Archive for the ‘Firefox’ Category
Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 | Posted in Firefox | No Comments »
At the last Firefox 3 Status Meeting, Mozilla planned the release schedule for the second beta of Firefox 3.
The development tree will close for checkins at midnight tonight, then several days will be spent fixing little errors before the QA and build teams start working on it. Code freeze is scheduled for December 7 and the final ship date for beta 2 is currently planned for December 21, but could still be postponed into early January.
I am currently running Firefox 3 beta one as my primary browser, and I’m quite happy with it’s performance, and I look forward to the release of Beta2 , too see if the little bugs have been fixed now.
Sometimes, these things amaze me.
Source
UPDATE: Here’s how you actually make them.
Rumors say that Firefox 3 will have the long expected full page zooming feature. It will be able to zoom in the images as well, just like you can do with Opera and IE7.
This specific feature request was originally suggested in Bugzilla, 8 years ago, but was delayed and eventually bypassed since it was not considered practical in today’s HTML rendering engine for Firefox (Gecko 1.8). Like I said above, this feature is scheduled for inclusion in Firefox 3 since the new version of Gecko (1.9) will also include a large number of significant improvements.
Even if the feature is fully implemented and functional, the regular interface does not show the functionality to the regular user.
In order to test it out, you have to use Firefox’s built-in JavaScript error console, and here’s the code sequence you need to validate:
Components.classes[”@mozilla.org/appshell/window-mediator;1″]
.getService(Components.interfaces.nsIWindowMediator)
.getMostRecentWindow(”navigator:browser”).getBrowser()
.mCurrentBrowser.markupDocumentViewer.fullZoom = 3;
This experimental code will zoom the current page you’re browsing to 3x. You can also experiment with different values so you can see different levels of zoom. For zooming out, use decimals like 0.5 for example.
This is yet another example of how brilliant Firefox 3 is.
Are you using Firefox on more than one computer? I certainly do, I use Firefox at work, at home and even at school, so it’s only natural that I want to be able to have the same bookmarks, settings, skins, etc. everywhere I go. One way to solve this problem is to keep track of your bookmarks online using services as Del.icio.us, but what if you want to keep your bookmarks private ? And this doesn’t solve the problem with saved passwords and other settings you can’t easily import. Or you can use some specific Firefox addons to synchronize your bookmarks, but then again that won’t help you very much.
Another answer to your problems would be to install a software like FolderShare that will keep your Firefox instances up to date. What you’ll do is configure the software so that when you install new plugins or when you modify in any way the content of the synced folder, it will do the same on all the other online installations. There are of course a few drawbacks such as the fact that at least two computers must be online for this to work, and the fact it won’t keep your browsing history (as the file used for that it’s a little hard to handle by FolderShare).
So here you have it, it’s free, it’s from Microsoft (surprisingly) and it does the job. And you think it’s too much trouble to do all that configuring just for Firefox, think about keeping your projects updated or other uses that software like FolderShare could have.
Product overview | How it works | Download
I was talking a while back about some features that are to be included in the upcoming Firefox 3. Well now I found out that developers plan to include a module that allows users to browse and/or use some applications offline. Just the way Google Gears does with Google Reader, now that will be an useful feature.
Speaking of useful features, I’m sure we all want to work as efficiently as possible and Firefox has a few ways of making your browsing easier and faster. So here are some useful shortcuts I use (and some new ones 
) that will make your browsing sessions run smoother:
Selects the URL = CTRL + L
Creates Bookmark = CTRL + D
Adds .com to address = CTRL + “Enter”
Adds .net to address = SHIFT + “Enter”
Adds .org to address = CTRL + SHIFT +” Enter”
Forward = ALT + -> or just SHIFT + “Spacebar”
Back = ALT + <- or just "Spacebar"
Searches links within the page = ' (single quote)
Searches within page = CTRL + R
Zoom in = CTRL + "+"
Zoom out = CTRL + "-"
Initial zoom level = CTRL + 0
History = CTRL + H
Homepage = Alt + Home key
Creates new Tab = CTRL + T
Select tabs 1 to 9 = CTRL + [1..9]
New Window = CTRL + N
Save Page As = CTRL + S
Show source = CTRL + U
Web Search = CTRL + K
Well that’s about all that I know and I think it’s more than enough for all of us. Feel free to share if you know other interesting shortcuts.
We’re all waiting for the new Firefox 3 to be released ( and that would be somewhere later this year, see the schedule for more details ). But until then let’s see some of the features that would be available in the new release.
Malware protection
- By working together with Google the Firefox browser will be able to prevent you from entering sites that will potentially harm your computer. This will work in a similar way to how Firefox prevents you now from entering sites that could steal your personal information.
Location bar changes
- The way URLs are displayed in the address bar might change, the favicon for example might not be displayed at all. Other visual changes might be made as well, such as all text besides the main domain name (as in subdomain.domain.com/page.htm) to be grayed out.
Places
- This is supposed to be the new bookmarks and tagging system. The innovation lays in the way you can organize saved sites by using the above mentioned bookmarks or tags, and even store page visiting history for each site.
Private Browsing
- This one is expected by many of the people I know for a long, long time. When in Private mode the Firefox browser will not store any information of your browsing session ( that includes history, cookies, etc).
Coming soon
- There are other features on the developers map that were not detailed enough at this time but are most likely be part of Firefox 3. Here are some of them:
- Offline Web applications
- Improved password manager
- Microformat detection
This is it for now and keep posted for new updates on the development process.
