Apple recently released a Windows version of their internet browser, Safari. While I do love macs, I’m primarily a PC person and a long-time Firefox convert. With only a few laps around the old ‘tubes, I’m quite impressed with the PC version of this “world’s best browser.”
HTML Rendering Speed
The first claim that caught my attention was the HTML rendering speed boost. Being a web developer, I’m constantly paying attention to how pages load and render under different conditions. This is definately not scientific, but using the “one-thousand-one; one-thousand-two” method, I found that Safari loaded and rendered the CNN.com front page and the IndyStar.com front page in about half the time as Firefox 2. It was fast enough to make me say “whoa!” out loud.
Resize Text Boxes
Another simple, but ingenious, feature is the ability to resize text areas on any form you encounter on your journey across the web. This feature is quite meaningful in terms of giving the web user the power to customize and modify their experience on the web to their preference. Web designers often struggle over how tall or wide to make certain form elements. This small feature goes a long way towards web usability.
Anyone who uses the non-WYSIWYG editor in WordPress will love this!
SnapBack
The SnapBack feature could potentially be quite useful. However, I haven’t really used it much yet. Say you run a Google search and click on the first result. You get to the resulting page and click around for a few minutes. You decide that you want to keep searching and click the SnapBack button. Wham. You’re right back to the search results page.
Typically, when I search, I open about 5-10 search results in new tabs specifically so I don’t lose the search results page I’m on. So, if I can get used to using this feature, it could potentially change the way I search and make things easier (less tabs = less memory).
While I don’t have a use for the private browsing feature very often, I can definitely appreciate the ability to—with one click—surf privately from a public workstation. No cookies, no usernames, no passwords, no history—all in a convenient, built-in feature.
Gray… blah
Really, my only complaint so far is that I’m just not a fan of the color scheme of the browser. The dark gray (brushed steel on the Mac) just bugs me for some reason. I’m sure Mac fans think it’s a work of art. I just prefer something a bit lighter, I suppose. It doesn’t look like that’ll stop me from using it, though.
My blog was just activated for a sweet service I recently came across called Odiogo. Basically, the service runs the feed of your blog through a rather robust text-to-speech engine and generates a podcast feed automatically. There isn’t really much to it. You submit your site and wait for an activation email with all the info you need.
Text-to-speech has come a long way from my first experiences with it about 10 or so years ago. Listening to my own podcast, I’m finding that the voice is not annoying and I actually enjoyed listening (being that it was my own content may have helped). I’ve only noticed a few minor pronunciation bugs, such as “plug-ins” pronounced “ploo-gins.” It would be great if I could select from different voices or even somehow create a voice based on my own voice.
An important tip for anyone interested in setting up an Odiogo podcast of their blog. The service reads your RSS/ATOM feed, so if you have your blog set to only show an excerpt of your posts Odiogo will only read the excerpt. I made that mistake and my first few posts are only speaking the excerpt.
One of the best things about WordPress is the huge community of people, at all levels, that contribute back into the community. There are new themes and plugins for WordPress created every day and the “community” does a pretty great job of pushing the truly useful and excellent ones to the top of the pile. While plugins are the bread and butter of WordPress, there are some non-plugin tools out there that seek to make your WordPress experience even better.
WPZipper
Of course, the first one I’ll mention is a project of my own called wpzipper. This tool lets users easily browse for plugins and themes they want to use with their WordPress installation and combine them into a single zip file. By default, the zip file contains a complete WordPress installation with the selected themes and plugins already in the proper folders. All you do is upload and install like normal. Recent updates to the site include the ability to create a user account and save your “virtual install” for future downloading.
WordPress Theme Generator
Another creative tool is the WordPress Theme Generator. Based on the Yahoo Grids CSS IU Library, this single page form lets you select page width, columns, sizes, and styling options. The result is a zip file you can download and upload directly to your WordPress installation and use as a new theme. While you don’t have 100% control over everything, at the very least this tool gives budding theme designers a great starting point. With several customization options, a live preview, and widget support, this is an unofficial WordPress tool worth a look.
WordPress on a Stick
For anyone that develops WordPress themes or plugins, or just wants a convenient and portable way to test WordPress, putting WordPress on a [usb] stick is a dream come true. The above link is to a tutorial on how to easily install WordPress on any USB “stick” or “thumb” drive by using an open source application called XAMPP Lite (which is basically a very easy way to install Apache, MySQL, and PHP). If you’ll take the time to give this tutorial a shot and get it set up and working, you’ll be addicted to the simplicity and convenience of having a web server in your pocket.
