Category: Internet

Where to get Safari 5 extensions

Safari

With Safari 5 offering the ability to add features via extensions, but a central extension site hosted by Apple still not available, you might be wondering where to find some great extensions to expand your Safari web experience.

You could spend an afternoon Googling for them, or you could visit the following sites, which already offer links to numerous great extensions.

Safari Extensions Tumblr blog – Jonas Wisser has set out to list every available Safari extension he comes across. The site lists links and screenshots for the extensions. Generally speaking, this is the first site you’ll want to check.

PimpMySafari – This site has been around for a long time, but with the release of Safari 5 and a new site owner, it’s taken on new life. Unlike the previously mentioned blog, PimpMySafari promises to feature only the best extensions as determined by Scott Jangro. The site also features plugins and other ways to pimp out Safari.

Reddit Extension list – Some dude over at Reddit has composed a list of great extensions. I’m not sure how long the list will remain useful.

Safari Extensions list – Mac OS X Tips (a UK site) has put together a small but useful list as well. Be sure to check this site out for other useful Mac OS X tips!

Apple will soon offer a list on their site of “approved” extensions, but until such time, these sites offer plenty of useful add-ons for Safari users.

Inspiration: Apple education infographic

Apple Education Infographic

Click to view original

Infographics are quite popular, and can be a great experience for designers to work on because it allows you to be totally creative without the concern of how the graphic fits in with an existing campaign, etc.

The infographic, How Apple is Revolutionizing Education, uses simple graphics and a small color palette to get its point across. I think they pulled it off quite well.

You can view the full size graphic here.

I love working on infographics, and found a great place for inspiration. You can check out what other designers are doing with infographics by visiting The Infographics Showcase.

Add HTML5 capabilities to Dreamweaver CS5

DreamweaverAdobe has made available an extension which provides initial support for HTML5 and CSS3 in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5, and helps you easily create HTML5 pages and CSS3 styles. It also includes updates and WebKit improvements for Design View and Live View rendering.

While HTML5 and CSS3 will not be finalized for some time, the extension provides support for a set of currently-implemented features in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5.

This extension enhances Dreamweaver CS5 in the following ways:

  • Introduces the Multiscreen Preview panel , allowing for Live View display on 3 different screen sizes, with Media Query support. (Window > Multiscreen Preview)
  • Adds code hinting for the HTML5 Tag Library with new tags, attributes, and properties.
  • Updates code hinting for new attributes and values in existing HTML tags.
  • Adds code hinting for the following CSS3 specifications: 2D/3D Transformations; Animations; Background and Border; Basic User Interface; Line Layout; Marquee; Media Queries; MultiColumn; Ruby; Text; and Transitions.
  • Updates Live View to support < video > and < audio >. (Requires Quicktime installation.)
  • Improved rendering for CSS3 in Live View.
  • Adds HTML5 starter layouts to the New Document Dialog box.
  • Offers better rendering for new tags in Design View.

You can download the HTML5 Pack here.

iPhone & iPad app review site

While I’ve come across many reviews for iPhone, iPad and iPod apps scattered across the web, I haven’t found a decent site that specialized in it. The closest I’ve found is Appshopper.com, a site that pulls descriptions, screenshots and links from the iTunes Store down and presents it in a blog-style site.

Appshopper

Appshopper brings your app exploration to a blog-style site

While appshopper does little more than reorganize what is already available to you, it does offer a better way to just explore, finding apps you may not have thought of checking out or searching for. If you like a particular app, the site will also display a list of other apps by that developer. You can also add apps to your own wishlist.

Appshopper isn’t as useful as I would like, but it’s a great start, and I’m not aware of any site that offers more. If you know of one, please share the link in the comments!

3 great cloud-based apps every designer and Mac user should use

Cloud appsThere is certainly no shortage of applications available that heavily rely on “the cloud” to do their work. It’s the hip thing to do nowadays. Personally, I prefer a more robust, reliable and feature-rich desktop app any day. But there are a few cloud-based apps that I love, and simply couldn’t live without.

The advantage, of course, is that these applications store information on servers accessed via the Internet, so that information is available to you anywhere you go, from any computer you have access to. This is huge for any Mac user who’s lucky enough to have a desktop and a laptop, or splits their time between their office and home computers. The three apps below can, and for many people have, killed the need for transferring files via physical media such as CD or USB thumb drives, and made accessing and sharing information dead simple.
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Google to add social networking to Gmail?

GoogleAccording to an article at Macworld.com, Google is about to make Gmail more social. According to the article, Google plans to make available the ability to update your social status, much like popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, right from within the Gmail interface.

