Firefox update history

Firefox 19 will be officially released tomorrow, but it’s available for download right away for those eager to try it out ASAP. Most end users will have little or nothing to look forward to with this update, with the only noteworthy change being you no longer need the PDF.js extension developed by Mozilla installed in Firefox to natively open PDFs. The native PDF viewer has been greatly improved, and you can now view PDF files in the browser without having to rely on any add-on for the purpose. Apart from that, Firefox comes with a new about:telemetry page that allows you to see the the performance data collected by the browser. The feature to collect this data was introduced in Firefox 7, and now after twelve versions, Mozilla has given it a dedicated page. An add-on is also available now to replicate this page on older versions. Apart from these, there are the usual bug fixes, security updates and a Browser Debugger tool for add-on and browser developers.

Native PDF Viewer

The PDF viewer is pretty much the same as the one in Firefox 18, with the only difference being you won’t have to install a separate extension to get it. Chrome’s been allowing its users to natively view PDFs for quite a while, and this feature was in the works for a considerably long time before debuting on Firefox. The wait was worth it though.

About:telemetry Page

Firefox 7 gave users the option to collect performance data. To turn the feature on, head over to Options > Advanced > General and select the Submit performance data option. To view the data that’s been collected, Firefox 19 comes with a brand new page accessible by typing about:telemetry in the URL bar.

The page is divided into sections for the type of data that’s collected. You must have Telemetry enabled in order to see anything here. You can turn it on and return after a while to see the collected information.

Browser Debugger Tool

As always, Mozilla has also added something for developers in Firefox 19. A new tool has been added to aid add-on and browser developers. The feature is experimental at present though, and you will need to enable developer tools to use it.

Apart from this, there are the usual bug fixes and a small improvement to speed up startup. This update can be considered rather disappointing from the perspective of most end users. A lot of great features were expected to arrive in this version like protection against irresponsive plug-ins and search engines hijacking apps, and the Australis UI. We can now hope that some of these features make it to Firefox 20.

Download Firefox 19

5 New Features & Changes In Firefox 15

Another Firefox version is all set for release; tomorrow, you should be able to upgrade to Firefox 17 if you’re on the stable release channel. If you’re the slightly adventurous kind who likes to remove a USB without ejecting it first, and you’re on the Beta version, you can upgrade right now to what will inevitably be the final Firefox 17 stable release. Like always, the new version comes with new features, improvements in security and developer tools. This version also has a few cosmetic changes and one major functional change that will effect end users. The most notable features in this new version include a visually enhanced Awesome Bar, the return of tab animations, the addition of a Social API, more robust click-to-play restrictions for plug-ins, the addition of a Markup Panel for developers and last but not least, support for Notification Center in OS X Mountain Lion.

Let’s now take a more detailed look at these new features and changes.

Awesome Bar

The Awesome Bar i.e. the URL bar that also allows you to send a search query to your default search engine has ben updated. When you begin typing either a web address or a search query in the Awesome Bar, it now brings up suggestions in an easier-to-read list. Unless you compare the two side by side, you might not notice the difference, but there is now more spacing between the individual suggestions and a larger font size for the Awesome Bar and the suggestions list.

Tab Animations

A few versions back, Mozilla removed the tab animations you would see when you dragged tabs from one location to another, or out as a separate window. With Firefox 17, they make a comeback. Like the change to the Awesome Bar, this is also a cosmetic change mostly, but the users who missed the feature will welcome it back.

Social API – Facebook Integration

Firefox is going social; it’s not clear whether this has anything to do with the operating system being developed by Mozilla or not, but in Firefox 17, they have integrated a Social API that allows you to sign in to your social networks via your browser. Currently, only Facebook is supported and if enabled, you will be able to chat with your friends, view notifications and friends requests, and messages in a sidebar.

You can enable the API in one of two ways: you can visit this link to Facebook for enabling the Firefox Messenger, or you can go to the about:config page and set the value of social.enabled to ‘true’.

Robust Implementation Of Click-To-Play Plugins

Click-To-Play was a security feature introduced in Firefox 14 that disabled all plugins by default and asked the user to manually enable a plugin when it was required to run on a website. With Firefox 17, Mozilla is going further with this security feature and prompting users when their version of Adobe Flash or Silverlight is not up to date. It will eventually include additional plugins. The point is to ensure users are not allowing an older version of a plugin to run and putting their computers at a security risk.

