Cool Mac Gear• iPod Video • iPod nano • iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Garageband |
Mozilla.org released a troika of updates this week -- the Mozilla 1.5 browser final, a milestone 0.3 version of their new ThunderBird freestanding email client, and version 0.7 of the Mozilla FireBird browser. There must be a lot of interest in these new builds, because it’s been very difficult to get through the logjam at the download servers, although I was successful in bringing down the FireBird release on Wednesday evening, which was the one I was most interested in. 
Mozilla Firebird is the future replacement for the browser component of the Mozilla suite application, and is considerably leaner than the original Mozilla. Firebird features include: I find FireBird to be pretty speedy. It’s definitely faster that Safari on some sites, Applelinks for instance, but slower on others. Note that I have a dialup connection, and I’ve been told that Safari is optinmized for broadband. On the other hand, I found that FireBird has problams with some sites. I couldn't get the navigation buttons to work on the Small Dog Electronics site for instance -- they work fine in Safari. Other areas where FireBird compares unfavorably with Safari are that it has no Tab-close buttons on window tabs, requiring you to use Command>W to close tabs. iCab, which remains my workhorse browser, has the best Tab configuration options of any browser. Even more annoying, there is no progress bar or other indication that a page is loading except for a tiny rotating icon in the page tab, which is a significant consideration if you’re on a slow dialup connection like mine. FireBird is still a bit buggy, and I found that occasionally the program just stops responding to URLs pasted or typed into the address field, making it necesssary to quit and restart the program to get it working again. However, the biggest issue that would prevent me from switching to FireBird from Safari is that since FireBird is not a Cocoa application, there is no support for OS X Services, which I use extensively. Actually, non-Cocoa apps. can support Services -- Tex Edit Plus does -- but the Mozilla devalopers haven't seen fit to incorporate Services support into FireBird. 
In the plus column again, I like the Mozilla Firebird Bookmarks manager (Bookmarks, Manage Bookmarks... menu item). Create folders to group similar items, and add annotations to remind yourself of why you bookmarked a particular item later. Sort on any of a number of properties including Name, Location, Date Last Visited, etc. Mozilla Firebird also lets you associate a Keyword with any bookmark so you can open it by simply typing its keyword in the Location Bar of the browser. Both Bookmarks and History are available as convenient Side Bar panels for quick access. Simply hit Command>I for Bookmarks, and Shift>Command>H for History. Links open with a click. Command+L quickly focuses the Location Bar. Command+K the Google Bar. Ctrl+T opens a new tab and Command>S does what it should do - save the current page. Command>E opens a Downloads sidebar. One advantage of FireBird not being a Cocoa program for thise of us who work with small monitor displays is that FireBird’s sidebars open withing the main inderface window rather than in as space- eating slide-out drawer, 
Mozilla Firebird’s ‘Type-Ahead Find’ for links that make it easier for users with accessibility needs (such as those using screen readers, or even laptop users with inconvenient pointing devices) to select links. Simply start typing the name of the link that you want to select and Firebird will shift focus to it. Firebird remembers what you’ve filled in web forms, to make searching for things again, or filling out things like your name and address a simple process, and also features a handy Password Manager that automatically fills out user-name/password fields on sites that require you to log in. You can set up your toolbars the way you want them. Have just a thin strip with everything on one bar. Have a set of toolbars with every option available within reach. Mozilla Firebird’s toolbars are fully customizable so you can have it the way you like it. Choose View, Toolbars, Customize... and simply drag on the items you want. Mozilla Firebird even lets you create new toolbars. Third party extensions often add Toolbar items to the Customize Palette as well. When Firebird blocks a popup window, it displays an icon in the status bar. Clicking this icon shows a breakdown of the popup(s) that Mozilla Firebird stopped when loading the current page. You can then allow some or all of the popup windows to be shown. Command+K takes you to the Google bar. Enter what you’re searching for and hit Enter to search Google. Entering a search into the Location bar does an “I’m feeling lucky” Google search (that is, it automatically loads the first result returned by Google for that search). Firebird supports a large number of quality themes which can be downloaded for free. These themes can change the appearance of everything from the browser window, to dialog boxes, buttons, menus, etc. Mozilla Firebird has support for W3C standards like CSS, DOM, etc. Where browsers like Opera may fail on a dynamic page, Mozilla Firebird usually succeeds. FireBird is a nice browser, but it needs some work yet. For me, the top items on my wish list are a progress bar and Services support. The speed is already there. New in this version: Mozilla Firebird 0.7 is a freeware Technology Preview. For more information, visit:
The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here: Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context. Opinions expressed in postings to Moore's MailBag are those of the respective correspondents and not necessarily shared or endorsed by the Editor and/or Applelinks management. If you would prefer that your message not appear in Moore's Mailbag, we would still like to hear from you. Just clearly mark your message "NOT FOR PUBLICATION," and it will not be published. CM
Page: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
|
Cool Mac Gear• iPod 1G-2G • iPod 3G • iPod 4G • iPod Mini • PowerBook-iBook • Keyboard Skins • Garageband
| ||||||
|
| ||||||||
