It’s not very often that you have to talk about a Google product in terms of failure but is Google Gears one of them? With internet connections, laptops and mobile devices now so ubiquitous, was there really any need for a Google plugin that would allow you to work offline. And with the offline versions of apps such as Google Reader and Google Docs so stripped-down, are they even worth using?

I remember when Google Gears was launched almost a year ago getting quite excited at the prospect of downloading all my Google Reader feeds and reading them at my own leisure when not connected to the internet. I wasn’t alone either - PC World named it the most innovative product of 2007. However, I soon realised that whenever I’m on my laptop, I’m virtually always connected to the internet wherever I am and via whatever means anyway - whether it’s my home connection, in an office, via a hotspot or dare I say it, somebody else’s open connection. I also wasn’t particularly impressed by the general functionality - it became increasingly confusing to realise whether what I was reading in Google Reader was the online or offline version, the offline version was very basic and the synching process wasn’t half as fast or as automatic as I expected it to be.

However, what has really disappointed many users about Google Gears is simply how few applications support it a whole year after its initial release. At the time of writing, there are only a handful such as Google Reader, Zoho Writer and a pretty superficial attempt on Google Docs. Read the rest of this entry »

Among all the mail clients available for Mac, I consider Apple Mail to be one of the best. It’s easy to use, making it attractive to new users, yet has enough features to keep more advanced users pleased. Another major plus is that it comes preinstalled in your Mac.

What Apple Mail users don’t always know though is that their mail client can be complemented with a number of plugins, which perform specific actions. A good deal of indie Mac developers have worked on all sorts of plugins that add new features to Apple Mail, and most of them are generally pretty good.

You could spend some time looking for them on the web. Or you could start out by taking a look at these four useful plugins listed by MakeUseOf. Having tested them out myself, I do believe they improve the overall performance of Apple Mail and add necessary features to the client. Take a look at them and see which one you might need:

Mail.appetizer - Preview incoming messages when they’re downloaded without opening up Apple Mail. Also lets you mark messages as read or delete them straight from the notification window and display headers. Great if you receive a lot of emails and don’t want to waste time opening up the client at every moment. Mail.appetizer is still in Beta and may be a little bit unstable.

Letterbox - Change the normal Apple Mail interface to a three-column view. Best for widescreen monitors, it sort of reminds us of the explorer view. A good way to quickly browse through mailboxes, folders and emails.

Attachment Scanner - Because everybody’s forgotten to add an attachment to an email at least once. This program looks for words like ‘attached’ or ‘attachment’ in your message and warns you if you’ve forgotten to add your document.

Mail Act-On - You can’t properly master your inbox without rules. This little plugin is for the productivity junkies out there. It allows you to assign keystrokes to your rules, making them much more accessible.

The question with plugins is always which ones to choose. You don’t want to overload Apple Mail with plugins, and turn it into a memory hog. What I recommend is to try out the ones that sound interesting to you for a few weeks, and then based on your usage of them, only keep the ones you need. This also goes with browser extensions: every once in a while you need to check out the ones you have and get rid of those that you aren’t using.

A few days ago, I looked at some tips for helping avoid the increasing problem of e-mail stress - that horrible feeling when you feel utterly terrorised by your inbox. One e-mail client which I’ve always found reduces this problem to a minimum is Gmail. In fact, I think that Gmail is so good, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t use it. Anyway, as good as Gmail is, there are several applications and plugins which can help you get even more out of Google’s one and only e-mail client. These range from extensions that double-up your Gmail to serve as a hard drive to simply changing the look of your client with some new skins. Here’s a selection of ten top tools to get more out of this excellent web based e-mail client:

Gmail Notifier - Get notified of new mail without even opening your browser

Gmail Shell Drive Extension - Use your Gmail as extra hard drive space

GmailAssistant - Get notified of mail in multiple Gmail accounts

Better Gmail - A compilation of useful Gmail enhancements

Gmail Remote Command - Control your PC remotely via your Gmail account

Google Gmail Loader - Import all your e-mail from other accounts into Gmail

Gmail Manager Extension - Check your Gmail directly from Firefox

GmailClipseClient - Manage multiple Gmail accounts under one client

Gmail Skins - Give Gmail a whole new look with some great skins

Google Talk - Get notified of new Gmail while using Google’s instant messaging client

A while back Elena wrote a useful post about how to get more out of the Firefox web browser. This included tips on how to increase your productivity through extensions and keyboard shortcuts.

