Saturday, September 29, 2012

Thumbnail Zoom Plus: Zoom In Images By Hovering Cursor On It [Firefox]

There are times when you want to browse through pictures without having to open up new tabs to get a preview of it as opening and loading the entire image can take time depending on the size of the picture. If you use Firefox, you are in luck thanks to Thumbnail Zoom Plus addon that allows users to zoom in images on websites by hovering mouse cursor on them.

This Add-on is for Mozilla Firefox and it requires a restart after you install it.

You can go to the options menu of this Add-no and make changes like increasing or decreasing the delay before images are shown, set the zoom level and set a hotkey for maximizing the image. The sites that Thumbnail zoom plus supports include; Amazon, Facebook, Flickr, Google, Huffington Post, Twitter, Reddit and many more. You can also select the sites for this Add-on which you prefer.

Thumbnail Zoom P   lus

You just need to place the cursor on the image/image link and a zoomed up version pops up. You can further zoom in by pressing ‘Shift’ the predefined hot key for extra zoom. The Add-on performs quickly and without much delay.

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However, it works mainly on image links and on some sites image thumbnails do not get zoomed in. It works well on Flickr. However, it does not zoom into flash content on Amazon. It has a few functionality issues since not all thumbnail images are enlarged. The Add-on has no support for eBay, which is a flaw as many users shop there.

Nevertheless, it’s a useful tool as far as zooming into thumbnails is concerned. Moreover, if a higher resolution of a thumbnail is available, it will open that up instea d of zooming in and pixelating the image.

Overall, Thumbnail Zoom plus is a useable add-on that’s completely free of cost.

Download Thumbnail Zoom Plus for Firefox

Friday, September 28, 2012

Tabs Outliner: Effectively Organize Open Tabs in Google Chrome

If your work involves social media or any other type of online tasks, then you will often find many tabs open at the same time in your web browser. In most web browsers, when a lot of tabs are open, additional tabs are hidden. This makes it very difficult to find the tab that you are looking for. Saving a tab and closing the one you no longer need are also tasks that become difficult. Fortunately for Google Chrome users however, there is a tool called Tabs Outliner that makes things simpler.

Tabs Outliner 1

Tabs Outliner is a free to use browser tool that makes it easy to manage browser tabs currently open. The tool comes as a browser extension for Google Chrome. Once you have the extension installed, you will find its icon added to the address bar. The icon will show a number that indicates the number of currently open tabs in all open Google Chrome windows. once .mes as a browser extension for google easy to manage browser tabs currently open. the y for google en at the same time in

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When you click on the icon of the extension, a new window is opened that shows all chrome windows and tabs in the form of nodes. You see that which window all tabs belong too. If you had to click on a link in a tab that opened another tab, you will see the new tab as a sub-node to the previous tab.

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To be directed a tab, you simply need to double click on its node. You can create new nodes and rename them to organize new tabs by dragging tabs into the new node. In the right side of each node, you will find options to close the tab or completely delete it. The difference between these options is that one lets you keep the as an inactive sub-node which can be reactivate later; in other words, even after closing a tab you are able to reopen it anytime you want.

Tabs Outliner 4

In the bottom of the control window, you find options to save all open tabs and then close them, add new Google documents, clone the control window, and more.

Tabs Outliner 5

Overall, Tabs Outliner gives all Chrome users powerful tab control options.

Download Tabs Outliner for Google Chrome

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Clear History: Delete Google Chrome Browsing Data With a Single Click

There are many occasions when you need to clean up your browser data and history. There is no need to keep the history of websites you have visited over a period of time. The annoying part is when you have to clear your browsing data and you have to go to through a number of steps to clear your data. There is a chance that Google Chrome may stop responding if you have not cleared your data and internet files for a long period. Thanks to Clear History extension for Google Chrome, you can now delete entire browsing data with a single click.

After installing the extension, you can go to its options and select the option to: clear all cookies, clear all downloads, clear all cache, clear all data when you close your browser. Once installed, you will notice a small cross icon in your Google Chrome task bar.

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Clicking on the button will aut omatically delete all the selected browsing data for Google Chrome in no time.

