Super Start Your Day With Visual Bookmarks And A Simple To-Do List [Firefox]

One of the ways to supercharge your browsing (and hence your productivity) is to use bookmarks. Bookmarking has taken on more and more visual forms. Firefox also gives us another way to start our day with the help of the speed dial. Firefox was probably one of the last browsers to get a speed dial or something that resembled its functionality. From Version 13 of the browser onwards, few can argue that the speed dial has not added to our day to day productivity.

But while the Speed Dial is a visual bookmark of recently visited websites, and a permanent home to your favorite pinned ones, it can be made into something more. That comes with the help of Firefox add-ons as usual. Super Start is a simple add-on that can supercharge your home tab on Firefox, and give your day around the web the launch pad it needs.

Super Start Adds To the Speed Dial on Firefox

Super Start is a featured add-on available from the Mozilla Add-ons gallery. With more than 95,000 users, it is worth a look into what makes it so popular. Super Start is described as a very handy ‘speed dial’ extension for Firefox. In layman terms, it gives us a super-fast way to open up websites and favorite bookmarks. A simple to-do task list is an added feature, and though it might be in the shadow of the visual bookmarks to begin with, its usefulness grows with time. This is how a Super Start infused browser tab looks in its full glory:

But to turn a blank tab into a visually bookmarked Super Start homepage takes a few clicks. And these few clicks tell us whether Super Start is simple enough as a weapon of choice for day to day browsing.

Setting Up A Few Super Start Visual Bookmarks

When you open a new tab after installing the Super Start add-on, you get a barebones Super Start page that’s ready to be populated with visual bookmarks. As you can see in the screen below, you have a choice of a few themes.

Let’s start adding our frequently visited websites and URLs. Super Start gives us a few different ways to add the visual bookmarks.

Input URL by clicking on the ‘plus’ sign

Clicking on the ‘+’ opens a dialog box and it’s pretty much self-explanatory. I don’t generally use the option that says – Use Firefox’s thumbnail service, as more often than not it doesn’t display the thumbnail. You can also select an image from your hard drive. You can also double-click on any blank space on the Super Start tab to open the dialog box.

Each visual bookmark gives you a few options. Next Snapshot is interesting because it lets you choose two views for your thumbnail image (Entire window or Top & left corner).

From any tab

You can add to Super Start from any open tab page by right-clicking and choosing the option – Add this tab to Super Start. You just have to click on the thumbnail’s configure button and customize the bookmark. For me, this is the fastest way to populate Super Start.

Create Groups with Similar Sites

You can simply drag and drop one visual bookmark into the other (or others) and create groups out of similar links and websites. You can give groups your own names. All grouped URLs can be refreshed and opened together with a single click.

A Few Other Customizations

We have covered the bases here, but there are a few other things you can do on Super Start. Here is a point-by-point run through…

1. To make the grid layout of the groups’ uniform, Super Start allows you to add placeholders. Placeholders are nothing but empty spaces which you can later fill up with URL’s and bookmarked sites.

2. From the Options dialog, you can enable a background color or add a background image. You can set the text color and add shadows. Transparency of the group rectangles can also be enabled, but if you have a darker wallpaper or color, I would suggest you leave this alone.

3. From the General tab of the Options dialog, you can also control the layout of the group by specifying the number of sites you want per line.

4. If you know your way around CSS, you can add your own customizations and structure the behavior of the page and its look.

And Finally…The Note List

You might forget it as a feature, but the Notes feature is quite useful once you start depending on it for impromptu scribbles. Click the Note icon on the top bar to hide or show the Notes. With a green Done button to mark completion, it is a simple Getting Things Done tool on your browser.

A Minimal but Effective Speed Dial

That’s how I would describe Super Start in a nutshell. It might lack the visual razzmatazz of other visual bookmarking tools, but the easy set-up wins it brownie points. Yes, I couldn’t resize the thumbnails or drag and rearrange the groups the way I wanted to, but I won’t cry over it. Instead I should crow about the speed with which I could set up the speed dial on the tab and make it my launchpad. Super Start has the crowd behind it. It is also placed on our Best Firefox Add-ons page. But we seek continued endorsement – so tell us what you think of this simple speed dial extension.

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What Are The Best Weather Websites?

