MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [May 10th]” plus 11 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [May 10th]
- The 15 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers]
- Pick & Zip – The Fastest & Easiest Way To Download Facebook Photos
- How To Get Started With Firefox 4′s App Tabs
- Hot Tech Deals – Dell XPS 8300 Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core Sandy Bridge Desktop + more
- 6 More Prank Websites To Give You Ideas For Playing Practical Jokes On Your Friends
- Create Your Own Custom Homescreen Widgets With BITS [Android]
- Reduce Your Mobile Internet Data Usage & Save Money Using Onavo [iOS]
- AIM & Google Talk To Become Interoperable [News]
- The 7 Best Free Open Source Programs To Replace Commercial Windows Software
- Best Of Windows Software: 15 New Apps Added
- 5 Things To Do When Firefox Runs Slow But Other Browsers Run Fast
| Cool Websites and Tools [May 10th] Posted: 10 May 2011 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| The 15 Toughest Tech Questions [MakeUseOf Answers] Posted: 10 May 2011 06:31 PM PDT
The Best Answer of the Week is rewarded with $50 and two runners-up win $30 and $20, respectively. Every comment automatically enters the contest. Just make sure we can contact you in case you win. Please have a look at these questions:
For regular updates subscribe to the Answers RSS Feed. Need help? Ask A Question at MakeUseOf Answers. Download videos from the sites like YouTube, Break.com etc. Convert videos to almost any format.  Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| Pick & Zip – The Fastest & Easiest Way To Download Facebook Photos Posted: 10 May 2011 04:31 PM PDT
Facebook makes it pretty easy to upload photos to its service, but downloading them is another story, especially if they’re your friends’ photos that you are tagged in. Sure, you could look for them all and save them individually, but who wants to spend time doing that? Pick & Zip (directory app), on the other hand, makes this an extremely simple process. What Is Pick & Zip?Pick&Zip is a web application that lets you download tagged photos of you from Facebook. With Pick & Zip you can download photos where you have been tagged even if you have not uploaded them yourself.
In just a few clicks, you can back up all of the Facebook photos you appear in, as well as download your friends’ albums and those from fan pages and groups you belong to. How Do I Get Started?
To start using Pick & Zip to download photos, the first thing you should do is navigate over to the homepage and connect with your Facebook account. Once you do that, just click on the green Find My Photos button on the bottom left side of the screen and you’ll see all of your photos and albums.
You may also notice a list of your friends in the left-hand column. With Pick & Zip, you can also download your friends’ photos, which I would imagine many would think is a privacy concern. At any rate, you can see the photos you’re tagged in and, if there’s an entire album that you want to grab, you can. Alternatively, you can also view and download photos from groups you’ve joined and pages you’ve liked. Due to Facebook privacy measures however, only photos uploaded to groups by your friends are shown.
To download photos, you can either click on them one by one or hit the Select All button to highlight the whole album. Once you make your selection, click the download tab and you’ll have the option to either download the photos you’ve selected or download all photos and albums from the tab you were on.
When you’re all done, you’ll have a Zip file or PDF on your computer with all of the photos in it. Some will even be in HD quality! ConclusionIf you’re looking for a way to download Facebook photos right from your Firefox browser, we also have an article on that. I downloaded and backed up all of my Facebook photos using Pick & Zip in a matter of minutes. It really is fast and easy to use, and I think you’ll agree with me once you take it for a test run. I’m curious to hear what you think! Will you be giving Pick & Zip a try? Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| How To Get Started With Firefox 4′s App Tabs Posted: 10 May 2011 02:31 PM PDT
One of the new features of Firefox 4 which is incredibly useful is the idea of App Tabs. Basically, this lets you add the websites you visit all the time to a permanent position in your browser. So you don’t need to create special bookmarks or re-open these sites anymore. They will just sit there ready for your attention when required which is fantastic. For those of you who have played with many Firefox add-ons in the past, the reality of the new App Tabs is precisely like the use of the Faviconize extension, mixed with the Permanent Tabs extension. Your App Tabs are kept open on the left hand side of your current tabs, with just an icon to indicate the service. Set Up Your App TabsTo create your own App Tabs, go to the website you wish to use as an App Tab. When the site is loaded, right-click the tab and choose “Pin as App Tab“. You’ll see the App Tab appear as a small tab to the left of your normal tabs, with just an icon for identification.
