firefox
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Firefox 2.0 Beta 2 released
It seems like just yesterday that Firefox Beta 1 came out, and now we have Firefox 2.0 Beta 2. What's new from Beta 1? Mostly it seems that the UI have been given a facelift, and I really like the much smaller title section. Tabs also get a refresh and now include a close button on each tab, plus you can now navigate from tab to tab using the arrow keys.
Betts mods your Mac
Everyone's favorite duck-icon sporting graphic designer is more than a pretty icon of a face, he helps make the rest of your programs look good too. Adam Betts regularly posts modifications or add-ons to various pieces of Mac software to his blog, and although each one is cool enough to warrant a post of its own, I thought I'd be nice to you all and compile some of my favorites into one mega-post. First off we have a simple interface tweak that goes a long way to unifying the look of your system. Adam's new QuickTime Plugin Controller replaces the old icky Aqua bubble quicktime plugin interface with a sleek platinum/unified/post-brushed metal look.Next are two replacement icons; one for a certain flammable fox, the other for a Preview alternative. The Firefox icon touchup fixes dock weight issues (how close it is to the other icons) as well as making the whole package a bit smoother. The Xee replacement set actually contains replacements for both the actual application icon as well as the status bar. Xee is a replacement for Preview and available for free download.Finally, we have the 9.3% complete interface-lift for Google Earth. This package will replace the application icon as well as modify certain UI elements such as toolbar icons and the sidebar to make them more Mac-like.
CocoaFox Minefield
Firefox is fantastic... on Windows. I don't think there is much argument that Firefox is sorely lacking when it comes to fitting in to the OS X environment. Camino is a great alternative for those seeking a browser with the Gecko engine, but it doesn't have nearly the flexibility and expandability of true-blue Firefox. Lucky for those who wish to keep the expandability of the Fox but have a sleek Mac-like browser, Mozilla has started development on a Cocoa based version of FireFox codenamed Minefield. Being a native application, the Minefield will have all the goodies of a real Mac browser like native GUI objects and OS X spell checking. Before you all rush off and announce that this is your next main browser, keep in mind that these are early development builds, and crashes, missing features, and bugs all come with the territory. Running Minefield from a disk image broke my dock, and I had to restart the dock process to get it working again. [via MacUser]
OS X Browser lineup
The Apple Blog has a nice overview of the multitude of web browsers that are available our favorite OS (that's OS X, folks). Why? Because the nice people at TAB want to help you decide which browser is right for you.For my money Camino is the best browser out there for OS X; it has the engine of Firefox but it actually looks like a Mac app. What browser do you spend most of your time in?
OS X browser test, fourth edition
After reading this article, I'm simply giddy with self-righteous indignation for all the people who have ever told me I was silly for paying money for a browser. The guys over at macintalk have revived their popular Macintosh browser shootout and re-tested all of the competitors using the latest universal binaries of Firefox, Camino, Safari, WebKit, and the OmniWeb 5.5 beta. As many of you might expect, Firefox, the PC favorite, lagged behind all other browsers tested in the speed tests, with its sleek sibling Camino not scoring much better. The two gecko browsers also failed to render the Acid2 test properly, while OmniWeb and Safari/WebKit passed with flying colors.Now, I don't want anyone to get the idea that I'm bashing Firefox and Camino. Camino will always have a place in my dock to handle all of the sites that WebKit can't, but I much prefer OmniWeb for my day-to-day usage, and the test results seem to agree with me.[Via Creativebits]
Top ten supplemental blogging apps
Chances are if I am sitting at my Mac I am blogging (perhaps not for TUAW, but for some blog somewhere) and so this list of the top ten supplemental blogging apps for OS X caught my eye.The apps that make the cut are: Quicksilver (a TUAW favorite) Firefox (though Flock gets a mention) Pukka NewsFire Transmit Image Trick TextMate Voice Candy Dictionary.app Adium and Skype A fairly good list, though it doesn't cover some of the apps I use whilst blogging. After the jump you'll find my list of blogging apps I can't blog without.