The one thing that adding more extensions does however is inevitably slow down Firefox. The more extensions and toolbars I add, the slower I notice Firefox becomes, the more RAM it consumes and the more unstable and liable to crash it becomes. Here then are 5 tips that in my experience, have helped prevent these problems:

• Uninstall old toolbars. This is arguably the major cause of slow downs in Firefox, the dangers of which I discussed in an earlier post. I recently uninstalled a couple of toolbars that I suspected were causing problems and the stability and speed improvements in Firefox were quite dramatic. It now opens in half the time and I’m not subject to the increasingly frequent instability issues I was before. One of the problems is that toolbars are crammed with dynamic links - sometimes ads - and when these change or rotate, Firefox can hang whilst it processes the “updates”. To uninstall toolbars can be a little tricky though. Most have a drop down menu on the far left of the screen where you can change options, buttons and uninstall it. However, some do not in which case you have to go to the “Tools” menu in Firefox and view whether it appears under “Firefox Add-Ons”. From there, you can uninstall or disable it. For those stubborn and sneaky ones that have neither of these options, the only way to remove them is to go to your Windows Control Panel and “Add/Remove programs”. However, the sneakiest toolbars sometimes don’t even appear in there in which case, I recommend using the “Add/Remove Program” tool in CCleaner which shows absolutely everything installed on your PC including Windows Updates.
• Uninstall old add-ons. It’s likely that you’ve got at least one or two extensions or “add-ons” installed in Firefox. I had a couple of video downloader extensions which no longer worked but I had completely forgotten about. Removing such add-ons speeds up the time Firefox takes to start and should improve performance. If you’re not sure what to remove, ask yourself if you really need all of your add-ons such as that Welsh dictionary or built-in PONG game.
• Change Firefox’s configuration. If you didn’t already know, you can tweak Firefox in a very precise way by accessing its advanced configuration interface. To do this, type about:config in the address bar. The most common tweak is to find these three entries: network.http.pipelining, network.http.proxy.pipelining and network.http.pipelining.maxrequests. Change the value of the first two to “true” and the last one to a value of “30″. Finally, right click and add a new integer. Name this integer nglayout.initialpaint.delay. Make the value “0″. Both of these tweaks basically reduce the amount of time that Firefox waits when making requests to websites.
• FireTune for Firefox - This small program is not an add-on. It works separately from Firefox but tweaks the browser’s internal settings to make it faster. You’ll notice an increase in speed after the first time you use it but over time, the effects wear off so you’ll have to run this program once a week to ensure optimum performance. The plus side is that it only requires one click and you’re done.
• Fasterfox - This add-on allows you to change Firefox’s configuration settings without going through the about:config route. It presents the available fields in an easy to use interface including pipelining, caching and even a speed testing tool to see whether your changes have really made any difference. It also includes an “Enhanced Prefetching” function which basically take advantage of “pre-fetch” tags in web pages that Firefox usually ignores.

Adobe Exchange beta is the closest to paradise Adobe software junkies can find. It’s a free online exchange service that enables you to download hundreds of plug-ins, extensions, code bits and other time-saving tools for the most important Adobe applications, including big shots such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, ColdFusion, Flash or Illustrator.

You can search the website using Adobe product filters or check their top lists, including the newest items and also the most downloaded and highest rated ones. Each plug-in is presented in a dedicated page with extended information about its functionality and other technical data like license, language and platform compatibility, among other details. What’s more, you can check other users’ comments about the plug-in, something that may help you make up your mind when trying to choose between a few of them.

The website requires a free user account in order to download anything, which you can sign up for on the spot. Be aware that not all available plug-ins are freeware – some of them are published under a commercial license. However you can find gorgeous effects for free, like this awesome Photoshop action I downloaded while testing the website and with which I produced the accompanying picture in just a few seconds.

Proxies are used for a variety of reasons from security issues to a desire to keep surfing anonymous. A proxy basically allows you to surf or connect to a network via an IP address that differs from that assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider. Both Firefox and Internet Explorer have their own proxy interfaces that allows you to configure one but they’re not very advanced.