If you want to keep adding App Tabs, open a new tab then navigate to the page you want and repeat the process. When you’ve got a few App Tabs created, you can rearrange them by dragging them left and right, as with any other tab. Note that these App Tabs will automatically load on the left whenever Firefox is started, even if you don’t normally have the rest of your tabs reload with Firefox.
Getting Rid Of App TabsIf you’ve had enough of your App Tabs, simply right click on the tab and choose “Unpin Tab“. You can also drag the tab back into your normal tabs and it will revert to a normal tab itself. Why Use App Tabs?So, now you know how to set these App Tabs up, but you might still be wondering what use you could have for them. Here’s a few good ideas for App Tabs:
An ideal set-up would be to use your favourite Twitter lists, Facebook friends lists and sub-Reddits in App Tabs in order to keep track of the most important information only. Other reasons for keeping App Tabs are more practical. Since you can’t accidentally close an App Tab, you can avoid losing emails and Facebook messages you’re in the middle of writing. App Tabs will also change colour when there’s an update on the page, for instance when you’ve received email or your Facebook news feed has updated. The App Tabs are essentially a permanent addition to your Firefox set-up and will always open when you open Firefox, so it could potentially save you quite a bit of time with your morning coffee routine, checking email, news and updates from friends. App Tabs can also be used within Tab Groups, so you can keep your tabs nicely organised, while enjoying the benefits of these permanent tabs. More Firefox 4 ReadingIf you’ve decided to upgrade to Firefox 4, you might want to check out some of the other new developments we’ve covered at MakeUseOf:
What do you think of Firefox 4? Will you be using the App Tabs? Let us know in the comments! Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| Hot Tech Deals – Dell XPS 8300 Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core Sandy Bridge Desktop + more Posted: 10 May 2011 01:30 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated.
Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on MakeUseOf Answers! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| 6 More Prank Websites To Give You Ideas For Playing Practical Jokes On Your Friends Posted: 10 May 2011 12:31 PM PDT
My colleague Angela struck the funny bone of our readers (and probably jarred a few more) with her 5 Websites To Get Hilarious Practical Joke Ideas. I too took home a few really ‘practical’ ideas. The post and reader comments showed me two things – practical jokes and pranks have no age bar, and there are lots more where those five funny websites came from. So, here's a lineup of six more fun websites and blogs that might tickle the mischievous parts of your brain. Rotten Eggs
Rotten Eggs seems to be undergoing a makeover. But its 'eggs' directory is there and points to some pranks you can play with some planning and cunningness. Rotten Eggs is the community for pranksters and if tomfoolery is a hobby, you can also check out their wiki called Prankepedia which only has 12 articles so far, but could do with a push. The MIT Gallery of Hacks
Geeks apparently define pranks as hacks as the IHTFP (Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People) Gallery says – The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and “ethical” prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!).It could be the upside-down lounge or the Wikipedia cleanup tags placed all around campus, geeky pranks are taken to new 'lows'. Improv Everywhere
The site carries out 'social missions' that prove – that a prank doesn't have to involve humiliation or embarrassment; it can simply be about making someone laugh, smile, or stop to notice the world around them. The agents of social mayhem operate in and around the New York City area. You can pick up ideas from their website and use it for fun. The site has engineered more than 100 prank missions; the unauthorized autograph signing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with an actor who bears a striking resemblance to King Philip IV of Spain is just one of them. Urban Prankster
The prank blog is all about pranks, hacks, community art, and other creative endeavors that take place in public places in cities across the world. Some space is given to funny and clever ads. This site shares a common link with the last site as its founder Charlie Todd is associated with this one as well. Zug
When you are trying to pick up some prank ideas then this passes with flying colors with its collection of practical jokes. It is one of the oldest if it's About page is right. I liked reading about the Harvard VS MIT face-off to see who the better pranksters among the two are. MTV Pranked
Pranked is a MTV episodic show that's till on air and covers pranks caught on camera. The camera captures homemade pranks that are thought up, planned, executed and filmed by kids and normal everyday people, with no help from experts. You can view the Pranked videos (72 of them) along with bonus clips online too. Not everybody will like pranks. But I am sure there protests will be downed by the rowdy laughter when the practical joke you play succeeds. Nothing succeeds like a prank that's well thought out and seen through. Which is the best prank you have played till date? Where you inspired by a prank site like these? Let us know. Image Credit: Shutterstock Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| Create Your Own Custom Homescreen Widgets With BITS [Android] Posted: 10 May 2011 11:31 AM PDT
