Flock is reinventing its social Web browser, developing a totally new version on top of Google's Chromium open source project. A beta release of the new Flock, which was made available for download today, offers a radically different user experience than previous versions of the browser.
Flock, which launched its original 1.0 release in 2007, provides a heavily-customized Firefox derivative that supports pervasive integration with a number of popular Web services. Aimed squarely at bloggers and social networking enthusiasts, the Firefox-based version of the browser has built-in features for Internet publishing, finding and sharing media, and interacting with contacts on social networks.
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Although Flock 2.5 has some compelling capabilities and has managed to attract an audience of millions of users, it is too heavy and disorganized to have broader mainstream appeal. The new version has some impressive improvements that could expand the browser's audience and make it more suitable for regular end users. Flock 3 eschews much of the superfluous clutter and the esoteric niche features of its predecessor. Excising the gratuitous cruft has made it possible for Flock to provide useful social network features without having to compromise performance and usability.
Taking it for a test drive
We took the Flock 3 beta for a ride on Windows 7 to see how it compares to Flock 2.5 and Chrome 5. Flock 3 is built on top of Chromium, the open source software project behind Google's Chrome Web browser. The manner in which the social networking features are integrated in Flock 3 is very different from the previous version of the browser. They are still a pervasive and tightly integrated part of the user interface, but the manner in which they are exposed to the end user is more subtle and less intrusive.
The basic look and feel of Flock 3 matches that of Chrome, with tabs on top and a menu button embedded in the toolbar. The user interface artwork is slightly different, however. Flock doesn't have Chrome's signature angled tabs. When we discussed some of the changes with Flock CEO Shawn Hardin, he explained that one of his major design goals for the new version was to shrink Flock's user interface footprint and make it as streamlined as possible. Inheriting Chrome's minimalism has obviously helped considerably in the pursuit of that goal.
The initial setup process was mostly painless. When the user launches the browser, they are prompted to provide their credentials for several popular social networking services. They can also optionally create a My Flock account, which will make it possible to synchronize their bookmarks, social network identities, and some other settings between multiple computers.
Even though I provided my Twitter and Facebook login credentials during the initial setup process, the application still required me to setup those accounts again individually for some of the integrated social network features. It's not really clear why this is necessary, but I'm hopeful that it will be fixed before the final 3.0 release.
Advertisementhttps://free-super.mystrikingly.com/blog/downtoearth-mac-os. Basic social networking integration is exposed through several parts of the browser's user interface. There is a social sidebar that displays a stream of messages from the user's contacts. https://bestafil631.weebly.com/blog/i-have-reincarnated-as-a-dragoness-mac-os. The sidebar is hidden by default, but can be toggled easily by clicking a button on the right-hand side of the toolbar. The sidebar combines the messages from all of the user's accounts and displays them in a unified stream. Images from Facebook and Flickr messages are displayed inline as thumbnails.
When the user hovers their cursor over a message, the browser will display an arrow icon that can be clicked to retweet or respond to a message. You can also 'like' Facebook messages. A combobox at the top of the sidebar allows users to view specific subsets of the message stream, such as messages from specific services. The 'Unread Messages' option will show you all of the messages that are directed at you, such as Twitter replies.
A message posting field can be toggled in the sidebar, giving the user an easy way to broadcast an update to multiple services. If you click the link icon in the posting interface, it will automatically shorten the URL of the page in the current active tab and drop the shortened link into the text of the message.
Posting messages and sharing links is also accessible from a button in the URL bar. When you click the message icon in the URL bar, a message posting interface will slide down from the top of the window. It will be prepopulated with the shortened URL of the active page so that you can easily send it to your friends.
One of Flock's best features for social networking management is support for organizing contacts into groups. What makes this feature particularly compelling is that it works across multiple social networks. A group can include contacts from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and other supported services. For example, I made an 'Ars' group that includes the past and present Ars writers who I follow on Twitter and Facebook. The sidebar message stream filter allows you to easily see all of the messages from a single group.
There is also support for stacking duplicate contacts into unified identities. Much like the metacontact feature that you can find in multi-network instant messaging services, contact stacking allows you to avoid having multiple entries for the same person in cases where they have a presence on more than one service.
The killer feature of Flock's contact manager is that lets you add RSS feeds to your groups. For example, I was able to put the RSS feeds for Planet Ubuntu and the popular OMGUBuntu blog in my Ubuntu group. The blog posts from those feeds showed up in my sidebar, mixed seamlessly with the social networking messages. This makes it easy to track all of the news and activity for certain groups through a single interface. The browser also has a decent built-in RSS reader for viewing the content from a single feed. The jumping jouster mac os. You can access the reader by clicking the RSS icon that will show up in the URL bar when you are browsing a site that has RSS content.
