Firefox Magazine

Firefox 3 Download Day, A New Guinness World Record Is Coming

2008-06-04T07:37:11Z

The Firefox community is joining forces this Friday to realize a new Guinness world record for highest software download in 24h ! Firefox3 is going to make the Buzz this week and certainly getting higher market share against Internet Explorer. The official date for the launch of Firefox 3 will be posted really soon in the next days, so for now you can pledge to get Firefox 3 during Download Day to set the Guinness World Record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours. Until today 718,034 pledges from all over the world, 15% of them from US, then 7.5% Poland and 7.5% from Brasil. You also could be involved and be part of this mission impossible http://www.spreadfirefox.com/worldrecord.

Amazon EC2 Firefox extension goes open source

2007-12-25T18:09:32Z

EC2 Firefox Extension is now open sourced, the extension which aims to make Amazon EC2 usage easier. From the extension it's very easy to manage and launch EC2 instances. The extension is now available on Sourceforge under the name Elasticfox and under the Apache License V2.0. What this extension do :

List available AMIs (Amazon Machine Images)
List your running instances
Launch new instances of an AMI
Manage security groups and launch permissions associated with your instances

Remember The Milk, Gmail-based task manager

2007-12-20T19:58:17Z

This is another amazing Firefox extension which let you manage your task right in your Gmail. Remember the milk for Gmail (or RTM) provide the possibility to add new tasks, complete, postpone, and edit tasks. Best of all, it connect tasks to your Emails, Contacts or Google Calendar events. You can automatically add tasks for starred messages or specific labels... Very innovative way to get your tasks done in Gmail.

Firefox 2.0.0.9, Version Pushed By Two Numbers In Two Weeks

2007-11-03T05:47:38Z

Another security release just announced today Firefox 2.0.0.9, to make a total of two releases in two weeks. The new release have been announced just four days after the 2.0.0.8 release on Mozilla Developer Center. The bugs concerned in this release :

Bug 400406 - Firefox will ignore the "clear" CSS property when used beneath a box that is using the "float" property. There is a temporary workaround JS/CSS code available for web developers with affected layouts.
Bug 400467 - Windows Vista users will get "Java not found" or "Java not working" errors when trying to load Java applets after updating. To fix this, users can right-click the Firefox icon and "Run as administrator", then browse to a page with a Java applet doing this once will fix the problem and permanently restore Java functionality.
Bug 396695 - Add-ons are disabled after updating. Users can fix this problem by opening their profile folder and removing three files (extensions.rdf, extensions.ini and extensions.cache)
Bug 400421 - Removing a single area element from an image map will cause the entire map to disappear. There is no workaround available at this time.
Bug 400735 - Some Windows users may experience crashes at startup. There is no workaround available at this time.

FoxSaver, A Firefox-based ScreenSaver

2007-10-24T06:56:45Z

FoxSaver is an original extension which will let you turns Idle FireFox into a ScreenSaver and Photo Viewer. The extension run in fullscreen and could be configured to display online pictures or your own. FoxSaver viewers can also share pictures to be viewed by others, which a great collaborative feature. If you have dual monitor, you can move your FireFox to another screen and enjoy the view while working! Works also for linux.

OneClick Install of Wordpress Themes and Plugins from Firefox

2007-08-13T07:43:27Z

OneClick for Wordpress is another Firefox extension which aims to make your every day's Wordpress maintenance more simple. The extension is provided with a wordpress plugin which proceed the extraction of themes or plugins to appropriate folder. After installing the plugin, you can install the OneClick Firefox extension. Whenever you find a theme or plugin you want to install, right click on the zip link then choose from OneClick menu if it is a theme or plugin. OneClick will make the necessary upload and unzip, so you only have to check your admin interface and activate your new plugin or theme. Before installing, OneClick diagnose the system to check for possible update in addition to auto diagnostics wether everything is working properly.

Firefox 2.0.0.5 Security Release

2007-07-19T13:05:53Z

Mozilla just released a security update of Firefox 2.0.0.5, fixing major security issues :

XPCNativeWrapper pollution
Unauthorized access to wyciwyg:// documents
Remote code execution by launching Firefox from Internet Explorer
File type confusion due to %00 in name
Privilege escalation using an event handler attached to an element not in the document
Frame spoofing while window is loading
XSS using addEventListener and setTimeout
Crashes with evidence of memory corruption

Firefox users proved that they are always up to date, so there is no need to mention that it is highly recommended to upgrade to this release.

Sparky, Official Alexa Toolbar for Firefox

2007-07-19T12:49:59Z

Finally, Alexa got an official toolbar for Firefox ! It took long long time, but good to see it here. I was wondering why Alexa was blaming Mozilla for not supporting them, while anyone can develop plugins for Firefox without any support. The Alexa toolbar for Firefox is called Sparky and features include :

Related Links: Find sites that are similar to the one you are currently visiting.
Traffic Trend: A sparkline showing the traffic trend from the last four months.
Reach Meter: A neat little indicator that shows the site's Reach.
Traffic Rank: Shows the current site's Alexa Traffic Rank.

