[Kottke]

Lifehacker's got some more Firefox 3 coverage, with their power user's guide and the entire history of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0.

Oh and if you can't get your extensions to work, they've got a way to disable security checks to get'm to work with 3.0 while extensions are updated.

[Spread Firefox via /.]

The touchscreen version was already looking pretty solid, but Mozilla plans on doing some real interface innovation to make it easier to punch in URLs and flip between multiple pages. Better still, it'll have full add-on support so you can keep your favorite extensions. The mobile browser space is finally about to get actually exciting. [Ars Technica, Chris Blizzard]

Apple has made it incredibly easy—the default, even—for users to install ride along software that they didn't ask for, and maybe didn't want. This is wrong, and borders on malware distribution practices.

Oh, he don't stop there girlfriend:

It's wrong because it undermines the trust that we're all trying to build with users. Because it means that an update isn't just an update, but is maybe something more. Because it ultimately undermines the safety of users on the Web by eroding that relationship. It's a bad practice and should stop.

To be completely honest with you guys, I did kind of download Firefox twice when I was installing it. I threw the extra .dmg file right in the trash, which obviously means they are still on 499,999,999 downloads. What the heck, what's one download between friends, apart from a heap of rice goodness? Jump in and let the Mozilla team know how much you appreciate not having to choose between IE or Safari. [Spreadfirefox]

Today in class [name] had a program launched called Foxfire.exe. I had told [name] to close the program and to resume work but he told me that is was just a different browser and that he was doing his work. I had given him two warnings but he insisted that it was just a "better" browser and he wasn't doing anything wrong. I had then issued his detention.

It's OK, faceless teenager. High school is tougher for the smart kids, if only because it's the last chance the world has to kick you in the balls before you take it over. [image via digg]

UPDATE: This was a prank. From the school's website:

Recently, a file was uploaded to the Internet purporting to be a copy of a letter from Big Spring High School to a student regarding a two hour detention. The uploaded letter was an altered version of a detention letter sent to a student. Unfortunately, privacy concerns prevent the School District from giving a full explanation of the nature and source of the letter's alteration at this time. The Big Spring School District does have confirmation that the discipline letter was altered.

The reports, blogs and other sources on the Internet indicating that a Big Spring student was assigned detention for using the Firefox internet browser instead of Internet Explorer are untrue and were based on the fake letter. Detention is assigned in our schools after appropriate warnings are given, if students continue to engage in non-academic activities or fail to follow a teacher's directive during class time discipline can and will be assigned.

Sincerely yours,

John C. Scudder

High School Principal

What does this mean for you? It could definitely be useful if you are extremely impatient or want to save a few bucks on your energy bill, but the fact that Splashtop can't save anything locally could prove problematic. However, future upgrades to the software could add this functionality—among other things. In the meantime, the specs on the P5E3 are worth checking out: Intel X38 chipset, DDR3 1800MHz dual-channel memory support, Dual PCI Express 2.0 x16 lanes, ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) allows users to monitor and change CPU power supply, and 802.11n WiFi support. [Asus and Information Week]

Specifically, they're announcing that

•Mozilla will add mobile devices to the first class/tier-1 platform set for Mozilla2. This means we will make core platform decisions with mobile devices as first-class citizens.

•We will ship a version of "Mobile Firefox" which can, among other things, run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow others to build rich applications via XUL.

Mobile Firefox won't hit until after Firefox 3 is completed, however, and they've yet to determine which mobile platforms they'll support. Still, it'll be interesting to see the game Mozilla brings to the larger mobile space. [schrep's blog via mocoNews]

OK, maybe there's nothing special about 400 million in particular, but it seems like an impressive amount. And congrats to the Mozilla on their free product. Because without it, I couldn't do my job. (Yes, I'm looking at you, Safari and Explorer. And no, I didn't know you were standing right there, Opera, but I sort of don't care.) Let's all dork out and list our favorite extensions in the comments. [spreadfirefox via boygeniusreport]

