Firefox is bringing in a new test channel (to compliment nightly test builds, the beta version and the final release) called Aurora.  The Aurora channel of updates will deliver features to users at various levels of quality and polish.  This will be the new testing grounds as far as new features and innovations go too.

Overall, introducing this new update channel will both speed up development and give developers better access to get the things done they need to do.  Here is a quick blurb about it from Firefox Release Manager Christian Legnitto:

Lastly, the new repositories (which map to the channels) allow developers to do what they do best—develop. No longer should a developer need to know we are in blocker-only mode for a particular release. Instead, they will be allowed to land their fixes on mozilla-central at any time provided they stick to the mozilla-central tree rules. The mozilla-aurora repository will have different rules, and mozilla-beta will have different (and stricter) rules still. The rules for each of these repositories will not change over time or from release to release, which should help alleviate a lot of developer confusion and annoyance

For more information on the new development channels for Firefox 4 and beyond, be sure to check out this fantastic post by Christian in the Mozilla Developer Center.

Firefox 4 Beta 10 has been released by Mozilla.  This update, on the heels of the Beta 9 release, really only brings more stability to an already amazing new browser interface.  The official release notes as far as changes go have been pretty sparse, but it seems stability is the big update this time around.

Here is the official word from Mozilla themselves:

This release continues our work to improve performance and stability in Firefox 4 Beta by including improved memory usage, remote blacklisting for hardware acceleration and better Flash support for Mac OS X users.

How Do You to Upgrade to Firefox 4 Beta 10?

You can go download the new beta to try it for yourself or if you are already using Firefox 4 Beta 9, click on the Firefox button, then go to Help > About Firefox to get the update.

Notice any other big changes? Let me know!  Also, be sure to keep giving Mozilla feedback through the Feedback button in the Firefox 4 interface.

Do you belong to every social network that pops up on the Web?   I am kind of a sucker for them, so of course I turned towards Firefox to help me keep up with them all.  Yoono helps you keep all your social networks and instant messaging needs all in one easy to use application. Easily get all your updates or update your own status, across Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and more.

Once Yoono is installed, it lives inside of your Firefox sidebar.  It helps you stay connected in your online social life by connecting you to such services as MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, FriendFeed, AIM, Yahoo IM and more and keeps all the contact information in one central location.  You can also use it to share links, images and videos across all your networks at the same time.

Here are a few more features of this fantastic social networking tool:

• Connect to all your social networks and never miss another status update from friends or family. You’re connected wherever you are on the web.
• Update your status across all your social networks at the same time.
• All your IM services right in your browser sidebar to easily chat while your surf the web – no more logging on to multiple services.
• Easily share links, images, and video from the page you are viewing with all your social networks at the same time.
• Discover cool stuff with the discovery widget that shows you related websites, images, videos and more as you browse.

It might not be for everybody, but for some of you out there – this could really help simplify keeping up with all of your social networking friends.

You can get Yoono from the Firefox Add-ons website, or learn more about the product from yoono.com.

The exciting Firefox feature to be added in the release of Firefox 4: Beta 2 was App Tab support.  The idea behind App Tabs is simple.  You are able to keep a favicon only tab open and pinned to the browser at all times.  Now yes, you can do this with the help of add-ons in Firefox 3, but I am excited to see this feature make its way into Firefox 4.

Here is a quick video to help you see why this is such an awesome innovation to the browser:

Firefox 4 is shaping up to be an exciting new browser.  If you have been playing with the beta releases, let me know what you like or don’t like about it thus far in the comments.

There has been a pretty cool update to Firefox in the past 24 hours.  If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will no longer affect the rest of your browser.  You will be able to reload the page, restart the plugin and try again.

So, the next time Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins give you trouble, Firefox has you taken care of.  Say your watching a video or playing a flash game in the browser, and the plugin crashes – rather than taking the whole browser down with it – you simply just refresh the webpage.

Here is a little more information from Mozilla:

Mozilla recognizes that third-party plugins provide important functionality in many of today’s websites. At the same time, plugins can lead to problems for users as they browse. With the ability to automatically alert users when they have out of date plugins, and now crash protection, Firefox 3.6.4 allows users to experience all the content they love without any of the hassles.

