Archive for 'Tips'
Email and Contacts Work Faster With the Omnimail Chrome Extension
Posted on 20. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 
0 Comments
Emails can take a long time to compose. Well, there is now a way to utilize the ever omnipresent Omnibox to compose your emails. The extension is dutifully called Omnimail, and as you’re probably guessing (as well as sick already of me using the word “omni”) it allows you to fire off email messages with just a few keystrokes. Here’s how it works.
When inspiration strikes you, all that needs to be done is a click of the Omnibox, type in “mail” and you will see a little something like this.
You can then click on the Omnimail URI, or alternatively hit TAB, which is noted further to the right in your Omnibox.
Here are a couple of things you can do with Omnimail. Firstly, the extension connects with your Contacts, so if you need to find an email really fast you can just type in “mail” and then start typing the address. Omnimail will find that information for you.
Need to get an email out. You can do the same thing, and then hit enter, and you’ll be whisked away to your Gmail client to compose a quick email. Too bad you can’t send an email directly from the Omnibox yet, but we’re probably heading down that evolutionary course as it is aren’t we?
Compact Navigation is Coming to Chrome – How to Enable it Right Now
Posted on 16. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 7 Comments
Do you feel like the Omnibox takes up too much space within Chrome? Don’t worry, because you’ll be able to harness more space in your browser window soon. If you use Chromium, you can even do it right now. All you need to do is download one of the latest builds of Chromium (this feature is in Windows only for now) and type in “about:flags” into the Omnibox. You will then see an option to turn on compact navigation.
Once you have enabled this and run a quick restart, you can right click inside your tab context menu and see the “Hide the toolbar” option.
You can see once you have enabled this that the UI is reduced about as far as it can be; your navigation buttons are now pushed into the top part of the browser window. You’ll have to resort to keyboard commands if you want to run a refresh.
In order to bring up the Omnibox you need to click on the open tab that will pop a reduced command box open below it. There is currently some sort of time delay that keeps it there until it will disappear.
It might be helpful to allow it to go away with another click, but this feature is of course experimental. As it stands right now the Omnibox will disappear after a certain period of time in which its not being used.
What do you think about compact navigation? Are you going to start using it?
via Peter Beverloo
New Dell Chromium Build Available
Posted on 16. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 7 Comments
Dell’s Linux Team has steadily put out Chromium-based builds for its Mini lineup of netbooks ever since the source code was open sourced in late 2009. It’s been a while, but there is now a fresh build available at the Dell site. Keep in mind, however, that these are custom suited to work with Dell’s netbooks – specifically the Mini 10v and Mini 9. I would suggest that you read the text file associated with the May 13 release before you try this out.
Dell has had an interest in Chrome OS from the start. It’s clear that the company is seeing PC sales decline and needs to find another way to boost revenues. While netbook sales were good there for a time, just like all the other manufacturers it wants to break out of the PC market.
Based on first quarter 2011 figures, Dell ranked second in this segment, with a 23.1% market share. That reflects an 11.8% decline year over year from 2010. Although the Apple iPad can probably be attributed to some of this loss, other factors such as smartphone adoption and the growing popularity of Toshiba products can explain some of the loss.
Last year, Dell was one company that was spotted having a test device in the Chromium bug reports. The company was not listed as one of the Chrome OS partners from the start. But it’s probably safe to say that the fact that there are still Chromium builds being custom tailored to a lineup of their products as a good sign we might be seeing Dell in the Chrome OS market sometime soon.
Do you think that Dell would be a good addition to the Chromebook lineup?
via Geek.com
Play Classic Games in Chrome/Chrome OS with NaClBox
Posted on 12. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 1 Comments
One of the most exciting developments coming in the Chrome universe sometime this year is Native Client, also known as NaCl. With this technology, developers will be able to use direct hardware in order to process webapps. But we don’t have to wait to see what this can do. NaClBox is a way to use Chrome’s inherent Native Client technology to play old-school DOS games.
You might be familiar with games from back in the day such as SimCity 2000, Alone in the Dark and Falcon 3.0. These are all available – as well as others – in demo form through NaCLlBox that you can play right inside the browser. And although the developer warns that NaClBox may take up a bit more CPU processing than normal, rest assured its using direct code on your hardware right through the browser. 
All you need to do is have at least Chrome 11 installed. In order to turn Native Client, you’ll need to go to “about:flags” in you Omnibox and enable the option – you’ll see in it the listing.
Gaming is going to be one of the biggest benefactors for Native Client in Chrome. We’ll be seeing some great games and apps right inside the browser this year, and it’s a very exciting time to be a fan of Chrome because of that. Stay tuned!
