A couple of fantastic Google Chrome browser extensions
Over the last week, I stumbled upon two fantastic Google Chrome browser add-ons that really make a difference to my browsing experience.
First of all, if you aren’t using Google Chrome, you should really give it a try by downloading it from here: www.google.com/chrome.
Once you have downloaded and installed the Google Chrome browser, you can find the extensions that I will talk about here: chrome.google.com/extensions. By opening that link, you will see the many extensions already available for the Google Chrome browser. They work very similarly to the Firefox Add-ons many of us are used to.
The first extension I want to mention is a quick and easy Send From Gmail extension. This extension adds a nice little button in the upper right corner of your browser.
When you click on the button, it will open your GMail account with the link of the page you were on already in the body of the email. This makes it quick and easy to email links to people you know.
The next extension is one that will really help us all filter the crappy search results that appear to be moving to the top of the Google results pages. Basically, there are a lot of meaningless sites out there that are referred to as “Link Farms”. What these sites do is grab a lot of links and post out of context data on their sites. This seems to be fooling the Google search engine into posting these sites higher up the results pages. To try and help them filter out these less than favourable sites, you can install the Personal Blocklist extension which will add a “Block this site” link next to each search result.
This extension will let you block any site you don’t wish to show up in your personalized search results. I know I tend to search for a lot of technical answers and I am always directed to sites that require you to pay for a membership to receive an answer. This extension allows me to quickly and easily begin removing those sites from my search results completely.
Last Week’s News - Week of Nov. 21 / 2010
Another slow news week. Biggest news was the release of Apple iOS 4.2, which hopefully fixes the slowdowns that affect non-iPhone 4 users.
Apple
The first week of the Beatles being on the iTunes store has proven to be very successful. If only more companies would clue in that people would rather just buy their music through a simple interface such as iTunes and not resort to torrent files.
Took about a week for iOS 4.2 to release to users. The initial release was for iPad users, but it was followed near the end of the week by the update for iPhones. A real nice feature that has been present on Androids for free is the release of Find My iPhone without having to have a MobileMe account. Unfortunately, Find My iPhone only works on iPads and iPhone 4s…though there are ways to get it to work on earlier versions of the iPhone.
Also, last week, we saw the release of Sony’s e-reader app for the iPhone/iPad. It looks like Sony has finally realized that they should compete with Amazon in the app market as well as the e-reader market. Of course, Amazon has had a 2 year head start on building up a following.
Tech
Two new Android tablets are featured in a first-look hands-on in the following video:
In other tablet news, Dell officially unveiled their tablet/laptop hybrid: The Dell Inspiron. RIMs Playbook also proved to be popular among technology analysts. I personally think it’s RIM’s last chance to move forward in the marketplace.
Mobile
Windows Phone 7 has been out for a couple of weeks now and there are already 3000 apps in the store and many more developers looking to add to that number.
Or, you could just “jailbreak” the phone and run your own apps.
Social
Finally, Twitter’s CEO is worried that his company does not have a long term goal. It’s always been something that I’ve wondered about as well…how will they monetize the service? The rumour of business Twitter accounts may actually become a reality next year?
Last Week’s News - Week of Nov. 14 / 2010
It is with frozen fingers that I type this update of last week’s news.
Leading the news, again, is Apple for last week was Apple’s announcement that they have finally settled their dispute with Apple Records and the Beatles are now available on iTunes. After that, there is some news regarding Facebook’s new messaging system, and more info on RIM’s Blackberry Playbook.
Apple
After years of fighting Apple Records over the “Apple” name, both Apple Computer and Apple Records (the publisher of the Beatles) have come to an agreement that means that the Beatles and all their music is available on iTunes.
In other good news, Mobee has released the Magic Charger which will wirelessly charge your wireless mouse. You just put it on the pad and the mouse will charge.
Social
Facebook unleashed their new messaging system last week. The more-than-just-e-mail system is meant to consolidate all of a user’s interactions with other people—whether it’s via SMS, Facebook messages, or e-mail—into one spot. There is definitely an advantage to having all your communication tied to one account…of course, there are also disadvantages (ie..if the site goes down).
It was almost predictable that Facebook was going to unleash something new to grow their business. In the social networking business, if you aren’t expanding your function you are in danger of becoming obsolete. There are always the usual predictions that Facebook only has 5 years to live.
As it is, Facebook is starting to gain zombie accounts…accounts that have been abandoned. It’s predicted that they’ll reach 5 million of these types of accounts by 2015. Unfortunately, the first attempt by Facebook to combat these accounts has led to some disabling of valid accounts.
