Are You Being Unfollowed? Check With These Apps and Plugins

In my opinion, one of the best things Facebook ever did was to let users “unfriend” each other without any notifications. There have been numerous examples where I’ve regretted “friending” someone, and I’ve avoided tons of drama thanks to this unfriend-in-secret feature. Now, there are apps and extensions that will let you monitor when people unfriend or unfollow you on Facebook or Twitter.

The procedure to figure out who is no longer friending you is quite simple: simply compare your current friends list (Facebook) and followers list (Twitter) to a previous record and look for differences. If someone is no longer friended to you or following you, then the conclusion is obvious.

If this is something that you’d like to know, then you can use the following services to track your unfrienders and unfollowers.

Unfriend Finder [Facebook]

Unfriend Finder is a simple extension that works across all of the major browsers: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Maxthon. It began as a Greasemonkey userscript (which you can still install) but now it’s a widely recognized unfriend tracker extension for Facebook.

Over time, Unfriend Finder will notify you of unfriends and friends who have deactivated their Facebook accounts. In addition, whenever you send out a friend request, Unfriend Finder will let you know when that person hasn’t yet accepted the request – even notifying you if they chose to ignore your request.

Who Deleted Me [Facebook]

Like Unfriend Finder, Who Deleted Me will track changes to your friends list in Facebook. Instead of being an extension, however, it’s an app for which you need to grant Facebook permissions. Once you grant access, the tracker will update you with daily emails regarding changes (unless there were no changes).

The site has been running for just over 2 years now, and has over 100,000 users. It’s a great service if you like receiving email notices instead of browser-based notifications. One downside is that users can hide themselves from Who Deleted Me, which may result in slightly inaccurate friends tracking.

TwentyFeet [Facebook & Twitter]

TwentyFeet is a social media stats tracker that works on both Facebook and Twitter as well as a few other popular social networking services, like MySpace, YouTube, and Facebook pages. It can send you updates through email, RSS, or right on the website with charts and histories. If you use multiple social networks, this is a fantastic service.

Unfortunately, TwentyFeet’s free package is a bit limited. It lets you track one free Facebook account and one free Twitter account. For additional accounts, or for YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook pages accounts, you’ll need to upgrade to Premium. Payment is done through “credits”, which can you purchase on the website.

Who Unfollowed Me [Twitter]

Who Unfollowed Me is a service that tells you who unfollowed you since the last time you visited the site. All that’s required is a few simple clicks and nothing more. Not only that, but it’ll tell you who you’re following that isn’t following you back AND who’s following you that you aren’t following back.

This is great for people who don’t want regular emails or direct messages on Twitter but would prefer to check manually every once in a while. The feature set is pretty simple, though, so if you’re looking for something highly customizable and powerful, this may not fit the bill.

UnFollowers.Me [Twitter]

UnFollowers.Me is very similar to Who Unfollowed Me but with a few extra bells and whistles. Not only does it show you who unfollowed you, it has a dashboard where you can perform simple actions like following/unfollowing, blocking/unblocking, autofollowing people who follow you, sending tweets to multiple users, inviting users to follow you, and more.

You can keep yourself updated by visiting the site whenever you want, or you can set up simple email or tweet notifications over regular periods. Overall, it’s a fantastic service that is easy to use and quite useful.

JustUnfollow [Twitter, iPhone, Android]

JustUnfollow is a website that has a number of Twitter management tools: automatically unfollow those who don’t follow you back or users who are inactive; automatically follow fans who follow you; tracker for users who unfollow you; tracker for users who follow you; follow the users that another account follows; whitelists and blacklists for more user control.

The best part is that JustUnfollow comes in two mobile app varieties: one for Android and one for iPhone. Now you can manage your Twitter followers remotely through your phone, which is exponentially more convenient than using a traditional website dashboard!

Conclusion

In the end, knowing when someone unfriends or unfollows you can become a big burden. You may end up offended or you may feel betrayed, especially if someone you thought was a good friend does it. That’s why I personally don’t use these services. However, if you’re dying to know, then these services will help you.

Are there any other apps and extensions that track unfrienders and unfollowers that I missed? Please share them in the comments!

