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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/gizmodo/2008/10/ps3xplorer.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ style=”display:block;” /It’s a sad day, Microsoft, when Sony goes on record that their PS3 browser is faster than IE7. Firmware 2.5 is not only bringing the PlayStation 3 internet browser Flash 9, but its Javascript update promises to speed up the browser by an impressive 2.8X. Sony admits that they’re still slower than Google Chrome, but as for IE7, it’s eating their dust. If Sony’s claims are true, it’s straight up sad that the PS3’s browser UI is worse than almost any browser on the market…including some on mobile devices. [a href="http://psp.ign.com/articles/923/923933p1.html?RSSwhen2008-10-27_091600RSSid=923933"IGN/a via a href="http://kotaku.com/5069558/sony-says-ps3-surfs-internet-faster-than-internet-explorer-7"Kotaku/a]/p br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/gcal_gmail.jpg” height=”150″ width=”179″ /Gmail has added support for sidebar gadgets to its experimental Labs section, allowing users to add an agenda view of Google Calendar, a short list of recent Google Docs files, and any web-based gadgets using a href=”http://incubator.apache.org/shindig/#tab-home”Apache’s Shindig standard/a to the left-hand sidebar. As the developers themselves note, adding outside gadgets isn’t exactly user-friendly, but then again, adding too many gadgets could lead to some page-loading slowdown. You can enable the GCal, Docs, and external gadget support in the beaker-icon Labs menu of Gmail. While you’re in there, here’s a few ways to make Gmail gadgets more convenient./p pullistrongMove Labels and Chat to the right-hand side:/strong Enable the “Right-side labels” and “Right-side chat” features in the Labs section to move those sometimes lengthy boxes over and make room for your new gadgets./lilistrongManually re-order your left sidebar:/strong Turn on “Navbar drag and drop” in Labs, and you can drag any of your widgets up and down in your left-hand sidebar. Combined with the right-side options above, you can place your gadgets pretty much anywhere you’d like. You’ll likely want to turn off this feature when you’re done, though, both for JavaScript speed and to prevent accidental re-ordering./lilistrongTurn off secure (https) access, if needed:/strong The developers say that some external widgets might not work so hot if you’re accessing Gmail through a secure connection, the kind that puts httpstrongs/strong: in your address bar. That might be a deal-breaker for some, but Google’s own widgets seemed to work fine in our own test./lilistrongFind and share your Shindig gadgets:/strong Enable “Add any gadget by URL” in Labs, and your Settings section gets a new “Gadgets” header with a simple URL entry box. Google has only shared one that definitely worksmdash;a version of their YouTube scroller, available by pasting in codehttp://www.google.com/ig/modules/youtube_videos.xml/codemdash;but says you can add more by “pasting in the URL of (a gadget’s) XML spec file.” Any of our readers savvy with extensible markup language are welcome to post their own gadget findings in the comments./li/ul/p div class=”related”a href=”http://gmailblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/new-in-labs-calendar-and-docs-gadgets.html”New in Labs: Calendar and Docs gadgets/a [Official Gmail Blog]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/sysmetrix_splash.jpg” align=”left” hspace=”4″ vspace=”2″ width=”494″ height=”200″ style=”display:block;float:none;” /Windows only: SysMetrix gives you a desktop widget you can skin, configure, and tweak to show you the time, your system info, email updates, and other information in a seemingly endless number of configurations. The system monitor comes with a variety of built-in themes, ranging from analog clocks with built-in mini-gauges to screen-length toolbar strips, that you can add your own sliders, histograms, read-outs, and other tools to. The tool supports POP-based email checking, grabs weather from the (U.S.) National Weather Service, and can work with the a href=”http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311″Motherboard Monitor/a tool if you’re looking for temperatures, fan speeds, and the like. SysMetrix is a free download for Windows systems only. Read on for a look at what you can tweak on a SysMetrix clock./p pAfter a href=”http://www.xymantix.com/sysmetrix/”installing SysMetrix/a and loading it up, you’ll see an auto-updating graph in your system tray, along with a clock widget on your desktop. First off, don’t be concernedmdash;it’s a lot more than just a Vista Sidebar clock widget, and you can move it, stick it to a screen side, make it transparent, or have it auto-hide, any way you want, really. Right-click on the clock or the tray icon and choose “SysMetrix Configuration.”/p pThe Theme Browser shows you the built-in themes that come with the tool, but they’re really just starting templates. You can grab more themes at a href=”http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.asp?library=28″WinCustomize/a, a href=”http://www.deviantart.com/browse.php?section=sysmetrix”Deviant Art/a, and a href=”http://www.xymantix.com/sysmetrix/themes.html”other customization sites/a. Pick a basic stylemdash;analog clock, strip, or box widgetmdash;and let’s keep moving./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/sysmetrix_themes.jpg” class=”center” width=”456″ height=”218″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pAs noted, you don’t have to give up space to your SysMetrix if you don’t want to. In the Preferences menu’s Positioning section, you’ve got the option to have the app remember where you put your widget, reserve screen space (meaning windows can’t cover it), set up pseudo-transparency by having the widget copy its background, and enable real transparency on Windows XP/2000./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/sysmetrix_positioning.jpg” class=”center” width=”638″ height=”434″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pSysMetrix’s configuration gives you a serious number of ways to tweak your gauge’s appearance. It’s worth noting, though, that adding a new gauge or element to a theme starts from scratch. You specify the number of pixels off the center a gauge, graph, or number display starts at, how it moves, what graphic it uses, and so on. The best bet for those without time to Photoshop their own tools is to choose or download a theme with built-in gauges and indicators, then simply change what they monitorsmdash;turning a CPU checker, for instance, into an email monitor, moving from left to right as you get more and more mail./p pimg src=”http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/lifehacker/2008/10/sysmetrix_gauges.jpg” class=”center” width=”449″ height=”309″ style=”display:block;float:none;” //p pThose are the basics of SysMetrix. Have a better theme that offers some crazy customizations? Want to share a screenshot of your own SysMetrix setup? Share it all in the comments. emThanks, a href=”http://lifehacker.com/5068294/beautifully-minimalist-conky-setup#c8521504″LazurusSnass/a!/em/p div class=”related”a href=”http://www.xymantix.com/sysmetrix/”SysMetrix/a [Xymantix Online]/div br style=”clear: both;”/
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Windows only: ChromeMailer, a free email utility for users of Google’s Chrome browser, pops open a Gmail compose window by default when you click an email address in Chrome. Actually, ChromeMailer seems to replace the default mailto: handler at the system level, so it’s advised only for fans of Gmail’s web interface. While ChromeMailer is potentially very useful, there are two big caveats: It requires an up-to-date .NET installation in Windows XP, and Windows Vista makes you answer a User Account Control nag on every click. If you’re more a Firefox fan looking for a similar fix, try our previous suggestions for integrating Gmail into your browser. ChromeMailer is a free download for Windows systems only. Thanks, How-To Geek!

