Mozilla Labs Jetpack – Intro & Tutorial from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

For those of you not aware with Jetpack is all about. Jetpack is a Mozilla Labs project that enables anyone who knows HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to create powerful Firefox addons. The goal of Jetpacks is to allow anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play.

Jetpack Gallery is for Jetpacks in the same way as Mozilla Addons is for Firefox. Till today people installing Jetpacks had to either depend on the Wiki page maintained by Mozilla. However with the launch of the Gallery the floodgates have been opened and I expect to see some interesting uses of Jetpacks in the days to come.

Want an example of what Jetpack can actually accomplish?

• Adblock Plus the immensely popular addon for Firefox : ~25,000 Lines of Code
• Unad a Jetpack that does the same thing : ~80 Lines of Code

That translates into roughly 99% savings. Now would you were a developer what would you choose?

As of now I guess Mozilla is approving each Jetpack on an individual basis considering that Jetpacks are still in the experimental state and not ready for the real world yet. But the true power of Jetpack in my opinion lies in the fact that Addons are installed without the need for a restart of Firefox.

So those of you waiting for addons without a reboot, Jetpack is the best you can get right now. Head over to the Gallery to install the Jetpack add-on and try out some Jetpacks like JetWave (a Google Wave Notifier) and JetStatus (a Twitter client).

Jetpack Gallery | Jetpack – Mozilla Labs

I’m sure all of you have had a chat online with your buddies via a IM client. I’m sure you must have realized that most of the IM clients are boring, and its not so fun to have a conversation in boring interfaces.

Well an addon for MSN Messenger called HiYo claims to bring back your chat sessions to life.

The Instant Messaging world needs a serious shaking. What we see around us is old school conventions forced into the hectic world of Instant Messaging, and it doesn’t work. Though Instant Messaging has been around for 10 years now, there is still so much more room for enhancing and enriching our conversations.

In a nutshell HiYo replaces the dull textual exchange we call “Instant Messaging” into a frickin’ fun experience.

"HiYo is a free add-on for Windows Live Messenger, offering the best quality graphical content available on the net. HiYo offers a wide variety of Winks, Animations, Emoticons and Sounds that suit every mood, emotion and style. It upgrades the Instant Messaging experience making it a lot more fun and exciting than before. HiYo is very user friendly; everyone can easily browse and enjoy the content. HiYo also offers unique features such as interactive talking animations, automatically suggested content that interacts with your conversation, and slideshows of personal photos in the user’s display image within Messenger." 

I’ve tried out HiYo, and as far as I can tell, the experience of IM does get a lot more fun. I am sure it will be liked by a large pool of people who use IM regularly to communicate.’m not sure about the benefits of using HiYo regularly. For some people getting work done is more important, and IM is a time killer. Hiyo is not for those kind of people.

Here are a few screenshots of HiYo in action. Prepare yourselves to be surprised because I’m sure you haven’t seen such kind of interactivity in any other IM solution as yet.

Looks cool and fun right? HiYo is highly addictive and I’m sure you might never want to end a conversation if you are using it.

Well let me pick out the gripes of using HiYo :

• Works with Windows Live Messenger only. I’m not sure how many users use Live messenger, but I’m a long time fan of GTalk. So didn’t have many buddies to chat on Live Messenger+HiYo !
• Other thing is that both you and the guy you are chatting with need to have HiYo installed. This is quite sad, since you need to get all your friends to install it to be able to enjoy the HiYo experience.
• Eats up memory pretty fast.

Apart from these HiYo is a rocking, fun product to use. I hope they are considering releasing compatible versions that work well with GTalk and Yahoo Messenger.

HiYo is made by the guys behind Incredimail which happens to be another popular email client.

If you are Live Messenger user, then HiYo is a must have tool for you, if you want to make your conversations more fun and interesting.

If you have any other questions about HiYo head over to their FAQ, or download it right away.

