Follow these nine top tips which will your browsing experience silky smooth!

-Requirements -
***FireFox (Windows)***
***FireFox (MAC)***

1. Open firefox and type the following in the address bar: about:config

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

2. Right click> New> integer

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

3. a window will come up name it: layout’s.initialpaint.delay

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

(After this, click the ok button)

4. Another box will come up change that to: 0

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

Now, in the filter box which is located just below the addressbar and tabs, is something called the filter bar. It’s role is to sort out the text and it narrows down what you type in the box

5. Type the following in the filter bar: network.http.proxy.pipelining
once located double click so it is then set to true and not false

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

6. Do the same to: network.http.pipelining

7. Now, you will see both are set to true

8.  Try to find network.http.pipelining.maxrequests
Double click on that and a window will come up, then change that to around “1000″ though you can go higher (some people say 30) i just havent tried it yet but sometimes if you do go higher it doesnt go as fast but “1000″ loads really abruptly.

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

9 ok now that that is what step 5-8 should look like

This image has been resized.Click to view original image

^^EXTRAS^^^^
**NOTE::**
–If your pc is already abnormally quick and you have a fast internet service provider (ISP), then you probably will not notice much difference in browsing speed. However, with these tips who know’s how fast your browsing speed can become!

– In addition, if you would like to increase the speed of your virtual ram, use these instructions below:

1) Go into your Control Panel

2) Go to Performance and Maintenance

3) Click on the Advanced tab

4) Under the Performance panel, click Settings

5) On the window that pops up, you should be on the “Visual Effects” tab…navigate to Advanced

6) On the bottom panel where it says “Virtual Memory,” click change

7) Change the initial size to about 3000 and change the max to 4096

Did you find this article useful? Are there any other tips you’d like to add? Please feel free to comment below!

Tips including mouse gestures, widgets, gnu aspell and much more!

Opera is a browser which people do not really pay much attention to since it only became an open source suite just four years ago, whilst rival browsers such as IE and Firefox were battling against each other for the number one spot. However, the pioneer of web browsing still caters for over 25 million users worldwide. One feature that stands out for me is the loading time, no other comes even close to touching the sheer speed of the browser’s speed.

We have a lot to thank Opera for since it shows off an authentic interface and before any other browsers did so. In addition they enabled bookmarking space and one-click links. Like Firefox they have an add-on system but Opera’s tend to be made by coders. Plugins include a download helper, audio and visual downloads, bookmark managers, in built mail feature, personal organiser, support for existing widgets and much more!

There are countless numbers of handy tips that are on offer when discussing the open source browser, all of which will improve your online experience dramatically and perhaps persuading you to change from Firefox 3.5 to Opera 9.64 or Opera 10 beta. Now, I will show you the top 10 tips to making your web experience more effective with a few little tweaks.

Check your mail with Opera’s built-in email client.

Opera’s built-in email client allows you to open all your email addresses from one application, deleting the need for another running application thus saving bandwidth and time! In order to get the client started simply follow these instructions:

• Firstly, you will be required to sign up for an account with Opera by going to the Tools Menu>>Mail and Chat accounts.
• Once at the set-up wizard, you have to select what kind of account you’d like to create whether it be e-mail, newsgroups or IRC chat.
• As with any other registration, you will be prompted to give your name and email address as well as an additional IMAP account set-up.
• Having triumphantly set up your account, you can see your mails inside your browser by using the panel and Mail menu that arises. In addition to the panels, the email application comes like a normal webpage with the flexibility of being able to arrange specific emails into particular folders.

Access your favourite websites via Speed dialling.

Speed dialling is possibly the most unique and effective feature that Opera specialises in. It allows you to initally choose a preferred webpage and then link it to that thumbnail ranging from 1-9. Opera either chooses your dials automatically by selecting your most visited sites or you can edit each dial manually! Each time you create a new tab, this speed dial will appear and you will be able to access nine different webpages with just one click!

The Speed dial feature is unique to Opera and has been around since 2007, thus other rival browsers such as Chrome have emulated the easy to use, time saving feature. Even Firefox have created an add-on for speed dialling. Thus, when using Opera, speed dialling is a must!

Opera’s widgets and little gadgets making your online experience awesome!

Opera also offers a widgets feature which gives you the option to have small, useful gizmos either on your browser or desktop. These widgets are available here.

