Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: How to Use Bookmarklets in Chrome for Mobile

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

How to Use Bookmarklets in Chrome for Mobile Feb 27th 2013, 20:29 I like the Google Chrome browser on my Android and iOS devices for several reasons. The search suggestions that show up in the address bar as-you-type save time (and keystrokes) and I can even tap the microphone icon to search via voice. I can open a website in Chrome on my desktop and it instantly becomes available on the phone without requiring any Chrome-to-Phone extensions. → There's the Incognito mode that lets you privately browse the web without leaving any traces once you exit the browser. The bookmarks and bookmarklets are always kepts in sync across all mobile devices and computers. Bookmarklets Missing in Google Chrome (Mobile) The one thing that I do however miss in Google Chrome, both on Android and iPhone /iPad, is the bookmarks toolbar. There isn't an always-visible bookmarks bar and thus you can cannot run any of your bookmarklets  against the current web page. Without bookmarklets, there are quite a few things that you cannot do inside a mobile browser. For instance, how do you save a web page to Evernote or Instapaper for reading later? How do you submit a page to StumbleUpon or pin an image from the page to Pinterest? How to auto-fill passwords that are saved in your LastPass account? Fortunately, there exists a simple workaround that will help you use bookmarklets inside Chrome on your iOS and Android phone /tablet. Using Bookmarklets in Chrome on Android and iOS While you are on a web page inside Chrome mobile, tap the address bar and start typing the bookmarklet name as you have saved it inside Chrome on the desktop. The omnibox (see screenshots) will show a bunch of suggestions pulled from the web as well as from your local bookmarks. Look for entries that are "starred" and have addresses that begin with "javascript" – these are bookmarklets and you can tap to run them against the current page. Here are some screenshots that illustrate how you can use the Kindle bookmarklets from the Chrome browser running on an Android phone and an iPad. Not a one-click process but not cumbersome either. Bookmarklets in Chrome for Android Bookmarklets in Chrome for iPad This story, How to Use Bookmarklets in Chrome for Mobile, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 27/02/2013 under Android, Bookmarklets, Google Chrome, IPad, IPhone, Software. Related Reading: Open Web Pages in Google Chrome for iOS [Bookmarklet] Easily Install Bookmarklets on your iOS Device Useful Bookmarklets for your iPad and iPhone Send Web Pages from Desktop to your Mobile Phone How to Reopen Closed Tabs in Mobile Safari

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Facebook Like Box Becomes Faster and Lighter

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Facebook Like Box Becomes Faster and Lighter Feb 27th 2013, 15:27 If you embedded the Facebook Like box in your website, the good news is that the plugin should have little impact on the performance, or page speed, of your pages. → Stoyan Stefanov of the Facebook engineering team shares that the updated Like box is 2-4x faster and is considerably lighter than the previous version. The Facebook Like plugin now loads in 0.5 seconds, as opposed to 2.3 seconds and while the previous version was 245KB in size, it now weighs a mere 46KB. Earlier, Facebook Like box made 24 web requests and would load in 2.4 seconds Facebook improved the performance of the plugin by switching to inline CSS styles (as opposed to using external stylesheets) and by squeezing multiple scripts into one – the plugin thus has to make fewer web requests. Facebook Like box now loads in .7 seconds and makes just 13 requests (for photos) How do you get the faster Facebook Like box for your website? First, does the Facebook embed code on your website look anything like this? XFBML version (old) <script src="http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1"></script> <fb:fan stream="false" name="PAGE_NAME"></fb:fan> IFRAME version (old): https://www.facebook.com/plugins/fan.php?connections=10&name=PAGE_NAME If your embed codes are different, you are covered as Facebook will automatically serve you the improved Like box. Else, you are using the older /deprecated version of the Facebook Like box  so head over to developers.facebook.com and generate the new embed codes. This story, Facebook Like Box Becomes Faster and Lighter, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 27/02/2013 under Facebook, Internet. Related Reading: Add a Facebook Like Box without the Branding Why is Facebook so Blue in Color? Should You Create a Facebook Group or a Facebook Page? Post your Recent Facebook Photos on your Blog Ignore All Facebook Apps Requests in One Click

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Google Photo Uploader for Chrome Selects the Best Shots [Sneak Peek]