Firefox happens to be my favorite browser. Being the person I am there is nothing on my Firefox install other than saved passwords and some toolbar bookmarks. For everything else I use online accounts like Del.icio.us, and other productivity sites like Remember the Milk.

But recently in a computer crash, I had to wipe out Windows and reinstall it from scratch. In the process, I lost all the saved passwords, and after the reinstall I was left scratching my head trying to remember the passwords.

Thanks to Sizlopedia I found a cool Firefox addon that does exactly what I was looking for.  Password Exporter adds the ability to view all of your saved passwords, and to export them in an encrypted or unencrypted file CSV or XML file. Whenever you wish to import those passwords to a different Firefox installation, just install Password Exporter again, find your file, and click the import button. Sounds simple isn’t it?

Well not so simple really. The catch is that Password Exporter is hidden in your security settings, which can be accessed by clicking Tools>Options>Security. Once you’re at the security screen, you should see the import/export passwords option .

I hope that Password Exporter will save a few headaches for you!

Mozilla Addons Password Exporter | Via Sizlopedia

Mozilla has finally lifted the curtains off Mozilla Addons  that has a completely has a shiny new look and is simply amazing at the first sight. I’ve played around with the new site and it is a vast improvement over the previous version.

The most important achievement is that Mozilla Addons is now available in 24 languages, but it is another thing that I won’t be needing them. The newest addition into the site is the Sandbox feature wherein the addons are in sort of beta until Mozilla approves them. The nice thing is that when you search for addons, the addons in the sandbox are marked with a experimental tag. But there’s a catch, you still need to login to be able to download addons in the sandbox.

Well there are two things that disappoint me with the new addons site. The first is that searching isn’t that easy. Say if you searched for wikipedia select the search tools category, you’ll be presented with addons that belong to all the other categories as well. Also there is no way to group the results in a particular fashion.

The other thing is that from now on the site automatically detects the version of Firefox you are using and you can install only those addons that are compatible with your version of Firefox. Surely Mozilla is trying to make things easier for end users, but then we have to depend on plugin authors to test their addons on different versions. This isn’t a good idea, atleast there should be an option for power users to modify this behavior to download and test addons not compatible with the current version of Firefox.

I’m currently using Firefox beta 3 and there are many addons that I know work with Firefox 3 but I can’t install them. Mozilla needs to work a little bit more on Sandbox and the search features and I’m sure the new site will be a hit with users worldwide..

What do you think about the new Mozilla Addons site?

Say you want to go to the 5th Tab just press Ctrl + 5. To reach the first tab, press Ctrl + 1, for the second tab, press Ctrl + 2, and so on until the eighth since Ctrl + 9 is reserved for the last tab. If you are on a Mac replace the Ctrl key with the cmd key.

Well that does sound really useful doesn’t it. But there is only one problem. You just can’t numbering the Tabs in your head just to shuffle between them.

Enters Fancy Numbered Tabs, a simple Firefox extension developed by Chris Gaunt, that replaces the tab close button with the position of the tab so you can quickly know what is the right shortcut (Sweet !). You can still close the tab by pressing the number button.

Simple and effective. Get Fancy Numbered Tabs at Mozilla Add-ons.

Currently this feature is experimental but I am hoping that it makes it to the final release of Firefox. The new Tab Switcher is an ideal replacement for the existing Ctrl-Tab feature, as it is easier to switch to a Tab you need to go to. When you press Ctrl-Tab in Firefox 3 an overlay with thumbnails of all the Tabs that are open. All you need to do is Click and boom! you’re into the Tab you wished to go to.

Well all this eyecandy comes at a cost, and that is increased CPU usage when using the Tab Switcher. CPU usage spiked from 2-3% to 45-50% during high speed tab switching (that is, I kept Ctrl + Tab pressed for a while), but immediately went back to previous cool 2-3% usage. So you can expect a few things here and there to become unresponsive while switching Tabs.

