RickyCadden.com

Changing Defaults: From Firefox to Chrome

// August 1st, 2010 // 7 Comments » // technology

Young though I am, I get quite set in my ways – I’ve been a Firefox user for as long as I can remember, but have also noticed that the application frequently slows down, freezes, and causes my computer to run much slower, as well. Meanwhile, Google launched its new Chrome browser, and I’ve seen many of my online friends switching, claiming that Chrome is faster, smoother, and overall much better.

For starters, this wasn’t possible until recently, when Google Chrome added support for extensions (called plugins on Firefox). These are small add-ons that can be installed in your browser to add additional features/capabilities. One that I simply require is Xmarks, which synchronizes all of my bookmarks from one computer to the other – it works awesome, especially in keeping my Dell XPS M1330 and Asus EeePC 1000HE in sync – I can seamlessly swap between the two computers and all my bookmarks/links are already there.

However, as reliant as I am on Xmarks, I was surprised/pleased to see that Google Chrome integrates Google Sync, which accomplishes the same goal. I’m actually using both at the moment, with no averse effects. I’d like to see Google Sync supported in Google’s Android phones, too, but that’s another post for another time. Basically, syncing across multiple Google Chrome installs works the same as it did with Firefox. The only thing I’ve noticed thus far is that Xmarks in Firefox was also able to sync my usernames and passwords – a major help, and something that’s definitely noticeably missing from their Chrome extension.

Since speed was one of the main reasons I considered the switch, I’ll start there – Google Chrome is easily twice as fast as Firefox, if not more. I can give you two specific examples where I notice it the most:

Startup - on my XPS M1330′s Windows 7 taskbar, I have three apps pinned – Chrome (previously Firefox), Seesmic Desktop, and Digsby, in that order. When I sit down at the computer to work, I typically click these three buttons in order, starting with the browser, then Seesmic Desktop, then Digsby. When I was using Firefox, I had no trouble clicking both Seesmic Desktop and Digsby before the Firefox window would actually appear. I don’t have any default tabs open – just my homepage. With Chrome, I have yet to be able to click Digsby before the Chrome window is open. Sometimes I miss Seesmic, as well, but I never make it to Digsby. That’s a noticeable improvement.

Netbook - on my 1000HE, I cannot play high-definition video streams from Hulu fullscreen in Firefox. I’ve tried all sorts of tweaks, but never really get anything that’s watchable – there’s always significant stutter and whatnot. In Chrome, I have no problems whatsoever. Animation, live action, doesn’t matter – it all plays nice and smooth.

This is a big win for Chrome, and honestly has me wanting to check out the Nokia Booklet 3G again – maybe Chrome would make the Booklet 3G’s processor/RAM combo less painful.

Search - I search – alot. However, I don’t always use Google – I search IMDB, Facebook, YouTube, and a handful of other sites quite frequently. I’m a heavy user of the Firefox search box, and have a dozen or so different search engines loaded up in the drop-down list, for easy access. This is something I really miss from Firefox, as I’ve yet to figure out a way to duplicate the functionality in Chrome.

Dual Monitors – I use UltraMon to manage my dual-monitor setup, and it has this great feature of adding a button to the top of windows that lets you really easily send the window to the other monitor – it’s much easier than un-maximizing and dragging the window over. This works awesome on Firefox, but doesn’t appear in Google Chrome – it’s a big deal.

Smaller Toolbar Area – one thing that I *really* like about Google Chrome is the minimalist approach they took to the toolbars. With the exact same stuff being shown, Chrome does a much more efficient job showing you information – freeing up more space for you to see the webpage. I’ve done my best to re-organize the Firefox toolbar, but I’ve not gotten the same experience that I have in Chrome ‘out of the box’.

Thus far, that’s really the only differences I’ve noticed. I don’t use keyboard shortcuts, so that’s a moot point for my usage. I did go ahead and replace my browser shortcuts with Google Chrome on both computers, and am still evaluating the experience.

Which browser do you use?

Firefox Introduces Add-On Collections

// July 11th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // cool

One of the reasons I stick with Firefox is due to its excellent library of add-ons, which add functionality or features to the browser. Thanks to a handful of add-ons, 80% of my experience on my computer is entirely done through my browser, and the other 20% likely could be if I really wanted to (and was willing to sacrifice some functionality). Unfortunately, I have several computers, and it can be a pain to make sure I’ve got all my normal add-ons installed on each one.

While add-on collections don’t quite offer the holy grail – synchronization of add-ons across multiple Firefox installs – they do make it easier for me to get a computer up and running by allowing me to group all my favorite add-ons into a single place. You can find my collection here, and there is a new add-on, called Add-On Collector, that allows you to subscribe to various collections and get a notification when a new add-on is added to your collections.

The Collections library is available here, and there are some quite good ones. If only I could easily synchronize my add-ons across my Firefox installs, I’d be a much happier camper. However, collections is a nice start that will make it much easier to get things setup when I get a new computer.