All of the widgets are ordered into particular sections according to ones that are the highest-rated, ones recomended by peers, most downloaded and the newest widgets which are coming in all the time. In addition there is a category list down the left hand side giving you widgets for updating your facebook/twitter accounts, analog clock, google translator and many more! This effectively acts as firefox’s add-ons but for Opera. Extremely useful and almost knocks off the need for Firefox since their forte is their add-ons.

Have a bad time remembering login details? Never fear, Magic Wand is here!

Being a login invalid, I despise entering all my details to every site I go on a daily basis. Opera’s wand feature gives a password manager to all of the site you please, though if you do not agree with pop-ups, you will have to select yes for Wand to function properly.

If you want conifgure options which allow you to remember details for particular sites by going to Tools>>Advanced Options>>Wand Passwords. I favour this little tip it is secure, saves time and does not require too much effort.

Set-up Opera’s spell checker… GNU Aspell

In order to install the spell checker which surprisingly isn’t already in-built, you should first download GNU Aspell. Next, you should install this application via restarting the browser. From the same page you have to then install some Aspell dictionaries, all you need to do is find the English package, which don’t worry is FREE! Install the dictionaries and then restart the browser. Now on each webpage/webdocument, you can edit anything that is gramatically wrong, again making your life a whole lot easier since otherwise you would of had to copy/paste into word and then spell check it!

Manage your bookmarks effectively with Opera’s Bookmark Manager

Opera seems to be one of the very few browsers which thinks bookmarks are a really important part of making a complete online browsing experience. Thus, you should go to Bookmarks>>Manage Bookmarks where you can open new tabs showing your current favourites. In addition, you can:

• Add new addresses to your huge ongoing list.
• Create new folders so that your bookmarks stay organized.
• Arrange your personal favourite bookmarks below your address bar.

A very useful feature to have since there are over ten million sites which you cannot remember but you need in the future!

Is your download slow? Install Opera’s download manager

Many of you may have been downloading an application such as iTunes or an update for some software, and found it has either crashed or paused. Opera’s transfer panel ( available by going to Tools/Transfers) allows you to see all of your downloads in your history. Also, if one download has crashed, simply right click it and use the restart transfer option via the menu, making everything seem normal!

Command easy browser functions with Mouse Gestures.

Mouse gesture allows users to do simple browser functions with tiny,quick mouse movements. When you first use a gesture, you will be asked to turn the feature on, so beware of not selecting yes! Mouse gesture features include:

• Navigation gestures such as going to homepage, previous/next page in history.
• Link gestures such as opening link in foreground/background.
• Windows gestures like reloading, minimizing, opening/closing documents and duplicating windows.
• Wheel gestures like scrolling up/down and zooming in/out.

Customize your browser’s appearance by changing the skin.

If you do not like Opera’s interface or are just plain bored of it, you can change the appearance of the browser. In order to change the skin, go to Tools>>Appearance>>Find more skins. Are you not satisfied by just changing the colour scheme, remember you are able to edit various buttons and toolbars at the top.

Close a browser tab accidentally? Don’t worry, Tab trash is there!

Did you close a browser tab without noticing? Don’t worry because the tab trash can will definitely have it. The trash can is located in the top right hand corner and all you need to do is click on it, then all your recently closed tabs are there at your pleasure.

This concludes my post. Have you got any additional tips encouraging users to use Opera over other browsers? Please feel free to comment below!

http://addons.mozilla.org/ - perhaps the best time saving site ever created?

The biggest advantage FireFox has over other browsers such as Chrome, is the vast collection of free add-ons there are on offer!

Over the last five years, FireFox has been developing and growing at a substantial rate, establishing itself as the most used open source browser. Why has it come such a long way? Well, when users go onto FireFox, they find it to be easy to use, clean interface and most importantly the extensions ( add-ons) which makes online browsing oh so much better and beneficial.

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions refers to codes that are able to be installed inside the browser in order to add an extra feature or function for the user. Hence, we call these jigsaw of codes, add-ons. In addition to adding a new feature, extensions allow us to change the browser interface, adding a language translator, altering the browser’s look and feel by displaying a new theme and more!

For a wide selection of all of Firefox’s add-ons just visit Mozilla’s add-on site. Here you can see and download over 9000 add-ons which are bound to be useful in one or another! Also, when you install all add-ons they arrive in .xpi format but do not worry you’re computer will change it for you.

