If you’re a Firefox fan and an Android tablet user, there’s some great news for you. Mozilla will be releasing a Honeycomb version of their open source browser very soon. The record-breaking browser facing heavy competition from the likes of Chrome and Opera, has already stepped up their game by speeding up their release cycles. While that decision might not have been such a great success with users, the prospect of using a familiar and open source browser on an Android tablet already seems exciting.

Here’s what we can expect from the tablet version of our beloved Firefox.

The UI: Well, the tablet version is quite different from the desktop or mobile version. In other words, it’s made specifically for tablets rather than clumsily fitting a desktop or mobile UI into a bigger form factor. The UI has been designed keeping in mind the utility and limitations of the tablets. Hence, you’ll find that the browser takes up a lot less space and makes full use of the small screen space.

Fits like a glove: The new user interface adapts nicely to the Honeycomb theme on Android 3.0. Firefox for tablets won’t be something that would look out of place on your tablet. In fact, it will look as if it’s meant for your Honeycomb tablet and nothing else. The buttons on the UI are rounded and look very much modern as compared to other browsers. Though it will look quite different from its mobile and desktop counterparts, Firefox will be sticking with the traditional back/forward buttons that always make it stand apart.

Ah, the very familiar AwesomeBar!: The Firefox you’ll see on Honeycomb will come with the popular AwesomeBar. For the uninitiated, the AwesomeBar is Firefox’s default address bar. It’s called AwesomeBar because of its intelligent prediction of webpages, which is done by indexing history and bookmarks. So, whenever you start typing something in Firefox’s address bar, you start seeing relevant suggestions from your history and bookmarks. For example, typing ‘t’ will recommend you twitter.com if you’ve visited it before or saved it in your bookmarks. The AwesomeBar is especially important for mobile devices, as here you have to minimize the user’s typing.

Better Tabs: Tabbing on Firefox for tablets works quite differently from how it works on mobiles or desktops. In landscape mode, the tabs appear as a persistent bar on the left hand side (much like the Unity launcher). You’ll also see a preview of the tabs so that you can get a better idea of the tabs that are active in the background. Many users might disagree with the new UI. However, the left bar makes it easy to switch between tabs using the left thumb while the right thumb can be used for scrolling or clicking links. In portrait mode, the tabs can be selected from a simple drop down menu thus saving a lot of screen space. Overall, the User Interface is simple and something most new users would love. Also, Firefox doesn’t try to do anything extraordinary here; it’s just focusing on keeping things simple, as it always has.

Firefox Sync: This is a feature that has been around for a quite a while. Yet, for some weird reasons, many folks haven’t even heard of it. Firefox Sync allows users to sync their browsing data seamlessly across various platforms and devices. So, if you’ve opened 5 tabs on your laptop, and say your battery runs out, then you can access the same tabs from your other devices which have Firefox on them. This is as an incredibly powerful feature that makes Firefox a heavyweight as far as the browser wars are considered. Having syncing capabilities on tablets will ensure that Firefox loyalists on the desktop and mobile won’t use anything other than Firefox for all their browsing needs.

Ok, the mockups look very impressive, but will Firefox really be able to deliver on this platform? Here are some things that might not work in favor of the open source browser.

Dolphin and other competitors: The browser scene on tablets and mobiles may not be quite as competitive as on the desktop, but there are some quality applications that might make things tough for Firefox. Most of the users usually stick to the default browser in Android as it pretty much has all the features most users need. If they want an alternative Android web browser, then, Dolphin is something they can always download. Dolphin already has features that make it the best browser for Android, and to beat such a heavyweight will not be an easy task. Let’s hope that Mozilla will be able to convince enough users to move from this veteran browser.

Firefox Mobile is Mozilla’s chance to make up for the market it lost to Chrome. Firefox for tablets will give it a necessary shot in the arm by increasing its adoption across other platforms too. Let’s hope they make it big.

Firefox 4 was another milestone for the Mozilla team. Of course, with the growing popularity of Chrome, Firefox’s admiration seems to have taken a downward trend. However, the record-holding browser isn’t going to back down. In its next version, that is Firefox 5, the veteran browser promises to bring along features that will put Firefox at par with Google Chrome.

