Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

There are a lot of add-ons for Firefox out there.  Over 5,000 of them to be more precise.  But, its a bit hard to actually find the most useful ones unless you’re searching for them specifically.  Mozilla is trying to help us all out with that.  It recently opened a page called “Fashion Your Firefox,“ an easier way to find the add-ons that you might find useful.

Obviously, Fashion Your Firefox doesn’t list every add-on, only about 40 of those available at the moment.  It’s broken up into categories ranging from “News Junkie” to “Shutterbug,“ “Digital Pack Rat,“ and a few other categories for how people use their internet browser.  According to the FAQ, there are a few points the add-ons needed to meet.  They had to be popular, compatible with Mac and PC (I suppose Linux doesn’t count?), easy to use (oh, right, linux is supposedly hard to use), and “ffer a well-rounded set of functionality.“  Sounds a bit reasonable to me.

MORE »

Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Downloads, Web Browsers

According to a source, you can opt into the new Netflix Watch Instantly movie player.  The source is The Official Netflix Blog, so it’s probably accurate.  This brings Netflix’s movie player to OS X for the first time (without running Windows) by using Microsoft’s Silverlight.

If you’re a slider and you use both Mac and Windows machines, once you opt into the Silverlight experience, you’re locked into to it for both platforms.  If you’re a Windows-only user, you may wonder why bother with opting in at all?  Well, maybe you hate Internet Explorer and you’ve always wanted to watch Netflix in Firefox.  This is your chance.

However, there is no opting out yet.  If the experience sucks, you’re stuck.  It’s a beta, so you know what that means.  I’m using it now and have already been hit with some errors.  Some movies that used to work don’t play Silverlight yet (mostly Starz offerings). 

Go for it!  [Netflix opt-in link]
Read more at the [The Official Netflix Blog]

• Blockbuster to offer streaming set-top box
• Gadgetell Review: TeleNav Shotgun
• Best Black Friday 2008 deals for Mac gamers

Sections: Apple, Video, Accessories, Web, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Web Browsers, Online Music/Video

The delay is finally over! Mozilla has recently released Firefox 3.1 beta 1 (code-named “Shiretoko”) for public testing.

What should a web developer expect?

Web developers will definitely be delighted to know that the @font-face CSS property is implemented in Shiretoko. This will allow web developers to design websites with consistent formatting and layout. New CSS properties such as text-shadow and word-wrap are also supported.

New HTML tags are also introduced: namely, the <video> and the <audio> tags; both tags simplify the embedding of video and audio files on a web page. It must be noted that the <video> and the <audio> tags only support the OGG Theora and OGG Vorbis formats.

MORE »

Sections: Web, Web Browsers

Firefox Mobile, also known as Fennec, may become available for public download by the end of the year in the form of an alpha release.  Early screenshots of Fennec have surfaced at the::unwired.

The screenshots show how Fennec looks like when running on a Windows Mobile Professional touchscreen smartphone.  I must say that those screenshots looks pretty good!  According to the developers, Fennec managed to score 88/100 on the Acid3 test, which is rather outstanding for a mobile browser.

It will be interesting to see how well it fares against Opera Mini and how it will handle extensions/add-ons.  If anyone is wondering why the tiny Firefox is named “Fennec,“ a fennec is a small fox.

Via [the::unwired]

• Microsoft to embrace WebKit in IE?
• Dr. Pepper introduces free match-3 iPhone, web browser game
• Mozilla wants you to Fashion Your Firefox

Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Web Browsers

A couple of weeks have passed since the T-Mobile/Google event and my uneasy silence hasn’t dissipated.  Sure, I am impressed that beloved Google is involved, the apps are cool and don’t even get me started about compass mode in maps.  Very cool stuff.  But it doesn’t matter.  Here are the top 7 reasons Android will fail.

Headed to Vegas?  Don’t bet on the G1 just yet.