In this post. I will display what I think is Firefox’s hottest 10 add-ons available to download in sequence. Thus, let’s begin!

1.Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey was one of the first ever add-ons i downloaded into FireFox. Effectively, it allows you to install scripts to any HTML web-page and each time you revisit that page, the changes will always be there. With the scripts you download and manage them, create new ones as well as use manipulation on them and the ability to edit the ones you have downloaded. Another aspect that makes Greasemonkey the best add-on is because you can activate and deactivate any one of your scripts with one click!

Once you have installed Greasemonkey and restarted your browser, you should click on the symbol which enables the application. In order to find already built user scripts visit here. When you find a script you like, merely click install and Greasemonkey will do the rest for you and then supplies you with information about the sites compatibility circumstances.

The whole application revolves around Greasemonkey’s context menu. Here you can enable, disable or un-install any script you have and in addition you will find all the scripts that are obtainable on the left hand side. If you select a script you can see you a full description of each script. Right at the beginning, I found it hard to find how to create a new user script, as silly as it sounds, but all you need to do is go to click on Greasemonkey Menu/New user script.

Greasemonkey is a fantastic application once you get used to it but the initial stages are a bit tricky. Nevertheless, it is an add-on that is easy to use,manage and make user scripts which will make more features to all websites you visit as well as save some valuable time!

Rating : 10/10

2. Adblock Plus

Adblock Plus is also an extremely useful add-on and it was a hard decision putting it at second. This is because the add-on blocks the biggest waste of bandwidth on the Internet, all the advertisements. Instead users, would like to see the content not to look at unattractive ads suggesting You can lose 2 stone in 1 week which everyone knows is not possible!

Adblock Plus allows the browser to filter and stop online adverts, make up your own rules, blocking of flash format and white-listing function. It is a great updated version of Adblock but with many more useful features. In order to enable Adblock Plus, well it’s really quite simple!  Just follow these steps below to make these blockers function properly!

• Add a filter by right clicking on the item you want to discard and click on the Adblock image. You need the web address of the banner you want to get rid and finally check the blocking filter box.
• If this isn’t enough protection for you, go to advanced view where you can block one whole domain.
• In Adblock Plus’s preferences, you can find out what filters have been set for which sites. Thus, it shows the your exceptions, ad blocking rules and filter subscriptions. From here, you are able to add, enable, disable, remove and edit any filters you please.

Overall, Adblock Plus is possibly the most useful add-on out there since it blocks out adverts that ruins your online experience and the settings are easy to customize for your use only.

Rating: 9.5/10

3. ReminderFox

Reminderfox is a sort of add-on that is accustomed to users who either have a bad memory or users that are constantly going to the same site over and over again on a daily basis. The growing add-on allows us to easily manage lists that you need to do/reminders, integrated alarms and notifications and automated synchronization of reminders to your handheld devices!

As soon as you have set a specific reminder, Reminderfox produces a ribbon-like icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen. In addition, there is almost colour key that shows you the importance of each reminder. The key is as follows:

• Red signifies the reminder is on this day, thus being red-hot in importance.
• Blue represents that it is an upcoming reminder, i.e. two or three days.
• Grey shows that there are not any reminders in the next couple of weeks of any importance.

When you hover over the ReminderFox image, a calender will appear in front you showing you important work you must complete. Here is where you are able to add, delete or edit any reminder you want by selecting Add Reminder. When you are in this option, there are more specific things you can do such as set a time, date or any other notes you prefer to have to help you. Other features include synchronization of the calender with reminders, to -do lists, notifications or customized lists made by you. In addition an alarm can be put on so if you have trouble waking up in the mornings, this can be your assistant!

Overall, this add-on is great for everyone because if you are always on the Internet browsing or working, this application can remind you instantly so there is no way you will forget that haircut appointment at 1pm!

Rating: 9/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

4. SmarterFox

SmarterFox is one of my favourite add-ons because the job it does it genius. It allows your browsing to be 2x as fast by speeding up common tasks. This means you get quicker searching, downloading, visiting, copy/paste option and much more.

When searching for a particular keyword, for example, ‘football’ the application highlights it and displays icons linking back to Google, Youtube, Amazon and Wikipedia. If you click on the Youtube icon it takes you to videos that are associated directly with ‘football’ so it could come up with players who are currently big in newspapers. There are many other features to Smarterfox, but I will just share a few below:

• Save bandwidth by downloading all images/videos on the same page.
• Change between rival search engines with just one click!
• Search by highlighting a block of words and then clicking on the desired bubble.
• Results from Google already show whilst typing in your search bar!
• Alter text based urls into clickable links to websites.

