The default page for the Dolphin Browser includes a “speed dial” and “webzine.” A browser like Safari is built for browsing Google. That’s what it’s really good at. But we’re way past looking at the Internet just as a tool for gathering information. We spend our lives on a browser. Dolphin recognizes that. While the Speed Dial to the left of the default page includes favorite links, the most favorite of your favorites, it also includes a “Webzine.” It takes Facebook, Twitter, and newsy sites such as USA Today and Mac Rumors and places the most recent stories in capsules in your webzine so that you can  quickly browse the latest news of the things that interest you the most. You can edit the webzine to include only the sites you want to keep up with.

Opening a Webzine capsule presents the articles in an easy-to-read format that can be flipped through. Clicking on a story brings it up in a text only format. Sometimes the text doesn’t completely come forward here, but that’s okay, as a link is included to read the rest, and you can also hit an arrow above the story to call up the story that way as well. Dolphin certainly isn’t the first browser to offer text only versions of articles, even Safari does this, but it’s the first browser I have found to place it in such an easy-to-use format that encompasses all the news you would want to read.

Dolphin syncs favorites as well, like many other browsers. I loaded it on my iPhone as well as my iPad so that I could keep my favorites synced throughout. I do wish it would also sync the Webzine and Speed Dial, though. Even better would be syncing the history.

The Dolphin Browser also makes full use of gestures. Instead of seeming like something that was added in as an afterthought, the browser is built around using gestures. Starting Dolphin for the first time, it shows you gestures that you can use right away, such as sliding from the left edge gives you your list of favorites, favorites that go beyond Speed Dial, and sliding from the left gives you an easy view of all your open tabs.

But the gestures go way beyond that. There’s a gesture button in the menu at the top. Clicking this gives you more than just the standard simple universal gestures. A V-shape takes you to the bottom of the page. An upside-down V-shape takes you to the top of the page. A G takes you to Google. A 2 takes you to Amazon. You don’t have to rely on pre-programmed gestures. You can create your own in settings. I did this for my most-used favorites. I used an M for Make Tech Easier. I used an F without the middle “bar” for Facebook, and used an R for my Reality Shack site. You can create your own gestures for actions, as well as sites. The possibilities are infinite.

It seems the Dolphin Browser is made for a large aspect of the iOS. It’s meant for a touchscreen with its use of gestures and the browsing aspect of the webzine. The only thing that isn’t well-represented is pictures. This is a word browser. It features pictures just as well as Safari, but it doesn’t go out of its way to make the best of them like an iPad should. However, it’s still the go-to for me to replace Safari, that is until Safari makes adequate changes to convince me to switch back again.

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To get started, simply go the Cocoon website and install the addon. It is currently available for Firefox and IE.

Once you have installed the extension and restarted your browser, you should see a toolbar appear at the top of the browser. To start a Cocoon session, you have to first register for a Cocoon account, then login to your account in the toolbar.

After you have logged in, it will immediately connect itself to a secure proxy server and switch your browser to Private Mode. From here, you can proceed to surf the Web like normal and with the knowledge that you are now behind a proxy server and your browsing session is secured.

While browsing the web, there is also this nifty feature that allows you to add a note for the site. All the notes are saved in your Cocoon account. Regardless which computer you are using, as long as you are signed into your Cocoon account, you can access the notes. There is also a pin for you to bookmark sites.

Cocoon Security

If you attempt to download an exe file from the Web while on a Cocoon session, you will not be able to do it as Cocoon blocks it as part of their security measures. In addition, all the downloaded files will be scanned for virus and trojan before they reach your computer. The most important of all, it also prevents automatic drive-by-downloads and prevents you from being tricked into manually downloading malware.

Cocoon History

In usual Private browsing mode, all your cookies and history will be erased right after you close the session. In Cocoon session, your History is not erased. Instead, you can access your History from the “Settings -> History” tab in the toolbar. Of course, this History Saving feature is optional. You can opt-out of it if you don’t want any of your browsing record to be saved.

Disposable Email Address

Another cool feature of Cocoon is the disposable email address that you can setup and use. Under the Mailslots tab, you can check your Disposable email inbox for any kind of newsletters (or freebies) that you have signed up for. The “Manage” sub-tab is where you can find create disposable address to give out. One thing that I love about this feature is that it is well-integrated into the session. You can create disposable email address on one tab, give it out on another and return to check the emails. There is no need for you to sign in to your personal mailbox to check, or setup another temporary email services from third party sites.

Cocoon Settings

Just like a browser, you can configure the Home page to load when a Cocoon session starts and whether to clear cookies, form fill, history on log out. There is even an option to block Facebook tracking which is pretty useful for those who want to block facebook, but don’t know how to do it.

Lastly, to log out of Cocoon session, simply click the Power button at the left side of the toolbar. This will log off your Cocoon account and return your browser to the normal mode.

Conclusion

You can either spend hours trying to configure a firewall, VPN or proxy server or just spend a few seconds to start a Cocoon session and stay protected. That is how easy to use Cocoon is. It gives you hassle-free protection and allows you to spend your time on more productive matters. Best of all, you can install on every computer you use and have the same settings throughout.

Cocoon is currently available for Firefox and IE and a mobile version is said to be on the way. It is free (ad-supported) and you can upgrade to the premium plan to remove the ads.

Cocoon

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There are other articles out there that talk about Gmail extensions for Chrome. In the list below, I am going to list some lesser known but very useful Gmail extension.

1. Snooze Your Email for Gmail

When you are busy, you may not want to attend to an email on the spot. However, there are times when an email is urgent and need you to look into it soon. One way you can handle this is to snooze the email until later. You have predetermined times and days or you can set something more specific. When that time arrives, you get a little pop-up on your screen to remind you.

