Author Archive: Vygantas
Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism career back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.
Firefox Campus Edition
Recently Firefox released their Firefox web browser Campus Edition and as they say:
Firefox Campus Edition combines the Speed, Security and features of the Firefox browser with Special extras that give you Streamlined access to music, cool sites and useful information.
With Firefox Campus Edition you can do some cool stuff which includes: music listening while you are surfing (FoxyTunes), facts managing (Zoter) and new sites search/discovering (StumbeUpon).
What is Firefox Campus Edition?
Firefox Campus Edition combines the Firefox web browser with special extras that give you streamlined access to music, cool sites and useful research tools. It’s a way to get the most out of the web that’s been created just for students. And it’s free!
What extras are included?
FoxyTunes lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser.StumbleUpon lets you channel surf the Internet to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests.
Zotero helps you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work – in the web browser itself.
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FavBrowser.com v2
Now you’ll probably think: Oh no, one more topic about FavBrowser.com. Why don’t you guys post about web browsers anymore?
I have some information so would like to share with everyone of you.
First of all, thanks to everyone who is spreading word, linking to FavBrowser.com from their sites and just reading this blog. Thank You.
This week I was playing a bit with the logo but that’s not enough, right? I am thinking about more changes. So here are some of them:
- New web design. I will try to make it look bit more like a portal. Not really sure when I will finish it. But I don’t want to design this web page just for myself, so if you have any suggestions, please let me know them.
- More news. From now I will be posting not just about big guys like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Opera.
- Different posts style. I was just writing about new web browsers releases, included change log and that’s all. I will try to give those posts more “pashion” so every web browser fan would enjoy reading it much more.
Also some minor changes (added already) like e-mail subscriptions and “Hot Topics”.
Want anything else? Feel free to offer.
No Opera 9.5 or Opera Mini 4 Beta 2 or Final Today
I was just thinking to write about that and noticed that Junyor from Opera already said: “No weekly of Kestrel today.”.
There is one reason for that (which now I understand). Opera Mini 4 Beta wasn’t released on Friday as it’s bad day for such releases. So we will get new build on Tuesday or Wednesday (no idea which week) as Opera wants to get as many attention as possible and Friday is not good for that. Don’t expect Opera 9.5 or Opera Mini 4 Beta 2 or Final today.
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Pingdom Gives Away $120 000 In Free Accounts
Mr. Uptime Firefox plug-in is celebrating it’s 1 year anniversary, congratulations. For this reason Pingdom.com is giving away $120 000 in free accounts (1000 accounts total worth $120 each) so hurry up if you are interested. For Firefox users only, nice promo.
Why Pingdom?
Your website was probably down last month. Email servers, FTP servers, firewalls, and a multitude of other services can also perform poorly or even stop responding entirely.
The question is, are you aware of it? Do you know when it happens? Do you know for how long? This is where Pingdom comes in.
We can monitor all aspects of your website and other infrastructure for you and instantly let you know when anything goes wrong. Not only that, Pingdom will also collect a great deal valuable and useful statistics for you.
Q: Why do I need Mr Uptime?
A: On a daily basis millions of Internet users encounter websites that don’t work as intended. In most cases you as a user just want to visit a website to get information but can’t because of various kinds of issues. It could be a problem on your end, with the website, or somewhere in between. Mr Uptime will help you by informing you when the website is working correctly for you again.
Which One Do You Like More?
Please take a few seconds and tell me: Which one do you like more? With or without the slogan?
With:
Click to enlarge.
Without:
Click to enlarge.
Thank You.
Maxthon 2.0.3 RC Released
It’s about time for some news from not so big guys. Maxthon team just released Maxthon 2.0.3 RC.
I’ve just downloaded this version as really haven’t ever tried Maxthon 2 (only MyIE long time ago) and I like it so far. Interface is really cute as well. Here’s a screenshot of Maxthon 2.0.3 RC:
Click to enlarge.
This new build includes lots of bug fixes as well as some new features. Here’s a complete list of changes:
- New Security Guardian
- New Screen Capture
- Sniffer bug for wma file format
- Active tab for undo and URL Key
- Super Drag&Drop may use external download mananger
- Scrollbar can be clicked in block page content mode
- Drawing bug in Security Guardian dialog
- Added Clean Feed History and Search History in Clean Browser History
- Use Enter key to open the Favorites item wich has the focus
- Close Resume List tab when all links in Resume List are clicked (The “Auto Close” option must be checked)
- Delete Search History in History page
- Enter in Address Bar will not open new tab if the url hasn’t changed
- Added site range selection in Block Page Content
- Click on Links will have no effect while in Block Page Content mode
- Automatically upload modified Favorites when exit
- Re-organized Right-click menu on Favorites
- Resume List lost when program crash
- Super Drag&Drop can not download file problem on some websites
- Several issues that might cause crash
- Blank images not remove with Ad Hunter
- Issues that prevent set Maxthon as default browser (including issues on Windows Vista)
- Referer error with Flashget while multi-thread tab is on
- Not show start page when opened by external call
- Improved download method of Favicons
- File Sniffer won’t sniff WMA format
- Issues that occur with invalid file format settings
- Issues that affect website filtre range
- “Dont’ remind me for 1 week” won’t work in Update Notification dialog
- Crash when delete blank website item in Content Filter black list.
