Long-time Microsoft journalist Mary Jo Foley (ZDNET) appears to have come across the real thing. We’re now around 20 days out from the expected launch date for the IE9 beta, but it seems that Microsoft Russia have gotten a little ahead of themselves and posted an official screenshot of IE9. We confirmed this screenshot is real through sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans.
The site has since been pulled (of course), so the above screenshot is all you’ll get for now. The screenshot doesn’t feature a date/time, but it does show off the ‘new’ IE9 icon in the taskbar. Although it’s always hard to trust an online translator, Mary has found out the following:
- Tabs can be ‘torn off’, and possibly ‘snapped’ via Windows 7′s Aero Snap feature.
- Dragging a ‘pin’ from the address bar creates a link on your taskbar.
- There’s a combined search and address bar (as with Google’s Chrome).
- IE9 only has one menu, consolidating the six menus found in IE8.
Although suggested sites appears to be missing, along with a few other icons we’ve been used to seeing along the top of an IE browser window, there still appears to be home, favorites and settings buttons in the top right-hand corner of the window.
Like it or hate it, this one definitely seems to be on the money. It’s simpler, as we’ve been promised, and the design fits in well with what Microsoft has been putting out lately. Can you wait 20 days?
View: Source
Firefox 4 Beta 1 is now ready to download and test! This first version gives an early look at what’s planned for Firefox 4. Stay tuned, because there is more to come and we plan to release new beta versions every two to three weeks. Your feedback is essential to help shape the product which is why we’re launching now to hear from you early in our development process.
Firefox 4 Beta 1 includes dozens of major features and improvements – by testing them early we’ll be able to respond to your feedback for future versions of Firefox. Once you download Firefox 4 Beta 1, you’re part of our beta program and will receive regular updates as more features launch.
If you are using a Windows PC, the most noticeable new feature will be the look of the browser. We moved the tabs to the top to make it easier to focus on the web content and easier to control the tools in your Web browser. Also, if you have Windows 7 or Windows Vista the Menu bar was replaced with a single Firefox button so you can get to the most used options with just one click. These changes will be coming soon for Mac and Linux.
There is a lot more to this beta than a facelift on Windows, including:
- New Add-Ons Manager: gives you more space to manage your Add-Ons, Themes and Plugins. Customizing your browser has never been easier!
- HD Video: Watch hardware-accelerated, super-smooth, HD-quality HTML5 video on YouTube using the new WebM format.
- Privacy improvements: Mozilla always puts privacy first, and this latest beta fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose your browser history.
- Crash Protection: Experience uninterrupted browsing (now available on all platforms) – when a plugin crashes or freezes, you can resume browsing by simply refreshing the page.
- Performance: We know that performance is important. In this version, we focused on improving responsiveness at start-up and during page loads. This is just the beginning for performance improvements in Firefox 4.
Web developers will be interested in some of the changes we’ve made under the hood:
- HTML5 Parser: Run the best Web apps of today and tomorrow – if a user’s browser doesn’t support HTML5, they still won’t miss out on your content.
- WebSockets: Build real-time, online interactions like gaming and chatting.
- IndexedDB: Use structured storage in your Web applications to speed them up or provide offline support.
- Web Console: Peek into dynamic websites with this experimental “Heads Up Display” play” analysis tool.
- Simpler Add-On Development: Authors can create Add-Ons that don’t require a restart to install, develop their Add-Ons more quickly using the new powerful Jetpack SDK, and safely connect to existing libraries using js-ctypes.
- For a full list of Web technologies supported by Firefox check out our “big chart o’ features.”
View: Source
Changelog: Release Notes
Download: Firefox 4 Beta 1
According to Mozilla Links (via Lifehacker) the latest nightly build of Firefox has a customizable tab bar. This new function, which was previously only available through third-party add-ons and CSS tweaks, allows a user to take full control over the way Firefox looks and feels. Buttons in the tab bar can be removed, added, and moved around.
If someone wanted, they could maximize web site viewing space by moving everything, tabs and all, onto a single row of chrome. There are still some kinks to be worked out (read quote below), but the implementation of this new feature goes to show you how serious Mozilla is about giving users what they want.
“Right now there is no way to set a minimum size for the location or search bars and they are just compressed as you open more tabs, becoming unusable when working with more than 7 tabs (in a 1280px wide screen).”
You can grab the latest nightly builds of Firefox from Mozilla’s FTP server.
It’s no secret that Mozilla is planning some major UI overhauls for their next major release of Firefox. The new theme is designed to reflect a modernized web browser to illustrate its “power, simplicity, and customizability.” The design team has outlined 4 main goals for the refresh:
- Streamline UI elements and reduce visual footprint
- Modernize look and feel
- Retain visual integration
- Maintain cross-platform consistency (Where applicable)
While the new theme has been revealed progressively, it is still a work in progress and the team is constantly making new adjustments and additions. A new timeline has been posted at the project homepage to see that the new changes get the proper amount of attention for implementation. Stephen Horlander, a Visual Designer with the Firefox team, has posted screenshots of the new concepts that they are working on.
New toolbar buttons, location bar, and tabs for OS X:
New tab styling for Windows:
New panel styles for notifications and prompts:
Downloads panel:
OS X notification panel:
Linux notification panel:
A new edit tray that appears when editing text:
Button indicator for opening the downloads panel:
Fullscreen UI sketch:
Check the gallery below for full screenshots.