Firefox commercial pokes fun at the competition
A viral Firefox commercial poking fun at its browser competition features the anthropomorphized icons of Internet Explorer, Netscape and Apple's own Safari acting, well - somewhat silly. No matter which browser you're a fan of, it's a pretty funny spot and one of the better offerings I've seen from the Firefox Flicks campaign.[via Netscape]
1Passwd - password/form manager lets Firefox use the Keychain
*Oh snap!* Agile Web Solutions has created a password and form manager extension for both Safari and Firefox that fixes one of my biggest gripes about Mozilla's flagship browser: it can store website passwords in Mac OS X's Keychain Access application. For those who haven't stumbled upon the wonders of the Keychain: it's a system-wide secure password manager that most other Mac OS X apps can use to store logins for things like websites and FTP access. 1Passwd is an extension that, amongst other features, lets Firefox join the Keychain party party so you can have one secure, centralized area for managing (and backing up) your logins. This also means that if you have a .Mac account, any passwords you enter into Firefox will sync between your Macs. But 1Passwd doesn't stop at handle just your login information. Check out the full feature list to see everything else it can do for both Safari and Firefox.If beer could be sent virtually through PayPal, I'd send Agile Web Solutions a twelve pack; this brings Firefox one step closer to being a true Mac OS X browser. 1Passwd is currently in a third beta release, and those who opt to test the beta and offer their email addresses will receive a discount off its (somewhat steep) $29.95 price.
Optimized Firefox 1.5.0.4
Neil Lee has once again gifted the Mac community with optimized builds of Firefox 1.5.0.4. There are builds for G4s, G5s and Intel Macs. Bless you, Neil.As if that weren't enough, Neil went ahead an applied Firefoxy to both the Intel and G4 builds (sadly you G5'ers will have to suffer with OS X form widgets only).The downloads are free, but Neil suggests you call your Mom and Dad instead of donating to him.
Firefox 1.5.0.4 released
I swear, if developers keep adding decimals to their versioning systems, I might just have to start a petition or something. Firefox 1.5.0.4.3.2.1.12 is available with "improvements to product stability" and several security enhancements. I believe it should be available via Firefox 1.5's built-in updating system, or simply from Mozilla's Firefox page.[note: extra '.3.2.1.12' added for humor. Not intended as a real software versioning system - yet]
Read Joystiq from within Second Life
A recent update to Second Life that allows players to view the game's online help pages using a custom Mozilla browser has been hacked so that you can view any webpage. Although there's no way to type web addresses without some basic hacking knowledge, it's quite simple to change the homepage to Google or any other website. Of course you could always just tab-out and use Firefox, but this option has a much greater "geek cool" factor. Let's just hope Fox News doesn't cotton on to the possibility of people browsing "questionable" content from within SL. Anyway, the first commentator to post a screenshot of themselves commenting on this post from within Second Life bags themselves a star.[Via Clickable Culture]
Safari need not apply to Yahoo's preview
Downloadsquad reports that Yahoo! is previewing their new look. Click here to check it out, as long as you are using Firefox 1.5. At the moment Yahoo! isn't supporting any browsers other than IE 6 and Firefox 1.5 (not even Camino, which is just a Macish Firefox).I know it is just a preview, but it still irks me. Feel free to mock me in the comments.
Firefox Quick Add extension for Google Calendar
Elias Torres has put together a most excellent Google Calendar Quick Add extension for Firefox. If you aren't familiar with gCal's Quick Add feature, it's in the upper left of gCal (or just hit 'q' on your keyboard), and it's great: you can create a new event simply by typing it as a sentence, such as: "dinner with Jane May 1st 6 pm." No tabbing or clicking around to chose numbers and fields. Nice.Elias' Firefox extension does a great job of enabling this slick Quick Add ability from any other window/tab in Firefox, and so far it works flawlessly, though I have a couple of tips for you. First, make sure you've already opened gCal at least once during your browser session for this extension to work; it re-uses your session cookie instead of prompting for your password. Also, if you open this Quick Add window but decide you don't need to enter an event for one reason or another, simply hit esc to get rid of the window, as its close button doesn't work.[via Hawk Wings]
G4 and G5-optimized Firefox 1.5.0.2 Builds
My friend Neil has been releasing G4 and G5-optimized builds of Firefox for awhile, with great success. I use a G5-optimized version on my dual G5 tower as my main browser. He's just compiled and released new builds for version 1.5.0.2 which was recently released by Mozilla. Get them here.Remember that these builds are called DeerPark because only the official Mozilla builds of Firefox can use the Firefox name.