How To Preview Mobile Sites On Your Desktop

// May 19th, 2009 // No Comments » // blogging, Mobile

If you’re a blogger or even just a mobile geek, you’re most likely somewhat interested in how various websites look when accessed from your phone. Obviously, you could simply pull up the side ON your phone to check it out. But what if you’re designing or customizing your own mobile site, or wanting to get screenshots of the mobile site to use on your blog or in a presentation or something? It can be a real hassle to get decent screenshots, and often you’re stuck ‘sewing’ them together in Photoshop, which is a huge pain in the backside.

Lucky for you, you’re a reader of RickyCadden.com , because I’m going to show you how to preview these sites from your desktop computer! First off, you need to get Firefox. If you’re not using Firefox already, WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU?! You can get it here , if you need to. Next up, you’ll want to get the User Agent Switcher add-on from here . Just click that big green ‘Add to Firefox’ button, and follow the instructions. Now, the problem with that plugin is that it only comes with a couple of desktop browser user agents – not really useful if you want mobile.

To solve this problem, you’ll need to go here , and download the file at the end of the post. Obviously you need to rename it to get rid of the _.txt ending, so that the filename is just ‘useragentswitcher.xml’. Now, in Firefox, click on Tools, User Agent Switcher, Options, Options. A small box should pop up, and you’ll need to click ‘User Agents’ on the far left. You should see the list of installed user agents, with an ‘Import’ option below. Simply click ‘Import’, and then browse for that XML file we just downloaded.

That’s it! You’ll now have a host of other useful user agents, and you can go through and delete the ones you don’t need or want easily. Now, when you’re browsing, to check out the mobile version of a site, simply click Tools, User Agent Switcher, and select whichever profile you want to preview. Then refresh the page you’re on.

There are currently 2 issues with this, unfortunately. First, this add-on switches the user agent for your browser, not your tab. This means, if you’re designing a mobile site, you’ll likely be switching the user agent back and forth to preview the site if you’re using other tabs for other tasks. Second, some mobile sites are designed to be fluid, which means that when you’re viewing them from your desktop browser, they’ll be EXTREMELY wide, instead of the long skinny column you were probably expecting. I’ve not yet figured out a way to fix this, unfortunately.

How To Get More Screen Space In FireFox

// April 10th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // blogging, technology

I’m a heavy FireFox user – it’s just so functional, especially with addons that really increase the utility. However, one thing that I find myself struggling with often is screen real estate. I’m a big user of the Dell Mini 9, which has an 8.9″ display. My main work laptop is a Dell XPS M1330, with a 13.3″ display, and I have an external 19″ monitor that I extend my M1330′s desktop onto. As such, I’m constantly dealing with a different amount of screen real estate while browsing, depending on what computer I’m on.

JKKMobile has recently posted a really helpful walkthrough for those of us who need to squeeze a few more pixels here and there out of our web browser. He goes a bit more in-depth than I care to, as I also need to maintain a level of functionality, but you can watch the whole video below. The best tip, though, that anyone can use without losing any functionality, is to move the navigational buttons to the very top bar of your browser, where there’s plenty of otherwise wasted space.

To do this, go to View, Toolbars, Customise in your FireFox window. Now, move that little box that pops up aside, so that you can see the whole top portion of your browser. You can now drag and drop everything on the 2nd bar, from the back button all the way down to the Search box, up to the area just to the right of the Help drop-down menu. Don’t worry, it all fits, and will automatically resize itself as you add more stuff. When you’re done, you should have a blank bar where all that used to be. Click OK to close that popup box, and then go back to View, Toolbars, and uncheck the ‘Navigation Toolbar’ to make that empty bar disappear. You now have more screen space without losing an ounce of functionality.

I Am Operating System Agnostic

// January 29th, 2009 // 6 Comments » // technology

In the past year, I’ve used Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Ubuntu (8.04 and 8.10), and now OS X, on various computers laying around. It’s easy enough to burn an iso and load it up, and if it’s a spare computer, there’s not much to lose/backup/etc. Since I work online, it’s important for me to have each machine setup so that, if needed, I could work from it. Thus, as I’ve been tinkering and experimenting with these various operating systems, I’ve discovered that I’m basically OS-agnostic.

How so? Well, as long as I can load up Firefox and install the Foxmarks plugin, I have access to all of my bookmarks, usernames, and passwords, and they’re synced between the various computers. I can, for instance, wake up and grab my old Gateway MX6956, which is dual-booting Windows 7 and Kubuntu currently, and go through my RSS feeds in Greader, check my Gmail, and bookmark the stories I need to cover today. I can then get out of bed, walk to my office, and fire up my Dell XPS M1330, open Firefox, and open those stories in tabs with just a few clicks. Since Firefox is available for Windows, Linux, and OS X, it works fantastically.

The only ‘gotcha’ is in media. Of course, I can play back my MP3s, movies, etc in any computer, but what about content creation/editing? Currently, Windows is king for that, since I have Photoshop and Ulead Video Studio. Ubuntu’s video editing tools are basically non-existant, so that rules that out pretty quickly. I’ve only just started exploring OS X, and I’m working on getting iLife ’09 to check out. That might be the deciding factor, we’ll see.

In any case, when you think about it, most consumers are the same as me – OS-agnostic, as long as it has a decent web browser. That fact brings up some interesting possibilities. I’ll be reporting back on iLife ’09 later.