Archive for July, 2010
Top 20 Features Of Firefox 4 (Beta) That Make It Stand Out
The beta for Firefox version 4 was recently released and it has already created a buzz on the web. While many of its features will already demonstrated in its nightly builds, the beta more widely showcases these new features.
Release notes for Firefox v4 outline all the features which web developers and ordinary internet users will find helpful. To know what exactly these features are, read on:
- Tabs are now on top by default on Windows only – OSX and Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
- On Windows Vista and Windows 7 the menu bar has been replaced with the Firefox button.
- You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
- New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
- Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions.
- The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux.
- The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like).
- Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
- CSS Transitions are partially supported.
- Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time.
- Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently.
- Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format.
- An experimental Direct2D rendering backend is available on Windows, turned off by default.
- Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API.
- Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs.
- More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.
- Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload.
- CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history.
- New HTML5 parser.
- Support for more HTML5 form controls.
As you can see, many interface changes have been made to make usage a lot more user friendly. At the same time, great web development features have been added with a special focus on HTML 5. For a full list of features for developers, you can click here.
Firefox enthusiasts, who are interested in what else Firefox has to offer, can get the unofficial beta 2 of Firefox v4; this beta is available from FTP server and is a follow-up to the current publicly available beta. Beta 2 offers even more features however has addons disabled by default, to prevent addon-related browser crashes. To enable addons support in Firefox v4 beta 2, install the “Add-on Compatibility Eeporter” addon, then restart Firefox twice. Type in “about:addons” in the URL bar which will open up the Addon Manager and let you use addons.
Smart Defrag: A Free Windows Utility To Easily Defrag Your Hard Drive Partitions
Over the course of your computer usage, data accumulates and sometimes it is spread out over different parts of your hard disk. Consequently your computer has to search for different places on the disk to access data. This is called disk fragmentation and considerably slows down your computer’s overall performance.
On regular hard disks, regular disk defragmentation is highly advised. This process rearranges data and makes it easier for the computer to find what it is looking for. Windows Vista and 7 have built-in defragmentation features but for somebody new to the process, Smart Defrag is the best tool.
Smart Defrag is a tiny Windows compatible utility sized at only 1.8 MB. When you run the program, you can view all your hard drive partitions. Click on the partition you feel is responding slowly, and perform an analysis to see if any files require defragmentation.
Once you click on “Analyze” your partition is thoroughly tested and the number of files that need defragmentation are shown.
Click “Go” on this window to begin the defragmentation process which will rearrange data on the drive.
If you would like a shortcut for the abovementioned process, you can simply access the program’s “Auto Defrag” option which defrags your hard drive in the background, while your system is idle.
Auto Defrag will be the preferred choice for many people who used their computer almost the entire day.
Scheduled defragmentation can also be set up so that your drives are timely defragmented and you always experience optimum hard drive performance.
Having used a number of defragmentation tools, I found Smart Defrag to be a competent and speedy option to go with. Whether you are new to defragmentation or are familiar with it, Smart Defrag will excellently serve your needs.
36 (Brand New) Eye-Catching Free CSS Templates
It doesn’t matter how good your site template is, still you will stop if something catches the eye. That means you’re a template lover, great that you’re here. We found some awesome CSS templates on Templatemo and here are some of those to stop you!
You are welcome if you want to share more CSS Templates that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.
Sound box
General
Portfolio
Metal curve
Wedding store
Milky
Wall
Greeny
Travel tour
Pink Ship
Particle
Fruit Art
Steak
Showcase
Black beat
Green black
Speaker Blog
Stable
Mini
Wooden Blog
Garden
Specific
Design Team
Yellow Blog
Professional
Architect
Greenhome
Game
Car
Simple Gary
Fruit
Pinky
Business
Book Store
Design Blog
Tea and Meal
Find more on Templatemo
Subtitles Helps You Find Movie Subtitles Of A Video File With Two Clicks
If you are somebody who downloads movies off torrent and other file sharing websites, then there is a good chance you do not get subtitles with your downloaded movies. Although many websites are online to help you search for subtitles, most of them have multiple entries for the same movies and a trial-and-error procedure is required to get the right subtitles. A much better alternative to all those sites is the installable program titled simply Subtitles.