What do you think of this new and redefined Tab Switcher for Firefox ?

and yeah if you wish to try out Tab Switcher on your existing copy of Firefox install this addon.

Via Tech-Buzz and Mozilla Links

Fireshot adds a toolbar to your Firefox Browser that allows you to take screenshots confidently from your Browser Window. Once you’ve taken the screenshot, the screenshot is displayed in a new window along with tools for adding text, transparent shapes you can use to highlight some area, arrows and free hand drawing. Annotations are vector objects so you can easily drag and customize them.

The Screenshots can be saved as PNG’s, JPEG’s or as Bitmaps. You can also, copy them to clipboard,email them or even edit them further in Paint (Do you use Paint to edit your images??). For web captures it currently doesn’t get any better than with this extension. You can get FireShot at Mozilla Add-ons.

If you are wondering how, then the solution is very simple, all you need to do is install Password Exporter Addon for Firefox. Once you have installed, follow the steps that I have outlined and you will soon find all your passwords to be safe and secure.

• Open the Addons Screen, and Search for Password Exporter in the List. Once you have found it select the Options tab to bring up the Import/Export Passwords Window.

• You can either Import or Export your Passwords from here. If you want to have an added layer of security, then you can encrypt the passwords.

• You can either export it to CSV or XML format. Choose the one that you are comfortable with.

• Store the Exported file in some safe location, so that you can retrieve it later.

Download the Password Exporter Addon for Firefox Today. Make sure you keep the export file in a safe location, because anyone can access your file and see all your passwords.

Firefox is the best thing that has happened to the Internet for a long time. Firefox with its plethora of Addons has made browsing the web more fun and interactive than it was ever before, all thanks to Firefox. While there have been many resources telling you about must have Firefox Addons, I decided to write a list of Every Firefox Addon I have heard of and used so that you can find the addon that you are looking for very easily. And the result of all this, is this Mega List of Firefox Addons having exactly 222 Addons for just about everything you’d want to do on the Web today.

Advertising

• Block Flash ads/content : Flashblock2. Block ads on webpages : Adblock Plus
• Block ads on webpages : Adblock Plus
• Automatically update adblocker filters : Adblock Filterset.G Updater
  

  Archive/History

• See thumbnails of pages in session history : Reveal
• Create a log of browsing history : Slogger
• See sites visited today/yesterday/2 days ago/etc : History Menu
  

  Blogging

• Blog to LiveJournal/etc : Deepest Sender
• Know when blog content is under Creative Commons license : mozCC
• Blog about the current page : Scribefire for Firefox
• Blog to Blogger service : BlogThis
• Comment about the blog page : coComment
  

  Bookmarking

• Sync Firefox bookmarks on different computers : Bookmarks Synchronizer
• Bookmark at del.icio.us : Bookmark with Del.icio.us
• Bookmark at furl.net : Furl Tools
• Store and sync bookmarks online : Chipmark
• Edit bookmarks easily : Flat Bookmark Editing
• Search the bookmarks : Locate in Bookmark Folders
• Bypass/customize the add-bookmark dialog : OpenBook
• Store and sync bookmarks online : Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer
• Sync del.icio.us and Firefox bookmarks : Foxylicious
• Add a bookmark-here link in the bookmarks tree : Add Bookmark Here
  

  Chat

• Chat on the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) : ChatZilla
  

  Clips/Notes/Scrapbook

• Write a note about a webpage : QuickNote
• Save a webpage : ScrapBook
• Save clips from web pages : Clipmarks
  

  Customizing/Editing Website Display

• Customize a page and save as GreaseMonkey script : platypus
• Manage user styles for sites : Stylish
• Add/remove/change some features for sites : Aardvark
• Add/remove/change some features for sites : GreaseMonkey
  

  Discover

• See useful sites for pages geographically marked with ICBM/geo.position tags : GeoURL
• Discover new sites being recommended by others : StumbleUpon
  

