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.

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

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.

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Sections: Web, Web Browsers

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.

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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…

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Sections: 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.“

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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.

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

Mozilla Labs announced yesterday the release of the Initial Prototype of the latest project meant to connect the web with language - Ubiquity.  From a quote on their blog, the folks over at Mozilla Labs hope to “find new user interfaces that could make it possible for everyone to do common Web tasks more quickly and easily.“

Ok. So, what the heck does that mean? An example of what they are saying their program would be useful for could be this. You just snagged some concert tickets from a radio contest to a show happening tonight. Coolness. Only you haven’t been to this venue before, and neither has the friend that you’re emailing and inviting. Not so cool. Heck…you haven’t even heard of the band. Do you even know if you want to go? Is there anywhere to eat on the way? Now, normally, you’d have to be searching out the address on some mapping site, looking up the band for some info on them, copying all of this into an email (including either links or the map itself as well). Lots of typing, clicking, searching, copying, pasting, right? Well, this is some of what Ubiquity hopes to get rid of.

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Sections: Gadgets / Other, Lifestyle, Web, Web 2.0, Web Apps, Websites

Only ten days left of August. Microsoft claimed Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 would be out some time this month. Well, the countdown is on. And hmmmm…there are rumors flying around that it is going to be a special version. Private. Yeah, code name for “porn mode”.

Private browsing lets a user go anywhere they want without leaving any tracks. It’s like they were just magically never there.  Firefox decided not to go with it, and currently Safari is the only browser sporting this feature. The Mozilla Foundation, however does argue that “although while viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one.”

If trademark filings are any indications…the rumors of IE taking on private browsing may indeed be based on fact. July 30th filings by Microsoft:

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

It seems that Mozilla must credit a fairly large portion of its Guinness World Record for the highest number of software downloads in a 24 hour period to none other than Stephen Colbert himself. It’s not surprising to hear that Colbert’s on-show guests experience a rush of publicity immediately after being viewed on the show, but could Colbert also have an influence on Al Gore’s internets? Apparently, after mentioning the release of Firefox 3 on his show, “The Colbert Report,“ Mozilla’s servers experienced a huge spike in downloads from their site on Download Day. Referred to as the “Colbert Bump,“ the effect of the rush in publicity is known to earn increased sales, news interviews, and in this case, and incredible number of downloads. At minute 23 of the broadcast, Colbert says just 7 words: “Firefox 3 just got the Colbert Bump.“ Sure enough, minutes later Mozilla sees a huge jump in downloads on their website. Not only was the “bump” felt during the live broadcast, but another bump can be seen when the episode was replayed a couple hours later. Now, if he can influence the hearts of thousands of internet users, why did he drop out of that election? He is the Internet (And So Can You!).

Via [Mozilla Blog]

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Sections: Web, Downloads, Web Browsers

Mozilla is growing, and it seems that in addition to the recent world record, which was set for the software downloads in a 24 hour time period, they have also risen to 19.03% of the market share. Mozilla saw an increase from 18.41% up to 19.03% from the end of May to the end of June.

Of course, Firefox may be seeing an increase, which is at least partially due to the recent release of Firefox 3, but Internet Explorer still remains on top with a whopping 73.01%.

On the other hand, some are saying that because of the auto-update features within Firefox, that those users are amongst the most users with up to date versions of their browser installed. Firefox was noted as having 83% of their users with an up to date software version, as compared to just 63.3% of Safari users, 56.1% of Opera users and IE having just 47.6% of users with the latest and most stable version.

Read [Yahoo! News]

• Browser Battles: Safari still increasing in market share, IE continues to drop
• Apple realizes problem with Safari 3.2, updates it to 3.2.1
• MP3 becomes official king of music

Sections: Web, Downloads, Web Browsers