Hasta La Gadget!

Mozilla promised a faster refresh cycle for its wily web browser, following the release of Firefox 4, and it’s made good on that promise. We got word this morning that the final version of Firefox 5 is now available for download on Mozilla’s ftp server, just 12 weeks after the last re-up. The latest incarnation brings with it support for CSS animation and a more easily accessible do-not-track setting — now available at the top of the privacy pane — but won’t see much in the way of GUI enhancements. Of course, if you want to play it safe, and avoid any last-minute tweaks, you can always hold off until version 5 gets official, but what’s the fun in that? If you’ve already got your hands on the sly fox, let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

[Thanks, Haseeb]

Firefox 5 slips out ahead of schedule, gets official June 21st originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 16:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechnoBolt  |  Mozilla (Linux), (Mac), (Windows)  | Email this | Comments

MacRumors was digging through the latest developer beta of Mac OS X Lion when it found a rather intriguing new option — if you choose “Restart to Safari” on the user lock screen, the computer will reboot into a mode which consists entirely of the web browser. If that sounds familiar, perhaps you’ve heard of Google’s Chrome OS, a partially-fledged operating system that runs within the browser itself… but we haven’t heard Apple express a desire for any such thing. Now, certainly we’ve seen a number of Windows desktops and laptops ship with a secondary, browser-centric OS like Splashtop in order to have an instant-on mode, but if you have to boot and reboot the computer to get to Safari, that doesn’t sound like much of an improvement. Perhaps it’s a way to let guests (or children) entertain themselves without giving them access to your files? All we know for certain is that it’s a most mysterious option.

Update: But perhaps not as mysterious as we thought — 9to5 Mac spotted its genesis earlier this week, and it’s a bona fide honeypot. If your Mac gets stolen, the idea goes, it’ll need to be connected to the internet for you to be able to track it with Find My Mac or perform a remote wipe, so you’ll let the thieves browse this guest account to keep them busy without letting them peruse your personal files. Cue the Admiral Ackbar, we suppose. [Thanks, Jamie]

Mac OS X Lion beta reveals “Restart to Safari” browser-only mode (update: honeypot) originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 12 Jun 2011 19:18:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The latest version of a Chrome browser may not be quite the event it once was since Google switched to a six-week release schedule, but the company seems to be plenty pleased with the just-released Chrome 12 nonetheless, which it’s dubbed “safer and snazzier.” That’s because the browser now boasts a number of new measures to prevent malware and phishing attempts (and give you more control over data stored on your computer), as well as support for hardware accelerated 3D CSS, which will let you try out things like Aardman Studio’s “Shaun the Sheep” HTML5 experiment pictured above (and linked below). And if you’re reading this in Chrome, chances are your browser has already updated itself.

[Thanks, Christoff]

Google rolls out ‘safer and snazzier’ Chrome 12 web browser originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google Chrome Blog, Chrome Experiments  | Email this | Comments

Been loving the Opera Mini experience on your iPhone and wishing for it on your larger iOS device? Opera is today turning that desire into reality with the release of v6.0 of its Mini mobile browser, which now has support for all iOS portables, including the iPad and iPad 2, plus a specific shoutout for the iPhone 4’s retina display. The overall design of the web explorer has also been freshened up, with a “new look and feel,” while a social sharing function will let you blast URLs into Twitter and Facebook directly from the app. Additionally, the new version includes the ability to load tabs in the background and improves support for non-Latin alphabets like Arabic and Chinese. Hit the source link for the download.

[Thanks, Chris]

Continue reading Opera Mini lands on the iPad in version 6.0

Opera Mini lands on the iPad in version 6.0 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 24 May 2011 08:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Fabrice Bellard builds PC emulator in JavaScript to run Linux in a browser originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 May 2011 13:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Geekosystem  |  Bellard.org JavaScript PC Emulator  | Email this | Comments