Dec 06

Microsoft reportedly randomizing browser ballots to appease EU, asks ‘are you happy now?’

Posted in: Chrome, deal, europe, Google, Internet Explorer, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, Software, Today's Chili, web browser, WebBrowser

Some might say that Microsoft just can’t catch a break. Others might argue that it’s getting exactly what it deserves. Whatever your take on the situation, it seems as if Microsoft may finally have the EU off of its monstrous back (at least momentarily), as a report has surfaced noting that said software giant is nearing approval for a new browser ballot screen demanded by the European Commission. As you well know by know, rivals Mozilla, Opera and Google all submitted change requests to EU regulators in hopes of having browser selection boxes randomized and not displayed within Internet Explorer. Purportedly, the all-clear will come down on December 15th (or earlier), and the antitrust case will be settled as Windows customers have a clearer choice when it comes to selecting a go-to browser from day one. ‘Course, said ballot screen wouldn’t be pushed out to existing users until early next year, but when it goes live users will be able to decide between Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera and Safari for their browsing needs. Huzzah!

Microsoft reportedly randomizing browser ballots to appease EU, asks ‘are you happy now?’ originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Dec 2009 17:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot  |  sourceComputer World  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: , , , ,
Dec 03

Nokia N900 impressively demos WebGL 3D graphics

Posted in: Today's Chili

We’re not sure anyone out there needs any more proof that the Nokia N900 is powerhouse, but just in case you still had doubts, check this video of a WebGL-enabled Firefox build smoothly rendering some complex 3D models on Espoo’s “internet tablet with phone capabilities.” It’s pretty impressive stuff, especially considering WebGL is still being standardized and it hasn’t gotten beyond Firefox nightlies on the desktop yet. Check it after the break.

[Thanks, Jouni]

Continue reading Nokia N900 impressively demos WebGL 3D graphics

Nokia N900 impressively demos WebGL 3D graphics originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Dec 2009 01:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceMissmobile  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags:
Nov 25

Programmer adds IE 9 graphics acceleration to Firefox

Posted in: Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Today's Chili
Not so fast, Internet Explorer! We know that you have great things in the works for IE 9 — including Direct2D GPU acceleration, the 2D / vector graphics API that we first laid eyes on in Windows 7. And believe us, that got our attention — as well as the attention of Mozilla programmer Bas Schouten. It seems that over the weekend, the young man successfully loaded Direct2D support into an alpha build of Firefox 3.7 — just days after you announced its inclusion in the next version of your web browser. “Things are looking very promising for Direct2D” and Firefox, said Schouten, although “older PCs with pre-D3D10 graphics cards and WDDM 1.0 drivers will not show significant improvements.” And we thought that accelerometer support was wild!

Programmer adds IE 9 graphics acceleration to Firefox originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The Register  |  sourceBas Schouten  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: ,
Nov 24

Firefox 3 Download Stats

Posted in: Firefox 3, Freeware, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on June 30, 2008 by CyberNet.

Firefox 3 has had nearly two weeks to work its way onto computers around the world, and the most recent numbers according to Spread Firefox say that there have been over 26 million downloads of the browser. Prior to the launch of Firefox 3 Mozilla said that they had 20 million active Firefox users, which probably means that a lot of people have downloaded Firefox 3 multiple times. There are currently 160 million active Firefox users.

Net Applications was kind enough to provide hourly stats for Firefox 3’s market share, and they did it for one full week after its release. What’s interesting is that Mozilla received 8 million downloads in the first day, and more than doubled that number within a week after its launched. The market share stats, however, seems to tell a different story as the usage remained steady over the first week:

Firefox 3 Hourly Market Share % from 6/17 to 6/24
firefox 3 usage.png

You’ll also notice that Europe is leading the charge in using Firefox 3, and the North America usage falls just below the worldwide average.

Download Squad’s inquiring minds wanted to know what the operating system breakdown was for the downloads, and Mozilla didn’t have any troubles turning over that information to them. Windows users accounted for 79% of the downloads, Linux 13%, and Mac OS X 8%. Mac OS X beats out Linux in terms of operating system market share, but when it came to Firefox 3 downloads the numbers were reversed. I’m guessing that means many Mac users are content with Safari?

Firefox 3 Homepage
Firefox 3 Review
Firefox 3 Tips & Tricks

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,
Nov 19

Firefox headed to the PS3? Can life get any better?

Posted in: Mozilla, ps3, rumor, rumors, sony, Today's Chili

Playstation Insider‘s got a tipster (one that’s reportedly “very close” to the company) telling them that Sony is in heavy talks with Mozilla to port Firefox to the PS3. The tipster didn’t know if any actual deal had been struck, but it’s not terribly surprising considering the PS3’s current built-in browser is less than awesome. That said, Firefox has actually crashed twice on us in the last 15 minutes, and no, we’re not making that up.