New Markup Panel For HTML

As always, Firefox 17 has something for developers and this time, it’s a new tool for editing the DOM of an HTML page. The tool appears when you have Page Inspector open. You can access it either by hitting the Alt+M shortcut, or clicking its respective button (highlighted in the screenshot below). It allows you to edit HTML pages like you never could before in Firefox without third-party extensions.

Notification Center Support For OS X Mountain Lion 10.8

Firefox 17 comes with support for Mountain Lion’s Notification Center. We tested this out, but it didn’t seem to work in the Beta version, although you can see it listed in the change log. Perhaps it requires the new version on the stable channel to work.

You can read the full change log (for the beta version) here and download the stable Firefox 17 ESR from Mozilla’s FTP Servers right now from the link below.

The stable version of Forefix 17 can be downloaded from the Firefox website once it becomes available tomorrow. Another thing worth mentioning here is that this release comes as ESR (Extended Support Release) too, much like Ubuntu’s LTS (Long Term Support) releases. The ESR version is identical to the standard release, but is intended for universities and organizations for long-term mass deployment. You can download the  right now.

Download Firefox 17

5 New Features & Changes In Firefox 15

Firefox 15 will graduate to the stable version tomorrow but can be downloaded now. The new version definitely has some new features, and like always, promises faster start-up and a few memory fixes. Apart from that, you will notice no cosmetic changes. Developers on the other hand can enjoy the additional support for HTML5 elements; <audio> and <video> support the played attribute, <source> can now be used for media attributes and Opus Audio Coded support (as per Firefox’s release notes). HTML5 isn’t just what’s new though. The previous version of the browser, Firefox 14, brought full screen support for Mac users, allowed you to opt in to enable plug-ins, added encrypted Google search and better support for gaming.  Firefox 15 brings, in addition to the added HTML 5 support, a new layout view in the element inspector and a responsive design tool.

Options Now In Tab

Firefox seems to be designed on the principal that items like Downloads, Options, and Bookmarks should open in their own separate window while the main browser window is reserved for websites etc. Firefox 15 changes that by allowing users to view the Options as a tab in the main window. It’s similar to the settings tab that opens within Chrome. It is disabled by default, and to enable it you need to open the configuration page (about:config) and find browser.preferences.InContent. Double click to enable it (set its value to true) and Options will open in a tab.

Faster Debugger

This latest version also boasts a Faster Debugger. As per the official Mozilla site, this means JavaScript applications will run faster with it. The Spidermonkey’s interface has been redesigned and its impact on the the Debugger has been significant. The interface redesign means more than just a cosmetic change to Firebug; it means a change in functionality and hence a faster tool at your disposal.

Element Inspector – New Layout View

Mozilla revamped Firefox’s element inspector a few versions back, and with Frefox 15 they make a new addition. Now, you can view the dimensions of an object, complete with height, width, padding etc. This not only gives you an accurate idea of how much area an element occupies, but also makes it easier to add and view changes to any one of the attributes applied to an object.

Responsive Design Tool

Firefox 15 has added a new tool for testing responsive design. As opposed to having to resize your browser window, this new tool, the Responsive Design Tool, makes the website itself resizable within the browser window. To enable the tool, go to Web Developer Tools and select Responsive Design Tool(Ctrl+Shift+M). You can drag the lower right corner of the page to resize the website and/or select a preset size from the dropdown menu in the upper left corner. The page can also be rotated.

Tabs On Top Disabled

If you’ve always kept tabs on top, this new version might be slightly inconvenient since the option to keep tabs on top has been disabled. To enable it, go to about:config, find browser.tabs.onTop and double click to enable it (set the value to False). The feature, when it’s value is set to True disables the Tabs on Top option; setting the value to False tells your browser to stop hiding it.

You can check out all the changes that Mozilla has made in the official changelog. The changes aren’t huge and if you read the changelog, you will notice that the native PDF feature is limited to the Beta/Aurora  channel. Had the feature made it to the stable version, end users would have something bigger to look forward to. It is good to know that Mozilla is working on native PDF support though, and hopefully it will only be another few releases before it arrives in the stable version.