I’m rather obsessed with the weather. It’s not my fault, it’s just that I was born and brought up in the U.K., and all British people are obsessed with the weather. I think it’s because the weather is rather changeable on this little island butting up to the European mainland. Over the course of a single week we can experience hot sun, icy frosts, torrential rain, deep snow, and gusts aplenty. It’s fun, but it means keeping up to date with the latest forecasts is absolutely essential.

No matter where you are in the world it’s important to keep an eye on the weather. While the simplest method is to stick your head outside and see for yourself what it’s like, that method can only get you so far. It’s much better to see, hear, or read a weather forecast compiled from data by a meteorologist. Thankfully the Web provides us with plenty of options, and what follows are the best weather websites currently available.

BBC Weather

The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is known and respected around the world, and it handles its weather service in the same way it handles everything else: with clear and concise reports uncluttered by opinion or obtuse observations. You can instantly see an overall outlook for your area, and with a little extra delving can find a more detailed forecast for anything up to the next 10 days.

Perhaps the best feature on BBC Weather is the map as shown in the screenshot embedded below. You can focus in on your local area or widen the search to include a whole country. You can then see how the weather is set to change in increments throughout the day, with the option of viewing conditions, temperature, or pressure systems.

Other features to look out for include the constantly changing gallery of user-submitted photos, and a basic guide to the weather conditions in individual countries.

WeatherSpark

WeatherSpark is for those who want more than just a brief summary of what the weather is going to be like for the next few days. The amount of information on offer on this site is overwhelming, with forecasts showing conditions on an hourly basis, in-depth reports which include historical data, and interactive maps and graphs which can be adapted to each individual’s specific needs.

Thankfully this information is all presented in a visually pleasing manner, with a dashboard providing the main points for a specific area. By default this includes a map and a graph which combined give a detailed description of the weather for the next few hours and/or days. Data points that can be turned on or off include temperature, wind speeds, humidity levels, and precipitation probability.

This is the perfect option for those who, like me, are a little obsessed with studying weather patterns. If you’re more likely to take each day as it comes then WeatherSpark won’t be for you.

Weather Underground

Weather Underground is another website which seeks to offer more information than any TV weather forecaster could ever impart on viewers. Cleverly the site design means the most relevant and easy to read data is at the top of the page, with the more detailed and geeky data hidden further down the page where only those who want to see it will find it.

This data is all presented in a mixture of textual and visual formats, but if that’s too much for your brain to take in then clicking on the WunderMap provides an even simpler way of seeing what’s happening outside. You can change the type of map or the data presented, and add extra layers to gain an overall picture of the weather where you are.

Adding to the bookmark-worthiness of Weather Underground is the photos and videos section, as well as the blogs and forums by meteorologists which add a sense of community to the whole site.

Intellicast

It has to be said Intellicast isn’t the best-looking website in the world, or even on this list. It’s too busy, with the links to find the relevant information a little confusing. Thankfully once you do find what you’re looking for you’re rewarded with accurate, up-to-date forecasts that will surely please purists of the genre.

The standards of weather websites — current conditions, and both short and longterm forecasts — are included. But there is also a great map feature which allows you to view local, national, or global weather systems developing. There are also charts that offer detailed analyses of various weather elements, such as atmospheric pressures and isobars.

If you can look past the dated look and feel employed by Intellicast the website offers an immense amount of data (with a U.S. bias) that can be broken down into digestible chunks.

The Weather Channel

The Weather Channel is many people’s first port of call when it comes to weather websites. This is partly due to the good reputation it enjoys, and partly due to the killer domain name of weather.com. The site offers accurate forecasts presented in a simple and easy-to-use format, and it’s the one on this list which most closely resembles the weather reports many of us are used to seeing on television.

The homepage offers news stories related to weather, as well as videos of extreme conditions and opinion pieces looking at longterm trends. Clicking on Weather brings up the current conditions, with severe weather warnings and alerts highlighted. There are also forecasts for the days and weeks ahead, as well as a fascinating Weather In Motion map showing how conditions are changing.

In some ways The Weather Channel offers the widest range of experiences, meaning both amateurs and experts alike will be able to get something from the site.

