Google Reader new interface

Last week, Google introduces a new design for its Google Reader. Overall, the user interface is cleaner and simpler. From my observation, the following are the noticable changes that can be seen.

Collapsible navigation

googlereader_1

As you can see from the image above, all your RSS feeds are collapsible, you can minimise and maximise accordingly. The good thing here is that Google Reader remembers your setting. The next time you login, it’ll display the last setting of a particular section.

Unread feed counts

googlereader_2

You can now set whether you want Google Reader to show or hide “unread counts”.You can do this by selecting the little triangle besides the Subscriptions link - select between “Show unread counts” and “Hide unread counts”. Just to note here that if you choose to Hide the counts, you can still see the number of unread feed counts by moving your cursor to the individual items.

The same option also allows you to perform the followings - Refresh feeds, Add a new feed, Sort feeds alphabetically or allow drag and drop setting, and also the set whether to Show all feeds vs only Show updated feeds.

What else??? Hmmm…. okay, there’s no more “Refresh” button. Instead, you may use the option above to Refresh your feed contents or you can simply click at the “Subscriptions” link.



Facebook help

Facebook users, from time to time might want to get help. How do you get help from Facebook?

Link at the right footer

As seen in the image below.

From search box

If you type “help” at the search box and click the magnifying glass, Facebook will think that you may want to get help, and thus suggesting a link “Are you looking for Help?”. You may click the link.

In any case, it’ll bring you to the Help page which you may also directly access from this link http://www.facebook.com/help.php?ref=pf.

So, if you need help on using Facebook, go get it.


Gmail themes

Last week, Gmail introduced “themes” where you can personalise your Gmail webpage. Currently there are 31 themes to choose from.

If you would like to change the theme for your Gmail, login to your Gmail, go to Settings > Themes. You may choose any of the available themes there. The changes is reflected immediately and there is no need to re-login.

To learn more about Gmail theme, go here.


Firefox - simple tips that you might not know

To Firefox users, even seasoned ones, some of you might not know the following tips and tricks

Open a new empty tab

This is probably the basic one and every should know this. To open a new empty tab, press “Ctrl + T”

Open a link in a new tab

To do this, simply “middle-click” on the link (for those who have a middle button mouse). Alternatively, right-click on the link and select “Open link in a new tab”.

Close a tab

Press “Ctrl + W” to close a tab. I did not know this before. As usual, I just click the “x” icon at the tab.

Reopen a closed tab

I never knew that we can do this in Firefox. To reopen a closed tab, press “Ctrl + Shift + T”. You can repeatedly open any closed tabs as long as the Firefox window is not closed. When you do this, it will open the last closed tab one after another until the first closed tab.

Move cursor to the location bar

Press “Ctrl + L” to move your cursor to the location bar (or address bar). I normally press F6 to achieve this.

Move cursor to the search box

Press “Ctrl + K” to move your cursor to the search box.

Scroll down the page

Press “Spacebar” to scroll down the page you are viewing.

Scroll up the page

To scroll up, press “Shift + Spacebar”.

Refresh the page

Press “Ctrl + R”. The normal/conventional way of doing this is to press “F5″.

Go back

Press “Alt + <–” (arrow left). Alternatively, press “Backspace”.

Go forward

Press “Alt + –>” (arrow right).

Hope you enjoy this simple tips and tricks when you are using Firefox.

Source: Mozilla Products Tips & Tricks


Facebook officially launched the new design

After a few months of giving the new design as an option, Facebook today officially threw away the old design. Personally, I prefer the old design over the new one. The new design looks a bit “empty” with a lot of white spaces everywhere. I also noticed that the new design loads very much slower.

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WordPress 2.6.1 is out


Three days after I upgraded to WordPress 2.6 (from 2.5), WordPress.org released 2.6.1. It fixes 60 bugs that have been reported.

Using the same upgrade plugin that I have, the upgrade was done is less than 10 seconds. I am now having the latest of the latest version.


WordPress 2.6 review

Having upgraded my WordPress from 2.5 to 2.6 yesterday, it is now time for a review. Below are some of the new things that I’ve discovered after playing around with the new version of WordPress for a couple of hours yesterday.

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Upgrade to WordPress 2.6


Almost a month after WordPress 2.6 was released, I finally managed to get myself to upgrade. For this upgrade, I used a plugin from Zirona. It handles the upgrade automatically, and the whole upgrading process was over in less than 10 seconds. I did not have to download the upgrade files, and ftp them back to my server…. all was done by the plugin.

Although the plugin is in its beta version, it did its job pretty damn good. Once done with the upgrade, I tested my site…. and I was surprised that all my previous posts were not displayed. Only the main page appeared and when I click at individual post, nothing came out. Damn….

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