Tag: Firefox 4

Firefox 5 Release Date Expected For June

Firefox 5 is expected to be released on June 21.

Last year, Google launched an initiative to crank out new versions of Chrome very quickly. Mozilla seems to be trying to keep up. It’s been speculated that Firefox users can expect even a version 7 before the year’s over.

This is part of Mozilla’s “Rapid Release” initiative. “Mozilla plans to switch to more frequent Firefox releases in order to provide frequent improvements to users, without disrupting longer term work,” the organization says.

Firefox 4 just came out a couple weeks ago. It was downloaded 5 million times in 24 hours, and even got up to 9 million the day after the release. By April 1, downloads had already surpassed 50 million. Today, the number is going on 70 million.

One can only imagine that Firefox 5 will see a similar level of popularity, based on people simply wanting to have the latest. Of course there will be new feature, as well. Conceivably Tech seems to have uncovered what these may include.

There are 9 features revealed in the Firefox UX planning pages, but some of them may be reserved for later versions past 5, as the publication explains.

There’s no telling which features will be included in Firefox 5 at this point. The possibilities include: tab multi-select, a new tab page, standardized toolbar for add-ons, file upload monitor, home app tab (to replace home button), in-browser preview for files, taskbar web apps, identity management, and sharing features, which are expected to be part of Firefox 5.

The preview of Firefox 5 is already available.

April 8, 2011
Firefox 4 Downloads Surpass 50 Million

The Firefox 4 web browser has proven to be a big hit for Mozilla. At the time of this writing, 52,204,769 people have downloaded Firefox 4.

Europe has the highest number of users with 20,365,540. North America has 16,688,275, and Asia has 9,247,750. Obviously these numbers will be slightly off, considering the downloads are rolling in faster that it takes me to type a single character, but you get the idea of what the markets are like.

At glow.mozilla.org, you can watch the number continue to tick upwards and get a market-by-market breakdown of the numbers.

It had already hit 9 million downloads just a day after it launched. This infographic showed how well it did in its first 48 hours alone:

It’s hardly slowed down since then.

Earlier this week, Mozilla launched Firefox 4 for Android to mixed reviews. Complaints were mostly related to speed and a lack of Flash support.

Read reviews (of the desktop version) from a couple of our writers at the following links:

Firefox 4 Review: Many Likes, Few Dislikes
Firefox 4 Official Release – Was it Worth the Wait

In other browser news, IE9 has an adoption rate five times higher than that of IE8. Rockmelt launched its Beta 2 today with new Facebook Chat and real-time Twitter features.

April 1, 2011
Firefox 4 Review: Many Likes, Few Dislikes

Disclaimer: I am already a usual Firefox user. Internet Explorer and I had a nasty divorce a few years ago, and despite people telling me how much better it has gotten, I still can’t convince myself to go back. I’ve used Chrome, and I like it – but for some reason nothing struck me enough to warrant changing my ways. With limited interaction with Firefox 4, I think that I’ll probably hang around with Mozilla.

Despite countless articles able to be written on detailed performance factors, speed tests, etc., I’m steering these comments more towards aesthetics, interface and features. Having said that, Firefox 4 is fast. The difference isn’t so noticeable on my work PC but at home it is working like a flash. Even on my computer which was in the process of downloading a huge file and running an anti-virus scan, the new Firefox still seemed faster to me than the old one.

When you open the browser, the first thing you’ll notice is that the top of your screen looks a great deal different. Most noticeably, your tabs are now above the address bar by default. Personally, I like the look of this. If your personal aesthetic preferences aren’t pleased, you can drop the tabs back below the address bar.

Also immediately noticeable is the big orange Firefox button. This is actually a drop down menu that contains all the options that were previously spread out across the top – options, help, etc. Some users might have a miniscule problem at first locating these necessary functions, but grouping everything under one button sure looks good.

One of my favorite little features is the “pin tab” feature that allows you to shrink your open tabs into small icon tabs. You can do this to your most commonly used tabs to keep them available with out taking up tons of space. Just right click on any tab and select “Pin as App Tab.”

