Pokemon Go clearly has a lot of fans, but if you’re one of the many that simply have no interest — whether it be in Pokemon itself, gaming in general, augmented reality, or giving Google all your data — there’s now a Chrome extension made just for you. “Pokemon NO!” is a free extension that allows you to mute all mentions of Pokemon Go on the web…
Google has recently launched a Chrome extension for its under-the-radar Pocket-like service for saving photos, articles, and other online content. The extension is appropriately called “Save to Google,” and lets you easily put some of your favorite web content in the same digital folder as all the other stuff you’ve saved…
Earlier today, Twitter ditched favoriting tweets in favor of liking them, and in turn replaced the social network’s beloved star icon with an adorable heart. This change is of course — as with every change that comes to pretty much every social network, ever — very controversial, with many arguing that it’s simply a lazy move. Many say that it’s simply more evidence of Twitter’s problems in a world where its main competitor is now moving beyond likes to reactions that are more complex.
But if you use Google Chrome, and statistics says that you probably do, favorites don’t have to be completely dead quite yet. Thanks to a new Chrome extension called “Fav Forever,” you can keep those stars around as long as you want…
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If you’re not located in the United States or you simply already have your mind set on a candidate, you might be interested in dodging media coverage of the 2016 election completely. And if you’re a Chrome user, you’re in luck. Thanks to a new extension hilariously named “I haven’t got time for the ‘Paign”, you can completely clean all of your favorite news and social media sites of any mention of 2016 American politics.
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For many of us, email is a necessary evil. Necessary because most of the business world still uses email to communicate important information, evil because it can end up controlling your life. When someone emails you with a question, or a request, or whatever else, they’re putting you on the offensive – giving you tasks to accomplish and things to do. But there’s one selfish act you can take to make the experience a little better for yourself – scheduling.
The Internet can be a double-edged sword – a window to the world’s knowledge at one end, and at the other a window to the world’s favorite cat pictures. And since on the web all sites are treated equally (save for the “deep” web, I guess) if we don’t have a strong, lasting motivation to get work done it can prove all too easy to get distracted browsing places that aren’t a valuable use of our time. While that lasting motivation must come from within, there are certain tricks and tools you can try that may just give you the boost you need to power through that next email or essay. The one I’d like to share with you today is an extension for Chrome called Momentum.
Momentum quite simply replaces the default New Tab page of Chrome with a “personal dashboard,” as the developer calls it, like the one you see above. For reference, here’s the New Tab page:
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Tab overload.
One of the things I struggle with on a daily basis—and forgive me, I know it’s a first world problem—is an overload of Google Chrome tabs. I have a bad habit of just opening countless new tabs without even thinking, and I’m really bad about managing them and closing the ones I’m no longer using. Chrome just makes it way too easy to end up with a few dozen tabs open, while only actually using a few.
I figured it wasn’t possible that I was the only one that struggled with this. With just a quick Google search, I found a free Chrome extension called “Tab Wrangler” to help rectify the situation. It’s a nifty little plugin. Without hardly any set up, it will help manage your tabs for you and close the ones you don’t need—and it will even keep you updated on your negligence with a little red badge telling you how many tabs it has closed for you…
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Dropbox has today updated its Dropbox for Gmail Chrome extension with several new features, including—most notably—the ability to attach folders and several files at once. The update also includes the ability to more easily send larger files, send files to anyone (regardless of if they have the extension or a Dropbox account), and the ability to quickly save files that you receive via Gmail to your own inbox.
Here’s the full change log:
- Easily send large files. Just click the Dropbox icon in the compose window, select files or folders, and click Insert Link(s). No waiting for uploads to complete, no file size limit, and no eating up space in your inbox.
- Say goodbye to zip files. Attach folders and multiple files instantly, without having to zip files up.
- Send files to anyone. Even if they don’t have Dropbox or the extension, recipients can see and download the attachments you send them.
- Quickly save files sent to you. Add files to your Dropbox with a click so you can access them anywhere.
You can grab the Chrome extension in the Chrome Web Store right now for free. It’s still in beta, so don’t expect everything to work perfectly, but it looks like the app is nearing a full release soon—as today’s release is version 0.9.6.
In addition to updating its Maps app with an overhauled design, Google has released a new version of its Drive app for iPhone and iPad users adding support for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as well as some new iOS 8 features.