Kubrickr
Kubrickr is a fun and rather creative tool that lets you customize your header image when using the default Kubrick WordPress theme. While those who are looking for more customized or elaborate themes, this may not be for you. However, if you are setting up a quick and simple blog for whatever reason, Kubrickr is a fun way to add some customization. Bonus points for creative use of Flickr and for promoting photographer citation.
Canvas
Alright, I’m cheating a little here. Canvas is technically a WordPress plugin. However, it’s a major plugin. I could easily see Canvas standing on it’s own as a stand-alone web app that allowed you to generate themes. I figure it was just more convenient to set it up as a plugin. Basically, Canvas lets you “easily rearrange, reconfigure, and colorize your entire blog without ever touching a line of code.” Once installed, Canvas gives you access to a wealth of customization options for your theme that takes very little time to get used to. For those looking for easy theme customization but don’t want to learn a bunch of code, Canvas is a great option.
Like many of you, I am not a morning person. Paradoxically, I absolutely love the way early morning smells, looks, and feels in the spring and summer. If I’m awake, showered, dressed, and at work/coffee shop with my laptop and coffee before 7 AM, I feel like I can accomplish anything (and there’s a good reason).
But, the distance between your bed and your cup-o-joe can sometimes be daunting. I find that showering in the morning right after I wake up helps wake me up quite a bit. I’ve tried jogging in the morning, but I haven’t been able to do it regularly (and I’m out of shape, which doesn’t help). My wife and I recently purchased new bikes and have started riding again. She’s experimenting with taking a short ride in the morning. I might have to try that.
The only other routine I have developed is listening to “fast” music a little loud in my car during my commute. Currently, I’m wearing down a copy of Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. It helps keep me awake and focused during the boring 30 minute drive downtown. Plus, something about having a song in your head helps move the day along.
So, sleepyhead, how do you get ready for your day?
With great enthusiasm, I’d like to announce the latest version of wpzipper.com is now available! One of the biggest changes is that there are now themes available to be rolled into your custom WordPress installation file (almost 3,000 of ‘em). Also, you can now register on the site and save your custom configurations as “virtual installs.” This allows you to re-generate your install zip anytime without having to search & add all your plugins/themes each time.
The site has also gone from a simple 1-page interface to a multi-page tabbed interface. I’ve tried to keep things as simple as possible (and kept the “step 1, 2, 3″ theme going). Custom WordPress zips are flying off our virtual shelves as I type this. So far, bandwidth hasn’t been unmanageable and I’m hoping that the few ads on the site will at least be enough to cover hosting costs.
I hope people continue to find this a useful and time saving resource. If you have any suggestions or comments (good or bad–but hopefully constructive), I’d love to hear them.
Happy zipping!
Or view a page, or create a new account, or are referred by another website. This is all pretty common stuff you can get from most any stats package. However, Reinvigorate.net has just released Snoop–a desktop app that lets you hook into your Reinvigorate web stats and get live updates on what your users are doing on your site.
If you’re reading this, a “ding” sound just played in my office.
Fun to play with
First off, I love the concept and have seen other packages that play a “ding” sound whenever someone visits your site. But, to be able to hear a certain sound when someone makes a purchase or becomes a new user is quite fun. You can pick between 6 different alerts that will each play a different sound. The display will show you the page the user is on, where they came from, even if they made a comment on your blog. The app also incorporates the “name tag” functionality of Reinvigorate, so you can see the user’s name, too, if you have it set up.
Ringing in my ears
Of course, if you have a heavy traffic site, the last thing you want is to hear a volley of dings and swooshes every other second. However, you can turn on and off individual sounds for different events. So, for example, you could set it up to only play the “ka-ching” sound when you make a sale and nothing else. That’s a sound that doesn’t get old very fast!
Improvements
Now that I’ve had a chance to play around with this new toy, I’ve seen a few areas that would make it even better. For one, I’d love to be able to set up my own custom events and attached custom sounds to them. For example, a gunshot ricochet sound if a user “bounces” after one pageview, an alert for referals from specific domains, or when a certain form is submitted.
Also, the ability to monitor more than one site at the same time. I’ve noticed I can run multiple instances of the app at once, but that gets cluttered fast.
I’m sure this app won’t be for everyone. But, sometimes it’s kinda nice to have something like this running in the background. Hearing the occasional “ka-ching” is music to the ears of any budding web entrepreneur.
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