Conclusions

It was extremely hard narrowing this list down, as there are a surprising number of weather websites out there that do a fine job. In the end it came down to choosing those which provide good, reliable forecasts while offering something a little extra or unique. As always we’re keen to hear from you, so feel free to leave a comment below with your opinion on the best weather websites, whether they received a mention or not.

And please remember to wrap up warm/take a spare umbrella out with you/wear suncream/be careful on the ice. Delete as appropriate after you learn what the weather is going to be like in your part of the world.

Image Credit: Andres Rueda

The post What Are The Best Weather Websites? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Save Time Editing All Of Your Photos At Once Using BatchPhoto [Giveaway]

Are You Really Using The Best Web Browser For Windows?

Ask anyone about the best browsers in the web browsing market and you’ll likely get the following list – IE, Chrome, Firefox. Those who are more tech-savvy might list Opera as an alternative. Those are the 4 most popular browsers on Windows, but which one is the best web browser? Perhaps none of them.

Popularity can be an indicator of quality, but it doesn’t guarantee it. Furthermore, the more recognized a browser becomes, the more bloated it gets in order to satisfy as a larger userbase with different needs. Some people actually like bloat, while others are looking for performance, or resource efficiency, or aesthetic eye candy. Which browser is best suited for you?

Internet Explorer

Is there anyone on Windows who hasn’t heard of Internet Explorer? It is the default browser, after all, though that doesn’t necessarily say anything of its quality. IE fell out of the spotlight back when Netscape was its only competitor, but it’s been gaining back some ground in recent years.

IE8 was the first to show some promise, but it pretty much failed to deliver. IE9, on the other hand, is quite strong as a browser: fast, responsive, though lacking in the addons/extensions aspect that has become so critical in browsers these days. If you’re on Windows 8, you’ll want to use IE10, which is an even better improvement.

Overall: A strong browser but not particularly awesome at anything. Great if you don’t need many features, not so great if you do.

Google Chrome

After Google Search and Gmail, Chrome is Google’s best known product. At the time of writing this article, if you look at the 2013 browser rankings provided by TopTenReviews, you’ll see that Google Chrome is ranked in the #1 spot, beating out nearly every browser on this list. If that isn’t a strong enough endorsement, then I don’t know what is.

Chrome is known for the way it handles its tabs: separated into different processes so that a crashed tab won’t crash the whole browser. There are tons of extensions that improve the browser’s functionality. And best of all, updates are performed automatically and behind-the-scenes–I went from Chrome 15 to 24 without ever knowing! A big downside is that Chrome uses a ton of RAM resources.

Overall: Absolutely excellent if you have a powerful computer with lots of RAM. On weaker machines–like netbooks and tablets–you may run into speed and loading issues when using a lot of tabs.

Mozilla Firefox

I have fond memories of Firefox. I first started using it when it first came out–it was called Firebird back then–and it was an impressive alternative to IE5. But to see how far it’s come since its birth is rather depressing, mostly because Firefox just feels like it’s trying too hard these days.

With that said, Firefox has been working on cleaning up some of its issues, namely memory leaks and RAM hogging, and it has one of the largest addon libraries of all the browsers. Yet it falters when it comes to speed. I have a powerful machine but tab animations and web scrolling are still clunky.

Overall: If you want a full-featured and extensible browser that isn’t as resource-intensive as Chrome, then Firefox may be your cup of tea, but you should know that it isn’t as polished as Chrome is.

Opera

There was a period of my life where Opera reigned as king and all other browsers were mere peasants beneath it. But once my initial love faded away, I began to see some of its flaws. It’s still a great browser, no doubt, but it’s not the best web browser out there.

Opera is packed full of features. Packed. In addition to doing what all browsers are expected to do, it has a built-in mail client, built-in ad blocker, cross-computer profile syncing, mouse gestures, speed dial, as well as extensions for extensibility. Some users like this all-in-one sort of package. Others call it bloated. Surprisingly, it’s fast–but how much faster could it be without the bloat?

Overall: I like Opera. I would use it permanently if it didn’t bug out on Google’s web products like Google Docs. I’d highly recommend it if you prefer a mainstream browser other than Chrome and Firefox.

Maxthon

Maxthon is the first of the non-mainstream browsers on this list. It’s a full-featured browser that aims to maximize speed and performance–even going as far as to claim that it renders 200% faster than Chrome. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t heard about it until now.