Here are 9 such features that will make you reconsider if you’re planning to switch to Chrome. Or, if you’re a Chrome user already, who knows, you might as well go turn back to the fox.

If you love the little menu that sits on the top left corner of your Firefox 4 window, then, you have even more reasons to be excited. Firefox is planning to implement a new feature that will make a website behave more like an app. What this means is, when you create an app tab for a website -- let’s say Twitter -- the site, now an app, will have its very own dedicated menu. So, on the top left corner of your window you’ll be able to see not one but two drop down menus -- one for Twitter and other for Firefox. The Twitter menu will include quick shortcuts to the website like New Tweet, Replies and so on. Similar mock-ups have surfaced demonstrating the feature on various web sites like IMDB, CNN and others. For a quick sneak peek on how it looks like, visit this site.

Firefox 5 will mostly come bundled with F1, Mozilla’s new social sharing extension. The feature will allow a user to share any web page with their friends on Twitter, Facebook and other social networks. As of now, the extension works flawlessly and it is continuously improving. Having this feature in Firefox will definitely give it an edge over Chrome, which doesn’t have any such feature.

Syncing on Chrome is bit more obscure when contrasted with how it is on Firefox. Firefox 5 will further ramp up this feature so that you’ll be able to sync all your passwords, bookmarks, open tabs and more across desktop as well as mobile.

Hate opening a different browser just to login to your second account on a particular site? Thankfully, Mozilla has come up with a nifty solution to that problem. In Firefox 5, Mozilla will possibly include a new feature called identity manager. This will help users log into multiple accounts at once without logging out from either of them.

Details about this feature are sketchy but Firefox is planning to introduce an all new ‘New Tab’ page. We still don’t know how it will look like but it will definitely be better-looking than the one on Chrome.

Firefox 5 will include a small tweak, which will enable users to track the status of the file they’re uploading to a particular website. This is a huge gift for users who always want to know what’s going on behind the scenes.

Firefox 5 may include a built-in PDF viewer and Mp3 player. Chrome already has a native PDF reader, but having that feature in Firefox 5 will definitely make the competition tougher between the two browsers.

Keeping track of addons in Firefox 5 as well as updating them will become a lot easier. The latest version of Firefox will feature an all-new add-on selector, which will allow users to keep track of their installed extensions and plugins. Updating them will no longer be an ordeal as Mozilla aims to make this process easy and non-intrusive for all the users.

Firefox 5 will feature all new color-coded search boxes that will help users identify which search engine they’re currently using. For example, if Google is active, a little green bar saying ‘Google’ will be displayed adjacent to the search box. Similarly, there will be color codes for Bing (yellow) and Yahoo (aubergine) making search easier than ever.

With Firefox 5, Mozilla plans to bring back the users it has lost to Chrome and Chromium. This, of course, is no easy task, as Chrome is developing and growing at a breakneck speed. Also, that coupled with the release of Chromebooks, will give Chrome a major boost in the market share. Mozilla having ramped up its development cycle hopes to catch up with Chrome and more importantly, to retain its no 1 spot amongst the various browsers out there. By releasing Firefox 5, Mozilla may quickly reach this goal.

A few weeks ago, we did an in-depth review of Ubuntu 11.04 when compared with Fedora 15. One of the interesting little features we missed was Quicklists in Unity. Quicklists allow users to access common menus, or perform common tasks within a program by right-clicking the launcher icon. The feature is very much similar to Jump Lists in Windows 7, which could be accessed by right-clicking the Windows task bar. Applications, like Browsers and Media Players use these Jump Lists to let the user access documents and tasks associated with the current application. Unity on the other hand being freshly baked from the oven, there aren't many applications that take advantage of the Quicklist features. Here's a quick tip that will let you enable Quicklists for both Google Chrome and Firefox.

Google Chrome and Chromium don't support Quicklists by default; however, with a little tweaking the feature can be enabled to support incognito mode. Here's the whole process in 2 easy steps.

Step 1: Backup - Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type in the following code:

Step 2: Then, type the following line in the terminal:

Step 3: Now that the file is opened, paste the following code at the end of the file. When done, press Ctrl+S and close the window.