Download Firefox 15

6 New Features In Firefox 13 That You Should Know About

Firefox 13 is out as we announced just two days ago, and is, by far, one of the most feature rich releases that Mozilla has rolled out since it went on a rapid release channel. Many of its previous versions didn’t really enjoy as much love as the old ones, with users adamantly sticking to Firefox 3, 3.5 and 4. The new version, however, is not only faster (seriously, it’s noticeably faster), but also has cosmetic changes that most end users had been looking for. Additionally, developers have been given serious attention, as always. The new release seems to pack something for just about everyone, and here are the top 6 features you should know about.

New Start Page

Firefox 13 comes with a new start page, where the Google search bar remains intact, alongside the subliminal messages from Mozilla just below it. The new addition is a rather large bar across the width of the window, with buttons for accessing the Downloads, Bookmarks Manager, browsing history, Add-On manager, Sync (also accessible from Tools > Options > Sync) and Settings. The bar only appears on the Start Page and not on the new tab one, which is somewhat of a shame, but still an excellent way to utilize empty space at the bottom of the previously barren Firefox landing page. The buttons might just also hint at what Firefox’s Windows 8 Metro tailored version might look like, or not. Cool buttons, nevertheless.

The New ‘New Tab Page’

Firefox 13 has revamped the New Tab page, and Speed Dial, which is literally on all popular web browsers (Opera, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer), is finally here! Although there are plenty of add-ons for Firefox that added this feature to the older versions, having native support is something entirely different (and more welcoming). Compared to the Speed Dial feature in Chrome, the Speed Dial in Firefox 13 is better, in that it allows you to pin thumbnails of a frequently visited website. The thumbnails themselves resize according to the size of the window, making sure you have optimum visibility, and that you can bank on display area of a large screen. It works the same way in both Safari and Opera, but Chrome and Internet Explorer seem to limit the largest or the smallest a thumbnail can go.

The page is somewhat slow when it comes to picking up on your favorite or frequented sites, but once it does, the thumbnail is captured fairly fast. If, for some reason, you don’t like speed dial, you can click the little grid button at the top right of the new tab page and go back to the old look.

Reset Firefox

Firefox has introduced the Reset feature that lets you start off with a brand new browser, should anything ever go wrong. Your profile and bookmarks are all backed up, and using this feature, what you get is Firefox, literally as good as new. To access the reset feature, go to Help > Troubleshooting Informationand click the Reset Firefox button. The page gives you a complete list of installed extensions and modified preferences. Your bookmarks, history, passwords, cookies and form data will be saved; however, add-ons, themes and site specific settings will be lost.

Faster, Secure, Fewer Memory Leaks

Something you hear about every new version of Firefox, is that it’s faster and handles memory leaks better. Although somewhat contestable in previous versions, the difference in Firefox 13 is more than obvious. Start-up time for a cold start has improved dramatically. A user is no longer left wondering if they actually clicked the icon or not (since start up took so long), and memory leaks, while still there, seem to reach a certain threshold before the pace slows down. Memory does indeed continue to leak, but not as much as it did in older versions. Mozilla has also fixed several security issues, and claim that Firefox 13 is definitely more secure.

Developer Love

Previous versions of Firefox have always had something for developers, and Firefox 13 does not disappoint, either, with support for Google’s SPDY protocol. Additionally, the Firefox support page reports (to quote), “72 total improvements to Page Inspector, HTML panel, Style Inspector, Scratchpad and Style Editor”. There is added support for several CSS properties as well.

Restored Tabs Load On Demand

One of the many things that dragged Firefox down in terms of start up time, was how long it took for you to actually start using it when there were tabs to be restored. Restoring tabs not only taxed your internet speed, but also delayed when the browser could be used, and made it difficult to switch to another tab, since it was still working in the background. Firefox 13, while it still supports restoring tabs, has made it so that all tabs do not load at the same time. When you launch Firefox, all previous tabs are restored, but only the first (front most and selected tab) are loaded. When you click another tab, only then does it begin to load. This makes starting up much faster, and you can begin using your browser sooner.

