Filed under: Internet Tools, Open Source

If there’s one thing geeks like to do it is benchmark things. From how fast their code runs, to how quickly their Mac renders video, the geek has an insatiable need for metrics. The geeks behind the WebKit project (that’s the open source HTML rendering engine that powers Safari) wanted to measure how fast Safari’s JavaScript Engine really was. They looked at the existing JavaScript benchmarks and decided none of them did what they needed, so they built SunSpider. At the moment SunSpider is at 0.9 but it has been released so people can fiddle with it and give feedback. Test it out with your favorite browser and see how it stacks up.

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Filed under: Freeware, Internet Tools

A while back Mike mentioned the beta release of the stand-alone Flickr Uploadr and now the Flickr folks have announced the official release. Flickr Uploadr grants you to tag, describe, and organize your photos locally before uploading them to the on the web pic service. The signature new feature of version 3 grants reordering of your photos before uploading just by dragging them around. Version 3 also lets you work offline, and once you begin the actual upload you can begin adding and tagging new photos even before the first batch is completed uploading.

Flickr Uploadr version 3.0 is a free download from Flickr.com.

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Filed under: Internet Tools, Apple

For those of you running Safari on Windows… yes, we see you there in the back, howzitgoin? The 3.0.4 security update version of SfW is now available, featuring the bundle of new features and stability/performance improvements already available in 3.0.4 (yay for keyboard shortcuts & horizontal mouse wheel scrolling) plus a new fix for one security flaw, a bit of a doozie: a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could have opened the browser and the host machine to attack. See the Apple site for the full feature lists.

If you’re running Safari on XP or Vista, we’d love to hear about it; in particular, why? Better security and performance? Less trouble than Firefox, less hackable than IE? Testing sites for Mac or iPhone users? Speak up, the Internet is listening.

Update: Clarification, the security update is the new part of Safari, the 3.0.4 feature updates were already in the previous build.

Continue reading Safari beta for Windows gets security & feature updates

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Filed under: Software, World wide web Tools

Mat posted about Safari 3 Adblock earlier this week. To me, the most impressive feature of that plug-in is its support for Adblock Plus filter subscriptions. In that same vein, SafariBlock, a program TUAW has covered in the past has received a significant update. In version 2.0, not only is the plug-in now open souce, but it is also compatible with AdBlock Plus subscriptions! It’s Leopard compatibility has been improved from version 1.3.1 as well. I had some trouble getting SafariBlock 2 installed (the installer and a manual installation gave me errors), but the plug-in ended up working just fine.

Having played around with both plug-ins, I think that they both have their pros and cons. While SafariAdblock seems to be a little bit superior at distinguishing between ad and non-ad flash videos (SafariBlock automatically whites out some video windows that are actual content, even if they appear near an ad header), SafariBlock is much better at working with web forms and sites that need to launch an action in either another window or in some sort of pop-up.

In any event, AdBlock Plus filter support has instantly transformed my Safari experience - bringing one of my favorite Firefox features to a browser that tends to be more stable on my system. Plus, SafariBlock is free - and I’m a massive fan of free.

Thanks egordin!

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Filed under: Freeware, Internet Tools

A while back Mike mentioned the beta release of the stand-alone Flickr Uploadr and now the Flickr folks have announced the official release. Flickr Uploadr grants you to tag, describe, and organize your pics locally before uploading them to the on the web pic service. The signature new feature of version 3 grants reordering of your pics before uploading just by dragging them around. Version 3 also lets you work offline, and once you start the actual upload you can begin adding and tagging new photos even before the first batch is completed uploading.

Flickr Uploadr version 3.0 is a free download from Flickr.com.

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Filed under: World wide web Tools, Leopard, Beta Beat

We’ve covered the concept of site specific browsers before. Basically these are stand-alone browsers designed to work with just one website, e.g. Gmail. Fluid takes this idea to the next level by automating the process of creating Webkit based site specific browsers. When you launch Fluid it asks for the URL and name of the site, and then it creates a Cocoa application just for that particular site. The reason that this is handy is that it separates your general browsing (and related crashes) from your Gmail, facebook, etc.

Fluid is in beta and can be downloaded from Todd Ditchendorf and requires Leopard.

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Filed under: Software, World wide web Tools

Mat posted about Safari 3 Adblock earlier this week. To me, the most impressive feature of that plug-in is its support for Adblock Plus filter subscriptions. In that same vein, SafariBlock, a program TUAW has covered in the past has received a significant update. In version 2.0, not only is the plug-in now open souce, but it is also compatible with AdBlock Plus subscriptions! It’s Leopard compatibility has been improved from version 1.3.1 as well. I had some trouble getting SafariBlock 2 installed (the installer and a manual installation gave me errors), but the plug-in ended up working just fine.

Having played around with both plug-ins, I think that they both have their pros and cons. While SafariAdblock seems to be a tiny bit better at distinguishing between ad and non-ad flash videos (SafariBlock automatically whites out some video windows that are actual content, even if they appear near an ad header), SafariBlock is much superior at working with web forms and sites that need to launch an action in either another window or in some sort of pop-up.

In any event, AdBlock Plus filter support has instantly transformed my Safari experience - bringing one of my favorite Firefox features to a browser that tends to be more stable on my system. Plus, SafariBlock is free - and I’m a massive fan of free.

Thanks egordin!

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Filed under: Software, Internet Tools

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a fan of the internet development application RapidWeaver, but I don’t think about it complete until supplemented by a variety of excellent plugins from YourHead software. We’ve covered their excellent WYSIWYG plugin Blocks before and now they have a couple of new plugins that add some neat features. First up is PayLoom (jointly developed with YabDab) which makes it simple to set up a webstore on the web using PayPal’s Shopping Cart service. Second is a new beta plugin called Kwix that makes it simple to create fluid animated menus on RapidWeaver pages, and ideal of all it’s compatible with the newest Blocks beta as well. With the MacUpdate Bundle we’ve been posting about being extended, now is a great time to get into RapidWeaver development.

PayLoom is $19.95 and a demo is available. Kwix is still in beta but is available for download from YourHead.

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Filed under: Internet Tools, Leopard, Beta Beat

We’ve covered the concept of site specific browsers before. Basically these are stand-alone browsers designed to work with just one website, e.g. Gmail. Fluid takes this idea to the next level by automating the process of creating Webkit based site specific browsers. When you launch Fluid it asks for the URL and name of the site, and then it creates a Cocoa application just for that particular site. The reason that this is handy is that it separates your general browsing (and related crashes) from your Gmail, facebook, etc.

Fluid is in beta and can be downloaded from Todd Ditchendorf and requires Leopard.

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Filed under: iPod Family, Internet Tools, iPhone

Awesome TUAW Reader Tom King enjoyed using my javascript iPastelet (his phrase–isn’t it great?) and created this interactive tool that automates the bookmarklet design process.

His web form lets you specify the text to paste and the bookmarklet name. You can even skip the “Paste here” confirmation alert and paste into the first available field. Click “Make iPastelet”, drag the link into your bookmarks and you’re ready to sync.

Cool stuff. Read more about here. Great job, Tom.

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