Firefox headed to the PS3? Can life get any better? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Gizmodo  |  sourcePlaystation Insider  | Email this | Comments

No Comments | Tags: ,
Nov 18

CyberNotes: Firefox 2.0 Memory Leaks

Posted in: CyberNotes, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 12, 2006 by CyberNet.

CyberNotes
Web Browser Wednesday
 

Firefox is a great browser and with version 2.0 due in August many people are expecting great things. However, it seems like it doesn’t even matter to people whether Mozilla puts any new features in they just want to see the memory leaks disappear.

Mozilla has not ignored the demand for fixed memory leaks and that is why Firefox 2.0 will have 13 memory leaks fixed! Below is a list of memory leaks that Mozilla has posted that are unique only to the Firefox 2.0 build.

  • Bug 168411 – Move bookmarks transactions into a JS service (adding a bookmark leaks the Add Bookmark dialog)
  • Bug 206520 – XMLHttpRequest leaks memory if send() not called and event listeners set
  • Bug 289689 – Memory leak: nsDebugImpl::Assertion, Create Process
  • Bug 319980 – javascript garbage collector not run when supposed to, leading to “memory leak”
  • Bug 323454 – [FIX]Don’t leak the channel and XMLHttpRequest object if AsyncOpen fails
  • Bug 325984 – DOMWindow leak with <col onload> (will be implemented into Firefox 1.5.0.5)
  • Bug 330780 – [ATK only] global nsAppRootAccessible is not released on shutdown
  • Bug 330878 – Firefox leaks the update.xml document when it checks for updates
  • Bug 333764 – Livemark Service leaking nsRDFResource and RDFServiceImpl references
  • Bug 334105 – [FIX]ASSERTION: Bogus: ‘!mHead’ (nsLineBox.cpp#916 – nsFloatCacheFreeList::Append)
  • Bug 336922 – nsAnnotationService leaks
  • Bug 337044 – Search engine Manager leaks an observer when canceled
  • Bug 341301 – 1.8 branch firefox leaks like a sieve

I know that you probably don’t understand what some of those mean, heck, I don’t even know what some of those mean. I am just trying to show you that the upgrade to Firefox 2 will definitely be worth it. However, Mozilla will not be able to incorporate fixes for all of the memory leaks in version 2.0. Currently Firefox 3.0 has nearly double the number of memory leak fixes which may mean there is a promising future ahead. In the mean time I had found this to help my Firefox memory leak. I have had 104,000+ visitors to my site that came just to view that article.

I hope you now realize that Mozilla is working on the memory leaks but they are very hard to pinpoint. I have been running Firefox 2.0 nightly builds for months now and the memory leaks are very minimal for me. I currently only have 5 extensions running because sometimes they end up being the culprit that makes Firefox eat up 300MB of memory. Every now and then you just can’t get around it and have to restart the browser.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,
Nov 09

A Better Speed Dial for Firefox

Posted in: Firefox Extensions, Freeware, Newly Released, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 14, 2008 by CyberNet.

firefox fast dial
(Click to Enlarge)

One of the things that I absolutely love about Opera is the Speed Dial that was introduced back in Opera 9.2 almost exactly one year ago. It basically adds thumbnail images of your 9 favorite sites to the page that is displayed when you open a new tab.

Well, like most great features it didn’t take long for a Firefox extension to appear that offered a similar concept. The extension fell short in a lot of different areas, and I didn’t feel as though it stacked up very well against what Opera was offering. It turns out that there is a better one available called Fast Dial that is much much closer to Opera’s Speed Dial, and actually has some rather unique aspects to it:

  • Up to 36 different sites can be added (6×6).
  • Hotkeys! Just like Opera you can use hotkeys to access your first 9 sites. However, with this extension you can actually customize the hotkey that’s used in conjunction with the number.
  • Specify a custom image to be used for the thumbnail. This way you can just use a site’s logo if you don’t want to actually have a screenshot.
  • Customize the appearance so that it looks the way you want it to. For example, I changed the background color in the screenshot above from being white to a darker gray. You can also change the font and several other colors used in the extension.
  • You can add files/images from your desktop! For example, you can add a link to a PDF or a DOC file that you frequently need to access. You’ll want to specify a custom image for the thumbnail image though because it won’t be able to generate a preview. Note: Firefox will prompt your with the open/save box assuming that the file can’t be displayed within Firefox.
  • Right-click on a site or tab to quickly add it to the Fast Dial.
  • Drag and drop to rearrange the different items.

The only thing that I’ve found this extension to lack is dragging and dropping bookmarks/URLS onto a blank square which I believe eases the setup process. Admittedly this extension is the closest thing I’ve seen to Opera’s Speed Dial, and it even has some aspects that I like better. From now on I don’t think I’ll be using Firefox without this extension.

