Browsersphere

Here’s wishing a fun Fourth of July for all you American browserphiles out there.  I was hoping to link to some American themes for Firefox or Opera, but apparently there aren’t any out there (that I could find, anyway).

So instead, you’re stuck with this, which is the best I could come up with:

Just ignore the “25 million” and enjoy the fireworks tonight!

As so astutely pointed out by commenter iamcheese, Opera 9.50 was released on Thursday, June 12th.

Those following the Opera Desktop Team Blog likely saw the release coming, as there was a lot of focus on stability in the weeks leading up to the release, and also a preview of some of the major features, including a new default skin (which, like any major theme change, received a lot of immediate feedback) and malware protection.

Impressively, the official release of the browser came only two days after the release of the Opera 9.50 Release Candidate build.  For interesting facts about the release, you can check out the official announcement or the coverage at Opera Watch.  The latter also has some additional coverage on the new skin change.  Or, if you’re interested in the improvements made in Opera 9.5 on the CSS front, be sure to look at CSS3 . Info’s synopsis.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, you can download the latest release at opera.com.

My last post pointed to an ars technica article titled When in Rome: engineering the Firefox 3 user experience (via Digg) in which Alex Faaborg revealed that the Vista theme for Firefox 3 will not support transparency.  In Vista terms, that transparency is commonly referred to as Vista or Aero “Glass,” and you can read a bit more about it here.

Anyway, I later came across a screenshot (via Twitter) of Firefox 3 very clearly making use of (or at least pretending to) the Vista Glass transparency.  That transparent look comes courtesy of the Glasser extension for Firefox, which is currently “alpha quality,” according to its creator.  The extension can also be seen as the only hope for Firefox 3 users who wish to see the browser blend in with the Vista operating system like Internet Explorer does, since it could be very likely this feature doesn’t make its way into Firefox until version 4.

As an aside, if you like the theme shown in the aforementioned screenshot, you should take a look at Phoenity Aura, which, according to its author, will be compatible with Firefox 3 RC1.

I’ve been using Firefox 3 Beta 2 at work, and today I received notification that the next beta, Firefox 3 Beta 3, was available as an automatic update.  After the single-click update process, I launched the new version and noticed something strange:

The browser started up at that exact size.  Bizarre.

Anyhow, if you’ve been using the previous beta, the theme changes, which I’ve covered here previously, are likely to jump out at you.  If you’ve been using the Minefield builds, then probably not.

For more information on this new beta release, head on over to the Release Notes, or if you want to download the release and give it a try for yourself, you can do that too.

Anyone who has downloaded Firefox nightly builds is likely familiar with the Minefield moniker that replaces “Firefox” wherever that application title is used in a typical Firefox build.

I have been testing the latest Minefield builds the past couple of nights, and tonight I was notified of an update and subsequently downloaded it.  In the new version, which is identified by the following user agent string:

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9b3pre) Gecko/2008012804 Minefield/3.0b3pre

…the new Firefox theme icons have started to appear.  These changes were recently alluded to in a post by Alex Faaborg.  As of the latest build, the reload, stop and home icons have been updated.  The back and forward navigation buttons have yet to change, presumably because work is still being done on the new Keyhole design and functionality.

The icons that have changed look exactly as presented at Alex’s blog.  Unfortunately, I have to say that I’m not a fan of the change.  Perhaps once the Keyhole changes are in place things will flow a little better, but the new icons have a bit of a “childish” feel to them that I just don’t like.  However, having once been a Firefox theme developer, I know all too well that everyone has their own, often very strong, opinions one way or another about the various Firefox themes.

Given that, what do you think of the change?  Furthermore, what do you think of the new Keyhole approach?  If you haven’t had a chance to see them in action, give one of the latest nightly builds a try.  Minefield is stablizing at the moment since Mozilla is getting close to releasing a third beta of Firefox 3.

Just caught this via Mashable:

Mozilla has a new Firefox extension, called Personas, that makes it a bit easier to add themes to your browser. Built from a prototype that was discussed and tested earlier this year, Personas aims to extend an option for custom browsers without the need to code. They also have the ability to incorporate online components, supporting HTML, CSS, PNG, JPG, SVG, Javascript and Canvas. Personas also offer real time updates during the creation and editing process, so you can see exactly what you’re getting into. Other feature include the ability to select a Persona from the dynamic menus, and designers can add/update themes at any time without updating any software.

You can get all the details from the Mozilla Labs Blog, and if you want to play around with Personas, you can download it from the Mozilla Add-ons site.

