Ubuntu / Linux news and application reviews.

Firefox 4 Compatible Add-ons Collection

| Date: September 08, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, linux, ubuntu

Do you use Firefox 4 already? If so, you probably know that a lot of addons don't work with Firefox 4. And it's not like it was with older Firefox releases: just forcing the addon to install won't make it work as the code in Firefox has changed and there's nothing you can do to make them work.

WebUpd8 reader Justin created an Firefox 4 compatible add-ons collection. The addons in his collection also play nice with Linux (Ubuntu specifically). Check out the collection @ addons.mozilla.org.

Further more, Stylish and Greasemonkey as well as some other extensions from addons.mozilla.org do not work with Firefox 4 beta 4. However, Justin searched for builds which work on the devs websites so you can get those to work too. Check out his blog post for further details.

Contacts: New, Experimental Firefox Addon Released By Mozilla

| Date: March 22, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: addons, Contacts, firefox, mozilla, social media, web

mozilla contacts firefox

Mozilla released an experimental Firefox addon called "Contacts" which allows you to import Twitter and Gmail contacts (for now) and the Mac OS X address book into Firefox. This is a first step for globalization (contacts-wise):

Why is this information important? Address books and buddy lists have become an integral part of how we manage our relationships online. Your email addresses, Twitter handle and openID are used in hundreds of ways as you connect, follow and share online.

Every desktop operating system, and hundreds of web-based service providers, has some way of representing “who-you-know”. Managing all of this information can be a lot of work. There are multiple copies of your data, and they are inconsistent and disjointed.



Mozilla Releases Weave Sync 1.0

| Date: January 29, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: addons, cloud, firefox, mozilla, sync, weave

mozilla weave 1.0

Mozilla has finally released Weave 1.0, the Firefox extension that provides Firefox user data synchronization which includes complete syncing of bookmarks, passwords, preferences, history, and even open tabs on multiple computers (or multiple operating systems) and even mobile devices.

Mozilla Weave Sync 1.0 RC Released

| Date: January 13, 2010 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, internet, mozilla, sync, weave

Mozilla Weave Sync lets you synchronize your browser (including Fennec) across multiple computers. Also, it is likely that Firefox 3.6 or 3.7 will integrate Weave Sync by default.

Mozilla Weave Sync 1.0 release candidate is now available for download, and among the improvements are:
  • Faster startup times for Firefox and Fennec
  • Make tabs available immediately when setting up another computer
  • Automatically use the synced lightweight theme (Firefox 3.6+)
  • Better integration with Fennec UX
  • Avoid triggering master password prompt on launching Firefox

Multifox Firefox Add-on Lets You Login To Multiple Accounts In The Same Time

| Date: December 14, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, multiple sessions

Some time ago, we talked about CookiePie, a Firefox add-on which allows you to use a new session so that you can log in to the same service with multiple accounts (such as multiple Google accounts, etc). But CookiePie doesn't always work and it breaks the cookies if you move the tabs around.

Multifox is another Firefox extension for logging in to multiple accounts on the same site which I like because it doesn't messes with your cookies and I was never logged out from both accounts like it sometimes happens with CookiePie.

7 Extremely Useful Firefox Extensions

| Date: December 10, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, linux, macosx, windows

1. Automatic Save Folder

Automatic Save Folder firefox addon


Automatically download certain file types to the folders you set. For instance, you can set to automatically download all the .png and .jpg files to your Wallpapers folder, all the .zip files to the Downloads folder and so on. The filters are based on filenames and hosted domain's name.


2. Capture Fox

Capture Fox

With this Firefox add-on, you can capture the Firefox window or the whole screen and make screencast videos (it also records your voice). Using it, you can compose tutorials, e-lessons or videos. Unfortunately, this extension does not work on Linux.


3. Bookmark Autohider

Bookmark Autohider

Gain some space by hiding the bookmark toolbar until you move your mouse over the area where the toolbar was.

Mozilla Weave 1.0 Beta 1 Released, Adds Incremental Sync

| Date: November 17, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, mozilla, weave

The first Beta of Weave Sync add-on is now available, and includes major changes such as:

  • incremental sync behavior - Your data will be synchronized in chunks to improve performance. Among other things, it ensures that you can continue to use Firefox normally even when you are syncing hundreds of bookmarks in the background.
  • Faster – using heuristics, Weave Sync computes an interestingness score to get you the most relevant data first. We have more details below.
  • Simpler – a user interface that allows regular users to get up and running in a matter of minutes, while being flexible to accommodate advanced users.
  • Unobtrusive – once it has been setup, Weave Sync works mostly in the background and when your computer is idle, without interrupting your regular Firefox experience.