One way that many developers go for is to try and provide “sane defaults” and ignore the outliers. Just this week I’ve had a developer say “no” to me when I asked for an extra feature in an application I use. On the other end of the spectrum you will find those developers who try to please everyone by making their application super-flexible, with lots of options and settings that are supposed to let you tweak your app until it’s just so. That’s where you will find BITS, a new homescreen “widget engine” that’s still in beta. BITS lets you build your very own widgets, with lots of different variables, menu options and graphics. But does it work? To launch BITS, simply add it as a widget to your homescreen. You will then get a friendly beta reminder:
Keep this reminder in mind — it’s not just for show. It’s also worth noting that BITS has an expiration date, but it’s quite generous. Onto the main screen:
Note the amount of text on this screen. Unlike Apple, Google does not impose any interface design guidelines on developers. This leniency really shows in the BITS interface, and that’s not necessarily a good thing. Apart from the text, the top side of the screen is populated by a clock. That’s the “default content” for the widget. Now let’s hit the Plus icon:
We get a menu called “Add A Bit“. The amount of “bits” (data) you can add seemed staggering at first, but I quickly realized it’s mainly weather data. BITS also lets you add the system date and time (obviously), your location, battery level, and a couple of other variables. You can’t add anything like “unread email count”, “missed calls”, etc. I tapped the Sun/Moon option and got this:
It does indeed look like a “Sun/Moon”, which I assume is supposed to change as the day progresses. Once a “bit” is selected, you get several positioning controls. Again, see how much trouble the developer went through to make this as customizable as possible. You get not one, but two different ways to control the size: both a slider and two arrows. When you tap the arrows, the slider moves. Why would you need such redundancy on a tiny screen, I do not know. But it’s there. You can also arrange the elements in layers, position them in pixel-perfect accuracy and anchor them to the sides of the widget. I next tapped the time string, and used the drop-down menu to change it into a battery level meter:
As you can see above, text elements get a series of four buttons — positioning, font, color and text. Let’s look at the font selector:
Quite a healthy selection of fonts there. I went with the aptly-named Bold. Next, let’s look at the color selection screen:
Quite a standard slider control there. Note that you can also control the element’s transparency.
Next, I attempted to set my location for the Sun/Moon widget to work correctly. But alas, Tel-Aviv was not on the list:
When trying to manually specify my location, I got another “beta reminder” of sorts:
Note that this was not an outright force-close situation. I tapped “Wait” and BITS went right back to work. This happened only on this one screen, but it happened twice. Having failed to set my location manually, I tapped the option that said “Use device to automatically track location“, and went back to the homescreen to look at my creation:
Those rounded-corner things you see at the top of the widget are “hot spots”. The left one is used to access the settings, while the right one is used to refresh the widget’s data. You can hide the indicators, but the functionality will still work (i.e, just tap the top-left of the widget to enter its settings). I then enabled the GPS on my device, tapped “Refresh” and waited for several long moments. But alas, BITS could not get a fix on my location (ever the elusive blogger, I am!), and the sun/moon icon remained ambiguous. In other words, it didn’t really work. But it did show my battery percentage in huge, bold, pink text! Bottom Line
In its current state, BITS did not blow me away. But if the developers took the time to add more variables, polished up the interface, and most importantly, enabled editing layouts using a PC and then transferring them to your device, BITS might become a compelling customization tool. As I mentioned, BITS is still in beta. Therefore, you won’t find it in the market, but you can easily download and install it by scanning the QR code on the left. Let us know in the comments below what you think of the app, and what creations you have made with it. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| Reduce Your Mobile Internet Data Usage & Save Money Using Onavo [iOS] Posted: 10 May 2011 10:31 AM PDT
There are two main methods to accessing the net wirelessly – using WiFi and using a data connection provided by phone carriers. The problem is, fast and reliable WiFi connections are not everywhere. Most of the time, especially in developing countries, people have to rely on slower and more expensive carriers’ data connections. Knowing that customers have no other options, some carriers try to reap even more profit by setting an impossibly high price for data connections. What can customers do to save money? They can try to minimize their mobile data plan usage, or they can use Onavo. To Reroute & To CompressOnavo is a new service that will help phone users reduce their mobile Internet data usage by rerouting the data streams via Onavo’s servers and compressing the data there. The result is that users will send and receive smaller data sizes, websites will load faster, and the connection costs will be smaller. Onavo claims that the service can shrink data size up to 80%. The concept of rerouting and compressing data streams itself is not new. The method was popular several years ago as an alternative way to “speed up” very slow Internet connections (does anybody still remember what it was like to use a 56.6Kbps modem over a landline?). One of those services was Toonel. At the moment, Onavo is only available for iOS devices (iPhones and 3G versions of iPads). You can download the free app in the App Store. As for Android users, you don’t have to worry because several websites have confirmed that the Android version is on the way. After installing the app, you can start setting up the service. Open the app and install a personal Onavo profile on your iOS device: fill in your email address and choose a password, then click “Next“.