Image Credit: Follow Button Via Shutterstock

The post Are You Being Unfollowed? Check With These Apps and Plugins appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Use Windows 8 In Style With These Amazing Metro (Modern) Apps

As a Windows Phone user since the platform launched in 2010, I had a hope that Windows 8 would be a big success for Microsoft, if only to see some imaginative implementations of the tile-based user interface once known as “Metro” (and now referred to as Modern).

Sadly, Windows 8 hasn’t quite taken off yet, but this shortcoming certainly isn’t due to a lack of apps. After all, there are several years’ worth of traditional Windows desktop apps to fall back on! As for those optimized for use under the Start screen and the Modern UI, however, there are several that really take advantage of the platform and its new visual style.

Whether you’re using a Windows 8 RT device (such as the Microsoft Surface) or a standard Windows 8 computer, the following Windows 8 Modern apps will help you to realize the true power and potential of Microsoft’s new consumer computing paradigm.

Fresh Paint

Windows has never really shipped with anything nearing an effective paint toolbox since the 1990s. Although the traditional Paint application (the same version that was updated for Windows 7) is included, the Windows Store offers Fresh Paint (covered previously on MakeUseOf), a free app that has proved extremely popular among users so far.

This touch-based app can be used with a mouse, but it is for fingers that it is really optimised. Several brushes are on offer, along with background color fill options, pencils, backgrounds textures and the ability to take snapshots of your finished images.

In addition, various DLC is available, free and premium. The Finding Nemo pack might cost a couple of dollars, but the there is also the free Fun Pack full of paint templates to get you started. As Fresh Paint itself is free from the Windows App Store, this makes for lots of fun for no expense!

Ideal for younger users, Fresh Paint has potential beyond just colouring in. Add a stylus and you have an instant sketch pad!

Fhotoroom

While it doesn’t attempt to replace high-end tools such as Photoshop, Fhotoroom is a free app that enables you to easily crop, resize, edit and adjust the colours on images and photos that you have saved to your Windows 8 computer.

Optimised for touch, you can also add frames and various exposure alterations as well as some interesting filters for the Instagram-esque approach. Most crucially, this is a very easy-to-use application!

Note that Fhotoroom – which must be installed from the Windows App Store – isn’t entirely free. If you want to pay for the pro version you can unlock additional filters, but you should find most of what you need is available in the free app.

OneNote

While I’m not what you would call a OneNote enthusiast, I do admire its ability at cross-platform syncing of notes, and have used it often over the past few years since I bought my first Windows Phone.

This latest version is available free and independently of Microsoft Office from the Windows Store, and offers a fascinating new touch-based user interface.

As you type your notes, a small arrow appears, and upon tapping it you will be presented with the menu wheel, a great new way to offer the traditional Microsoft formatting options in a compact, contextual setting. A different menu will appear if you have text selected, for instance.

With the ability to sync your notes via SkyDrive to other devices, OneNote is an unmissable Windows 8 application! You’ll find OneNote in the Windows App Store.

7digital Music

Music lovers who want to grab the best new music, download it to their computers and sync with other devices should make a beeline for the 7digital Music app, which offers the latest albums and individual tracks in MP3 format, complete with preview listens and competitive pricing.

You will of course need to sign up to use the service, but with low prices and regular sales you should easily find the music you want to listen to and own.

Wikipedia

Barely a day goes by when I don’t check Wikipedia for information (usually system specs, or the birth and death dates of a notable person) and while its natural home is surely a traditional web browser, the Windows 8 app for the website is pretty astonishing.

As you can see from the screenshot, Wikipedia is optimized to run in landscape mode, although as with most good apps it easily switches to portrait mode when the tablet is rotated. Amazingly, however, this app turns the famous online encyclopedia into a virtual book – just like a traditional encyclopedia!

In other words, into the encyclopedia that Wikipedia has always wanted to be! You’ll find this free app in the Windows App Store.

Skype

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has been keeping abreast of developments in the technology world to learn that Microsoft’s most recent big acquisition, Skype, is available as an app for Windows 8.

While not as integrated as many users (and Microsoft) may like, this piece of software is pretty much vital for communications and messaging, particularly as Windows Live Messenger (formerly known as MSN Messenger) is to be retired.

The touchscreen interface on Skype is quick and effective, making it particularly useful for the tablet/hybrid users. Favourite contacts can be specified while the links that you will need to use to buy credit or get a subscription are present, although these open in the browser rather than allowing transactions within the app.

Free to download and use when calling other users, the Skype app will of course require you to setup a subscription or a pre-pay account for calling landlines and mobiles.