The hardware encryption is one aspect of the IronKey, but the online component is another. When you log in to the IronKey website (which again requires both your password and your IronKey to be physically plugged in to your machine), you can activate their secure web-browsing service which turns FireFox into a malware-protected, "stealth surfing" application. Other security-nut features include a "potting" technique that fills the innards of the key with black goo, waterproofing it past military standards and preventing hardware crypto-analysis. $79 will get you 1GB of peace of mind, but the biggest option is the 4GB drive for $149. [IronKey via EverythingUSB]

Firefox Will Move to Mobile Phones: Mozilla CEO [APC via Gadgetell]

Its innovations are under the hood, where it enhances compatibility with three tricked-out graphics standards that might soon be ubiquitous on the Web: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), the Canvas specification, and the cairo graphics library. Sounds great, but what does all this stuff do? They all have to do with making Web pages look the same on any platform, and scaling up graphics without loss of quality.

Explanations, plus the download link, after the jump.

Scalable vector graphics have been around since 2001, and the idea here is to have a standard graphics format on the Web (the way jpeg and gif have become) that uses vectors, that is, descriptions of where lines will go rather than individual dots of each graphic that comprise bitmap images such as jpeg and gif. These graphics can be scaled up or down without any loss of resolution.

What about Canvas? It's another next-gen Web technology that's similar to Scalable Vector Graphics but adds the element of animation, where JavaScript code can access a defined area and dynamically draw on graphics such as graphs and animations.

The cairo graphics library is another vector-based graphics enabler that can use hardware acceleration that's already in Firefox and has been since version 1.5. Cairo can work with the Quartz graphics engine in Mac OS X, as well as OpenGL.

There's nothing quite like the speed of open-source development, but we wish version 2.0 of Firefox would be perfected before any grand adventures began on the next point release. But that's just us. – Charlie White

Download Firefox 3.0 Alpha Here [Mozilla, via lifehacker]

French Parliament Dumping Windows for Linux [via News.com]

This battle wasn't pretty. Lifehacker's own Gina Trapani points out that, "Ironically, Fx runs on more versions of Windows than IE 7 does." And it was all downhill from there. While IE 7 was away training in the Himalayas for a year and a half, living off walnuts and squirrel meat, Firefox was poking his wife, being a fill-in-dad for his kids, wearing his favorite tighty whities and learning all his secrets.

Check out our graphs, but equip yourselves with those special solar eclipse glasses first. Then hit the jump for our Frankenfight—where whomever yells the loudest wins. It's sort of the new policy.

OK, fuck this unbiased attitude. Firefox 2 just froze on me while typing this. It can burn in hell.

Wait, it just restored all my windows.

Frankenreviewer says:

Interface

"Unlike IE 7, which has reorganized its toolbar, Firefox 2 changes only the look and feel of its buttons."
"The new shiny-glass look [firefox] is much more sophisticated, as are the rounded tabs and the hairline borders around the address bar and the search engine box."
"IE 7's new streamlined look resembles Vista's."
"You can't miss the new user interface, with tabbed browsing, integrated searching, and newsfeed support..."
"The overall interface of IE has also been cleaned up and simplified..."
"The tabs don't get their own row, however, so they can start to appear somewhat squished if you have many open at once."
- No victory in the Hot or Not competition.

Tabbed Browsing

"Perhaps the biggest change within IE 7, aside from the overall interface redesign, is tabbed browsing."
"The tabs, which can be reordered, can also be previewed on a page with clickable thumbnail displays of each open tab."
"Microsoft's implementation is OK, but is curiously inconsistent."
"The page preview available within IE 7, called Quick Tabs, requires an extra mouse click, which is an annoyance for the ergonomically minded."
"...lets you view, on one page, thumbnails of all the pages you have open in tabs."
"It's very nice, but reminiscent of an Apple feature called Expos ."
"...while Mozilla is touting a revamped tabs interface, it doesn't seem much improved to me."
"New in Firefox 2 is session restore; if Windows crashes and you have several tabs open in Firefox at the time, you can now relaunch Firefox with all the tabs intact..."
"Firefox 2's tab updates are generally a step ahead of IE's. For example, you can configure Firefox to always save your last session for future use; with IE 7 you have to click a box every time."
- Sorry guys, tabs are tabs.