Onavo will get the data from the web and ask for your confirmation before installing the profile.
After the set up, you will get the explanation screen. It will tell you that the service is currently not supporting VoIP and video apps. Tap “Go To App” to continue.
Let’s Start SavingUsing the service is very easy. All that you have to do is to tap on “Turn Savings On” button and do your normal Internet activities on your iOS device while leaving the app open. The rerouting and compressing process will be done automatically in the background.
Anytime you need to stop using the service, you can tap the “Turn Savings Off” button. Some of you might ask, why would anyone turn off a service that will speed up the webload while reducing connection costs? The answer is simple – the size compression process compromises on file quality, and the effect is most noticeable on images. So if you need to view web images in their best shape, you will want to turn off the compression. After a few minutes of using the app, you can go back to the app to view the savings report. Onavo will tell you how many kilobytes (or megabytes) that you’ve saved. It will also tell you the saving’s percentage. Tap “Reports” to see the details. You can share your savings via Facebook, Twitter, or email to your colleagues using the “Share” tab on the right.
Since I tried the app only for a little while, I didn’t have the monthly savings data to show. But the app has a sample of monthly savings data, with a colorful chart showing where your savings went.
Settings & RemovingThe “Settings” is the place to change your email and/or password, and to do several other adjustments. You can access Settings by tapping the gear icon on the top right corner of the screen.
By going a little bit deeper into the Settings, you can find the instructions on how to remove Onavo’s profile: go to Settings – Profile and remove Onavo.
But if you are a mobile Internet user with a carrier’s mobile data plan, you wouldn’t want to remove Onavo. How else can you get a cheaper and faster mobile Internet connection? If you know of another easy and free method to do so, please share it in the comments below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| AIM & Google Talk To Become Interoperable [News] Posted: 10 May 2011 10:01 AM PDT
Not for long however, as the two are about to become interoperable; meaning Google Talk and AIM users will be able to chat regardless of which service they use for the first time. As part of the change, AOL users will no longer be able to log into AIM from the Gmail sidebar. AOL suggests users continue to use AIM as a desktop (or mobile) client, slowly adding Gmail buddies or use Google Talk as normal and add your AIM buddies simply by their email address. The change might take some users a while to import contacts, and a notice on the AIM website suggests they’re working on a quicker migration process. AOL are developing an importer which should allow users to migrate their entire AIM buddy list to Google Talk. Users who are already happy with the AIM client will be able to add Gmail contacts, though the process can be a laborious process: one at a time.
Anyone interested in switching from AIM to Google Talk as part of the shake-up should be aware that status indications (“Available”, “Away” and so on) are only possible from AIM, according to AOL. As to when this new functionality will land? It appears AOL are rolling out the change gradually: “You will be notified in Gmail when this new functionality is enabled for your account.” Will this IM shake-up affect you? Will you miss logging in to AIM from Gmail? Will you switch from AIM to Google Talk? Let us know what you think in the comments. Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| The 7 Best Free Open Source Programs To Replace Commercial Windows Software Posted: 10 May 2011 09:31 AM PDT
Today there are many free open source software options, and often cross-platform alternatives to costly Windows software. In this article I have summarized the most important free open source alternatives to standard commercial Windows programs. LibreOffice replaces Microsoft OfficeLibreOffice was founded by former developers of OpenOffice over concerns that Oracle would turn it into a commercial product. In April this year, however, Oracle announced that it would discontinue commercial development of OpenOffice and make it a purely community-based project [Wikipedia]. Nevertheless, LibreOffice has become an alternative for both OpenOffice and Microsoft Office. Like its commercial counterpart, LibreOffice comes with a word processor (Writer), a spreadsheet program (Calc), a presentation tool (Impress), a databases manager (Base), and a lot more. It is fully compatible with standard Microsoft Office file formats but users must remember to save or export their files in the respective format.
