Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.
And guess what? Google’s dependence on advertising notwithstanding, one of the extension examples the company points to is the ability to block advertisements.
The Chrome extensions document, spotlighted Saturday by Google programmer Aaron Boodman, doesn’t include a timeline, but it does shed light on why the project is a priority for Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome.
"Chromium can’t be everything to all people," according to the document. "User-created extensions have been proposed to solve these problems: the addition of features that have specific or limited appeal; users coming from other browsers who are used to certain extensions that they can’t live without; bundling partners who would like to add features to Chromium specific to their bundle."
When Google launched Chrome three months ago, it promised a Chrome extensions framework. Extensions are a popular feature of Chrome’s most likely rival, Mozilla’s Firefox, and one very popular extension is AdBlock Plus.
And AdBlock makes a specific appearance on the list of extension uses that Google said it would like to support eventually:
• Bookmarking/navigation tools: Delicious Toolbar, StumbleUpon, Web-based history, new tab page clipboard accelerators.
• Content enhancements: Skype extension (clickable phone numbers), RealPlayer extension (save video), Autolink (generic microformat data–addresses, phone numbers, etc.)
• Content filtering: AdBlock, Flashblock, privacy control, parental control
• Download helpers: video helpers, download accelerators, DownThemAll, FlashGot
• Features: ForecastFox, FoxyTunes, Web Of Trust, GooglePreview, BugMeNot
Demand for extensions is real.
In an unscientific CNET News poll about why people don’t use Chrome, about 19 percent pointed to the lack of an extensions feature. And on Google’s issue tracking site for Chromium, a Chrome extensions feature is the top-requested item.
"Of all the Firefox plug-ins, this is the one essential one," said Firefox user Ole Eichhorn. "Chrome is faster until you factor in all the cruft that gets downloaded as ads, then it isn’t faster anymore. When Chrome supports AdBlock, it will be the winner, but until it does, Firefox is the only choice."
In its document, Google described some of its goals for Chrome extensions. The extensions should silently update, just like Chrome does. They should be isolated for security reasons and only get access to resources it’s entitled to use. Installation should be easy, taking only two clicks.
They should permit rich user interface options–rich enough to implement some parts of Chrome as extensions, Google said. Among the interface options should be "toolbars, sidebars, content scripts (for Greasemonkey-like functionality), and content filtering (for parental filters, malware filters, or AdBlock-like functionality)," Google said. Some interfaces will require the user to grant specific permissions, such as "access to the history database" or "access to mail.google.com," Google said.
Google will play a major role in extensions, providing a central service that can be used to issue updates and to blacklist "malicious or harmful extensions" so the browser won’t use them.
"It’s likely in the future we may want to provide a consumer front-end which would allow users to more easily find the most popular, highest quality and trustworthy extensions," Google also said.
via cnet.com
Written by computerboom on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Today, the HP Magic Giveaway is coming to this very corner of the web. Your chance to win $6000 of the best (sealed and unsmudged) geek toys for this holiday seasons from HP and Microsoft in just a couple of keystrokes and mouse clicks away. For Tablet PC users it’s just a few pen strokes [...]
Written by Long Zheng on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Windows 7’s new WARP system can run Direct3D 10 and 10.1 on the CPU, doing away with the need for a hardware 3D accelerator in some circumstances
It turns out that Intel isn’t the only company that’s looking at performing Direct3D in software; Microsoft has just announced that it’s also planning to introduce a new feature called WARP in Windows 7 that allows you to run Direct3D 10 and 10.1 on the CPU.
In what could be seen as an easy answer to the Vista-capable debacle, where there was some confusion as to what 3D graphics hardware you specifically needed to run Windows Vista’s Aero interface, Microsoft has introduced what it calls a ‘fully conformant software rasterizer’ called WARP (Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform) 10, which does away with the need for a dedicated hardware 3D accelerator altogether.
Microsoft details the new feature in this document on MSDN, in which the company says that WARP 10 will support all the features and precision requirements of Direct3D 10 and 10.1. The feature also supports up to 8x multi-sampled anti-aliasing, anisotropic filtering and all optional texture formats. The minimum CPU spec needed is just a simple 800MHz CPU, and it doesn’t even need MMX or SSE, although Microsoft says that WARP 10 will work much quicker on multi-core CPUs with SSE 4.1.
Of course, software rendering on a single desktop CPU isn’t going to be able to compete with decent dedicated 3D graphics cards when it comes to high-end games, but Microsoft has released some interesting benchmarks that show the system to be quicker than Intel’s current integrated DirectX 10 graphics. Running Crysis at 800 x 600 with the lowest quality settings, an eight-core Core i7 system managed an average frame rate of 7.36fps, compared with 5.17fps from Intel’s DirectX 10 integrated graphics.
Of course, this low level of performance isn’t going to threaten ATI and Nvidia in the world of PC gaming, but it could mean that Windows 7’s 3D desktop interface will now be accessible to everyone, whatever graphics card they own.
Microsoft says that the technology is also targeted at casual games, explaining that ‘the majority of the best selling game titles for Windows are either simulations or casual games, neither of which requires high performance graphics, but both styles of games greatly benefit from modern shader based graphics and the ability to scale on hardware if present.’ Microsoft also points out that the technology could be useful for ‘emulators and virtual environments that are attempting to display advanced 3D graphics.’
Via http://www.custompc.co.uk/news/605271/windows-7-allows-directx-10-acceleration-on-the-cpu.html
Written by computerboom on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
USB Safely Remove is a convenient and safe replacement for the standard "Safely Remove Hardware" tool. The program has many features designed for effortless working with hotplug devices (USB, SATA and FireWire).