I’m not sure how well that will go-over with Gmail users. Personally, I feel like the Gmail service already lacks enough features that they should focus solely on email features, rather than adding non-email ones. At the same time, I feel like email is a private thing, and I don’t necessarily want any sign of “socialization” in there at all. Besides, the Gmail interface is already a cluttered mess as it is, I’m not sure how they could work-in social networking without making it completely unusable.

I’ve been longing for a way to update my Facebook and Twitter status in a single location that I’m already using; something that fits into my existing workflow.

There are plenty of services out there that would allow me to update my social networks, but they would require me to visit yet another Web site to do it, and that means yet another set of usernames and passwords to remember. No thanks.

With Twitter having the lock on micro-blogging, and Facebook having 400 million users and an expanding feature list, including the world’s largest photo-sharing service and reports of a full-blown email Web-client coming, you have to wonder just how long Google can afford to sit on the sidelines and watch.

Facebook Desktop Notifications for OS X

Facebook Desktop NotificationsIf you’re a Facebook user and are looking for a simple, unobtrusive way to view updates on your Mac OS X desktop, look no further than Facebook’s own menubar application. Facebook Desktop Notifications lives in your menubar, keeping your Dock and desktop free of icons, but easily accessible. The app displays your news feed in the drop down menu, which when clicked will take you to the appropriate place on your Facebook page. Shortcuts to your Facebook page, and new message creation are available at the top of the menu, as well as direct message shortcuts at the bottom. Facebook message notifications Desktop Notifications also offers you the ability, with a simple keyboard shortcut, to update your Facebook status via a simple input box. Facebook status updates New Facebook notifications make the menubar icon turn blue, or if you have Growl installed, a popup Growl window appears. While there are a ton of applications that do a whole lot more, few offer the simplicity and “get out of my way” nature that Facebook Desktop Notifications does. For that reason, I love it. It’s stable, and does its job without me having to do or launch anything.

Adobe’s Facebook desktop app is full-featured

FacebookAdobe AIR apps are popping-up everywhere, so it was no surprise to see a full-featured Facebook application show up. What was surprising to me was to see that the developer is Adobe itself. Photo Uploader for Facebook is a multi-platform Facebook desktop application based on Adobe’s AIR technology. And while the name implies that it’s simply a photo uploader, it’s actually more full-featured than that. It’s not going to replace the use of the Web interface completely, but for most users, the app may do everything you need. Photo Uploader for Facebook offers views of your Profile page, Friends list, a Chat page, and of course, your Wall. The Wall page shows status updates of all your friends, as well as gives you the ability to update your status by clicking on your latest status update at the top of the screen.

Status updates

Facebook status updates

The app updates status at intervals that I couldn’t find a way to customize, but it appears to be fairly frequently. The chat screen works just like the Web-based chat feature does, with the added benefit that you can keep the chat window open and surf to other pages in your browser at the same time. The sidebar in the app window shows status updates, regardless of which view the main part of the window is showing. Quick access to Event Invites, your Inbox, Pokes and Friend Requests are also available via small icons at the top of the sidebar. Choose albumThe Photo Uploader offers basic Facebook integration. Upon clicking the Upload button, you are asked to choose which album you want your image to be uploaded into, or create a new one. Then, you drag & drop, or click the Add Photos button to bring in a single image, or folder full of images into the app’s window. From there, you can crop your image, rotate it, give it a caption, and tag it with keywords.
Facebook photo uploader

Facebook photo uploader

I prefer to use desktop applications, rather than a service’s Web interface in almost all cases. I find them to (usually) be more full featured and easier to work with. I am not, however, a big fan of AIR applications – for a variety of reasons. Photo Uploader for Facebook is a rare exception to my anti-AIR preference. It’s stable, offers plenty of features, and I find the interface to be simple, and a big improvement over Facebook’s Web interface. Photo Uploader for Facebook can be downloaded and used for free from the Adobe AIR Marketplace, where you can find plenty of other AIR applications.

Search for images by color

idée inc. has a fantastic image-search tool that looks through over 10 million Creative Commons images on Flickr based on the color of your choosing. Search web images by color You simply click the color palette on the page to select up to 10 colors at a time and the site displays a wall of image thumbnails which use a predominant amount of the color(s) you chose. While clicking a single color yields impressive results, clicking a few more colors displays a new set of thumbnails (extremely quickly) with remarkable results! I find this site to be incredibly useful, and worthy of bookmarking.

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