Send To Kindle By Klip.me: Take All Your “To Read” Articles On The Go Without An Internet Connection [Chrome]

Before the time of Kindles, we usually read everything solely on our computers. And perhaps you still do this. However, if you own a Kindle, such as the Kindle Touch which doesn’t have the best web interface (and that’s only when you’re around a Wi-Fi connection) you might still be disappointed in it’s reading capabilities.

If so, you should consider Send To Kindle by Klip.me, which was briefly mentioned before in How To Save Web Articles To Read Later On Your Non-Tablet Kindle. Send To Kindle is also a member of our Best Chrome Extensions page.

About Send To Kindle

Send To Kindle is a simple browser extension that allows you to easily send articles from your browser to your Kindle. Whenever your Kindle is connected to a wireless network, it will download the latest articles sent to it, allowing you to read web articles on the go in an easy-to-read format.

In addition to it working for Chrome (here’s the Web Store link), it is currently available as an extension for Safari as well. There is also a bookmarklet, which is compatible with IE, Firefox, Opera, as well as Chrome and Safari.

How To Use Send To Kindle

Send To Kindle works by “connecting” your Amazon account to Klip.me. This is done by adding the appropriate email addresses in the services, allowing them to “talk” to each other.

The instructions are pretty straight forward, but it is important that you follow them exactly. If you had trouble finding where to add the “kindle@klip.me” email address to Amazon, the image below should help.

Once you set up emailing on both sides, take a look at some of the other options below.

The options include keyboard shortcuts, 1-Click Send, including images with the articles and increasing paragraph spacing.

I highly recommend signing in and creating an account so that you can save the settings with your account and also view your “klips.”

You can also push web articles to your email address.

Before the article is sent, you’re able to preview it. The interface is pretty nice and although it’s not highly customizable, you can alter the background color by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Also, you’re able to actually edit the title and text bodies before sending them. So you can remove an image or text that you don’t want, or if you want to add a note to the article, you can do that as well. This is a feature that isn’t very common in other tools to use when sending web articles from your browser to your Kindle.

Once you click “send” the article should arrive almost instantly to your Kindle, as the service is made to do so.

Conclusion

Of course, there are others that do this as well and we’ve explored a few similar options as well on MakeUseOf, but it’s no doubt that Send To Kindle by Klip.me is one of the best. Have you used Send To Kindle? If so, how has it helped you? Do you prefer a different service instead? Share your thoughts with us – we’d love to hear them.

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PeerPressure For Goals Helps You Get Things Done With A Little Help From Your Friends [iOS]

Setting goals is great, but accomplishing them is the real test we all face. This time of year, everyone is setting New Year’s resolutions, but let’s be realistic, many people will never actually pull off their resolutions. They seem to be one of those things we tell ourselves we will do, but in reality, we never really intend to complete them. Why not make this year the one you actually go hard for that resolution? Whether you are looking to quit smoking, lose weight, or write that book you’ve been dreaming of, make this the year you achieve your goal. Why not get a little help from your friends to really push you in the right direction?

With the app PeerPressure For Goals, you create and monitor your progress in all kinds of tasks. Where this app differs from so many similar apps is that is offers you the ability to share your goals with friends, which will help you actually stay motivated to succeed. After all, accountability and pressure from others can be a huge motivator, and this app is built with that in mind.

PeerPressure For Goals is free from the App Store, so there is no reason not to give it a try to see if it can help you make that New Year’s resolution a reality.

Features

When you first boot up the app, it will take you through the process of creating a new goal. It’s a simple process, which means anyone can launch the app and get to monitoring their goals, and hopefully, succeeding.

The first step is to choose the exact nature of the goal. The app has a giant list, so whatever it is you want to do will hopefully be there. This is nice because it gets the core options for the goal entered for you, which makes the process a little quicker. You can choose from the most popular goals via the first option, and if what you want is not there, you can scroll through the massive list of the categories and choose the goal that you want to make a reality.

The goals are divided into two types within PeerPressure For Goals. The first uses graphs and has you chart your progress towards reaching a total number of some kind. The second type involves milestones that require you to hit certain marks after a certain amount of time. The app will automatically choose the kind that works best for the particular goal.

Once you choose the goal, the app will have you enter specific parameters for it. For example, if you choose to do more of a hobby, it would ask you how many hours of the hobby you would like to do before a date of your choosing. This gives the option to make goals that are actually realistic for you.

