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Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Beta

Firefox 3 beta 5 released

Firefox 3 beta 5Mozilla has released yet another beta version of the next generation Firefox web browser. Firefox 3 beta 5 doesn't have a ton of new features, but it fixes a lot of bugs and packs a bunch of under the hood tweaks that make the browser easier to use and more attractive.

Firefox 3 beta 5 features tighter integration with the Windows, Mac, and Linux operating system. That means you have native icons and interface widgets. The OS X version supports Growl notifications, and the Linux version uses the native GTK theme.

The Places organizer has been updated, making it easier to organize, search, tag, and browse through your bookmarks and browsing history.

And the JavaScript engine has been updated, meaning web applications like Gmail and Zoho Office run much faster in Firefox 3 beta 5 than in Firefox 2.

Keep in mind that this is still a beta, and you may experience problems. Extensions and add-ons that work in prior versions of Firefox might not be compatible with Firefox 3 beta 5. And for those of you who are tired of hearing Download Squad bloggers complain that Firefox 3 beta doesn't work well with the version of Flash used by Blogsmith, our blogging client, you're in luck. That problem has disappeared with this build, so we'll finally shut up about it!

Filed under: Internet, Blogging, Mozilla, Beta

Mozilla says Firefox 3 beta is ready for prime time, we beg to differ

Firefox 3 beta 4
We've been following the development of Firefox 3 pretty closely around here, because we're a software blog, and what else are we going to do? The beta versions of Firefox 3 have added a ton of cool new features like an improved location bar, better bookmark management, full page zoom and better memory management. But it's still beta software. And we're not quite ready to agree with Mozilla VP Mike Schroepfer when he tells Reuters that Firefox 3 beta 4 is ready for the masses.

Don't get us wrong, most of the time Firefox 3 beta 4 works perfectly. But as far as we here at Download Squad are concerned, there's at least one fatal flaw. It's not compatible with Blogsmith, the blogging client we use, which relies on some Flash features that aren't supported by Firefox 3 yet.

Schroepfer may be right when he says that Firefox 3 "is much more stable" than most other browsers. But if there's a web site you need to visit every day that's not supported, stability only takes you so far. What have your experiences with Firefox 3 been like? Anyone else having problems or is it just us? What other features, bug fixes would you like to see in the final version which should be out in a few months?

Filed under: Internet, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Open Source, Beta

Mozilla releases Firefox 3 beta 1 (for real this time)

Firefox 3 beta 1The first real, official, and honest to-goodness beta release of Firefox 3 is out. You know, not like that little false alarm pre-beta version we told you about a few weeks ago.

Still, the main differences between this beta and that pre-release copy are that the Firefox team has spent a few more weeks hammering out bugs. The feature set is pretty much what we knew it would be.
  • Updates to the Gecko rendering engine which should improve stability.
  • New Places feature makes it easier to find the sites you've visited most recently, most often, or starred for coming back to later.
  • New security features alert you when you're visiting insecure web sites and let you auto-scan downloads with your antivirus software
We're still not quite ready to replace Firefox 2 with an admittedly still buggy beta. But it's pretty exciting to see where Mozilla is going with its flagship web browser.

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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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