Way back when, we had mentioned that Mozilla’s plans for “Weave,” their platform for syncing browsing information between different desktop/mobile clients, included support for synchronizing Firefox extensions or, as they’re known now, “add-ons.”

Well, it turns out that add-on synchronization isn’t isn’t here yet and keeps getting bumped from the official Weave roadmap. So, our plans for a completely synchronized Firefox experience among our PCs were somewhat dashed… until now.

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We’re all about portable apps here at Fans of Tech. Why? Well, the more crap that gets installed into different directories on your system (and in the registry), the slower your computer’s gonna be. That’s a fact. With portable apps, you just download the program and just, well, run it. That’s it. It’s a beautiful thing, really.

That said, we typically opt for installer-free apps that we can just drop in a single directory to be synced on all of our machines. (I personally currently use SugarSync now.)

A standalone app to burn CDs or DVDs is just one example of what I’m talking about. No clunky installs of Nero (which I think weighs in at about 400mb now) or Sonic or anything similar… just double-click the portable app’s EXE and start burnin’. There are more than a few portable burning suites that we’ve encountered in the past but the following titles are some of the more solid entries.

First up is daBurner. Sure, it’s the youngest of the bunch but you shouldn’t let that fool ya… as it does exactly what you need it to do: burn stuff. Here’s the official description: “No advanced burning options and complicated configuration. No integrated backup-mediacenter-slideshow-virtual drive stuff. It’s just a stupid burner. For smart people.” This one is aces in my book if not only for that beautiful description but also for the fact that the software is genuinely insanely-easy to use… unlike many burning apps.

Next up is Infrarecorder. It’s definitely more feature-packed than DaBurner and offers up dual-layer DVD recording, CD/DVD-RW erasing, ISO & BIN/CUE burning, disc copying, audio track burning and more. Infrarecorder’s been around for a while so there’s definitely something to be gained from its experience.

Finally, we come to DeepBurner. This one isn’t as feature-packed as Infrarecorder but it’s got a pretty polished interface and it provides you with the basic functionality you need: burn audio discs, data discs, ISOs and bootable discs. The premium version of DeepBurner adds a few more options but there’s no portable version available for it.

There are some more (potentially more powerful) standalone burning apps listed on PortableFreeware.com but some of these require a little bit of manipulation to make them “portable.”

If, however, you do prefer the old-school method of running apps like these, i.e., by installing them, you’ll want to check out CDBurnerXP: a great, lightweight burning suite from the makers of Ketarin. In addition, the latest release of IMGBurn added a plethora of new features (no, seriously, go look at the changelog for ImgBurn 2.5) and it could potentially take my title for best free burning app available… period. It is, without a doubt, definitely worth the measly $2 donation that the author is kindly asking for on the app’s homepage. Do it. Be a hero. Donate that $2.

Did we miss any? (I can guarantee we did.) Let us know what your favorite portable burning app is in the comments below.

I can be a Microsoft fanboy from time to time, I’ll admit that. I’ll also admit that I’ve been looking forward to Outlook 2010 since Outlook 2007 first arrived… mainly because when OL2K7 was released to manufacturers in late 2006, it was STILL missing alot of productivity features; some of which Gmail debuted with almost 3 years prior. I’m talking about conversation view, the ability to quickly move a message to a specific folder, effective keyboard shortcuts, etc.

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feedly’s been around a while… and, while I’ve had it installed since it debuted, I’ve only come to truly appreciate what it has to offer just recently.

The list of feedly’s features, like many of today’s niche applications, is short but sweet. In essence, the Feedly add-on for Mozilla Firefox "weaves Twitter and Google Reader into a magazine-like experience."

For example, the Google Reader interface is clean and to-the-point but it’s certainly not exciting to look at. feedly, however, can take your existing GReader content, which looks a little like this:

…and turn it into something like this:

Now, I love Google Reader and the simplicity it brings to the table (something that’s necessary when dealing with hundreds of RSS feeds) but if I’m just checking in with my feeds for a few minutes or so – just to see what’s breaking, I’d much rather look at what feedly has to offer me. The spacious, image-assisted layout has definitely been saving me some time.

In addition to the display options in store for your feeds, the feedly Firefox add-on also brings you the “feedly Mini.” For a detailed rundown of what the Mini has to offer, check out the following post on the official Feedly blog: “Launching Feedly Mini: Twitter and FriendFeed on the Go.”

Basically, though, the Mini acts as a miniaturized, ever-so-faintly-visible toolbar at the bottom of pages you visit. This toolbar quickly tells you how many people have shared the page you’re viewing within feedly/Google Reader as well as how many times it’s been discussed in Twitter & FriendFeed. Not only can you see who’s sharing the content of the page you’re on, but you can immediately do so yourself from the same toolbar: share in Reader/FriendFeed, Twitter it up, email, etc.

(Source)

Overall, feedly’s benefit comes with how well it integrates into existing services. For instance, there are plenty (read: PLENTY) of aggregation services out there but most of them don’t have the option to tie in with other services similar to its own… and for good reason in most cases. With feedly, I have a choice of how I can read my RSS feeds. If I choose to read an article or multiple articles in feedly, those articles are automatically marked as read in Google Reader so that I’m not doubling up on work when I head back to GReader for some in-depth feed scanning.

feedly is a product of DevHD (not much there, yet) and is 100% free. I’m not entirely certain how they plan on surviving (that same question can be asked of so many of today’s “free” applications) unless they plan on selling the product off eventually.

Anyway, if you’re already a big Google Reader user, give feedly a try.

If you have an abundant amount of freeware and/or open-source applications installed on your system – on which you depend daily, weekly or monthly – then you can ensure they’re kept up-to-date by using the FileHippo.com Update Checker. This tiny 153kb application will let you know when there’s an update to one of the applications available on their site (if you currently have it installed.) You can think of it as the Google Pack updater… but having compatibility to *a lot* more applications.

So, if you find yourself using popular applications like AVG Anti-Virus, Firefox, Ad-Aware, QuickTime/Real Alternative, DeepBurner, DVD Shrink, CCleaner, FileZilla or one of hundreds of other brilliantly-useful applications available for download on FileHippo.com, you can ensure they’re all up-to-date by using FileHippo’s automatic updater app.

Alternatively (or, in addition), if you find yourself using alot of niche applications that perhaps don’t get updated all that often, you can still ensure you’re running the latest version by using Ketarin. However, while FileHippo’s tool can ensure your applications are automatically updated, Ketarin goes about the whole process in a different way – by updating the setup packages instead of the installed application itself.

So, for instance, you can have an entire folder (think USB flash drive) with a bunch of different setup applications that are all updated whenever there’s a new release. This way, when you choose to (and/or are forced to) reformat your system, you don’t have to worry about downloading new installs once you’ve wiped your drive… you’ve already got them.

Ketarin might take a little bit more work to get up-and-running with the application titles you want but the possibilities are pretty much endless. For instance, user FranciscoR in the Ketarin forums has uploaded a template that enables you to keep any installation package from PortableFreeware.com up-to-date. All you have to do is input the title ID number from the site (i.e., the "507" in "http://portablefreeware.com/?id=507"). There are several other user-submitted templates for your favorite download sites in addition to tutorials on how to control other powerful aspects of the Ketarin software.

(As an aside, Ketarin is made possible by one of my favorite freeware and shareware burning applications: CDBurnerXP Pro.)

These two amazing and handy utilities are completely free and can save you some headaches while, at the same time, giving you some peace of mind.

Ketarin – Keep Your Setup Packages Up-to-Date…
FileHippo – Keep Your Installed Apps Up-to-Date…