First look: Firefox 3.5

Monday, June 22nd, 2009

Firefox 3.5 is out as a Release Candidate – as close to a final version as you can get without being a final version – so I’ve taken a look to see how it compares to its competitors.

Porn/Private Browsing

Most other browsers already had this feature, and now Firefox does too. With nothing more than a quick Ctrl+Shift+P your tabs will be whisked away and stored safely, leaving you with a fresh window for your… personal research.

When you’re all finished up, the same shortcut will bring back all your previous tabs and send all trace of your secret session into oblivion (it does not erase feelings of guilt). (more…)

The real facts about Internet Explorer 8

Friday, June 19th, 2009

If there’s one thing you could never accuse Microsoft of lacking, it’s good old-fashioned Chutzpah.

The world’s favourite monopolist has launched a new “Get The Facts” campaign for Internet Explorer 8, that seems remarkably short on fact and a bit top-heavy on the codswallop.

You can see Microsoft’s version of the facts running down the left-hand side of the page, where the company has decided to compare Internet Explorer 8 against Firefox and Chrome. Yes, that’s right. Internet Explorer 8 wins in every single category, apart from a couple where it generously shares the honours with its rivals.

We could spend a couple of hours demolishing the argument for almost each and every one of those Microsoft ticks. Then again, we could spend a couple of hours shooting fish in a barrel or stealing sweets from children with only one arm, but we’ve got better things to do, so we’re just going to deal with the most blatant of Microsoft’s whoppers.

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Download PC Pro’s Firefox Essentials

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Mozilla has just launched a new service called Add-On Collections, that allows you to create hand-picked compendiums of Firefox extensions. Read our news story for the full lowdown on Add-on Collections.

We’ve been playing with the Create a Collection tool and it really is gobsmackingly well designed. Once registered, you merely give your collection a name, a brief description and pick your favourite Add-ons. The Add-ons are, well, added simply by typing the name into the search box and selecting from the drop-down menu that appears as you type.

Once you’ve selected all your Add-ons, you can twiddle with advanced features, such as creating a bespoke URL for your collection and uploading an image.

And so, we present the PC Pro Firefox Essentials – ten brilliant add-ons that have been hand-picked by the PC Pro editorial team.

If you think we’ve missed a brilliant add-on, let us know on comments below and we’ll consider them for future inclusion. Subscribers to our Collection will be alerted whenever we add a new extension.

Alternatively, if you create any fantastic Collections of your own, provide a link in comments so that others can follow.

R.I.P Rick Petnel, Adblock Plus pioneer

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

You may never have heard of him – I know I hadn’t – but virtually every Firefox user owes a huge debt of gratitude to Rick Petnel, the man who built the best filter list for the indispensible Adblock Plus extension. He’s recently passed away after a short illness, and I know that I owe thanks to the man for making my browsing easier for the best part of the last decade.

The filter, dubbed EasyList, quickly became the first entry in the list of recommended filters shown after AdblockPlus is installed, and its success at picking up and blocking dozens of types of advertisement – from the simple banner ad to the more complex flash and java creations that now litter the web – is surely part of the reasons why Firefox is both popular and enjoys a far more favourable reputation than its main rival, Internet Explorer.

If you need further clarification as to Adblock Plus’ popularity, then look no further than Mozilla.org: the extension sits in both Mozilla’s list of recommended software and the leaderboard of most popular add-ons. In fact, it’s the most popular extension out there, downloaded more than 620,000 times per week and with over one thousand five-star reviews.

A blog post over at adblockplus.org mentions that Rick’s list ‘helped improve the browsing experience for millions of people’ and that’s no exaggeration – so next time you’re browsing a site and find that all those pesky adverts have disappeared before you’ve even loaded the page, raise your tea or coffee in a salute to the man who made it all possible.

Search suggestions: a window on the soul of the net

Friday, February 13th, 2009

You know the little search box in the top-right of the Firefox window? Then you doubtless know that as you type search terms into it, Firefox brings up suggestions as to what it thinks you might be looking for.