Firefox goes Universal
Macworld reports that, finally, Firefox has gone Universal. The new version, 1.5.0.2, released Thursday, is said to be a "critical" update, and it is "strongly [recommended] that everyone update as soon as possible." From the Firefox website, updates include: Universal Binary support for Mac OS X which provides native support for Macintosh with Intel Core processors. Firefox supports the enhancements to performance introduced by the new MacIntel chipsets. Improvements to product stability. Several security fixes. Users of Firefox 1.5 should expect to receive the update automatically within the next few days, but anyone with a version prior to 1.5 will need to download and install it manually.
Blogging the switch to Mac OS X
I found another one of those 'switcher blogs' and I thought it might make an interesting read for both Mac newbies and power users. I honestly can't find any information on the author, but My Journey to Macintosh provides up some interesting switcher experiences, such as loading up Firefox just because that's what the author used on Windows, then discovering that other browsers like Camino offer a far more Mac OS X-like experience, in part because Camino isn't butt-ugly and it uses the Keychain.One thing I like about this blog is that the author seems to be a power user, of sorts; while some posts are about discovering the wonders of working with PDFs on a Mac without the need for Adobe's (fat, bloated, clunky, slow and horrible) Reader, another post laments some hangups in getting PHP and MySQL working. In other words: there's something for everyone!There isn't a virtual library of posts yet, but I thought it might be an interesting switcher blog to watch because of both the variety of topics the author has touched on so far, and an About section that reads: "Microsoft Windows user since Windows 3.0 moves to a Mac and Mac OS/X Tiger. Watch the process, good and bad :)." See? Fair and balanced, too. Enjoy.
Firefox 2.0 alpha released
DownloadSquad has noticed that an alpha release (read: not stable) of Firefox 2.0 is live, available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, and waiting for your clicks. I'm having a hard time tracking down any kind of official list of what's new in this next major point release, but after quickly running it I can tell you it's at least a bit zippier. I've heard reports of a much-updated UI, better bookmark management and more security options are all on the menu, though I'm sure (and I hope) there is much more planned for the official release.So check it out if you're interested in what's coming next, but for those of you who can't afford to deal with sketchy software, you might want to keep moving along.
Possible trick for syncing Firefox bookmarks via iDisk
In the grand quest for methods of syncing Firefox bookmarks between machines (a la .Mac syncing of Safari bookmarks), a friend of mine passed along a tip he found at a friend's blog. The tip involves creating a user.js file in your Firefox profile directory, then creating a Firefox folder in your iDisk/Documents directory. The tip is simple enough, but there's just one catch: I can't get it to work yet, so I thought I'd post it to see if any of you enterprising TUAW readers will have better luck.Playing with this tip inspired me to try a trick of my own which didn't seem to work either: placing Firefox's bookmarks.bak and bookmarks.html files in my iDisk, and then simply point at those files with aliases from within Firefox's profile directory. Again, no luck. While I don't necessarily mean to be posting tips that don't work, I thought these might be good ideas that could get us somewhere, without the need for installing extra software like Foxmarks. Although, to its credit, Foxmarks does get the job done fairly well; I'm just interested in the possibility of a .Mac Firefox bookmark syncing solution, devoid of extras or plugins.Anyone get something like this to work?
G4 and G5 optimized Firefox 1.5.01 released
Beaknik Pad has released his G4 and G5 optimized recompiles of Firefox 1.5.01 for your pleasure. This puts the release in line with the official Firefox release.Remember, these are unofficial releases of Firefox so they can't use the icon and the name (so it is called 'DeerPark'), however, the application is exactly the same with the exception that it is optimized for either the G4 or G5.
Refresher tip for subscribing to photocasts in Firefox
MacOSXHints has published a simple refresher tip for subscribing to photocasts with Firefox. If you've already tried it, you've been met with a .Mac error page, telling you that your browser isn't compatible with photocasts URLs, and it offers an alternate URL that begins with "web.mac.com." All you need to do to still subscribe to the photocast in Firefox is go to Bookmarks > Manage Bookmarks, then chose File > New Live Bookmark and enter the new "web.mac.com" photocast URL. Granted, this is just like entering any other RSS feed to subscribe to in Firefox, but hopefully this helps clear up any confusion some users have been experiencing with all this RSS/photocast terminology re-branding.