Clear History

These are some great options and some give more control over handling past history. Users can also filter a list of websites from which the cookies and other browsing data will not be deleted. This feature is of particular use especially when you need to keep your passwords saved for specific websites such as Gmail, etc.

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In conclusion, I must say that Clear History for Google Chrome is a nifty extension that can come in handy at times. Deleting history and other browsing data was never simpler before. Did you try the extension? If yes, please share your opinion using the comments section below.

Download Clear History for Google Chrome

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Auto Shutdown: Schedule Shutdown, Restart, and Hibernate of Your PC

Letting your computer run unnecessarily waste a lot of electrical power. To cut back on energy costs and to help cut back the heat emissions to the environment, you should turn off your computer when it is not being used. But this is not always easy.

For example you leave for work and leave your computer turned on so that the ongoing downloads would be finished by the time you return. In such situation you would want your computer to automatically shut down after a certain time. Furthermore, there are times when you want your computer to automatically restart after a certain process and not shut down.

If you are looking for an app that lets you do this, then check out Auto Shutdown.

Auto Shutdown 1

Auto Shutdown is a free to use desktop application for Windows computers. The app comes in a download ar chive sized nearly 800 KB. The app installs quickly and runs from the System Tray. You can right click on it and enter Options to adjust settings. When the program’s window opens up, you are able to schedule automatic shutdowns.

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You set a specific time, a weekly time, or a specific date for the computer to shut down. If you want the computer to restart, hibernate, or sleep instead of shutdown, simply specify so in the Action menu.

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You can also setup keyboard shortcuts for every one of these actions under the Shortcuts tab in the app’s window.

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There is also an option to make a warning message appear before a scheduled task is about to be executed. You can set the time for this warning messaged by clicking on the Advanced button.

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As you can see, evidently this simple application automates your computer’s resting actions and helps you save energy.

Download Auto Shutdown

Saturday, September 22, 2012

System Information Viewer: View Detailed System, Hardware and Other Computer Information

There are people who are looking for in-depth details about their personal computers. Are you one of them? SIV is a perfect tool that gives you a lot of detail about your system, and it goes beyond the typical information provided randomly. The information it can show include: Network and hardware info, Information about Windows, CPU, PCI, PCMCIA, USB info SMBus, and much more.
It comes in a zip file and you don’t need to install it or anything. Simply extract it and run the executable file that fits your system i.e. SIV32X for 32 bit users or SIV64X for 64 bit users.
Open up the application and you will be bombarded with complete system information. The main page shows system information and you have tabs underneath that show information about the above mentioned components. It has got some insane amount of information and can be used by hardcore PC users to check and see how their system is performing.
SIV 1
It even provides users with some minimum, maximum and average detail statistics to analyze when their system was the most active, when it peaked in its performance and just how much it was kept in average use. If some components are showing above or below average numbers it could be there might be some problem.
You have many different tabs in the main windows and you can check the in-depth details about each and every hardware component of your Machine. Suppose that you want to know some information about hard drive, simply click on “Volumes” and it will show all the details about hard disk on your Pc.
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This utility would be best used by experienced people who have a lot of technical knowledge. Otherwise for normal users, it’ s not of much use until and unless you want to find out detailed statistics of your computer.
Download System Information Viewer

Friday, September 21, 2012

Pearls Extension: Highlight Custom Words on Webpages in Google Chrome

When you are researching a topic online, you normally have to read lengthy web articles and scan them for the information you need. Mostly you can get the passages you want simply by searching for terms that you are interested. But the built-in finding feature within browsers lets you search for words and phrases one at a time. Fortunately for Google Chrome users, however, there is a tool that lets them highly custom words throughout a webpage; this tool is Pearls Extension.

Pearls Extension 1

Pearls Extension is an excellent browser extension for Google Chrome. This nifty tool helps you highlight custom words on the webpages that you view in Chrome. Installing the extension adds a blue sphere icon in your browser’s address bar. Clicking on the address bar drops down a window where you can enter the words you want highlighted. In the “This page pearls” field, you can enter words that you want highlighted which are present on the currently open tab; words can be separated by commas and are referred to as ‘pearls’ by the extension. “This domain pearls” is a field where you can enter words you want highlighted across open tabs of the current domain; obviously, “Every page pearls” is a field where you enter words you want highlighted in all open webpages. The number next to the blue sphere icon indicates the number of detected pearls.

