Archive | July, 2008

Really Simple Notepad for Firefox

Need to jot something down real quick before you forget, and don’t want to be bothered launching another web site or program to do it?  The Really Simple Notepad bookmarklet is just what the forgetful web user needs.

Just drag and drop this link to your bookmarks toolbar:

notes Really Simple Notepad

Now when you need it, hit the bookmarklet link and up will come a popup window where you can type. The fun doesn’t stop there though. If you want to save what you have put in, just hit Ctrl+S to bring up the “Save As” menu. Make sure you set it to save as a text file and you have a simple backup of what you just wrote.

Thanks goes out to 7 is 7 for providing this hidden browser treasure.

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Google Notebook Add-on (without the add-on)

Like the idea of the Google Notebook add-on but you don’t want to be bothered with installing yet another extension?  Google has released a useful bookmarklet for people using browsers who can’t take advantage of the browser extension.

The secret here is that this bookmarklet also works for handy dandy Firefox.

All you have to do is visit the Google Notebook Bookmarklet web site, and drag the “Note This” to your bookmark toolbar.  Your done!  Now clicking that link will bring up a pop-up window asking you to “Please confirm that you want to add a note from this page.”.  Hit “yes” to do so, or “cancel” to go right to your notes.

Continue Reading →

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Camifox Theme for Firefox Rocks!

As soon as I say I like this theme, somebody is going to pop out of the wood work and say how awful my choice in themes really is.  To keep those people at bay I will only say… oh forget them.  Camifox is a unique new look for Firefox, yet doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel.

Here is a little more about the theme from the designer:

Firefox 3, in living color. Camifox replaces Firefox’s monolithic toolbar buttons on Mac OS X (and the icons on Windows and Linux) with the bright, colorful icons from the Mozilla Camino browser, and it also makes the tab bar easier to read with higher contrast.

How does it look?  Camifox, if I dare to say is a great looking theme in my opinion.  Here is how it looks on Mac, Vista, XP and Linux:

Camifox on Vista Camifox on LinuxCamifox on Mac Camifox on Vista

You can pick Camifox up for yourself on the Firefox Add-ons web site.  How do you feel about it, love it or hate it? (Having Problems?  Try the Alternative Download Link!)

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Firefox 3′s Colbert Bump was Real!

Not that I had any doubts, but it turns out the Colbert Bump for Firefox 3 was real! For those not knowing what we are speaking of check out the definition of the Colbert Bump for more information.

Here’s what we did:  we looked at downloads of Firefox 3 by users within the U.S. – and then we drilled down to a minute-by-minute view to see what, if anything, could be detected.  At minute 23 of the broadcast, Colbert said, “Firefox 3 just got the Colbert Bump.”  What happened next?

Check out the timeline graph and just in case you missed the plugtastic segment, here it is again:

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Would You Pay for Abstract Firefox Themes?

Found a couple of awesome Firefox 3 themes to share, but first I have a question for you.  Would you pay to have a better looking version of your favorite Firefox theme?  Bodizzle, the creator of the “Abstract” series of Firefox themes hopes so.

Via his web site he is offering better looking versions of these two free themes available for download now:

zune-firefox-theme

Download the Abstract Zune Theme for Firefox!

abstract-classic-firefox-theme

Download the Abstract Classic Theme for Firefox!

On the positive side, theme developers do put a lot of hard work into the creations they make for us, so if they want to go to the extra lengths to offer us something even more special for a low price, who does that hurt?  Everybody wants to earn some money.

On the negative side, I wonder what Mozilla would do if the themes page became one big home shopping network for Firefox themes?  Also are there any terms of service that would prevent the legalities of this happening?  Not sure myself, would need a lawyer for that one.

On what side of the fence do you come down on?

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Tips to Help You Read This Later

Too many web sites and not enough time, right?  I’m always finding tons of awesome things on the Web and hardly have time to check ‘em all out myself.  What do you do to manage this virtual to do list (or would it be a to visit list?).  Here are a few techniques that might help.

Create a “Read it Later” Folder

read-these-later The easiest solution to this problem would be to create a special folder in your bookmark toolbar called, “RIL”.  Then each time you are on a web site you want to save for later, drag the URL from the address bar into the special folder you have created.

