Dec 09

Sign up for the Firefox Companion for eBay

Posted in: Mozilla, Software, Today's Chili, Web Sites

This article was written on April 16, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox_ebay

If you use eBay and Firefox frequently, you have an opportunity to get in on “Firefox Companion for eBay,” a new alpha test program.

Recently, eBay has made an effort to make advancements and improvements with their service while Firefox has been putting major effort into securing as much of the market as possible. They’re teaming up to offer both eBay and Firefox users the best of both worlds.

Back in March when the alpha version of Adobe Apollo was released, it was stated that eBay was working to take advantage of Apollo to bring in a better experience for their users, and a demo showed just what eBay was working on. It was nice to see that eBay was taking advantage of new technology that could make their user’s experience that much better. 

Firefox’s efforts have focused on teaming up with major companies.  Most recently, Firefox teamed up with Kodak to offer an image-sharing feature where users can drag and drop image files from their hard drives to the Firefox window, and then they can be published on Kodak’s gallery site.

The latest team-up between Firefox and eBay will be used to “help build a faster, safer auction experience,” and will help Firefox users manage auctions right from their browser.

Mozilla is definitely smart for joining with major companies to help promote Firefox. Both eBay and Kodak will end up promoting Firefox because it works well with their services. Non-Firefox users in turn will be enticed to try out Firefox to see how their favorite services work with it.

We’ve contacted Mozilla to get in on their reviewer’s program, and once we do we’ll give you an update on how this add-on/extension works.

If you’d like to sign up for the Firefox Companion for eBay alpha test program, click here.

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Dec 09

Download Mozilla Thunderbird 2 and View our Screenshots

Posted in: Apple, Features, Microsoft, Mozilla, Newly Released, Reviews, Screenshots, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on April 17, 2007 by CyberNet.

Mozilla has hit another huge milestone, this time with their email management software called Thunderbird. The newest Thunderbird 2 contains a whole list of new features that I normally just point out really quick. This time I wanted to go a different route and visually walk you through Thunderbird 2 so that you can better determine if it is right for you before installing it.

Before I get into my review, I wanted to first point out that the release notes page for Thunderbird 2 is up but still refers to the last release candidate. Mozilla hasn’t officially announced the release of Thunderbird 2, but they have already begun prepping their FTP mirrors for the big release.

To download Mozilla Thunderbird 2 straight from one of Mozilla’s mirrors, just select your language below and choose the appropriate operating system:




Alright, let’s go ahead and jump into everything that makes Thunderbird 2 so great!

Account Setup

As soon as you start Thunderbird 2 you’ll be prompted to setup email accounts or RSS feeds. The wizard is pretty self explanatory and walks you through everything you will need to do.

Mozilla Thunderbird Setup Mozilla Thunderbird Setup Mozilla Thunderbird Setup Mozilla Thunderbird Setup

 

Reading Emails & New Mail Notifier

Mozilla has redesigned the user interface to not only make it more pleasant on the eyes, but also more usable. The notifier (as seen in the first screenshot below) has been revamped to give the user much of the information they need to recognize whether the email needs to be viewed immediately. The only thing that I have found it lacks is a way to pin the notifier so that it does not automatically retract itself.

Mozilla Thunderbird Interface and Notifier Mozilla Thunderbird Reading Emails 

 

Tagging Emails

Tagging is becoming a more important way for users to keep photos, files, and emails more organized. Thunderbird 2 is the first version of Mozilla’s email client to offer a tagging feature.

Mozilla Thunderbird Tagging Mozilla Thunderbird Tagging 

 

Find as you Type

Finding a specific email can be pretty tricky when you get hundreds a day. Luckily Thunderbird 2 offers a great new feature to instantly search for emails as you type in the Search Box.

Mozilla Thunderbird Find as you Type

 

Options

Like always, we enjoy being able to customize an application to our every whim. This is actually one of the most important features for me when trying to find just the right application for the job. That is why I made sure to capture nearly all of the different options you can change in the screenshots below. Oh yeah, and the options page received a nice facelift as well!

Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird OptionsMozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options Mozilla Thunderbird Options

 

Account Settings

There are a lot of settings (as always) when it comes to managing your email accounts as well. You can do everything from attaching a signature, to configuring which account Thunderbird uses to send your emails by default.

Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings Mozilla Thunderbird Settings

 

Other

There were a few last things that I wanted to throw in screenshots in for, and pictured left to right you’ll see the Composition Window, adding a contact, the Address Book, and the About Page for Thunderbird.

Mozilla Thunderbird Composition Window Mozilla Thunderbird Add a Contact Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book Mozilla Thunderbird About Page

 

I know that Mozilla put a lot of time and care into this release, so I wanted to make sure I did Thunderbird 2 justice by providing as many screenshots as I could. This email client is among the best out there, and if you haven’t tried it out for yourself then you haven’t experienced the simplicity and power that Thunderbird has to offer.