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Google Photo Uploader for Chrome Selects the Best Shots [Sneak Peek] Feb 27th 2013, 13:19 Google is building a new Chrome App, called Google Photos, that will help you upload pictures from the computer to your Google+ albums. Like Picasa or any desktop software, Google Photos can automatically import photos as soon as you insert your memory card or plug a camera into the computer. → A unique feature is the auto-curation mode that helps you pick the best shots from a folder before uploading them to the web. Google Photos isn’t available in the Chrome Store yet but the Google team has released the app’s source code for the “adventurous” as well as screenshot images. This story, Google Photo Uploader for Chrome Selects the Best Shots [Sneak Peek], was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 27/02/2013 under Google Plus, Picasa, Internet. Related Reading: How to View the Source Code of a Chrome Extension How to Add Websites as Apps in Google Chrome Google Chrome for Linux and Mac How to Install Extensions from outside the Chrome Web Store Create Separate Profiles in Google Chrome for Family Members

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: How to Run a Poll on Google Plus

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

How to Run a Poll on Google Plus Feb 27th 2013, 10:55 Facebook offers a useful "questions" feature that allows you to conduct polls and people can participate in the poll right inside their Facebook newsfeed. You can create polls on your Facebook Page (see example) though not on your personal profile. → Google Plus, unlike Facebook, doesn't include support for polls but there's a little workaround that will help you convert a regular status update into a live poll. To get a better picture, please see this sample poll running completely inside Google Plus. How to conduct a poll on Google Plus? How to Conduct a Poll on Google Plus Put your poll question in the Share box of Google Plus and set the visibility of your status update to "Public" or limit it to one or more circles. Write down the different poll choices as separate comments under the same status update. You have to be quick here because your status update has already been published. Once you have added all the choices, disable comments for that post. This is important else people may put their choices in the comments and it will be extremely difficult to analyze the thread. That’s it. Google Plus can add their vote by +1′ing the corresponding comment. You can click the +1 count against any comment to see the profile of people who have actually picked that particular option. Technically, this is a multiple-choice poll since users can +1 any number of comments in the thread.  And full credit to the AdSense Page where I first saw this workaround. This story, How to Run a Poll on Google Plus, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 27/02/2013 under Google Plus, Polls, Internet. Related Reading: SMS Poll: Conduct Live Polls via SMS Text Messages Google Indexes JavaScript based Facebook Comments Create Quick Polls through Email, SMS or IM Clients with Notifu Add a Subscribe Button to your Facebook Profile Google Plus Finally Allows Cross-Posting, But Only to a Site that Nobody Uses

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: How to Fake your Location in Google Chrome

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

How to Fake your Location in Google Chrome Feb 22nd 2013, 18:02 Sometimes websites may request access to your location so that they can serve more relevant information. For instance, if you are looking for a gas station, a maps website may use your current geographic location to display stations that are near your place. → Google Chrome will only share your location if you click Allow. How Browsers Determine your Location Earlier, websites would use the IP address to determine your approximate location but with the HTML5 Geolocation API, web browsers can more accurately detect your location using data from GPS, Wi-Fi networks, cell towers, Bluetooth and of course the IP address. To give you an example, open the Where am I app in your browser, allow it to use your location information and the app should be able to display your latitude and longitude coordinates (it is more accurate on mobile browsers as those devices have built-in GPS). Fake your Geolocation Coordinates When you happen to visit a location-aware website, the browser will always ask for a confirmation before sharing your location. If you aren’t keen to share your geographic coordinates, you can always deny that request or, if you are using Google Chrome, you can even send a fake location to the website. Here's how. Press F12 (or Ctrl + Shift + I) in Google Chrome to open the Developer Tools. Click the Settings icon in the lower right corner and switch to the Overrides tab (see the next screenshot). Now you can specify the exact latitude and longitude coordinates* that you want to share with that website. [*] You can use the Postal Address finder to know the latitude and location of a place. Make sure that the "Override Geolocation" setting is checked and then refresh the page to send that fake location. And this is obviously a useful feature for web developers who would like to test their geolocation-enabled apps from the same location. Related tip: Geotag your Tweets with any Location Manually set you geolocation in Chrome This story, How to Fake your Location in Google Chrome, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 22/02/2013 under Google Chrome, Location, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Introducing HTML Mail v2.0