Subtitles is an application created by the site www.subtitles.com.br. Sized at only 542 KB, it is a Windows compatible program which installs without any glitches. After installing the program you will notice that new entries have been made to your desktop or Start Menu. Actually the program has no graphical interface at all. It works in quite a unique way.
With Subtitles installed, all you do is right click on a video file. You will find that the context menu options now have a new entry that reads “Look for Subtitles.” You can enter this option and click on the language you want the subtitles in. After selecting the language, a search will automatically be executed on the program’s website. The search results will correspond to your video file and a far lesser degree of trial-and-error will be required. You will not have to enter any text in fields – simply right click on your video file and select your preferred subtitles language.
To download the Windows program Subtitles, visit www.subtitles.com.br/subtitles.htm.
Top 5 Tools To Test Your Computer Memory
If you have recently purchased a new memory module, it would be a good idea to test it for performance and errors. You can run the same tests on your currently installed memory as well; that way you will know whether you need a change in memory.
The following 5 tools will provide excellent memory tests which can easily be executed. See which suits you best.
You are welcome if you want to share more tools to test computer memory that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at SmashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter as well.
Windows Memory Diagnostic
Microsoft has its own memory testing tool and it is called Windows Memory Diagnostic. The program performs a series of extensive tests on your system to find anything wrong with your computer’s memory. This tool also gives you the options to either create a bootable floppy disk or CD / DVD (by burning the image). Booting from the disk or optical disk will automatically begin the testing process.
MemTest
Sized at only 14 KB to download, MemTest is a tool for Windows users, and requires no installation. You simple run its executable file and start testing your RAM. The tests executed check your memory’s ability to store and retrieve data.
M2K MemScope
Micro-Scope is a big company that produces great professional computer diagnostic tools. They are the creators of M2K MemScope, a memory testing software program. You can either use the M2K MemScope installer to create a bootable floppy disk or download the ISO image from the site to create a bootable CD / DVD. The program contains many advanced tests that thoroughly test your memory.
Memtest86
Memtest86 is a very user friendly memory testing software that will appeal to most people. All you do is download the ISO image of the program, burn it to a CD, and boot your system through that CD. Testing will initiate once the computer boots from the CD.
AleGr MEMTEST
For testing DRAM (main memory) of PC-compatible computers built on Intel 386 or higher processor, you can use a program called AleGr MEMTEST. This freeware takes into account how the system bus, cache and main memory of Pentium and Pentium Pro (Pentium II, III, 4) processors work. Maximum size of memory the program is able to test is 3 gigabytes under DOS and less than 2 gigabytes under Windows. If you have 4 GB or more, you can start several test sessions under Windows, to cover all the memory.
ForeUI – An Easy To Use Prototyping Tool For Designers And Developers
Designing prototypes for web applications can be tricky, you must have a good UI prototyping tool at your disposal. There are many prototyping tools available for Windows but if you are looking for an easy to use cross platform solution, try ForeUI.com.
ForeUI is an amazing UI prototyping tool meant for designers, programmers and anyone who needs a desktop tool to create screen mockups for web or desktop applications. You can use ForeUI.com desktop app to create a prototype of an application or a website.
The need of using a prototyping tool is when you have to verify the design with your clients or colleagues and then start the development process. You can use the prototype to write the documentation before starting the development phase or perform usability testing before coding and so on.
Download ForeUI
ForeUI is available for Windows and MAC operating systems and the latest version of ForeUI (2.3.2) can be downloaded from this page
Features of ForeUI Prototyping Tool
When you run the ForeUI desktop app, you see the following work interface:
The middle pane which is shown in white, acts as a board for holding all the elements of your mockup. You can drag and drop the different elements from the sidebar and adjust the position and styling of different elements as you want.
For example: I created a screen mock up of a simple HTML website by dragging and dropping the rectangle element from the sidebar. Following is a preview of the mockup:
Just double click an element from the left sidebar and it appears on the main pane for editing. Next, you can use your mouse to resize it or place it anywhere on the plot. The right sidebar lets you add style rules to the elements e.g adjusting the background color, position, border, width, height, layers and so on.