One of the most useful proxy tools is AnalogX which allows you to share an internet connection with other users on the same network. This is great if you’re working in a small office environment but can’t afford several internet connections. If it’s privacy you’re after then one of the most powerful proxy surfers is Anonoymity 4 Proxy. The program is constantly updated with proxies from around the world although you’ll need some patience because they don’t always work very fast. If you don’t have any luck finding a decent proxy with this program, you should try the aptly named Proxy Vampire which basically sinks its fangs into the internet and “sucks out” available proxies. Note that this is important because not all proxies are public - many are reserved only for users on a specific network.

If you want to setup a proxy as an FTP server or for internal use within your own network or organisation, FTPRush has a proxy wizard for this task or if you’re disatisfied with Firefox’s limited proxy options, FoxyProxy is a simple plugin which adds advanced features to Firefox’s proxy functions. The good thing about this is that if a proxy is being used, a flashing notification appears in your browser toolbar so you’ll always know if the site you are connected to is being delivered by proxy or not.

I remember as kid wondering when Santa would finally arrive at my house. Of course, the harder I tried to stay awake, the more futile it became until I fell asleep and the presents magically appeared at the end of my bed in the morning. Those days are over however with Google’s new NORAD Tracks Santa iGoogle gadget which allows you to see exactly where world he is, using Google Earth. You might be thinking you’ve heard of NORAD before and you’d be right. NORAD (North American Defence Command) were the people responsible for failing to scramble a single jet to intercept the hijacked planes on 9-11 and it seems they’re focusing their energy on less taxing missions with this plugin.

From December 24th, you’ll be able to follow Santa as he delivers present to the children of the world in just one night. Yes - an amazing feat made even more amazing by the fact that his only vehicle is a sleigh pulled by reindeers. If you log onto the Norad Christmas website at the same time, you’ll also be able to download and extra plugin so that you can watch the whole journey in 3D. I’d like to see someone try and tell me Santa doesn’t exist now.

Working on a Mac is a breeze: iWork is fast and easy to use, as well as being packed with features. My version (and I suppose, all the others) also came with 14 built-in dictionaries, enabling me to perform spell checks in multiple languages. But what if the language you need to check isn’t included? No problem. Installing new dictionaries is simple and will take you about two minutes. Here’s how to do it:

First, you need to download and install cocoAspell, a free and open-source graphical interface for ‘Aspell’. Basically, this will take over spell check duties from your Mac’s built-in utility. This is great, but not only because it’ll allow you to add new dictionaries: cocoAspell also boasts a smarter, more advanced suggestion system than your Mac’s spelling APIs.

Once cocoAspell is set up, you’ll need to get hold of dictionary files for your chosen language. This bit’s a little more complicated:

1. Visit the Aspell dictionaries FTP site
2. Open the folder corresponding to your language’s standard two letter code (e.g. EN for English or CA for Catalan).
3. Select a file that looks like:
   aspell6-ca-20040130-1.tar.bz2 - as a rule of thumb, try do download a file beginning ‘aspell6′ over ‘aspell5′ and ‘aspell5′ over just ‘aspell’.
4. Save the file to your Mac and unpack it.
5. Copy the resulting folder to
   /Library/Application Support/cocoAspell/
6. Following our example, you’ll now have a folder called
   /Library/Application Support/cocoAspell/aspell6-ca-20040130-1
7. Open System Preferences -> cocoAspell and select your dictionary.

Once you’ve completed this installation, restart your Pages or Textedit application and you’ll find your new dictionary added in the available languages list. Job done!

I’ve recently converted back to Blogger after spending some time using WordPress for my own blog but I’ve been having problems with WYSIWYG editor. Basically, when I click the spell-checker, nothing happens which is a real pain because nowadays I rely on it. Rather than go back to school however, I found this excellent application Blogger for Word which allows me to post from my habitual word processing application anyway.

Since I’m totally familiar with Word already, this has made composing blog posts a lot easier, plus you get all the benefits of a dedicated word processing app such as grammar checker and word counter. All you need to do is install the Blogger for Word add-on, and three buttons appear in your Word toolbar. ‘Publish’ creates and publishes a new post from the text in your document, ‘Open Post’ enables you to edit your last 15 Blogger posts in Word and ‘Save as Draft’ enables you to keep a post unpublished. The post will appear in your Blogger account, but not publicly on your blog.

Be warned, however that you may experience some formatting problems as Word likes to insert all sorts of annoying tags from time to time but generally, this works surprisingly well.