2. Temporary Email Alias

There are a lot of uses for a disposable email address so I won’t go into detail on why this is a useful extension. In the settings, you can select how long you want it to be active.

The way Temporary Email Alias works is, right-click on the email address field and select generate an email address. All of the messages will be forwarded to your Gmail account. Tell me that’s not super easy.

3. Send to Evernote

For the avid Evernote user, being able to easily send an email to Evernote with a single click is the best feature of this extension. There are a few other ways to send a webpage to Evernote, but this is the quickest. You will need to have your Evernote email address. If you use Instapaper or just want the page sent to your Gmail account, you have options for that as well.

Once you have the destination set, you can turn on the 1-click option. If this is on, you just need to click the icon to the right of the address bar to send. There are also keyboard shortcuts if you prefer to use them.

4. ezAutoCorrect for GMail

People suck at emailing. When most people type up an email, they spell things wrong and don’t add punctuation. ezAutocorrect will bring some of the features word processing programs like OpenOffice use.

The most important feature ezAutocorrect brings to the table is the replacement of incorrect words, not just underlining them in red. You can also set ezAutocorrect to insert a period “.” and capitalize the next letter automatically when you press the space bar twice.

5. OmniMail for GMail

OmniMail is a great idea. in short, it allows you to send an email right from the Chrome address bar. If you have ever used a service like Tweetbar, OmniMail works in a similar way. To activate an email, you type the word mail into the Chrome address bar.

When you see OmniMail for Gmail in the drop-down, you can select it. Start typing the email address. You can then add in your message and send it. This is great for those quick emails you want to send to someone before you forget.

Conclusion

These lesser known but really useful extensions that combine Google Chrome and Gmail will add some great options to your browser. Extensions like Send to Evernote and OmniMail will save you a lot of time, not to mention you wont need to have the extra apps or windows open.

What is your favorite Gmail extension for Chrome?

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Navigating to a website, I got that familiar screen telling me to view it with FlashPlayer. It’s almost a little like pouring salt in a wound, as if I could, I obviously would. Nevertheless, it’s what needs to be done. But instead of installing FlashPlayer, which simply cannot be done in iOS, I launch the Photon browser.

I navigate to the same website, then push the lightning bolt icon in the toolbar. It gives me a message stating that it’s connecting to a streaming session. Photon works by streaming the site from the cloud.

Once Photon finishes streaming the site, I can now use it along with all of its FlashPlayer abilities. Using the keyboard takes pressing the keyboard icon in the menu. There also other menu options to help with more precise finger movements like dragging and clicking, especially useful when playing games.

The settings menu includes many more options. The makers of the app suggest you play with the bandwidth option to get the desired outcome. The bandwidth is automatically set very low, but it can be raised to match how fast your network is. Other settings include many of the options included with any other browser, as well as alternate port, enable popup, and switching to a game keyboard.

Photon isn’t just just for browsing sites with FlashPlayer though. It can also do split screen browsing. You can have two screens going in a split, do a picture-in-picture, or even a trio of screens. It comes in handy for a variety of reasons, whether watching a music video on one screen and doing work on another, looking at separate sites or the same site at different times, or even watching two YouTube videos. This is accessed on the left-hand side of the URL window.

While Safari is good for many things, it’s just not a good browser for everything. Photon isn’t good for everything either. That means it takes a collection of browsers to get things accomplished in iOS, whether on an iPhone, an iPad, or an iPod Touch. If you have a need for watching multiple screens in a browser, or if you have to use sites with FlashPlayer, this is a browser you’ll want to have in your arsenal.

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At 98MB, it is not exactly the smallest distro around (DamnSmallLinux is only 50MB), but it serves a purpose. It allows you to boot up quickly on any computer and be able to browse the web. Need to surf in the cybercafe while on a holiday but afraid that there are viruses/malware/tracking tools installed in the computer? BrowserLinux could fill that niche.

After you have downloaded BrowserLinux, you can either burn it into a CD and use it as a Live CD or create a bootable USB drive. If you need persistent data (storing your session or save files), it is best to create a bootable USB drive.

When you boot into BrowserLinux, it will first ask you to setup your video card.

The default method is to select the “Probe” option. If the monitor detection is not successful, simply choose from a list of generic monitor setting.

This is what you will see on the main screen. As can be seen, there is only a Firefox browser icon on the desktop.

Hovering your mouse at the bottom will show a menu dock where you can access the file manager, text editor and the terminal.

Clicking the “More Apps” option also reveal several other pre-installed apps like gFTP, music player, pdf viewer, image viewer etc.

Conclusion

Since it is a lightweight distro, it loads pretty fast and doesn’t take up too much of the resource. Minimal setup are required and it works right out of the box after you boot it up, so that is really great for bringing it on a USB drive. If you really need a distro solely for browsing, then BrowserLinux is one distro that you can consider. For everything else, you might consider installing PuppyLinux or Ubuntu on your thumb drive.

BrowserLinux

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Androidonweb.com is a free application to help you manage the activities you would normally do on your phone. Using Androidonweb, you can access your photo gallery, SMS messages, contacts and your phone’s location.

Setting up Androidonweb

The only download is from the Android Market. Once you have it installed on your phone, you can start the app. It will sign in using the main Gmail account associated with your phone.

On the web side of it, you will need to go to http://androidonweb.com and log in with that same Gmail account. It may take a minute for you to see anything, but it should show up with a screen like this when the Android phone is paired with the web app.

Using Androidonweb

Not much action is required on the phone after you grant access to the application. When you log in and the device is paired with the web app, all you really can do on the phone is turn on and off some notifications.