Don’t like one of these features? SmarterFox also allows you to disable any one of them by going to Tools/Smarterfox.

In conclusion, Smarterfox is a great tool saving time and bandwidth. From the name, you can see the add-on is always one step ahead of the game and from just a few of the unique features, we can see this! Fast, reliable and smart. A great tool for any user!

Rating : 9/10

5. Web Developer

Web Developer is a neat little add-on which acts as a supplementary toolbar that is integrated into FireFox supplying an assortment of tools for developers and website designers. The add-on gives code validation tools, a vast selection of keyboard shortcuts, a context menu and a View Source option.

The increasingly popular extension is installed as an extra toolbar and thus can be played with via the view menu and when you have tampered with a few of the options, you will see how effective this add-on can really be as well being easy to use.

What does the toolbar contain?

The toolbar has many aspects to it that is in the best interest of all developers out there. To start proceedings, the toolbar contains:

• HTML editor and source viewer/editor.
• User-created spreadsheets and the ability to edit CSS web pages.
• Resources aimed at developers for scripts, forms or styles.
• Useful individual tools such as links, tables and line guides.
• If you have the latest FireFox version, you can use the Document Object Model (DOM) inspector which allows you to inspect, browse and edit the DOM of all the documents you see.
• Validation tools include Feeds, HTML, CSS, Links and WAI.

Subsequently, this tool is a must-have for all web developers as it looks as if it is useless but can turn a normal website designer into one of the worlds best.

Rating : 9/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

6. Wolfram Alpha Google

Recently, I have installed this new add-on but I find it to be one of very good use! The new knowledge search engine, Wolfram Alpha, have effectively joined forces with Google making an great add-on. When you install the add-on, which is a simple process of selecting install, type into google something that interests you, for example a famous place like London the add-on will load some brief information about the city. It will load for this particular example the city’s population, weather, time, elevation and where it is located in England.

This is a great extension because it is bringing detailed, useful information into one search because let’s face it, no one wants to search a ten thousand word page on wikipedia to find just one figure! It is a great new feature which will be beneficial to every user since its mathematical, specific and right down to the point. You are able to search for just about anything and still find some very interesting information, if anything! Much more additional features to come since there is so much more developers can add to this extension!

Overall, a great FireFox extension that is valuable to users, especially for students, who need to know distinct facts and figures for their research. A needy add-on for all as you can save huge amounts of time and bandwidth!

Rating: 8.5/10

7. FireFTP

FireFTP wipes out the need for another client outside Firefox such as SmartFTP. This open source add-on contains everything you need to transfer files to your website. FireFTP includes:

• Support for recursions of SSL/TLS/SFTP/CHMOD.
• File condensing and hashing.
• Regular checks.
• IPv6 support.
• 100% secure sessions
• Directory synchronization
• FXP support and much more.

As soon as you have completed the installation process, you can go to FireFTP by the Tools menu. The user space opens into a new tab and out opens a three section page. One for the server directory( located right), one for the local directory (located left) and the remaining one lies across the bottom of the page is for the status of what is happening in the transferring of files and logs it.

In order to commence transferring files across to your web space, you first have to make an account via FTP Host. Login entering your user-name and password and when you have logged in for the first time, you can login from any other FireFTP add-on in the world!

Overall, a good add-on for both beginners and advanced website holders. Though, this is a more compressed version of the desktop edition of FTP client, it still displays many of the advanced features that the more established version contains.

Rating: 8.5/10

Credit: https://addons.mozilla.org/

8. FoxyTunes

Media Player extension, FoxyTunes, is a relatively fresh FireFox add-on however it has been a big hit with the users that is for sure, with over ten and a half million downloads in less than four months! FoxyTunes enables you to see your iTunes or Windows Media Player at the top of your screen whilst still switching between websites!  Some of the valuable features include:

• Ability to toggle with volume, next/previous track button and play-lists.
• Search for the lyrics of a specific song, pictures for an album, artist biographies as well music related to the genre you are currently listening to!
• Auto-hide button
• Supports iTunes, WMP, Songbird, Winamp, VLC and many more!
• Ability to stream from sites like last.fm straight to your media player via FoxyTunes!