The Google Drive file storage app can now be secured using Touch ID so users with supported devices (iPhone 5s, iPhone 6, iPhone Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3) can unlock the app using the fingerprint scanner. The new version of Drive also includes an extension to “open form and save to Drive in other apps” for iOS 8 users, and videos can now be saved from Drive to the Photos app (instructions below). Google says the new version of Drive for iPhone and iPad also includes full iOS 8 compatibility, bug fixes, and performance improvements.
Google Drive 3.3 for iPhone and iPad is available for free on the App Store. Full change log below.
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Google announced today that it’s releasing a new Chrome extension called Application Launcher for Drive that allows users to open files directly from its Google Drive service in compatible apps on a Mac or PC. The extension adds an “Open With” option that will let users launch files in apps like, for example, Mac OS X’s Preview app or third-party editing apps like those from Adobe and Microsoft.
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Wondering why all the YouTube videos in Chrome seem to be auto-playing on their own all of a sudden? It turns out the problem seems to be a bug with YouTube and the Chromecast extension for Chrome installed by users of Google’s $35 HDMI stick.
AndroidPolice point us to the issue being reported to Google and a note from the YouTube team confirming a fix is rolling out today:
The YouTube team confirmed that there was a bad push yesterday which caused this issue to be triggered. There is a fix being qualified and that is scheduled to be pushed today that will correct this issue… Closing this issue for now, since there’s not a Chrome issue here in any event. Thanks to everyone for reporting this issue.
In the meantime, you can remove the Chromecast extension (Window>Extensions) to temporarily disable the auto playing videos until the issue is fixed.
A new extension has landed in the Chrome Web Store called PixelBlock, which lets you block companies and individuals from tracking whether or not you’re opening their email. As you can see above, the extension shows a small red eye when it has detected a tracking attempt.
The creator, Omar Qureshi, had this to say about the plugin:
I made this to protect my email privacy and find out at the same time who’s trying to track me, and what they’re using. Was pretty surprised to see who used email tracking on me while sifting through my emails with PixelBlock on.
It’s not uncommon for companies that send out newsletters and the like to track those who are and aren’t opening them. With this quick extension, available completely free, you’re just one click away from being protected while using the web-based Gmail client.
After making the Google Cast SDK public and launching a dedicated forum for Chromecast, Google has announced a public beta version of the Google Cast extension available in the Chrome Web Store.
The Google Cast extension allows users to beam content from a Chrome tab on their desktop to a Chromecast or other devices that support he Google Cast standard. Like Google’s beta versions of Chrome and other apps, the public beta release will provide devs and anyone else that downloads it to the latest features and APIs.
More info on the new beta is available from Google Developer Advocate Shawn Shen on Google+.
Google’s open-source Chromium evangelist François Beaufort shared some interesting details today about new voice search integration in the latest Chromium build— Google’s open source browser project that is often used to develop and test features coming soon to its Chrome browser. While users have been able to download a browser extension for Chrome since November that allows them to activate a voice search with the “Ok Google” voice command (just like on Android), it appears Google is testing the command as a native feature without the need of the extension. Beaufort notes that the latest Chromium code shows the ability to toggle the feature through settings:
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[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNBBijn4JuY]
Google announced today on Google+ that it’s releasing a new extension for Chrome that will enable hands-free activation of the voice search features it rolled out earlier this year. Google announced the conversational voice search features for Chrome back in May and has been updating it on various platforms since, but previously users had to actually click a microphone icon to activate voice search on the desktop.
Now, like on Android 4.4 devices and within the Google Now mobile apps, using the extension users will be able to simply say “OK Google” to initiate a search:
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A new Chrome Extension called GTools+ allows you to customize Google+ to your liking. The extension features many customizations — like moving Chat to the Google Bar, adding an unread counter for Gmail and Reader, language translation for posts from your foreign friends, and the ability to keep the Google Bar at the top of the page when you scroll down. GTools+ is available on the Chrome Web Store. All of GTools+’s features:
- Unified Google bar, your personalized menu is possible on all Google services! - Stick the Google+ bar always on top when you scrolling - Prevent open in new tab or window when you click on link inside the Google+ bar - Change the position of the chat for put in the Google+ Bar - Change the color of the notification bubble in the Google+ bar - Right click on the extension icon for go to the options page fastest - Add a translation link in the context menu (auto detect the post language) - Add notification for Gmail and Reader in the Google Bar. - Edit the color of any notification bubble.