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Mozilla Urges Firefox Users to Update to 3.6

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 22:04:11 -0600

Firefox 3.6 has recorded over 100 million downloads during the past 50 days, according to a new post by Melissa Shapiro on Mozilla's official blog. Now, Mozilla wants Firefox loyalists still holding onto older versions of the browser to make the leap to the latest version. To this end, people running older versions will begin seeing a pop-up message to inform them about the latest version and urge them to update.

They will have to pick either one of the three options available to them: Ask Later, No Thanks, or Get the New Version. Mozilla also tried to address a widespread apprehension that already installed Firefox add-ons and Firefox 3.6 may prove to be incongruous. “It’s fast, stable, compatible with over 90% of the thousands of Firefox Add-ons, and contains new features such as lightweight themes and plugin version checking,” Shapiro wrote in a clear bid to allay such fears.

Image Credit: Mozilla

Apple iTunes Store Records 10 Billionth Download, Gives Away $10,000 Gift Card

Paul Lilly — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:45:18 -0600

Apple on Thursday announced that more than 10 billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from the company's iTunes Store.

"We're grateful to all of our customers for helping us reach this amazing milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of Internet Services. "We're proud that iTunes has become the number one music retailer in the world, and selling 10 billion songs is truly staggering."

Louie Sulcer, a 71-year-old from Woodstock, Georgia, made the 10 billionth purchase when he bought Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way." As a result for his good timing (and good taste in music), Sulcer will receive a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card.

Report: Android Tops iPhone in Wallpaper, Ringtone Downloads 7-to-1

Paul Lilly — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 11:15:24 -0600

Myxer, the Florida-based website which claims the Internet's largest catalogs of free ringtones, wallpapers, videos, applications, and games, has put together its inaugural report analyzing the download behavior of 30 million Android and iPhone users.

According to Myxer's data, Android users downloaded seven times as many freebie offerings as iPhone users in 2009. During that time, visits to Myxer's mobile site from users on the Android OS grew by 350 percent, compared to a 170 percent growth rate among iPhone users.

So what does it all mean? Myxer doesn't offer an explanation of why it thinks Android users downloaded so much more content than those on the iPhone, but even so, the two demographics combined don't account for the bulk of downloads. Blackberry owners dominate the free download scene, at least on Myxer's site, accounting for almost 70 percent.

Image Credit: Myxer

Apple's App Store Leapfrogs 3 Billion Download Mark

Paul Lilly — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 12:01:55 -0600

Google's Android platform seems to be getting all the attention as of late, but lest anyone forget about Apple and its iPhone and iPod touch lineup, the company today announced that more than three billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store.

"Three billion applications downloaded in less than 18 months -- this is like nothing we've ever seen before," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The revolutionary App Store offers iPhone and iPod touch users an experience unlike anything else available on other mobile devices, and we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon."

It will be interesting to see if Jobs' last remark holds up by the end of 2010, especially with all the Android-powered devices on tap. But in the here and now, he has reason to be cocky. Apple's App Store stands at over 100,000 apps strong, and the iPhone still remains one of the trendiest smartphones available.

Image Credit: Apple

Murphy's Law: Our Favorite Firefox Add-ons Vs Chrome Extensions!

David Murphy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 12:30:00 -0600

digg_url = 'http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/murphys_law_our_favorite_firefox_extensions_versus_chrome';

tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/murphys_law_our_favorite_firefox_extensions_versus_chrome';

Some time ago, we published a list of The 16 Most Essential Firefox 3.5 Add-ons. It was quite a comprehensive list, covering a pretty wide swath of popular and lesser-known add-ons in a courageous attempt to outfit your Firefox with all the additional functionality it otherwise lacks. Of course, it's difficult to really boil down the perfect Firefox experience into only 16 little extensions. I'm sure you could easily come up with 20 or 30 add-ons for the ultimate browser build.

But what about our long-forgotten friend, poor Google Chrome? Google just opened the floodgates to its own extension gallery the other day and, naturally, the first thing running through my mind is the question that's likely running through everybody's minds: How does it stack up? Well, no sense in waxing poetic about it. Let's find out. Just how easily can you replicate the ideal Firefox experience using Google add-ons, and in what ways is the browser--or, rather, the third-party add-on developers--lacking versus Firefox? We'll use our "16 essential add-ons" list as a guide.

All-in-One Sidebar

Nope!

Firefox: "With All-in-One Sidebar, you have instant access to Firefox’s entire inventory of Downloads, Add-ons, History and Bookmarks with one simple left-click."

Chrome: Brrrzzzzt. There is currently no extension that replicates this feature in Chrome. Loading new options, download windows, and browser history all happens through Chrome's "Customize and Control" button, which launches each selected item into a new tab or pop-up window.

QuickDrag

Yep!

Firefox: "Simply select text and drag it anywhere in your browser window: either to the search bar, to the middle of the page as a link, or if it’s an image, drag it to the middle of the browser window to save it on your desktop."

