Enforce your rules!

HTTPS Everywhere's official website. 

HTTPS Everywhere is a Chrome and Firefox add-on that enforce every website to connect through SSL connection (if available). As a result, it will provide a better and higher level of security for your web  browsing experience. However, in some cases, using a SSL connection cause a bit speed reduction, but the fact that your connection is fully encrypted and secured and no one can easily spy on you, steal your information or blackmail you, makes it worth.

HTTPS Everywhere is produced as a collaboration between The Tor Project and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site. The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by using a clever technology to rewrite requests to these sites to HTTPS.

Firefox version in now on version 3 stable. However Google Chrome's version is in alpha phase (but works fine). Unfortunately, HTTPS Everywhere dose not provided on Firefox Add-Ons official page and you should get it directly from Electronic Frontier Foundation website.

get HTTPS Everywhere Chrome Firefox

Note quickly with Quick Note

Apps and Extensions are one of the Chrome's most interesting features. The freedom that these add-ons give to users is pleasant. Previously, I introduced Scratchpad, a useful offline app form taking note in Chrome and sync them with your Google Drive Account. Today I'm going to do this again, this time with a different app: the Quick Note.

Quick Note's UI. Picture from Chrome Web Store

Quick Note is an offline app: "The quickest way to take notes in Chrome, as quick and slick as the best desktop note-app" they say. One of  Quick Note's advantages is its "Quick to Add and Edit" feature, gives you the ability to take notes quickly and easily from web pages without leaving them. You can access this  feature by right clicking on any part of a page and select "New Note". This will show a sidebar on the right side of the page that allows you to write/take notes. Also highlighting a part of a web page and select "New Note" outcomes the same result.

Quick Note can sync your data on Diigo cloud servers that of course needs a Diigo account. You can sign up for Diigo directly or use your Google, Twitter, Facebook or Yahoo accounts for sign up. The sync process is done almost instantly. Besides, running Quick Note takes much less RAM than most of other apps that makes it a good choice for common uses.

Quick Note

Developer: Diigo

Version: 1.4.1

Updated: Friday, July 6, 2012

Works Offline: Yes

Languages: Deutsch, English, Nederlands, Türkçe, italiano, polski, português (Portugal), русский, 中文 (简体), 中文 (繁體), 日本語, 한국어

This app can access:

● Your data on all websites
● Your tabs and browsing activity

Google goes Blue!

Google Search's favicon has been changed. This new favicon is a lowercase "g" on a blue rectangle (instead the old four color one). Google did not announced this change officially but it seems they are going to unify the official Google logo in all platforms (include Chrome OS and Chrome browser, Android and iOS). Previously  Google Search logo on Chrome OS and Chrome Browser and Google Search app for Android and iOS had been changed to this new blue icon.

Anyway, I think the new icon/favicon is pretty amazing and inspiring. Its blue color is   beautiful and relaxing; however seeing a blue favicon on the tab bar is a bit odd.

If you can not see the new favicon, maybe clearing the cache comes in handy in some cases; if not, you should wait a bit longer!

A delightful scratchpad

Scratchpad is one of my favorite apps in Chrome Web Store. A little, by Google, offline app, that let you to store text data easily. Scratchpad works along with Google Docs and can synchronize and save your notes on Google's powerful clod servers almost instantly. These notes will be stored in a separate folder to made their management easier.

Scratchpad user interface. Photo by Google (Chrome Web Store)

Scratchpad also grants basic text styling options like bold, italic, underline, strike through, bullet list and number list. Unlike MS Notepad and other basic editors, you can use different fonts and styles in one text. Scratchpad contains 10 different fonts, including: Arial, Arial Black, Courier New, Garamond, Open Sans, Tahoma, Times New Roman, Trebuchet MS and Verdana. You even can search among your notes with the app's built-in search tool. Although the app allows you to sort/view notes in three modes: recent notes, all notes and starred notes.  

It seems that Google has developed this app basically for Chrome OS users to satisfy the need to a basic text editor; but other Chrome browser users likewise can enjoy its interesting features. To install this app visit Chrome Web Store.

Scratchpad

Developer: Google

Version: 3.0.16
Updated: Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Works Offline: Yes
Languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Deutsch, English, English (UK), Filipino, Français, Nederlands, Tiếng Việt, Türkçe, català, dansk, eesti, español, español (Latinoamérica), hrvatski, italiano, latviešu, lietuvių, magyar, polski, português (Brasil), português (Portugal), română, slovenský, slovenščina, suomi, svenska, čeština, Ελληνικά, Српски, български, русский, українська, עברית, हिन्दी, ไทย, ‫العربية, 中文 (简体), 中文 (繁體), 日本語, 한국어
This app can access:
● Your data on docs.google.com and www.google.com
● Your list of installed apps, extensions, and themes
● Your tabs and browsing activity