6 Interesting Firefox Extensions

| Date: November 14, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, linux, macosx, tips n tricks, tweak, windows

1. Tab Progress Bar:

Tab Progress Bar

Provides a progress meter for each tab - Firefox 3.7 style. Unfortunately, this extension is incompatible with TabMix Plus.

2. Dislike for Facebook:

Dislike for Facebook

Adds a Dislike (unofficial) Button to Facebook.

3. App Tabs:

App Tabs

Pin favicon-sized app tabs to the left side of the tab bar. Inspired by a feature by the same name planned for Firefox 4.0! With this extension installed, just Ctrl+Click the tab, select App Tab, and any tab will shrink down to an icon only on the left of your Firefox window. You can set it to retain your App Tabs between sessions and protect them from closing.

FoxReplace: Search And Replace Firefox Add-on

| Date: November 02, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, foxreplace, replace, search

Image and video hosting by TinyPicFoxReplace is one of those underrated Firefox add-ons and if you don't want to install it for now because you might not need it today, you should definitely bookmark it because you will need it some time for sure. But let me tell you how it helped me.

We recently moved from webupd8.blogspot.com to www.webupd8.org and Google says that when doing that, you should replace all your internal links (links in posts included) from your old address to the new one. We had about 1800 posts to date so that's not an easy task. But FoxReplace can automatically search and replace strings upon opening a page, and this includes HTML too. So basically, all I had to do was click the edit button on posts and then re-publish them, without having to manually edit anything. Believe me, that was a real time-saver.

Remove Firefox Status Bar, Keeping The Mouse-Over Links Functionality

| Date: October 14, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, status bar

Normally, when you hover over links, you can view the address behind that link in the Firefox status bar (at the bottom of the screen). If you don't use the status bar for something else, you can remove it (View -> Status Bar) for gaining a few extra pixels in screen height, and still keep this mouse over links showing the URL behaviour, by using a neat little Firefox add-on called Status Address Bar.

Here's an example:

View Archives Online, Without Downloading With ArchView Firefox Add-on

| Date: October 11, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, archive, firefox, web



ArchView is a Firefox add-on which can open archive file online without downloading the whole archive. Just like normal web pages. It is very fast since it merely fetches a small portion of the archive file from server. ArchView supports RAR, ZIP formats and ISO CD image; HTTP, FTP and file: protocols.

Install New Tab King 2.1.0 Firefox Addon - Super Powers For Your New Tab Page

| Date: September 29, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, new tab king

New Tab King is a Firefox addon which makes your new tab page somewhat similar to that of Google Chrome. You get instant access to recently closed tabs, personalized suggested sites and even shortcuts to your desktop applications. But the version available at the Mozilla addons website is not the latest version. Take a look at what's different between version 2.0.6b (the default version at addons.mozilla.com) and the latest version, 2.1.0:

Firefox Tab History Menu Extension

| Date: September 26, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, history, tab history

tab history firefox addon

Tab History Menu is a Firefox add-on which gives you access to the history of a tab, by clicking on it. Basically, you get a list with all the pages you've visited within that tab and you can either go back to that page or open it in a new tab, by clicking the middle mouse button (wheel).

I find this Firefox extension very useful, especially because you can remove the back and forward buttons from your toolbar to make some room. This, with some other tweaks would allow you to create the ultimate minimal Firefox window, especially good for laptops and netbooks.

Multiple Sessions in Firefox with CookiePie

| Date: September 22, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, cookiepie, firefox, gmail, web, yahoo

Internet Explorer for instance, allows you to use a new session so that you can log in to the same service with multiple accounts - which is great for Gmail, Yahoo and so on. Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't have this feature implemented for now. But there is a Firefox extension called CookiePie which enables something close to this "new session" feature.

cookiepie firefox

Using CookiePie, you can right click a tab, select "Toggle On/Off CookiePie" and when you turn it on, you can basically log in to a website to which you are already logged in, into the same Firefox window.

Search Your Browsing History From Firefox Search Toolbar With Breadcrumbs [Add-on]

| Date: September 21, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, history, search

search history firefox

Breadcrumbs is a search engine for your personal browsing history that comes as a Firefox add-on. Breadcrumbs saves your visited pages and allows you to search your pages from the search toolbar. It stores data locally to protect your privacy but you can access it remotely if you want or add another computer, to combine the search results (such as adding your work computer to be able to search the browsing history from your home computer, etc.).