Here are all the properties of an element which you can tweak:
Next, I wanted to see how the prototype may look in the browser. ForeUI lets you export the mockup to image, PDF or DHTML formats, hence I chose the DHTML format and exported it in my desktop. Following is the result:
This is very useful, I can create the sample of a design and export the copy to PDF or DHTML formats. Then I can email the sample to my clients or developers and they can have a rough idea about my project.
The best part is that the mockup is Fidelity independent. You can always change the style by switching the UI theme and make adjustments as desired. Currently, ForeUI supports 5 UI themes – Windows XP, Windows 7, MAC OS X, Wireframing and Hand Drawing.
Changing the UI theme is very easy, all you have to do is select the theme from the UI theme dropdown as shown below:
The Action Editor : The Action editor in ForeUI lets you define the behaviour of each element in your plot. The behaviour can be a simple message, popup window, link or anything which you want the application to perform once the user interacts with the element.
To access the action editor, select an element and click the action button, shown by a flag:
This will open a pop up window where you can define the action of the element. Defining the action is fairly easy, you have to create a flowchart and add the logic and order of events in the flowchart.
For example: If on clicking a button, you want to show a dialog box containing a Yes / No button. If the user clicks the Yes button, the required action will be performed. If he clicks the No button, he will be returned to the current page.
In that case, you can create a simple If else conditional check and design the flow chart as follows:
Here is how the output will look like:
You can define more complex conditions and logics, this depends on what you want your prototype to perform once the user’s action triggers an event. The Action editor contains a lot of options to define conditional checking, adding different events e.g onclick, mouse hover and looping.
Once you are done with defining the logic and behavior of an element, you can run the simulation and your plot will run as a DHTML page in the browser.
This is really great, you can define how your application interacts with the user and do not have to code anything. Just create the mockup, add the rules and conditional checking and export it as a DHTML page. Then send it to your developers and ask them to do all the coding or design work.
You can also export the UI file of your plot and let your developers see the flowchart and the different order of events associated with a web element. The interactive design and flowchart model is really time saving.
Sharing Resources:
ForeUI supports packing a chosen part of your design as a custom element and exporting it. This is extremely useful when you want to share a part of your design or mockup with anyone.
Consider an example: You are designing a web application and want someone else to work on the site’s navigation. You have already designed the navigation and want the developer to add more features in it.
In that case, you can export the navigation as a custom element and send it to the developer. The developer can then import the custom element as a plot and customize it the way he wants. He can add more elements, events, conditional checking, modify the layout and colors and so on.
When he has finished modifying the custom element, he can export it and send it back to you. Then you can import the modified custom element in your prorotype.
The resource sharing feature is a lifesaver, you can divide the functional areas of your application to different developers. Let them develop the different elements on their own and then merge all the elements together in your prototype.
To export a custom element, click the “Resource sharing” button from the left sidebar. This will open a new popup window where you can sign in with your ForeUI account and share a resource with other users of the ForeUI comunity.
See Examples: At the ForeUI demo page, you can see some good examples of screen mockups and DHTML prototypes. Just click a thumbnail and the demo prototype will run in your browser.
Join the ForeUI Community
ForeUI has an active community of users at ForeUI.net, where you can meet and interact with other people who are already using the ForeUI application. You can download or upload resources from the ForeUI community for Free, this includes custom elements, libraries and plots .If you have any problems or need any help, you can ask questions, leave comments or start a discussion.
More information about using ForeUI is available on the official documentation page.
The free version of ForeUI lets you test all the features for 15 days. If you seriously need a full featured prototyping tool, it’s worth giving ForeUI a try.
Seriously Funny 404 Error Pages You’d Really Like To See
If you have a broken link on your website then visitors will get an internal error message from the server, which don’t exist any longer, have moved to a new server or have never existed at all. By default these messages aren’t that helpful. Therefore, we believe that having a cool and creative Error 404 page in website including beautiful web design is as important as having great content. If you have an interesting 404 error page on your website or blog, you may have a second chance to re-engage your visitors by re-directing them to the home page, and if you do not have an creative error page then you might be thinking of creating one which can inspire everyone. Yes, these are few but these will simply impress you.
You are welcome if you want to share more Creatively Funny Error 404 pages that our readers/viewers may like. Do you want to be the first one to know the latest happenings at smashingApps.com just subscribe to our rss feed and you can follow us on twitter.