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Introducing HTML Mail v2.0 Feb 22nd 2013, 14:00 A new version of the popular HTML Mail utility is now available at ctrlq.org/html-mail. → You may use the tool to create and send rich-text emails to anyone with a click. It offers a WYSIWYG editor for writing emails visually but if you are comfortable with HTML, simply switch to the HTML mode and code messages in HTML and CSS directly. What’s new then? One, the email program now uses the HTML Boilerplate template and thus your messages should render alike across all popular email clients including Gmail, Yahoo Mail and Outlook. Everything is wrapped inside a background table to prevent your email message body from stretching outside the available width of the email client. The boilerplate stylesheet also includes fixes to make your messages more readable on a mobile phone. The HTML Mail program now requires you to sign-in using your Facebook or Google Account before send an email. This was necessary to prevent people from abusing the program and also, the email address provided by these services will appear as the FROM: address in the header of your outgoing messages. The tool can also be used for designing HTML signatures for your email program. Social icons, like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, can be added to the signature with a click. This story, Introducing HTML Mail v2.0, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 22/02/2013 under Email, GMail, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Google Approves Reponsive AdSense Ads Technique

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Google Approves Reponsive AdSense Ads Technique Feb 20th 2013, 21:09 When AdSense launched about a decade ago, people mostly accessed websites from their desktop or laptop computers. Fast forward today and all sorts of devices – mobile phones, gaming consoles, ebook readers and even televisions – are being used to connect to the Internet. → Web designers are therefore increasingly relying on a technique called Responsive Web Design where a single layout of the websites works across all devices, irrespective of the screen size or the resolution of the device. Google AdSense ads are fixed-width but there's a little workaround that can  make your Google ads responsive. The idea is that if a visitor is reading your web page on a large desktop screen, they are served the large 728×60 or 336×280 units while if another visitor is viewing the same page on a smaller mobile screen, you can dynamically serve the 200×200 (or similar) ad unit. I shared the relevant JavaScript snippet last year and, since then, its been a topic of debate in several online forum threads. The primary concern among web publishers was (and still is) that Responsive Google Ads could be against Google AdSense policies since they require modification in the default JavaScript code. WebSonic.nl, an AdSense publisher from Netherlands, contacted the Google AdSense team for a confirmation and here's the official response (in Dutch): AdSense-advertenties kunnen samen met uw inhoud worden aangepast aan verschillende schermgrootten met behulp van een eenvoudig JavaScript-fragment. Om te kunnen profiteren van responsief ontwerp, maakt u eerst meerdere advertentieformaten, bijvoorbeeld 728×90, 468×60 en 300×250. Vervolgens implementeert u een 'if-else'-fragment zodat het juiste advertentieformaat wordt weergegeven op basis van het formaat van het apparaat van de gebruiker. De voorbeeld website die u stuurt geeft al de juiste javascript code die u kunt gebruiken. Wel wil ik nog even benadrukken dat verdere verandering van de AdSense code niet is toegestaan. Ook mogen advertenties niet worden verborgen met CSS. The rough English translation is: AdSense Ads can be adapted to different screen sizes using a simple JavaScript snippet. To take advantage of responsive design, create multiple ad formats, such as 728×90, 468×60 and 300×250. Then you implement an “if-else’ fragment so that the right ad format is displayed based on the size of the device of the user. The example website that you sent has the correct JavaScript code that you can use. Well I would like to emphasize that further change the AdSense code is not allowed. Advertisements may also not be hidden with CSS. Thus you won’t violate any of the AdSense program policies for using responsive ads on your website. The JavaScript snippet isn’t modifying the AdSense code but is simply requesting a different ad unit based on the viewport width of the current visitor's screen. This story, Google Approves Reponsive AdSense Ads Technique, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Google Adsense, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Get an Email Alert (with Picture) When Someone Tries to Log into your Computer

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Get an Email Alert (with Picture) When Someone Tries to Log into your Computer Feb 20th 2013, 13:30 You have a feeling that someone else used your computer (or at least made an attempt to login) while you were out for a quick coffee break. Maybe that colleague with whom you share the cubicle knows your password or he made a few guesses before finally giving up. → How do you get notified when such an attempt is made to intrude into your computer? Email alert with a webcam picture of the intruder. This story, Get an Email Alert (with Picture) When Someone Tries to Log into your Computer, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Security, Webcam, Internet.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: 1,000 Free Music Albums Up for Grabs at Flipkart

