iOS: iChromy stands out from the pack of iPad browsers in both looks and features. Built to resemble Chrome, it also offers tabbed browsing, an incognito window, and an omnibox (a shared box for typing in URLs and search terms).More »

Chrome: The Extended Share for Google Plus extension for Chrome adds a "Send to" link to each post or update at Google+ that you can click to republish the post at Twitter or Facebook. If you have an invite to Google+ but miss the ability to share updates with friends elsewhere, this extension makes it easier. More »

Google Chrome already sports a number of security-minded features, from Incognito mode to a software sandbox which makes exploiting the browser a Herculean task. Now, Google has announced additional protection for Chromium and Chrome users.

Built upon the Safe Browsing API, the new feature introduces protection against malicious downloads. If a download link appears in the Safe Browsing blacklist, Chrome and Chromium will warn users against downloading -- a save button is still presented, of course, in case you're convinced a file is perfectly safe to download.

We'd like to see something a bit more eye-catching than the red warning icon -- like perhaps painting the entire bar red. Many of the people a feature like this aims to protect probably won't notice the icon or change in wording as they'll be focused on clicking the save button.

Google is initially making download protection available to Chrome dev channel users, and you'll likely see it in Canary and Chromium snapshot builds as well. After thorough testing, beta and stable users will be next in line.

Filed under: Audio, Apple

Using the build in downloader to download smaller files is usually not a problem in modern web browsers. It is however different if lots of files need to be downloaded, or if the files have a larger size than the usual files that are downloaded. The first problem becomes apparent when the simultaneous download restrictions of the web server or web browser kick in, the second when large downloads fail and cannot be resumed. Besides, the download stops if the web browser is closed.

Download managers have a solution for both problems. They can queue up as many files as the user wants and offer resume capabilities if the web server does the same.

Firefox users have Flashgot, a great add-on that integrates download managers into the web browser. Windows Chrome users now have a comparable solution by the name of oGet which adds support for about thirty different download managers.

Among the download managers supported are popular programs like BitComet, LeechGet, FlashGet, GetRight, Free Download Manager, Orbit Downloader or Mass Downloader. Users who do not find their download manager among the supported programs can add it as a custom downloader.

Once the extension has been installed it displays the options menu. Here it is possible to select a default download manager from the available supported download managers, or configure custom manager. The extension recognizes installed download managers immediately, all others are not available for selection.

All downloads can from that moment on be redirected to the configured download manager. This is done by either pressing Ctrl-Alt and left-clicking on a file download link, or by shift-right-clicking if the option has been enabled in the extension’s options. The Shift Right-click option offers to download only the file the mouse hovers over, or all download links on a page, which is very comfortable.

Specific file types can furthermore be redirected to the download manager directly by configuring the integration mode settings in the options. This sends the downloads of those file-types with a left-click to the download manager.

chrome download manager

The download manager integration works as expected after the initial configuration. Bad news is, that the extension is currently only supporting Microsoft Windows installations of Chrome. The download manager integrater is available for direct installation in the Chrome Extensions Gallery. (via Tech Trickz)

A while back, Google coders introduced drag-and-drop uploading in GMail (provided you were using a supported browser like Chrome), and there was much rejoicing. Today, they've introduced its counterpart: drag-and-drop downloading of attachments.

It might not sound like a big deal, but it's actually quite nice to be able to grab a file and pull it down directly to a specific folder on your desktop without having to deal with a "save as" dialog. It's the kind of functionality that Google hopes will help make web apps feel more like traditional desktop apps -- and make them more appealing to those who have been slow to adopt.

And, hey, if nothing else it's a nice way around Chrome's sub-par download manager -- maybe some day that'll get some love, too.

There's only four weeks to go until the next IE9 developer preview, and it looks like Chinese leak site Cnbeta might have got its hands on the new build already.

I'm not quite sure what to make of the screenshots, nor the Google translation. The Developer Previews (Internet Explorer Test Drive) are not meant to have a user interface -- they're just there to show off the Trident rendering engine. That means we're probably looking at the beta version of IE9 in these screenshots. Does that mean the private beta has begun -- or are these simply fakes?

As you can see above, IE9 seems to gained a proper download manager. After the break there's a couple more images -- one of the very Chromeish 'new tab page', and one that hints at restartless add-on management.

Looking at the SunSpider performance graph, I'm not sure if these images are real -- or whether this beta build sports the latest version of the Trident rendering engine. When I tested IE's JavaScript performance last month, it was about the same speed as Firefox 3.6 -- not some 10 times slower than Chrome.

[via Neowin]

Very Chromeish, eh?

'Stay Fast'? Are these really from a beta build...?

Filed under: Internet, Features, Mozilla, Browsers, Lists

Filed under: Utilities, Google