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Get notifications on Firefox 4’s App Tabs

Firefox logoThe new App Tabs feature in Firefox 4 is great at saving you some screen space but notifications from sites like Facebook or Gmail no longer appear. Here’s how to get them back (sort of).

Now your App Tabs will highlight when you have a new notification. They still don’t show the number of notifications but it’s better than nothing. We’ll update this post if we hear of a better solution.

Let us know what you think in the comments.

Norwich Puppet Man dead or just rumor?

Both twitter and Facebook have been full of news about Norwich legend the Puppet Man’s demise but is the Norwich Puppet Man dead?

It’s looking (at this point anyway) that it is a rumor started via his Wikipedia page. Word from his Facebook page states that he may have had a heart attack around 8:30pm this evening. Even his website (yes, he has a website) state that it is unconfirmed.

The Puppet Man (real name David Perry) has been entertaining passers by with his sock waving since the mid 80s and splits his time between Norwich and Great Yarmouth, where he now lives.

[UPDATE]: EDP crime corespondent Ben Kendall says he is not dead.

[UPDATE]: It’s official… He’s not dead, he was just sleeping.

Use Dropbox to automatically backup your files

Dropbox logoWant a simple way to backup your important files quickly and easily? Dropbox is the answer. We’ll talk you through getting your own Dropbox and even get you 250MB of extra storage space for free.

  1. Create a free Dropbox account. Using this link will net you the extra 250MB of space.
  2. Download and install Dropbox by following the instructions on the site.
  3. When the install has finished, you will find a new folder called Dropbox within your Documents folder (although you can choose where you want this folder to live in the Dropbox settings).
  4. Any files you put into this special folder will now be automatically uploaded to Dropbox and can be accessed from any web browser via the Dropbox website.

The standard free account gives you 2GB of storage (plus 250MB if you use this link to sign up) and if you find it useful, they also offer premium accounts with 50GB or even 100GB of space.

If you have a smartphone, there are apps available which let you get to your files from your phone too: Android | iPhone | iPad | Blackberry

This is a great way to sync files across multiple devices – no more emailing files to yourself or forgetting to bring your USB thumb drive home from work! Still not convinced? Take the quick Dropbox tour.

We’ve also covered some other ways to backup your files in our backup tutorial.

As it’s such a versatile service, people have come up with all sorts of interesting ways of using it. Tell us how you use Dropbox in the comments.

Add a Facebook like button that validates to your website

Facebook logoAdding a ‘Like’ button to your site is very easy but the code Facebook gives you doesn’t validate correctly. In this post, we show you not only how to add it with valid code but also make it load last so your visitors aren’t waiting longer than they have to for your content.

Instead of pasting the copied FB code directly into your page, use the following (stuffing your copied FB code into line 4).

If you’re not happy editing your website code, we would be happy to add this for you, simply contact us.

Many thanks to Tian Valdemar Davis for this elegant solution. He also posted a similar answer for Twitter’s tweet button.

[Update] Now outdated, see the FB dev article.

Let us know what you think in the comments. If you found this useful, please give us a like on Facebook.

Firefox 4 final available for download

Firefox logoFirefox 4.0 is slated for official release today at some point but readers of an impatient nature can grab it from Mozilla’s FTP server. We’ll update this post with official links as they become available.

We’re not linking to the FTP server directly as it’s not really a public distribution channel so here are the downloads hosted on Fileforum:

A word about incompatible extensions. If you come across one, do this:

  1. Type about:config into the address bar
  2. Create or modify this boolean value: extensions.checkCompatibility.4.0
  3. Set it to False

Or install the Addon Compatibility Reporter.

Unlike Internet Explorer 9, Firefox 4 does support Windows XP.

[UPDATE]: Firefox 4 now officially released! Get Firefox 4

Let us know what you think in the comments.