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

1,000 Free Music Albums Up for Grabs at Flipkart Feb 20th 2013, 07:50 Flyte, if you are new, is an online music store from Flipkart where you can download individual songs and music albums in MP3 format. The files are DRM-free meaning you can listen to your purchased music on any device without restrictions and using your favorite media player. → It's been a year since Flyte launched and, to celebrate, Flipkart is giving away 100 music albums per day, across various genres, for the next 10 days. Download music albums in MP3 format from Flipkart for free for the next 10 days. To get started, go to flyte.com, pick your favorite genre and hit that "green" download button to add a music album to your online MP3 library. You can buy /add the tracks in one go and download them anytime later. The listed music albums will change daily until February 28 so do remember to check the site every single day. There are no string attached to this offer – you neither have to make any purchases at Flipkart nor do you need to have any minimum balance in your Flipkart Wallet. All you need is an account at Flipkart and the music is all yours. You can download music directly from the Flyte website and they also have discovery apps for Android and iOS devices. The only restriction is that you can download music only within the territory of India. This story, 1,000 Free Music Albums Up for Grabs at Flipkart, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 20/02/2013 under Music, Offers, India.

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Digital Inspiration Technology Blog: Monitor your Website’s Uptime with Google Docs

Digital Inspiration Technology Blog Digital Inspiration is an award-winning how-to tech blog around all things related to computer software, web applications, mobile and personal productivity.

Monitor your Website's Uptime with Google Docs Feb 14th 2013, 13:24 Do you have a website or a blog? Would you like to receive instant alerts as soon as your site goes down or becomes inaccessible to users? Would you like these alerts to arrive in your email inbox or as text messages on your mobile phone or both? → Most website owners use "freemium" website monitoring services to track the downtime and uptime of their sites.  These service offer free plans but you often have to upgrade for unlimited email /SMS alerts or if you would like to monitor a large number of websites. Build your own website monitoring tool with Google Docs, SMS alerts included Monitor Website's Uptime with Google Docs You can also use Google Docs to monitor your website(s) and, unlike the commercial services, Google imposes no restrictions. You can track any number of websites with Google Docs and it will send email /text alerts in case of any issues. And this DIY website monitoring tool is absolutely free. Here's how you quickly configure Google Docs to monitor the uptime /downtime of your website(s). This has to done just once and Google Docs will continuously monitor all your sites in the background. Let’s get started: Sign-in to your Google account and then click here to copy this Google sheet into your Google Drive. You may use your Google Apps account as well. Put your website URLs in cell B2 (comma separated) and your email address in cell B3. If you wish to be alerted by text messages, just replace No with Yes in cell B4. You'll find a new Website Monitor menu in your Google Docs toolbar. Click Initialize and you’ll get a pop-up asking for authorization. Grant the necessary access. Go to the Website Monitor menu again and choose “Start” to begin the monitoring process.  Close the Google Sheet. That’s it. The Google Docs sheet will monitor your website in the background at 5-minute intervals and will send alerts whenever it has trouble accessing the website. If the issue is resolved, you’ll get another notification saying “all’s well.” The uptime and downtime times get logged in the same Google Docs sheet so you can use that data to analyze the performance of your web hosting company. Related project: Get SMS Alerts for Import Gmail Messages Get SMS alerts when your websites go down. How Website Monitor works? Internally, there’s a simple Google Script attached to the Google Docs sheet that does the monitoring. The script invokes itself every 5 minutes, with the magic of Script Triggers, and then tries to fetch your website using URLFetchApp.fetch (a Google function similar to wget or curl). If the HTTP response code is anything other than 200, it indicates that there’s an issue with the underlying website. How SMS Alerts Are Sent via Google Google Apps Script can send email messages but the script employs a workaround for sending text messages. It creates a regular event in your Google Calendar but with an SMS reminder  - the event is set to expire in 30 seconds and thus you get an instant text alert on your mobile. If you aren’t getting text alerts on your phone, please ensure that your phone number is associated with Google Calendar as detailed in this tutorial. See more Google Docs tips & tricks. This story, Monitor your Website’s Uptime with Google Docs, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 14/02/2013 under Google Docs, Internet.

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