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If you’re a user of Google’s internet browser Chrome, their arguable answer to Mozilla’s Firefox (offering much of the same functionality and performance that places these two competing browser’s well ahead of Microsoft’s stagnant Internet Explorer), there’s a good chance you also use Gmail.

With Chrome now supporting extensions, a long overdue addition to its impressive features, we have a new extension that augments your Gmail experience. Called Better Gmail for Chrome, this is an unofficial extension that renders your use of the popular email service a bit more manageable.

After its installation, you’re ready to begin taking advantage of it. To access the extension’s features, click on the wrench and select Extensions -> Better Gmail Options. Looking at the list of options, simply click on those you’d like to toggle for activation. An upcoming update that includes support for POP3 Email is said to be on the horizon.

Those of us in the Geek Choice office have no real preference between Chrome and Firefox, finding both to be far preferable to Internet Explorer. If you have a favorite extension to use with either browser, feel free to share it with us!

Better Gmail for Chrome can be retrieved here.

If you’re a frequent patron of Amazon’s awesome online market, you’re probably aware that free basic shipping is available after spending $25 or more.  With the plentiful bounty to be gained from using Amazon, it’s likely that you’re someone who frequently makes small purchases that see your total just missing that $25 threshold, resulting in you incurring an additional $5 to $10 for shipping (depending on size and weight of what you’ve purchased).

FillerItemFinder is helpful tool that takes the remaining balance before you reach $25 and offers suggestions to fill that quota. The list it provides is impressively long, from cheap books to discounted DVDs. It allows you to filter the list, giving you the option of choosing just entertainment, even paring that down to a specific type of entertainment.

Once you’ve settled on an item, you can simply add it to your cart and check out.

You can visit FilterItemFinder here. Happy shopping!

With the internet occupying much of our time when using the computer, a number of services have become integral parts of our online routine, from twitter to flickr. Juggling the use of these services can become involving to some, requiring multiple keywords and applets to manage their use.

Quix is an astoundingly cool helper that consolidates commands for each service in one utility, significantly cutting down the time it takes to use these services. It works for both desktop and mobile browsers, giving you the ability to assign just a few keystrokes to the execution of popular features you make use of while using the internet.

Using just a simple window, you can send email, capture pages and clip them, run searches, update your twitter account and more. The list of available commands is impressive, sparing you the task of using multiple bookmarklets.

Pulling up just one window, enter your command and see the desired task completed.

Essentially, when using Quix, you’ll see a considerable diminishment in the time you spend configuring your browser for the use of these services. Once Quix is up and running, the benefits of its use will become immediately noticeable — it’ll almost become second nature after a few uses.

Along with a full list of available commands Quix offers, this overview helps you with the installation process.

You can grab Quix here.

If you’re a user of Twitter, that social networking phenomenon that depends upon succinct bursts of information from its community of members, you might be at risk of having your password compromised.

Twitter has begun issuing alerts to certain users, notifying them of the need to change their password. It reads as follows:

“Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset.”

This is in response to phishing attempts that have resulted in users unwittingly surrendering their login information to hackers.

Phishing refers to a process where unscrupulous sorts set up a bogus login screen that dupes unsuspecting users into giving their user name and password away. The phishers then use that compromised account to send messages to other users, using the same scheme.

Aiming to thwart a recent series of phishing scams, Twitter has been informing users that they should change their password if they happen to be following an account by the name of @THCx. It’s suspected that this account may have been created for the purpose of phishing for passwords.

Geek Choice advises you to be very mindful of who you share information with. When logging into ANY account, always make sure to look at the url located in the address bar. Should there be anything that looks peculiar, it’s possible that it’s not the actual site you wish to log into.

Stay vigilant and protect yourself.

Well, here I am with another Firefox extension.

Like the one I touched upon earlier today, this is an add-on that will greatly enhance how you use the internet with this popular browser. Looking for a simple means of customizing how your tabs appear and function in Firefox?

This is the extension you’ve been searching for.

Called Tabberwocky, this extension builds upon the functionality of your tabs to an impressive degree, altering everything from their appearance to how you navigate between each one.

Installation is just as easy as it’s been for every other extension you’ve put to use. Once that’s complete, your first order of business  is looking at the available options : Tabs – Menus – Advanced.

These options afford you an opportunity to tailor the extension to your liking. For example, looking at the Tabs option, you’re able to adjust how your tabs behave and how they respond when clicked upon or closed.

With the Menus options, you can assign keyboard shortcuts, adjust your context menu, and determine where you want new links to open.

