browsing

Slows you down

Full Speed promises to improve both the speed and performance of your broadband connection. Oddly, when we put it through the ringer, it did just the opposite: our computer ran at a snail's pace when the program was activated.

The program's user interface doesn't exactly exude professionalism. All of the exclamation points asking us to Get Ready to Boost Your Speed! had us looking for the catch. At start-up, our only option was to select either Internet Explorer or Firefox to run the Web speed test. Once we made our selection a new window appeared and ran … Read more

Useful photo organizer

ImageCD Catalog is a clever program that allows users to create libraries containing thumbnails of photographs that are stored on CDs. For photographers who tend to store images this way, ImageCD Catalog provides a quick way to find images without having to physically dig through a bunch of CDs.

The program's interface is basic and fairly intuitive, with a handful of buttons for frequently used functions and everything else organized in drop-down menus. Although not everything is intuitive--we had to check the built-in Help file to find out how to start a slideshow--for the most part the program is … Read more

Tools to keep your kids safe online

Although some of us remember life before computers and the Internet, there's a new generation of children who don't. From an early age, they're on PCs, playing games, and in many cases, learning about the Internet.

That's why it's so important to safeguard your children while they're surfing the Web. The Internet can be a scary place, but these resources will help keep the bad stuff away:

Glubble Glubble bills itself as a family "social network" and browser. Although I'm not entirely convinced that it's a social network, it does do a fine job of ensuring your kids stay safe online.

Glubble lets you upload content like photos, videos, or special moments for your family to see. But where it shines is in controlling what your kids can do on the Web. All the sites they can browse are approved by you. Whenever they go to different sites, it's recorded so you can see what your kids are up to when they use the computer. Glubble provides your kids with several activities, including games and puzzles. It's a nice app for both the family and the children.

Kido'z Kido'z is an Adobe AIR application that safeguards your children as they browse the Web. But unlike normal browsers, Kido'z determines what your kids can and cannot view.

After you download Kido'z, you'll be brought to a page showing icons for a handful of popular franchises for children, including Mickey Mouse, Dora the Explorer, and others. When you click on one of those options, you'll be brought to the subject's respective Web page within the app. You can click around as you would if you were using Firefox. Kido'z works well and it will help keep your kids safe from some of the Web's dangers.… Read more

ThunderBrowse gets Postbox support

One of the better Mozilla Thunderbird extensions is ThunderBrowse, which allows users to quickly open e-mailed links in a browser window built into the e-mail client itself. The latest version introduces support for the Thunderbird-derived Postbox, as well as compatibility fixes for the Thunderbird 3 beta builds and a new click engine.

However, for users who haven't checked out or updated ThunderBrowse in awhile, there's a lot to play with. Through the expansive options menu, you can configure links to open in new tabs. This allows your original e-mail to stay open in one tab, while the link … Read more

Google Maps gets more landmarks, points of interest

Google Maps has added additional local landmarks and "prominent" businesses right on top of any map area you're browsing. Just like any other points of interest, you can click on any of these to get the a summary, which includes things like related Web sites, phone numbers, hours of operation, photos, and user reviews.

In Google Earth (Google's globe software) this layer of information is something you can turn on and off, however for Maps, Google has decided simply to bake it in. It's definitely a logical next step, considering Google recently added nearby businessesRead more

Turn on iPhone autofill

The Web browser has been kind of annoying on the iPhone, because it won't remember what you write in forms, like Safari or IE do on computers.

Here's how to turn on autofill in the new iPhone firmware.

Go to Settings, then choose Safari, and then choose AutoFill.

You can choose whether to use info from your contact list or previous names and passwords you've entered. This can really speed up filling out forms in the browser.

Firefox to go

No longer a fledgling upstart, Firefox 3 is full-featured, lightning fast, and an able foe for both the big-dog competitor Internet Explorer and competitors nipping at its heels. Firefox's killer add-ons remain strong, and the latest update makes version 3.5 about two times faster than version 3. However, competition is strong and it can no longer be said that Firefox is the fastest browser available.

Several notable improvements in the latest revamp keep Firefox abreast of current browsing tech. Along with Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine that renders Web applications faster on Firefox than ever before, there … Read more

Fine-tune Firefox

FireTune for Firefox optimizes Firefox's performance on your computer by allowing you to configure its speed and connection settings. However, we found little or no difference in our computer's performance after we put it to the test.

Right off the bat, we noticed that some of the features this add-on includes, such as the autocompletion of URLs, are features that Firefox already has built into in its current version. It does, however, allow you to set up other optimization features, such as the caching of objects shared over a secure connection, autocomplete for URLs, and optimization of memory … Read more

Firefox 3.5: Excellent for fans, but competition getting tougher

Firefox 3.5 brings the world's second-most popular browser up to speed with current browsing technology and trends, and perhaps nudges it just a bit ahead of the competition. However, it is by no means the leap ahead that its predecessor Firefox 3 was, and it's clear that the competition isn't going away anytime soon.

Available for Windows, Windows Portable, Mac, or Linux, Firefox 3.5 nevertheless represents the best Firefox we've yet seen from Mozilla. This comes as no surprise, and with a testing process that involved four beta builds, three release candidates, and a … Read more

Finjan offers free SecureTweets browser plug-in

Updated October 30 at 9:58 a.m. PDT: The software was called SecureTwitter when this article was first published. The name was later changed to SecureTweets and the article has been updated to reflect that.

Finally, there's a tool that can help prevent people from clicking on URLs that appear to come from friends on Twitter and other social media sites but which lead to sites hosting malware.

Web security firm Finjan began offering this week a free browser plug-in dubbed SecureTweets that warns users when they encounter a malicious URL in Twitter, as well as in Gmail, … Read more