Using Firefox:

Anyways, enough talk, here's how to get it in 4 easy steps:

Step 1: Backup the file..

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop.backup

sudo gedit /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Step 3: Apparently, Firefox already supports the New Window quick list item. So, find the code that begins with a line that looks like this:

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;

This line will be followed by some code. Now, delete the line and the lines below it.

Step 4: Add following code to the file, press Ctrl+S and exit.

X-Ayatana-Desktop-Shortcuts=NewWindow;PrivateToggle;ProfileMgr;Safe-Mode;

[NewWindow Shortcut Group]

Name=Open a New Window

Name[ast]=Abrir una ventana nueva

Name[bn]=Abrir una ventana nueva

Name[ca]=Obre una finestra nova

Name[da]=Åbn et nyt vindue

Name[de]=Ein neues Fenster öffnen

Name[es]=Abrir una ventana nueva

Name[fi]=Avaa uusi ikkuna

Name[fr]=Ouvrir une nouvelle fenêtre

Name[gl]=Abrir unha nova xanela

Name[he]=פתיחת חלון חדש

Name[hr]=Otvori novi prozor

Name[hu]=Új ablak nyitása

Name[it]=Apri una nuova finestra

Name[ja]=新しいウィンドウを開く

Name[ku]=Paceyeke nû veke

Name[lt]=Atverti naują langą

Name[nl]=Nieuw venster openen

Name[ro]=Deschide o fereastră nouă

Name[ru]=Открыть новое окно

Name[sv]=Öppna ett nytt fönster

Name[ug]=يېڭى كۆزنەك ئېچىش

Name[uk]=Відкрити нове вікно

Name[zh_CN]=新建窗口

Name[zh_TW]=開啟新視窗

Exec=firefox -new-window about:blank

TargetEnvironment=Unity

[Safe-Mode Shortcut Group]

Name=Safe-Mode

Exec=firefox -safe-mode

TargetEnvironment=Unity

[PrivateToggle Shortcut Group]

Name=Enable/Disabe Private Mode

Exec=firefox -private-toggle

TargetEnvironment=Unity

[ProfileMgr Shortcut Group]

Name=Start Profile Manager

Exec=firefox -ProfileManager

TargetEnvironment=Unity

Finally, if all goes well, the menu will look like this:

Menu doesn't show up:

If the menu doesn't show up, remove the launcher from the Unity bar by right-clicking and unchecking the option titled “Keep in Launcher”. Then search for the program and drag it to the Unity bar again. The Quicklist should be visible by now.

If something goes wrong, type the following commands. These commands will restore the original ‘.desktop’ files and delete the modified ones, taking things back to normal.

For Google Chrome:

sudo rm -rf /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

sudo mv /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop.backup /usr/share/applications/google-chrome.desktop

For Firefox:

sudo rm -rf /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

sudo mv /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop.backup /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

Are you excited about Firefox 4? Or, have you already switched to Google Chrome and would never look back?

Flock, a web browser that mainly caters to social networking needs, just made a surprising move by using Google Chrome codebase for their latest Beta release instead of sticking with Mozilla Firefox, the browser that it was initially based on. This means that the next major version of Flock (Flock 3) will be entirely built on top of the Chrome platform.

I was once a Flock user and even urged some of you to flock with me. That was more than a year ago, when Flock was still in its infancy and was beginning to get noticed. To date, Flock web browser has already been downloaded 7 million times and it has raised around $30 million in venture funding.

The Beta version of Flock 3 now has that trademark Chrome look with tabs located at the top portion of the address bar. Its main feature is still its integration of social networking, mail, and other media services that includes Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Flickr, Blogger, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, etc.

Though Flock is embracing Google Chrome, it is not leaving Firefox completely just yet. In a statement made by Flock CEO Shawn Hardin at TechCrunch, he said that they haven't stopped their development efforts on the Mozilla platform and that their upcoming release of Flock 2.1 is still built on it. "The browser space is heating up, and we’ve seen a variety of exciting technologies emerge over the last several months that are appealing", he added.

It is now pretty clear that Google Chrome's exciting technologies are very appealing to Flock developers. I think their only problem is that majority of Flock web browser users have grown to like or love Firefox. So I wonder how will these users accept this major change.