Windows only: Free utility ChromePass displays all the passwords Google Chrome has saved for your web site logins. You can view saved passwords one by one in Chrome itself, but ChromePass displays the list all at once, and lets you export your username and password list to a file (XML, HTML, comma or tab delimited text). ChromePass also displays the name of the username and password field, and the time it was created. It doesn’t look like ChromePass can import a file of passwords, so the exported file is just a reference if you want to take your saved passwords to go. ChromePass is a free download for Windows only.

InformationWeek confirms that Google Chrome will have add-ons, a move that could have an enormous impact on Chrome’s viability among the power users and early adopters in the Firefox camp. In addition to regular extensions, Chrome will also support scripts à la Greasemonkey:

“There’s two different kinds of add-ons,” [Google engineer Ojan] Vafai said. “The Firefox things extend your browser, so to speak, and then there are user scripts. We intend to do both of those in Google Chrome.” Greasemonkey’s founder, Aaron Boodman, actually works on the Google Chrome team.

Additionally, Vafai says Google will work to ensure its extensions are more stable than Firefox, where “there are problems with instability.” That statement may sound like slap in the face to Mozilla, but Chrome will likely be a boon no matter which of two browsers you prefer.

Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich, joining the panel along with Vafai and Microsoft Internet Explorer platform architect Chris Wilson, said that Mozilla was looking at how Google treated tabs as a potential way to improve stability when dealing with browser add-ons. “There are good process-isolation tricks that Chrome does that we’re looking into, so we’re simply going to look at better isolation techniques for security and integrity,” he said.

The upshot: No matter which browser you choose in the end, Chrome and Firefox will push each other into innovative, fast, and hopefully more stable territories with each release.

Linux and Mac OS X only: Enterprising open source developers have beaten Google to the punch and released a Mac and Linux port of Google Chrome’s open source code base, Chromium. CrossOver Chromium offers a native install for Mac and Linux users, but don’t get too excited—the developers don’t recommend that you use CrossOver as your main browser, and in fact, they call the release “proof of concept” more than anything else. Indeed, my brief testing with Crossover on the Mac was disappointing—it doesn’t have the smooth look and feel (or all the features, if I understand correctly) of the official, Google-released Windows version. Still, for Mac and Linux users dying to give Chrome a test drive, it’s a fine place to start. CrossOver Chromium is a free download for Intel Macs and Linux.