Filed under: Mozilla

Firefox Army clashes with IE in Central Europe, wins browser share crown

by Lee Mathews Nov 20th 2009

The Firefox army is hundreds of millions of soldiers strong. After successfully taking the southernmost continent on the globe, the Mozilla Militia continues to run full speed ahead across Europe. Today's battlefront: the central region.

As you can see in the header image, Firefox and IE recently crossed paths. The chart shows data gathered from nine countries - Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Russia, and Ukraine - from January 1, 2007 to the present. Internet Explorer continues its downward slide, Firefox has now claimed almost 50% of the browser share in Central Europe.

So go ahead, EU, complain all you want about Microsoft unfairly using their influence to ensure everyone's PC is running IE. It's obviously not hurting Firefox (or Opera, for that matter).

Maybe users really are smart enough to find and install their own browser? Who'da thunk it.

[via Mozilla]

Tags: firefox, market share, MarketShare, web browser, WebBrowser

Filed under: Games, Mozilla, Browsers

Proper web browsing on a console: Firefox coming to the Sony PS3?

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 20th 2009

It seems the age of humdrum, crippled browsers on consoles might finally be coming to an end! Though the details are very slim, with the only source being an unnamed insider very close to Sony, it is exciting news indeed if it turns out to true.

Games consoles have always had feeble browser offerings, with PS3's default browser generally considered one of the worst and most unreliable. Porting Firefox to the PS3 would make a lot of sense, especially if Sony intend to inroads against the competing XBox Live service. Or perhaps they need a proper web browser for their newly-announced iTunes-killer...?

Obviously this is very much a rumour, but it would make a lot of sense -- and it will probably appear quite soon, considering how hard Sony are pushing for a larger slice of the console market at the moment.

I wonder if Flash and the ability to stream videos from sites like ~~YouPo~~ YouTube will be included....

[via CNET]

Tags: console, firefox, ps3, sony

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Windows 7 taskbar previews to be disabled by default in Firefox 3.6

by Lee Mathews Nov 18th 2009

Those of you running Firefox on Windows 7 who were excited when taskbar previews landed, get ready for a little disappointment. It looks as though getting Aero features ready in time for the release of Firefox 3.6 is no longer part of the game plan.

It was already known that jump list support won't be arriving until later on. After a lengthy discussion on Bugzilla, the decision was made to disable Firefox 3.6's other Windows 7 integration feature.

The code is still there in 3.6b3pre, so you can still enable thumbnail previews in your about:config. The general feeling is that too many users were still seeing the spinning up circles and not actual thumbnails.

The general perception is that Windows 7 enthusiasts would be OK with simply flipping the switch themselves.

Ultimately, this move is about Firefox devs addressing more critical issues now so that 3.6 can be released. They'll have plenty of time to perfect the feature in future minor updates to 3.6. For now, the priority needs to be on getting 3.6 final out the door.

Tags: aero, firefox, tasbkar thumbnails, TasbkarThumbnails, windows 7, Windows7

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla's Weave browser sync add-on for Firefox hits beta

by Lee Mathews Nov 16th 2009

I've been using Mozilla Weave to keep my Firefox profiles synched across different machines and platforms for quite some time. Today, Mozilla Labs has announced that the add-on is finally ready for official beta testing.

Version 1.0b1 is out now and available for installation. Version 0.8 is still listed in the Firefox add-ons directory, but it should install the newest release. If you're already running Weave, just head to your Firefox add-ons and check for updates.

What's new in the latest version? More speed, a simplified interface, and smarter syncing in the background. Weave's settings screen is nicely integrated into the Firefox options menu, so there's every chance we'll see it integrated in a future version of Firefox - like its Labs cousin Personas.

Tags: add-ons, addons, extensions, firefox, mozilla, sync, synchronize, weave

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Add URL tooltips to Firefox with a handy add-on

by Lee Mathews Nov 12th 2009

I'm not a big fan of status bars in browsers. Most of the time, they're just wasting 20 or so pixels of vertical display space.

That doesn't mean I want to miss out on the functions the status bar provides - like displaying the destination of links I hover over.