Chrome: Ding ding ding. Replicate this time-saving functionality for browsing by using the Google Chrome extension Drag N Go. You don't quite get to do as much as you can with QuickDrag, but you can nevertheless perform searches for dragged words or phrases that can be customized, by gesture, to search on different sites.

IE Tab

Yep!

Firefox: "Simply right-click to open a link, select Open this link in IE tab, and Firefox displays a new tab for you in “IE mode.”

Chrome: Rock it. Grab the IE Tab extension to pull up a page using your favorite rendering engine, Internet Explorer, inside of Google Chrome.

Lazarus Form Recovery

Yep!

Firefox: "Sometimes, our browsers and computers can become overloaded, and can instantaneously shut down while we’re in the process of filling out yet another tedious Internet form (ie. while blogging). Thankfully, Lazarus lives true to its name and resurrects our lost text."

Chrome: Is there a Lazarus extension for Chrome? Why yes there is! It features the same awesome functionality that will likely save my butt at least once while writing this very post.

Video DownloadHelper 4.6

Nope!

Firefox: "It does all the dirty work by downloading video content from the web and storing it as a flash file (.FLV)."

Chrome: Nope. You won't be doing any .FLV downloading in Google Chrome for now. At least, not via an extension--you'll have to try the bookmarklet route!

Last Pass Password Manager

Yep!

Firefox: "LastPass Password Manager stores your passwords and makes it so that you only have to use one code word to access the rest."

Chrome: Indeed, there is also a LastPass extension for Chrome, mimicking the same functionality you'd otherwise find in the Firefox version. Use this extension to add additional security to your own personal passwords and, as noted, access all of your trusted sites with but one master key!

Shareaholic

Yep!

Firefox: "Thankfully, Shareaholic facilitates this with an add-on that allows you to right-click on a link, video, or image, and distribute it among your Internet brood on a variety of sites, including Twitter, Facebook, and Digg."

Chrome: A Google Chrome version of Shareaholic, you ask? You betcha. With but a few mouse clicks, you're inches away from sending all your friends on all sorts of social platforms a link to that hilarious cat picture you just found.

Locator on Google Maps

Yep!

Firefox: "Locator on Google Maps introduces a quick fix solution for these types of dilemmas: simply right-click on the highlighted address and Google maps will pop up in a new menu with a pin on your desired location."

Chrome: For near-identical functionality, check out the Select to Get Maps extension, which allows you to select an address on a Web page and show it on Google Maps--as the name of said extension implies. You can also try using Mini Google Maps, which sticks Google Maps itself overtop your current tab with the simple click of a button on your toolbar.

Firegestures

Yep!

Firefox: "Firegestures ensures that with a few clicks and gestures of the mouse, you’ll be able to effortlessly execute various commands and user scripts with five types of gestures, instead of having to put down your sauce-laden burger."

Chrome: Where to begin? Don't put down that burger just yet, because a host of different extensions build gesture support into Google Chrome, including: Chrome Gestures, nkGestures, Rocker Gestures, and Mouse Stroke, to name a few.

HideTab

Nope!

Firefox: "HideTab’s discrete paranoia button quickly hides all tabs in your Firefox browser window, making it easy for you to surf incognito, without the suspicions of your fellow desk mates"

Chrome: Sorry, fans-of-the-nsfw-content. There's no Chrome extension that will automatically hide your less-than-savory browsing activity from view of those who care about you. The closest you'll get to concealing your love of lolcats on company time is the Close Tabs to Left extension which, as its name suggests, will close all the tabs to the left of your currently open tab with but one click of your mouse. It's not quite a cloaking device for your browsing so much as it is a nuclear bomb.

Foxy Tunes

Nope!

Firefox: "For the avid music listener who can’t be bothered to switch between screens, Foxy Tunes adds a nifty remote control for your media player at the bottom of the browser window. It handles controls for Winamp, Last.fm, Pandora, Windows Media Player, Xbox Media Player, and a variety of other services."

Chrome: Unfortunately, the closest you're going to get to this hybrid of a Windows Media Player and an Internet browser is Google Chrome's Chrome.fm extension. And even then, this extension is hardly as good or as comprehensive as its Foxy Tunes alternative. If you don't mind educating thyself instead of rocking out, you could also try the NPR extension?

Firefox Showcase

Yep!

Firefox: "Fortunately, Firefox Showcase has developed an Add-on that displays the tabs in the main browser window. Press Ctrl + Alt + T to “showcase” the tabs individually and take your pick based on a quick glance of a screenshot."

Chrome: Ahh yes, the ol' "I want to see all of my tabs at once" extension. TooMyTabs for Chrome is the closest you're going to get to this functionality--it pops up all of your tabs in little preview windows which you can scan through and select based on the content you're looking at as opposed to a teeny-tiny title on the top of your tab-filled browser.

ColorfulTabs

Nope!

Firefox: "ColorfulTabs shades your tabs based on the color scheme of the webpage you are viewing."

Chrome: Cool add-on, eh? So cool, in fact, that you're not going to find an alternative for Google Chrome. The closest you'll get is the admittedly lame Change colors extension, which allows you to make alterations to a Web page (or all Web pages) based on a color palette you define.