You’ve probably never given this feature much thought. I hadn’t, until yesterday when I was searching for some obscure technical fact and (perhaps because we’d just been talking about natural language recognition on this week’s podcast) I absent-mindedly started to phrase my search query as a question. I didn’t get far in – just one word in, in fact – before realising this was unnecessary.

But that one word was enough to give Firefox an idea as to what I might be searching for: immediately it brought up the impressively varied suggestions you see above. (more…)

Don’t tell Microsoft, but…

Friday, November 14th, 2008

We’ve got in trouble with Microsoft on a number of occasions, as for some odd reason it’s quite protective about their logos. Something to do with brand identity, I believe, so when we may have taken a liberty or two with the Windows logo in the past it’s always been keen to have a word with us shortly after.

But it probably hasn’t seen this beautiful piece of, well, creativity from CnM – makers of the minibook or, as it’s sometimes called, the CnMbook.

Now this is a fascinating piece of kit that’s being sold for £115 exc VAT by Scan, and for a little more by Maplin. Indeed, if you search around you’ll find it on sale at various online stores. (more…)

The NeverEnding Beta (Google, 2004)

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Remember when Gmail first arrived? Unless you’re unlucky enough to be called John Smith you probably got the username you wanted first time, and without having to add six digits on to the end. Then you experienced the fun of sending invites to your mates so they could join you in your exclusive little club – after all, Gmail was still in beta, they couldn’t have every Tom, Dick and Harry overwhelming it before it hit its stride.

Fast-forward four and half years and guess what? Google Mail, as it’s now known, still has that little BETA label under it, and it shows no sign of buggering off.

Over at the Royal Pingdom they’ve gone through the whole Google catalog and counted the applications that are in beta today. While 22 out of 49 may sound reasonable – Google is always coming up with innovations, after all – when you realise that these include Google Mail, Docs, and Product Search, you have to wonder if Google interprets the word beta in the same way as the rest of us.

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Google Chrome: first impressions

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Tonight, I attended a Google briefing on its hastily-launched web browser, Chrome – which is now available for download here.

At first glance, the browser looked extremely impressive. In fact, it’s the only browser I’ve seen that could seriously tempt me away from my snug-fitting default browser, Firefox. However, I must stress that I was only privy to a Google demonstration of the browser before tonight’s 8pm launch, and haven’t actually played with it hands-on myself. For that, you’ll have to wait for PC Pro’s full preview tomorrow.

Here, however, are my early thoughts on what I saw:

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Firefox loses its sugar daddy

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008

Google’s shock entry into the browser market might be bad news for Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but it could be terminal for Mozilla and Firefox.

Google is Mozilla’s sugar daddy. In 2006 (the latest figures we have available), a staggering 85% of Mozilla Corp’s revenue came from the homepage and search deal it has with Google. Firefox is almost entirely dependent on the company that’s just launched what could easily become its biggest rival.

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Mozilla team hit roadblock

Friday, August 1st, 2008

The Mozilla team has filed a worrying bug report that could potentially delay the release of Firefox 3.0.2; they’re all trapped in a hotel.

A rock slide has blocked off a road between Vancouver and Whistler, the latter of which was holding a Mozilla conference at the time. Those developers who got there early are trapped in, and those who were late are trapped outside. Either way, development is taking a hit.

Ever the resourceful bunch, one developer has thought up a solution.

“Hasham has proposed that we ride bears to Vancouver as a workaround for this bug. Bears can run up to 48 kilometers per hour and Whistler to Vancouver is about 300 kilometers. It would take approximately six hours and fixteen minutes if the bear ridden is running at top speed at all times. Realistically, the time needed is about eight hours. A bear can carry two to three people on average. There are approximately 220 people attending the Summit who flew. This gives us the need of about 74 bears should we boldly estimate that a bear can carry three people. The earliest departure time should be Thursday night.”

That’s the sort of out-of-the-box thinking that grabs market share from Microsoft.