LibreOffice’s number one competitor is of course OpenOffice. Further reading:
Mozilla Thunderbird replaces Windows Live MailMozilla’s Thunderbird is an easy to set up desktop mail client that supports extensions and hence can do many tricks that Windows Live Mail still needs to learn. Unfortunately, it still isn’t an alternative for anyone who depends on syncing (Outlook) contact data from or to mobile devices.
Further reading:
Inkscape replaces CorelDraw & Adobe IllustratorInkscape is a vector graphics editor that uses the W3C standard Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) file format, supporting many advanced SVG features, including markers, clones, and alpha blending. It is rather intuitive to use, which makes it a great tool for beginners.
Another free open source alternative for CorelDraw is Draw from the OpenOffice package or Draw from the LibreOffice package. Further reading: GIMP replaces Adobe PhotoshopGIMP, an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is a cross platform graphics editor, which can serve as a simple paint program, but also supports advanced features, such as photo retouching, batch processing, or image format conversion.
Another option for Windows users is Paint.NET, which some say is easier to use than GIMP, especially if you are not looking for advanced features. Further reading:
Blender replaces 3ds MaxBlender is a cross-platform 3D content creation suite that supports modeling, animation, rendering, a game engine, and much more. The Blender homepage features a thorough collection of tutorials and a list of movies that were created with the program.
Further reading: BRL-CAD replaces AutoCADBRL-CAD is a cross-platform open source modeling software that supports interactive geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, image and system processing tools, and more. The program has been developed for an impressive 20+ years.
Another alternative to AutoCAD is LibreCAD. Further reading:
7-Zip replaces WinZip or WinRAR7-Zip is a file compression/decompression tool that supports many archive formats and also comes bundled with a lightweight file manager.
You might also want to check out the open source file and archive manager PeaZip, which comes as a portable and full version for 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows and Linux. Further reading:
A full list of free and open source software can be found on Wikipedia. What was the last program you paid money for and why? Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| Best Of Windows Software: 15 New Apps Added Posted: 10 May 2011 09:00 AM PDT
It’s basically a page where we share our favourite Windows apps — those that we absolutely love and think you should use. We’ve recently revamped it to include 15 new applications.
Go ahead, head over to The Best Of: Windows Software page and check the new apps out! Also, help us spread the word by sharing the page with friends. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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| 5 Things To Do When Firefox Runs Slow But Other Browsers Run Fast Posted: 10 May 2011 08:31 AM PDT
Time doesn't stand still however, and Firefox has matured over the years. This means great new features, but every change has the chance of causing a bug that degrades performance. Firefox shouldn't feel slow, particularly when compared to Opera and Internet Explorer. If it does, try these tips and see if you can restore it to its full glory. Step 1: Try Speedyfox
As you use and customize Firefox your data is stored in a profile, which is a SQLite database. Over time, customizations can pile on and the database can become slow, which in turn makes it so that Firefox runs slow but other browsers run fast. Plus there is always the slim possibility of an error or file corruption causing the issues with the database. Speedyfox is a tool designed to solve this problem by compacting the database files. If you haven't been using the browser for some time, it's not likely that this will solve your Firefox woes. However, Speedyfox is a tiny download that takes seconds to run, so it's worth a shot. Step 2: Look For Troublesome Extensions
One of Firefox's greatest strengths is its extension support. But that strength can sometimes be a weakness. There's no Firefox police patrolling the extensions to make sure they all work together, that they all work with every version of Firefox, or that they work at all. It's no surprise therefore that they can sometimes cause crashes, improper webpage rendering and performance issues. Your first step is to check that extensions may be the source of the problem, which you can do by opening Firefox's safe mode. Click the Firefox button, then go to Help and select Restart with Add-ons Disabled. If Firefox's performance is suddenly improved, the problem is likely an extension. To find the culprit you'll have to disable the extensions one-by-one in Firefox until the performance issues are resolved. It's tedious, but necessary. Step 3: Check Other Software
Another possible source of Firefox performance issues is interference from another program. Firefox is pretty well known, so anti-malware software shouldn't interfere with it in most cases. But most cases are not all cases. Simply disable your anti-malware software and see if this resolves the problem. You should also be sure to update all critical plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash. An outdated version can, in rare cases, cause performance problems. If your anti-malware is the issue, open up the software(s) permissions and make sure Firefox is a trusted program and has permission to communicate through your firewall. This should solve the problem. If it doesn't, try uninstalling the anti-malware temporarily and then install an alternative free antivirus and free firewall. Step 4: Consider Hardware Problems