  Downloading/Files/FTP

• Automatically save downloads to different directories : Download Sort
• Download all the links on a page (filter by type) : DownThemAll!
• Download/upload files using FTP : FireFTP
• Manage file downloads : FlashGot
• Open the download manager in another tab : Download Manager Tweak
• See download speed in a Status Bar : Download Statusbar
• Stop opening blank windows for downloads : Disable Targets For Downloads
  

  Email/Gmail/Webmail

• Manage multiple Gmail accounts : Gmail Manager
• Email the entire webpage : Amazing webpage emailer
• Treat plain text email address as link : text/plain
• Insert smiley icons in messages : Smiley Xtra
• Use webmail when mailto: link is clicked : WebMailCompose
• Insert custom signature into emails : Signature
• Use different Gmail accounts in different tabs : CookiePie
• Use disposable email addresses : Create disposable email addresses
• Be notified when new mail arrives at Gmail account : Gmail Notifier
  

  Financial/Stocks

• See prices in different currencies : ViewMyCurrency
• See stock prices in a ticker : StockTicker
  

  Google

• Add more links to Google search; remove ads : CustomizeGoogle
• Search Google and use other Google services : Google Toolbar for Firefox
• Display my Adsense earnings : Adsense Notifier
• View an unavailable page via Google archive : Cacheout!
  

  Internet Explorer

• View an Internet-Explorer-only webpage in Firefox : IE Tab
• View the same page in Firefox when it is open in Internet Explorer : FirefoxView
  

  Images/Graphics/Maps/Video

• Map an address; get directions : Map+ i>Click on Google images thumbnail to get full image : Google Images Re-Linker
• Zoom in/out on an image : Image Zoom
• Save video of a URL in clipboard : Clipboard-Save-As
• Show ALT attribute in a popup bubble : Popup ALT Attribute
• Save background/un-save-able images on various sites : Background Image Saver
• Save all the images/media on a page : Magpie
  

  Links

• Copy the anchor text of a link : Copy Link Name
• Double click on plain text url to open it : Text Link
• See small icons to show different link types (secured, pdf etc) : TargetAlert
• Copy the anchor text of a link : Copy Link Text(CoLT)
• Download/open all/selected links on a page : Linky
• Treat a plain text url as a link : Fetch Text URL
• Treat a plain text url as a link : Linkification
• Select and open multiple links in one action : Open Selected Links
• Number the links and use the keyboard to navigate : Numbered Links
• Drag a link or picture and open it in a new tab : Super DragAndGo
• Wrap long links that require side scroll : MR Tech Link Wrapper
  

  Managing Extensions

• Sort the extensions list : Slim Extension List
• List installed extensions and themes : ListZilla
• Restart Firefox with one click : Restart Firefox
• List installed extensions and themes : InfoLister
• Backup all Extensions and themes : Compact Library Extension Organizer
• Edit extensions options from Tools menu : Options Menu
• Install and manage extensions locally : MR Tech Local Install
• See updates available for extensions : Update Notifier
• Backup installed extensions : Firefox Extension Backup Extension
  

  Mouse

• Use mouse gestures (auto/history/tab scrollers etc) : All-in-One Gestures
  

  Music

• Control iTunes or Winamp using Firefox : FoxyTunes
• Launch windows media player for embedded video : MediaPlayerConnectivity
  

  PDF

• Open PDF files in a new tab : PDF Download
  

  Passwords

• Remember my username and passwords on sites : Always Remember Password
• Create new different passwords for different sites : PasswordMaker
• Bypass mandatory registration of username and password for sites : BugMeNot
  

  Performance/Speed/Tuning

• See page loading statistics in a statusbar : Extended Statusbar
• Edit/delete/move the menu items : Menu Editor
• Use colorful menu icons : CuteMenus – Crystal SVG
• See page loading progress bar : Fission
• Edit userChrome.css/userContent.css/user.js : chromEdit
• Make the stop and reload button act as one button : Stop-or-Reload Button
• Minimize Firefox to system tray : MinimizeToTray
• Speed up Firefox : Fasterfox
  