Your address bar still quick searches your bookmarks and history but is now called your “Awesome Bar.” Stupid name, good functionality. Mozilla has boasted that it “learns” about you as you use it more often, which I assume means it links more frequently visited sites at the top. Haven’t been able to use it long enough to see what it is “learning” about me.

All in all, the interface is nice and compact. It all looks very clean, as bookmarks, home page, and refresh are all small icons. The add-ons browser had been updated and has a featured add-on page, mobile add-on page, and even the add-on of the month which I got as it is highly beneficial. I’ve never been one for excessive add-ons as I find many of them to be pointless. But if you’re a person who loves to have them all, the new manager is pretty user-friendly.

A feature that doesn’t appeal to me is the new tab groups. Ctrl+Shift+E pulls up a screen with all your open tabs shown as tiny previews of the pages they are currently on. You have the option to add a new tab group and lump tabs together by whatever qualifier you choose. It is a little clunky to me and I believe the “pin tab” feature discussed earlier eliminates the majority of tab confusion.

In a couple days of using Firefox 4, I haven’t run into any issues that would steer me in a new direction. The new interface is smooth and appealing, and it is loading pages faster than any previous incarnation. And honestly, for the majority of internet users, those are the two most important aspects of any browser.

March 23, 2011
Firefox 4 Off To Strong Start

Mozilla Firefox 4, has already grabbed 1.95 percent of the global Internet browser market since its launch yesterday, according to a new report from StatCounter.

StatCounter said on the first day of its release Firefox 4 scored higher worldwide than Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 9 which launched more than a week ago.

“Firefox 4 has really hit the ground running and has eclipsed the launch of IE 9,” said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter.

“Although IE 9 has undoubtedly been hampered by its lack of compatibility with Windows XP.” By yesterday IE 9 had taken just 0.87% of the worldwide market.

When data for all versions of each browser are calculated, Internet Explorer still leads the global market with 45 percent followed by Firefox with 30 percent and Chrome with 17 percent. In the U.S., IE (all versions combined) leads the market with 48 percent followed by Firefox 26 percent and Chrome 14 percent.

On a monthly basis, StatCounter figures show a steady decline in the IE global market share from 55% in February last year to 45% this year. In the same time frame Google’s Chrome has risen steadily from 7% worldwide to 17%.

StatCounter recently reported that Firefox overtook Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to become the number one browser in Europe for the first time in December 2010.

March 23, 2011
Firefox 4 Official Release – Was It Worth The Wait?

While Firefox 4 could be obtained yesterday, today marks the official release of the Firefox 4 (RC) download. For those who are keen towards browser advancements, these past couple of weeks must feel like heaven. We’ve taken a couple of steps towards the implementation of HTML 5 with the release of Google Chrome 10, Internet Explorer 9, and Firefox 4. Is Mozilla’s latest release up to the challenge?

The Interface – A bevel too much…

We’ll start with the less technical aspects of Firefox 4, as many have little use for the more intensive features of Firefox. I’m currently on the Mac version of the web browser, which actually looks a bit different than the Windows version.

Firefox 4 (Windows)

Firefox 4 (Mac)

Like in previous iterations, the browser interface is designed to mirror Safari in a lot of ways. The top portion of the browser is colored directly like Safari. The only major differences are the shape of the back/forward buttons, and the tabs are on top of the address bar when using Firefox 4. Oh, Mozilla also has their home and bookmark button to the right of the Google search bar instead of the left.

My only real complaint with the Mac version of Firefox 4 is the deep bevel the tabs have when sitting atop the address and search bar. I don’t know if the irksome feeling comes from my hatred of bevel from Photoshop, but I don’t like. Feel free to ignore this inkling, however, as I’m sure there are plenty of bevel supporters out there.

The differences in IE9 and Firefox 4 feel much more distinct, and I actually prefer IE9’s interface. Microsoft really took a glance at Google’s playbook, as the more I use IE9 the interface reminds me of Chrome. While there’s no glaring negatives found on Firefox 4’s interface for Windows, it comes off busier in the top bar area than IE9.