Here are some of the things that I did that helps make Firefox somewhat faster than Chrome:

That's about it. You should be able to notice the speed improvement immediately after applying the above tweaks.

Disabling Firefox addons that you don't use often, blocking flash content, and using a lightweight theme will also help speed up Firefox.

The mobile version of Firefox web browser has been finally released. But don't get too excited because as of the moment, it is only available for Nokia's Maemo5 platform. This means that the owners of Nokia N900 smartphone are the lucky few who can download, install, and experience Firefox for Mobile in action.

Firefox for mobile is loaded with great features like:

* Awesome Bar – access your favorite sites in just a couple of keystrokes with intelligent and personalized searching
* Weave Sync – sync your Firefox tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords between your desktop and mobile device for a seamless browsing experience
* Add-ons – customize your Firefox by adding small pieces of functionality, like games and news readers, that help make the mobile Web browser your own
* Location-Aware Browsing – get maps and information relevant to your location
* Tabbed browsing – view open tabs as thumbnails to easily identify and select the Web page you’d like to go to next
* Safe Browsing – get an Instant Web Site ID and easily access and edit security settings
* Available in more than 30 languages and counting

In addition to those features, Firefox also supports add-ons, making it the first mobile web browser to do so. Add-ons like AdBlock Plus, URL Fixer, TwitterBar, language translators, and more can be installed directly from the mobile device or in this case the Nokia N900. As of this time, there are more 40 than Firefox for mobile add-ons. See them all HERE.

Web developers can take advantage of Firefox for mobile in creating rich applications as they can use the latest Web technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to improve, modify and customize the browser.

Here is a video of Nokia N900 running Firefox for Mobile:



Expect to see a lot more mobile devices that will run Firefox this year. So I guess we are getting really close to seeing iPhone and Android phones running Firefox for Mobile.

Firefox 3.6 "Beta 1" is now available for testers to download. This version utilizes the Gecko 1.9.2 web-rendering engine and contains tons of enhancements for users as well as web developers. If you are using the latest stable version of Firefox and want to know what's in store for you in version 3.6, here is a list of features and improvements of this development release:

For web and add-on developers, support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies are implemented. For more details, see HERE.

Halloween is just around the corner so you may want to pimp your desktop a bit to suit the occasion. A good way would be to change the look of your Firefox web browser to make it a little bit spooky. That can be easily done by first installing the Firefox add-on called Personas, and then choosing or wearing the skin that you like.

Currently, there are about 90 themes available but we will get to that later on. In the meantime, here are my top 10 favorite Firefox Personas Halloween themes that you should check out first:

Halloween Smileys

Autumn Wind

Halloween Foxkeh

The full gallery of Firefox Halloween themes can be found HERE.

On a related note, I've been looking for some Google Chrome themes for Halloween but sad to say I can't find any.

On another related note, you can also check out our collection of scary tux icons that you may like.

John Lilly, CEO of Mozilla, told technology blogger Om Malik that they will release an application for the iPhone a few weeks from now and that it will be "really exciting". No further details have been said yet so we are left guessing.

It could be similar to Fennec, a mobile version of Firefox web browser that is designed for smaller devices, mobile phones and PDAs. A beta version of Fennec is already available on Nokia Maemo based devices like the N900. However, Mr. Malik believes that the app could be an implementation of the synchronizing service called Weave.

The big question is this: will Apple approve a Firefox web browser app for the iPhone?

We all know what happened to Google Voice and Google Latitude. Google Latitude was rejected from the iTunes App Store because Apple was worried that it would replace the built-in Maps app.

If Apple will miraculously approve a Firefox web browser application for the iPhone then a lot of people will be happy (including me) since it will surely be a good alternative to the mobile version of Safari.


In related news, Mozilla CEO has clearly stated that they are now developing a Firefox web browser specifically for Android phones. It will come with add-ons, desktop synchronization, awesomeBar-style navigation and possibly other innovative features that will change the way we surf the web on our mobile devices.

