Fireday - Firefox extensions for June 9, 2006

This week: TableTools update, Google Browser Sync, PONG Multiplayer, and a Palette Grabber.

June 9th, 2006 at 4:00am — Comments: (4) — By: Jonathan Danylko — Tags: Fireday

You definitely want to be here for these extensions this week. We have an update to one extension, an extension released from Google, and two other great extensions. Woo Hoo!

UPDATE: TableTools 0.11

TableSort was reviewed a while ago and was reviewed with a solid 4 out of 5. Recently, I received an e-mail about an update to the extension from the author, Mingyi Lui. The extension "formerly known as TableSort" is now called TableTools 0.11.

This version is more of a extension patch more than extra features, but it is still a solid extension, which still gets my rating of 4/5.

UPDATE: The extension was not a patch, it was a brand new product. After reviewing it further, the extension has more features than I was aware of. This extension will be reviewed in full next week.

Google Browser Sync

Now, how many of you use a PC at home, one at work, and a laptop? If your like me, you have 3 different sets of bookmarks you have to maintain.

Google has come up with a solution. They have released the Google Browser Sync Extension (sorry IE, no extension for you).

When you install the extension, you restart your browser. When you run Firefox, you notice a dialog box that says do you agree or not (blah, blah, blah)...yes, click. It asks you for your Google account email and password. After that, it prompts you for a PIN. The PIN is just a number for your account to keep track of your bookmarks. When you enter the PIN, it starts chatting with the server.

The cool thing about Google's Browser Sync is that it is completely automated. If you save a bookmark to your list, it will save it on their server for later. When you log into Google at home, you need to have the Browser Sync extension installed on the other PCs as well.

Not only will it consolidate your bookmarks on Google's servers, it will also do a "browser restore" when you run Firefox. It will ask you if you want to restore your pages after your crash.

Installation of the extension was very simple and worked the first time I installed it. The automated part of the extension is what sells me. I'm sick of exporting and importing my bookmarks.html from PC to PC and thank you Google for making it easier to manage by bookmarks.

Rating: 5/5

PONG! Multiplayer

Anyone interested in blowing off some steam on this warm Friday? :-)

Ahh Memorieeeees. Quoting from the site:

• A full blown chat application.
• Direct Play.
• Fully customizable color schemes. Let PONG! look the way YOU want.
• 2 player mode, play against a friend on your own pc.
• Sound effects, and the option to disable them.
• Changing AI, when you're 3 points ahead the computer will randomly turn hard AI on and off.
• Select the number of points are needed to win the game.
• Play at 5 different speed settings.
• Play with your mouse, or with the keyboard, just as you like. Keyboard keys are customizable.

So as you can see, the extension speaks for itself. The entertainment value is about the same as playing Tic-Tac-Toe with someone, but hey, it's multiplayer and its online! I could be playing PONG with someone in California...who knows. Now, Frogger...multiplayer...online...would rock! :-)

Rating: 4/5

Palette Grabber

The Palette Grabber extension is indispensible to web designers, in my opinion.

The Palette Grabber, when installed, will add an "export color palette" to your Tools menu. When you select this command, it will extract a color palette based on the current web page that you are viewing and export it to a Photoshop/Illustrator file.

Awesome for getting color schemes from web sites that clients like. (did I say that out loud?) :-)

Rating: 5/5

If someone has any comments or questions about the reviews, please let me know.

Until next week.