- “Check Links” in Favorites sidebar might cause all links in sidebar disappear
- Initialization failure when start Maxthon with invalid URLs
- Click Cancel in Screen Capture Options might cause capture page fail
- Clean Profile Data flaw in Login dialog
- Can not select buttons in Add/Remove Button menu on Single-line Favorites Bar, and Hot Items’ name is aa
- Press Esc key in Ad Hunter > Edit Filter List dialog causes dialog turns gray
- Redirect in current page might cause Address Bar refresh
- Strange behavior of the Close button of Check Updates dialog
- Resize Check Updates dialog cause strange lines
- Maximum Open Tabs number is not correct
- Favicons display problem in several circumstance
- Display problem after selecting search engine
- Delete selected Proxy might cause display error on Proxy status
- Edit Content Filter Black List & White list will only save displayed one
- Repeat “Capture Current Page” might cause file name error
- Clean Browser History in Safety Menu can not clean Feed history
- Issues when operate Favorites bar with keyboard
- Fixed a bug when overwrite Favorites
- Super Drag&Drop might cause Open Favorites Items in Background fail when Activate New Tab is checked
- Combobox is not resizable in “Lock Toolbar” mode
- Can not use Ctrl+Arraw to change tabs
- Resume List not saved at crash
This is not a final version. Use it on your own risk.
About Opera Marketing
Not so long time ago there was a plenty of discussions regarding Opera’s marketing strategy, some said it’s good while most of the people disagreed with that.
Daniel Goldman wrote a very interesting article about Opera’s marketing which you should read.
Here’s a list of “to do/done” things regarding Opera marketing.
We are reviving our developer outreach efforts. It’s very important for us to have web developers be aware of and test their sites in Opera. We recently hired a developer/writer to run our developer site, dev.opera.com, where you’ll see lots of good stuff in the coming months.
With the Desktop Team blog, we have made the development process of the desktop browser more open to our fans and followers. This is by far the most popular blog we host on the My Opera Community site. This blog is one of the important places where we converse with you, our users.
For the launch of Opera Mini 4 beta we produced an ‘Opera Mini vs. iPhone’ video — it was extremely popular in the blogosphere and on video sharing sites.
We are producing more fun and informative videos to be released with the Opera 9.5 and Opera Mini 4 (final) launches.
We send many of our developers, executives and others to speak at and attend industry-related conferences and events (worldwide). The audiences attending these events usually include developers, business contacts, and everyday internet users.
We organize large Opera-user get-togethers, which we call ‘Opera Backstage’ events. These Opera Backstages have already taken place in numerous countries, with more of these events planned. In addition to the marketing team, these events are attended by our executives and developers. These events are typically attended by anywhere from 100-500 people.
As I mentioned above, news stories about Opera in the press don’t usually happen by themselves. We have an entire PR department working on getting as much publicity for Opera in the press as possible, in multiple languages.
We’re currently working on a new affiliate program, where our users get credit (and tangible rewards) for encouraging others to download Opera.
Opera’s homepages, both www.opera.com and www.operamini.com are redesigned with each major release of a new browser version. This keeps those sites from becoming stale.
Our marketing and IS departments are currently working on a major redesign of our website.
The website’s design, usability and content are crucial in our efforts to increase Opera’s market share. After people read or hear about Opera, the site is what often convinces them to download and use Opera.
We run ads on various tech websites and blogs to promote the desktop browser, Opera Mini and the Wii browser.
We have (and continue to pursue) major distribution deals with ISPs and web portals to distribute the desktop browser and Opera Mini. Examples include T-Online, Clix and Onet.
Opera sponsors many events and conferences, which gets our name and brand out to conference-goers.We also have booths at many events and conferences, where we demo and talk to people about our browsers.
We run the My Opera community site, which has close to 1 million registered members. When potential Opera users consider downloading Opera, and notice our strong community of users, I’m sure this helps a bit in their decision to download and use Opera.
We recognize that our users are very talented, and many of them want to help spread and promote Opera. To help those users, we have set up the Choose Opera group where Opera users can plan, execute, and show off group and individual projects that build awareness of their favorite browser*. (*Opera).
We want everyone, not just English-speaking users, to have the opportunity to find information about and download Opera. To support that, we’ve developed localized versions of our website. For example, see ru.opera.com, cn.opera.com, pl.opera.com, and jp.opera.com
Our developers, engineers and QA people often join in on conversations with Opera users in the official Opera Forums, Opera’s IRC channel and on blogs around the Web. This helps make the culture of Opera more open and accessible.To encourage people to learn more about Opera, we solicit questions from our users to be used in interviews that we publish with Opera executives, developers and others.
We give out promo merchandise to our users and supporters that include: Opera t-shirts, pens, pins, phone straps, stickers, etc.We do outreach on many social networking sites. We are active on sites such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and Flickr.
Why Firefox Is Blocked?
It’s all about ads blocker…
You’ve reached this page because the site you were trying to visit now blocks the FireFox browser.
And here’s why:
Software that blocks all advertisement is an infringement of the rights of web site owners and developers. Numerous web sites exist in order to provide quality content in exchange for displaying ads. Accessing the content while blocking the ads, therefore would be no less than stealing. Millions of hard working people are being robbed of their time and effort by this type of software.
This is interesting but it won’t change anything.
P.S. Not only Firefox can block ads. Will it block those too?
Adobe Flash Player (Moviestar) Beta
Adobe Flash Player is one of the most popular software among web browsers users.
Adobe Moviestart (Beta goes later today) will support H.264 (better video quality) , HE-AAC (better audio quality) and hardware accelerator for web video.
You will be able to download it from labs.adobe.com. I am waiting for it as well as you do.
Browser Of The Month – What Should It Have?
Sooner or later we will have new web browser release. Probably Firefox 3, Safari 3 and Opera 9.5, those and Internet Explorer 7 will be reviewed so we could pick our “Browser of the Month”.
But before reviewing, let me ask: What should that “Browser of the Month” have?
I want to use as many factors as possible in the upcoming review. If you have any, please post them in comments. Till now I will post just some obvious ones.
Performance, security, low resources usage, not overloaded user interface, ease of use, inline spell check (I think that’s important) and easy updating.
