5 Best News Reading Extensions For Chrome

The social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc., become popular in a very short span of time is because of the instant update of world happenings and breaking news in our timeline. Today social networks are the place where people come to know about most of the trending stories on the Internet. Next to social networks, news reader apps are used to know the trending stories. After Google reader shutdown, many new RSS applications and news readers were introduced for PC, mobile and web. Today I’ve come with a set of news reading extensions for Chrome. It lets you add your favorite links and read later. Also, it brings all the popular news around the web to your desk.

Pocket

The Pocket app was previously called as Read Later. It helps save links when you browse and read those articles later. Pocket app is available for web and mobile devices. So, you can save links and sync them to your other devices instantly. When you save a link from your PC, you can read that in your Smartphone or Tablets. It works without an internet connection, so when you travel or whenever you are free, you can easily access all your saved links from the application.

RSS Feed Reader

RSS Feeds are one of the easiest ways of following all your favorite blogs. You can keep all the stories  organized in a single place using RSS Readers. RSS Feed Reader is one of the popular extensions for Chrome. The app works similar to Firefox live bookmarks. You can add feeds from different blogs and instantly get notifications when you receive an update. All the new updates will be available separately and it lets you completely customize the feeds and notifications in the extension.

Feedly

Feedly is yet another popular news reading apps across different devices. It is considered as one of the best alternative to Google Reader. You can add feeds, save links and see all the trending stories in a single place. Few other popular RSS apps were supported to import your subscriptions from them. You can categorize all your subscriptions easily in the extension. It lets you read and share the stories from your news feed. It is available for Smartphones and Tablets. Also, the clutter free interface gives a very good readability on all your devices.

FeedSquares

FeedSquare will give a different look from other news readers on the web. On the feedwall, you have all the top stories from your subscriptions. Image previews will available for all the feeds. You can read and share articles to your social accounts like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc. It supports offline usage and Feeds will be updated automatically in the background when you connect to the internet. It has horizontal navigation through the stories, so you will can see a number of articles on a single page.

RSS Live Links

RSS live links gives Firefox live bookmarks style and features to Chrome. In the menu style news updates, you can read the title and avoid the unwanted articles quickly. You can also sync your bookmarks with the extension to read the articles. It lets you organize all the links and subscriptions in different folders based on the categories. In the extensions settings, you can increase or decrease the size of popup, number of articles to be displayed, import and export feeds and much more options.

These are the five best news reading extensions for Chrome. Please let me know If I’ve missed any of your favorite extensions. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

5 Best Chrome Extensions for Distraction Free Writing

For people who see from outside, the job of a writer looks pretty simple but for to become a good writer you need a lot of practice and concentration. Even though writing is a creative job, you have to sit and work in a single place for a long time. So, there are lots of chances to get distracted. We’ve web apps and browser extensions available to avoid distractions while writing. Also we have discussed a set of apps for writers to avoid grammar and spelling mistakes and tools to improve their productivity. Today I came with another set of text editing apps for Chrome to avoid distractions while writing. Lets have a look at the apps below.

Quick Write Text Editor

Quick Write is a simple text editing application for Chrome. The interface of this extension is very simple and easy to understand. After installation, you can see the Quick write icon near to your URL bar. Click that to start writing from your browser. It will give you a clean interface for a distraction free writing. The extension is completely customizable and the “Settings” will be available at the bottom of the window. You can change margins, background and font colors and size in the Settings. The application will save your documents automatically.

Write Space

Write Space is a full screen text editor for Chrome. Similar to other text editors it offers a clutter free interface to focus on writing. You can customize the extension in the “Settings” of the application. To access Settings, right click on the Write Space icon near to your URL bar and select “Options” in the list. It will open a new window, where you have “Editor” and “Data” options. The “Editor Options” will let you change the Width of the Editor, Background Color, Font Color, Size and line spacing . There is an inbuilt spell checker for the extension. Data Options will let you import “.txt files” to the app and edit it.

Writeulus

Writeulus is yet another distraction free text editing app for Chrome. It is a very simple application, where you don’t get many options to customize your editor. If you have installed chrome desktop apps on your PC or Mac, Writeulus will install automatically on your PC. So, you can access the app from your desktop and start writing. By default, the background will be black and the font will be white. You can change the background and font color by moving the cursor to the bottom of the screen. There is no auto save option, you have to manually copy and paste the text after you complete writing.

Write box

Writebox is one of the popular and the best text editors for Chrome. It will automatically install with your chrome desktop apps, so you can access the app from your PC. When you open the app, you can see a menu bar on top of the application. It lets you open a new document or existing document in the editor. Next you have document “Preview” option and there will be a “Menu” button near to that.  In “Menu” you have different File Saving options and settings available to change the color, font and much more option in the editor. Another important option in the application is, you can connect the app with Dropbox and Google drive accounts.