Now you can install Sparky on your Firefox and you can see your Alexa ranking jump in the next days. Just a note that Sparky might ~~not be compatible with the latest security release of Firefox 2.0.0.5 which released on the same day. Shame !~~ slow down your Firefox ! I just got a warning that it is not compatible with 2.0.0.5, and after restarting Firefox it was working fine but very slow.

Firefox 2 Certified for E-Business Suite 11i and 12

2007-07-15T19:17:08Z

While the community is waiting for Firefox3, the Oracle E-Business Suite Technology announced last week that Firefox 2 is certified with E-Business Suite. I think it is a good news for Firefox usage in enterprise, even that it came very late, and hoping that things goes faster with Firefox3 as Keith mentioned in the announcement. And as Jake said in the Oracle AppsBlog, "For IE6, Opera and Safari users, sorry."

[..]But this should be viewed as good news the next time a new Firefox release comes out and you're a little nervous about taking it too early. Should a similar confluence of events hold up our ability to certify Firefox 3.0 in a timely manner, keep in mind that Oracle will still support Firefox 2.0 as a client for our applications, at least until we've certified the latest version, and for some reasonable overlap period. During that time, we'll make our best efforts to address any browser-specific issues.

Firefox Companion for eBay and Launch Party Wednesday

2007-07-05T14:37:29Z

Firefox Companion for eBay is an official Firefox extension developed by Mozilla and eBay to provide a new fast and safe online auction experience. The new eBay companion was officially launched yesterday in London in a small party reserved for about 50 guests. The aims of Firefox Companion for eBay is to help eBay users to never miss a bid, Stay up-to-date, and provides a safer browsing experience. The Firefox page of the extension is now called "mozilla Firefox eBay-edition", and there is a similar page on eBay from where you can download and install the extension.

Keep an eye on your eBay trading whereever you are on the web when you install the Mozilla Firefox eBay-Edition. I's a free tool built with eBay users in mind that will help you get more out of your buying and selling.

FireUploader, All-in-one uploader tool

2007-07-02T18:54:28Z

Firefox Universal Uploader or FireUploader is Firefox addons which aims to be the universal Firefox uploading tool to services such Box.net, Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, and Youtube. The extension provide also an easy interface to download, and there are more services planned to be integrated in the next versions including Google Videos, and Webshots. FireUploader features include :

It shows the local folders and remote folders which enables you to upload files by single click.
You can upload any number of files at a time.
You can upload files to multiple websites using a single interface (using only one extension).
Ability to add multiple accounts and upload files to each account independently.
Site specific features are also included and will be improved in the coming versions. eg. Box.net: giving public/private access to files.

Tips: Quick Screenshots With ScreenGrab

2007-07-01T08:59:16Z

ScreenGrab is one of my favorite Firefox extensions that I use very frequently. One of the best features in ScreenGrab is the ability to take screenshot of a specific region of a webpage. This is great if you want to a quick screenshot for your blog. I use it even to copy part of images directly from the browser without having to open Photoshop to cut or resize. Notice that ScreenGrab support saving screenshot in JPEG format, which is better if your screenshots include photos, otherwise PNG is perfect for most other cases.

Locationbar2 Firefox extension

2007-06-20T09:05:15Z

Locationbar2 is a Firefox plugin which will change the way you use the locationbar. The extension puts emphasis on the domain and so reduces the risk of spoofing. It also decodes URLs for better readability. I find it at my friend's Firefox installation, and like the way it turn the URL into clickable menu to navigate very easily. The extension supports also subdomains.

Adobe Acrobat 8.1 Got Firefox Installer via GetPlus

2007-06-16T19:54:59Z

Yesterday I just noticed that Adobe is using a Firefox installer for its Acrobat Reader 8.1 updates. After visiting the Acrobat download page, and hit the "Download Acrobat Reader", I was waiting for a download box but the Firefox installer was launched instead. The downloaded simply download Adobe products, Decompress, then install the software on your system, with support for pause and resume.

After investigation, I found that Adobe was using GetPlus intelligent download manager. The solution is commercial product of NOS Microsystems Ltd, and what I find interesting is that it mixes download management with compression in a very easy and neat way. Usually you download an installer then you run it yourself, now using such tools the download and install are managed automatically from the download manager. My satellite connection not that fast, but downloading the 8Mo of Adobe Reader was really very quick using this tool. Anyone can confirm if the procedure is the same for mac and Linux ?

Get Back Control Of Your Firefox with Menu Editor

2007-06-09T21:07:52Z

After installing Firefox plugins you progressively loose control of menus, especially the right click menu where I found a lots of features that I never use from there. So why scrolling every time the menu, and there is an extension like Menu Editor. The extension simply rearrange or remove menuitems from the main context menu and main menubar. You will certainly figure out many useless menu items that you used to access from the top menu or keyboard shortcuts. Now you should be able to install anything safely, and keeping 100% control on the menus in case it start scrolling.