FoxyTune’s mobile toolbar can be moved anywhere on screen and can be customized to your liking by tweaking some keyboard shortcuts, colours and button types. This web media player can be even placed on your desktop so if you’re in the middle of playing a game and need some inspiration, FoxyTunes is for you! With the general hype of social networks and blogs, you can submit what songs you are listening to and which ones are your most played to your Twitter account to your WordPress blog as well as having an alarm clock synchronization option which, as we know, is extremely useful.

In conclusion, this FireFox extension is for those who love music and need to have it around with them throughout their tiring day. If you are not so fond of music, it is worth a look since it can perform a selection of actions and well can improve your online experience!

Rating: 8/10

9. Xmarks

Xmarks ( also known as Foxmarks) is one of the best, if not the best bookmarking tool and add-on. If you have use more than one computer daily, i.e. computer in the day and laptop in the night, this is the ideal extension for you. This is because Xmarks keeps all your bookmarks from all your browsers i.e IE, Chrome and Firefox in order. Astonishingly, Xmarks collects data from over seven hundred thousand bookmarking sites, each with a wide range of site suggestions and small bits of information regarding these sites.

In addition, once you have installed the add-on into your browser, the Xmarks icon appears on the right hand side of the address bar and thus displays some brief information about the site i.e. its niche and also lower down the add-on highlights five similar sites, that have been ordered against the number of people who have bookmarked that particular site. Some users may find it hard to synchronize their bookmarks with this add-on, thus let me break it down even further for you,

• Run the automatic configuration wizard, where all you need to do is enter you desired user-name and password. There is only a problem in this stage if Xmarks has identified a registered account with the same account, in which case you change user-names.
• In order to keep all your bookmarks in one group for a specific laptop/computer, you are able to make several profiles via the Profile Manager. You will need to create/edit other profiles. Here you can decide where all your bookmarks go i.e. to which profile and browser.
• Finally, you must assign yourself an individual PIN code as Xmarks may lose your password in the database and making sure account will not be hacked in the future.

This is a great little add-on to have as it helps your browsing substantially. Thus, when you are browsing to find some news on a classic, famous rugby player, Xmarks will give you sites that will be beneficial to your search.

Rating: 7.5/10

10. Glubble for Families

The Glubble add-on is very much ideal for close families with small children. This gives them the chance to connect on an online term as it enables users to take part in fun online activities, be on time for family outings ( which can be a pain in remembering), and the ability to send messages, photos, videos to other family members, effectively acting as a safe facebook. All of the preferences are set via the toolbar which is mostly taken up by family notifications.

Glubble seems to be for young children only as there is a child mode, which limits particular sites that the youth can go on, protecting them from the threatening side of the world wide web. In addition, there is a much more childish interface which users can change to their liking and the web page seems to be secure since the children need to figure out the parent password to get onto the real Internet, which is impossible since parents think of the hardest passwords imaginable. One nifty feature Glubble gives us is that you are able to approve certain sites for individual children, thus is one child is three and the other is thirteen, there is a distinct difference in what they would search/look at.

Overall, a great add-on for family users with all these secured features but a bit useless for all of the 66% of the population which is why i ranked it the lowest! Nevertheless, still a good extension.

Rating : 7/10

I hope this helps you on decision of which extensions to download since there is a huge selection…

Do you not agree with this list? Are there add-ons that are clearly better and are missed out?  Please feel free to comment below!

Though very few new features have been added, those that have been integrated make all the difference!

As you all know, Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google with extremely fast loading time. Google have now unveiled a much more improved edition of their highly thought of web browser. The issue many of us had with Version 1 was that it seemed to lack some vital tools, such as a “full screen mode” in order to make the internet surfing  experience as best it can possibly be. However, with the introduction of Chrome 2.0, Google have integrated a few more features into the otherwise minimalistic browser.

New Features

Well, here are a handful of new features introduced:

• From the “new tabs” start page you are now able to delete individual thumbnails to your liking, by deciding on the thumbnails to have, and then clicking “done.” Previously you were not given a choice in removing thumbnails, as Chrome automatically chose the “most visited” sites as your thumbnail. Below, is an example of a customized thumbnail page displaying the “thumbnail page” format.

The disadvantage of this feature is that you are unable to arrange the thumbnails in your preferred order and if you delete one thumbnail, when only having four open, this will be deleted by default.

