Google recently added Tasks via a Gmail Labs add-on. I find this simple task list to be quite useful. However, it's tied to Gmail in that Gmail has to be open in a browser window for it to function. The "pop-out" feature is nice, but the Tasks lists automatically closes when the main Gmail window is closed.

Shortly after the initial launch, Google announced a version of Tasks optimized for mobile clients. If I had an iPhone, that'd be great, but I don't. However, I was able to exploit this to make a Gmail Task application!

I used Fluid to run the Gmail Tasks designed for the iPhone to get a simple task list that doesn't require you to keep Gmail open. Gmail Tasks for iPhone is only displayed for mobile broswers, so you'll need to swap the User Agent string in Fluid to make this work.

Create a Fluid App pointing to http://mail.google.com/tasks (Google Apps users should use http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/YOURDOMAIN). The first start-up will fail, because you need to swap the User Agent to Mobile Safari. In your Fluid app, under the application menu, choose User Agent and select Other... and put in the User Agent String for the current Mobile Safari: Restart your app and you're done! A more in depth write up with pictures is on my blog.

There are a few things in Firefox that just do not satisfy my needs, and they're the reason I have not made Firefox my default browser. One of those issues is the handling of the Bookmarks Toolbar. In Firefox, unlike Safari (Command-1, -2, etc.), there aren't any hot keys assigned to the Bookmarks toolbar. While this has generally not been a problem, I still find myself wishing I could use my bookmarklets with the ease I have found in Safari.

The following is a guide, through the use of an external add-on, to add Safari's functionality within Firefox 3. Theoretically, these steps should be reproducible on Windows, Linux, and Mac systems. However, I have only tested it on my Mac, and the location of the .js file that needs to be edited will most likely vary.

If, like me, you hate it when your MacBook's fans start to whine while watching YouTube, you should skip Safari (even 4.0 Beta) and try OmniWeb (now a free product) or Camino instead. A comparison of the Activity Monitor results, using the same video in each browser, showed these figures:

Safari 4.0 Beta 
  Safari         50%
  Window Server  12%
OmniWeb 5.9
  OmniWeb        36%
  Window Server   5%
Camino 1.6
  Camino         33%
  Window Server   5%

Here are some screen grabs showing each browser's performance. Further remarkable is the fact that Camino split the workload across the cores nearly evenly. I tested on a Macbook 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB of RAM running OS X 10.4.11.

[robg adds: I did a quick test using my 2.66GHz Quad Core Mac Pro (running 10.5.6) and an HD-quality video on YouTube. I also added Firefox to the mix, and my results were a bit different than above. On my machine, for the video I was testing with, Camino was also the clear winner at around 80% CPU usage. However, there wasn't any notable difference between OmniWeb, Firefox, and Safari 4.0 Beta -- all three were in the 115%-125% range. More experimentation is needed, but it definitely seems that Camino does the best job of minimizing CPU usage during Flash playback.]

I have found that it can be really annoying trying to get Google Gears to work with Safari. I was able, eventually, to get Google Gears version 0.5.15.0 to work nicely in Safari 4 beta. The install and update process, however, is somewhat of a mess. I had Gears installed with Safari 3, and found that I had to manually remove it first by running this command in Terminal:

/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Gears.plugin/Contents/Resources/uninstall.command

After uninstalling, then you can go back to the install page and re-install the latest version for Safari 4 Beta. Now enjoy offline Gmail, Gcal, and Google Reader in Safari 4 Beta. I don't know if this version works in Safari 3 though ... does anybody else know? Please chime in below.

Safari 3 included a hidden circular page loading indicator. While the preference for that circular indicator has vanished in Safari 4, you can actually get it back by setting some of the hidden Safari 4 preferences in the correct fashion.