One of the main features of Firefox 3.7 is its advanced support for multi-touch enabled devices. During the MozCamp and JRSL event in Chile, Marcio Galli painted the Firefox logo using a development build of Firefox, a touch screen laptop, a simple drawing application, and his finger. Here's the video of demo:

The drawing application as shown on the video was written in JavaScript utilizing less than 70 lines of code. To illustrate how simple the app is, here are most of the codes used:

If you own a touch-screen computer or laptop running Linux, Windows, or Mac, you can test the drawing application HERE. But first you have to download and install the development version of Firefox 3.7, which you can get HERE.

The stable version of Firefox 3.7 that will have full multi-touch support might be released in May-June 2010. It will utilize Gecko 1.9.3 engine.

Firefox 3.5 has been released several weeks ago, but some Ubuntu 9.04 users out there may still be using the older 3.0 version. They should not expect that they will get an automatic update since this latest Firefox release will not be officially included in Ubuntu until 9.10 "Karmic Koala". But no worries because it is very much possible to install Firefox 3.5 on Ubuntu 9.04, and in fact I'm using it right now.


I know you can't wait already, so let's get down to business...

Ubuntuzilla is a Python script that will let you easily install and update Mozilla applications that are not yet available on the Ubuntu repository.

Ubuntuzilla will guide you through the installation process, and you should be able to install Firefox successfully.

4. You can now run Firefox 3.5 via "firefox" command, or simply click on Firefox from the “Applications Menu”.

3. Firefox 3.5 is now saved in your "Home" folder. Before running Firefox 3.5, be sure to close the older version. You can start the latest version with this command:

From the list of menus, select "Internet". You can now add a new item or simply replace the older version of Firefox. The command field should be:

The first time you run Firefox 3.5, it will start updating your Extensions and will check for compatibility among other things. By now, a lot of popular extensions are updated to support version 3.5.

Enjoy!

Chromium developers have just released three sample extensions for Google Chrome. The extensions are for testing purposes only. To run them, you will need to use a recent trunk build or the Chrome dev channel release, and then add --enable-extensions to your Chrome command line.

Here are the 3 Google Chrome sample extensions (with screenshots):

Google Chrome is clearly on its way to steal the show from Firefox. One of the main reasons why I'm using Firefox is because of its useful add-ons, so if Chrome can flawlessly provide me those then I might make the switch.

How about you? What will make you switch from Firefox to Chrome?

Mozilla Firefox 3, the free and open source web browser, has finally overtaken Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 and is getting closer and closer behind IE 7. According to data from StatCounter Global Stats, for the first time in February of this year, Firefox 3 with 24% market share overtook IE 6. --IE 6 has a shrinking market share of 22%.

IE 7 is still the global leader with 41% market share. But overall, Internet Explorer is steeply falling with a market share down from 68% in July 2008 to 63% now. Meanwhile, the number of Firefox users has been steadily growing. Its market share now stands at 27% from 25% of July last year. (*click on images to enlarge)

Top 5 Browsers from July 2008 to March 2009

Most recent StatCounter traffic data of Tech Source From Bohol shows that majority of visitors from this site uses Firefox:

Do you buy or subscribe to popular magazines like Men’s Health, Popular Mechanics, PC Magazine, ELLE, Esquire, Macworld, Playboy, and Penthouse? If you do, then you may like this simple hack that could save you a few bucks.

The trick is not really that complicated and you will only need Firefox to read these magazines and more for free. You can even download exact copies of these featured publications so that you can view them offline. Forget using Bit Torrent and other P2P file sharing software because this is a whole lot simpler.

I know you can’t wait to try this hack already, so here’s how you can read or view some popular magazines for free using Firefox:

Anyway, the first thing that greeted me upon my return is an update of Firefox. Since I am a Beta tester, my previous version of Firefox has been updated earlier than probably most of you. The 3.0.7 version has fixed some key issues:

As I’ve said before, Firefox web browser has become so popular that it has a lot of passionate users from around world. These people will do everything to help spread Firefox. --Like some of them have created great desktop wallpapers that even non-Firefox users will surely be attracted to.

To know what I mean, I have collected a few of those wallpapers here for everyone to see. So without delay, here’s my list of 25 most awesome Firefox desktop wallpapers:

If you have a link or two to other great Firefox wallpapers, please share it with us via comment.

You may also want to check out my post about some cool and funny Firefox video ads.