Lastly, using Advanced options, you can configure it so that the “progress bar” appears  on your tabs instead of in the Status bar. Advanced options will also allow you have multiple rows in one tab.

Not everyone will want to put this to use, finding that the default functionality of Firefox’ tabs suits them just fine, but this might pique the interest of you Firefox geeks that love to tweak this brilliantly customizable internet browser.

You can grab Tabberwocky here.

The much delayed but greatly anticipated Firefox 3.6 is finally here, introducing significant improvements in this popular browser’s performance and functionality.  From increased speed to stronger security, improved font management to one click themes, this is a considerable step up from its predecessor.

Over here at the Geek Choice office, we’ve been using the various iterations of the Firefox 3.6 beta, keeping you apprised of their release. Almost immediately, we were impressed by an observable uptick in its performance, with greater speed and decidedly impressive rendering of pages.

These are the following additions to Firefox 3.6:

• Firefox 3.6 will alert you if your plug-ins is out of date, offering you links from which to grab the most recent versions. This is of particular significance when dealing with the likes of Adobe Flash, which has come under fire for its security leaks.
• Full Screen video is available, which sees Firefox play any free streaming videos in a Full Screen format if you so choose.
• Instant Themes are made available by the Personas Gallery. When visiting the gallery, you  can select a theme and see how your browser would look if implemented. If the theme’s to your liking, apply it with just one click.
• What you’ll immediately notice is just how much faster it is. Through more efficient management of memory and better handling of Javascript, the speed of Firefox 3.6 is unmistakable, second only to Chrome.

For a more detailed explanation of just what this update introduces, Mozilla has included release notes that give a nice overview of what’s included.

Firefox 3.6 is free and available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux computers.

You can download it here.

Looking for an easy way to convert that website you’re visiting into a PDF file? While we’ve covered software solutions in the past that do just that, this is a website that requires no software, even offering a bookmarklet that’ll allow you to convert websites to PDF files instantaneously.

PDFmyURL generates PDF files after you enter the web address of the site you’re looking to convert. If you want the ability to generate these PDF files on the fly, you can retrieve the bookmarklet from the front page, giving you the convenient ability to generate a PDF file at any time.

There are even more advanced options granting you added features that extend beyond its core functionality, including the ability to run this off your own server.

For immediate use, visit the site and enter the address you’d like to convert. For future application, you can take the bookmarklet (sitting right in the middle of the front page) and drag it to your toolbar. Once there, it’ll be available for whenever you wish to turn a website into a PDF.

This is an excellent tool for those who love to share the information we uncover during our travels on the net. I love unearthing neat tools of this sort, and will continue to keep Geek Choice readers updated whenever I happen upon one.

Visit PDFmyURL here.

A sure sign as any that the official debut of the much anticipated, but heavily delayed, Firefox 3.6 approaches is the recent release of its first release candidate.

The term “release candidate” refers to that release which, having ironed out much of the quirks found during the beta stage, stands a good chance of being the official version.

This could very well be your chance to take the final release for an early test drive.

According to Mozilla, this release candidate comes with significantly improved performance and greater functionality, including tools that ensure those beloved Firefox extensions are kept current.

This is a free download available for Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux users.

You can get it here.

Having so many friends on Facebook, it’s difficult to keep track of just how many photos of yourself that others have tagged. From that office retreat back in April to a family picture taken during the holidays, tagged photos can pop up out of nowhere, with you unknowingly present in some of them. Instead of asking them for a copy of that photo, you can use Photograbber, a neat utility that simply collects all of those photos in which your friends have tagged you and others.

Installation is simple. After its completion, Photograbber will scour the walls of your various friends for those pictures they’ve tagged. After selecting the Facebook friend from whom you want to grab, Photograbber will retrieve each and every one of the photos, storing them in a directory that you specify.

Photograbber doesn’t allow you to select which photos you want. When using it, Photograbber collects every tagged photo. Additionally, there is no way to preview the photos you’ve received, as Photograbber doesn’t provide any thumbnails of the images. You’ll have to open each photo to see what’s included.

We should also note that this will require that you’re actually friends with the individuals from whom you’re culling the photos. Depending on their privacy settings, you may find that Photograbber is unable to collect the photos.

If you’re someone who just needs to collect the photos of your Facebook friends, including those that feature you, this is an excellent and easy way to do so.

You can download Photograbber here.

If you haven’t made the leap to the beta for Firefox 3.6, you should know that Mozilla has released an update for Firefox 3.5.

According to its developers, Firefox 3.5.7 addresses stability concerns and how significant updates are introduced to users.

Though you should be prompted for this update shortly, you can download it now.

Grab the Firefox 3.5.7 update here.