On the web is a different story; that’s where you are going to do pretty much everything. Like I mentioned earlier, you will need to login with your Google Account. When everything syncs up, you should see something like this.

As you can see, there are a 5 tabs across the top of the window. You start out on the contacts tab. You can edit your contacts right from here. You can also email them by clicking on the @ icon. Clicking the phone icon didn’t seem to connect the call to my phone. Maybe this feature will be added later.

The text message tab is probably the tab where you will spend most of your time. You can initiate a message to anyone in your contact list by clicking the compose button and starting to type their name in the green bar. If the person isn’t in your contacts, you can type in their number.

When you press send, the message will magically be sent from your phone. If you’d like to see what was sent from your phone, you can look in the Tasks tab on your phone.

The gallery works pretty much the same as the SMS tab. You can see your pictures when you take them.

Finding the location of your phone could be a great feature if your Android phone is lost or stolen. To see the location, you can click on the location tab and view its location on Google Maps.

Conclusion

While testing Androidonweb, it worked great. The location was really close, the contacts and gallery were accurate. One part of the text messaging made it a bit difficult to follow the SMS thread. The messages were separated into incoming and outgoing, not a back and forth like I am accustomed to. There are options to sort the messages, I couldn’t make it work as a back and forth conversation though.

What other applications do you use to manage your Android phone from the web?

Androidonweb (Market link)

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The biggest change to the Safari app is tabbed browsing, but it’s only available on the iPad where it has the landscape to pull lit off. This very much emulates the same tabbed browsing that you’ll find in the Mac version of Safari. Instead of having to flip back and forth through websites that you currently have open, they can now be left open in tabs. New tabs can be initiated by touching the plus sign next to the current tab. For anyone that does a lot of browsing, it’s a a definite advantage. With the iPhone version, however, you still need to flip back and forth between open sites.

Another big change to Safari under iOS 5 is the Reader. Reading articles can now be much cleaner and simpler. If it’s bothersome and too much of a distraction to have sidebars and ads surrounding and interrupting the article you’re reading, you can now eliminate them temporarily. Tapping the word “Reader” in the address bar brings up a clean version of the article with just the necessary text and pictures. All other ads, links, etc. are removed. Tapping the word “Reader” again takes you back to the regular web page. This option is available on the iPhone as well as the iPad, but it doesn’t show up with every page on the iPhone, unlike the iPad.

Similarly named, Reading List is actually quite different than Reader. Reading List allows you to save articles to read later when you have more time. Instead of having to bookmark everything you want to read, then either deal with numerous bookmarks or end up deleting them after you read them, you can simply mark it to be read later on this list. It can be accessed through the Sharing option to the left of the address bar on iPad and on the bottom of the screen of the iPhone by tapping “Add to Reading List.”

Items that have been added to the reading list, as well as bookmarks and history, can be accessed in the Bookmarks option that is on the bottom of the screen on the iPhone and to the left of the Sharing button on the iPad. Additionally, Safari will keep updated between devices. Items added to the Reading List, Bookmarks, and History will read the same on all devices. This is helpful if you leave off reading an article while on your iPad, then are out and about with your iPhone and want to finish reading the article.

Additionally, clicking on links now gives you an option of either adding the page to your Reading List or simply opening the page. This is also now an option in the Settings. You can choose whether to always open tabs in the background, or whether they should be opened up in a new page.

These changes should make it easier to bounce back and forth not only between devices, but also between mobile devices and the Mac. However, Safari on the Mac still has issues with certain web page elements, making it very accessible, but not always practical to use. If Apple were able to fix part of the Safari environment, and combine it with the practical uses of the mobile Safari, they could end up with a lion’s share of the browsing world.

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The good thing is, the rendering ability is dependent on the capabilities of the browser. All you have to do is to change the user-agent of the browser and you can easily switch between mobile and desktop mode. Here is how you do it.

Default Honeycomb browser

1. Open the browser app. Tap on the menu icon at the top right corner. Select “Settings”.

2. On the left pane, select “Advanced”. On the right pane, select “User Agents”.

3. Select “Desktop” in the pop-up window.

Done. Now press the Back button until you reach back the main screen. Continue your web surfing. All websites will be rendered in the desktop mode now.

Dolphin For Pad

Dolphin browser is one of the most popular browser in the Android market and the Dolphin For Pad is the version specially for Honeycomb tablet. If you are using it, here is how you can change its user agent.

1. Open the Dolphin for Pad app. Tap the Menu icon at the bottom panel (fourth icon from the left corner). Select “More -> Settings”.

2. Select the first option “User Agent”. Set it to “Desktop”.

That’s it.

I have tried several browsers from the Android market (Firefox beta, Opera, Maxthon, Miren) and all of them have similar ways to configure the user-agents. The only challenge is to find out where their settings page lie. In Opera, the Settings button is hidden under the “O” icon beside the address bar. In Firefox, there is no Settings. You have to go to the Preferences page. Once you locate the configuration page, you should have no problem changing the user-agent, regardless of the browser you are using.

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Search Sidebar is a very useful add-on that allows you to search multiple sites with one query and search interface. The best thing is, all the search results appear in your Google search result page, so you don’t have to get used to any new interface.

Once you have installed the Search Sidebar extension, you won’t see any configuration option in your Firefox toolbar. Instead, you will see a search strip at the sidebar when you perform a search in Google (Note that this extension will not work for Google encrypted search).

When you hover your cursor over the icons in the search sidebar, the search result for that site will pop up.

If you are logged in to your Gmail, Google Docs, Facebook LinkedIn or Dropbox account, it can even search your personal account.

To see all the search results, simply click on the blue “WebMynd” button and the strip will expand to show all the search results from different sites.