To get the circular progress indicator back, you need to set the DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign preference to FALSE, and leave (or reset) the DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle preference to TRUE (its default setting). So if you haven't modified either of these settings yet, you just need to do this in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4IncludeToolbarRedesign -bool FALSE

If you've previously modified the other preference, you'll need to set it back to TRUE:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4LoadProgressStyle -bool TRUE

With the prefs set in this combination, you'll get a pie chart on top of the favicon that fills in while a page is loading. (I originally wrote about this on my blog, if you want or need more details.)

[robg adds: I confirmed that with this mix of settings, you do indeed see the round pie-chart-style progress indicator in Safari 4 Beta.]

Safari 4 places its tabs at the top of the window. If you prefer Safari 3's tab location (within the window), open Terminal and copy and paste the following command to get Safari 3 style tabs back:

defaults write com.apple.Safari DebugSafari4TabBarIsOnTop -bool FALSE

To get top tabs back, quit Safari, and repeat the above Terminal command, but change FALSE to TRUE.

[robg adds: This works as described.]

In addition to restoring in-window tabs, it turns out that there are a number of other hidden preferences available in the Safari 4 Beta. In the interest of efficiency, I've chosen to list all of them that I know about (as of today, at least) in this one hint. As more are uncovered in the future, I'll run those as standalone hints. But for now, here's a list of seven (in addition to the one to move the tab bar) more tweaks you can apply to Safari 4 Beta.

Each of these are boolean variables, meaning they take a TRUE or FALSE argument. They also all default to TRUE, so to enable each one, you need to set its value to FALSE. To do that, use this command template in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.safari key_name -bool FALSE

Replace key_name with the variables as shown below. To disable any one of the hacks, you can either reverse the command by replacing FALSE with TRUE, or you can delete the key entirely:

defaults delete com.apple.safari key_name

When you change any of these values, make sure Safari is not running at the time. Read on for a list of each variable and a brief description of its function.

There isn't an obvious way to add sites to Safari 4 Beta's new Top Sites page, but this is a Mac after all, so it occurred to me that drag and drop might work, and it does:

1. Open the top sites window.
2. Click the Edit button.
3. Open the web site you'd like to add to Top Sites in another window.
4. Drag the want-to-add site's site icon (it appears to the left of the URL) from the URL address bar into the Top Sites window. You can position the site while you're dragging it, too.
5. Drop the site when it's in the position where you'd like it to stay -- the site will be pinned to this position automatically.

[robg adds: This works as described, making Top Sites much more useful to me; there are sites I like to show on my Speed Dial page in Firefox, for instance, even though I don't visit them all that often.]

I get my Camino to sync between my Mac at home and work via Dropbox. Here's how:

1. Make a backup copy of your ~/Library/Application Support/Camino folder.
2. Download Dropbox, then activate a Dropbox account if you have not done so already.
3. On your first machine, move (not copy) your ~/Library/Application Support/Camino foder to your Dropbox folder.
4. Symlink your user's ~/Dropbox/Camino folder to ~/Library/Application Support/Camino with this Terminal command:

   $ ln -s /Users/Dropbox/Camino /Users/Library/Application\ Support/Camino

5. Repeat the same move/symlink process on your second (and third, etc.) Mac.

In this way, Camino uses the synced Dropbox folder as its profile folder; when you open your Camino, it will be the same on both machines.

[robg adds: I haven't tested this one. The basic process could be used to sync settings in many types of apps, obviously.]

If you open many tabs in Safari for webpages that have Flash content, you've probably noticed Safari's processor usage skyrocket. clicktoflash is an open source Safari (WebKit) plug-in which prevents Flash loading unless you click the graphic representing the Flash content. I find Safari is much more stable as a result and quicker at loading webpages.

[robg adds: An earlier hint discussed using SafariStand to do the same thing. SafariStand, however, is a complex add-on that many users may prefer not to add to Safari. clicktoflash does just one thing, and after testing it for a day or so, I can say it works quite well. In Firefox, I use the FlashBlock plug-in to do the same thing.]