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FireFox

FireFox 3.6 Alpha – visual tab previews and faster start-up times

firefox 3.6 alpha released - whatwasithinking.co.ukMozilla Labs has just released the first alpha of Firefox 3.6, code-named Namoroka, built on top of Mozilla’s Gecko 1.9.2 layout engine. With it, Mozilla promises JavaScript improvements, startup time speed-ups, visual tab previews and behavior tweaks, capability for additional CSS3 properties, among the most notable changes.

The startup time and JS speed improvements are noticeable and welcome, and the visual tab previews are finally here and worth the wait.

By default, the new visual tabs are currently hidden in the FF3.6 alpha build, you can easily access them via an about:config tweak. Read on to learn how to add these… Keep Reading

FireFox surpasses 1 billion downloads!

The team of 1 billion downloads of firefox - whatwasithinking.co.ukMozilla Labs have done it – the download counter shows more than 1 billion downloads of Firefox! What started as a rewrite of the old Netscape browser has now become the second most used browser world-wide, with an almost 23% market share (according to stat counter’s figures).

The recent release of FireFox 3.5 boosted those numbers (with about 5 million downloads in the first week!) to over 1 billion. Why not celebrate with Mozilla Labs by reading about the history of FireFox or treating yourself to some cool extensions? 😉

The trouble with IE6 – why you still may have to support it (and debunking some myths)

the trouble with supporting IE6 - whatwasithinking.co.ukOver the last week or so, the discussion “should we continue to support IE6” has been gaining more and more momentum. Digg, Mashable, Techcrunch and other websites ran features about why IE6 should be given the boot, websites like facebook and youtube are starting to phase out the browser, hinting users to upgrade their browser.

This sparked a long and heated debate in a number of web design agencies and clients I am working with (or have worked with / for), whether it would be worth just dropping the support for Internet Explorer 6 and ask users to upgrade their browsers so that they can enjoy the website to the fullest.

Coming from a usability, accessibility, SEO and web dev background, I thought it might be a good idea writing why I would recommend supporting (or not supporting) IE6 in the industry I am working for. Keep Reading

Mozilla Jetpack – FireFox add-on development using HTML, CSS and Javascript

Mozilla Jetpack released - whatwasithinking.co.ukA couple of weeks ago, the creative minds behind Mozilla Labs have launched the open source project Jetpack to the FireFox community.

Jetpack is an API which enables designers and developers to write add-ons using HTML, CSS and Javascript, encouraging more and more developers to join the 8,000+ people strong add-on community.

The Mozilla Labs Jetpack website already has a wealth of information, from guidelines to tutorials (ranging from how to disable <embed>’s or how to integrate the twitter API) and information on distributing your new add-on.

If you would like to find out more, just head over to Jetpack.mozillalabs.com for more information.

FireFox 3.5 – big update, new technologies, faster browsing

firefox3.5 released - whatwasithinking.co.ukFireFox, one of the most popular browsers on the market, has been updated to version 3.5 yesterday. Based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, this browser promises to be about twice as fast as FireFox 3 (and 10x faster than FF2!), to support new technologies, improve its performance and be even easier to use than before…

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Mobile FireFox (codename: Fennec) goes beta

Mozilla Fennec has reached beta 1 - Whatwasithinking.co.ukFennec, the mobile version of Firefox has reached beta. Mozilla’s answer to the browser wars on mobile devices is here to provide its standards-based open-source browser engine, optimized for mobile, that can be embedded by device manufacturers and others, and is going to be a full-featured mobile browser including support for XUL-based add-ons, delivering on Firefox’s key principles of ease-of-use, security and accessibility, and help developers debug and deploy web applications for the mobile market.

Read on after the break what has changed in beta 1, screenshots and how you can get hold of it… Keep Reading

Up close and personal – Personas for Firefox

Up close and personal and 3d - Mozilla Personas - WhatwasithinkingThe never-sleeping minds from Mozilla Labs (who just gave us Bespin a few months back) have recently announced the the introduction of Mozilla Personas,  light-weight skins allowing users to “dress up” the look of their favourite browser via an addon.

After installing Personas and restarting FireFox you are able to install skins via a new icon through the new Personas menu, enabling you to browse through the most popular skins, latest skins or simply just through all existing categories, and with the click of a button you can preview what your browser will be looking like before applying it with a single click.

Feeling creative and want to know more on creating your own skin? Then read on… Keep Reading

The most useful FireFox Extensions of February

FireFox extensions roundup February 2009 - The Best FireFox extensionsThose of you following me on twitter know I tend to spend a bit of time every couple of days in finding new extensions for FireFox (and sometimes Thunderbird) which are making my life as an Information Architect, Web Designer or Project Development Manager easier. These extensions may be some all of us have been using for ages but never really realised we had them installed, or some we really wanted to see or use for some time, but never really spent the time researching whether these extensions are actually available. This is the list of February…
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