• Full-screen mode via F11 shortcut- Your screen turns completely into one window excluding all the tabs and bookmarks. Perfect for when watching or streaming videos off somewhere like BBC iplayer or Hulu. Then again, you hardly ever used to notice that Chrome was there anyway, because of the fact that vast majority of the screen space was devoted to the site you were visiting, Chrome has such a simple and streamlined design.

• Last but not least, Google have used their initiative and finally integrated an auto-fill feature requiring you not to remember passwords, for those who are forgetful among us! Thank god! Chrome needed this attribute, especially to get back in the hunt for #1 browser!

• In addition to the fresh features, Chrome has got even faster! Which definitely makes the web browser more useful and likeable. Google says that Chrome 2.0 loads JavaScript-heavy web pages 30% faster than older versions of the browser. This improvement is speed, makes it miles ahead of its competetitors, like Safari.

Our Opinion

Pros

• Many bugs have been fixed as well as the whole perfomance of Chrome.
• Super fast and stable, because of the multiprocess foundation- one slow site won’t drag down the rest of your browsing.
• Easy to use interface.

Cons

• No ad-blocking program making you unprotected straight away.
• Lack of add-ons and extentions, which Firefox seem to have every one.
• Potential for high memory usage given that each tab is its own process

Conclusion

If you are looking to simply surf the internet, then Chrome might be for you. It has a simple, minimilastic interface and very fast loading times. However, if you use your internet for alternate purposes such as gaming, you will quickly spot the problems with Chrome, most notably the lack of extensions and add-ons. If Google were to make a few distinct changes to some of the current features, the browser would attract a more sophisticated audience, and so will be widely used as the No.1 Browser which Firefox currently holds the title for.

Please feel free to comment on the Chrome 2.0 below.

"The time is right for 3D content to move onto the Web," says Associate Product Manager, Henry Bridge

Google, who recently announced their impressive turnover, on Tuesday unveiled an interesting piece of software, O3D to bring accelerated 3D graphics to browsers, though it seems not to be the first time a company has tried to make one of these 3D web applications utulizing the advantages of the PC games played nowadays. The last one was in the 1990s, whow were called Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML), but it did not work out.

What is O3D?

O3D is a plug-in for web browsers like Firefox, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari that is enabled to work with Windows, Mac and astonishingly, Linux. However, analysts say that in the future Google ideally, would like to be in the position where the application is built in to the web browser giving a program that allows developers to use Web-based JavaScript programs on a graphics card, perfect solution for extreme gamers!

This is such a good step forward that even rival web browser giants, Mozilla want to get in on the act in their effort to build a 3D Web interface, though the two companies are offering different strategies to the revolutionary idea.

Engineering Director Matt Papakipos, also made his comments,

“OpenGL tends to be a lot of code to write, even for something simple, but OpenGL gives you a lot of control.Ours is at a higher level. It takes fewer function calls, so it’s easier to get stuff on the screen.”

“Ultimately, there’s going to be at least two.” Suggesting there will be two pieces of technology right now, SVG and Canvas.

For the gaming world, Papakipos also added:

“If you look at how we use 3D hardware, 20 years ago, it was CAD (computer-aided design). Today, it’s for playing games.We can push it to the wall. There’s not really any difference between native performance and our performance.”

This will be a good step forward for the web industry, as we are in the recession, everyone has been hit hard, but it is how far you can keep going forward with determination and drive which Google are demonstrating with this optimistic view of the 3D industry.

Will Mozilla deliver on time after many times where they were late?

Surprisingly, the Mozilla corporation will actually be in the position to release the highly anticipated, Firefox 3.5 Beta 4. This new update will most likely be the last of its kind until the real big browser comes into play, Firefox 3.5.

This came as a big thrill to me as you all have realised over the last few beta releases, they have been remarkably late! To refresh your memory,they stopped Beta 3 being released, not just once but twice and then moving on to Beta 4. In additon, the fact that they got rid of Firefox 3.0 demonstrating how amazingly different the two versions, 3.0 and 3.5 actually are.

Why were there always delays?

The obvious reason for the delays are the time management issues, that they did not stick to their target plan. However, the most important reason was from TraceMonkey, which is the new Javascript engine established by Firefox. This seems to be vital for Firefox as it is supposedly meant make pages load 2 times quicker and 9 times quicker than Firefox 3.0

Though, do not get too complacent as Beta 4 still has seven high-priority bugs, which needs to be fixed pretty pronto especially as 5 of the issues are concerning the newly installed, highly problematic javascript engine.