To get this new update, if it hasn’t downloaded already, just go to Help in your menu bar and then “Check for Updates”.  A more secure and stable browsing platform is coming your way.  Who doesn’t like that?

There will be no more updates for Firefox 3.0.x anymore, so if you haven’t upgraded to Firefox 3.6 – you had better hurry up and do so.  That was the official word from Mozilla on the topic in a recent meeting.

Now this might disappoint a handful of users out there, but it is nice to see Mozilla being more future focused – looking to get upgrades and updates out faster to the most recent Firefox versions.

Firefox 3.0 will be looked back upon with great admiration.  It was the version of Firefox that set the Guinness world record for downloads in a 24-hour period, after all.

So now the question is – are you still using Firefox 3.0, and if the answer is yes, let us know “why” in the comments.

The Google Reader Watcher add-on is handy to have, because it will check your Google Reader for unread new posts.  You can use this to keep track of how many stories you have yet to read.  Checking Google Reader with this add-on is much more practical than visiting the Google Reader web site several times a day, for those RSS feed addicts out there like me.

Next, I would have to say the Better GReader add-on for Firefox is fantastic for Google Reader fans.

This add-on for Firefox bundles several great Greasemonkey user scripts into one extension.  Better GReader adds useful extra features to Google Reader, like feed favicons, inline article previews, and unread counts in your browser tab.

Want to integrate Google Reader into the Gmail inbox?  If so, check out the Integrated Gmail add-on for Firefox.  It gives you Gmail, Google Calander, Googler Reader, and more all from within your Gmail account.  The most recent revision added:

• Significant Performance Boosts and Reduced Resource Dependence
• (Beta) Google Wave Support
• Native Google Tasks Support
• Schedule Once Meeting Scheduler Integration
• Support for Firefox 3.6

Last but not least, we have Google Redesigned.

Tired of how Google Reader looks?  Want to give it a massive redesign?  This add-on for Firefox gives you a complete redesign of all Google’s most popular services (including Google Reader).

Now, let me know your favorite Firefox extension to use in conjunction with Google Reader.  Is it one of these I mentioned, or do you have another favorite I have yet to check out?  Let me know in the comments.

Also, remember to subscribe to Firefox Facts in Google Reader – cause you’d hate to miss another great collection of tips like this one!

Need help watching your feed subscriptions in Google Reader? 

The Google Reader Watcher add-on for Firefox is here to help.  With this extension, you can be instantly notified when your favorite new source, blog or any other web site with an RSS feed is updated and ready to read in Google Reader. 

There is not a lot to  be said here.  Google Reader Watch (yes, the name does sound like it is having an argument with itself) simply checks your Google Reader for unread feeds and if you have, the plugin will display them on your browser’s status bar.

Now I usually only check my own Google Reader account once or twice a day.  However, if you want to stay on top of the latest updates this extension gets that job done.  For example, you could easily subscribe the your favorite Firefox blog, the greatest podcast about web hosting, and some guy named Mitch’s techie blog and find out all three were updated this morning.

You can pick up the Google Reader Watcher from the Firefox Add-ons web site.

Are you a webmail addict? 

Maybe you share a browser between family members, and you both use different webmail clients?  No matter the reason you need to use it – one thing is for sure.  This plugin is one of the best to make sure you stay up to date with your latest e-mails.

You can also use multiple accounts in a same host. The Web Mail Notifier currently supports:

• mail.google.com(Gmail & Google Apps)
• mail.yahoo.com (yahoo.com, ymail.com, rocketmail.com, yahoo.co.jp)
• mail.live.com(hotmail.com, msn.com, live.com)
• www.daum.net(hanmail)
• www.naver.com
• www.nate.com(nate.com, empas.com)
• and more!

You can pick up the Web Mail Notifier add-on on the Mozilla Add-ons web site.  By far one of the best webmail tools for Firefox.

You get instant access to recently closed tabs, personalized suggested sites and even shortcuts to your desktop applications. 

The most recent release also comes with 7 built in themes, so you have a few more ways to customize it to suit your needs.

There is no reason why, these days, your new tab should be empty and bland.  With the New Tab King add-on for Firefox, you can make the new tab page and the Firefox browser even more functional than it was before.