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Reviews for APOD by The Trav

APOD by The Trav by Travis

4.8 Stars out of 5
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8 reviews
  • by Strgazr, 2 months ago
  • by adamb106, 6 months ago
  • by Lino, 3 years ago
    Best app for the new tab! You can see incredible images everyday
  • by Firefox user 13900210, 5 years ago
    It's a nice and polished extension, and it provides a lot of information about the displayed image quite nicely.

    It could however be improved a bit.

    Mainly, it should pre-load the next APoD image/data whenever it gets a chance. As it stands, I often open a new tab and quickly type some URL in, and I never really get a chance to see anything but a loading screen (even when set to show Today's image). With some preloading, the next image would already be there for me to behold.

    Couple of other nits are:
    * Rather than a toolbar icon, it should use the standard Preferences area in about:addons
    * I'd rather it didn't change the title of the New Tab page, as I found myslef having troubles locating my New Tab after checking something else
    * I could tolerate bigger tiles (including search) from the standard New Tab page that Firefox has, as it stands, the links at the top right are too smal to be really useful, and I some sections are gone. Really, using the image as wallpaper to the standard Firefox New Tab screen would be perfect.
    * I'd be way happier if it didn't access any Google domain. That's unnecessary. Surely Mozilla/Firefox can provide stats already?

    Developer response

    posted 5 years ago
    Thank you so much for some insights. I generally develop this extension in a vacuum and to get some perspective is very helpful.

    That being said, a few things you mention have been considered or compromised on mainly in the name of asking for too many permissions, which is why I only use the small favicons instead of bigger icons. I like your idea of adding the search bar into the extension and I'll keep that in mind in the versions ahead. As for the preferences being a toolbar icon, this is due to cross compatibility with Chrome although I'll review my options for Firefox.

    In regards to pre-loading, it actually is preloading up to 15 more APOD's on first load in anticipation of a user clicking the random button a few times. If you try this you should see that the subsequent APOD's load very quickly, though this is for naught if you are opening and navigating away quickly. I'll see what I can do in regards to locally caching the "Today" APOD and other images.

    The Google analytics is performed according to Mozilla's standards which forego the use of the usual GA.js CDN script tag. The tracking from Mozilla and Chrome are both exceptionally minimal and Google analytics will remain for the time being.

    Anyway, thank you again for some insights and after a refactor version or two I will get back to feature mode and do my best to integrate in some of your suggestions!
  • by Firefox user 14791858, 6 years ago
  • by Firefox user 14633981, 6 years ago
    Can't live without it. Set it to random and learn something every day.

    The contextual flyouts with the the caption and related APODs and other links are a really nice touch.
  • by Firefox user 14569133, 6 years ago
  • by Firefox user 13983379, 7 years ago
    This is without a doubt not only my favorite APOD related Firefox extension but also my favorite piece of "by The Trav" software I've ever used.

    by The Trav is a name you can trust when it comes to pictures of space in your new tabs!