Wired Marker is a FireFox extension that was created by a government sponsored project in Japan. It allows you to highlight information on a web page and save that information for later retrieval based on your highlights. Yes, it does work with Tablet PCs, but you can’t just whip out your pen and go to highlighting text. You first need to select the text or images you wish to highlight and then pick the highlight color. (Unless I’m missing something somewhere.) Once highlighted the info gets saved with the URL of the webpage.

When you return to the webpage, Wired Marker redraws the highlight for you. You can create custom pens and you can assign information to the highlights you’ve created. You can think of Wired Marker as a digital bookmark and interestingly the highlight is described as indelible.

I haven’t had much time to experiment with Wired Marker this morning, but in an early glance it looks like an interesting way to mark up and save some info in Firefox on a Tablet PC.

Via Digital Inspiration via jkOnTheRun

One of the benefits of my job is getting to meet our readers when they come to town. Such was the case yesterday when I spent a couple of hours with Mark Wharton, aka K0LO, at my favorite hang-out in Colorado Springs, Pikes Perk.

Mark surprised me a bit by unleashing his "mobile" kit: a tiny 8 GB USB key containing every application needed to surf the web, vpn in to his network, image a drive, launch a recovery version of Vista, and other applications available from PortableApps. He keeps all of his documents with him by using SyncToy on his various computers, and syncing them to his USB key. He's got a complete mobile set up in the portable confines of a 8 GB USB key. Amazing. 

With Firefox 3 set to debut later this week, I thought it would be helpful to get a list of everyone's favorite add-ons:

What do you use and why?

With Firefox 3.0 scheduled to be released on June 17 there is also word (and video) of what’s cooking with Firefox Mobile. Note that it is being designed for touch screens, but not for multi-touch. The thinking there is that multi-touch isn’t yet popular enough and that touch is the lowest common denominator. This will certainly be an interesting development and what you can find at this link is still listed as being in the concept stages.

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

We have many readers who follow David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology for task, project, and email management. I've read his book several times, and also enjoy corresponding with good friend and GBM reader Eric Mack, who is a well-known productivity and GTD consultant.

Well, I just read a post over on Web Worker Daily about a free Firefox add-on that aims to bring the GTD philosophy to Gmail + Firefox users: GTDInbox. What I love about this Firefox addon is how it seamlessly integrates into Gmail, bringing integrated task management to an email application that desperately needs it.

From the GTDInbox website:

Faster Daily Use of Gmail

• Do your most common functions within one or two intuitive clicks using a new popup command box that lets you preview, archive, delete or modify labels on your emails.

Turn email into tasks

• Mark emails as actions to be completed and give them a priority. Process actions by project, context or person.

Browse Gmail as a personal information database

• Categorise actions, communication and resources (e.g. files, meeting plans, invoices) into meaningful clusters - such as by project, context or contact - for easier information discovery and retrieval later.

I'm going to play with GTDInbox over the coming weeks. I'd encourage you to check it out, too, if you are a Gmail and Firefox user, and looking to get control over your email inbox.

It looks like we are getting closer to an official Firefox 3 release, with a new beta hitting the internets last night. Beta 4 is now available for download.

I've downloaded both the Windows and Mac version and all appears to be running as expected, with the exception of certain plug-ins not working.

Here are some notes on the release:

Firefox 3 Beta 4 includes more than 900 enhancements from the previous beta, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface improvements.

If you like living on the bleeding edge, then be sure to check out the latest beta for Firefox 3 - Beta 3.

I've been testing Firefox 3 Beta 2 and have thoroughly enjoyed the new speed and layout. However, none of my usual plug-ins were compatible and did not work; consequently, I went back to Firefox 2. It is worth noting that the Mozilla developers recommend that only developers and testers download this latest release.

Mozilla has just released beta 2 of FireFox 3, and as we have previously reported on here, due to enhancements in its accessibility features, the TIP is now natively supported!

I've been playing with Beta 1 for a few weeks and I've been quite impressed with the speed, stability, and the ability to use the TIP in the address bar. However, the TIP / accessibility support does not feel fully baked, yet. For example, auto filtering of the address bar and fields in the browser doesn't work, like it does in Internet Explorer, when using the TIP. It is one of the features I really, really like about Internet Explorer and its' support of the TIP. Second, the floating TIP does not appear within fields on a web page, like it does in Internet Explorer. For example, when I place the pen in the Google search field, the floating TIP icon appears in Internet Explorer. It doesn't in FireFox 3 Beta 2.

Still, progress is being made. Until the experience is as seamless as IE, though, I'd recommend FireFox users stick with the GeckoTIP

Loren Heiny is looking for a few good Tablet PC FireFox users to test out an ink plug-in he is working on. He does warn that the plug-in doesn’t do much right now, but I know he could use your help in bringing it along and testing it out.

Test it out here. – FireFox required.

Ian, of the GeckoTIP for Firefox fame, has updated the Gecko TIP for Firefox and links to an alpha build of Super Grab and Drop. Super Grab and Drop allows you to drag a link upwards and open it in a new tab. You can tell Ian uses a Tablet PC a lot and is thinking of these nice little pen enhancements.

Thanks to Warner for the link