Get 3.5
Today I got tired of waiting for Firefox to tell me there is “a new version available” — like it normally does — and so I manually told it to upgrade to the newest version... which has been out for a while now (ahem).
To do that, click on “Help”, and then click “Check for Updates”.
What’s New in Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 offers many changes over the previous version, supporting new web technologies, improving performance and ease of use. Some of the notable features are:
- Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.
- Support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio. (Try it here!)
- Better web application performance using the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
- The ability to share your location with websites using Location Aware Browsing. (Try it here!)
- Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.
- Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
- Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.
Of that list of super kewl & neato doodads and gizmos and whatsajingies, I am really only interested in the topmost item — privacy (although, faster is always good!). I want it, and the first thing I did was to turn it on.
To do that:
1) Click on “Tools”, and then “Options”.
2) Click on the Privacy tab and place a check in the “Automatically start..” checkbox.
3) Click on “OK”.
Today’s free link(s):
RadarSync PC Updater – Free Driver Update Software
Are wireless keyboards secure?
Today’s free download: What? You haven’t tried Firefox yet? What are you waiting for? Click here and try Firefox 3.5 today!
Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
Thank you for this informative article on the new FireFox.
I installed it a few days ago and I have been pleasantly surprised with its robustness – the last few updates led to instability issues on my machines.
As you say, the privacy mode is a very welcome addition, and I have set FireFox to run “only” in this mode.
Better safe than sorry, and all that!
Bill
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Mr. Mullins,
I know from regularly reading your excellent website, Tech Thoughts, that you are an advocate of using the “alternative” browser Firefox, and also of the Add-on NoScript.
Having the most recent version is “good”. Privacy is “good” too. They tell us privacy doesn’t exist anymore and that it’s an obsolete concept; I say, I’ll browse in Privacy Mode, thank you very much… even if it isn’t as all-encompassing as I would like.
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TechPaul,
Going with you guys… I too configured Firefox on my PC to run in privacy mode… Great tip!
Bill, I also experienced some instability with the betas, but the final definitely has snap to it… Firefox it my top choice browser!
Rick
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Rick,
Firefox’s market share continues to grow, and the continuing improvements can only help that growth.
I won’t begrudge someone their choice of browser, with one exception — IE 6. There’s a reason, folks, that Microsoft pushed IE 7, and now IE 8 down the “Important Update” pipe.
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