Speed – Javascript, and accelerated graphics are welcome…

Firefox 4 is fast. I could really leave it at that three word sentence and be done. Instead, I’ll dive into a bit more of the details behind the heightened speed. I’m not going to get caught up in comparisons to other browsers. The load times for the three latest versions of Chrome, IE, and Firefox are very close. In fact, depending on where you want to look, each one performed better than the other in certain benchmarks.

Firefox 4 is much more javascript friendly than the previous version. I’ve it put through the paces on some extremely javascript dense sites, and the difference between 4 and 3.6 is like night and day. I put the browser through my ESPN3.com test. Firefox 4 was like a cheetah in comparison to 3.6, and IE9 wouldn’t even load ESPN3. Due to this test, I know which browser will be used at home as I access my most used site.

Another cool feature Mozilla provides which could add to the speed of browser usage is “Mozilla Sync“. This allows you to save the data on your browser then transfer it to other computers and mobile devices. It certainly beats the old methods of emailing passwords to yourself, or writing them down.

HTML5 – The future of the web, and Firefox 4 is ready…

While there have been some major upgrades, most of them pale in comparison to the support of HTML5. Hardware acceleration, HTML coded hi-def video, 3D graphics, and a lot more additions can be found in HTML5. Of the sites I’ve tested Firefox 4 on, the browser has passed with flying colors.

Here are a couple examples of the power HTML5 has in terms of bringing a new experience to the internet:

iPaint – This beta web app has taken all the functions of MS Paint, made some additions, and have brought them all to the web browser. Firefox 4 loads the app perfectly, and after using all the functions provided the browser didn’t hiccup once. Have fun laughing at my crude image, provided by iPaint.

Motivational Poster Creator – This app is from Mozilla’s demos, and it highlights how HTML5 can allow users to take offline files and implement them within a web page. I can think of no better way of demonstrating this than with a Motivational Poster. Again, all of this was done using tools provided by HTML5. Enjoy.

The browser handled the entire process of accessing my image, embedding it in the webpage, and adding my custom text perfectly.

The browser to win them all?

There are a couple of more additions to Firefox 4 that will take some time before full judgement can be rendered, specifically with the security capabilities added onto this version.

At first use, I can find zero reasons why someone shouldn’t use Firefox 4. On the flip side, there’s no reason beyond some Firefox add-ons, that I would recommend this browser over Google Chrome. Due to IE9 failing my ESPN3.com test, I’ll probably switch off between Firefox and Chrome at home.

I did run into an interesting cache issue with WordPress, which involved overwriting an image. I had to clear my cache before the change registered, which is something I’ve never had to do while using 3.6. Has anyone else noticed any slight quirks?

How has your experience using Firefox 4 been? Even though it’s still early, first impressions mean a lot. What have yours been like?

March 22, 2011
Firefox 4 Available a Day Prior To Official Release

Hot on the heels of the Internet Explorer 9 release, Firefox 4 is officially releasing tomorrow (March 22nd). However, for those who can’t wait another minute, the unofficial download is available. As with things of this nature, WebProNews doesn’t condone unauthorized downloading, and so on and so forth.

It was discovered that the final release for Firefox 4 was up on their FTP server, which was then subsequently provided to users though numerous websites. Mozilla strongly discourages these direct downloads, as the current location isn’t equipped for massive traffic. So if you feel like being courteous to Mozilla, wait until tomorrow.

If you visit the index.html file on the FTP server, you’ll be met with the following message:

According to the website Fileforum, they’ve already had over 60,000 downloads for Windows since releasing the links on their site. There are also clients for both Linux and Mac.

It’s been nearly eight months since the original Firefox 4 beta was released publicly. Mozilla has been scrutinized for pushing back their initial release date which was supposed to happen last fall. We’ll all be able to find out either today, or tomorrow, whether or not the wait was worth it.

The battle for our browser usage has a new chapter, and it will certainly be interesting to see who is able to gain and who will fall back. Though I don’t condone anyone using Mozilla’s FTP server, if you get an early download, feel free to share your thoughts on it below.

March 21, 2011