AdvertisementMost of the social networking features in Flock are not new or unprecedented. Bird simulator mac os. There are desktop clients like TweetDeck or browser plugins like Yoono that can give you contact management and combined streams. What Flock gives you that the alternatives don't is better browser integration and smart social discovery features.
For example, the autocompletion mechanism in the URL bar will offer you relevant content from social networks as you type. When I type 'Ubuntu' in the URL bar, I see a selection of recent messages from my contacts who are talking about Ubuntu. You can click the 'See all friends' item at the bottom of the list to navigate to a full-blown search interface that will show you all of the messages, RSS news feeds, and bookmarks that match your query.
The bottom line
After spending a day with the browser, I am impressed with the usefulness of its integrated social functionality. The social networking additions in Flock are unobtrusive and build naturally on top of the solid experience that you would get with regular Chrome, meaning that it gives you practical extras without requiring you to give up the speed or usability of Google's browser.
Social networking features aren't for everyone, and there will always be Twitter haters who don't see the value. That said, social networking is gaining mainstream acceptance and is an increasingly important aspect of the Web for many users. Unlike the previous version, the new Flock aims to cater to all social network users, not just the obsessive social fanatics. Even users who prefer stand-alone desktop social networking clients will still find value in Flock's integration features, like social search and easy link sharing.
Although I like the new Flock, there are still some things that it gets wrong. The developers have swapped out Chrome's bookmark folder system in favor of a tagging model. Although the tagging approach is not bad, the absence of folders demolishes the usefulness of the browser's bookmark bar. It would be nice if future versions could have an option to that allows the bookmark bar and its integrated bookmark browsing menu to organize the user's bookmarks into folder-like groups by tag.
The Flock 3 beta is currently only available for Windows users. Hardin says that the company plans to get a Mac OS X version up and running soon. Flock 3 will be the company's primary focus after it exits the beta stage later this summer, but the company still plans to maintain the current Firefox-based version for users who like the broader feature set. They are also documenting Chrome extensions that are known to work well with Flock that can be used to get equivalent functionality to some of the features that were cut in the new version. Users who want to try the beta can download it from the company's Web site.
Flock Up Mac Os Catalina
These key combinations apply only to Mac computers with an Intel processor, not Mac computers with Apple silicon.
![Flock Flock](https://support.flockmail.com/hc/article_attachments/900001076443/Screenshot_2020-04-27_at_10.32.10_PM.png)
To use any of these key combinations, press and hold the keys immediately after pressing the power button to turn on your Mac, or after your Mac begins to restart. Keep holding until the described behavior occurs.
- Command (⌘)-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery system. Or use Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. macOS Recovery installs different versions of macOS, depending on the key combination you use while starting up. If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password.
- Option (⌥) or Alt: Start up to Startup Manager, which allows you to choose other available startup disks or volumes. If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password.
- Option-Command-P-R:Reset NVRAM or PRAM. If your Mac is using a firmware password, it ignores this key combination or starts up from macOS Recovery.
- Shift (⇧): Start up in safe mode. Disabled when using a firmware password.
- D: Start up to the Apple Diagnostics utility. Or use Option-Dto start up to this utility over the Internet. Disabled when using a firmware password.
- N: Start up from a NetBoot server, if your Mac supports network startup volumes. To use the default boot image on the server, hold down Option-N instead. Disabled when using a firmware password.
- Command-S: Start up in single-user mode. Disabled in macOS Mojave or later, or when using a firmware password.
- T: Start up in target disk mode. Disabled when using a firmware password.
- Command-V: Start up in verbose mode. Disabled when using a firmware password.
- Eject (⏏) or F12 or mouse button or trackpad button: Eject removable media, such as an optical disc. Disabled when using a firmware password.
If a key combination doesn't work
If a key combination doesn't work at startup, one of these solutions might help:
- Press and hold all keys in the combination together, not one at a time.
- Shut down your Mac. Then press the power button to turn on your Mac. Then press and hold the keys as your Mac starts up.
- Wait a few seconds before pressing the keys, to give your Mac more time to recognize the keyboard as it starts up. Some keyboards have a light that flashes briefly at startup, indicating that the keyboard is recognized and ready for use.
- If you're using a wireless keyboard, plug it into your Mac, if possible. Or use your built-in keyboard or a wired keyboard. If you're using a keyboard made for a PC, such as a keyboard with a Windows logo, try a keyboard made for Mac.
- If you're using Boot Camp to start up from Microsoft Windows, set Startup Disk preferences to start up from macOS instead. Then shut down or restart and try again.
Remember that some key combinations are disabled when your Mac is using a firmware password.
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Flock Up Mac Os 11
- Keyboard shortcuts that you can use after your Mac has started up.