Wabisabi

Wabisabi is an interesting text editor for Chrome. After completing the installation, press “F11″ function key to start writing. It will take you to the Full Screen mode. There you can start writing and all the words, characters and file name details will be available at the top bottom corner. If you don’t want the full screen mode press F11 again and it will take you back to the normal window. Even the app is accidentally closed in the middle of writing, your document will save automatically and available on the front page. Also you have options to email, download and delete the document in the front page.

Instead of working in same text editors all the day, these browser  extensions will give you a different work environment. Also the clutter free interface will help you write without getting distracted. Try your favorite apps on Chrome and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7 Released by Microsoft

Microsoft has been hard at work trying to improve Internet Explorer with each release. Internet Explorer 11 is the latest release of their popular browser, which shipped with Windows 8.1 and almost a month later, it is now available for Windows 7 in both 32 and 64 bit variants and in 95 languages.

Microsoft claims that Internet Explorer 11 is unto 30% faster than other browsers in terms of ‘real world’ websites load performance. While we are not sure what qualifies as a real world website, Microsoft has used their own websites to demonstrate this increase in speed so take their word with a grain of salt. They have also created a new HTML5 based benchmarking tool called EtchMark so you can pit it against other browsers to test.

Internet Explorer 11 also cuts down on the CPU cycles so expect better performance and battery life which only means a good thing. Other features include:

• New debug tools available now for web developers, accessible via F12
• Hardware accelerated 3D graphics
• HTML 5 video support with battery efficient playback
• Better touch support
• Support for new and improved web standards including CSS, HTML5, WebGL and web performance improvements

Microsoft will be rolling out Internet Explorer 11 via automatic Windows updates in the coming weeks. If you can’t wait, you can already download it from the link below. Give out the demos at Internet Explorer Test Drive a try once you install the browser.

Download Internet Explorer 11 for Windows 7

The 40 Apps That We're Most Thankful For

1.Google Chrome

Category: Web Brower

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2. Dropbox
Category: Cloud Service

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3. Gmail
Category: Email

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4. Firefox
Category: Web Browser  

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5. Skype
Category: Communication

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6. Pocket
Category: Bookmarker

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7. Instapaper
Category: Bookmarker

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8. Evernote
Category: Notes

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9. Feedly
Category: NewsReading

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10. QuickOffice
 Category: News Reading

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11. Google Maps
Category: Maps

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12. Google Drive
Category: Cloud Service

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13. Google Voice
Category: Communication

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14.Google News
Category: News Reading

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15. Spotify
Category: Music Streaming

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16. Google Calender
Category: Calender

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 17. Google Play Music
 Category: Music Streaming

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18. Opera
Category: Web Browser

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19. Dolphin
Category: Web Browser

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20. Safari
Category: Web Browser

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21. Pandora
Category: Music Streaming

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22. Hangouts
Category: Communication

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23. Google Play
Category: Play Store

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24. Outlook
Category: Email

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25. WonderList
Category: To-Do-List

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26. Be Funky
Category: Photo Editing

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27. PicMonkey
Category: Photo Editing

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28. Pixlr
Category: Photo Editing

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29. SkyDrive
Category: Cloud Service

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30. Instagram
Category: Photo Editing

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31. Mood Map
Category: Maps

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32. Quick Note
Category: To-Do-List

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33. Virtual Box
Category: Virtualization

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34. Vm-Ware
Category: Virtualization

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35. Transmission
Category: Bit torrent Client

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36. Utorrent
Category: Bit Torrent Client

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37. C-Cleaner
Category: Utilities

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38. Glary Utilities

Category: Utilities

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39. LibreOffice
Category: Office Suite

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40. ThunderBird
Category: Email

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Yahoo Mail Brings POP, Disposable IDs, Mail Forwarding and More to Free Users

On its 16th anniversary, Yahoo Mail got a fresh coat of paint along with several new features that is sure to entice a lot of users, especially those using Yahoo’s free email service. Among the new features that was announced a few hours ago, are POP3 access, conversation view, automatic mail forwarding, and advanced filters that were previously available only to Yahoo Mail Plus users. Above all, the storage space has been pumped up all the way to 1,000 GBs.

Mail Plus, on the other hand, has been renamed to Yahoo Ad Free Mail, whose subscription prices have been raised from $19.99 / year to a whopping $49.99 / year. For existing Mail Plus customers, however, the old price remains.

Yahoo now finally supports conversation view, a feature that allows multiple email exchanges between two parties to be viewed in a single thread as if it were a chat conversation. Actions such as searching, starring, and deleting emails can now be handled from the Actions menu that is already a part of the new Yahoo Mail for some time now.

Automatic email forwarding to non-Yahoo email addresses and POP access are two important addition that allows Yahoo Mail users to read their emails outside of the web interface. Free users can now set up their email programs to download mails to the desktop, or forward them to another email inbox.

To handle spam, users now have the ability to generate disposable email addresses. The address has the format basename-keyword@yahoo.com, where the basename remains constant and keyword keeps changing. Users get to choose both the basename and keywords and they can be different from your actual email ID. You can generate multiple disposable email addresses and these can be configured to either deliver mails to your inbox or send them to a particular folder or the trash.

