Facebook Chrome App!

As I blogged about earlier, Google Chrome 8 has now re-added support for applications, however I supplied links to the 3 basic Google-created apps. However after much scurrying around source codes and projects, I managed to recreate an app for the popular social network Facebook!

So if you successfully managed to install the basic extensions following my past blog post, then it is going to be a piece of cake to install the Facebook app!

Just download the .crx extension file and install the app!

Download File

All you have to do is download the zipped filed containing the extension, and load it through the extensions developer mode. (If you need help see my previous post)

Download zipped file

Remember that you must have the Chrome 8 Developer version, and the --enable-apps command line added to your Google Chrome shortcut for this to work!

Also if you want to truly enjoy the app environment, in your new tab page make sure you right click the Facebook app and select "Open as pinned tab".

Google Chrome Apps are Back!

Google has just recently updated the Google Chrome Developer Channel  to version: 8.0.552.0 dev and one of the new function in this update is the returning support for Google Chrome Apps!

I had already posted on Google Chrome support for apps here, but Google decided to remove support not much after I blogged about it. But now with Google's support, Apps can thrive again.

You must have the latest Google Chrome from the Developer Channel 


Since at the time of writing they are not enable by default you must enable Apps with the simple shortcut command : --enable-apps
In order to do this right-click your existing Google Chrome shortcut either on your desktop or start menu and click properties. In the target field append --enable-apps to the end of the address.

It should look like this:

Now that apps are enabled restart your browser.

For now apps can only be enable through the extensions pane. So in Chrome go to Tools->Developer->Extensions. Make sure you are in the developer mode.

Now download this zip file containing 3 Google created apps.

Unzip them to a directory that you are familiar with.
Now go back to the extensions page and click load unpacked extension. Go to the folder where you unpacked the Google Apps.zip and click on the app you want to install. Just click OK and done!

You installed the app!

Just go over to your new tab page to check out your new and sexy apps!

Please note that if you want the sleek looking app icons instead of the the favicon and website name, in the new tab page move your mouse over the app and click on the the wrench. Then select "Open as pinned tab". It will give you the result below.

Congratulations! You successfully (hopefully) installed Google Chrome Apps!

Chrome Extension Review - LastPass

While chatting with a friend I decided to start writing about the great variety of Google Chrome extensions.
My first and most important extensions has got to be LastPass (http://goo.gl/qYvQ).

LastPass "is a free online password manager and Form Filler that makes your web browsing easier and more secure." And to be honest with you, it truly does just that! You see while you are browsing the web you come upon say a forum you want to join. So while you are creating the account LastPass can fill in your profile information (supports multiple profiles). Plus a great security addition, LastPass can optionally actually create a secure password for you. It can be a combination of digits, characters, special characters, you name it! (You can specifiy). And since LastPass stores all your passwords, you won't have to remember it!

And the greatest thing about LastPass is that it is multi-platform. And cross-browser! So in my case I have 3 different laptops that I use for different purposes. However I still use most of my same accounts across them. So I have LastPass installed on all of them, so whenever I create a new account in one of them, my other laptops will get the credentials as well. Since they are all stored on the server, with an offline backup of course!

LastPass even supports a USB portable version which you can download, so if you are constantly switching computers or visiting internet cafes you can take your passwords with you, without leaving any trace on the host computer!

Best of all... LastPass is completely FREE!
However there is a premium version which is only $1 a month.

LastPass is a definite must-have extension. And is probably my most used extension on all browsers!

Google's Own Image Format!

Google has just recently rolled out a new image compression format called WebP! Together with its cousin WebM they are trying to dominate the HTML5 media formats.
Google claims that WebP can compress images up to 40% more than JPEG and JPEG2000! This is definitely some Good news!
Google thinking behind this was that valuable bandwidth is wasted every minute, and by reducing image sizes to almost half will speed up the internet for end users, and make it easier for web masters to distribute media online. Win-Win and everyone is happy!

Except that there is a catch! Encoding an image in WebP takes approximately 8 times more than JPEG encoding. To be honest 8 times more than that tiny split fraction of a second it takes to encode JPEG, is still only 8 times the split fraction of second. Which humanely speaking is nothing!

Google claims that native WebP support will coming to Chrome in the coming weeks, and for now the world's first program to actually have any WebP support whatsoever is Pixelmator, a slick Mac image editing suite.

Mystery Guitar Man Secret Video Revealed!

Mystery Guitar Man just recently announced that he uploaded an unlisted video, and in order to get the URL of it you must go back to his older videos one by one getting the characters of the URL.

Well for those of you that are too lazy to go through all his video, or just want to see it right away... here's the link!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMr9UA6DtqA

This is the link to Mystery Guitar Man's

"SEECRETTT VIDEO!!!! OMG! YOU FOUND IT!"

Hidden Gmail Adress Tricks!

If you are like me then you use Google's service Gmail as your service provider. Gmail is in my opinion the best email service provider out there. And now there are two features that make it stand out even more!

1. Gmail now ignores dots "." in your email adress! Since Gmail does not recognize dots/periods as characters you can add  dots in your email address and still receive it to your account. For example if your email was "gamerfan@gmail.com" you could tell people that it is "gamer.fan@gmail.com" or even "ga.me.r.fan@gmail.com". Since Gmail doesn't count dots, you would get all these to your normal account!
2. You can now add a plus sign "+" and any combination of words, letters, and/or numbers, and still get the email to your address! This can be especially useful for filtering emails. For example if your email was "robert@gmail.com" and you signed up for an online game with "robert+games@gmail.com" then you could easily create a filter for all mail going to "robert-games@gmail.com"

These two tips can help you in better organizing your inbox and for better use of your Gmail address.

-Patopop007