iPhone/iPod touch only: Free application O-Marks automatically syncs bookmarks to your iPhone from Firefox-syncing tool Foxmarks or from your Delicious account. The most intriguing feature for Firefox users is the Foxmarks integration, since once you’ve set up O-Marks with Foxmarks, your Firefox bookmarks now automatically sync to your iPhone. That means you don’t need to use Safari just to sync bookmarks to your iPhone anymore. It just takes a little know-how to get it set up.
Chrome developers describe one of the features that makes the browser speedier: DNS pre-fetching. When you visit a web page in Chrome, it looks up the IP address of all the links on page before you click on them, in some cases saving you up to a second in DNS-resolution latency time by doing the look-ups preemptively. Type about:histograms/DNS.PrefetchFoundName and about:dns into the address bar to check out your pre-fetch time savings in Chrome. Another way to speed up DNS resolution is to start using the free OpenDNS service.
Firefox only: Newly-launched search tool SemantiFind is out to deliver more meaningful results by helping you clarify your query, and putting user-assigned labels for pages across the web to good use. Download the SemantiFind Firefox extension, click the “Start Semantifying!” button, and go to google.com and type your search terms. Like Google Suggest, SemantiFind will drop down a list of possible searches that clarify your search (as pictured, in a search for “salsa,” SemantiFind checks if you mean the sauce, the music, the dance or the film). On the results page, SemantiFind embeds its suggestions on top of your regular Google results, based on user labels on web pages. You can save or delete results to personalise what you get in future searches. When you’re not on Google, you can use the SemantiFind Firefox toolbar to add and edit page labels. Lifehacker’s current SemantiFind labels are “Web2″ (huh?), “Lifehacking”, and “Productivity.” (Not terrible, but not perfect.) SemantiFind is currently a free download for Firefox and works with Google only, but other search engine support is in the works. SemantiFind [via ReadWriteWeb]
Windows only: Free application SpeedFan monitors the fan speed, temperature, voltage, and more of the components inside your computer. That’s all fine and dandy, but the marquee feature of SpeedFan is that you can actually adjust the speed of your fans by tweaking the desired temperatures on supported systems. Keep in mind that SpeedFan is a power-users tool, and the temp inside your computer isn’t to be taken lightly. However, if you’re comfortable tweaking hardware settings, an app like SpeedFan can help keep your computer running quieter and give you a little more control over what’s happening with your computer’s innards. If you’ve used SpeedFan in the past, share your experience in the comments. Mac users, check out previously mentioned smcFanControl. SpeedFan [via MakeUseOf]
The right mouse button—beloved by geeks for its power, theoretically unnecessary on a Mac, and generally under-utilised on the average desktop. Right-clicking can be a powerful tool for automating file actions and saving yourself time and arm effort, but only if you’ve put your own stamp on the offerings of that secondary button. Today we’re rounding up some of the best tools for adding power and precision to your right-click menu on Windows, Mac, and Linux systems, so check out what can be done from the other side of the scroll wheel. Photo by geobeo.
Windows only: Fans of Microsoft’s Windows Live software series can get a jump on a new batch of beta releases—dubbed Live Wave 3—at the LiveSide.net blog, which is hosting an installer app ahead of the planned official roll-out later today. Amongst the bleeding-edge downloads are new versions of Live Writer (which we’ve detailed in its tweaks, tips, and updates), Windows Mail with calendar integration, Messenger, and other desktop tools. You can pick and choose which apps you want to update to bleeding-edge beta. The Windows Live Wave installer is a free downlaod for, well, Windows systems only. Windows Live Wave Betas [LiveSide.net via All About Microsoft]