Conclusion

Windows 8 may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but there can be no denying the fact that publishers that are supporting the touch-based platform are doing their utmost to present a selection of stylish, cool and usable apps.

If you’re planning on trying to sell the idea of a Windows 8 computer – particularly one of the tablet devices – to your friends, then make sure you have installed these apps, and use them at every opportunity!

Remember, these apps will work with both Windows 8 RT devices and standard Windows 8 tablet, hybrid and desktop computers.

Do you have a preferred Windows 8 touchscreen app? Let us know!

The post Use Windows 8 In Style With These Amazing Metro (Modern) Apps appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Most anticipated Mobile Games of 2013

This year is shaping up to be a big one for mobile games, with a number of long-anticipated titles set to be released at last and more studios than ever trying to push the capabilities of the latest devices to the limit. Everyone's got their own wish list, so here's our run-down of the mobile games we're looking forward to most - and if you don't own a current-generation mobile phone, it may be worth investing in one just to play some of these titles!

Infinity Blade: Dungeons (iOS)

The prequel to the biggest iOS franchise ever is looking great - and from the trailer, it looks set to have a more Diablo/Torchlight-esque feel to the gameplay than the previous games. Sadly the game's development is currently on hold after Impossible Studios was axed, but this is definitely one worth waiting for.

BadLand (iOS)

The lovely-looking BadLand has shades of Limbo in both its artistic and gameplay style, but interestingly it's offering multiplayer support for up to four people. Described as a side-scrolling, physics-based puzzle/racing platformer, it's packing a lot into one game, and the first multiplayer trailer promises frantic screen-tapping action.

Assassin's Creed: Utopia (iOS, Android)

If you wondered how the building-leaping action of Assassin's Creed will play out on a mobile, don't: this looks like it'll be more of a city-building game set in colonial America. There will still be plenty of battles mixed in with the Sim City-ish gameplay, though. It's an unusual direction for the series and it'll be interesting to see whether it works.

Year Walk (iOS)

In Sweden, apparently it's traditional to take a long walk on New Year's Day in the hope of divining the future. It's a strange premise for a game, but this 2D adventure is already looking as beautiful as it is mysterious, and promises a mix of adventure, horror and "interactive art". Check out the trailer for a closer look at this spooky, folklore-infused title.

Double Fine Adventure (iOS, Android)

Anything by Tim Schafer, the man behind some of the world's best-loved adventure games (Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Day of the Tentacle) is definitely worth waiting for, and this Kickstarter project attracted over $3 million of fan backing in just a few short months. Details on the game itself are still sketchy, but it's hard not to be excited by a new Double Fine game.

Can Mobile Monitoring Be Any Simpler- I guess Not!

We have increased the pace of our loves manifold and it seems the time simply slips out of our hands and we don’t have enough time for anything. And in all this, our family and work priorities compete furiously. Technology has addressed this burning issue with the mobile monitoring technique. Why?

The Hassle of Monitoring:

Technology has come to our rescue because monitoring kids and employees in the age when everything is personal and private has become impossible. You can’t possible meet all your kids’ friends, listen to what they talk about over phone and same is the case with employees when you are out of office or when they are. So you need a sound monitoring system that can work on its own and in stealth mode.

Say Hello to Hassle-Free Monitoring:

Fortunately now it is possible, with the help of mobile monitoring apps, you can easily monitor kids and employees all the time and anytime. You only have top install it on their smartphones once and the rest it will do on its own.

Why We Recommend StealthGenie?

The reason why we recommend StealthGenie to almost all out readers is that it is safe and very easy to use. It can be installed on any of the:

• Android


• iPhone


• BlackBerry phones

Exclusive Features:

The best part about StealthGenie mobile monitoring app is that it has loads of features that are fun to use and they work in full stealth mode never letting your kids or employees knowing about it. The exclusive features are:



Recording phone surroundings: this feature is a must have and you can listen to all in-room conversations in addition to recording calls. So your kids or staff will have no way of hiding stuff from you.



Trigger alerts: by defining certain words or contacts in the list, you can get alerts as any of the listed items comes in use. You can also get alerts as your target phone user changes SIM card. Thus hanky-panky is off bounds.



WhatsApp and iMessage monitoring: In addition to monitoring SMS and e-mails, you can also log WhatsApp and iMessage chats so if your kids and employees use WhatsApp or iMessage thinking you can’t know, they are mistaken.