As a browser, Maxthon is secure. All of the available features work well and rival the top browsers on the market. Like Opera, it might seem bloated to some since it comes with built-in luxuries like mouse gestures and screen grabbing. One cool feature is that you can click a button to mute all sounds coming from Maxthon. Want more features? Extensions.

Overall: Maxthon performs well enough that I haven’t uninstalled it yet. I like Maxthon because it’s a breath of fresh air. At the same time, it’s not very popular, so if you need help with something, the knowledge base is smaller.

Midori

Now we get to the lightweight browsers. If the mainstream browsers are growing bloated with feature creep, then Midori is the response. It’s a minimalistic browser that only has built-in features that are absolutely necessary. It uses GTK for the interface, WebKit for rendering, and it’s open source.

Though Midori does have the function to install extensions, the actual pool of available extensions is quite small. Being so lightweight, it is a niche browser, so don’t expect the community to grow much larger in the future, either. On the plus side, it uses very few resources.

Overall: If your computer is severely lacking in processing speed or RAM, then Midori is what you should use for maximum performance. I use Midori on my old netbook and it is blazingly fast compared to the other, larger browsers.

SlimBoat

You may have heard of a browser called SlimBrowser. SlimBoat is by the same group and, in my opinion, the better of the two. If mainstream browsers are too bloated and Midori is too skinned-down for you, then SlimBoat is for you because it is the perfect compromise between features and bloat.

SlimBoat boasts fast startup times, quick rendering, top-notch security, and powerful features like: ad blocker, popup blocker, private browsing, intelligent form filler, web and text translations, and integration with popular web services. The downside? No extensibility beyond the built-in features.

Overall: If you want one of the best web browsers that comes with useful features right out of the box without being too bloaty and you don’t want to mess around with extensions, then SlimBoat is good for you. Keep note that not many people use it, so if you run into problems, the knowledge base isn’t too big.

Conclusion

What’s my final verdict? I use Chrome for daily browser use (mostly because I interface a lot with Google web products and Chrome works best for that). If that wasn’t an issue, I’d use Opera, though Maxthon is growing on me. For my netbook, I use Midori.

Which browser do you use? Any other browsers out there that you think should’ve been on this list? Share them in the comments and tell us why you support that browser!

Image Credit: Browser Windows Via Shutterstock

The post Are You Really Using The Best Web Browser For Windows? appeared first on MakeUseOf.

Are You Really Using The Best Web Browser For Windows?

Ask anyone about the best browsers in the web browsing market and you’ll likely get the following list – IE, Chrome, Firefox. Those who are more tech-savvy might list Opera as an alternative. Those are the 4 most popular browsers on Windows, but which one is the best web browser? Perhaps none of them.

Popularity can be an indicator of quality, but it doesn’t guarantee it. Furthermore, the more recognized a browser becomes, the more bloated it gets in order to satisfy as a larger userbase with different needs. Some people actually like bloat, while others are looking for performance, or resource efficiency, or aesthetic eye candy. Which browser is best suited for you?

Internet Explorer

Is there anyone on Windows who hasn’t heard of Internet Explorer? It is the default browser, after all, though that doesn’t necessarily say anything of its quality. IE fell out of the spotlight back when Netscape was its only competitor, but it’s been gaining back some ground in recent years.

IE8 was the first to show some promise, but it pretty much failed to deliver. IE9, on the other hand, is quite strong as a browser: fast, responsive, though lacking in the addons/extensions aspect that has become so critical in browsers these days. If you’re on Windows 8, you’ll want to use IE10, which is an even better improvement.

Overall: A strong browser but not particularly awesome at anything. Great if you don’t need many features, not so great if you do.

Google Chrome

After Google Search and Gmail, Chrome is Google’s best known product. At the time of writing this article, if you look at the 2013 browser rankings provided by TopTenReviews, you’ll see that Google Chrome is ranked in the #1 spot, beating out nearly every browser on this list. If that isn’t a strong enough endorsement, then I don’t know what is.

Chrome is known for the way it handles its tabs: separated into different processes so that a crashed tab won’t crash the whole browser. There are tons of extensions that improve the browser’s functionality. And best of all, updates are performed automatically and behind-the-scenes–I went from Chrome 15 to 24 without ever knowing! A big downside is that Chrome uses a ton of RAM resources.