The URL Tooltip addon offers a simple remedy for that. Once installed, you'll see a tooltip balloon whenever you park your pointer on a link. And never mind the status bar - it's nice to see the link appear in the spot you're already looking at.

For those of you running a netbook, this is a great little add-on to make part of your add-on arsenal.

And no, I did not just buy a Maximus keyboard - just in case you were wondering...

[via Mozilla Links]

Tags: balloon, hover, link, tooltip, url

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla launches Jetpack Gallery, restart-free pseudo add-ons now available

by Lee Mathews Nov 12th 2009

Jetpack is certainly an interesting project, and the fact that it brings no-restart add-on-like functionality to Firefox is awesome.

Today, Mozilla announced the launch of the Jetpack Gallery. It is to jetpacks what the Firefox add-ons site is to traditional add-ons. Up until now, Jetpack users had pretty limited options for finding packs - a single page of descriptions and links maintained by Mozilla and a community-powered assortment at Userscripts.org.

At the Jetpack Gallery, you can search for jetpacks and browse by tag. The assortment is still quite limited, though submissions will likely begin flowing in now that the doors have officially opened.

Tags: firefox, jetpack gallery, JetpackGallery, mozilla labs, MozillaLabs

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 now ready for download, with 190 bug fixes

by Jay Hathaway Nov 11th 2009

The second beta version of Firefox 3.6 has arrived, following hot on the furry little heels of 3.6b1, which was only a week and a half old. Mozilla's touting a whopping 190 bug fixes in that time, many of them user-submitted. If you're using an older version of 3.6, you should definitely update.

In my personal experience with 3.6, I've found that most of my themes and several of my add-ons (including the essential Greasemonkey) haven't been updated yet. On the whole, however, it feels very fast (especially at startup) and has proven very stable.

All the major upgrades came in 3.6b1, but if you're using Firefox 3 or 3.5, here's what might entice you to give 3.6 a shot: it offers faster Javascript performance and startup time, built-in support for the Personas one-click theming system, full-screen video and poster frames. If you want to wait for the final version of 3.6, you'll be pleased to hear it's scheduled for December. If the quick turnaround on Beta 2 is any indication, Mozilla is back on track to make that deadline.

Tags: beta, browser, firefox, firefox 3.6, Firefox3.6, mozilla

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox for Mobile Beta now available... if you own a Nokia N810 or N900

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 10th 2009

All ten of you that don't own a BlackBerry or iPhone... rejoice! I just can't believe I get to use the new Firefox for Mobile logo twice in two days.

It might be buggy, it might be slow, but the Fennec web browser has finally been branded a Mozilla product and dubbed the 'Firefox for Mobile Beta 5'. If you want to see a picture of it up and running on a mobile handset, head on over to the NokiaExperts website.

Here's a quick run-down of the features and neat bits:

AWESOMEBAR -- I had no idea it was actually called this. It's the searching-url-navigation-bar thing. I wonder how slow it searches through my web history, compared to the sluggish performance on my laptop...
Security -- password manager, pop-up blocker, automatic updates -- all there!
Add-ons -- you can find and install add-ons straight to the device (though I have no idea what kind of add-on compatibility there is...)
Device geolocation -- it seems there's a JavaScript API call that lets developers/web sites geolocate the handset? Cool.
Neat swiping stuff -- swipe left and right to expose and hide navigation and tabs.

Awesome! Now when do we see it on a device with larger-than-miniscule user base?

[via NokiaExperts]

Tags: fennec, firefox mobile, FirefoxMobile, mobile browser, MobileBrowser

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Mobile Firefox has a new logo: Furry fetishists rejoice!

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 9th 2009

You are looking at the new logo for Firefox Mobile: The Pocketfox!

It looks more like some Harry Potter fan-art in my opinion -- someone with a Fawkes the Phoenix fetish -- but no matter! It's cute and very vibrant. It will certainly stand out, and ultimately that's what matters.

I can't help but wonder if the 'What's that in your pocket?' double entendre was intentional or not. I'd like to think the Mozilla developers have a sense of humor! If you want to find out more about Firefox Mobile (I don't think many people have heard of it), check out its 'Coming Soon...' page, which is full of juicy details about the new browser.