It seems that FileHippo presented us with Firefox v. 2.0.0.4 before there was any official announcement on Mozilla’s FrontPage, but taking a short trip in the past, I noticed that FileHippo has done this before. If you’re dying to try the new version of Firefox, you can download it from here, or you can wait for the official announcement of the release.
As a noticeable feature for this version, they say it delivers easier navigation for everyone, including those who are visually or motor-impaired.
Enjoy,
UPDATE: It seems this version is now available on Mozilla’s official page - http://www.mozilla.com/firefox
I e-mailed a suggestion to Google a few months back, saying that it would be useful if we had extended options related to our GMail signatures. Currently, everything I have is forwarded to my GMail account, I have about a dozen, probably more e-mail addresses, and about 4 external POP accounts that I fetch my e-mails from. At the time, I asked for the possibility of having different signatures for every account, based on our preferences (obvious required feature if you ask me), the possibility of having images in our signatures as well as HTML code, and the option of having the e-mail signature above the reply (by default, the signature was placed at the bottom, below everything).
Well, as I did expect, they never replied, but today I stumbled upon an interesting Firefox extension called “Better GMail”. I strongly recommend you to use it if you’re a Firefox user. Not only for the signature features, but it has many extra options you can configure. You can even change your GMail’s theme if you like.
Anyway, back on track, my requirements were solved. With this plugin, you will be able to add HTML code in your signature, and you can use images (remotely uploaded to a FTP then referred to using the HTML code). As for the above quote signature, there’s a checkbox for that under Gmail Settings that solves the issue.
Overall it’s a pretty good extension. Too bad you have to configure it for every PC you’re using, since it’s browser-based and not located in any way in your GMail account. See the two useful links below if you’re willing to try this extension and when you do, I’ll be more than happy to hear back your opinions.
Download extension | Screenshots
We’re not living in the “old computers” era anymore, but that doesn’t mean can’t have a quick loading browser or that we can’t reach optimal performance for what we have. I’ve seen many debates and advices last week that were explaining on how to tweak up Firefox in order to achieve maximum performance and I’m going to share with you the tips that really worked for me.
Save bandwidth. Get only the pages you desire
Firefox analyzes the page you load and anticipates the links you MIGHT click on; then it starts loading the page behind that link, using up bandwidth and resources. Basically, you’re downloading pages you’re not even seeing. If you’re using a cable modem or a DSL connection, you shouldn’t worry about this. The problem is this feature is enabled by default so here’s how you disable it.
* type “about:config” in the address bar
* filter the search for “network”
* double click “network.prefetch-next”
* change the value to “FALSE”
Define the upper RAM usage limit yourself. Take control.
I tested most of the browsers that exist on the market, ever since IE 4.0 and Firefox and Opera are by far the ones that take up less memory for 10 opened windows. That’s directly related to the tabbed-browsing concept they’re both promoting. Anyway, as I was talking about Firefox, there is a hidden setting that allows you to specify the maximum amount of RAM memory it’s allowed to use. Since you are required to modify a value, let me explain how you will find the optimal one for your system. It depends on the RAM your machine runs with. For values between 512MB-1GB of RAM, use figures above 15.000. If you have below 512MB, just try 50.000 and you’ll be fine. Here are the steps:.
* type “about:config” in the address bar
* filter the search for “browser.cache”
* double click “browser.cache.memory.capacity”
* enter the proper value
Optimize page loading settings
It was hard for me to believe it’s optimized by default for dial-up, although at least 80% of the connections worldwide are above dial-up. During a page load, Firefox loads elements from a page one by one, instead of downloading them in packages. On fast computers or with decent internet connections, this might not be as obvious as it sounds, but the simple fact that your browser is limited should raise a sign 
Here are the steps for tweaking that up.
* type “about:config” in the address bar
* filter the search for “network.http”
* set “network.http.pipelining” to “TRUE”
* set “network.http.proxy.pipelining” to “TRUE”
* set “network.http.pipelining.maxrequests” to the maximum number of simultaneous requests you want made (e.g 25)
* right click on a white space and click New -> Integer. Name it “nglayout.initialpaint.delay” and modify its value to “0″; it’s the amount of time your browser waits before acting on received information
Cut the ram usage when minimizing Firefox
I’ve got a good result on this one, somewhere around 12000KB (12MB). This tweak will move Firefox’s used memory to your HDD freeing up your RAM. I don’t think there’s much to be said about this as we all understand the purpose and advantages, so here are the steps:
* type “about:config” in the address bar
* right click in any blank space
* choose New -> Boolean
* name the variable “config.trim_on_minimize”
* set it to “TRUE”
Firefox usually reads the about:config information when started. That means you have to reset the browser after making a change in those settings. Careful what you do and what you change since you’re playing with important information. As always, I’m open to your feedback. Good luck
It’s called “Down them all!” and it features just about anything you can desire from a professional downloads manager, and here I can mention the ability of pausing/resuming downloads at any time and its advanced accelerator that increases the speed up to 400%.
DownThemAll is fast, reliable and easy-to-use! It lets you download all the links or images contained in a webpage and much more: you can refine your downloads by fully customizable criteria to get only what you really want. It’s freeware, it’s open source, it’s brilliant.
Try it out if you’re a Firefox user. Click here to install the extension. This is the first and only download manager that fully integrates with Firefox. I personally tested it and liked what I experienced.
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