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Each different pearl is given a unique color which makes spotting them on the webpage easier. You can simply scroll down the webpage to view the pearls or use the Next and Previous buttons in the top ribbon of the extension’s drop down window.

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Through simple highlighting, this extension helps you get the information you need from a webpage in a faster manner.

Download Pearls Extension (Google Chrome).

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Easily Change Color Scheme of Webpages With Colorific [Firefox]

Consider a situation: you came across a very useful website and you read it regularly. However, the only thing that you do not like about that specific website is its color scheme and you wish if there is a way to change it according to your own preferences. Look no further as colorific is the tool that can help you get rid of this problem.

Colorific 1

Colorific 3.0 is a free add-on for Firefox, and gives you total color control over how webpages are displayed. With Colorific, you can change website’s color scheme, adjust brightness and invert colors of any selected website.

After installing this add-on, a small icon will appear in Firefox taskbar. It has a dropdown menu from where users can easily change colors, invert brightness & hue, scale towards black, grey, white, scale away from black, grey, white, ap ply color filters and some other effects as well.

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Users can select what kind of effect they want and then click on the Colorific icon to get the desired effect. Do note that your browser may become unresponsive for few seconds after you click on Colorific icon.

You can even select which page elements are changed by selecting either;

  • Background styles (background colors and gradients),
  • Foreground styles (text and border colors),
  • Background images (images set as background) and/or
  • Foreground images (image and canvas elements).
  • Or by even selecting all of them!

Developers are still working on this add-on so you can stay updated for more features such as applying effects to all opened web pages and some other advanced options. One problem I noticed with t he extension is that once you close the web page, all the changes are gone meaning that you have to apply the effects every time you open any webpage.

Download Colorific (Mozilla Firefox)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

MySocialCloud: Bookmark Websites and Share them in Lists [Chrome]

MySocialCloud 1While working on a particular project, you do extensive online research prior to beginning the project and end up gathering a lot of URLs. Grouping those URLs together in a list and saving them is what people normally do. The next step is to share these with project members.

This is only one of many cases in which people bookmark websites, sort them in a list, and then share them with others. If you would like this task to be made much easier than the current procedure, you should check out a service called MySocialCloud.

MySocialCloud is a free to use web service that offers a lot of features. Our focus is on its bookmarks saving and sharing feature. You start by creating an account on the website and then downloading plus installing its web browser extension for Google Chrome. The exte nsion adds a new icon in the address bar of the browser. Clicking on the icon for the first time will require you to enter your MySocialCloud login details.

MySocialCloud 2

Once the extension is linked to your online account, you can click on the extension’s icon anytime you want to bookmark a webpage that you are viewing in Chrome. You can type in the title of the bookmark, its description, and specify which list you want the bookmark to be saved in.

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When you visit your MySocialCloud page, you see all of your lists neatly organized. To access your bookmarks you click on the appropriate list. You can even subscribe to other people on MySoc ialCloud and check their lists.

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Within your list your bookmarks are saved just as you specified earlier. Thumbnail images for the webpage are generated wherever possible. You can share your lists with others so they are granted access to the bookmarks you save.

MysocialCloud

Along with saving bookmarks, MySocialCloudalso saves login information for your online accounts and lets you simply share a webpage with friends.

Check out MySocialCloud

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

EncryptonClick: A Simple Tool to Encrypt/Decrypt Files and Folders in Windows

One click utilities are what people usually need. Going through with a wizard for tasks such as encryption can be time consuming and also, annoying at times. EncryptOnClick is a freeware tool that has the one-click functionality; it’s quick and allows users to encrypt/decrypts files and folders without any hassle.

After installing the program, a simple dialogue box will offer you the option of encrypting files/folders or decrypting files/folders.

EncryptonClick 1

You will just need to find the file or folders through the dialogue box. Select the file or folder being encrypted. After which you can simple add a password and encrypt the file. The procedure is the same for decryption as well.