Mozilla have held a few contests recently. The one that's open at the moment -- 'Five years of Firefox' -- is open until December 9th. They're looking for poster ideas to celebrate their birthday. It feels like only yesterday that I held my Firefox 1.0 launch party...

What do you think of the new logo? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Tags: art, browser, firefox, firefox mobile, FirefoxMobile, logo

Filed under: Features, Mozilla, Browsers, Lists

Five essential addons for new Firefox users (Happy fifth birthday, Firefox!)

by Lee Mathews Nov 9th 2009

Five years ago today, a new web browser arrived on the scene. Yes, it was Firefox 1.0. At the half-decade mark, Firefox has become a force to be reckoned with. Nearly one in four people on the Internet is now using Firefox - and that includes the entire population of Antarctica!

If Firefox users were a country, they'd be the third most populous in the world - behind only China and India - at 330 million people! 2009 has certainly been a big year for the Fox.

Mozilla's add-on site reports 4.3 million registered users using nearly 164 million add-ons. That's a lot of people using a lot of add-ons. If you're a new Firefox user, you might be having trouble deciding which are worth installing.

Since this is Firefox's fifth birthday, here are five add-ons that can make browsing better for just about anyone!

Tags: add-ons, addons, extensions, features, firefox, lists, mozilla

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla Jetpack contest winner harnesses GPU power to process data

by Lee Mathews Nov 6th 2009

Mozilla Labs has announced a winner of the Jetpack .5 contest. While Jetpack is known primarily as a framework for allowing coders with a web development background to put together add-on type enhancements for Firefox, the winner 's project wasn't your run-of-the-mill sidebar hack.

Alex Miltsev's submission was jetpack-to-CUDA, and it provides Jetpack developers with a simple way to offload intense processing tasks to GPUs. CUDA (demo video above) is NVidia's parallel computing architecture - and with CUDA-capable chips in more than 100 million PCs, Miltsev's handiwork could enable some seriously cool (and powerful) Jetpack add-ons to be developed.

The runners up (not to take anything away from them) were much more standard Jetpack offerings - a Google Translate extension, link shortener and sharer, and Twitter client.

Kudos to Miltssev for his creative entry! Here's hoping we see some truly awesome things in future versions of Firefox and Jetpack as a result.

Tags: add-ons, addons, cuda, extensions, firefox, jetpack

Filed under: Internet, News, Mozilla, Holiday Gift Guide, Search, Browsers, Web

Track Black Friday prices with Invisible Hand add on for Firefox

by Dolores Parker Nov 3rd 2009

We've covered Invisible Hand, the discreet shopping comparison add on for Firefox, which displays prices on items you are searching on the web. Just in time for Black Friday, the hand has trotted out a new add on which along with other improvements, incorporates Google search results.

Now, you can get your price results in real time so you know you're getting the best deal. My test drive of the hand went smooth, the results loaded up within a second or two and updates were very discreet. This is a real time saver for getting price results.

The add on will be officially released to the Mozilla site within a few weeks, but the first 200 Download Squad readers can download the beta version. Just click on the link below and key in invisibleDLS for the access code.

http://preview.getinvisiblehand.com/

Tags: Black Friday deals, Black Friday Sales, BlackFridayDeals, BlackFridaySales, firefox-add-on, HGG, Invisible hand add on for firefox, InvisibleHandAddOnForFirefox, online price comparison, OnlinePriceComparison, shopping comparison tools, ShoppingComparisonTools

Filed under: Microsoft, Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox 3.6 has juicy Superbar integration with Windows 7 (and you can disable it)

by Sebastian Anthony Nov 1st 2009

Yesterday I told you about the new Firefox 3.6 Beta -- and today, I can show you a neat bit of Windows 7 integration. Windows 7 uses Microsoft's Aero window manager and theme -- you've probably heard about it, or learnt to hate it in Vista -- and in it there's a cool technology called 'Aero Peek'. As you can see in the screenshot above, in Firefox 3.6 Beta, Aero Peek is now fully enabled, and smoother than its implementation in 3.6b1pre.