If you upgrade to Firefox 13 from Firefox 12, the update is a 9.8 MB download, incompatible add-ons will be disabled and the the intro page will have a brief video that spotlights the cosmetic changes in the new version. Enjoy!

Devant WIZ8 Smart 3D Internet TV Review

Devant is now getting to be a popular brand of choice for price-conscious TV-hunters. They manage to keep up with the latest TV technology while achieving good design and keeping the cost reasonably lower than competitors.

The Devant WIZ8 is similar to the iTV6 Smart TV we reviewed a few months ago but is clearly a step up in terms of looks. It is a Full HD TV capable of 3D viewing, has basic internet apps such as a browser, Facebook and Youtube, and can accept flash drives and external storage for content via USB. It also has a built-in ISDB-T receiver, a feature that’s rarely available in other brands.

What we have is the 55” version but it’s also available in 46” and 42” if you don’t need your TV to be too big. It has an elegant look with its polished silver and crystal design. The thin bezel looks really nice on a screen this big as it lets you appreciate the content more with less distraction.

It also uses a sturdy polished X-stand for its base that spans more than half the length of the TV. The base will actually remind of you previous high-end Samsung LED TVs and looks good compared to traditional black slabs.

At the back you will be presented with a lot of terminal options. You have the basic component and composite inputs, a VGA for connecting your old laptop, 3 HDMI inputs, a LAN port for a wired network connection, and 3 USB ports which you can also use to connect the included WiFi dongle to enable wireless internet on the TV.

The remote control is easy to operate for normal TV/Media usage but is not that friendly for Smart TV functions.

Viewing experience

So how’s the viewing experience? My dad who enjoys watching films visited us for a week and he was astounded the first time I played a 1080p video on it via USB. Although it was an animated flick, the colors were vibrant and crisp and viewing it on the 55-inch TV was just a breathtaking experience.

He then proceeded to watch an action flick, Skyfall, only in standard definition. I thought it won’t look that good on the big screen considering it couldn’t make use of the full HD resolution but I was wrong. At a comfortable viewing angle, you wouldn’t notice the pixelation (you will when you get close) and the 120MHz Vivid Motion made it look like you’re watching the flick straight from the set as actions become smoother and livelier, like the actors are popping out of the screen. Mom was just amazed with this feature.

Next up was a 3D Full HD version of The Avengers via a media player connected to the TV using HDMI. The included 3D glasses are the same as that of the iTV6 so it’s not as good-looking and streamlined as current 3D glasses of known brands. It is charged via microUSB though so you don’t have to deal with replacing batteries. Both my parents enjoyed it even if they’re seated at and angle but I doubt you will be using it that much. 2D to 3D conversion still remains to be a gimmick however as it’s not as good as watching real 3D content.

Internet

Connecting the WIZ8 to your wireless network is easy to do via the network settings. What I don’t like is having to set this up each time you turn on the TV (a pain if you have long passwords), something that’s prevalent from their old Smart TV. Best solution would to go with a wired connection unless you’re comfortable leaving your wireless network open without a password.

Devant still has a long way to go with their Smart TV apps. There’s only the web browser, DLNA, YouTube, Facebook, Picasa and Twitter. The browser is a bit slow and a pain to navigate to despite connecting a wireless keyboard/mouse. Perhaps the only useful app is YouTube so you could surf for videos straight on your big screen. I personally used YouTube here to get my recap of American Idol.

Verdict

The biggest draw of the Devant WIZ8 Smart 3D Internet TV obviously is the design, picture quality, and price. The Smart TV feature can still use some improvements though that it’s better to treat it as an added bonus say for example you want to show the family a funny YouTube video you discovered. You won’t however, be disappointed in watching your favorite flicks on this TV whether they’re standard def, HD or Full HD.

The 55” 55WIZ830 retails for Php119,950 and comes with your choice of mix of freebies from BluRay players, speakers, to a 42” iTV6 Smart 3D Internet TV which costs almost Php30,000 already. The 46” version (46WIZ830) retails for Php69,950 while the 42” (42WIZ830) goes for Php46,950.

