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Netflix nixes DVD choice from streaming gear, vexes users

Netflix has triggered a slew of customer complaints after revealing that it's taking away the ability to add titles to the DVD queue from streaming devices.

Announced in a blog post yesterday by Jamie Odell, director of product management, the move would mean that people will no longer be able to use the "Add to DVD Queue" feature from their smartphones, set-top boxes, game consoles, and other devices that stream Netflix content. Users will be able to add physical discs to their queue only by going directly to the Netflix Web site on a PC or presumably … Read more

Free Outlook add-on simplifies data export

Microsoft has done little to improve the import and export features in recent versions of Outlook. In fact, the program's Import and Export Wizard appears unchanged since at least Outlook 2003.

One change for the worse is that it takes several more clicks to reach the import/export function in Outlook 2010 than it does in earlier releases of the program. In older Outlook versions you simply clicked File > Import and Export to open the wizard, but in Outlook 2010, you must click File > Options > Advanced > Export.

You can save yourself a few clicks and … Read more

We love wee URLs

Goo.gl Lite is a free extension that adds Google's Goo.gl URL shortener to the Mozilla Firefox toolbar. When you click the Goo.gl Lite icon, the program automatically generates a shortened URL and copies it to the Clipboard.

Goo.gl Lite installs much like other Firefox add-ons, although once it's installed, we needed to open the Firefox toolbar manager and drag the Goo.gl Lite icon to our browser's toolbar. Clicking Tools/Add-ons let us enable, disable, and uninstall it via the Add-Ons manager. Though the program offered no options, none are needed, since it … Read more

Excel-ent trim

When you import data in Excel, you also import any blank spaces that come with it, which isn't a problem in day-to-day use. If you try to process the data, though, extra spaces can lead to problems, such as masking duplicate files from tools designed to find and remove them. Trim Spaces for Excel from Add-in Express is a free Excel add-in that can locate and remove leading and trailing spaces in cells in Excel documents.

We installed Trim Spaces in Excel 2010 and opened a spreadsheet. The Trim Spaces Help file opened automatically, while an AbleBits.com tab … Read more

Take the pulse of the Internet

Pulse News for iPad gives you all the news from your favorite Web sites laid out in an intuitive interface. News sites are laid out vertically so you can swipe up and down to the latest news from all sites quickly, or you can swipe horizontally to read more stories from the same site. Each story heading has the headline and an included graphic, making for a more elegant approach than other news readers that show only text links. Touching a story heading gives you either a text-based summary, a mobile-optimized version for easy reading, or a way to view … Read more

Opera 11 joins the add-ons club

Mobile Opera may be driving the Norwegian browser company's growth, but that doesn't mean that the desktop browser is getting ignored. Debuting today, Opera 11 for Windows, Mac, and Linux has only gotten more stable since the beta version of the browser launched last month.

The most requested of the new features is the lightweight extension API framework, which brings to Opera a long-missing capability to directly add to and customize the browser. Having launched while the browser was in beta, there are already several popular extensions available, including ad-blocker NoAds; YouTube downloader FastestTube; Image Preview Popup for … Read more

Outlook is easier with Subtextual Pro - $3.99 limited time offer

Subtextual makes your life easier by allowing you to compose private and secure messages to selected recipients in the To, Cc, or Bcc fields of your emails while simultaneously sending a message to a broader group. No plug-in is necessary for your recipients to view the subtextual messages and makes it an ideal tool for business users, who frequently send sensitive information in emails. For a limited time only, you can get Subtextual Pro for just $3.99.!

Some other features included in Subtextual Pro are:

Send and remove attachments to selected recipients only Assign follow-up tasks privately to Subtextual … Read more

Add-on offers Gmail-like UI in Thunderbird 3.3

If you're looking for a more Gmail-like experience in Thunderbird 3.3 alpha, a new add-on should be able to help you out.

Dubbed Thunderbird Conversations, the add-on offers a conversation view in the e-mail program, allowing users to have all their messages to and from another party in one place, similar to Gmail. The app "fetches" e-mails across every folder in the user's Thunderbird installation. Users can reply to an e-mail inline, and access the add-on's "contacts auto-complete" feature to streamline its use.

Thunderbird Conversations was first made available at the end … Read more

Web watcher

HTTPWatch Basic Edition is a free browser plug-in that collects and displays information about Web sites. It's a trial edition of HTTPWatch Professional, with which it shares many features, albeit with limitations, mostly for Web sites with nonproprietary log files. The Basic version also displays a logo banner on printouts. Both work with Microsoft Internet Explorer as well as Mozilla Firefox. You can save the information HTTPWatch Basic Edition collects as a log file and view it with an included utility, HTTP Studio.

We downloaded and installed HTTPWatch Basic for Internet Explorer. During the process, we allowed the plug-in'… Read more

Opera goes to 11 with an extensions API

Editors' note: This post originally stated that the Opera 11 beta was not yet available for Linux. In fact, Opera 11 beta 1 for Linux is available for download here.

Opera may be getting most of its attention these days from its mobile browsers, but that doesn't mean that the company is ignoring its desktop browser. The first beta for Opera 11 introduces a long-missing extensions API in a lightweight profile similar to those that run on WebKit-powered browsers like Chrome and Safari.

Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, Opera 11 beta 1 debuts other minor but useful changes. … Read more