  Print

• Remove unwanted text/image block before printing a page : Nuke Anything Enhanced
  

  Privacy

• Use multiple proxy sites to surf the web : SwitchProxy Tool
• Block phishing sites : NetcraftToolbar
• Clear the cache with one click on the toolbar : Clear Cache Button
• See where form information is being submitted : FormFox
• Use multiple proxy sites to surf the web : xyzproxy
• Surf the web without leaving a trace in my computer : Stealther
• Logon to Multiple Email Accounts and other services : CookieSwap
• Clear everything after the browsing session : X (Paranoia) Mod 0.6.5
• Add/edit cookies : Add N Edit Cookies
  

  Productivity

• Create a tiny url : TinyUrl Creator
• Add bookmarks to history to make auto-complete URL : AutoMarks
• Navigate up one folder level on a site : Uppity
• Automatically reload a page every few seconds : Reload Every
• Automatically show/close the sidebar with mouse motion : Optimoz Tweaks
• Add more search engines to Firefox search box : Mycroft
• Add a powerful multi-functional preference bar : PrefBar
• See all open tabs together on screen : Firefox Showcase
• Drag a link to a text area : DragToScroll
• Enhance search engine results with more information : BetterSearch
• Disable the install default countdown delay : MR Tech Disable XPI Install Delay
• Open links/mailto with external applications : Launchy
• Use a calendar : Crash Recovery
• Use keyboard to go to next page/previous page : NextPlease!
• Remove content from pages permanently : Remove It Permanently
• See date and day in the status bar : Statusbar Clock
• See more search result/image entries on pages : repagination
• Use the keyboard for more functions : mozless
• Track time spent browsing / on a project : TimeTracker
• Restore the browser exactly as closed last time : SessionSaver
• Use a sidebar to control multiple functions : All-in-One Sidebar
• Switch between multiple sidebars : All-In-One Sidebar
• Smoothly scroll up/down the page : SmoothWheel
  

  RSS/Feeds/Livemarks

• Scroll LiveMarks feeds in a tickler : RSS Ticker
• Read RSS feeds : Sage
• Reload all LiveMarks : Reliby
• Read RSS feeds : Wizz RSS News Reader
• Add RSS feeds to web-based/desktop readers or reader extensions : LiveLines
• See newsfeeds/blogs raw xml with styles : Feedview
  

  Search

• Delete a search plugin : SearchPluginHacks
• Automatically resize the search box for longer terms : Searchbar Autosizer
• Search 1-25 custom chosen sites : Roll your Own Search for Firefox
• Preview thumbnails of search results in Google/Yahoo/etc : GooglePreview
• Choose from a list of search engines : Hyperwords
• Choose from a list of search engines : Groowe Search Toolbar
• Preview thumbnails of search results in Google/Yahoo/etc : Cooliris Previews
• Change the order of search engines : Search Engine Ordering
• Add search engines to context menu : ConQuery
• Search via contextmenu thru customized bookmark keywords : SmartSearch
  

  Search Engine Optimization

• See information about the site : About This Site
• See Google Pagerank in statusbar : Google Pagerank Status
• See search engine link counts and ranks for the page : SEO Links
• See Alexa information, search engine backlinks for a page : SearchStatus
• See search engine backlinks, analyze links, keyword density etc : SEOpen
  

  Security

• Manage cookies : CookieCuller
• Control more javascript options : JavaScript Options
• Allow javascript/java/plugins/etc only on trusted sites : NoScript
• See cookie information on page dialog : View Cookies
  

  Tabs

• Toggle the tab bar via chosen key : HideTabBar
• Use multiple tab rows : superT
• Manage tabs (add/move/etc) : Tabbrowser Preferences
• Manage tabs (multiple links/duplicate/close same domain/etc ) : Tab Mix Plus
• Undo/reopen the tab I just closed : Undoclosetab
• Move to next/previous tab via keyboard : SwiftTabs
• Marks some tabs as permanent : PermaTabs
• Change colors for different tabs : Colorful Tabs
• Duplicate a tab : Duplicate Tab
  

