Google today announced it will block local Chrome extensions on Windows as of version 33. As a result, Windows users will only be able to use extensions for the company’s browser that they install from the Chrome Web Store.
In a FAQ, the company is reminding developers how exactly this change will affect their projects:
Users can only install extensions hosted in the Chrome Web store, except for installs via enterprise policy or developer mode.
Extensions that were previously installed, but not hosted on the Chrome Web Store will be hard-disabled (i.e the user cannot enable these extensions again), except for installs via enterprise policy or developer mode.
Google originally announced the policy changes in November, saying they would go into effect in January. Chrome 33 beta was indeed released last month, but the stable version won’t arrive until later this month or even early March.
The Old Reader, a popular RSS service and alternative to Google Reader, today announced a Premium version, which is required for users with more than 100 feeds. The Old Reader Premium will cost $3 per month or $30 per year, although there is a two-week promotional price (up to 5,000 accounts) of $2 per month or $20 per year for a minimum of the next two years.
The company says 90 percent of its users can continue using the free service, but the remaining 10 percent will be asked to subsidize them. All functionality will remain available to free accounts, but if you have more than 100 feeds, you’ll be forced to upgrade (there’s a two-week trial period you might want to check out if you’re in this group).
If you do end up upgrading, here are the features you can expect:
Full-text search.
Faster feed refresh times.
Up to 500 Subscriptions.
6 months of post storage.
Instapaper and Readability integration.
Early access to new features.
The goal is naturally to build a business model for the RSS reader. A service at such scale can’t be maintained for free forever:
Our next goal is to ensure the long term financial viability of The Old Reader. Hosting, development, and support are not inexpensive and while it’s never been our goal to get rich off of this application, long term sustainability and growth will require revenue. So we explored several models for generating revenues including a premium offering and advertising. In the end, we’d like to avoid advertising as we feel it’s too invasive and runs counter to our strong belief in the open web.
If you want to subscribe to more than 100 feeds without paying for premium version, we recommend InoReader and Feedly.
Yahoo-owned Aviate has released a new feature to help users simplify their lives. Called Listening Space, the intelligent home screen app will now automatically recognize when you’ve plugged your headphones in so it can then open up your music apps you like. After a song plays, the screen will display the artist and album information to help you be fully informed about it, including any Wikipedia entries, YouTube videos, and upcoming concerts happening around you.
In January, Aviate was acquired by Yahoo in order to help the Sunnyvale-based company create a more “contextual knowledge” search feature. The purpose of Aviate was to help make phones smarter and organize themselves around what people do everyday, rather than have us work around the technology.
The update to Aviate is available now on Google Play using the code “MUSIC” — it’s still in private beta. Yahoo cautions that if you’re not able to download the update right away, keep trying as it’s rolling out to the public.
Listening Space will work on devices running Android 4.0 and later, but if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you should update your operating system to run at least Android 4.3.
For companies wishing to garner feedback from the global masses, there’s no shortage of survey and polling platforms already. But now, 50,000 sign-ups on and after more than a year in beta, Barcelona-based Typeform is throwing its hat into the virtual polling ring, with a sweet, user-friendly tool.
Typeform 1.0 officially launches today, so we thought we’d take a quick peek under the hood to see what it’s all about.
How it works
Typeform’s core raison d’être is to make it easy to create and distribute visually-appealing online forms – which it calls ‘Typeforms’. When you log-in, you’ll see the main dashboard area containing any previously created Typeforms, or you can create a new one from scratch.
For each form, you can choose a welcome screen, which lets you upload images or paste links to YouTube videos. This could be useful for explaining a complex form, or if it’s part of a bigger project that requires a little more context.
In terms of the questions you can choose from, well, there’s short text, long text, dropdown menus, multiple choice, ratings, yes/no, and more. You simply drag your preference over from the left and drop it in the main canvas area.
The question types offer fairly granular details, letting you format the question and include a more detailed description, or insert images/videos.
It even has a handy ‘Question Group’ feature that lets you create sectioned questions/sub-questions.
Once you’re done, you can choose your preferred color scheme, fonts and background images…
…while you can configure settings such as ‘Progress’ too, choosing to display either a percentage or numerical value for a user’s current status in completing a form.
But it’s the distribution features that will likely interest you most in the post-creation phase. And with Typeform, you can grab a URL to share through your own channels, or stipulate that it launches as a pop-up within any given webpage.
Alternatively, you can grab the embed code which will automatically optimize it for a standard browser or touchscreen device. Similarly, you can make the Typeform fill an entire webpage by selecting ‘Full Page Embed’.
Here’s a little something I cobbled together in roughly 60 seconds – no prizes for design here:
And what’s the point of distributing forms if you can’t track response rates? Yes, Typeform offers a really beautiful way of keeping tabs on things, detailing number of responses, completion rate and average time, as well as platforms (e.g. PCs, tablets, or smartphones)
Speaking of platforms, the surveys and polls are automatically optimized for mobile, and based on our tests work really well – there was no lag, and simple animated transitions greet each user interaction.
Today also heralds the unveiling of Typeform’s pricing plans for PRO users, which is worth a mention.
While perhaps most people will get by more than fine with the free version, given that it comes with no limits on the number of questions or responses, the PRO version throws some extra nuggets into the mix, including Logic Jump, a feature that bumps users between questions based on their answers; customized Typeforms for each respondent using hidden fields and custom URLs; automated email notifications; and the ability to remove Typeform branding. More PRO features will be added in the future too.
The PRO Solo plan costs $10 per credit – which basically lets you unlock unlimited data from the additional PRO features – but only for ONE Typeform. The PRO monthly plan, costing $240 a year if billed monthly, serves up access to the data on for an unlimited number of Typeforms. Oh, and the company is currently offering 50% off the PRO yearly plan – you simply need to plug in the following code when signing up: E2A0R1L4Y.
All in all, Typeform is more than a worthy addition to the existing slew of survey apps out there, and it should find many more fans now it has officially shed its public beta tags. And you check it out now.