Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 got out and better

When we all thought that Mozilla has almost done fixing the Firefox 3.1 and ready to take it out from Beta version, the company behind one of the most popular desktop web browsers in the whole world has announced yet another Beta 2.

But don't get your hopes down first upon hearing your favorite web browser is still in Beta phase, because apparently Mozilla has added some awesome new features in it. In fact, according to Mozilla, the new Beta turns on a feature designed to make the browser up to 40 times faster.

Let's get to know them better shall we?

Multi-touch gestures for Macs

Back in October, Mozilla's Eddie Lee produced an experimental version of Firefox that allowed Mac users to control the browser with multifingered gestures. In Firefox v3.1 Beta 2, those gestures have been made official. Charlie Sorrel from Wired gave it a try, and felt the gestures are even better than those in Apple's own browser, Safari. Here's the list of what you can do, provided by MacRumors ("Swipe" means a three fingered sweep):

• Swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Command to open it in a tab)
• Swipe Right: Go forward in history
• Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
• Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
• Pinch Together: Zoom out
• Pinch Apart: Zoom in
• Twist Right: Next tab
• Twist Left: Previous tab

Private Browsing

This feature works almost the same like in Google Chrome's Incognito Mode, or like in IE8's InPrivate Browsing. All traces of your browsing session are deleted when you use Private Browsing -- your browsing history, temporary Internet files, search history, download history, Web form history, and cookies. (For obvious reasons, it's popularly known as "porn mode.") ;-p

To launch a Private Browsing session, choose Tools --> Private Browsing. When you do that, you'll get a warning that Firefox is going to close all of your current tabs to launch a Private Browsing session. But according to Preston Gralla from Computerworld who tried this; you won't be able to have a private browsing session at the same time you have a normal one, something that both Internet Explorer 8 and Chrome let you do.

Faster browsing

The Beta 2 uses TraceMonkey, a JavaScript engine that Mozilla says can speed up page rendering by up to 40 times compared to Firefox 3.0. Also, the new Beta version supports "Web workers" threads, a specification that lets Web-based applications run background processes. This should speed up Web-based applications, as long as developers take advantage of it.

Beta 2 adds another feature to easily erase your browsing history, cookies, download list, and other browser traces from the last hour, two hours, four hours, today -- or all of your browsing history. To use the feature, you select Tools --> Clear Recent History or Ctrl-Shift-Del. From the drop-down list, choose the time period for which you want to delete your traces, and uncheck or check the specific traces you want deleted. Then click Clear Private Data.

Improved tab handling and Smart Location Bar

Beta 2 takes off from where the previous Beta 1 left on the tab handling and the Smart Location Bar features, and Mozilla has made it much better; there's now a "+" symbol at the far right of your tabs, which when clicked upon opens a new tab.

Beta 2 also make a nifty improvement to the Smart Location Bar (which some call the "Awesome Bar"), you can control the Awesome Bar and the results it displays by adding special characters to the end of what you type. You can have the Awesome Bar only display results from your history list, results from your bookmarks, results from the URL itself, or results from pages you've tagged.

A new type of malware is specially attacking Firefox

Firefox users; be aware of this new type of malware that's targeting only Firefox users, as reported by PC World.

The malware is called "Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A," it collects passwords for banking sites such as Barclays, Wachovia, Bank of America, and PayPal along with two dozen or so Italian and Spanish banks. When it recognizes a Web site, it will collect logins and passwords, forwarding that information to a server in Russia.

Viorel Canja, the head of BitDefender lab said the malware sits on Firefox's add-ons folder after users dubbed into downloading it, it will then registers itself in Firefox's system files as "Greasemonkey," a well-known collection of scripts that add extra functionality to Web pages rendered by Firefox.

BitDefender has updated its products to detect it, and other vendors will likely follow suit quickly, Canja said. Firefox users are advised to avoid downloading such malware by only accepting signed & verified softwares.

Fennec faces tough competition ahead

I have no doubt in my mind, if we're to talk about the top 5 web browsers for desktop, then Firefox will come up as everybody's favorite.

So when the alpha version of mobile Firefox, known as "Fennec" (which the name refers to a smaller fox type), was released some time ago; mobile users are excited about the news especially Firefox users.

But things would become a whole lot different if it comes to the mobile web browser teritory, the competition in there is already been filled with big names. And that's not all, the thoughest part is that four of the most famous mobile platforms: Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Android & iPhone have bundled in their own mobile web browsers.

And let's not forget, that iPhone still holds the crown with its mobile Safari browser. Maybe Fennec will get a chance to squeeze into the competition through Symbian, which still is the most spread around mobile platform in the world thanks to Nokia's vast handsets line-up. Even with this strategy, Fennec will have to challenge Opera Mini that has been enjoying a comfortable position in Symbian.

So what can Mozilla do to make Fennec as popular as its desktop cousin? Well, for a start there's a leaked info coming out from Jay Sullivan, vice president of mobile at Mozilla. Sullivan told ABC News more about Fennec's capabilities:

• The novel look and feel of Fennec will boost its popularity.
• Its controls can be easily accessed but disappear when users don't need them.
• Using a touch-screen interface, a user drags her finger to the right to reveal open tabs, and to the left to reveal controls such as the back button and the address bar.
• Awesome Bar; the smart address bar that guesses which page a user wants when she types a letter or two.
• Weave; a Firefox research project that allows a person to remotely access his desktop Web-browsing history, bookmarks, and other preferences.

Jeffrey Hammond, mobile analyst at Forrester Research also believes that Fennec's performance could make it attractive for makers of mobile operating systems. "Speed is one reason why we've seen Firefox gain share in the enterprise, versus Internet Explorer," Hammond says .