File Not Found
WANTED
Dear Happy Internet Traveler
The page cannot be found
Page Fault Error
You have encountered an error
Couldn’t find the page you’re looking for
Press any key to continue
Plenton: A ‘Cloud Sharing’ Website With Wonderful Social Media Potential
Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and all similar sites are a part of something called online social media. Social media is what we use to promote trending topics, websites, products, and interesting links on the web. The sites I just mentioned dominate the social media arena. But there is an up-and-coming competitor to these sites. I am referring to Plenton.
Plenton is a ‘cloud sharing’ website with wonderful social media potential. I remember when I first visited Digg, it took me a while to get used to all the links and controls. In contrast, Plenton was a breeze to get used to. All I had to do was create a free account and start sharing.
After you create an account on Plenton (and optionally upload a display picture) not only can you share links to interesting online content, but you can also upload media (images and video). Whatever you share on the Plenton network, the Plenton community will vote and contribute related media material to your link thereby making it bigger. This process turns your share into a cloud and this is the ‘cloud sharing’ concept.
People who simply want to browse the site to see what happening on the web and everywhere else, Plenton offers a great site layout. The categories bar lets you view articles categorically.
The homepage of the site has “clouds selection” which always contains very interesting material.
“The Spotlight” section features latest shares.
Most popular clouds can also be viewed on the site’s homepage.
A section called “Upcoming Clouds” helps social media enthusiasts know about the upcoming trends and topics on the Plenton network.
The network’s features add up to a great social media site, one that has immense potential.
Try out Plenton yourself and leave a comment letting me know what you think about it.
eType: Auto-Complete Words, Spell Check & Translation Tool (1000 Invites)
Many freeware typing tutor programs can help increase your typing speed and accuracy. But if you want a simple application that guesses which word you are about to type and automatically fills in the letters, then eType is what you need.
eType is a freeware currently in its beta. The downloadable app is compatible with Windows and sized at almost 5 MB. Installation is quite standard and you will have it up and running in no time.
Once the program has been installed, you can have it run in the background as an icon in your system tray. You can right click on the icon and enable / disable eType’s function.
So what exactly does eType do?
eType monitors your typing activity in any application. Whether you are using notepad, Microsoft Word, typing in your web browser, chatting, or doing any other typing activity, eType will be monitoring what you type. As soon as you type in a few letters, word suggestions will pop up in a floating window. From this floating window you can select the word you wanted to use. A word can be selected by pressing ENTER or SPACE or clicking on the word. You can choose to skip the word selection by pressing the ESC key. To revert to typing the old way, you can always disable eType from its system tray icon.
By completing a user’s words eType will help many computer users who want to type fast and save time.
eType is a freeware program and currently in beta. There are 1000 instant beta invites exclusively available for SmashingApps readers. You can get eType from http://www.etype.com/v.aspx?id=smashingapps
We do not need anything in return but would appreciate a lot if you can guys can spread the word and tweet it.
Let’s Make Learning Fun For Young Chidren With Zoodles
Your children are growing up in the age of computers. Many jobs today involve computer usage thus familiarity with computers is a key element in the succeeding at the workplace. You need to help your children understand computers while they are still at an early age. Since the web has content of every kind, it would be unwise to leave children alone with a computer and let them learn for themselves. Also a few accidental file deletions by your children could really mess up the operating system and loss of your important data.
Keeping all these things in mind and recognizing the need of a good computer-learning tool for children, Zoodles was created.
Zoodles is a unique web browser comptabile with both, Windows and Mac running computers. The browser is intended to be used by children between the ages of 2 and 8. The browser serves as a learning tool for children. Web elements have been greatly simplified to ease the learning.
While using Zoodles, you can have the browser run in full screen so that children are not distracted by out-of-the browser files and documents. This will help prevent those accidental deletions. In addition to surfing the web, children can take advantage of the educational content and games available within the Zoodles browser. All this content is age appropriate and varies according to age group i.e. more advanced page element with an elder age group.
Parent who are concerned about adult and inappropriate sites will be happy to know that browsing in Zoodles is only possible on sites pre-approved by the browser. In line of the same goal, the browser blocks many ads, provides advanced parental controls, and parental monitoring.
In conclusion, Zoodles is a must have application for your computer if you want to teach computer usage to your young ones.
Check out the details and different plans of Zoodles HERE.