What is to be expected from Firefox 3.5? Well it will give a number of new features regarding HTML 5, the widely used grammer of the Web nowadays. It will give lots of security and a better performance giving a good online experience. There are many other features that I shall outline below,

- Audio and video elements that free media from being dependent on plug-ins, and give Web developers greater control over how media will appear on a Web page

- Easy to drag and drop elements when using Websites

- Isolated browsing feature that stops Firefox from recording your Web activities similar to the heavily used, Google Incognito Window.

- One-click deletion for specific Websites: similar to private browsing, right clicking and selecting “forget about this” for any Website in Firefox’s Web history will delete all history records relating to that Website.

- Wi-Fi based geolocation (opt-in feature)

-Awesome fonts you can download to make your experience online even better.

Mozilla, I feel are still working very hard on both Firefox 3.5 and 3.o. We can see they are working extremely hard as firstly, in the last couple of weeks they unveiled Firefox 3.0.9 update containing twelve security problem fixes, apparently four, if not repaired, could ruin Mozilla. This has been the biggest piece of security fixing since 2008 demonstrating the work they have done, bearing in mind this is the second fix in just under a month. Finally, late last month, Mozilla unveiled a solution for ‘zero day’ flaw after a German computer hacker successfully breached the browser and so won the various competitions posed, meaning he won a nice prize of $15000.

In conclusion, I think lately Mozilla have excited users when displaying all these new and improved features, pleasing all the users, including me. Keep going Mozilla and keep up the good work but do not disappoint in the release dates as it can be their biggest downfall.

Reichenstein previews revoultionary style that excites Firefox users

1 million using firefox as we speak

How did you come to know Firefox? For me it came after my best friend said, “have you used that web browser that is meant to be better that Internet Explorer?” I replied in saying, “there is no browser better than Internet Explorer, which I was soon proved wrong and to this day I use Mozilla Firefox as well as the other 100 million of the population that did the same.

Whilst we go on with our lives, head of user experience in Firefox Inc. who are, Oliver Reichenstein and Aza Raskin have been shuffling up some possible ideas that could come in use in the near future, which you can see in the image above showing a glimpse of what the revoultionary Firefox style could show up like.

Reichenstein also states that tabs could not be the web’s next biggest thing as tabbed browsing isn’t such a big deal in many people’s minds.

He wants to make a multimedia file system which basically means the new mozilla may look similar to Apple’s Itunes, incoporating features like bookmarks in a sidebar, making your screen look a lot tidier and more glorious.

Also, Firefox are going to introduce tree-tabs which you can take a quick look at here . This add-on enables you to put tabs on the side and many more customiztions that you can make.

Built-in Ubiquity

Mozilla Firefox are also going to put in Ubiquity in the new web browser. This is a line style interface for normal browser duties. This is to be put in with the new awesome bar idea that could be primarily released in version 3.6!

Demo
Below is the interactive demo video. And you can look at the mock-ups here.

Taskfox Prototype from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Mozilla and Ubiquity add to "awesome bar" that will be released in later updates.

command-line style interface for common browser tasks

Portable apps allows you to take almost any computer program with you including, Openoffice.org(a free alternative to Microsoft Power point and Microsoft word and  excel) and also an internet browser that is Mozilla Firefox and a lot more! All you need is an portable device like SD card, Memory Stick and I pods. Installing this allow  you to use your favorite program without administrative privileges.

To get portable applications installed on your portable device you need to go to Portableapps.com and download one of their suites depending on the amount of space you have on your portable drive and the type of application you want and install it on your portable device .

While installing it make sure you select your portable device’s drive instead of your hard drive. Most of you out there have more than 512+ Megabytes of space on your portable device. So, it is recommended that you download “Suite Standard” from their website which includes Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird Open office and many other programs.

This is extremely useful when you are at a different computer at a different place and you want to use your favorite program or just edit an microsoft document. You may also download different applications from their website.

When you download the full suite you’ll have “Cool Player” and other apps you might not need. Since cool player doesn’t play all the file formats of media you can download vlc player or mplayer. To uninstall a program just delete the folder of the program for

ex: “KeePassPortable” and you’re done.