It’s two weeks since Leopard landed and the general opinion surrounding the new version of Mac OS is pretty positive (bar the odd exception!). With a fairly large install base, a load of useful tips and tricks are beginning to emerge which range from reverting to a Tiger-style dock to making sure your Leopard install runs well. Here’s my run-down of the 5 best tips and hacks I’ve seen so far:

• Make sure you update (or better still: remove) 3rd party apps before upgrading to Leopard. While the two updates I’ve performed haven’t suffered any problems at all, a number of people are complaining of a freeze/blue screen of death after the installation process completes. Apple says this is caused by some 3rd party application enhancers. If you’ve suffered with this problem, check out this handy post for advice on how to fix it.
• Leopard features much better controls for folder sharing and connecting to network shares. You can now control exactly which folders are to be shared, as well as which user can do what to their contents. Additionally, the ‘Shared’ item in Finder’s sidebar now shows automatically detected network shares: nice! Check out System Preferences > Sharing for more.
• When browsing files in Finder, press the option key before clicking to jump straight into a presentation of all the files in the folder. Option-spacebar works too.
• Create and resize disk partitions on the fly, without needing to erase your disk’s contents. Especially useful for anyone working with swap-intensive apps.
• If you really can’t stand the new Dock and Menu Bar, you can easily get rid of them. For the Dock, look here for a simple guide. For the Menu Bar, Peter Krantz links to a downloadable hack which will fix the transparency issue, as well as suggesting a solution which is both novel and old-school!

More tips coming next week!

World of Warcraft is undoubtedly one of the most popular MMORPGs you can play today. With over nine million subscribers worldwide, this epic adventure has seduced players of all ages, sometimes to such an extent that they have been accused of neglecting their family, friends and their so called ‘real life’.

In spite of tabloids blaming WoW for broken relationships, the game is perfectly healthy as you can tell from the increasing number of WoW plug-ins that have been developed lately. These plug-ins, created by players themselves, are used either to implement a new function that WoW didn’t have or to improve one that was already featured in the game. In any case, they’re all intended to make your WoW experience even better!

• Cosmos – a pack of plug-ins to enhance game’s functionality
• Auctioneer - optimize your auction management and earn more WoW gold
• Gatherer – locate mining and herbalism resources faster and more easily
• Cartographer - improve WoW maps by adding coordinates, notes and other tips
• Titan – a highly customizable info bar to display all sorts of useful information

Creating a website is certainly not an easy task. There are many things you must take into account, such as choosing a design that’s simple, yet attractive enough for our visitors, organizing information in an appropriate, easy-to-browse structure or making sure the website is properly viewed on every platform with different web browsers.

Talking about browsers, if you use Firefox for your daily work, you’ll be glad to know there are several extensions that can be very helpful in website design and development. Have a look at the following list and see for yourself:

• Firebug - edit, debug and monitor CSS or HTML on any webpage
• ColorZilla - add a color picker, a ruler and a zoom tool to your browser
• Web Developer - probably the most complete set of development tools for Firefox
• IE Tab - see how your work looks in Internet Explorer without leaving Firefox
• Screengrab - take a screenshot of a complete webpage from top to bottom

Firefox is probably one of the best browsers in the world. Google Maps is also an excellent geopositioning tool. So what happens when you blend them together? You get Minimap Sidebar, a Firefox extension that embeds Google Map into the browser. This tool enables you to map any address on the web with a single click, besides giving you directions on how to get there.

There’s no doubt that tabs are one of the best things to happen to browsing in a long time. However, I often find myself floundering in multiple tabs until I don’t know what the hell I’ve got open anymore. One useful tool I’ve found to help prevent this is Tab Scope. This simple Firefox extension enables you to preview each tab’s contents in a window opened just below the tab. This means that you only have to wave your mouse over the tab to see what it contains.

The preview window is not a snapshot either - it’s real time content that you can navigate within the preview window. It even supports scrolling pages and if it’s hard on the eyes, then you can choose to configure a bigger preview window size.

This extension has helped me cut-down on flipping between tabs although of course, it can’t show you tabs that don’t fit on the screen. Note as well that sometimes, it can take a few seconds for the preview window to appear as it loads the page into the window.

If you use Google Talk and Firefox, you’ll love this extension. With gTalk Sidebar you can chat with your Gtalk contacts without having to install Google’s client or be on Gmail’s webpage. Just press Alt+G or click on the extension’s button and Gtalk will be launched right on your favorite browser, enabling you to enjoy a nice conversation surfing the web.