Firefox 3.7 to Improve UI and Visual Effects

Long before the release of Firefox 3.5, developers at Mozilla were already working on v3.6, v3.7 and even 4.

In the next 2 updates of Firefox (3.6 and 3.7) we are going to see several interface improvements, being the most impressive the addition of Vista/W7 Aero effects. Check the screenshot below for a sneak peek:



As you can see not only the Aero effects have been activated. XP and non-Aero users are going to see improvements too, since this version also features several changes in the buttons positioning, menus and tabs navigation.

Visit the Firefox UI discussion page to see the UI changes as it progresses.

There is also some interesting progress, although still experimental, being worked on Firefox 4. It seems the designers are trying to implement a Chrome-like tabset. Take a look at the mockups, but keep in mind, these are mockups! and not the definitive look of Firefox 4.

10 Essential Firefox Addons

There is a bunch of essential tools that make your life easier and you get used to them. They make your working experience more pleasant and often less awkward. In this post I will introduce you 5 Firefox Addons that no developer should miss, and later other five of general use but no less interesting.

Web Developer
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60
It adds a toolbar (which I suggest you to disable and use shortcuts instead), from which you can:
-Edit/disable certain elements from a web page (css, js, images).
-Send the current page to the W3C validators, even if the page is not hosted yet.
-Work with forms (auto fill, see parameters information, change properties).
-The Outline tool allows you to see each element that you hover with coloured borders.
-Resize: it comes with several predefined screen sizes to test how your page will look on each one.

URL Params
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1290
This small addon allows you to see which parameters (get and post) a page received and allows you to modify them, it is very useful to test input scripts without having to fill the forms again.

Firebug
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
This is an excellent tool to analyse your code and page behavior. You can inspect the HTML, JS, dom, see errors, and it has a Net tab which shows you every request that the page made (this is incredibly useful for debugging Ajax applications) and also to see how long it took for your page and its elements to load. Given its high memory requirements it is usually recommended to keep it deactivated and only turn it on when you need it.

IE Tab
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419
Want to test your page on IE? you don't need IE!
IE Tab allows you to open an Internet Explorer tab in Firefox.

IMacros
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3863
IMacros is a recording tool that you can use to record certain activities that you need to do very often and trigger them easily.

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Adblock Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1865
This is the ultimate anti-ad solution. It compares the page against a list of common ad systems and HTML ad models, and simply removes them from your view. You can also customize it to be disabled on certain pages and also add your own patterns to the list in case you found an add that Adblock Plus didn't detect.

FoxTab
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8879
Bored of the normal tab system? FoxTab makes it look cool!

Del.Icio.Us Bookmarks
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615
So far until today, most browsers make working with bookmarks a PITA. You switch computers or even user accounts and your bookmarks are gone. To solve this problem Del.Icio.Us was invented, you can create and account and login through Firefox using this plugin, it will replace the Firefox default bookmark system, showing you the bookmarks that are associated to your Del.Icio.Us account.

TabPopup
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8253
See a preview of your tabs before switching to them.

ColorZilla
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/271
This little addon is very useful if you need an eyedropper to pick colors from your pages, which is something you will be doing a lot if you are a designer.

NOTE: Some of these addons can be out of date or changed their URLs after some time, but most of them still exist, so in case these links don't work feel free to Google them :)

FF3 Download Day: ¡¡¡17 de Junio!!!

No olvides el día 17 de Junio, descargá Firefox 3
y ayudá a batir el record mundial de descarga de software.

¡¡No te olvides!!

Comprometete a que Firefox 3 sea el software más descargado en 24 hs. La fundación Mozilla se ha propuesto batir un record Guiness con la descarga de Firefox 3. Más información en Spread Firefox