You can add more sources for it to retrieve the search results or to remove the default source from the list.

Conclusion

Search Sidebar is useful if you search from multiple sources regularly. My personal favorite is the ability to search your personal accounts, like Gmail and Google Docs, without having to visit the sites.

My only gripe is there is no easy ways to organize the search sources. I prefer to have my Gmail account at the top of the list. To do that, I have to first remove Gmail from the list, then re-add it again to make it appear at the top. You have to do this for every other sources. It would be great if the developer can come out with a drag and drop solution to rearrange the search sources.

Search Sidebar is available for Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari.

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1. Tabbed Browsing. For Safari to not have tabbed browsing on the iPad is really just inexcusable. It’s understandable on the iPhone, as you don’t have that type of space anyway, but for the iPad, you need it. iChrome’s tabbed browsing works just the same as you would expect it to and want it to. You can add tabs by clicking the “+” and delete them by clicking the “X.”

2. Bookmarks. All web browsers have bookmarks, even Safari, but iChrome makes them easy to use. There are no extra menus to add them. You simply click the star to the right of the URL field. To recall your bookmarks, click the bookmarks menu that looks like an opened book. To delete them, click edit, then the minus that appears next to the one(s) you want to delete. Click the icon in the far right to move them up or down in the list, and click the arrow next to that to edit the URL or name of the bookmark.

3. Reading Offline. There are a lot of apps and websites you can use to save web pages for offline reading. iChrome puts that option right there in the browser for you. If you click the eyeglasses in the URL bar, it adds the website to the Read Later list. If you click the icon that looks like a list, it recalls all the sites you saved to read later. Clicking edit allows you to delete them by clicking on the minus.

4. Sharing. It’s extremely easy to share your web pages with social networking sites. Clicking the icon that looks like a box with an arrow gives you a menu that allows you to share the site with Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Diigo, or Email. If you choose more, you get even more social networking sites. There’s no need to add other apps to aid in sharing. It’s all right there.

5. Tools. iChrome used to end with the above options, but they have now added even more that allow it to act even more like a desktop browser. It allows you to print, which depends more on the type of printer you have than the browser itself. It also allows “find in page,” something lacking in Safari and other mobile browsers.  Additional options are controlling passwords, and clearing history, cookies, and caché, things you can only do with Safari if you go to the general iPad settings. It also offers you a choice of search engines to work within iChrome and a list of browsers you want it to “behave” as.

Using iChrome is still very much using a mobile web browser, but with all of these options, it makes it so that you don’t miss using a desktop browser at all.

iChromy (iTunes link)

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Firefox‘s built-in spell checking feature has been available since Firefox 2. It even has support for multiple languages, which are very useful if your native language is not English.

Simpler Than You Could Imagine

If you have looked around on the Mozilla add-ons site, you might found the page where language packs and dictionaries can be downloaded. At the time of writing this post, 105 dictionaries are available for 86 languages. These packs are actually extensions and you can install them like any other Firefox extension. They will be listed in the “Tools -> Add-ons Manager” menu or by pressing the “Ctrl+Shift+A” hotkey. You can install as many dictionaries as you wish, without limitations.

I use the English (United States) and the Hungarian dictionaries. Both of them suit my expectations. Apart from the dictionaries for certain commercial spell checker components, these open source dictionaries are maintained continuously and new words are added regularly.

Where Can I Find It?

Right click in the text area where you just typed in the text and find the “Check Spelling” item and the Languages dropdown in the context menu.

The Check Spelling command is activated by default. When you click it, the tick will disappear and the spell checking feature will be disabled. The Languages dropdown will also disappear.

In the Languages dropdown, you can only see those languages that you have installed. If you need a new dictionary, you have an easy job: Just click “Add Dictionaries…“, and it will bring you to the Mozilla Dictionaries & Language Packs page.

How It Works

The spell checking feature works on any web form. It may be the editor of your blog tool or your content management system, the new topic/reply page in a forum, a comment field, or even a contact form on a web page.

Similar to the word processors, an unmatched word is underlined with a red wavy line. When you right click on such a word, you will find suggestions in the pop-up menu, or you can add the word to the dictionary.

Firefox cannot detect automatically the language of your entered text, you have to select it manually in the “Languages” dropdown. Firefox will then perform the spell checking of the text using that dictionary.

Extend It

When you check the Mozilla Add-ons site, you will find a couple of relevant extensions.

Dictionary Switcher

While this is just a small add-on, it is definitely a useful one.. Dictionary Switcher fetches the language from the source code of the page where the web form is available. Another method – the more interesting one – is trying to detect the language of the text you are typing in and switching to that dictionary accordingly.

You can access it from the status bar (now add-on bar since Firefox 4). A dictionary can be selected from the context menu.

When I select the Remember dictionary for current site item in the context menu, it really did not forget the manually set dictionary displayed in bold style.

Quick Locale Switcher

This add-on is more than a simple spell checking dictionary switcher. Quick Locale Switcher cannot detect the language of the entered text, but can automatically set the dictionary for a manually chosen language on a web site you visited.

It also skulks in the add-on bar, perhaps you may access it easier and faster from the Tools menu. The appropriate flags are assigned to the listed languages, still you have to separately download the dictionaries.

Conclusion

Some web based WYSIWYG editors, having their own spell check feature, present a problem, because they may disable Firefox’s right click menu, in addition to this, they may not have a dictionary for your language.

I hope the extensions development will move towards remembering the languages of certain pages. It would be a giant step for the international communities providing international subforums for their members.

In the era of web publishing, the grammatical correctness is not only a human expectation. Due to the sophisticated algorithms of the search engines, it may affect the position of your site in the results list as well.