RSS

"RSS isn't treated lightly within IE7; in fact, Microsoft built an entire RSS reader and bundled it in with the browser."
"However, you have no way to quickly preview the feed's contents without opening the feed's rendered page in IE, which somewhat defeats the purpose."
"Firefox 2 makes the raw [RSS] feed understandable, and offers a range of new subscription options."
"Possibly the coolest new feature is Live Titles, formerly Microsummaries, which allows Web sites to stream updated data to your bookmarks."
"Think of Live Titles as RSS-like feeds for your otherwise static bookmarks."
"Web sites must be specifically enabled for this feature for Firefox 2.0, so it's not widely useful yet."
- Still a good idea.

Add-ons

"Unfortunately extensions designed for Firefox 1.5 will probably break within Firefox 2."
"About 80% of the extensions I use are supported."
"In my Firefox setup, Firefox 2.0 obviated the need for five extensions and another two customizations that I apply to all Firefox 1.x installations."
"Another area where IE7 has serious shortcomings is with add-ons that give extra features to the browser."
"...most of the add-ons you'll find aren't free."
"You can enable, disable, and delete add-ons in IE's manager, but it's not very user-friendly..."
"...many of these so-called add-ons are not designed to work directly inside IE and integrate with the browser..."
- Microsoft will never let people develop for IE as freely as they can Firefox.

Security

"Security enhancements within Firefox 2 continue. New is a dialog box informing you of cross-domain scripting, a tactic used by criminal hackers to link nonrelated sites to sites you think may be legit."
"Firefox's default protection stops at comparing sites against a known blacklist of phishing sites, while IE 7 includes site analysis that will try to warn you about a suspicious site even if it's not yet on a blacklist."
"...we found that IE 7 consistently failed to catch phishing sites less than 1 hour old, although IE 7 caught all phishing sites known for at least 1 hour or more..."
"You also get a new "Fix Settings for Me" feature that warns you if you reset security settings to something Microsoft deems unsafe."
"Overall, the new IE has many more security fixes than the revised Firefox. But such fixes were necessary to address IE 6's many holes..."
"With IE7, the default security level has been raised from medium, which is the IE6 default, to medium-high. Not only that, but there are now no lower security levels than medium..."
"But the most important new security feature in IE 7 — something called Protected Mode, which stops Web sites from changing your computer's important files or settings — will work only in the new Vista version of Windows."
- Tacky.

Performance

"IE 7 still uses essentially the IE 4 Web engine. So in terms of page performance, Mozilla Firefox, which updated its Web engine with Firefox 1.5, remains the much faster browser."
"In my informal tests immediately after installing and launching IE 7, the browser with three open tabs used 80MB of memory; under similar conditions and with the same three tabs, Firefox used 58MB. Otherwise, the performance of the two browsers appeared similar."

Random Tidbits

"Firefox 2 also gives you the ability to correct your spelling mistakes online, just like using a word processor."
"Once you have access to inline spell-checking, you won't want to surf the Web without it."
"Speaking of accessibility features, IE 7 includes zoom technology and the new Clear-type page technology, which Microsoft claims renders page fonts as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper."
"Even if you zoom to the maximum level, 400 percent, we found that the Clear-text technology within IE 7 remains quite clear with fonts."
- Zoom feature is a nice innovation from Microsoft.

Conclusion

"The new Internet Explorer is a solid upgrade, but it's disappointing that after five years, the best Microsoft could do was to mostly catch up to smaller competitors."
"Of the two rivals, Firefox remains the better application."
- I plan on running Firefox 2, but I own a Mac.
– Mark Wilson

CNET 1
CNET 2
PCWorld
Computerworld 1
Computerworld 2
WSJ
Photo 1
Photo 2

In summary, IE just picked up some tabs, a search bar, and improved security...a short list in 2007 that Firefox 2.0 matches and exceeds, even before it's official release. FF adds spellcheking, a feature to recover your pages and tabs if the browser crashes, and lightning bolts it shoots out of its tail.

The only thing IE has that Walt likes is Quick Tabs, a way to see thumbnails of all tabs in one shot. Pretty cool, but like Apple's Zoom-Zoom Expose window feature.