Some Glitches:

There are slight glitches, too. I happened to use it for a long time and a few times, there was a delay in data uploading. But I complained about it to the 24/7 customer support team and they fixed my issue. StealthGenie has yet to come up with any restrictive features so until that time, I would rate it at 8/10.

Conclusion:

I guess, mobile monitoring cannot be any simpler than StealthGenie. It has understood the core concerns of parents and employees and that’s what they are basing their app on. Try StealthGenie for yourself and simplify the hassle of monitoring forever.

Google OS, Developed in 2006

It turns out that Chrome OS was developed before Google Chrome. Jeff Nelson, a former Google engineer, started working on a Google OS prototype in 2006. The goal was to make Firefox run faster, so he used this browser.



"It was a chopped down Linux distribution - as so many 'new' operating systems are, these days. I wrote the first version as early as July 2006 and showed it around to management. Instead of launching a project, the response was extremely tepid. My boss complained, 'You can't use it on an airplane.' Actually, you could as, under the covers, it was still a bare-bones Linux distribution and could execute any Linux program installed on it," Jeff explains. "The main priority when I started constructing the operating system was the need for speed - to create a super-fast operating system."



Jeff was developing web apps at Google and he had to restart the browser frequently. "Restarting the web browser was a particularly slow operation, often taking 30-45 seconds, whether IE or Firefox, Linux or Windows. However, even simple tasks such as displaying a directory in a file explorer were unreasonably slow operations, requiring several seconds for a task that should be nearly instantaneous. (...) The solution? Move the entire desktop operating system into RAM. By moving the entire operating system into RAM, that immediately took off the table the largest performance bottlenecks in the operating system: File I/O."



Most tasks were now completed almost instantly, Firefox restarted in 1 second and even the code compiled faster. The problem was that RAM is a volatile memory, so you could lose data if you didn't save it to the disk. He solved the problem by only using web apps and performing some backups to a local storage media. Web apps solved many other problems: avoiding software installation, using less storage, many apps weren't available for Linux.



"Thus, tracking down web apps to replace any and all functionality normally found on a desktop, became a priority. That's how the seeds of the webapps on the Chromium desktop, albeit originally written in HTML and running on Firefox, were planted," concludes Jeff.

Google released a lot of web apps in 2006: Google Chat, Google Page Creator, Google Calendar, Google Spreadsheets, Google Docs, Picasa Web Albums, Google Apps for Your Domain.



{ via Chrome Story}

How To Turn Your Handwriting Into A Font

Add the ultimate personal touch to any document: turn your handwriting into a font and use that. There’s a lot of creative potential here, and it’s a lot easier to do than you’d think thanks to MyScriptFont.

Friends don’t let friends use Comic Sans. It’s just a bad idea. If you want a font that looks handwritten, don’t mess around: create a custom handwriting font with your own writing and use that.

Once you do so the possibilities are endless. You can easily use your own handwriting for that comic you’re working on. You can add “hand-written” notes to your favorite photo. Or you could just type notes and print them, because you’re too lazy to actually write a letter but want to pretend you did.

It’s entirely up to you, and with MyScriptFont the process to create a handwriting font couldn’t be simpler. Download and print a PDF, then fill in the squares with your own handwritten letters. Scan that, upload and the site will do the rest. Let’s work through the process together right now.

Making Your Handwriting Font

To get started head to MyScriptFont.com. You’ll see the following straightforward instructions:

Download the PDF and print it out. Use a black, felt-tipped pen and fill in all of the letters. Yes: you have to use an actual pen and paper. Accented characters, which you’ll find at the bottom of the page, are optional but recommended. When you’re done, scan your printed document in grey-scale.

Save your scanned file as an image and you’re ready to upload. Head back to MyScriptFont.com and upload your filled in form. You’ll need to wait a while; the processing can take a while.

When it’s done you’ll see a preview of your new font, and be able to download it. My handwriting is terrible, so my font kind of sucks:

Happily my wife Kathy has legible handwriting, so her font works quite well. Check it out:

These handwriting fonta are great for adding a personal touch to documents, so use your imagination. Your handwriting reflects your personality, so this font will as well. Sure, it’s not as flexible or emotive as your actual handwriting, but it’s a great way to quickly add a personal touch to a presentation or document.