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1. Hardware acceleration

The most noticeable difference in IE9 is its speed. Not only does it seem faster than previous version of IE, it is also faster than other browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The main reason for this is due to hardware acceleration. By tapping into the power of your graphics card, it is able to render pages more quickly. The latest version of Chrome and Firefox also comes with hardware acceleration, but IE9 seems to has a better implementation. In short, IE9 is fast.

2. CSS3 and HTML5 support

Web developers hate Internet Explorer, because they never comply to web standard. Mention IE6 and you will instantly hear curses and swears from developers. That is the past. IE9 is now fully standard compliance and it support CSS3 and HTML5 fully. No, it does not support the new WebM video format yet, but you can install the addon from Google website.

3. One bar to rule them all

There is no more search bar in IE 9. All you get now is the One bar (aka the address bar, or URL bar) where you perform searches (in Bing) or type in URL.

4. Smart screen filter and tracking protection

Internet Explorer has often been critized as being insecure and is always the security loophole for the main OS. In IE9, there is an improvement in the security aspect – some is built on top of IE8 technology and other is newly added. The smart screen filter can now detect malware and phising sites and the tracking protection can protect you from being tracked on certain sites.

5. New interface – Tinier tabs

The first thing that you will notice on IE9 is its new interface. The search bar is now combined with the address bar and the tab bar is now located beside the address bar. While it may look clean and streamlined, the moment you got more than 10 tabs open, the tabs will shrink and you will have difficulty navigating around the tabs.

6. Drag tab to open in new window

Nothing new for Google Chrome user. You can now drag a tab out of the tab bar and have it open in a new window. Similarly, to combine two IE9 window, just drag the tabs from one to another.

7. Pin sites to the taskbar

IE9 is developed by Microsoft, so there is no doubt that it integrates best with Windows 7. The best example is the pinning of sites to the taskbar. Simply drag the tab to the taskbar and it will instantly pin itself to the taskbar. Accessing your favourite site from the taskbar is definitely faster than accessing it from the bookmark. In addition, you can also create jumplist item for your site.

8. New download manager

The new download manager include a malware/virus scanner and can scan the files before the downloading begin.

9. IE9 as a window update, not separate install

Unlike IE8 where you can download and install as an application, IE9 exists as a Windows Update. Like any other Windows update, you will need to restart your computer after the installation.

10. No support for XP

Still using Windows XP? You can have IE 8 instead. IE 9 is supported to run in Windows 7 or Vista only. Perhaps it is time for XP to die too?

How to install

Microsoft will be issuing a Windows Update on the 21st of March 2011 and IE9 will be included in that update. In another word, whether you like it or not, IE9 will be installed in your computer, unless you don’t intend to update your Windows forever. If you are patient enough, you can wait for the Windows update and let it upgrade itself automatically. Your IE8 will be replaced with IE 9.

For those who want it now, you can download the installer file here.

Is IE9 better than Chrome or Firefox?

If you have been using IE7 and 8, you will definitely appreciate the changes in IE 9. However, if you are already using Chrome or Firefox and you love them, it will be very difficult for Microsoft to entice you over. The functionality are almost similar, but Chrome and Firefox have the added advantage of a huge library of addons and extensions. What’s more, IE 9 only works in Windows whereas the other browsers work in (almost) all platforms.

Nevertheless, effort must be commended to Microsoft for coming up with such a great browser. It is indeed their best browser ever.

What do you think? Will you switch to IE 9?

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Taskforce is a Gmail extension that convert your emails into tasks and allows you to manage your tasks right within your inbox. It’s a handy tool to help you stay organized and save you time from toggling between different tabs and sites/applications.

To enable Taskforce, you have to do the following:

1. Go to the Taskforce website and login with your Gmail address.
2. Grant it permission to access your inbox.
3. Install the extension for your browser (Firefox, Chrome and Safari).
4. Login (if you have already logged in, reload the page) to your Gmail.

You should now see the Taskforce bar right below your “sign out” links.

At any point of time, you can click the “+” button to add a new task. There are two fields available, one for the task name and the other for task description.

When reading a mail, you will see two buttons below the Title – Convert to New Task and Add to Existing Task.

Clicking on the Convert to New Task button will bring up the “Add new task” panel with the email title as the task name. There is also an option to add the email sender as the collaborator.

When you have added a task, you can click on the “Tasks” button to check out your list of to-do. From here, you can then edit the nature of the tasks. You can either add collaborators, due date, delay date, comments, or to delete the task. The delay date is one interesting feature that allows you to push back a task to a later date. When the date arrives, it will then be pushed back to the current tasks folder.

After trying out Taskforce, I admit that I have taken a liking for it. I have tried several other task management apps like Google Tasks, Remember the Milk and Toodledo. They are either too simple and without any feature or too complicated for a casual user. Taskforce has just the right mix.

One thing though, there is no mobile version yet, which means if you always check your email on the move (like me), you won’t be able to make use of this service. Other than that, if you are always checking your Gmail, or better still, keep your Gmail opens all the time, Taskforce could just be the right app for you.

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At first glance, I didn’t think xScope was anything noteworthy. It has a plain icon and unattractive interface. Anyone who are casually browsing the market can easily give it a miss. However, after using it, I began to like it. While the main features are similar to all other browsers, the subtle thing in the browser are what set itself apart from the rest.

Tabs

While other browsers also come with tabs, xScope makes the tabs pretty accessible. This isn’t always the case with other browsers.

While you are surfing the mobile web, you can open as many tabs as you need. When it is time to go back and access the previous tabs, you can press the Menu button on your Android phone. There is an icon in the menu bar that, when pressed, will show all of the open tabs.

To quickly add a tab while browsing, press the [+] plus sign on the upper tab bar. This will open a new window showing the bookmark page.

