Friday, 11 March 2011

The Firefox Add-ons Almanac: Part 1

To make up for yesterdays short post, todays will be a very long one. You probably won't want to read it all, so here are the contents if you want to scroll down to the important bits:

 1. Downloads:
    • Schedule
    • YouTube
    • Management
     2. Utilities
    • Weather
    • Language

      As you might have guessed, this post is about Firefox Add-ons. There are loads of them available but which should you choose? To save time searching, here are the reviews:

      Downloads:
      Downloading is all about management. When do you download? Where did those files save to? How do I save a video?

      Download Scheduler
      If you've download a big file you'll know how your connection lags out while it's going on. How about scheduling them for another time? Download Scheduler does this for you. All you have to do is right click the download link and choose Schedule Link As... and choose where you want it saved. You can then set up the add-on preferences to choose when to start (and stop) the download.

      Easy Youtube Video Downloader
      It's common to find a great YouTube video and think "I wish I could download this", but there's no built-in support in Firefox. Easy Youtube Video Downloader shows a download button at the bottom of the video, inline with the other options. You can choose between MP4 and FLV, in a range of qualities. The beauty of this is that you can even use it with Download Scheduler to save at a certain time.


      Easy Youtube Video Downloader fits in well with YouTube's interface

      Download Statusbar
      If you often have lots of downloads running at once it's easy to lost track of what's going on. Download Statusbar fixes this by replacing the default Firefox downloader with a user-friendly toolbar showing exactly what's going on. It's very unobtrusive and even has a Mini Mode if you think the toolbar is too big. This add-on even works with the above 2, making these download add-ons a great combination.

      Utilities:
      Firefox is more than just a browser for looking at webpages. You can use it to be your weatherman or translator and more.

      ForecastFox
      Firefox has a whole range of weather add-ons and they're all reliable the only difference is how they present the information. ForecastFox has a great toolbar to show the current weather in a very simple format, and uses AccuWeather to give a fill forecast for the day or week. It's easy to set up as when you first start this add-on you'll be asked your location and preferences, so anyone can do it.

      FoxLingo
      This add-on has a whole set of language tools to your browser. You can translate, look up or convert to speech with just a few clicks. FoxLingo has some advertisements when setting up, and the layout isn't great, but it's a very useful tool for foreign sites or just with words you don't understand.


      Part 2 will come early next week.

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