching, it's a great time to get in some practice defending your territory against zombies. In Graveyard Shift, you take aim at zombies and other creepy-crawlies, blasting them into splatters of cartoony green guts. It's a casual first-person shooter, and it's very easy to get the hang of - use the mouse to aim, click to fire. Graveyard Shift has at least 15 levels, and it might even have some secret stages I haven't unlocked yet. They key to getting good at Graveyard Shift is learning to use ...

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