Safely remove in one click
The program is an original and convenient tool for safe removing a device. It also detects all connected devices and can be used to view their drive contents. Just move the mouse pointer over the tray icon of the program and you will see a multi-featured ‘quick stop’ menu with a list of devices
One mouse click on the device and it is safely removed!
Get rid of unnecessary devices!
Are you afraid of accidentally stopping the card reader built into your laptop or dongle? Annoyed by a SATA hard drive or ADSL modem in the device list? Now you can hide any device from the stop menu in one simple step.
Global keyboard shortcuts
Do you like to do everything using the keyboard? Now you can stop and view devices by using just ONE hotkey! No need to remember keyboard shortcuts for each device. If you are in any application, press the key combination (Win+S by default) and you will see the stop menu. Use the Up\Down arrow keys to select the device you need and either press ‘Enter’ to stop it or ‘Ctrl+B’ to view the contents of any storage device.
Correct and clear device names
With USB Safely Remove, you will easily find the device you need to stop because the program detects the actual names of devices - the names the manufacturer gave them. If you wish, you can assign your own custom name and image for a device or choose from one of the pre-installed images.
Compare the following and you will see what solution will allow you to safely remove a flash disk without wasting your time.
… standard Windows menu…
… convenient USB Safely Remove stop menu.
The device cannot be stopped right now. Why?
Ever encountered the situation when Windows does not allow you to remove a device? Now this problem is solved once and for all. USB Safely Remove will show you what programs are not allowing you to stop the device and you can stop or disable them in one step.
Unique technology: "Guaranteed device stop"
Sometimes Windows does not allow you to remove a device even if you close all suspicious programs. This is a problem in the Windows kernel which most often occurs in Windows XP. In most cases USB Safely Remove will allow you to safely stop the device without losing any data. This means that now you can absolutely rest assured about the safety of your data.
Notifications about connected and removed devices
Many people feel uncomfortable when they get no response to their actions. USB Safely Remove is completely devoid of this problem. The program shows a notification bubble containing the drive letter assigned to the device not only after the device is disconnected, but also after it is connected. Thus you will always know whether Windows has successfully recognized the device and it can be used.
Starting programs after connecting and before removing a device
Another USB Safely Remove feature that distinguishes it from similar software is its ability to not only start an application after connecting a device, but also before removing it. This feature allows you to back up data before disconnecting a removable hard drive, to run ‘Total Commander’ with the contents of the drive on the connected flash disk, automatically unmount an encrypted TrueCrypt drive before disconnecting the USB media, etc.
Automating work with devices
USB Safely Remove has a powerful and convenient command line: ‘usr.exe’ which allows you to automate tasks with your devices. For example, you can automatically stop devices according to a schedule or in response to any other event.
Working with any hotplug devices - USB, SATA, FireWire
Another important difference between the program and the standard ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon is the possibility to see and disconnect all hotplug devices. If USB Safely Remove does not show the device immediately you need to select the "Display all storage devices" checkbox in the USB Safely Remove settings.
Displaying volume labels instead of device names
If you have several devices of the same type (like flash disks and removable hard drives) it will be much more convenient to see volume labels instead of device names. To do this just select the "Show volume names instead of device names" checkbox.
Customizable icon in the system tray
Many people complain that the standard ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon sometimes disappears at the most inappropriate moment. USB Safely Remove completely replaces the standard ‘Safely Remove Hardware’ icon with its own icon. By default, the USB Safely Remove icon is always displayed in the system tray, which gives you quick access to the features of the program and makes using USB more clear and predictable. However, you can change this behavior and the icon will disappear when there are no devices connected to the computer. To do so, select the "Hide icon when there are no devices to be stopped" checkbox in the "Look And Feel" section of the settings.
Interested?
Download USB Safely Remove and see how it works.
via http://safelyremove.com/fullFeaturesList.htm
Written by computerboom on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Vista SP2 will include Windows Search 4, Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack, ability to record to Blu-Ray, Windows Connect Now, and a fix for exFAT discs.
See the original post at: Tech ARP - ED#107 : Latest Details On Windows Vista Service Pack 2
ITsVISTA
Tech ARP - ED#107 : Latest Details On Windows Vista Service Pack 2
Related posts
Information [...]
Written by Joe on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Expect a Vista SP2 release candidate in February 2009, and RTM in April 2009, with release to web some time after that.
See the original post at: Tech ARP - ED#106 : Windows Vista Service Pack 2’s Latest Release Schedule
ITsVISTA
Tech ARP - ED#106 : Windows Vista Service Pack 2’s Latest Release Schedule
Related posts
Microsoft aiming to deliver [...]
Written by Joe on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Commenter Joshua Blake wonders why Word’s status bar says “Word is preparing to background print
the document” ,
wondering whether there used to be other types of printing
like foreground. Well, first of all,
this is a question about Office, something Read More……(read more)
Written by The Old New Thing : History on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
News of the upcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista! Microsoft is doing their best to rush out Service Pack 2(SP2) for Windows Vista so there will be additional incentive for folks to upgrade to Window Vista now, instead of waiting for Windows 7. So …
Written by ShaDow on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
Having taken Windows XP to Service Pack 3 in the first half of this year, Microsoft is continuing the evolution of the operating system. In this context, the Redmond company has made available for download the Media Pack update for the N variants of Wi…
Written by Jason on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
November 2008 Popular Tips for Pctipsbox.com - TOP 10
Installing Windows XP Using A USB Flash Drive
XP SP3 and Vista SP1 DirectX Update
DirectX 11 for Windows 7 and Vista SP1
How To Reduce Firefox Memory Usage
Make Your Windows Vista Super Fast
How …
Written by Jason on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on News and Windows and Windows Downloads and Windows Tips and Windows Vista and Windows XP and software.
« Older articles
No newer articles