What game would you most like to see come to the browser?
via Engadget
Angry Birds for Chrome Gets Hacked
Posted on 11. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 2 Comments
Angry Birds for Chrome has only been available for one freaking day, and a developer has been able to successfully hack it. A developer by the name of Wes Bos was able to make a change with URL code when he realized that the game used HTML5 LocalStorage to cache game files.
Here’s what you need to put into the Omnibox in order for this to work.
javascript: var i = 0; while (i<=69) { localStorage.setItem(‘level_star_’+i,’3′); i++; } window.location.reload();
You can then put this code in to put the game back in locked mode.
javascript: var i = 0; while (i<=69) { localStorage.setItem(‘level_star_’+i,’-1′); i++; } window.location.reload();
Bos also notes how he found this: “If you open up Web Inspector in Chrome, you’ll see they are keeping track of your score and stars with localstorage. Lucky for us, that means we can use setItem() set all 70 levels to 3 and get access to them all.”
Have you hacked Angry Birds yet?
via TheNextWeb
“Restrict Instant to Search” Appears in Chromium Labs
Posted on 09. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
When Google Instant was first unveiled to the masses, it was given a mixed reception. But at this point it appears that Instant has become another indispensible way to get to Google Search queries as fast as possible. It became a part of Chrome after version 9 of the browser was releaed, bringing it right inside the Omnibox for easy access.
I have noticed that the most recent Chromium builds are showing a new experimental feature in the “about:flags” section called Restrict Instant to Search.
By disabling this, only your searches are brought up below the Omnibox. Google is testing a variation of the feature perhaps because some of the results that display are coming up as an undesired result. This may be because of bad history matching, which was actually suppposed to be addressed in another experimental feature. It is also possible that nonessential URLs were just popping up in the Instant queue – ever noticed that?
Whatever the reason, it’s probably best that Google Instant has its own degree of settings that users can then dial up or down how they see fit. Sure, it’s adding another menu to a series of menus in Chrome but this one is probably worth it to Google since the key element to the company’s success is happy browsing.
Would you like more options that you can toggle on or off in Google Instant?
Troubleshooting Chrome? Use Google’s “Known Issues” Resource
Posted on 03. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
From time to time, we’ll be contacted through this site for various troubleshooting issues regarding the Chrome browser. While we’re very flattered that you would come to this site to help you fix your Chrome-related issue, unfortunately we’re not really the best resource to fix the problem. There is, however, a great place for you to go to see if what you’re experiencing is something that others are as well.
It’s called the Chrome Known Issues site, and it offers an entire list of problems people are experiencing within Chrome that Google has acknowledged and is working to fix it. When you have 120 daily million users of anything the size of the Chrome project, you’re inevitably going to have some bumps in the road. You can also try searching through Google Chrome Help as well.
In fact, while we’re on this subject, I might as well share with you the Chrome OS Known Issues resource as well. If you have a Chrome notebook, this is where you would go for support along with contacting a Ninja. Anything Chromium related should be addressed at the Chromium projects site.
We’ll also always encourage people to congregate at our own forum, which gains new users every day. You can easily join through your Facebook account if you have one. But alas, we simply can’t guarantee a fix for your Chrome-related problems around here. That’s pretty much left up to Google’s Chrome team to take care of.
Chrome OS Gets an Improved File Manager
Posted on 03. May, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 6 Comments
Some recent updates within Chrome/Chromium OS have made improvements to the system’s file manager. Specifically, it’s starting to look much more like a file manager than before, which graphical icons and much more granular detail. And while Chrome VP Sundar Pichai doesn’t have a lot of faith in the idea of a file system while we begin to move our PC environment to the cloud, it’s clear that there are some things we’ll be able to do with files in a commercial release of Chrome OS.
While you’re in Chrome OS/Chromium OS you can access the file manager by pressing CTRL+O. Instead of the old panel design that used to pop up from below your screen, it now appears as a full-on window in the center. This may be the first evidence that the more advanced windowing system Google has been working on will arrive soon.
Also, as you can see from the screenshots, you are now able to create and delete folders, which is a welcome feature. This is starting to look a bit more user-friendly, yet it seems to continue to work withing Google’s simplicity ethos at the same time.
Have you used the new file manager in Chrome OS? If so, share your tips or tricks for using it with us here!
via @rfpa
Malware is Arriving to Attack Chrome Specifically
Posted on 21. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 3 Comments
When you tout a browser as being the safest as Google does, it’s invariably going to attract people who don’t have the best intention set for users. The company has put together a number or measures to try and help thwart malicious attacks and webspam, but the people who create it are always at the ready to fight back. This is evident when you look at pages that are designed to look just like the warning page that Google uses in Chrome to warning people that a site is on the blacklist for hosting malicious code.
