New versions, new features
A couple of pieces of software I use recently released new versions, so I thought I'd talk a bit about a couple of the little touches added to them that, in my opinion, just make life a little bit easier.
Firefox 3
One of Firefox's new features is an updated location bar, aptly named the AwesomeBar. Firefox searches bookmarks, tags, and history as you type in the location bar.
This feature actually ties very strongly in to FF's completely redesigned bookmarking system, which fully supports tags and "smart bookmark folders," which are based on customizable database queries to the bookmark engine.
Bookmarking has also been made extraordinarily simple, for such a robust system. At the end of the location bar is a small star icon.
Click this icon, and the page is bookmarked - as simple as that. Click it again, and a dialog will pop up that allows the bookmark to be saved into a different folder, to add tags, etc. It makes bookmarking that much simpler. In my experience, it has also made sorting bookmarks easier, with the combination of tags and the AwesomeBar. Rather than having to manually add every martial arts page I have bookmarked to my MA folder, I can tag it with martial arts much more quickly, and find it with a quick search.
Another FF feature I've used extensively in previous versions is keyword searches. Save a search on, say, snopes.com, add a keyword, and I can search directly from the location bar. This involved bookmarking a search, and editing the saved URL, though - not always a fun proposition. Now, FF has added a context menu item when right-clicking on a search text field.
Makes setting these searches up SO much easier.
iPhone
This is a feature I was actually surprised wasn't implemented earlier on this device. On previous versions, when using the software keyboard, holding down a key will give options for that key - holding down the A key, for example, presents options of A with various accents.
When typing in web addresses into MobileSafari, there is a quick button for adding .com to the end of an address.
Holding down this button did nothing, despite how intuitive it would be for it to offere the options of .net, .org, .edu, etc. Finally, Apple added this little helper.
Simple little thing, nothing ground breaking... but I like it.
Of course, there's still no copy/paste.
Oh - and I can type in Korean now, too. Shows up as boxes when I send texts to people though. :/
4 comments:
Awesome! I was unaware of some of the details of those Firefox features, so very cool.
A) The Awesomebar is awesome
B) I love tagging, but I really wish the bookmark manager would let you tag multiple bookmarks at once with a tag. This is possible if the bookmark already exists by dragging the group into the tag in the sidebar, but that is not very convenient.
C) The "Add a Keyword" feature has actually been around for a few versions. I know it was available in 2.5, and it may have been in 2.0 as well. Nonetheless, it makes what used to be a very manual process much easier :)
Nice review overall. I was kind of surprised how much it felt like you run a computing blog. Even the screenshots are the style you always see in this sort of review blog entry.
Glad you posted this! Doug & I were just saying last night how annoying it was that they had ".com" and not any of the others. Never thought of holding it down! Guess I need to explore it a little more; I'm sure there are a lot of features we've yet to discover. Over all, we're definitely enjoying our new toys ;^)
Kristin - I aim to please!
Kent - I was unsure of the AwesomeBar at first, but yes, I now appreciate it very much.
While I haven't gone about tagging all my old bookmarks (for much the same reason I didn't organize them in the old system), dragging them to the appropriate tag seems like an appropriate method. What sort of method did you have in mind? More of a multi-select and type the tag?
You should have told me about the context menu earlier! :)
Thank you for the compliment. Not trying to to turn it into a tech blog... just happen to like tech. :) Thought the screenshots would provide a useful tool for those both familiar and unfamiliar with the programs.
Manda - there are lots of neat little things about the iPhone. You can probably do a Google search for "iPhone tips tricks" or something like that, and find a good list of, well, tips and tricks.
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