You will also select a peer group during the goal creation process. You can share your goals and progress with Twitter and Facebook. If you prefer to keep it a little more quiet, you can share the goals with only certain email addresses. This step is not optional, as the whole point of the app is to use motivation from your friends to complete a goal.

Once you are finished, the goal will be saved, and you will have to come back and update your progress as you complete parts of the goal. To do this, click the update button and enter in how much of your goal you completed. You can type in a message, and when you are done, click “Submit” and it will be logged in the app and sent to people you selected during the goal creation process.

Conclusion

If you want this to be the year that you actually accomplish your New Year’s resolution, PeerPressure For Goals is the app for you. It will allow you to use motivation from the people who matter most to you to accomplish whatever you want. The app is easy to use, and it does one thing, and it does it well. Give it a try, and you might just find that the extra level accountability helps you achieve goals you never could before.

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Watch 19 Gunslingin’ John Wayne Westerns For Free [Stuff to Watch]

Marion Mitchell Morrison, or John Wayne as he is more famously known, acted, directed and produced some of the most iconic western films of all time. His name is synonymous with gunfights, horses and the trademark bow-legged cowboy walk.

Wayne died in 1979 but his legacy lives on, himself having starred in more than 170 movies. 21 of these movies have been lovingly hosted on the Internet Archive and YouTube, where they can be downloaded, streamed and enjoyed by a new generation of wannabe cowboys.

Whether you’re a fan of The Duke, old motion pictures or entirely new to the Western genre, these films might just be worth a look – and they’re free.

Blue Steel (1934)

Considered by some to be the best of John Wayne’s Lone Star Productions films, Blue Steel sees Wayne in the role of a US Marshall pursuing the Polka Dot Bandit. For a film shot in 1934, the locations chosen for the shoots are considered outstanding. The opening scene is also of note, with many reviewers commenting that it’s really not clear what exactly is going on.

McLintock (1963)

For a slightly lighter twist on the cowboy theme try McLintock, a 1963 comedy western about a rich cattle baron and the women in his life. Wayne takes on the film’s namesake, one George Washington McLintock who is tasked with keeping the peace between crooked characters and his family. The film is an interesting mix of comedy and politics, with a stellar cast.

Rainbow Valley (1935)

Another early Wayne film for Lone Star Productions, Rainbow Valley is a 1935 black and white tale about an undercover government agent. The story is centred around Rainbow Valley’s new road, and newcomer John Martin (that’s Wayne’s character) who agrees to build it. When Martin’s former cellmate manages to free the leader of a gang, he trusts that Martin will help. Martin has other ideas, however.

Angel & The Badman (1947)

Taking the Western genre in yet another direction, Angel and the Badman is a romantic tale of outlaws and sweethearts. Wayne takes on the role of Quirt Evens, described as an “all round bad guy” by IMDb who is nursed back to health by a quaker girl. Eventually the girl falls for him and as the film’s tagline reminds us “he has to choose between love and the gun”.

Randy Rides Alone (1934)

More early Wayne, Randy Rides Alone is a typical western story about a man who has been wrongly imprisoned. Wayne is Randy Bowers, a man locked up for murders he did not commit. Bowers manages to escape prison against the odds and ends up stumbling across the den being used by the real murderers.

Sagebrush Trail (1933)

Noted for its epic stagecoach chase scene, Sagebrush Trail is shares many nuances with the aforementioned Randy Rides Alone. Jailed for a murder he did not commit John Brant (Wayne) escapes and joins a gang of outlaws. When Brant meets the man responsible for the crime he was falsely imprisoned for, he decides to forgive and forget but the bandits soon become suspicious of him and his so-called life of crime.

The Rest

In addition to these six there are a further 15 John Wayne pictures out there for the taking. In alphabetical order, they are:

• Frontier Horizon (1939)


• Helltown (1937)


• ‘Neath the Arizona Skies (1934)


• Paradise Canyon (1935)


• Riders of Destiny (1933)


• Texas Terror (1935)


• The Dawn Rider (1935)


• The Desert Trail (1935)


• The Lawless Frontier (1934)


• The Lucky Texan (1934)


• The Man From Utah (1934)


• The Star Packer (1934)


• The Trail Beyond (1934)


• War of the Wildcats (1943)


• West of the Divide (1934)

Are you a fan of John Wayne and western films? Don’t forget to list your favourites and any other comments you might have below this post.