Note how this “alert” is attempting to scan your computer. It seems that a number of these scams have some sort of scanning component to them which should be a red flag every time. They always want to download some “security” software, which is just malware. Here is a look at Chrome’s actual security warning, just to give you a look at the difference between the two.
Note how this identifies the site as being suspected of malware, and requires you to agree that you are aware of the consequences.
Let’s be realistic here. No one can provide a totally safe browser experience. But Google is taking steps to create what they are calling a “safer” browser. That’s fair. I remember that before I became a regular Chrome user I had to frequently scan my computer with anti-malware programs to clean the system out. Now that I use Chrome, that doesn’t seem to be as big of an issue as before.
That’s just one example, and Chrome has baked-in a number of other features that seem to take this a few steps ahead of other browsers.
What’s your favorite Chrome security feature?
via ZDNet
Turning Off Auto Update in Chrome
Posted on 20. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 8 Comments
While the autoupdate feature is a useful one in Chrome, there are reasons that some may want to turn it off. If that is the case, this may be helpful for you to understand how to toggle this off. Google makes it possible to modify this with a little bit of operating system configuration, so let’s take a quick look at how you can change this feature to off, or to just set a time for it to go out and look for updates.
Windows
For Individual Users
1. Open up your registry editor (you can do this by running the regedit program) and head to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update.
2. You can set two different DWORD values here by creating them:
DisableAutoUpdateChecksCheckbox – set this value to 1 if you want to disable the auto-updater; 0, if you want to enable it.
AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes – this will set a certain time that the updater looks for a new version (for example: 1440 to check for updates once a day)
For Networks
Networks that have deployed Chrome need to be using the group policy templates that Google provides. There is a specific guide called Google Update for the Enterprise that details this information, but once you get the template installed it looks pretty easy.
Mac
You’ll need to enter in commands via the terminal in order to make this work.
To disable the Updater, enter in the following command “$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0″. Setting the interval to 1 will turn it back on.
To set a time for the Updater to check, enter in this ”$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval <frequency>” where <frequency> is the elapsed time in seconds between update checks.
Have you turned autoupdate off? Why?
Multiple Profiles and Profile Switch Coming to Chrome
Posted on 19. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 8 Comments
It’s been talked about by the Chrome Team that there will soon be multiple profile options in the Chrome browser, much like how Chrome OS is already set up. Because each person’s browser preferences are completely personal and unique to them, it makes sense that web usage should be connected to a personal profile.
Looking at the latest Chromium builds, there is now an option to turn on multiple profiles through the “about:flags” experimental menu that you can access through the Omnibox.
Once you have enabled this option and do a restart of the browser, you can then head into your options menu and see that this is in your Personal Stuff tab.
Even after I synced Chromium with my Google account, you can see that right now you cannot create another profile other than the one that is associated with Google. However, you can get an idea about how this will work when you look into the top right corner of your browser because you can see that there is a box that will let you toggle accounts.
With multiple profiles, you’ll be able to switch to different apps, bookmarks and extensions. It’s also expected that there will be a guest mode down the line as well, further making Chrome your operating system inside of your operating system.
How do you feel about adding multiple profiles into Chrome? Is it something that you will use?
via ChromeStory
How to Throttle HTTP Requests in Chrome
Posted on 18. Apr, 2011 by Daniel Cawrey. 0 Comments
A new feature has arrived in Chrome 12 that allows you to throttle HTTP requests. Reducing your requests might be helpful when a site is experiencing a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. When this happens, the affected website is getting overloaded with HTTP requests. This feature, which is currently not enabled by default, can identify when a DDoS attack is occurring and limit the browser’s requests to four.
You can access this feature by entering in “chrome://net-internals/#httpThrottling”. You’ll get a nice explanation of what this option does along with a check box.
“In order to prevent Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks from being perpetrated by web pages and extensions that run within Chrome, the HTTP throttling mechanism keeps track of errors requesting a given URL (minus the query parameters), and after a few 5xx errors in a row, starts exponentially increasing an interval during which requests to the given URL are disallowed.
You may enable or disable the feature below. Please let us know if the feature is causing problems for your web site. More details and contact information at http://dev.chromium.org/throttling.”
DDos attacks are a serious problem for websites, especially those that are important for infrastructure or commerce. I’ve noticed lately that a number of banking-related entities have been having a problem with such attacks. In order to safeguard against a number of Chrome browsers being the culprit, Google is including this feature. There’s no timeline as to when this option will be enabled by default.
via ConceivablyTech