Get the Fast Dial Firefox Extension

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags:
Nov 08

Mozilla Looking to Redesign Firefox Notifications (Mockups)

Posted in: Freeware, Mozilla, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 07, 2007 by CyberNet.

How many popup boxes do you see in a day’s time? I’m not talking about the popups that most browsers these days will automatically block, instead I’m talking about the popups that ask you things such as “would you like to update your browser?” These are things that you don’t necessarily need to take action on now, but currently a window will popup asking what you want to do.

Mozilla is looking to make things a little easier on the user by possibly creating a more centralized notification system. By doing this it would be more apparent when the browser is sending a notification, compared to a simple JavaScript popup window that may sometimes leave you unsure whether Firefox is asking for input or a website is. There would be no confusion in the new design they are thinking about:

Level 1 Notifications

This kind of notification would only display an icon on the toolbar. It is the least obtrusive out of all the ones available and would be used for things like notifying a user that a RSS feed is available on the site:

Firefox Dialog

Then the user can click on the icon to see more information and options:

Firefox Dialog

 

Level 2 Notifications

This type of notification would be used for things like notifying users that a download has completed or asking if they want to remember a password for a particular site. It wouldn’t require user interaction, and I’m guessing that it would probably fade out after a short period of time:

Firefox Dialog

 

Level 3 Notifications

This level would notify users of things slightly more critical that need to have action taken on them, such as an updated version of Firefox or extension updates being available. This would probably require user interaction before being able to close, instead of the previous level which would automatically close after a specified period of time.

Firefox Dialog

 

Level 4 Notifications

These are the most important notifications and would require interaction before continuing. To make the user aware that they have to select an option in this notification, the content area would be blacked out to draw more attention. An obvious example of such a notification would be an alert for a suspected phishing site:

Firefox Dialog

Mozilla is currently looking for any feedback that you might have regarding how these new notifications will work. One other thing that you might notice is that the notifications are displayed in the Navigation toolbar next to the Search Box, but they are also toying with the possibility of having it show up in the Status Bar. I think that would be a better location simply because that is where notifications, such as the “download completed alert”, already appear. That will make it more natural for users in my opinion.

There isn’t much word on when we might see these notifications implemented, but I would like to see it in the Firefox 3 release. With that, is it better than the current solution?

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags:
Nov 03

Firefox 2.0.0.5 Release Fixes the Big IE/Firefox Flaw

Posted in: Freeware, Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 18, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox IE HackerMozilla released an important update to the Firefox web browser today. The new Firefox 2.0.0.5 fixes a critical flaw that enables a hacker to control a user’s computer. Ironically, this was done by letting the hacker launch Firefox through Internet Explorer, and then Firefox would run malicious instructions that could compromise their system.

Firefox 2.0.0.5 fixes a total of 8 security related bugs: 3 are critical, 2 are high-priority, 1 is moderate, and 2 are minor. Aside from those there are an additional 91 stability fixes with 15 of those being related to Firefox crashing. So this version offers more than just significant security fixes.

No one is quite sure whether the big security bug is Internet Explorer’s fault for passing insecure data to another application, or whether it was Firefox’s fault for not validating the input. At least Mozilla stepped up to fix it before it turned into a widespread vulnerability. And just because Firefox has patched this issue doesn’t mean that you are in the clear from the attack. It was recently discovered that Trillian is also affected when using the AIM portion, and it is expected that other applications are susceptible to the attack as well.

Note: A similar update for Thunderbird is expected shortly.

Download Firefox 2.0.0.5 – It doesn’t appear that Mozilla has enabled the automatic updates through Firefox at this time, so you will have to download it if you don’t want to wait.

Source: Mozilla Links & MozillaZine
Thanks for the tip CoryC!

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: ,
Nov 02

Portable Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (Release Candidate)

Posted in: Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on July 08, 2006 by CyberNet.

Portable Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (Release Candidate)

I didn’t have any intentions of putting together a portable version of this Release Candidate build for Firefox 2 Beta 1 but there have been several people asking and emailing me about it. Just to let everyone know I am also working on an article for tomorrow that will walk you through some of the new features and how to change them around, like the Session Restore and scrolling tab bar. I guess you can consider it a guide to prepare yourself for the Official Beta 1 release. Now onto the portable version…

All you have to do is download the Portable Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (Release Candidate) file below. Then you unzip the file and browse for the file PortableFirefox.exe. Just execute that file and you will be running Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (Release Candidate)! The profile is kept with the PortableFirefox folder so you don’t have to worry about messing up your other profile and the uninstallation process is simple…just delete the folder!

Update:
A new Portable Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Release Candidate 2 is available.
 
I have also put together a nice guide for those people looking to tweak Firefox 2 Beta 1.

Portable Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 (Release Candidate) Download

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

Related Posts:


No Comments | Tags: