plugin

The world of plug-in hybrids is about to get a whole lot sexier when the production Fisker Karma debuts at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show.

Fisker has released early photos of the production version of the Karma, which isn't that much different from the concept revealed earlier this year at the 2008 Detroit Show.

Its mustachioed face has survived the jump to production essentially intact, although the lower grill opening has been enlarged a bit, to make it more practical for cooling we'd assume. Amber reflectors have been added to the leading edge of the wheel well and … Read more

Google has released a Mac OS X version of a plug-in that lets people use its Google Earth software as a browser plug-in.

The move means a smaller but significant crowd can rely on Web pages that employ the sophisticated aerial viewing options the software provides. But Mac fans should brace themselves for a 47MB download from the Google Earth API page.

The size is large because Google provided a universal binary file that runs on both PowerPC-based and Intel-based Macs, a Google representative said in a forum posting about the availability of the Mac version. "There are also … Read more

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. Its no-nonsense approach and ease of use will appeal to all user levels.

The extension is meshed with Firefox's sidebar. It's very easy to navigate, with buttons for checking and searching feeds, and two view panels. The top panel displays each feed that you're subscribed to, and the bottom panel displays the specific feed headlines. The Options menu gives you display options, and lets you manage your feeds. Copying and pasting feed URLs to add them to our list of feeds is as easy as it … Read more

Sage is a basic RSS feed and news aggregator for Firefox. Its no-nonsense approach and ease of use will appeal to all user levels.

The extension is meshed with Firefox's sidebar. It's very easy to navigate, with buttons for checking and searching feeds, and two view panels. The top panel displays each feed that you're subscribed to, and the bottom panel displays the specific feed headlines. The Options menu gives you display options, and lets you manage your feeds. We were able to easily copy and paste feed URLs and add them to our list of feeds. … Read more

On a test track in Southern California, a radical new car is getting its first workout.

The zebra stripes camouflage it from competitors, but you still get a good sense of the Fisker Automotive Karma, the brainchild of designer Henrik Fisker, who's trying to succeed where Detroit so far has failed, CBS News business correspondent Anthony Mason reports.

"The vision is to do a high performance, luxurious, sexy-looking car which gets better miles per gallon than the Prius," Fisker said.

The Karma is a plug-in hybrid. It can go 50 miles on an electrical charge before a … Read more

This Firefox extension should appeal to anybody trying to minimize bookmark and open tab clutter. Read It Later gives you a one-click option for saving the links and keeping track of which ones have been read. It also now sports deep integration with Google Reader, adding little check marks next to blog posts. Clicking one lets you mark it to read later on.

When you first start the extension, it will prompt you to install the two Toolbar buttons that are used to control the extension and manage your reading list. Users can also control adding bookmarks to their reading … Read more

IE7 Pro adds a lot of showmanship to the Internet Explorer browser. The freeware add-on has some smart solutions for tabbing, including default settings to open URLs in new tabs and let double-clicking close a tab down.

Here's another pleasant surprise: "dragging" and "dropping" an in-text link into white space opens the link in a new tabs without any mouse work. IE7Pro also borrows from several software concepts to help raise IE7's appeal, including Firefox's, to save and fill forms, and insert user scripts a la Greasemonkey. The MiniDM download manager adds a … Read more

It slows down your browsing. It makes some Web sites inaccessible for no discernible reason. It doesn't even offer you any xiao long bao or pu'er tea for your troubles. But if you want to know what life behind the Great Firewall of China is like, then the Firefox plug-in China Channel is the cheapest and fastest way to experience using the Internet in China without actually being there.

After installation, getting to experience Web surfing the way the Chinese do isn't hard at all. Users have three ways to activate China Channel: via the China Channel … Read more

This free add-on for Firefox and Internet Explorer gives jazz music lovers something to sing about. Jazz Radio is a toolbar that lets you tune in to radio stations worldwide that play songs from the genre.

The bar won't wow or disappoint you with its appearance. A few radio controls allow for fairly quick volume control and switches between stations. You'll have fast access to jazz stations in locations from the United States to the Netherlands, so you can listen to fusion, smooth, New Orleans, and big-band jazz, to name a few. None of the stations tested missed … Read more