I created a rather lengthy post over at my personal blog tonight titled How to Contribute to Firefox.  Rather than cross-post it here, I figured I’d at least share the link, since it’s probably relevant to a lot of the readers here (or at least I hope it is).

If you don’t let a single front page item on Digg pass you by unnoticed (like me), you’re likely to run into quite a few browser-related diggs over time.  Let’s take a look at some that have shown up over the course of the past month.

• Ubuntu Forums Firefox Plugin - “finding answers to stupid questions was never so easy.”
• Get your Firefox Wonder Edition, most efficient Firefox build! - “Firefox Wonder Edition is a special version of Firefox that combines one of the most efficient Firefox build[s] with special extras that make it the fastest Firefox around for Windows.”
• Firefox memory usage and memory leak news - “Many Mozilla community members, including both volunteers and Mozilla Corporation employees, have been helping to reduce Firefox’s memory usage and fix memory leak bugs lately. Hopefully, the result of this effort will be that Firefox 3 uses less memory than Firefox 2 did, especially after it has been used for several hours.”
• New Firefox 3.0 alpha blocks malware, secures plug-in updates - “Security features debut in latest preview, as Firefox 3.0 heads down the stretch.”
• Firefox/Camino vs. Safari Image Quality — Big difference (IMAGE) - “There seems to be a pretty big significance between these two browser[s] in terms of displaying this image. Not sure why this is happening…but it’s making me consider leaving my favorite browser.”
• New Konqueror web browser icon by Oxygen Team - “Konqueror, KDE web browser get[s] a new icon in Oxygen style. Check it out.”
• Justice in India is done with the help of Linux, OpenOffice and Firefox - “In Uttar Pradesh (most populated state of India), Judges have been distributed laptops powered by Linux, OpenOffice, Evolution, Gnome, Firefox.”
• Proposed Firefox 3 Theme For Mac OS X Looks Exactly Like Safari - “Firefox 3 is having an identity crisis on the Mac. Recent screenshots reveal that the new theme is striking similar to Apple’s Safari. If you can’t innovate, imitate.”
• Can IE’s architect explain why it’s so bloated? - “More good news for Internet Explorer users: Microsoft’s IE chief explains why IE is fatter than Firefox and will never have a similarly comprehensive plugin system.”
• Firefox Coming To Your Phone - “The iPhone, with its fully-functioning Safari browser, showed us that mobile browsing need not be a compromise. Now, the folks at Mozilla are working on a mobile version of Firefox.”
• Mozilla: We’re Ready to Rock the Mobile Web Now - “Here’s some information about what we’re planning to do with hiring, technology, partnerships, and products, and how you can get involved.”

As you can see, Digg is pretty heavy on Firefox, but you got a little Safari and Konqueror in there, too (the IE stuff probably doesn’t count ;)).

The Maxthon skinning contest has been extended to October 31st:

We decide to extend the deadline of our worldwide Maxthon skinning contest to October 31st. Since in the US, school is back in session, people are done with vacations and are back at their PCs. We might get a lot more beautiful skins from these guys.

A post has already been made to the Maxthon forums, and our partner WinCustomize would like to extend this contest as well.

Hope you guys could submit more skins to us.

The submitting link is here: http://www.wincustomize.com/skins.aspx?libid=68

Via the Maxthon Blog.

It was a big week for web browsers. Let’s get caught up on the little stuff…

• Vince Liu recommends using IEs4Linux if you’re looking to install Internet Explorer on Linux.
• HTTPOnly cookie support has been added to Firefox.
• The Opera Desktop Team explains My Opera synchronization.
• Firefox 3 will resume downloads across sessions.
• The Register interviewed Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner (via Opera Watch) and CSS3 . Info interviewed Opera CTO Håkon Wium Lie — see part 1 and part 2.
• Pain and Glory from the Trenches of the IT World claims that Opera’s only real competitors at this point are Konqueror and Safari.
• A Fedora Forum user refers to Konqueror as ‘the soup nazi in terms of [code] compliance’.
• Opera Watch explains how to enable single key shortcuts in Opera.
• Hisham explains how to install an Internet Explorer warning infobar.
• az Sports Hub found an Arizona Cardinals theme for Firefox.
• Kathy Hughes explains how to avoid being prompted to login when browsing SharePoint sites in Firefox.
• NetSkinner can ‘theme’ almost any Palm OS web browser.
• NetSurf is an open-source web browser for RISC OS.
• Bryan Clark follows-up on his web browser home page findings.
• Web Browser CSS Support has a complete rundown on the CSS support of some of the major web browsers.