Use Your Unsorted Bookmarks

unsorted-bookmarks Thanks to Firefox 3, we have yet another simple solution to this age old question.  Want to save that link for later?  Just click on the big star located in the address bar.  This will move it to your unsorted bookmarks inside of your bookmarks manager (hit Ctrl+Shift+B to bring it up).  Then later you can decide to keep ‘em or trash ‘em.

Read it Later Extension for Firefox

Read It Later : the Extension Solution

The Read It Later extension allows you to save pages of interest to read later. It eliminates cluttering of bookmarks with sites that are merely of a one-time interest.

instantpaper1 Bookmarklet Help in Instant Paper

This is the method I use the most right now.  Just sign up at InstantPaper.com and then drag the bookmarklet they provide to your bookmarks toolbar.  Find a link you like?  Hit the bookmarklet with your cursor and it will save it to the list you can read later.

Then just go to InstantPaper.com/u to see all your unchecked saved links.

How do you save things to read later? If you have a system that works better than these, please feel free to share!

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Making the Web a Little Better for Firefox Fans

betteryoutube-thumb  Need to make Firefox a little better you say? From Gmail to Flickr and all the neat applications in between, the “better” series of add-ons for Firefox is getting, well… better looking every single time I check them out.

Here are the list of the “better” Firefox extensions and what has come with the most recent update:

Better Gmail 2 – Version 0.5.2: Updates and fixes the Redesigned skin; Adds Hide Gmail chat script.

Better Flickr – Version 0.3: Adds Firefox 3 support, Rich Edit, Photo Page Enhancer, and Thumbnail Page Enhancer.

Better GCal – Version 0.3: Adds the Redesigned skin beta by Globex Designs.

Better GReader – Version 0.3: Adds Colorful List View; Updates the Minimalistic skin; Adds international domain support including google.co.uk, google.es, google.de, and others.

Better Lifehacker – Version 0.2: Adds HTML Helper and Nested comment replies.

Better YouTube – Version 0.4.3: Adds Firefox 3 compatibility; Fixes FlowPlayer (alternate, non-autoplaying player) and YouTube Theater view.

I’ve always enjoyed Gina’s work on these plugins, cause with each I am shocked and amazed with how much functionality she’s able to pack into there. Make your Firefox a little better with these additions too!

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Rounded Square Themes of Firefox 3

Kozakura Inko has done a great job at porting both of these stylish themes over to Firefox 3, wouldn’t you say?  If you enjoy simple and rounded off squares – these two themes are the best you can get.

netstripe

Download the Unofficial Netstripe Theme!

dublin

Download the Unofficial Dublin Theme!

For more Firefox 3 themes, be sure to check back on the themes section of FirefoxFacts.com.  We got a ton of them listed there!

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Want to Build Your Own Giant Firefox-bot?

How would you like to have your own huge Firefox-bot in your own backyard?

1214826080_148

Better yet, what does it take to build a giant tribute to the promotional art for Firefox 3?  From the looks of it, a lot of aluminum foil, some social networking and a lot of love.  Just make sure you don’t get too close to the ice cream.

We got setup in the park at 2pm and the sun was shining. We made sure to have enough robot building fuel ie pizza, and sangria to keep everyone running. We also had a friend from a chemistry department bring dry ice and liquid nitrogen, which we used for special effects and to make cryogenic Firefox icecream (carrot and blueberry, a flavor we made up).

Check out all the details on How to make an 18 ft tall robot and celebrate Firefox 3 in style via WebMynd.

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Add Some Color to the Awesome Bar

Is the awesome bar a little bland for you?  Firefox 3′s address bar seems to be something people either really love or love to hate.  Now due to a little creativity and the Stylish extension you can color it up a little ‘bit to help usability.

8564_after

This changes up how you use the awesome bar.  Your tags will be light yellow, you bookmarks will be blue, and your history items will be light green.

Colorful, isn’t it?  If you like this you may also want to check out more work by the creator, -=Ben=-.

If you would like to include this tweak to your own Firefox 3 awesome bar, all you need to do is pick up the Stylish extension for Firefox and then install this scriptAwesome Bar Background Color Based on Type (WOW) *.

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