But what I like the best about Breadcrumbs search for Firefox is that using it to search for a page, you can browse completely offline.


For an how-to, visit: http://davidkellogg.com/blog/?origin=moz_bc

Another great Firefox history add-on is History Tree.

PostRank Enhancements For Google Reader

| Date: September 20, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, google reader, greasemonkey

AideRSS provides 2 tools for enhancing Google Reader in Firefox, through PostRank post score, which you can use to filter and track the performance of any RSS feed.

Customize Your Web! [Firefox Extension]

| Date: September 17, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, customize, firefox, internet, web

Customize Your Web (CYW) let's you customize your favorite websites with just a few clicks. What Greasemonkey is for developers is CYW for non-developers. You can remove/rearrange /modify elements, add keyboard shortcuts and do many other things. More advanced users will also be able to insert javascript, or even re-style the CSS of any webpage they like. You can also add keyboard navigation or auto-executing macros.

"Transload" (Upload) Any Image In Firefox To ImageShak or Phyrefile Using One Click [Add-on]

| Date: September 16, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, image, imageshack, upload, web

Image Transloader

Image Transloader is a Firefox extension which automatically sends any image in your browser, to ImageShack or phyrefile, copying the code to the clipboard, all with just one click. You can customize the code so that you get the image code for posting it to a forum, direct image link or HTML code for using the image into a website.

Using this Firefox add-on is very simple: just right click any image and select "Trasload to Imageshack" or to "phyrefile", depending on which service you set to be default. The image code will then be automatically copied to the clipboard. Additionally, you will have a menu to access the images you have uploaded before.

Synchronize Your Notes Between Multiple Computers With QuickFox Notes Firefox Add-on

| Date: September 10, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, firefox, notes, weave, xmarks

notes firefox addonQuickFox Notes is a Firefox add-on for taking notes but with a little extra. This multi-tab note taking extension saves the notes data as bookmarks which means you can synchronize these notes (since they are bookmarks) with add-ons such as Xmarks or Mozilla Weave. Another interesting feature is that QuickFox Notes supports most Notepad++ short-cut keys.

For more info and how to use this Firefox extension, visit it's webpage.

If you don't like this add-on, another way to synchronize your notes in Firefox would be to use any other note taking add-on such as Tomfox, QuickNote, etc. and instead of syncing your bookmarks, notes, you can use Dropbox to sync your whole Firefox profile folder.

[via kabatology]

Feedly: A Great Way To Read Your RSS and Social Media Feeds

| Date: September 07, 2009 | View Comments | Tags: addons, feed reader, firefox, google reader, internet, social media, twitter

Feedly currently works as a Firefox extension only, but there is already and experimental Safari version and also rumours about a Google Chrome version.

After you install Feedly, you’ll see is a neat page that asks you if you want to synchronize with your Google Reader, Twitter, FriendFeed and other web 2.0 accounts. If you ask Feedly to connect with Google Reader or Bloglines, it will then load a copy of your OPML file that contains a list of RSS feeds you read from there. If you’ve got it integrated with Twitter, it lets you tweet about articles on your start page. Similarly, many other services can be integrated.

The Cover and Digest views are the most popular start pages, both offering different layouts of the following:

  • Featured articles from your favorite feeds at the top
  • Selected list of unread articles from all feeds
  • Your latest Twitter stream, Twitter mentions, and Karma (more below)
  • A view of your Friends, Twitter trending topics, etc.
When you read an article in Feedly, you can easily email it, and share it on several social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, etc:

feedly share

A very interesting feature is that Feedly shows you the number of times that article has been Tweeted, shared on FriendFeed, number of Diggs, and comments on the original post:

feedly stats

Feedly Mini is a little pop-up that shows up at the bottom of your browser window when you’re browsing the web, even when you have not opened Feedly which you can use to Email, Tweet, Share and Star in Google Reader/Feedly any article on the web, even if you are not subscribed to that page’s feed. It is incredibly powerful compared to the Google Reader bookmarklet:

Image and video hosting by TinyPic


Overall, Feedly is a great alternative to Google Reader which also synchronizes all the feeds you read so you can always go back to using Google Reader without much of a fuss if you want but after a couple of hours with Feedly, I am almost sure you won't want to go back!
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