Tag-Archive for » prism «

Saturday, January 30th, 2010 | Author:

Google tasks is a simple but powerful little task manager. I’ve started using it more and wanted to create a separate application to run it from so I don’t always have to fire up a browser to access it. Here’s what you need to know to do the same thing (and there are a couple of ways to do it!).

The first thing you need to know is the actual web address for the Google tasks:

https://mail.google.com/tasks/ig

Firefox and Chrome can both create standalone applications from websites (basically where a stripped down version of the browser opens the website in a window without all navigation stuff at the top – it looks like a program running from your computer).

Firefox

Navigate to the address above in Firefox and under the “tools” menu choose “Convert Website to Application”. Bam! There ya go. If you don’t want to bother firing up a browser you can open up Prism (if you’ve installed it) and use the address above. You’ll have to sign into Google the first time it opens, but from then on you’ll be good to go!

Oh, to install Prism use this command:

sudo apt-get install prism

Chrome

Navigate to the Google Tasks address above in your Chrome browser and then click on the “Control” button to the left of the browser address bar (directly left of the “tool” button) – the top option is the one you want: “Create Application Shortcuts…” This is really nice because it gives you the option of chosing to create it on your desktop or in the menu (or both).

In the end, I think Prism is a little bit of a lighter load on the system than the Chrome application, but it’s your call. There are various other ways to access Google Tasks, some of which can be found here.

Sunday, August 30th, 2009 | Author:

What is Prism? Well, it’s created by Mozilla, the guys that make Firefox. Basically it is a dedicated window for a site. What is neat is that it runs off your desktop just like a program. So if you use Gmail for your email, then you could create a gmail prism thingy (not sure if I should call it a “program” or “shortcut”, because it is both and neither…I think), and when you launch it Gmail is opened up, in it’s own window. Now, if you combine that with gmail’s offline mode, you pretty much have the official gmail on your computer (not controlled by another program like Thunderbird or Evolution).

There is a Firefox Prism add-on which enables you to make any website you desire into an “application”. I’m nto too sure how effective this is. But, never fear, in Ubuntu there are several repo packages already created for specific prism setups. Just open up a terminal window and start with the classic install line:

sudo apt-get install

then follow it with whichever of the packages you want:

  • prism-facebook
  • prism-google-analytics
  • prism-google -calendar
  • prism-google-docs
  • prism-google-groups
  • prism-google-mail [basically gmail]
  • prism-google-reader
  • prism-google-talk [or google chat]
  • prism-twitter

I installed both the gmail and chat ones, and they work great, and I think I’ll probably be adding calendar and docs (at least) as well. If you want to install it all, just string ‘em all together after the install command like this:

sudo apt-get install prism-facebook prism-google-analytics prism-google-calendar prism-google-docs prism-google-groups prism-google-mail prism-google-reader prism-google-talk prism-twitter

Enjoy!