Filed under: Internet, Web services, web 2.0

Online file sharing service Drop.io already provides one of the easiest ways to share documents and media files. Now the company is making things even easier with a Firefox addon that lets you drag and drop files to your browser.

Here's how it works. You install the somewhat cleverly titled Drag & Drop.io extension and create a drop point by visiting Drop.io. Then you can just drag any files from your desktop to your web browser and watch while they're uploaded and in some cases converted for easy online access.

Too busy to actually create a drop point manually? Just drag your files over the little red check box in your status bar. The plugin will automatically create a drop point and open it up for you. So you can be browsing your favorite web site (like, say Download Squad?) and uploading files at the same time, without bothering to visit the Drop.io web page first.

The plugin is cross-platform and works with Firefox for Windows, OS X and Linux.

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Filed under: Macintosh, Yahoo!, Search, Browsers

A few months back, Download Squad's Danny Mendez wrote about Yahoo!'s acquisition of popular Safari InputManager Inquisitor. At the time, Danny was worried that Yahoo's purchase would make the tool unusable with other search engines, but those fears were unfounded, and Inquisitor continues to work well with either Google OR Yahoo.

Inquisitor is cool because it adds Spotlight-like functionality to the default Safari search box (it's kind of like the Awesome Bar for Firefox 3), along with easy access to other search results from places like Flickr or IMDB or Wikipedia. The design is also utterly kick-ass.

In the new release, users who choose to use Yahoo! search engine will see much, much faster results, thanks to integration with Yahoo's new BOSS platform. Like, instantaneously fast. Like, fast enough to make me consider changing my default search engine fast.

Inquisitor now supports eight languages in addition to English: Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German.

The interface has also become more streamlined and looks really, really great.

Inquisitor is free and available for Mac's running OS X 10.4 and up.

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Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Sure, Firefox 3.01 is still fresh off the presses, but some if you've been looking forward to getting your hands on the even newer and more improved Firefox 3.1, it looks like you have to wait a little longer. Mozilla had planned to release Firefox 3.1 on August 19th, but has pushed that date back to September 9th.

Firefox 3.1 will feature a handful of updates including Javascript enhancements and bulk tagging features. And those updates just weren't going to be ready by the 19th.

But if you're itching to try out something new from Mozilla, you might want to check out Fennec Milestone 6. Fennec is the codename for the upcoming mobile version of Firefox. It's designed for mobile phones similar devices. Right now, it runs on the Nokia N810 internet tablet, but Windows Mobile support is coming soon. Milestone 6 adds support for tabs, tel: and mailto:. This is still pre-alpha software, but if you've got a Nokia internet tablet lying around, I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're comfortable with running bleeding edge software.

[via OStatic]

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Filed under: Internet, Apple, iPhone

That's sort of like saying there's no killer app for the Internet. Oh wait, there is! It's called a "browser." Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch bemoaned the lack of a "killer app" for the iPhone but wound up admitting "...the app I use the most is Gmail, followed by Web browsing." So email and web-browsing? Sounds like the killer apps that launched the current explosion of technology and brought computing home again for the average user (would people really get off the Xbox 360 if their computers had no net access?). Today's killer apps are stored in the cloud, not locked away in your hardware.

The fact is that modern computer user habits are staggeringly fragmented once you move out of the email/browser/office apps arena. Just like browsing habits-- who goes to a generalized portal like AOL.com or Yahoo.com on a regular basis? Computer use is now specialized. A video editor will use apps pertinent to his job, while a cook would likely use a suite of apps for food planning and prep and purchasing. There's not likely to be a killer app outside of your specialization, unless it has to do with massaging data-- something along the lines of syncing your contacts, for example.

Ultimately the new killer apps are fixes for existing applications. One of the reasons 90% of iPhone users browse the web on their phone? Mobile Safari is hands-down the best portable web browser out there. It still isn't as robust as the desktop equivalent (hence the plethora of iPhone-tuned pages out there), but it is much better than the competition. The ultimate killer app is your window to the web, and the competition keeps making things better all the time. Hear that Mozilla? We're ready for mobile Firefox already!

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Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Freeware

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Filed under: Utilities, Windows, Freeware

Rising energy costs and environmental concerns have caused just about all of use to take a good hard look at our usage habits. Verdiem's Edison helps your conservation efforts by picking up where your Windows power saving features leave off.

You may already be familiar with Local Cooling, another similar application. Edison won't hibernate or shut your PC off like Local Cooling will, but it will turn off your screen and hard drive, and suspend your PC to achieve savings.

Set up your work schedule and choose your power savings plan. Edison lets you create different plans for work and non-work times, and you can either use one of nine preset savings plans or customize your own.

While scheduling is a great feature, I'm not convinced it makes Edison a better option than Local Cooling. Edison is a much bigger download, consumes almost four times as much memory, and requires activation.

Either way, grab one of these apps and make your PC a little more environmentally friendly. Every little bit helps!

[via GreenBlog ]

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