The number of filters have also been increased from 100 to 200.

The new Mail now also supports background themes, taking curated photos from Flickr, which can be seen on both the desktop as well as its mobile clients.

Bring Back Google’s Black Bar Below the Omnibox using Proper Menubar

The Black bar below the Omnibox (URL bar) in Google page was very useful to navigate between different Google services. Recently Google updated its search page and added a  new apps section as a replacement for the menu bar. Even though we have all the apps in that drop down box, the old menu bar was pretty convenient for all the users. Previously I wrote about a Chrome extension to bring back the Classic mail composewindow in Gmail. Today I came with  an extension called “Proper Menubar” to bring back the old black menubar below the omnibox in Google search page.

Proper Menubar is available for Chrome and Firefox. You can download it using the link at the end of this post. Once you install the app, you can see the extension’s icon near to your URL bar in Chrome and in the bottom of the screen in Firefox. That icon is used to enable and disable the extension in your browser. If you click that icon you can see a button “Proper Menubar is ON”. Click that button to enable and disable the menu bar in your Google search page.

Using this extension won’t affect any of the Google updates and Google Apps on the search page. You can also customize the “Proper Menubar” application. Go to Settings -> Extensions -> Proper Menubar  -> Options. There you will see a window as shown in the screenshot below. In the first section “Basics” you can edit contents on the black menu bar. Exclude the unwanted links from the menu easily. At the end of the page you have an option to display that black menu bar in all the webpages you visit.

In the designs section, you can change the background and opacity of the menu bar displayed. Also you can change the country website code of the application. This custom menu bar will restore the links from Google services and from some of the important web services. By enabling the option to show this bar in all the websites you visit, it will make the options handy and open any Google service instantly. Even you change monitors, this app will work fine. It works great on HDPI screens.

If you really miss that black menu bar on Google home page, then Proper Menubar is a must have extension in your browser. Try this app in your browsers and share your experience with us in the comments. Thanks for reading, do share this post with your friends.

Download Proper Menubar for Google Chrome

Download Proper Menubar for Firefox

Chrome Extension Turns Gmail Inbox Into a To-Do List

There is a new Chrome extension called Signal, that allows Gmail users to edit messages directly in their inbox, replacing subject lines as well as the body with custom text to improve visibility of those messages in your inbox. The idea is to convert messages that call for action, into a sort of reminder or a to-do list, without leaving Gmail. This is especially useful for those who do a lot of scheduling over email.

Signal adds three buttons to the message view window in your Gmail inbox – Edit, Highlight and Restore.

To edit a message, click on the Edit button. Now you can edit the subject line and the message body, delete characters or type new ones. The Highlight button lets you keep just the text you selected, while deleting the rest. The Restore button brings back the original text.

The edited messages are stored on Firebase, an online service that lets you build web applications and store data online, thus allowing your edited messages to be synchronized across all instances of the Chrome browser with the extension installed. The original email is never deleted, which can be verified by disabling the extension and refreshing your inbox or by accessing your email via another browser.

Signal is currently available only for Chrome, but extensions for Firefox and Safari are being developed, as revealed by the developers.

Note: To make Signal work you should have the “Preview Pane” Labs feature disabled in your Gmail inbox.

How to Open Websites From Firefox’s Cache Without Connecting to Internet

Want to revisit websites on your browser without incurring additional bandwidth charges? Yes, you can.

When you instruct the browser to open a webpage, the browser fetches the files needed to render the page on your screen, including external files the page refer to such as the stylesheets, Javascripts and embedded images. These are stored on your hard disk, and reused when you open another page (from the same website) that use the same stylesheet, images and other stuff. Not only this saves bandwidth, it enables the browser to render the page faster.

This is the purpose of the web browser’s cache, which you must already know. What you might not know is that it’s possible to open webpages and sites entirely from the cache, provided there is a copy of those pages on it.

The Opera browser will always attempt to open pages from the cache when it cannot retrieve the page from the Internet. No additional steps are required. If you have visited the page before and there is a copy of the page still present in Opera’s cache, you can open it even when you are disconnected from the Internet.

This is also possible in Firefox, but you need to coax the browser. Here is how.

1. Close Firefox, if it’s open.
2. Press Win+R to open the Run dialog box, and type “firefox –p” (without the quotation, of course).
   
3. This will bring up the Profile Manager. (Learn more about managing Firefox’s user profiles and how to create desktop shortcuts for different profile). See the “Work offline” checkbox? That’s it.
   
4. Check the box and click on “Start Firefox”.

This will start Firefox without connecting to the Internet. You can now view previously opened web pages from the browser’s cache. Web content that relies on network data such as advertisements, or your email inbox, won’t appear. But pages with static content will appear fine.

To come out of offline mode, click on Firefox’s menu and then click on “Work offline” to uncheck the option. Once you exit the offline mode, you can’t go back to it without closing the browser and starting all over again.

Note: do not create a new profile for browsing offline, for this will not work, unless you use the same profile for normal surfing. Because each user profile’s cache is separate.