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Firefox posts

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Mozilla, Browsers

Firefox is going to beat Microsoft's IE9 at its own game

Credit to Bas Schouten. Grabbed from the CNET article in the via.
Hot on the heels of the announcement that IE9 would use Direct2D to improve its rendering performance, Firefox have stated their intent to do the same -- and sooner! In a a tweet, Chris Blizzard, an employee of Mozilla, said that Firefox would include Direct2D support -- and he bet it would be shipped sooner than IE9!

Direct2D is a technology included in Microsoft's DirectX multimedia tools. Usually you would only experience the power of DirectX in playing games, but it seems we're finally going to see extensive use of DirectX in office and home use -- the next few months and years will see significant speed-ups to your general computer use and Internet browsing.

Whether this is simply a reaction to the announcement of IE9, or if Firefox had been intending to include D2D support all along, I guess we'll never know. One thing's for certain though, the fast-moving nature of Firefox and Chrome development has played a large part in nibbling away at Internet Explorer's market share.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Locationbar² adds breadcrumbs, domain emphasis to your Firefox address bar

Firefox's Awesome Bar is definitely a more powerful tool than it used to be. It's still got room for improvement and tweaking, though - and fortunately there are plenty of nifty add-ons available to do just that.

One worth checking out is Locationbar². You can see one of the add-on's features in my screenshot. Hold down your control, shift, or alt key and directories in the URL become clickable. While it's not useful everywhere, it does come in handy when browsing many download and shopping sites (especially those with poorly-designed navigation).

Locationbar² also adds emphasis to the current domain name. It's a good way to make sure you're not being spoofed by a deceptive link - to a fake Facebook or Hotmail login page, for example.

Head to the options screen to customize the color used and set the text to bold if you choose. While there, you can also optionally hide protocol prefixes (like http://. https://, ftp://. and file://), tweak the linkification settings, and more.

Filed under: News, Mozilla, Browsers

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

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]

Filed under: Games, Mozilla, Browsers

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

Firefox/PS3 mash-up. Stolen from CNET, who stole it from Gizmodo.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]

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

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

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.

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

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


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.

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

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

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.

Read more →

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

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

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.

Filed under: Utilities, P2P

How do you download torrentless torrents? Use Magnetiser for Firefox

Want to download torrents without downloading a .torrent file first? You can do it with Magnet links, which are supported in a bunch of major torrent clients, including uTorrent and Vuze (formerly known as Azureus). Instead of using a .torrent file, the magnet protocol uses DHT and the torrent's hash, so you've essentially got a torrentless torrent. Magnet links can be tricky to find, but a new Firefox add-on called Magnetiser lets you pull them from Torrentz or isoHunt.

With Magnetiser installed, go to any torrent detail page and click the "magnetise" button in your toolbar. You should be prompted to pick a torrent client that supports magnet links, and then your download will start. As TorrentFreak points out, this is pretty cool when a .torrent file has been removed, but Torrentz or isoHunt still have the hash data. You can add trackers to Magnetise manually, but it comes preloaded with the most commonly-used trackers, so it should work right out of the box.

Magnetise isn't up on the Mozilla add-on index yet, but TorrentFreak has linked to the .xpi file, which you can download and drag to Firefox to install.


[via TorrentFreak]

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Open Source, Browsers

Mobile Firefox has a new logo: Furry fetishists rejoice!

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!

Filed under: Features, Mozilla, Browsers, Lists

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

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!

Read more →

Filed under: Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla Jetpack contest winner harnesses GPU power to process data

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.

Filed under: Utilities, Browsers

Get a Firefox 3.7 feature early with Tab Progress Bar

If you're gung-ho about upcoming versions of Firefox, you can start testing some of their features via add-ons. Firefox 3.7 is slated to introduce a new look for the progress bar, relocating it to the top of each individual tab but you can enable the feature in current versions of the browser right now, with Tab Progress Bar. This neat little add-on won't cost you much disk space, weighing in at a miniscule 6kb.

A new-look progress bar sounds like frivolous decoration, but it serves a practical purpose, too. If you often load bunches of tabs at once, It's helpful to be able to see the progress of each page you're loading at a glance. With this new design, you won't even have to change tabs to know whether those huge videos are almost done loading. One minor quibble: I've found that Tab Progress Bar best used with a theme that doesn't highlight your current tab in blue, as the progress bar tends to blend in with blue tabs.

Firefox 3.7 and 4.0 will certainly have bigger and better things to offer, but Tab Progress Bar is one small slice of the future that you don't have to wait for.

[via Lifehacker]

Filed under: Social Software, Humor

Thumbs down! Firefox users can now "dislike" posts on Facebook

You might have seen the various petitions on Facebook to add a "dislike" feature to the site, to complement the "like" option in the News Feed. Well, Facebook hasn't listened. However, if you're a Firefox user, you can add a thumbs-down feature to FB with (what else?) a Facebook Dislike add-on.

It sounds kind of silly to keep track of your own dislikes, but it turns out that the extension feeds them into a database, so they'll be visible to anyone else who has it installed. The dislikes blend in seamlessly with the Facebook News Feed, appearing right below regular likes. It looks as if the members of those pro-dislike Facebook groups should be downloading Firefox and checking this extension out.

[via CNET]

Filed under: Productivity, Browsers

Make your Firefox more like Google Chrome with Pin Tabs

One of the slick visual elements of Google's Chrome browser is pin tabs. They're those compact tabs that're only as wide as a favicon, and they save a ton of space in your tab bar. You could point out that Firefox doesn't have this feature, but I'd give you the Firefox fanatic's standard answer: there's an add-on for that! For Chrome-style mini-tabs in Firefox, grab the Pin Tab extension.

Pinning a tab using ctrl-click shrinks it and moves it to the left of your tab bar. A pinned tab is preserved across all sessions, and you can't accidentally upset it using the address bar. If you enter a new URL while a pinned tab is selected, that URL opens in a new tab instead. You can pin tabs by dragging them to the left of the tab bar, and unpin them by dragging them to the right. Pinned tabs save a ton of space, since they're several times smaller than regular ones, so this add-on is ideal for those who have dozens of sites open at once.

[via gHacks]

UPDATE: The developer of this add-on seems to have taken it down for right now.

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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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