EncryptOnClick is fast and prevents users without the password from accessing the files/folders. However, it still has some issues with it. Firstly, once you decrypt a file/folder it remains decrypted and you have to encrypt it again in order to lock the file. This was an irritating thing as once you have encrypted a file/folder; you should not have to repeat the process again and again.

However, this is a simple tool with user friendly interface and the even best part is that the tool is free and can be used by anyone. EncryptOnClick does the job for you in a single click.

Download EncryptonClick

PDFCreator: Easily Create PDF Files in Windows

Making a PDF file is not that easy feat. Adobe Reader full edition can help you to create one but it isn’t free of cost and it is very complex as well. Online tools are also bit of a hassle so what should be done? That’s where PDFCreator comes to the rescue. It is absolutely free of cost and also very simple tool to create, merge and convert PDF files.

PDF Creator

After installing PDFCreator, you will see two icons on your desktop named as PDFArtchitect and PDFCreator. The PDFArtchitect is basically a PDF viewer whereas the PDFCreator allows you to convert files into PDF documents. In order to create PDF documents you need to open up the Creator and click on document. Next, click on ‘add’ and a window will pop up and you can select which file you want to convert. You can use the shortcut “Crtl+ Ins” to add a document and make sure to select the file type as “All Files” when you are adding the files. Now, you will see a bunch of options, from where you can modify the file as you want or save that file in PDF format.

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The good thing about PDFCreator is that you don’t even need to really use the application itself. You can just head over to any Windows application that has a command for print and select PDFCreator as the printer and the file can be directly converted from there. That’s not enough, you can even combine different documents, simply open the documents. Select all the documents that you want to combine and Click on “Document”. Now, select the “Combine” and you are done.

PDFCreator is a free lightweight application that allows user to create PDFs with ease and makes viewing them a lot quicker as well. The interface is simple and to the point. Its core competence lies in its functionality.

Download PDF Creator (Windows)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

DownTango: A Simple And Easy To Use Download Manager for Windows

Managing downloads can be a bit of a problem some times. There are times when you need to pause downloads and complete them later. Most browsers do not support putting a download on ‘pause’ and even if they do, it’s not that effective. if you search the internet, you will come across many download managers but majority of good ones are paid. There Usually, the download has to be re-done from the beginning. However, that won’t be a problem with ‘DownTango’.

DownTango is a download manager that makes the downloading experience a lot better. It has an easy to use interface and the best thing about this software is that you can manage your downloads from anywhere. You can do this by logging in to your DownTango account remotely from any PC (it does not require the DownTango download manager you can do this via their website) and schedule or modify any download.

DownloadTango 1

You will, however, need to manually integrate it with your browser by opening the DownTango application, going to the preferences menu and turning on the web browser integration option.

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After the integration, it becomes simple. You can also download videos from video streaming websites. There’s another option to limit the downloading speed (something most download manager lack) and an option to set the number of downloads you want at one time.

It has a bit of a problem when downloading videos, and you may have to re-download them. Other than that, it works well. DownTango is free of cost. Let us know if you try it out!

Download DownTango

Easily Lock Your Screen With Secure My Screen

Don’t you just hate it when someone uses your PC, while you are away? It can be quite irritating and frustrating when the other person closes an important window or messes up your work. At times like these, “Secure My Screen” can be of immense help and will keep people away from accessing your PC. Its very simple to use and all you need to do is download and install it after which you will have to register yourself. A button will say product trial but that does not mean you have to pay for it or anything. Just click on register and you will have to enter your details after which you can request a registration key.

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The keys arrives instanly and you can use that to register. You will then need to save a password for your screen lock and you can even have mulitple passwords for friends and family. You can even make your screen go into s tandby mode while keeping your PC running so you can resume your work without any delay.

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Moreever, there isnt any way to get around Secure My Screen and once your screen is locked, the task manager won’t open and even if someone tries a system restart, Secure My Screen will lock your computer. You can lock your screen via the shortcut keys “Alt+L” so you don’t even need to minimize your work.

The only problem you might encounter is that you will need to have the “.Net framework V 4” installed because it won’t work without that. Other than that its pretty smooth and bug free. Moreover, its free and easy to use. Let us know your thoughts about Secure My Screen!