Internet Explorer 10 Now Available For Windows 7; Here’s What’s New

When Windows 8 was first revealed, the general feelings of most people towards the new Modern UI were that of apprehension. The new interface was the focal point for most people discussing Windows 8, but it had something else worth noting as well: Internet Explorer 10. At that time, the latest version of Microsoft’s browser was available for Windows 8 only, but Microsoft made it available for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 in form of a release preview in November and today, the stable version of IE 10 has finally been released for Windows 7 SP1 as well as Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. Internet Explorer has declined significantly in popularity, but this latest version comes with features that put it back in line against the likes of Chrome and Firefox. The release does not have all of the features are available in the Windows 8 variant of the browser (like Flip forward), but here are some of the salient new features of IE 10 that might make you want to give it another shot on Windows 7.

Do Not Track

Much to the dismay of advertisers, Internet Explorer 10 has a Do Not Track feature (also available in Firefox). It is enabled by defauylt, but you can disable it if you want from Internet Options > Advanced under the Security options.

Spell Check & Auto Correct

Internet Explorer 10 has spell check. While other browsers like Chrome also come with the spell check feature, if you’ve used MS Word, you would know that no one does spelling and grammar check quite as well as Microsoft. The same feature is available in IE 10, and it works just amazing. Internet Explorer 10 also has auto-correct – something that both Chrome and Firefox lack. Spell check is available for 95 languages and it’s likely to become a very formidable feature for other browsers to compete with. Spell check can be disabled from the add-on manager. You can add or change dictionaries from the right-click context menu for misspelled words, or from the add-on manager.

Better HTML 5 Support, Sandbox Technology

Web developers are gonna love this one. Most websites are increasingly using HTML 5 technology and up to version 9, Internet Explorer has been notorious compred to other browsers when it comes to HTML5 support. Not only does the new version support HTML 5 better than all previous version, but it also features sandboxing support for HTML5 webapps.

Pointer Events

Internet Explorer 10 supports pointer events; it will allow websites to detect and respond to touch gestures. This feature is obviously more useful on Windows 8 that has shipped on several touch screen devices, but it’s a step in the right direction for the browser overall.

Apart from these features, Microsoft claims the new version to be much fasterer than its predecessor. You won’t be able to upgrade Internet Explorer 9 to the next version automatically, and will have to download and install it yourself. The installation process is somewhat tedious and you will be asked to restart your computer but if you were ever going to give this browser another chance, Internet Explorer 10 is the version to try.

Download Internet Explorer 10

Microsoft Security Essentials Review

Microsoft Security Essentials is the name of Microsoft’s latest Anti-Virus/Anti-Spyware software for Windows operating system. It is already being tested internally at Microsoft and is rumored to launch in September of this year. We were lucky to gets hands on the pre-beta build version of Security Essentials. I tested it on Windows Vista and was quite impressed with it. Below is the complete review along with some interesting findings.

Update: Microsoft Security Essentials has finally been released to the public

Installation

Installation was a breeze, here are the step-by-step procedure for installation. When you run the installer for the first time, you are shown the welcome screen, click Next.

Read the License Agreement and click I accept.

Here is the real bummer for those who are using non-genuine versions of Windows. This step will validate whether your Windows is genuine or not. Click Validate to check, if your Windows is validated you will be moved to next step, otherwise installation will fail.

Now once your Windows has been validated, Security Essentials will now get ready to be installed. Click Install to begin installation.

Installing…

Once installation is complete, check the Scan My Computer checkbox and click Finish.

Using Security Essentials

Once installation is complete, you will be redirected to automatic virus & spyware definition updates.

Now go to Home tab where you will be notified that everything is running smoothly.

To perform a System Scan, you can select from any one of the three options, Quick, Full, or Custom. First, I performed a quick scan to see how well it goes. The Quick scan was not so quick as the name suggests, it took several minutes(10 minutes to be exact on my system) to complete.

I did not perform a Full Scan since it would have taken more than 20 minutes 2-3 hours easily. So I went straight ahead with Custom Scan. You have to choose the exact drive or destination that you would like to scan and click OK.

Update: For those thinking why I did not perform a full scan, the problem was not about time(although I did perform it later). There was no need to review the Full Scan option, because it is just similar to Quick Scan but instead scanned all locations of hard disk.

This is how the Home window looks like when a threat is detected.

