Mozilla commissioned a YouGov study recently that found over three quarters of the UK are unaware of the upcoming browser choice ballot.
Microsoft said last Friday that it will begin external testing of a browser ballot screen for European copies of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 this week. The software update will be offered as an automatic download through Windows Update for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 users. Users who currently have Internet Explorer selected as the default browser will see an introductory screen providing them with information about the update. If Internet Explorer was “pinned” to the Windows 7 taskbar, the browser choice screen software update will automatically unpin it.
Mitchell Baker, Mozilla’s chairman, and chief executive John Lilly both welcomed the changes that Microsoft has made. “It’s an important choice because the Web browser has become one of the most critical and trusted relationships of our modern lives,” the pair explained in a joint statement. “We believe that the Browser Choice screen is an important milestone towards helping more people take control of their online lives — and we hope for the conversation to become broader and deeper.”
In July 2009, Microsoft proposed a ballot screen to allow users to pick their default browser in Windows XP, Vista and 7.
Microsoft said it plans to begin a phased roll-out of the update across Europe the week of March 1. The update will affect as many as 195 million people in 32 European countries.
Firefox 3.6 has officially been released by Mozilla for Windows, Mac, and Linux. The latest version of the world’s 2nd most popular browser is expected to hold over power users until the release of Firefox 4.0 (since 3.7 has officially been taken off the roadmap). The release is considered to be more of a major step forward, rather than an incremental change. A lot has been tweaked and added under the hood. Unfortunately, Electrolysis (process separation) will still have to wait until the next update.
Here are some of the new features:
- Personas - hover over themes to see what they’d look like and apply them to your browser
- Out-of-date plugin notifier - tells you when a plugin, such as Flash, is out of date and directs you to an update source
- Full-screen video – if you are using HTML 5 to view embedded Ogg videos, you can now view them in full screen
- Web open font format - allows for smaller-sized font formats, allowing sites to load fatster, with the intended fonts
- Desktop Orientation Sensors – allows your browser to know when your computer is being moved and can adjust the picture accordingly
- Speed – the browser, as a w***** is 20% faster than Firefox 3.5.x, making it the 2nd fastest browser, behind Chrome (source: Lifehacker)
For more details, and to see a video of what’s new in Firefox 3.6, please visit our previous coverage at Mozilla Firefox 3.6 final release date.
Click here to download Firefox 3.6 in over 70 languages for any platform.
Download: Mozilla Firefox 3.6
Mozilla’s popular web browser, Firefox, is quite a big name in the realm of the Internet. It’s multi-platform, easy to use, and packs a extremely vast amount of add-ons to improve the user experience. In addition to this, it’s about to get a new version.
The newest version of the browser, currently in development, is 3.6; it’s not a huge upgrade, as Mozilla plans to save the bigger changes for version 4.0, but it’s still packing some nice improvements. According to The Register, the new version will come with tweaks which improve the TraceMonkey javascript engine, an ‘optimized session restore’, plus additions to the CSS technology in the browser and improved page rendering speed. There is a discussion about the new version here, with official Firefox developers putting together the following schedule:
- Oct 5: Code freeze late evening PDT.
- Oct 6: Start build1 of the beta assuming trees are green.
- Oct 7: Begin QA testing (or earlier as builds become available).
- Oct 13: Complete QA testing by AM, ship beta in late day PDT.
Indeed, that means that the beta of the new version will be hopefully available October 13, less than a week from now. However, in the previously posted discussion, Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner stated that there’s no shame in missing the deadline. Understandably, this is just a beta, so people shouldn’t be rushing to upgrade.
Mozilla Firefox v3.5 RC3 of the award-winning Firefox Web browser has been released.
News source: Official website
Download: Firefox 3.5 RC3 win32
Download: Firefox 3.5 RC3 linux-i686
Download: Firefox 3.5 RC3 mac
View: Release notes