Firefox 3.6 will support accelerometers, make the internet seasick (video)

If you, like us, are tired of the so-called browser wars trying to woo us with barely identifiable, context-dependent speed differences, this might be of interest. Firefox is about to get a whole lot more sentient on us -- at least those of us with accelerometers in our hardware -- courtesy of a new device API that is capable of maintaining a webpage's vertical orientation relative to the ground, no matter what sort of salto mortale the underlying machine (Mac or otherwise) might be doing. Think of it as the cherry atop your Windows 7 multitouch tablet cake. Originally intended for mobile platforms only, this software will make its way into version 3.6 of the full-fledged browser -- and you can find an early demo of what it can do just past the break.

See more video at our hub!

[mynando Posted Oct 14th 2009 6:54AM]

LOL! WTF? Why?

[JeezWhiz87 Posted Oct 14th 2009 7:00AM]

Yay, now Firefox can use more memory!

[mex Posted Oct 14th 2009 7:04AM]

I think the best use of the accelerometers will be to make them work with the iPhone simulator!

[allenvanhellen Posted Oct 14th 2009 7:26AM]

Guys, grrreat work! Now all that's left to needlessly increase load times and hog more resources are a feature to say "bless you" when your web cam detects a sneeze, a feature to display a 10-second cool-down timer when the mic detects yelling, and a Joe's Crab Shack feature to drop down a disco-ball and do the YMCA every 30 minutes. Hop to it, dorks!

[Neuro Posted Oct 14th 2009 8:45AM]

Oh my, so much ado for nothing. This is demo for API that allows the webpages to read the accelerators. Few pages might use it for orientation, some games for input, the rest will happily ignore it. It doesn't mean that all pages will randomly sway as you move your laptop!
*face palm*

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2009 9:32AM]

it's free!!! they can do anything :)

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2009 9:38AM]

Don't most new laptops have accelerators in the hard drives to prevent damage from a fall? Is this going to be the only other way that we can use it?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2009 10:01AM]

I think some people didn't watch the whole video.

A lot of phones have the auto orientation feature, and yes it's annoying when it auto-reorients by flipping sideways when you slightly tilt.

HOWEVER- in the second or third demo, it simply adjusts based on the angle. Say you're laying sideways in bed, or you're going up stairs, riding the train or going on bumpy road and trying to read- perhaps you don't stay indoors all day and have a busy lifestyle and actually have to do some mobile computing. This is where it comes in handy- as it's oriented based on the tilt of the laptop itself, it doesn't just flip like cellphones, it rotates the whole amount of content live. I personally hate having to alt-arrowkey when laying in bed so I can read properly because my laptop is small and is tilted, and it never works properly. On the road, it's often too jittery of a ride to read..

This tech has a lot of useful features, if you can look past what you're already used to. Jeez people.

Also, WTF is with people complaining about boot time? so what if it takes 5-10 seconds to start- it's not like windows doesn't take 2+ minutes to become completely usable anyway, perhaps you should bitch about that instead.

[kibbledbits Posted Oct 14th 2009 11:31AM]

I'm a longtime FireFox user and on Windows I will only use Chrome now. FireFox has become so clunky, slow and unstable. For whatever reason it runs great on my Mac where I still use it. I hope FireFox gets it's speed back though

[AssassinX Posted Oct 14th 2009 12:52PM]

As much as I love Firefox and am grateful to the Mozilla team, I really wish they would finally support Windows 7 jump lists. They've had almost a year now of beta testing to add the feature. I know there are hacks out there out there. I'm talking about out-of-the-box support from the source.

[youknowthatguy Posted Oct 14th 2009 1:43PM]

it would be perfect for an Apple Tablet!

[christoad Posted Oct 14th 2009 1:47PM]

Another prime example of "just because we CAN do it, doesn't mean we should waste our time on it."

[sinkingshriek Posted Oct 14th 2009 2:40PM]

wow!! this is gonna be irritating..

[savagemike Posted Oct 14th 2009 3:09PM]

Looks perfect for the browser based flight control setup I'll need for the manned/unmanned fly-by-wire attack gunship I am building in my basement.

... did I just type that out loud?

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2009 6:20PM]

Is accelerometer the right word? Wouldn't it be a gravity or orientation sensor since its measuring which way is down, rather than changes in velocity?

[ijames99 Posted Oct 14th 2009 4:10PM]

What is the purpose of this??

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 14th 2009 8:54PM]

Anyone who's used Minefields knows very well that Mozilla IS focusing on speed.

[Volkodlak Posted Oct 14th 2009 11:11PM]

Remember when Firefox, was the speedy, lightweight, efficient alternative? yeah... those were the days.

[thesafetylemur Posted Oct 15th 2009 12:07AM]

yawn...

[Stapyhlococcus Posted Oct 15th 2009 7:29AM]

Most useless thing...EVER!!

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 16th 2009 11:22AM]

I have been playing around with the accelerometer in firefox 3.6b, check out my youtube video: http://bit.ly/wLGb9 or try out the webpage itself http://playground.marmaladeontoast.co.uk/ff3.6

[Bronzus Posted Nov 19th 2009 4:28PM]

If they had a screen you could rotate around the keyboard, or for those dual screened ebook/netbooks, it would be cool; but they don't exist, so...

And for everyone complaining about bootup times; CHROME OS

[SOOPERGOOMAN Posted Nov 26th 2009 12:29AM]

A couple things I could potentially see this being useful is for forward and back button replacement or Tap your laptop for you Home page. Two for email links etc. Just got to be creative I guess... Hit the side to bring up porn, iI dunno but I can see some useful Ideas already..