 

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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Oct 28

Mozilla Thunderbird 2 Pre-Beta 1 Available

Posted in: Mozilla, Pre-Release, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on September 15, 2006 by CyberNet.

Thunderbird 2 Beta 1 Mozilla has released Thunderbird 2 Pre-Beta 1 onto their FTP. I have been using the latest nightly build since before Alpha 1 was released but I have only noticed one significant change and that is with the Options screen (pictured below). I am sure a lot has been done but it is probably more “under-the-hood.”

Here are the download links for Thunderbird 2 Pre-Beta 1 which are currently only available in English:

I hunted around to look for a release date on Thunderbird 2 Beta 1 but the most specific thing that I could find was “mid-September.” Since the Pre-Beta 1 was just released today I would treat that as a Release Candidate, which will normally float around for a few days before being marked as a release.

Here is what the Options screen now looks like:

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Oct 21

Mozilla Ditching Thunderbird?

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

This article was written on July 26, 2007 by CyberNet.

Firefox Eats ThunderbirdMitchell Baker, Mozilla’s CEO, announced on her blog today that Thunderbird hasn’t been receiving the attention that it deserves. As a result they are looking at a number of options to let Thunderbird continue to grow and flourish, but I don’t like how all of this sounds. Take a look at this snippet from the post:

The Thunderbird effort is dwarfed by the enormous energy and community focused on the web, Firefox and the ecosystem around it. As a result, Mozilla doesn’t focus on Thunderbird as much as we do browsing and Firefox and we don’t expect this to change in the foreseeable future.

To "help" Thunderbird they are looking at three different options that will give the project the attention it deserves. Here’s what can happen with it:

  1. Create a new non-profit organization analogous to the Mozilla Foundation – a Thunderbird foundation. If it turns out Thunderbird generates a revenue model from the product as Firefox does, then a Thunderbird foundation could follow the Mozilla Foundation model and create a subsidiary.This model probably offers the maximum independence for Thunderbird. But it is also the most organizationally complex.
  2. Create a new subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation for Thunderbird. This has less overhead, although it still requires a new company that serves the mission of the Mozilla Foundation. In this case the Mozilla Foundation board and personnel would remain involved in Thunderbird. The Thunderbird effort may therefore still end up with less focus and less flexibility.
  3. Thunderbird is released as a community project much like SeaMonkey or Camino, and a small independent services and consulting company is formed by the Thunderbird developers to continue development and care for Thunderbird users. Many open source projects use this model.

So I’m not sure what this sounds like to you, but it almost sounds like they are wanting to get Thunderbird out of their hands so that they can focus solely on Firefox…because that’s where the money is at right now. As we reported earlier this year Mozilla had earned more than $52 million in 2005 while spending a frugal $8 million of that on expenses and salaries. I’m guessing that Mozilla only wants to focus on the projects that will make them money even though they have plenty put away for a rainy day.

The interesting part is that Mitchell goes on to say that they don’t want to forget about mail all together though:

We would also like to find contributors committed to creating and implementing a new vision of mail. We would like to have a roadmap that brings wild innovation, increasing richness and fundamental improvements to mail. And equally importantly, we would like to find people with relevant expertise who would join with Mozilla to make something happen.

To me this sounds like two people breaking up because something better has come along, where they just say that they "need their space." So I’m not overly hopeful anymore that we’ll see true innovation coming out of Thunderbird anymore. I honestly see that as being disappointing news, but I guess Mozilla has to do what’s best for the Foundation.

Let me know if I’m taking this the wrong way, or whether you see this as "the end" of Thunderbird as well.

Source: Mitchell Baker’s Blog [via Mozilla Links & Info World]

Copyright © 2009 CyberNet | CyberNet Forum | Learn Firefox

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Oct 14

Firefox 3.6 will support accelerometers, make the internet seasick (video)

Posted in: demo, Mozilla, Today's Chili, video

If you, like us, are tired of the so-called browser wars trying to woo us with barely identifiable, context-dependent speed differences, this might be of interest. Firefox is about to get a whole lot more sentient on us — at least those of us with accelerometers in our hardware — courtesy of a new device API that is capable of maintaining a webpage’s vertical orientation relative to the ground, no matter what sort of salto mortale the underlying machine (Mac or otherwise) might be doing. Think of it as the cherry atop your Windows 7 multitouch tablet cake. Originally intended for mobile platforms only, this software will make its way into version 3.6 of the full-fledged browser — and you can find an early demo of what it can do just past the break.

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Firefox 3.6 will support accelerometers, make the internet seasick (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Oct 2009 04:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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