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Cobian Backup – The Best Backup a Windows Computer Can Get For Free [Windows]

Cobian Backup is a free backup software for Windows. It is crammed with featured, yet seems minimalistic at first glance. Users can create multiple backup tasks for different purposes, backups can be scheduled individually, back files up to multiple different locations, compress or encrypt backups, and more. If you are looking for a truly versatile and easy to use backup tool, look no further.

Cobian Backup has been developed by Luis Cobian. It is written in Delphi and used to be open source under the Mozilla Public License. Never versions have been closed source. The software itself is supported by an extensive Help file and a Tutorial available in its Program Files folder.

Installing Cobian Backup

The installation takes you through a basic setup routine, such as TOS agreement and shortcuts creation, but it also includes more advanced steps. Some of the options beg for explanations, which are offered both in a mouse-over tool tip and in the Help file. The location of the Help file on your computer may differ, depending on your operating system. During the setup, you can switch to one of over a dozen languages via a menu on the left-hand side at any time.

Once the program is installed, it will reside in your Windows system tray. Open it to continue the setup.

Setting up a Cobian Backup

Cobian Backup offers a lot of advanced features, but the developer managed to pack them into a simple and fairly intuitive interface. To create a new backup task, click the + icon.

Backup tasks are organized like software preferences. There are eight different categories on the left-hand menu bar and options can be selected in the main window on the right. Under General you set a task name and choose the backup type. Explanations for each option are given in the mouse-over tool tip.

The backup source and destination are selected under Files. You can add files, directories, FTP, or add a source manually. The latter is useful, for example when an external device is not currently connected to your computer. If you add multiple destinations, all will be used in case all are available, however the backup won’t be abrogated in case one isn’t connected. You can drag and drop files and folders from Windows Explorer. This is the final mandatory step.

To use the Schedule is optional, but obviously key to a good backup. You can choose from a range of options. My personal favorite is the on startup one, although it’s not always practical.

All following settings are advanced and optional. Under Dynamics you can set a priority, how many full copies to keep of the backup, and when to take full copies in case you selected incremental or differential backups. To save space and increase security, you can make compressed and encrypted backups via Archive. The Filter allows you to include or exclude specific files. Under Events you can open or close programs before or after the backup. Finally, there are Advanced settings, such as using absolute paths, or running the task as another user.

Running Backups

You should always set a schedule for your backups, so they run automatically. However, you can also run all tasks manually at any time. Click the play button to run selected tasks, either a single one or multiple ones. Click the double play button on the far left to run all tasks. When you confirm you can set to shut down the computer when all tasks are done.

Backups can be paused or abrogated using the respective buttons, which become available when a task is running.

As a side note I should mention that Cobian Backup has crashed on me in the past. However, this never happened when a backup was running and the current version appears to be stable. Just be sure the program is actually running in ‘stand-by’ when you are expecting it to automatically launch a backup task.

Additional Functions

Browsing the menu bar will reveal many more functions, for example cloning a task and several tools. Further advanced options are available via the Settings button. Here you can change the language, set a Hotkey, customize logs, set up the mail log function, set an FTP speed limit, customize the visual appearance of Cobian Backup and its functionality, and much more.

Moreover, Cobian Backup offers a Tutorial (file location on your computer may be different) that takes you through the entire installation and setup process. While the screenshots reveal that it is based on version 9, it doesn’t differ much from the current version. Finally, a lot of additional information, for example backup theory, is available in the Help file.

Conclusion

Cobian Backup’s clear interface allows quick access to key features, so that even inexperienced users can navigate it without being overwhelmed by a flood of options. Experienced users on the other hand will be impressed by advanced features that not even many paid tools are offering. Taken together, Cobian Backup is a reliable, comprehensive, and intuitive to use backup tool.

More details about backups in general and Cobian Backup in particular can be found in our Backup & Restore Guide. Cobian Backup is one of the best software programs listed on our The Best Windows Software page. If you prefer to use default Windows features, read How To Set Up & Use Windows 7 Backup & Restore Feature.

How do you manage your backups?

Image credits: File and Document Backup via Shutterstock

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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

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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

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