Extended edition

THE TECHLIFE TEAM DIGS UP THE BEST NEW BROWSER EXTENSIONS FOR CHROME, FIREFOX AND MICROSOFT EDGE.

[ SO GREAT, YOU WON’T BELIEVE IT ] RealDonaldContext THE WASHINGTON POST IS TAKING THE TRUTH TO TRUMP. tinyurl.com/tla60-trfact | Chrome, Firefox

WELL, AT THIS point, you’ve most likely had your fair share of the Trump vs Truth debate, but this browser-extension for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox aims to weigh-in somewhat more authoritatively. The goal of this Washington Post- made extension is to fact-check and provide context for Trump’s Twitter blasts (found at @realDonalTrump), ideally clarifying what the truth behind a particular issue is before it can get a chance to snowball out of control.

This checking is done in a way that isn’t purely antagonistic, instead attempting to provide some background for the inherently limited 140 character limit, and the ease at which it can be misconstrued. Alongside the contextual assistance, this extension also fact checks Trump’s tweets — pointing out inconsistency, massive exaggeration or just straight-up falsehoods.

As it takes a little bit of time for both the Chrome extension to update and for the Washington Post team to do their research, there may be a few minutes delay between Trump tweeting and its check. Although the team has given this treatment to a number of Trump’s “golden oldies”, their goal is “to provide additional context where needed for Trump’s tweets moving forward”, so hopefully, this extension can inspire some calm (or at least slightly more factual) debate in the near future.

[ MINE, MINE, MINE ] Google Keep AN ORGANISATION POWERHOUSE WORTH TAKING NOTE OF. keep.google.com | Chrome

Google Keep seems to be the obvious end-game for note-taking, bookmarking and online organisation in general. Keep is available as a Chrome app and extension, as well as via apps on iOS and Android, and does some really nifty things across these platforms.

Just about any type of note you can think of can be taken with Keep — lists, photos, voice-memos and the recently-added drawings option will all help get your spontaneous ideas solidified. Once you’ve made the note, it automatically syncs across all your devices so you can access it on the go, and as is the case with most of Google’s offerings, sharing is integrated and incredibly simple.

The Keep extension allows you to quickly make a note and give it a relevant tag while you browse the web, automatically linking to the page you’re viewing, and when back in the app, you can sort and search with the help of these tags.

While the drawing feature is currently only available in the newlyupdated Chrome app and not the webpage itself ( keep.google.com), it has decent potential for sharing visual ideas and sketches.

[ BADGERING ON YOUR BEHALF ] Privacy Badger 2.0 EMPOWER YOUR PRIVACY. www.eff.org/privacybadger

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is continuing its fight against non-consensual browser tracking and has recently updated Privacy Badger, its browser plugin designed to prevent third-party tracking, making an already great tool even better.

This add-on for Chrome, Firefox and Opera puts an icon on the browser’s toolbar that shows the number of trackers it has blocked on a site. Although its default is set to ‘do not track’ for all sites, Badger can be configured to allow specific sites to follow you. Privacy Badger 2.0 will only block trackers, meaning ads can still be displayed, but third-party domains would be prevented from tracking you across the web. The 2.0 version is faster, speeding up the browsing experience. It can even prevent webRTC from leaking your IP address. Privacy Badger now features an import/ export tool, so it’s easy to carry over user data of whitelisted sites and filter settings from one browser to another. It’s a worthwhile add-on, especially if you want to block tracking but still support your favourite websites.