Across the seas, a Chinese woman has been jailed for what would be considered an harmless tweet over here. By re-tweeting a Twitter update from her boyfriend, she has found herself sentenced to some hard time in a prison camp.
Tech
Lots of news regarding RIM’s Blackberry Playbook. There was a nice display of the Playbook in action (see above video), but it really became interesting when RIM’s Jim Balsillie started laying into Apple regarding their “App-ification” of the desktop experience. He basically came out and said that you don’t need an app to view the web, which may be targeted at the recent success of the SkyFire app for the iPhone that brings Flash playback to the device.
Another nice piece of news this week was the announcement that Amazon would allow the gifting of virtual books for Kindle owners.
Mobile
Finally, the news that I was happiest to hear last week was that Google Docs are now editable with your iPhone (and Android). One of my biggest pet peeves was not being able to edit my Google Docs while on my iPhone.
Windows Phone 7 got in the news last week for some unfortunate news concerning their microSD slots. For many of the phones, the slot is not accessible, but on the Samsung phone, the slot is easily accessible. To many users’ dismay, it appears that putting in a larger microSD card can actually slow your phone down due to the way that some microSD cards access the memory on themselves.
Last Week’s News - Week of Nov. 7 / 2010
Apple
- Itunes Ping has gained Twitter integration again with the 4.2 update. There is also the nice addition of AirPlay which brings the ability to stream video like AirTunes allowed one to stream audio. There is also a fix for the iPad wi-fi issues and the possibly a solution to the iPhone 3G slowdown that occurred when the older generation of phones was updated to iOS 4.
- Gorillaz new album was created entirely on the iPad
- Flash browser for the iPhone has a stellar weekend selling a ton of copies and showing the hunger for Flash to work on the iPhone.
- The latest Back to the Mac event showed that Apple is going to implement Apps for the Mac desktop. Engadget has a nice in-depth article.
- Google’s Chrome browser got the addition of instant previews that show you the sites you find in your search before you even click on the link. It’s actually a pretty handy tool, especially if you are looking for a site you are familiar with, but can’t recall the name of the site.
- Chrome, while probably the quickest browser already, will become even faster with the addition of background preloading.
- Whatever happened to the Facebook rival that Google was supposedly working on?
- Want your iPhone to look more “Android-like”?
E-Book readers
- Don’t wait for a colour e-ink book anytime soon. If you’re holding off on purchasing an e-book reader right now, don’t bother.
- Brand new Sony e-reader with cellular network support finally bringing it in line with what the Amazon Kindle has offered from the beginning.
Tablets
- RIMs Blackberry Playbook appears to be coming in at just under $500. When they say “under $500”, you know it’s going to be $499.
- The new 7” Samsung Galaxy tablet was just released and there’s already one horrific review of the device. Of course, that doesn’t appear to stop them from moving forward with the development of a 10” tablet.
Social
- FMail? Facebook appears to be making a new mail system hoping to keep people within their website for all forms of communication. It seems that Google and Facebook are going to start a new fight about who their users use for mail.
- New socially oriented browser coming out? Is this a worthy competitor Flock?
- It doesn’t appear that Facebook or Twitter are necessarily good for business. Of course, the headline doesn’t mention that it’s not necessarily bad for business with results of around 30% of traffic for businesses is driven by links from social sites.
Security
- Even if you are running a Free Wi-Fi spot, it’s probably a good idea to offer a freely obtainable password. It’s an amazingly simple encryption method that doesn’t impact your costumers and improves their online safety.
- It was only a matter of time before security software companies got upset that Microsoft was distributing free security software for OS. The security firms try to make this sound like it’s anti-competitive, but the main problem is that the software provided by Microsoft actually performs quite well.
Mobile
Lots and lots of Windows Phone 7 news as its launch continues.
- Early sales are slow, but they don’t mean much as we swing into the Christmas season. A lot of people held off waiting to see how the phones performed considering the radical departure of the operating system.
- You can still get Google search on your phone. Don’t be afraid of Bing though, it’s a competent search engine.
- HTC HD7 review…it’s definitely the largest, but it’s also a good phone.
- Plenty of apps to watch out for on the Windows Phone 7 marketplace.
Strangely enough, Microsoft also appears to be re-launching their failed phone from earlier this year
- With the Kin appearing to return to Verizon.
- Without the hefty data plan it originally launched with.
Of course, don’t forget about the Android phones
National Unfriend Day - November 17, 2010
Jimmy Kimmel showed this on his late night talk show the other night. This is only a fraction of what was shown, but William Shatner put on another great performance. I’m sure you’ll agree.
The full video from the show can be found on YouTube.