  Text (Copy/Cut/Paste/Spell/Translate)

• Fill web forms with name/address/email etc : Autofill
• Paste a url and load the page in one step : Paste and Go
• Translate selected text using google translation service : gTranslate
• Fill web forms with name/address/email etc : InFormEnter
• Find the selected word with search plugins : Context Search
• Find the meaning of selected word in a dictionary : Dictionary Tooltip
• Find the meaning of selected word from Google definitions : Inline Google Definitions
• Automatically copy the selected text to clipboard : AutoCopy
• Resize text areas in forums : Resizeable Textarea
• Find the meaning of selected word in a dictionary : DictionarySearch
• Highlight a paragraph and navigate with keys : Paragrasp
• Highlight every instance of a word/phrase on the page : Context Highlight
• Increase/decrease/back-to-normal text size of the page : Text size toolbar
• Copy plain text (without formatting/html) : Copy Plain Text
• See all tabs in one window : Viamatic foXpose
• Spell check text in form fields : SpellBound
• Write in WYSIWYG mode in a text area : Xinha Here!
  

  Weather

• See weather information : ForecastFox
• See weather information (+ radar images) : Forecastfox Enhanced
  

  Web Development

• Download an entire website : SpiderZilla
• Find the color code of a given pixel : Show Anchors
• See errors categorizxed by type : Console2
• Capture screenshots : ScreenGrab!
• Check the validity of links on a page : LinkChecker
• Copy and format selected text/title/url : Copy URL+
• Debug ajax/css/html/javascript : FireBug
• Debug javascript : JavaScript Debugger
• Write lorem ipsum content for test page : LoremIpsum Content Generator
• See cookie information for a page : View Cookies
• Change user agent for certain sites : User Agent Switcher
• Find whois information of the site : domainFinder
• Inspect the DOM of HTML, XUL, and XML pages : DOM Inspector
• Inspect the selected element with DOM Inspector : InspectThis
• Measure pixel width with a ruler : MeasureIt
• Modify http/https headers and post parameters : Tamper Data
• Preview the Adsense ads that might be shown on a page : Adsense Preview
• Run automated tests on a site : TestGen4Web
• Edit CSS stylesheet : EditCSS
• Analyze Website Performance : YSlow!
• View source with an external app : ViewSourceWith
• See Xpath information : XPather
• See current page’s heading structure in a sidebar : Document Map
• See IP address of the site : ShowIP
• Validate html : HTML Validator
• See how a page will look on mobile screen : Small Screen Rendering XPI
• See http headers of a page : Header Monitor
• See color contrast page information : Colour Contrast Analyser
• See web development references in a sidebar : DevBoi
• See GET and POST parmeters of the page : UrlParams
• Simulate WAP browsing by viewing WML : wmlbrowser
• Test nightly versions of Firefox : Nightly Tester Tools
• View css styles; view html in another app; validate css/html : Web Developer
• View page html source constructs directly on the page : X-Ray
• View rendered source : View Source Chart
• Capture screenshots : Pearl Crescent Page Saver

If you have anything to add to this list please let me know in the comments section. Pour your heart out and help me build the single largest Firefox Addons list, a List that has addons that is actually useful than filled with all kinds of crap.

So when the next Firefox comes out we will be able to download and resume files even after closing the browser. With the latest Alpha build the feature has already been implemented but the Interface design is still in works. Because of the Resume Support works we will need to tell the user if Resume is supported or not, simply because not all servers support Resume.

Right now the interface is still being tweaked. I would rather have a full screen download manager that gives extra space so that Firefox is able to add all the tiny details onto the Download Manager. On a related note you can also the Source URL of the file being downloaded.

Via Mozilla Links