But don't get your hopes too high right now, because one thing for sure is Fennec will not appear soon on the rising star Android platform. Sullivan says that Fennec can't run on Android right now because of the Android Market, where phone software can be downloaded, only accepts programs written in Java. If Android were supportive of applications that could run directly on the operating system without needing to be written in Java, Sullivan says, "then it's interesting for us. We'll have to see which direction Google goes with that."

Sources are from ABC News, via UnwiredView, via BGR.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Mobile Firefox Alpha 1 released

"Fennec", the codename for Firefox mobile browser has been released in its earliest state: Alpha 1. Mozilla calls it as Fennec M9, is the mobile version of Firefox web browser and the current version is for testing purpose only.

So in other words, it's not yet for end users (and not for those who have feint of hearts). Because Mozilla expects plenty of bugs and feedbacks from the first release, the know issues stated are:

• user interface intermittently unresponsive during page load
• page loading takes a long time to complete for many sites
• plug-ins are disabled
• bookmark folders are not implemented yet

But, if you wish to jump into the fire blaze then you can hit this link to read the step by step instructions before install it into your computer. Fennec right now supports Nokia N810 Internet Tablet running OS2008, Windows, Mac OS X & Linux.

Sources are from Mozilla-Fennec page, via Lifehacker.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

New Digg toolbar for Firefox 3

Have you know that Digg has released a new toolbar extension for Firefox 3? If you're one of those persons who love to share the knowledge with others, and you're a Firefox 3 user; then you might want to grab this latest Digg's toolbar.

Josh Lowensohn (Webware) said that the new toolbar integrates whatever page you're on with the popular social news site. Included are handy things like a real-time pop-up window that notifies you when friends have dugg something, or when new stories hit the front pages of various sections.

And not just that, there's also a toolbar that can be toggled on the top of your browser which shows you if a page you're on has been submitted to Digg along with options to submit it yourself or read the user comments.

Digg Firefox 3 Extension from Kevin Rose on Vimeo.
[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Firefox 3, should we care?

The latest app-buzz for the last week, is none other than the upgrade of Firefox into version 3. Where at the first day Firefox 3 available, Mozilla’s server was crippled due to the overwhelming download request that came from all over the world.

Although Firefox isn’t the strongest player in web browser competition, it is still in the second place after Microsoft’s IE; and has more users than Opera (as seen on the pie-chart pic below) So what really makes Firefox so popular?

First of all must because Firefox is an open source & free web browser, making it viable on various OS platforms. Then when it comes to both aforementioned favorite words there, will comes security concerns along. How good, or how bad is this new Firefox 3 compared to its predecessor?

An upgraded version usually also mean upgraded security, Erik Larkin from PC World has found out that on the security front; Firefox 3 will now block sites known to spread malware, based on a Google blacklist, along with blocking phishing sites. It also supports Extended Validation certificates, so if you view a site that uses one to verify the site owner's identity, you'll know it: A large green button with the company's name will appear on the left side of the location bar.

Mozilla has kept its promise to make Firefox better inside than other competitors, with addressing on memory management; the Firefox 3 shows better at handling memory leakage now. This could seriously improve users personal experience when using the new version, especially on limited resource of UMPC or smaller-notebook that are in trend nowadays.

Are those new security measures make you sure to get Firefox 3 now? Another good arguments came from a defensive computing pundit; Michael Horowitz: “Don't install Firefox version 3. Not today. not for a while. Like all new software, Firefox 3 is best kept at arms length. Version 3 was a long time coming and, no doubt, features lots of new code. At the risk of repeating myself, all new software contains bugs and design flaws. Let the rest of the world debug it for you.”

If you’re not into what’s going on the background, and prefer more to focus on what’s in front of you; then on the Firefox 3’s UI, you won’t be finding much differences from the previous Firefox 2. Many reviews have stated that Firefox 3 is more into users experience in everyday use, like the new “Awesome Bar” that can hasten the search of your last visited websites or downloaded files. IMHO this Awesome Bar works almost like Google’s Desktop search, or Vista’s Start menu search.

But not everybody will appreciate new changes immediately, even with so many new features offered in Firefox 3; people are already talking about removing that Awesome Bar. Some say it’s annoying, other say it’s a refreshing new add-on, then again some say they want the o’same Firefox they’re familiar with. If you’re one of those kinda people, then you can try to remove the Awesome Bar with watching the video from CNet.

One thing that still remain as favorite for all Firefox users, is the availability of its many add-ons. Just like what Palm users love about their Palm OS based devices. Although right now, there haven’t been much of new add-ons that support Firefox version 3 yet; with more time there will be.
And for mobile users, Firefox proves to be more convenient. As you may also have read it on Sammy’s post here at PalmAddict, that refer to jkOnTheRun blog about using mobile Firefox 3. The portable version of Firefox 3 is offered by PortableApps, and also free.

Portable Firefox 3 doesn’t mean you’re bringing the web browser inside your USB stick or memory card, but instead it only contains the settings and other configurations of your main Firefox 3 web browser installed in your computer. Neil McAllister from PCW Business Center has explicitly explained it in layman words:

”What the PortableApps crew does is modify open source applications, such as Firefox, so that they expect all of their associated configuration and data files to reside in the same place -- the portable drive that the software itself lives on. You plug in the drive, launch Firefox, and all of your options, bookmarks, and personal data is there, just the way you like it. Better still, when you quit the program and remove the drive, all of your personal data comes with you; none is left on the computer.”

Sure, mobility or in this case is portability; is indeed make our life easier and more fun. But it also has its security concern, just what Neil has thought of too. The only caveat: If you happen to lose the drive, the cookies and passwords stored on it can be a serious liability.

So how is it? Is this new Firefox 3 good enough for us? Enough to make non-Firefox users transform into one? But for you who already one of many Firefox users, you’ll definitely have made the switch right away.