Download Secure My Screen

HyperDesktop: Easily Take Screenshots and Upload Them on Imgur

Taking screenshots using the “Print Screen” can be a bit annoying and time consuming as it requires users to first paste the image in Paint and crop out unwanted parts of the image. There are many good screenshot taking utilities available on the internet but most of the good ones are paid. To help you take good quality screenshots is a useful tool known as Hyperdesktop.

Hyperdesktop is a small download and installs quickly. After that, it will appear on the taskbar and can be accessed from there. It even gives you the option of starting up when windows start up. The interface is simple; you have the option to capture the whole screen or a portion of it.

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After you capture the screen area you want, an editing window opens up. Here the user can add text to the screenshot. All that is needed is to write the text in the text box and then click on insert text after which the text can be dragged on the screenshot and be placed multiple times if wanted.

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There is a pen tool option as well that can be used to circles or underline things or even makes a drawing. It gives the option of a number of sizes and colors as well. After clicking on ok the image will be uploaded on Imgur and you can send the link to anyone you want. Going in the preferences option can change where you store the screen shots and that way you can even store them on your computer or FTP as well.

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Hyperdesktop is an easy to use tool that makes taking screenshots a lot easier and a lot better than the “Print Screen” option. And the best thing about it is that it’s free and doesn’t cost a penny. Give it a go and let us know what you think using the comments section below.

Download HyperDesktop (Windows)

Collusion for Chrome: Find Out Which Sites Track and Share Your Information

When you visit a website, it gets information such as which link you clicked on to get there, your IP address stats, and miscellaneous other internet browsing details. Sometimes this information is shared with partner websites and sometimes other websites reach out to get this information themselves. Obviously this poses a threat your privacy and online anonymity.

To protect your browsing history and other online data, you need to know which websites share information so that you stop visiting them or block the sites that information is being shared with. Here to help you do that if you surf the internet using Google Chrome is a tool called for “Collusion for Chrome.”

Collusion for Chrome is a useful tool that helps you learn more about the websites that are sharing your information. The tool comes in the form of a browser extension for Google Chrome. When you install it, a new icon is added in the address bar of Chrome. You will see numbers in red highlighting on this icon when you visit most websites. This number indicates an update in the collusion map generated by the extension. To view this map all you have to do is click on the extension’s icon.

When you click the icon, you will be shown a map of connected nodes which will be loaded up in a menu that drops down from the extension’s icon. These nodes represent the website you have visited and the ones that your information is share with. The network and the branches represent which sites your information is being shared with. The extension automatically blocks we bsites that are known to track your information â€" this is an action that you can undo, if you want. Clicking on a node reveals its URL in the left pane of menu. You are shown which websites inform this website of your visits.

By having this information at your disposal you can be aware in a better way about how your information is shared online.

Download Collusion for Google Chrome

News Factory: Keep Track of All Your Favourite Websites in Chrome

Keeping up-to-date with the latest news is no easy feat. You have to visit multiple websites to keep up with the latest happenings. Some sites are visited more than others, as they get updated more frequently. Hence, you need to keep a track of all your favorite websites. That’s what News Factory extension for Google Chrome does for you.

Once installed, it will ask you to grant access to your browsing history/activity, bookmarks and other browsing data. Click on Add to give access to the extension.

News Factory 1

After installing the extension, it will redirect you to settings page from where you can add the list of websites you want to keep track of. It also automatically scans your browsing history and prompts you to add your most visited sites and your bookmarks.

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The extension will already have some of the news sources since it scans your history and adds your favorite sites, you can add other sites which are not listed and you can even add social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus etc.

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You can call it a kind of an RSS reader and it appears on the top right side of Chrome. It also shows the count of the numbers of unread news stories as well in Chrome’s extension area.

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You can even change extension settings as well and change the u pdate time, page scroll, and page integration as well.

News Factory

However, the only drawback is in its functionality as it at times takes a long time to load, and gets stuck as well some time. Other than that, News Factory is a useful Google Chrome extension and is perfect for those who want to keep themselves updated with the latest happenings and news. Let us know if you try it out!

Download News Factory for Google Chrome