MORE »

Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Smartphones, Mobile, Originals, Web, Google

Firefox Mobile Concept Video from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

Rumored to be “soon” or even next week, Firefox Mobile Alpha will be released onto the Nokia N810 internet tablet.  Sure to be the first of many releases, the new web browser designed for mobile devices is sure to mix things up a bit.

One major difference is controls.  Unlike the minimalist Safari for the iPhone and iPod touch, Firefox for Mobile uses the extreme edges for access to special menus.  Just a swipe of the finger off the page to port or starboard brings up controls that were previously hidden.  It is a neat way to get at controls.  Just my opinion?  No, Mozilla calls this the “awesome bar” which I thought existed only in Times Square, NY.

See more interesting features in the alpha version.  Click more to follow.

MORE »

Sections: Communications, Smartphones, Mobile, Computers, Software / Applications, Wireless, Gadgets / Other, Web, Downloads, Web Browsers

Walt Mossberg is the personal technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal who has been a very influential reviewer of tech products for some time.  If you release a tech product and you want it to be successful, a good review from Walt Mossberg is a big step in the right direction, while a negative review can often prove to hurt the product in the long run.

So what does Walt think of Google’s new browser, Chrome?

Mossberg generally likes the browser, especially it’s simplistic design and the fact that it gives the most screen real estate to the web page of any browser out there.  However, he does point out that it has some flaws and is missing some features that the competition has.  Some simple features such as a progress bar to see how a web page is a loading and a way to manage bookmarks are missing.  Overall though, Mossberg says that the browser is a good start for Google that is sure to shake up the browser wars.  Since it’s in beta, it’s only going to get better over time. Check out his video review below…

MORE »

Sections: Web, Web Browsers, Google

So, we’ve all been seeing the hoopla the past few days surrounding Google’s Chrome browser. First it was how exciting! Google has a new browser! Then that excitement lessened somewhat as time went on. It went from performance benchmarks being less than stellar to the fact that it was discovered that their snazzy new browser was susceptible to a carpet-bombing vulnerability that could expose Windows to malicious hacker attacks.  And now, we’re taking note of Google’s fine print in their end-user license agreement. To put it lightly, it does not look friendly in the least to the user.

Taken from their agreement terms:

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.“

MORE »

Sections: Computers, Security, Software / Applications, Web, Web Browsers, Google

With all of the excitement yesterday coming from the new Google Chrome browser its important to remember that we already have some good browsers on the market, namely Firefox.

With progress being made on version 3, Mozilla has announced that the latest beta (Beta 1) for Firefox 3.1 will be delayed by a few weeks. According to the developers website, the code freeze was pushed back from September 9 to September 30. Mike Shaver, the interim head of engineering for Mozilla stated that “the delay was necessary so developers would be able to incorporate feedback on the earlier alpha editions.“

MORE »

Sections: Web, Web Browsers

Bill Gates promised frequent updates way back when they were doing the final testing of IE7. Yet somehow, it’s been almost two years before they finally released the beta mode of Internet Explorer 8 just today. Some will hurrah, some will cringe, some won’t care one way or the other. But…it’s out…and along with actually seeming to be an improvement over the previous version…it’s pretty clear that the folks at Microsoft are also using their latest browser as a clever little way to try to take over some Google ground.

I admit, I’m a diehard Firefox user. And when I checked out IE8 beta, I immediately recognized the same thing others seem to be seeing. The Smart Address Bar is very similar to the Awesome Bar in Firefox 3. When you start to type in the address bar, it tries to guess where you want to go, based on where you’ve been before. Although I have to give it to Microsoft, their Smart Bar seems to do the job even a little better. It shows history items, autocomplete suggestions, and your saved Favorites all in lists that you can collapse or expand with just a click. Also, you can delete an address from the Smart Bar with just a click as well, which is really handy for any addresses you may have in there that were typed incorrectly or if you have bookmarks you just don’t use anymore.

MORE »

Sections: Computers, Software / Applications, Web, Web Browsers