Bookmark page

A cool option many browsers do not offer is different views on your bookmark page. xScope gives you 3 views – Icon, List and Snapshot.

If this is not enough, you can also sort by Most Visited, Title or Date Created. This is a great way to save you time and increase your productivity.

Control bar

When you press the Menu button, the control bar is displayed. In the control bar, you can select Bookmarks, History, Download History, Search the SD card for files, Settings and Close.

Gestures

The gestures are not as fancy as Dolphin HD, but the options you do have will make xScope much faster to use.

By quickly swiping left or right to change tabs, you can easily find the window you want. Other browsers make you press the menu button then select something to see different tabs.

Revealing the Android notification bar when in fullscreen view is as simple as swiping from the top of the window down.

Pinpoint zoom is a pretty cool resizing gesture. Double tap like normal. On the second tap, drag your finger on screen. This is a fast way to get a more exact zoom. Many browsers just have a set percent they will zoom in when double tapped. Then you will need to use the [+] or [-] buttons to zoom in more.

Settings

Like a few other browsers, you can add themes to xScope. The themes offer cosmetic changes to the browser. There are different themes available in the Market. Depending on the degree to which they change the browser, there may be a cost for the themes.

You can change the location of the control bar. The control, by default is on the bottom of the screen. You can reposition it to the top of the screen if you prefer.

A unique setting is the ability to change the user-agent of the browser. This alone is not unique, being able to select between iPad or iPhone view is the one that set it apart from the rest.

In the Settings menu, you can customize device’s buttons (e.g.:menu press or menu long press). If you do a lot of web browsing, knowing the shortcuts to open a link in a new tab or showing the page options will make for a better browsing experience.

Conclusion

I used the free trial of xScope and found it is worth the 2.99 to buy. It does have some unique features, easy to use and is really fast. Recommended!

Is there any other features of xScope that I have missed out?

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By default, Grooveshark is only accessible via a browser. To use it, the usual way is to open your browser (or open a new tab), go to the Grooveshark site and start listening to your music. This isn’t really the most user-friendly way. What if, with the help of some tools, you can have a better Grooveshark experience? Let’s check them out.

1. Control Grooveshark from browser tool bar

Looking to control your Grooveshark without having to switch to the Grooveshark tab everytime? sharkZapper for Grooveshark is a great Google Chrome extension specially made for that. After installation, you can control your Grooveshark right from your Chrome icon bar. You can Play, Rewind, Next the song and even mute/volume control. It even shows the Album Art and a search box for you to search for songs.

In Firefox, you can use the Grooveshark Remote Control to control Grooveshark without breaking your workflow.

2. Block Grooveshark ad

Seriously, I would not want to block the ads in Grooveshark because firstly, I don’t find them intrusive, and secondly, it is a source of revenue for Grooveshark. However, I know that many of you dislike the ads and can’t wait to kill it even before it appears. The easiest way is to install an ad blocking extension. The most popular is Adblock extension (Google Chrome, Firefox). The ad will miraculously disappear after you have installed the extension.

3. Add keyboard support for Grooveshark

For those who prefer keyboard shortcut to mouse click, KeySharky adds the necessary keyboard shortcut for you to control Grooveshark. Once installed, you can press “Ctrl + Shift + Alt + Z” to play/pause the current song or “Ctrl + Shift + Alt + D” to skip to the next song in the playlist. There are also other useful keyboard shortcut like mute, increase/decrease volume. You can even change the keyboard shortcut to other keys that are more convenient for you.

keySharky (Firefox | Chrome)

4. Display lyrics for now playing song

If you love to sing along while your favorite song is playing, Grooveshark Lyrics (Google chrome extension) can display the lyrics when the song is playing.

5. Import iTunes playlist to Grooveshark

If you already have a huge playlist in your iTunes, the last thing that you want to do is to reconfigure this playlist to your Grooveshark account. Groovylist is a web service that can convert your iTunes playlist to Grooveshark format. It supports Last.fm and Spotify as well, so you wouldn’t miss out any of your favorite track.

6. Using Grooveshark as a desktop app

While Grooveshark is great, it will be even better if we could run it as a native desktop app. GrooveWalrus is one such app that allows you to run Grooveshark as a native desktop app. In Groovewalrus, you can search for the songs and mass add them to the playlist. The interface is user-friendly, so it should be easy for anyone to use it.

7. Remote control Grooveshark

There are times where you are not directly in front of your computer, but still want your Grooveshark music to continue playing. This is where remote control for Grooveshark becomes useful. If you own an Android phone, you can install the Grooveshark Remote (market link) app in the market. This app, works in conjunction with a Firefox extension, allows you to control the playback/pause/previous/next of the songs in your play queue. It is rather minimal at the moment, but at least it works.

For iPhone and other mobile devices, there is no native app to remote control Grooveshark yet. What you can use is GrooveBud Google Chrome extension to control Grooveshark remotely from another web browser. In this case, you can open up your mobile safari, load the Groovebud Control Player and control your play song. I have tested it on a first gen iPod Touch and it worked, but the interface is overly simple and nothing to be desired.

8. Download music from Grooveshark

There are plenty of ways to download songs from Grooveshark. Orbit downloader is one of the most popular one. While installing Orbit Downloader, make sure to select Grab Pro in the installation option and check the box for your browser. Once installed, you can then playback the song in Grooveshark and get Orbit downloader to record the song in MP3 format.

GrooveDown is a desktop-based Windows software that can also be used to download music from Grooveshark. The usage is even simpler – search for the song(s) you want and click the Download button.