Aero Peek lets you see what's going on in a particular program without having to actually click anything -- you can just mouse-over it on the alt-tab running-programs menu or on the Superbar. In Firefox 3.5 this works for the Firefox window itself, but not the tabs within. Now, in 3.6 Beta, you can see what's going on in any tab by hovering your mouse over the thumbnail. I do wonder if this requires massive disk-swapping though, or if it takes snapshots -- but I'm pretty sure Aero shows you the window contents in real-time. Either way, it's cool, and beats the hell out of tabbing through 20 different tabs to find what you're looking for.

Those of you that are already using 3.6 might have noticed another neat thing: when you have a bunch of tabs (10+ in our testing) open, you get a "buttonized" list of favicons and page titles, instead of thumbnails. You can still jump straight to a tab or see a preview from the Superbar.

Don't like the Aero Peek integration? You can easily disable it -- if you're worried about the potential performance hit -- just whack about:config into your Firefox address bar and set browser.taskbar.previews.enable to false.

[Download Firefox 3.6 Beta here]

Tags: aero, beta, firefox, superbar, windows 7, Windows7

Filed under: Linux, Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla release mockups for upcoming Firefox Linux releases

by Brad Linder Oct 31st 2009

The folks at Mozilla have released the first mockup showing what Firefox 4.0 may look like on Linux... and it looks an awful lot like the Windows version.

Firefox 4.0 isn't due out for another year or so, but the developers have already stated a few goals for the project. One idea is to move the browser tabs above the location bar. Another is to consolidate the menus into a few tabs that will hang out next to the location bar. Both movies will free up space, allowing more of the browser to be dedicated to displaying web pages.

If the end result looks familiar, that's because it looks an awful lot like the default layout in the Google Chrome web browser.

Mozilla has also released some mockups of Firefox 3.7 for Linux. One of the most notable changes is that the interface will be more consistent across platforms. Firefox 3.7 for Linux will use the same Forward/Back buttons as the Mac and Windows versions, for example. The edges of the browser, tabs, and other elements will also be curved rather than angled, which will make the browser look more like the mac and Windows versions.

At this point, both the Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 mockups represent proposed changes and not finished products, so things may change by the time these browsers are actually released.

[via OMG! Ubuntu]

Tags: firefox, firefox-3.7, firefox-4.0, linux, mockups, web-browsers

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 now available!

by Sebastian Anthony Oct 30th 2009

Let's not beat around the bush: Download the new version of Firefox now.

With that out of the way, here are the new features that debut with Firefox 3.6, straight from the release page:

Users can now change their browser's appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
Support for the WOFF font format.
Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

These new changes mostly come from an upgrade to version 1.9.2 of Gecko, the HTML engine that does most of the rendering work in Firefox (and its light-weight sister Camino) -- and as with all version revisions, you will have to update most or all of your add-ons (there's even a compatibility checker!)

Developers should check out the notes for 3.6, if they haven't yet updated the add-ons they administer.

If you've heard enough, here are some direct download links to get you upgraded to the Beta ASAP:

Tags: beta, firefox, gecko

The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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Filed under: Mozilla

Firefox Army clashes with IE in Central Europe, wins browser share crown

Proper web browsing on a console: Firefox coming to the Sony PS3?

Windows 7 taskbar previews to be disabled by default in Firefox 3.6

Mozilla's Weave browser sync add-on for Firefox hits beta

Add URL tooltips to Firefox with a handy add-on

Mozilla launches Jetpack Gallery, restart-free pseudo add-ons now available

Firefox 3.6 Beta 2 now ready for download, with 190 bug fixes

Firefox for Mobile Beta now available... if you own a Nokia N810 or N900

Mobile Firefox has a new logo: Furry fetishists rejoice!

Five essential addons for new Firefox users (Happy fifth birthday, Firefox!)

Mozilla Jetpack contest winner harnesses GPU power to process data

Track Black Friday prices with Invisible Hand add on for Firefox

Firefox 3.6 has juicy Superbar integration with Windows 7 (and you can disable it)

Mozilla release mockups for upcoming Firefox Linux releases

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 now available!

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