To remove this threat, click Clean Computer button. It seems like a Trojan was sitting on my computer which NOD32 failed to detect.

I have to commend Security Essentials for finding and removing this stupid Trojan.

To schedule a scan you can either click Change My Scan Schedule link on the Home window or go straight to Settings.

Below are some additional screenshots of Default action, Real-time protection, and Advanced settings.

In History tab you can see all Detected Items, Quarantined Items, and Allowed Items. To remove all history, click Delete History button.

Conclusion

Since I tested the pre-beta build, it is quite difficult to draw the final verdict. But one thing that held out is it’s ease-of-use and small memory footprint. The overall size of the software installer is only 4.8MB and takes around 6.6MB + 36MB(runs two different processes) when running on my system. Which is quite impressive if you look at the fact that it detected and removed a Trojan downloader that NOD32 even failed to detect in the first place. Just for the sake of comparison ESET NOD32 takes 35MB of system memory, which means approx 28.4MB more than Security Essentials.  Enjoy!

Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse Review

The Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse is the successor to the original Arc Mouse with a new sleek and flexible design. The most prominent change is the use of touch to scroll instead of wheel and BlueTrack technology which allows it to be used on any surface. Check our full review (and giveaway) after the jump.

Design And Basics

The first thing you will notice about Arc Touch Mouse is the unique design. There are no buttons to switch the mouse on or off, you curve it to turn on and flatten it to turn off. This is a good thing since users who want to carry the mouse around don’t want to move that pesky little button under the mouse to switch it on or off repeatedly while travelling.

Since the design is new, it takes some time getting used to. The touch to scroll is difficult to handle in the beginning because we are using scroll wheel for almost a decade. Using it on a hard surface is easier and the grip is stronger when compared with soft surfaces. People with large hands will find it a bit challenging to use due to its small size. After playing around with it for 3 days, I am perfectly comfortable with it. Check out the size comparison below with HTC Desire HD.

The mouse runs on 2 AAA alkaline batteries which can be inserted from the bottom of the mouse.

There is a small magnet below the mouse where one can attach the USB Receiver to ensure that both the mouse and receiver are in the same place and ready to be used anytime. The USB Receiver is tiny and if you are carrying your laptop around, you can let it stay plugged in (like I do).

Microsoft Arc Touch mouse is the first travel mouse that can actually fit in all pockets due to its flat size. The design also makes it lighter than other mice.

Usability And Performance

When you first plug in the device, it will automatically install the driver. It works on Windows XP (32-bit only), Windows Vista (both 32-bit and 64-bit), and Windows 7 (both 32-bit and 64-bit). The sensitivity will be a bit higher and can be changed from Mouse Properties (Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Mouse).

Don’t expect it to replace your desktop mouse. The performance and options that come with a desktop mouse can’t be found in Arc Touch. However, if all you need is some basic functionality then you can use it as a desktop mouse replacement. While testing, it worked seamlessly on different surfaces, carpet, tables, floor, and so on.

The middle click button is still there and can be used by double tapping the middle touch scroll. If you are one of those people who eat and browse at the same time, forget it. The plastic becomes slippery and difficult to use with slightly wet or oily hands. This is the second major downside, the first being too small for large hands.

The great part is that Arc Touch is not a racist, it is made for both left and right handed people. So if your co-worker or friend needs to show you something and is different handed, then this mouse will do the trick.

MS Arc Touch Mouse Vs. Apple Magic Mouse

I was reluctant to touch this topic because of Microsoft vs Apple fanboy flame war, but many people have asked us how they compare. In short, they don’t. Comparing Arc Touch with Magic Mouse is like comparing Turtle with Tortoise. Both are nice but have a very different purpose. Arc Touch mouse is a travel mouse (which you may use as a desktop mouse), while on the other hand, Magic Mouse is a desktop mouse (which you may use as a travel mouse, if you wish to).

Conclusion

Pros: Compact, sexy, lightweight, and an all-round winner when it comes to portability. The movement is surprisingly smooth, making it a must-have travel mouse for web designers.

Cons: Difficult to control in the beginning, small for large hands, and buttons are slippery with slightly wet and oily hands. Not good for gaming (OK, this is not a downside but still).