Like most of the time, I agree with most of Walt says. This time, he leaves out the most notable and powerful feature of Firefox, and that is it's extensibility by open source hoodrats.

IE, nice. I still use Firefox 1.5 because new software is something to be feared. –Brian Lam

Walt Digs Firefox 2 over IE 7 [WSJ]

So Firefox 2.0 brings several changes to the Web browser that open source built. Some of the ones you'll immediately notice include:

•New visual theme. Yup, the 'fox looks different all right. Hooray (?)

•Built-in inline spell check. Handled by an extension before, spell check is now bolted onto the Web browser.

•Tab enhancements. Each tab now has an "X" in the top right corner instead of the one "X" in the tab bar. New windows now automatically open in a new tab rather than a separate window.

•Session restore. So far, I've only seen this work after a crash, but basically Firefox remembers all the tabs and windows that were open when things go haywire.

•Better RSS handling. Now you can subscribe to your favorite RSS feeds using either Firefox's built-in reader, a Web service (like Bloglines) or a stand alone application.

Many on the Interweb claim that these enhancements are nothing more than feature creep at its finest. Any opinions on this? – Nicholas Deleon

Download Page [Mozilla.com]

It's great for keeping an eye on your kids to make sure they don't go over minutes, causing you to confiscate their phones and shouts of "I hate you dad! I'm never going to grow up to be like you, EVER!" to echo through your house. – Jason Chen

Verizon Minutes Used

T-Mobile Minutes Used

Download of the Day: Verizon and TMobile Minutes Used Firefox extensions [Lifehacker]

So, if you want to spread the word about Firefox, this looks like just the $60 messenger bag to do so. Reminds us a little bit of the $250 Adobe Messenger Bag of which we are mildly fond. Hey, if Firefox has its own bag, perhaps we should develop a Gizmodo bag . . .? Who wants one? – Charlie White

Product Page [The Mozilla Store, via Uncrate]

Now there's a Firefox extension that allows a workaround for the reader software to recognize Firefox as a valid fingerprint capable app. Wee! Yet another way for us to pretend we're Tom Cruise.

Finger Fox [Google Translated from French]

Product Page [ExporerDestroyer via TheInquirer]

Firefox 1.5.0.2 was released yesterday with security fixes and improvements to product stability, so don't walk but run to download it.

Those of you with new Intel Core processor Macs, this version comes in a Universal Binary with native support for your machines; The Apple Blog says, "If you load it on your Intel-based Mac, you'll see that it's much, much faster. The browser loads and appears, ready to go, in one "bounce"."

Mozilla Firefox 1.5.0.2 Release Notes

This week at Lifehacker: Set up your personal wikipedia. Help that feeble brain of yours and develop digital photographic memory. Remedy your memory-sucking Firefox installation. Make Mom a rotating digital photo frame that refreshes with your current Flickr photos. Finally, rig up a portable USB charger with a 9-volt battery.

You gave up Britannica for the Wikipedia a long time ago. But have you ever wished you could have your very own editable encyclopedia to build a reference to the vast swathes of knowledge you absorb every day? Check out our guide to installing the free MediaWiki on your PC and endure us invent the term "personalpedia" all at once.

Disk space is cheap and plentiful, and so are digital cameras. Use the tagging and organizing capability at photo-sharing site Flickr to keep track of your stuff. Archive digital images of business cards, wine labels, meals you've cooked, gadget serial numbers and more. Here's how to turn Flickr into your digital photographic memory.

We loves us some Firefox but the little bugger can get a little greedy with the RAM from time to time. When the memory-usage-o-meter's going through the roof thanks to the 'fox, reduce it using magic! And, um, about:config.

Mother's Day approacheth. What are you giving the woman who dealt with the shock treatment that was your childhood? Beam photos right to Mom's mantle real-time with a DIY rotating photo frame powered by a beater wifi-enabled laptop and your "formom" Flickr tag. What a good kid you are.

Finally, charge your iPod, PDA or any other USB devices on the go with a DIY USB charger made with a 9 volt battery and some basic circuitry. Package the whole thing up in an Altoids tin and you'll be rockin' out off the grid.

Lifehacker's Power User column appears every Wednesday on Gizmodo.