All platforms with Firefox: Just uploaded a freshly-baked new version of the Better Gmail 2 Firefox extension, which includes several fixes and new user scripts. First, if you Redesigned skin lovers were bogged down by slowness, that’s been fixed. If the Gmail Labs’ Agenda gadget just isn’t enough for your calendar-in-Gmail needs, now you’ll find Michael Balazs’ excellent collapsible Calendar and Reader user script in the extension, as well as the Show Editable Subject script I whipped up last month. Hit the changelog at the extension homepage for a full rundown of what got fixed and updated, and download the new version there. (Note: I’ve submitted the new version to Mozilla Add-ons and await approval now.) Also: Better Gmail 2 turned one year old earlier this month! Thanks for all your support and help making the extension one of Mozilla’s official Recommended Add-ons with over half a million daily users from Mozilla Add-ons alone, but special thanks to the user script developers whose hard work amazes me more with every version.
Better Gmail 2 Firefox Extension for New GmailNow that you know how to find higher quality videos on YouTube (and save them), you can also embed the video elsewhere in higher quality. Add &ap=%2526fmt%3D18 to the “value” of the object’s movie parameter and the embed “src” paramater. You may have to adjust the final number 18 up or down to find the best value — originally format 6 was the way to go, though apparently 22 is now the best possible format. Why watch gameplay videos from the new World of Warcraft expansion any other way? High quality YouTube video hack
Search engine OneRiot uses data from the PulseChecker Firefox browser extension to gauge how hot a particular result is at the moment. I tried it yesterday, and a search for “puppy webcam” highlighted the link to everyone’s favourite Ustream.tv feed of Shiba Inu puppies. At the time, it was “emerging.” Now? “Raging.” On Google, however, it’s still only the second result (and the top results has no live puppy cams currently). The landing page offers a quick glance at what’s leading in the latest OneRiot rankings. A Google replacement? No. But if you’re interested in keeping tabs on the web search zeitgeist, it’s an interesting cross-reference for Google Trends.
OneRiot [via ReadWriteWeb]It might only run two flights a day out of Australia, but British Airway’s launch of a mobile phone check-in option is still a welcome harbinger for more airlines eventually making it possible to check-in ahead of time without a PC and a printer. Given that BA’s destinations are all overseas, this won’t save you queuing at the airport (unless you’re already in the UK and taking a British domestic flight), but it should guarantee you a better seat for a long trip. As I don’t have any pending BA bookings, I wasn’t able to check how well the feature works, or if you can use it for the domestic flights which BA codeshares with Qantas, though my guess would be not. If you’ve tried it out, share your experience in the comments. BA Mobile
Windows only: Microsoft Outlook plug-in Taglocity brings Gmail-style tagging to your Outlook email. Getting started with Taglocity takes a little figuring out, but once you understand what the app is capable of, it’s got all kinds of potential. Each time you tag an email (hit Ctrl+Shift+t for a quick shortcut), Taglocity can perform actions based on user-defined rules, so it can move the email to a folder, assign other tags based on the root tag, remove tags, create a task or appointment, and more. The app also has an online compenent, so you can sync your tags or join a group with which you can share tags and email. Other offline features include searching by tags and creating smart folders. When it comes to supercharging your Outlook email, we’ve always been big fans of previously mentioned Xobni, but Taglocity is worth checking out. The app comes in a Professional flavor for $US99 that offers more advanced settings, but the Standard version is free and offers most of the same features. Taglocity is Windows only, requires Microsoft Office and .NET 2.0.
TaglocityUSB 3.0 will be unveiled next Monday, and so far the new specs for the protocol look incredible, promising 25GB transfers in a mere 70 seconds. To put that in perspective, the same transfer would take 13.9 minutes with the current USB 2.0 protocol and 9.3 hours on USB 1.0. Looks like the future of wired syncs and backups is bright and blazing. [via Gizmodo]
If you’ve been counting on Windows 7 as your salvation from Vista, think again. According to PC World tests, Windows 7 appears to be essentially a repackaging of Vista, running the same basic processes and sporting similar performance and memory usage. On the plus side, Windows 7 does deliver several new features, and it isn’t shipping until mid-year 2009, so Microsoft still has time to make plenty of adjustments.
Web application MailOnFeed fetches email from an email account of your choosing, then converts the contents to an RSS feed you can subscribe to in your feed reader. Granted, if you’re a Gmail user you can already subscribe to feeds of your inbox or labelsprovided you’re using a newsreader with support for authentication. On the other hand, if you’re newsreader doesn’t support authentication (like Google Reader), you’re not using Gmail, or you’ve got some old junk email account that you want to keep track of using your newsreader, the free-to-use MailOnFeed could come in very handy. MailOnFeed [via MakeUseOf]
CNET reports that Google Chrome is now working on Linux, albeit in a very raw fashion. Both Mac and Linux users interested in Chrome are eager to try the new web browser from Google, but until Google releases a more stable version of Chrome for those platforms, there’s always previously mentioned CrossOver Chromium.
When you want the latest update to an important RSS feed sent to you wherever you are, the moment it’s published, give the Notify.me notification web service a try. Set up source feeds in Notify.me and have new items sent to you via instant message or email. I signed up for Notify.me two days ago and got no new items from my feeds for a day; then yesterday afternoon the IM bot kicked in and I was getting notifications of new feed updates faster than my check-every-15-minutes desktop feed reader. Suggested uses for Notify.me include job listings, social network updates, and search feeds.
notify.me [via StartupSD]