New Tab King

Yep!

Firefox: "The New Tab King displays your recently closed tabs, personalized suggested sites, most frequented web addresses and includes shortcuts to your desktop applications."

Chrome: To be fair, this functionality is kind of already built into Google Chrome when you load a new tab, so...

XMarks

Yep!

Firefox: This add-on does the service of storing user content, like bookmarks and passwords, in the cloud for safekeeping.

Chrome: As luck would have it, XMarks exists (in a beta form) for Chrome as well. Thank goodness, too--this is one of my most prized Firefox extensions, easily the first thing I install on any new edition of the browser. Syncing bookmarks across multiple computers is extremely useful if not downright necessary.

Full Screen Video for HTML 5

Nope!

Firefox: "This application simply adds a full screen option to the context menu for HTML5 videos, but is integral for video services that don’t offer the option."

Chrome: Well, you can currently convert Flash videos into HTML5 content, but the Chrome add-ons that do so don't incorporate a full-screen video option. Bummer.

The Final Countdown

So what's the final tally for compatibility then? Just using Maximum PC's 16-top-add-ons as an example, Google Chrome--out of the gate--supports 10 out of 16 add-on features outright. That's not too shabby for a fresh launch of Google's extension gallery. Check back next week for a look at the essential, big-name Google Chrome extensions that you shouldn't live without. And who knows--by then, maybe the count will be up to 14 out of 16 supported features... let's go, developers!

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!

Super-Awesome Giveaway!

Remember Topify, the little Web App of the Week I mentioned a bit ago? In short, it's a way to better control Twitter follower requests through your email account--in fact, you can use it to perform all your following and "checking to see if this person is lame or not" activity straight out of your inbox.

Anyway, I have some extra invite codes to this closed-door service that I'd love to share with you. If you want one, scroll your eyes up to my Twitter handle. Friend me and shoot me an @message, and I'll DM you an invite! I will keep this up until I run out and, when that happens, I'll post a note on my own account.

Opera Sings Self-Praise of 12 Million Downloads in 7 Days

Paul Lilly — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:33:32 -0600

Opera Software, the Norwegian-based browser maker, today announced that some 12.5 million people downloaded Opera 10.10 within a week's time, shattering previous Opera records and marking an increase of 25 percent when compared to the download rates of Opera 10 launched two months ago.

"With such remarkable download numbers, I am confident that we truly appealed to the needs of the Web-using public. Opera 10.10 is visually more compelling, and technologically speaking, it goes where no browser has gone before," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera Software. "We believe that, over time, Opera Unite has the power to erase preconceptions of how we access and share information on the Web."

Including the latest downloads, Opera now resides on the desktops of 45 million active Web surfers. That doesn't include the millions of mobile Opera users surfing the Web from their handheld devices and game consoles.

Opera's most recent download numbers are pretty impressive when you consider that version 10.10 is an incremental update. But in addition to Internet Explorer and Firefox, it will also face stiff competition from Chrome, which inches ever closer to offering extensions support to the general public.

Mozilla Launches Jetpack Gallery for Firefox, Offers No-Restart Add-ons

Pulkit Chandna — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:44:14 -0600

Mozilla today unveiled the Jetpack Gallery, a place for developers to showcase their Jetpack add-ons. Jetpack is a Mozilla Labs project that lets developers build Firefox add-ons using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While the newly launched gallery – still in beta - gives developers the opportunity to host and promote their Jetpacks, it lets Firefox users browse, install and rate Jetpacks. Installing Jetpacks is quite easy and doesn’t even require a browser restart, save for the very first Jetpack that a user installs. The Jetpack Gallery currently features over 30 add-ons.

Firefox Add-on of the Week: FEBE

Florence Ion — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:30:00 -0600

As your library of Firefox Add-ons continues to grow, so does the worry that a system crash will wipe out your carefully assembled collection of extensions. To quell this fear, all you have to do is download just one additional add-on that will ensure your extensions say safely backed up in a folder on your computer or portable storage device. FEBE (Firefox Environment Backup Extension) is a worry-free backup system that will preserve your highly-customized Firefox settings in the case of a crash.

FEBE's includes a myriad of customizable options.

FEBE backs up your Firefox extensions, themes, bookmarks, preferences, passwords, cookies and individual user profiles. From the preferences toolbar, you can select only the items that need backing up or restoring, schedule automatic backups, and save them to a specified folder on your hard drive. After backup, you can verify to make sure that FEBE correctly executed itself; it also does a quick back up and trashes any extra junk that may bundle itself with your saved files.

Restore a number of features to your precious browser.

FEBE comes with an information button attached to almost every function to help even the most computer illiterate backup their favorite Firefox add-ons and is also available in beta for Thunderbird.

Download FEBE here

Every Tuesday, we pick a new Firefox Add-on as our favorite of the week. Have an Add-on that you can't live without? Send suggestions to fion [AT] futureus.com with "Firefox Add-On" in the subject line.