Web browsers are rarely limited by modern computer hardware, but it is possible that hard drive issues could cause Firefox to run slow while other browsers run fast. First, check to see if Firefox is installed on the same hard drive as your other browsers. If it isn't, your performance problems might be caused by a problem with the hard drive's performance. This is a likely cause if your performance issues are limited to the browser's load times. If Firefox is not installed on the same drive as your other browsers, reinstall it on the same drive. Another possible problem is drive fragmentation. This issue is not as common now that Windows performs scheduled defragmentation by default, but it's still a possible sore spot on systems with Windows XP, or if you have disabled automatic defragmentation. The disk defragmenter can be brought up in Windows Vista or Windows 7 by searching for Disk Defragmenter in the Start Menu. XP users can find it by right-clicking on a drive volume, selecting Properties, and then opening the Tools tab. Step 5: Nuke It From Orbit – Er, Reinstall
Reinstalling a program is the obvious final solution to any issue. It's much like rebooting your computer to make a bug go away. It often works, but it's far from elegant. Using this as a solution is a tiny bit more difficult with Firefox because it conveniently saves all of your settings when you uninstall the browser. The browser you have when you reinstall will be basically the same as it was before. It's easy to solve this problem. There's a critical checkbox labeled “Remove my Firefox personal data and customizations” that appears during the uninstall process. But fair warning – selecting it nukes everything related to Firefox, and you'll be starting from scratch when you reinstall. Do this only as a last resort. ConclusionHopefully these solutions will resolve your Firefox issues. They are in order from the least to the most extreme, so I recommend you follow them step-by-step. Don't try two at once, or follow a solution half-way through. Fixing a bug causing performance issues means changing one variable at a time. Getting ahead of yourself could cause further headaches and false positives. Hey Facebookers, make sure to join MakeUseOf on Facebook and get access to some exclusve stuff. Over 70,000 fans already! Read comments: Loved it? Hated it? Join discussion here ...
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I never used to upload photos to my Facebook page but now I’m starting to build a pretty nice collection of albums on there. But I’m not as active as most people I’ve seen in that department. Many people use Facebook as their primary place to house all of their photos, where their friends can comment on them and everyone can be tagged. In fact, many of the photos that exist of me on the social network are those that other people have taken and I have been tagged in.
Firefox 4 has been impressing users since its release, offering many useful improvements and tweaks. In fact, MakeUseOf readers 
Today, check out the Dell XPS 8300 Intel Core i5-2400 3.1GHz Quad-Core Sandy Bridge Desktop equipped with a 22″ LCD going for just $799 – that’s about half off! You might also be interested in the other Dell deals we have for you today. An lastly the new Brink Video game is on offer for XBox, PS3 and PC.
Nobody has said that April has the only reserved day for pranks. Thankfully, and for some, quite irksome pranks are a year round activity. It can be embarrassing, it can be hilarious, it can be downright ugly too, but more often, if done tastefully, it can be sheer fun. That is, if you aren't the subject of the prank.
On an Android device, the home screen is prime real-estate. If you can get users to sacrifice some of their precious screen space for your widget or icon, you’ve made it. But these users can be notoriously hard to please; they each want different things, and they can rarely seem to agree on anything. So as a developer, what are you to do?
Is BITS for everyone? Definitely not. But if you’re an obsessive tweaker, you might get a kick out of it. Then again, you might spend the same amount of time tweaking something like Tasker and get a much more impressive result.
Thanks to the enormous growth of smartphones and tablets, mobile Internet access is also growing by leaps and bounds. More and more people are accessing the web from their mobile devices using wireless connections.
In 2007 Google enabled AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) users to log in via the Google Talk “Chat” area in the Gmail sidebar, bringing the two services closer together. This made it easier to stay in touch with AIM buddies, but still didn’t allow for direct communication with Google Talk users.
Although Windows is not a free operating system, it has become a standard simply because it comes pre-installed with most new computers. In the past, this meant you also had to get matching commercial software, which often came at a hefty price tag. Fortunately, the 
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Firefox is a great browser, and has been one of the most popular for years. When it was first released a great deal of the praise it received came courtesy of the browser's speed and great standards compliance. At the time Internet Explorer was virtually unopposed, and it caused Microsoft's development to stagnate.
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