Not sure how to install this font on your computer? Don’t worry; it’s easy. Tina outlined how to install fonts on Windows, Mac and Linux, so check that out if you’re not sure what to do with your new font file. On most systems you can simply open the font and click the “Install” button, but the above directions can help if you’re not sure what to do.

Conclusion

Of course, this isn’t the only way to make your own handwriting font: we’ve outlined tools for making your very own fonts before. If you want to try your hand at typography those tools are worth checking out, at least to start with.

Found a font on a piece of paper or online image, but aren’t sure what font it is? Rather than designing it yourself you should check out WhatFont, a site that can identify almost any font. You won’t be disappointed.

How are you going to use your custom font? Let me know in the comments below, along with links to your creations if you’re so inclined to share with the world.

The post How To Turn Your Handwriting Into A Font appeared first on MakeUseOf.

WebM and Broken Promises

Two years ago, a surprising post from Chromium's blog announced that Google Chrome will drop support for H.264 HTML5 videos. "Though H.264 plays an important role in video, as our goal is to enable open innovation, support for the codec will be removed and our resources directed towards completely open codec technologies."



Nothing happened since then, so I assume that Google changed its mind. Mostly likely, Google hoped that this announcement will increase WebM's adoption, but that was wrong. Other than YouTube, few other sites converted their videos to WebM. Why spend time and money to convert videos when they could simply use a Flash player?



After all, Adobe Flash doesn't support WebM and that's the second broken promise: "As Kevin Lynch mentioned today at Google I/O, we are excited to include the VP8 video codec in Flash Player in an upcoming release, which will help provide users with seamless access to high quality video content on all of their Internet-connected devices," announced a blog post from 2010.



Adobe didn't support the VP8 codec, so Flash is still mostly H.264-only. And so are Internet Explorer, Safari, iOS, Windows Phone. WebM is mostly non-existent in the mobile space and that's where the future lies. Even if Android 2.3+ supports WebM, there aren't many devices with hardware acceleration for WebM.



Now Firefox's Windows nightly builds allow you to play H.264 HTML5 videos using the Windows Media Foundation backend. "That means if you're using a Windows computer that already has a licensed H.264 decoder installed, you'll be able to enjoy HTML5 video that's been encoded using MPEG LA's codec."



That means in the near future the most important browsers will support H.264 videos natively and WebM will matter even less. There's a VP8 successor that's more efficient, there's WebP for images and there's the WebRTC API for native video chat apps, but H.264 will continue to dominate web video. Those broken promises just made it more obvious.

Opera Switches to WebKit

After many years of dealing with site compatibility issues, Opera found the solution: it will switch from its proprietary rendering engine (Presto) to WebKit.



"Presto is a great little engine. It's small, fast, flexible and standards compliant while at the same time handling real-world web sites. It has allowed us to port Opera to just about any platform you can imagine. And unlike what some people seem to believe, Presto was actually designed from the ground up with compatibility in mind. It was always a goal to be compatible with the real web while also supporting and promoting open standards. That turns out to be a bit of a challenge when you are faced with a web that is not as open as one might have wanted. Add to that the fact that it is constantly changing and that you don't get site compatibility for free (which some browsers are fortunate enough to do), and it ends up taking up a lot of resources - resources that could have been spent on innovation and polish instead," explains an Opera employee.



The problem with Opera is that it has a low market share on the desktop (about 1-2%) and not many web developers bother to test their sites in Opera. Google's sites have always had issues in Opera and most Google web apps don't officially support Opera (check the system requirements for Google Drive). Gmail's help center actually mentions that "We don't test Opera, but believe it works with all of Gmail's features." Probably Google doesn't want to allocate resources for testing sites in a desktop browser that's not popular, but it has a completely different rendering engine.

In a perfect world, browsers and sites would just follow the standards and everything would work well, but it takes time to create the standards and browsers implement their own version in the meanwhile. Not to mention that browsers have all kinds of quirks.



Google launched Chrome in 2008 and one of the reasons why it chose WebKit was that "we knew we didn't want to create yet another rendering engine. After all, web developers already have enough to worry about when it comes to making sure that all users can access their web pages and web applications."