9. Using Grooveshark on your mobile device

If you can’t get enough of Grooveshark and want to access it even when on the move, Tinyshark for Android is your best choice. With it, you can search and play Grooveshark music while on the move. My experience with it is that it can be laggy at times, but this is the best you can get from the market.

What other ways/apps do you use to improve your Grooveshark experience?

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However, being the default browser doesn’t mean it is the best Android browser. There are other options out ther. Depending on how you use your Android device, you may need a more feature-rich web browser. If you are running a version of the Android OS below 2.2 or have a device that doesn’t support on-page video, you may want to try a browser that can fix that.

Standard Android Browser

The standard browser is a pretty decent browser that is both lightweight and works out of the box. Whether you have 2.1 or 2.2 installed on your device, the browser is pretty much the same.

Unlike other operating systems (Blackberry 5.0), the Android web experience is more like a desktop app. You can have multiple windows (not tabs) open (4 with Eclair, 8 with Froyo).

Another thing I personally like is how your browsing history carries over from desktop to phone when you are signed into Google.

SkyFire

Skyfire is a fantastic browser for the social web. It is well integrated with Facebook and several other social networks. By using the Fireplace and popular sites features, you can see what your friends find interesting enough to share via Facebook.

The main selling point of Skyfire is that it supports Flash out of the box. I was able to play videos from several sites which I wasn’t able to before. The quality might differ from a desktop experience, but at least it works where others failed.

If you do not like the look of a site’s mobile page, you can toggle to the desktop version easily using the page load button. If you prefer one way over the other, there is an option to set your choice as the default.

What I did not like about Skyfire was the screen seemed cluttered with a lot of icons and other stuff.

Appbrain link

Opera Mini 5

Opera Mini is one of the best all round browser no matter the platform. While it isn’t the most feature-rich browser on the list, Opera has a few things the others do not. For starters, Opera was fastest loading of the browsers tested.

If you are a fan of the Opera desktop application, you will love Opera Mini. Much of your information like speed dials and bookmarks will sync with your Android.

A feature I used a lot on my Blackberry was being able to copy and paste from the web. Opera lets you do just that and also adds in an on-page text search.

While the single touch zoom in on non-mobile web pages is nice, pinch to zoom would be better.

Appbrain link

Dolphin

Dolphin has several versions: Dolphin Mini, Dolphin and Dolphin HD. The differences between them let you choose the amount of features and personalization you need. Dolphin HD is by far the most customizable browser on the list.

Dolphin Mini

Dolphin Mini is a no-frills browser with the emphasis on speed. You get everything you need and nothing you don’t. Mini would be a great choice if you are looking for a speed demon. You will gain Speed dials as well as being able to open as many tabs as you feel you need.

Appbrain link

Dolphin

When you choose the middle tier of the Dolphin Browser line, you gain a lot. Bookmarks from your standard Android browser as well as your Google bookmarks can be synced with Dolphin.

Dolphin lets you gestures to open a URL, reload the page or go forward or back. This will greatly speed up your web surfing.

I don’t think there is a real need to have a middle of the road browser. Most people seem to want all the bells and whistles or a minimalist browser.

Appbrain link

Dolphin HD

The big bad daddy of this group, is Dolphin HD. What you gain is a whole lot of customizing choices. Most of this is done via plug-ins, much like you would use in Google Chrome. Some examples of the plug-ins are: Lastpass, screen capture, Xmarks, speed dial, read later, ad blocker, rss readers, Last.fm, Delicious, Twitter. Many others are available with a quick search in the market.

Other features to set Dolphin HD ahead of the pack include pinch to zoom, unexpected tab recovery and the support of multiple languages.

If you use your phone to surf the web a lot, you may get bored with the look and need a change. Change the look of your Dolphin HD browser with different themes.

Appbrain link

Firefox Mobile

Of all the browsers, Firefox has the most stringent requirement as it only works in Android 2.0 and above devices and requires 32MB internal storage, plus 12MB SD storage. Nevertheless, it does comes with several useful features that make it stand out from the rest.

Mozilla has been working hard to make the mobile experience similar to the desktop version. One very good feature is the ability to sync between the desktop and the mobile version. The Firefox sync is in-built in the mobile browser and you can easily configure it to sync with your desktop browser. It also supports the awesome bar, tabs, session restore, addons (not the same addons as the desktop Firefox’s extension) etc.

Appbrain link

Now that you have seen our choice of browsers, tell us what is your favorite browser and why?

image credit: Johan Larsson

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What is KidZui?

KidZui is a web browser that comes loaded with kid-friendly content. As it serves a general population, KidZui is not age-specific but rather includes graphical links to a variety of games, videos, and websites for kids of all ages.

There are currently two versions of KidZui: KidZui Classic, which requires the creation of user accounts, and KidZui 2, which does not require a login and has a new interface design. In both cases, users are required to download and install the software.

The software itself is available as a stand-alone browser for Windows or Mac OS X. In addition Linux and other users may use the Firefox add-on to get the same interface. When downloading, the website attempts to auto-detect which operating system and browser you are using and then serves you the appropriate download link. I tested KidZui on my Linux desktop and on Windows running inside VirtualBox.

Interface Design

As would be expected of a browser for kids, Kidzui is very colorful and has large puffy blue buttons. Each button along the top of the screen has an icon next to its description, which may help children who cannot yet read.

On my 2.6Ghz machine, the animations and mouseover effects are snappy and responsive. On slower machines, it lags a little, but not enough to be unusable. The real lag starts when loading flash games and videos. This, of course, is not something the Kidzui makers can control, and the new 3D graphics accelerated Flash plugin may reduce some of those problems for users with supported video cards.

By design, the interface takes over the entire screen, and the only way to get out of it is to close it or “Alt+Tab” to another window. For the most part, this works well for kids, who will most likely not be multitasking until they are older. On my dual-screen setup, it actually covered my second screen with a grey window, preventing me from using it. Again, this is undoubtedly by design. If, for example, you had this interface up on a kids’ machine and did not want them in other programs, the fullscreen setup would keep their focus only on KidZui.

Usability

The ultimate way for me to put KidZui to the test was to sit my 7-year-old daughter down in front of it. She loved it from the moment she saw it and has no trouble navigating the menus or finding the content she wanted. Because KidZui depends on third-party websites for content, some sites performed better than others on her slower machine, but there were not a lot of dead links or accidentally linked inappropriate content.

Like a normal browser, KidZui includes a search box, back and forward buttons, favorites/bookmarks, and a browser history. Parents can also create logins for themselves to enable extra features such as the ability to receive weekly activity reports, set age and gender relevant content, launch KidZui on startup, and require a password in order to exit the browser.

Content

KidZui includes a great number of games, far more than I had time to play before writing this review (though I certainly was tempted to play all day). The content covers a wide variety, from sports to fashion and includes movies, music videos, television shows, and websites with multiple activities.

Without the parent login, the content is not age-specific, although there is generally nothing that would be particularly alarming to most parents of younger children. As with any website or software, however, it is ultimately up to the parent to decide what is appropriate. The music video section, for example, may include artists that some parents do not consider to be good role models. If they are concerned, they should use their own discretion to decide and make use of the parent login to control content.

KidZui does include some advertisements that are clearly marked with the word “Ad”, not that marking them would stop kids from clicking. But overall, the ads are not intrusive or annoyingly prevalent.

Kid Fun

My children enjoy KidZui and love the content it provides. They no longer have to ask every time they want to go to a site they like, because most of them are already linked within the browser. To expand their reach, the developers should port the Firefox extension to Google Chrome and possibly make apps for other devices. The only real downside is the heavy requirement of Flash player, which will not change until content providers find suitable alternatives.

KidZui is fun for all school-aged kids, and I recommend it for parents who are looking for fun and safe online experiences for their children.

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The auto-refresh function can be implemented either with the HTML META tag <meta http-equiv="refresh" content="600">, or with javascript. For javascript auto-refresh function, you can use adblock extension to disable javascript for that website. For the HTML Meta auto-refresh, it can only be disabled if the browser supports it. Let’s see how we can disable it in Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Disable Auto Refresh in Firefox

In Firefox, go to Preferences -> Advanced. In the General tab, check the box “Warn me when the web sites try to redirect or reload the page“.

Disable Auto Refresh in Internet Explorer

In IE 7 & 8, go to “Tools -> Internet Options -> Security“, click on the Custom Level button.

Scroll down the list until you see the entry “Allow META REFRESH”. Select “Disable”

It is understandable that some websites update frequently, so the auto-refresh function will enable its readers to get the latest content.

Disable Auto Refresh in Opera

In Opera, go to “Preferences -> Advanced” and click on the “Network” entry. Uncheck the box “Enable Automatic Redirection”.

Chrome and Safari

At the moment, Chrome and Safari do not come with any feature to disable the HTML Meta auto-refresh tag. We will update this as soon as it become available.

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Viewing mobile theme in Firefox

In Firefox, I recommend the User Agent Switcher addon as it comes pre-installed with the iPhone user-agent and you can switch to it easily.

After installing the extension and restarting your Firefox, go to “Tools -> Default User Agent -> iPhone“.

Now, refresh to your site and you should see the mobile theme in action.

To add the Android agent to the list, go to “Tools -> Default User Agent -> Edit User Agents“.

Click the “New -> New User Agent” button and enter the following:

Description: Android
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.2; en-gb; Nexus One Build/FRF50)
AppleWebKit/533.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1

The remaining entries you can keep them at default value.

(For iPad, the user agent is Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; U; CPU OS 3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.10 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Mobile/7B334b Safari/531.21.10)

The next extension you going to use is Firesizer. This extension allows you to resize your browser to a specified screen resolution so you can see how your site renders in different screen size.

After the installation, you can find the resize option at the right bottom corner of the browser. Right click on it and select Customize.

You can add new screen size to the list. For your reference:

iPhone 4 has a screen resolution of 960 x 640 (H by W, so you should enter 640 x 960)
iPhone 3GS and below has a screen resolution of 480 x 320 (H by W, so you should enter 320 x 480)
Nexus One (Android) has a screen resolution of 800 x 480 (H by W, so you should enter 480 x 800)

Once you have added the screen resolution, you can now view your website in its mobile suit and in the correct screen size, right on your desktop browser.

Note: The above addons only work in Firefox 3.6.* and below. They are not compatible with Firefox 4 beta.

The above tricks can be repeated on other browsers such as Opera and Safari. Google Chrome does not allow you to change the user agent (you can check out this hack though), so you won’t be able to use the above tricks.

How do you test your mobile theme?

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Note: To enable Google Instant, your iDevices must be running iOS 4 and above and Android phone must be running Froyo (2.2).

1. Load your mobile browser and go to http://google.com. It will most probably load the mobile version of Google search.

2. Scroll down all the way to the bottom and tap on the link “Go to Google.com”

If your mobile OS supports Google Instant, you should see right below the search field, a line saying “Instant (beta) on“. If it is not ON, you can tap on the link to turn it on. Similarly, you can tap on the OFF link to turn it off.

3. Now, start typing on the search field and you will be able to see the instant search-as-you-type result.

In Android phone, the instant search results might be blocked by the on-screen keyboard. Press the back button to hide the keyboard. In iPhone, tap anywhere on the screen to hide the keyboard.

How do you make use of Google Instant on your mobile phone?

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