Overall: Absolutely excellent if you have a powerful computer with lots of RAM. On weaker machines–like netbooks and tablets–you may run into speed and loading issues when using a lot of tabs.

Mozilla Firefox

I have fond memories of Firefox. I first started using it when it first came out–it was called Firebird back then–and it was an impressive alternative to IE5. But to see how far it’s come since its birth is rather depressing, mostly because Firefox just feels like it’s trying too hard these days.

With that said, Firefox has been working on cleaning up some of its issues, namely memory leaks and RAM hogging, and it has one of the largest addon libraries of all the browsers. Yet it falters when it comes to speed. I have a powerful machine but tab animations and web scrolling are still clunky.

Overall: If you want a full-featured and extensible browser that isn’t as resource-intensive as Chrome, then Firefox may be your cup of tea, but you should know that it isn’t as polished as Chrome is.

Opera

There was a period of my life where Opera reigned as king and all other browsers were mere peasants beneath it. But once my initial love faded away, I began to see some of its flaws. It’s still a great browser, no doubt, but it’s not the best web browser out there.

Opera is packed full of features. Packed. In addition to doing what all browsers are expected to do, it has a built-in mail client, built-in ad blocker, cross-computer profile syncing, mouse gestures, speed dial, as well as extensions for extensibility. Some users like this all-in-one sort of package. Others call it bloated. Surprisingly, it’s fast–but how much faster could it be without the bloat?

Overall: I like Opera. I would use it permanently if it didn’t bug out on Google’s web products like Google Docs. I’d highly recommend it if you prefer a mainstream browser other than Chrome and Firefox.

Maxthon

Maxthon is the first of the non-mainstream browsers on this list. It’s a full-featured browser that aims to maximize speed and performance–even going as far as to claim that it renders 200% faster than Chrome. Definitely worth a look if you haven’t heard about it until now.

As a browser, Maxthon is secure. All of the available features work well and rival the top browsers on the market. Like Opera, it might seem bloated to some since it comes with built-in luxuries like mouse gestures and screen grabbing. One cool feature is that you can click a button to mute all sounds coming from Maxthon. Want more features? Extensions.

Overall: Maxthon performs well enough that I haven’t uninstalled it yet. I like Maxthon because it’s a breath of fresh air. At the same time, it’s not very popular, so if you need help with something, the knowledge base is smaller.

Midori

Now we get to the lightweight browsers. If the mainstream browsers are growing bloated with feature creep, then Midori is the response. It’s a minimalistic browser that only has built-in features that are absolutely necessary. It uses GTK for the interface, WebKit for rendering, and it’s open source.

Though Midori does have the function to install extensions, the actual pool of available extensions is quite small. Being so lightweight, it is a niche browser, so don’t expect the community to grow much larger in the future, either. On the plus side, it uses very few resources.

Overall: If your computer is severely lacking in processing speed or RAM, then Midori is what you should use for maximum performance. I use Midori on my old netbook and it is blazingly fast compared to the other, larger browsers.

SlimBoat

You may have heard of a browser called SlimBrowser. SlimBoat is by the same group and, in my opinion, the better of the two. If mainstream browsers are too bloated and Midori is too skinned-down for you, then SlimBoat is for you because it is the perfect compromise between features and bloat.

SlimBoat boasts fast startup times, quick rendering, top-notch security, and powerful features like: ad blocker, popup blocker, private browsing, intelligent form filler, web and text translations, and integration with popular web services. The downside? No extensibility beyond the built-in features.

Overall: If you want one of the best web browsers that comes with useful features right out of the box without being too bloaty and you don’t want to mess around with extensions, then SlimBoat is good for you. Keep note that not many people use it, so if you run into problems, the knowledge base isn’t too big.

Conclusion

What’s my final verdict? I use Chrome for daily browser use (mostly because I interface a lot with Google web products and Chrome works best for that). If that wasn’t an issue, I’d use Opera, though Maxthon is growing on me. For my netbook, I use Midori.

Which browser do you use? Any other browsers out there that you think should’ve been on this list? Share them in the comments and tell us why you support that browser!

Image Credit: Browser Windows Via Shutterstock

The post Are You Really Using The Best Web Browser For Windows? appeared first on MakeUseOf.