best guide to add-ons, themes and tips for Firefox
Looking for the best way to keep an eye on the skies this Thanksgiving weekend? Look no further than the AniWeather add-on for Firefox. This extension animates weather information for locations all around the world. Using the weather watching site, Aniweather.com – you get real-time condition updates, and a five-day forecast.
One can only hope. According to several web sites that heard about it from a friend, who knew a friend, who was feeding the dog of a guy who might have worked at Sony, the PlayStation 3’s web browser might be getting a big upgrade, to Firefox.
Well turns out is was a possible rumor, then not so possible, but might be in the works? Here is the first leak of information from psinsider:
We recently received a tip from a source very close to Sony who says that they have been in talks with Mozilla lately about possibly porting Firefox over to the PS3.
There are a lot of Firefox features that don’t get much press, or are quickly forgotten about. For example, did you know that you could switch to using Gmail or Yahoo! Mail as your default mail client (to handle those mailto links)?
To chance your settings, go to Tools, Options and then click on the Applications tab. From there, type “mail” into the text box to go to the default mail handler settings. From the drop down box, you should get several choices, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail being two of them. Choose the webmail application of your choice, hit the button labeled, “OK” and you are all set.
Now you are ready to use the webmail provider of your choice as your default e-mail application, as far as Firefox knows.
When multiple tabs in your browser are not enough, try splitting your browsing area instead. Split Browser, an add-on for Firefox, divides up the context area of the browser in many ways. Want an over the top example?
That might be a little extreme, but it does help to point out that this extension will let you split your browser up however you see fit to do so.
How often do you still use bookmarks?
Generally speaking, I find there are two types of browsing people. You have those who still bookmark everything they find interesting, and then those who only bookmark what they need, and Google everything else. A lot of the time, typing something into the search box might be a faster way to launch a web page, rather than searching through a bucket-full of saved links.
Take a stand, and leave you thoughts in the comments. Are you pro-bookmark, anti-bookmark, or somewhere in between the two?
If you do a lot of work online, being able to take notes as you work is definitely a good thing. Rather than scribbling on random sheets of paper or bouncing between Firefox and a notepad-like program, keep it all in Firefox with QuickFox Notes. This multi-tab note taking extension is awesome.
Some of the features include:
Another nice feature is that it saves your notes in the bookmark files, so your notes will always be in sync, if you have installed one of the bookmark syncing add-ons like Xmarks or Mozilla Weave. If you are in need of a handy note taking application from within Firefox, give QuickFox Notes a shot.
Do you remember Jetpack?
It is the Mozilla Labs project that makes the add-on building process easier, mixing elements of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Mozilla has released an awesome Jetpack Gallery, which serves as a community for Jetpack developers and add-on users.
This inspirational theme, created for the Firefox browser, is one of the most attractive themes I have seen in some time. Designed with the idea in mind that simple/flat designs tend to be more appealing than overly decorated ones; Purity is ready to refresh your browsing experience.
The author of the theme notes that some of the theme is still a work in progress, as many of the dialog icons are from the stock Aero theme. However I have high hopes for this unique browser skin.
You can download and install the Purity theme for Firefox (Windows only) at the Firefox Add-ons web site.
One of the most celebrated new features of Firefox 3.7 is the feature that will bring the progress bar out of the status bar and onto your current tab. Did you know though that there is an add-on for Firefox that will let you add this functionality now?
The Tab Progress Bar add-on for Firefox is the add-on you need. Having the process bar on top of the tab really makes more sense, as far as functionality goes because you’ll have your eyes closer to the top of the browser (most of the time) than the bottom. Now I won’t go into detail about how this will save your eyeballs stress, due to the fact that they don’t have to bounce up and down from the top of the page to the status bar bellow, but you get the general idea.
Also worth mentioning is that this add-on will not work with the Tab Mix Plus add-on. So for the time being, you’ll need to pick to use one or the other. You can pick up the Tab Progress bar add-on for Firefox at the Firefox Add-ons web site.
Happy birthday wishes and big congratulations go out today to Firefox. Did you realize that Firefox is five years old? Some people are having a hard time thinking five years passed by so quickly, while others feel like it has been around even longer than that.
Here’s a great video that does a good job at telling the story of Firefox, from then to now:
The peeps over at Lifehacker have also written up a great retrospective that is well worth checking out. What birthday wishes would you like to send to the Mozilla team? Without Firefox, there would be no Firefox Facts – so as I enjoy three years of this blog, I’d like to thank Mozilla for the inspiration and all of you for reading it every day and making it one of the most popular un-official Firefox blogs out there today.
So happy birthday to Firefox, one of the best browsers out there on the planet.
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Mitch Keeler is nothing more than your average Joe trying to leave his mark on the world though both his professional work and his online projects, articles, podcasts and more.