WebKit started in 2001 as an Apple fork of KDE's KHTML engine, it was used to build Safari, a few years later it was open sourced and Nokia ported WebKit to Symbian. WebKit is now the most popular mobile rendering engine, since it powers Safari Mobile and all iOS browsers (other than thin clients like Opera Mini), Android's stock browser, Chrome for Android and many other mobile browsers. WebKit's combined market share is now more than 40%, according to StatCounter and Wikimedia's stats.

Download Mozilla Firefox 18.0.2 Final Version

I have discussed many times about Mozilla Firefox's importance among web browsers. It's one of the best web browser today. The Firefox developers team have introduced many new features and facilities in regular interval. I have given you Firefox version 18.0.1 review and download link few days ago. Now Firefox has updated their browser to version 18.0.2. So here I give you the download link.

Don't wait anymore, update your Firefox to the latest version for better web surfing.



Click here to Download Firefox Latest Version

Ensure Your Facebook Competition Doesn’t Shut Down Your Page [Weekly Facebook Tips]

If you run any sort of Facebook page – even a small one – you may have considered running a competition. And why not? Competitions are a great way to get people talking and interacting with your page, which is just what you want to keep things on your page active and interesting.

You should listen to a few words of caution though before you get started, as not all of your competition ideas will be approved by Facebook. There are a few important things to note about competitions that you need to adhere to. If you don’t, Facebook might shut down your page. Read on and make sure you know what’s allowed and what’s not.

Entrants Can Like, Add Apps Or Check In – That’s All!

To keep your competition in the clear with Facebook, the only actions on Facebook that you can require of your entrants is liking a page, adding an application or checking into a place. Anything else is not allowed and could get your page banned!

So, in other words, condition of entry to the competition can’t include entrants uploading photos, making a wall post, sharing a post or answering a question in a comment. They can do this for fun, but it can’t be a requirement of the competition. Sadly, many page managers don’t understand this and will ask users to do these things in order to enter a competition.

Don’t Use Facebook Tools For Competition Entry

You also need to ensure that there is another step to registration for the competition. This means you can’t have a competition where liking a page, checking in or adding an app automatically enters people to the competition. It can be a condition of entry, but not the mechanism by which they are entered.

Notify Winners Directly, Not Via Facebook

You must not notify your competition winners using Facebook tools. So, you can’t send a Facebook message, inform them via chat, or let them know on their timeline or Facebook page.

Distance Yourself From Facebook

All competitions need to ensure that it is very clear to entrants that you, not Facebook, are running the competition. This includes clearly stating that Facebook in no way endorses or administers your competition, ensuring each entrant completely releases Facebook from responsibility, and noting that any data collected for the competition is collected by your organisation and not by Facebook.

Use An App To Promote The Competition

All promotions and competitions must be conducted within Apps on Facebook. Facebook suggest using a canvas or Page app to promote the competition. As you can see, if you aren’t allowed to communicate with entrants via Facebook, it is really important to collect their contact information somehow.

Disclose All Restrictions Clearly

You must ensure when running a promotion or competition on Facebook that any limitations are clearly disclosed. This includes expiration dates, eligibility to enter (e.g. age limits or residency requirements) or any limits on redemption.

You Must Be The Merchant Or Manufacturer

For any offers on Facebook, you must be an official merchant or manufacturer of the goods on offer. If the offer can be redeemed with other merchants, it’s your responsibility to discuss terms with them before you begin your promotion or competition.

Keep It Legal

Don’t forget that many countries and states have their own rules about what is allowed in a public competition and what’s not. Do try to look up your local laws and ensure that you are on the right side of the law there too. Don’t let your competition ruin your business!

Full Facebook Page Guidelines

Facebook have a detailed page outlining the guidelines for all pages, including competition guidelines. It’s worth reading this page occasionally to ensure you’re up-to-date on the current guidelines.

The post Ensure Your Facebook Competition Doesn’t Shut Down Your Page [Weekly Facebook Tips] appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Chrome's Giant Touch-Optimized Menu

Somewhere between Chrome 25 (beta) and Chrome 26 (dev), the browser's menu got bigger. It's now optimized for touch interfaces even if you're using a non-touch computer. I've checked the height of the menu and it's now 580 pixels, instead of 420 pixels. That's a 38% increase and it makes the interface more difficult to use for mouse users.

When you use Chrome's sync feature, the menu's height becomes 625 pixels. Here's how a recent Chromium build looks on my 1280x800 laptop and remember that most laptops sold right now have a 1366x768 resolution:

Chrome also changed the contextual menu: