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The basic science behind the movies is all about how our eyes and brains
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When our eyes sees a series of still images in quick succession, each image ...
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Although Facebook said you have to wait for an invite either through facebook.com or from one of your friends who have some invites to be sent to his/her friends.
But If you are eager and want the invite as early as possible, Facebook has set up a page where you can request the social networking website to send an invite to you.
Once you are on the page, just hit “Request” at the bottom right of the box, you can just wait as according to the Facebook, you will be receiving an invite soon.
Also, if you are in desperate need of an invite, there are some folks on ebay selling the invite for around $0.99, not sure if anybody has received any invite yet from the auction, but you can give it a try.
At one end of the spectrum, Facebook says it’s “simple” and “fun.” On the other end, some are saying it’s Facebook’s version of Google Wave. And just about everyone spent the weekend suggesting that it’s a “Gmail killer.”
“It” is Facebook’s new, Whatever-you-do-don’t-call-it-email-but-hey-here’s-a-Facebook-email-address-for-you email and messaging system. Facebook says it’s more like chat; and it’s definitely not an email killer.
Who’s right? We’ll all decide that collectively as the invites get sent out. Until then, here’s how Facebook’s new Messages system works, via a screenshot-filled PDF distributed at today’s news conference.
How Do I Get The New Facebook Messages?
The new Messages is being rolled out “gradually,” as in over several months. Facebook users can request an invite and cross their fingers. When you’re in, you’ll see a pop-up window like this:
Clicking on that “See What’s New” button will take you to another page where you can review the basics of the new Messages and confirm that you want it.
How Do I Get A Facebook Email Address?
Once you’ve received your invite and confirmed that you want the new Messages system, Facebook will invite you to claim your Facebook.com email address. It’ll match your current Facebook username. (If you don’t have one of those, you can get one at the same time.)
After I’m In, How Does The New Messages Work?
One of the immediate changes you’ll notice after you start using the new Facebook Messages is the naming of your inboxes/folders. Rather than the current “messages” and “updates” naming scheme, the new Messages just uses “messages” and “other.” You’ll first see the “Messages” box, and that’s where Facebook says it’ll prioritize all the messages from your friends. Everything else gets sent to the “other” folder — that includes messages from Facebook Groups and from Pages that you’ve liked.
Another big change is the integration of messages into one system. If you have a Facebook.com email and use Facebook’s chat tool, all of this comes together the way Facebook wants. If you provide your phone number, you can bring SMS messages into the system, too. This screenshot shows how messages will appear in both the main in box and in Facebook Chat, and you can reply from either interface:
As you can see on that image, there’s also a new tool to include attachments with messages. (see the small icon on the far left below “Write a reply…”)
And, yes, there’s a search element here, too. Facebook says it has “revamped” how message search works. You can search for either the person you were chatting with or for the topics you were talking about. You can also add people to conversations, remove yourself, or forward conversations to others.
Is Facebook Messages Private?
There are a number of Q&As related to privacy in the Facebook help topic for the new Messages system. By default, anyone on Facebook can still send you a message and, if you get a Facebook.com email address, anyone else with an email address can email you if they know your Facebook.com address. But you can change that via the privacy settings for your Facebook account; the options for who can send you messages are “everyone,” “friends,” and “friends of friends.”
You can also choose who to share your Facebook.com email address with, but keep in mind that any thinking person will know that your email address is the same as your Facebook username.
What If My Friends Don’t Have It Yet?
Once you’re in the new Messages system, you’ll have a number of invites that you can share with friends. Just like, errrr … Gmail.
The hardware design hasn't changed from the one we already knew about. It uses the same materials as the prototype: Black glass and stainless steel rim. It fits with the rest of the Apple product line, from the hard edges to the Dieter-Ramsesque utilitarianism of the iMac and the iPad.
The black glass is aluminosilicate glass. Apple claims this glass is "chemically strengthened to be 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic." According to them, this makes it more scratch resistant and durable than the previous generation.
The size is smaller than the previous generation: 34% thinner than the iPhone 3GS. Although it is 3 grams heavier. According to Apple, it's the thinnest smartphone ever. It has split buttons for volume, unlike the current iPhone 3GS, all made in stainless steel.
The stainless steel rim
The stainless steel rim gives the structure to the iPhone, and acts as part of the antenna for 3G and Wi-Fi. In theory, this will greatly increase the reception abilities of the new iPhone 4.
Physical size
The iPhone 4 is 4.5 x 2.31 inches, and 0.37 inches thick. It weighs 4.8 ounces (137 grams).
The hardware
The new big brain
It has an Apple A4 chip inside, just like the iPad. Inside the A4 there are a few interconnected chips: A Cortex-A8 main processor unit—the main brain—paired with a PowerVR SGX 535, which handles the high definition graphics of the new iPhone. These are directly connected with each other and two low-power 128MB DDR SDRAM chips. Since all these components are in the same chip, Apple claims the iPhone 4 can process data more quickly while consuming less battery than before.
The A4 also consumes less power because its sub-components can be switched on and off when they are not needed, shaving watts whenever it's possible.
Battery life
The battery is 16% bigger than the current one. Coupled with the A4 processor and new display, it results in a longer battery life: Apple claims 40% more talk time. Here are their figures:
• Talk over 3G: 7 hours.
• Browsing over 3G: 6 hours.
• Browsing over Wi-Fi: 10 hours.
• Video: 10 hours.
• Music: 40 hours.
• Stand-by: 300 hours.
The display
The 3.5-inch multitouch screen has a resolution of 960 × 640 pixels. Apple calls is the Retina Display, and it has four times as many pixels as the current iPhone 3GS' display. The screen has 326 pixel per inch resolution, a higher definition than your typical magazine, a quality that shows in the screenshot.
Apple claims that this IPS-based display—the same technology as used in the iPad—also has 800-to-1 contrast ratio which is four times better than the 3GS, with a higher viewing angle.
The apps will take automatic advantage of the increased relative resolution, which mean they will be a lot sharper for text, 3D graphics, and vectorial art. However, developers will need to include higher resolution bitmap images to make the app look perfect.
Like the iPhone 3GS and the iPad, the display has an oleophobic layer that makes it easier to clean.
The main camera
The new iPhone has a bigger sensor for the main camera. It's backlit and has bigger lenses too. Instead of having a higher resolution, however, the sensor maintains the same 5 megapixel count. They are bigger dots, however, so it has a higher ISO—or sensitivity to light. That means that you would be able to take better photos and video in low light conditions, and your pictures will look a lot better.
The camera also has a LED-based flash, which works both for photographs and video. To focus, both for photographs and video—you just need to tap on the screen.
The video conferencing camera
In the front, there's a video conference camera, with standard VGA resolution. This camera will be used with third-party applications, as well as Apple's own video conference solution.
Gyroscope
The new iPhone 4 has a gyroscope built-in. This means that it can track movement with a very high precision, much higher than the built-in accelerometers in the previous iPhones. It's 3-axis, so it's capable of detecting pitch, roll, and yaw. Couple with the accelerometer, you have 6-axis motion sensing.
Other
• Like the iPad 3GS, the new iPhone uses the new micro-SIM standard.
• It has an additional microphone on the top used for noise cancelation.
The software
iOS4
The new iPhone 4 comes with iOS 4, a new moniker for the iPhone OS. The biggest new feature is, of course, selective multi-tasking, Apple's way to multitask some application features without consuming too many resources and battery power.
The new iOS 4 supports Apple's Retina display using resolution independence. This means that applications will automatically get scaled for the new resolution, but looking sharper, not pixelated. That includes typography, 2D vector graphics, and 3D graphics. However, developers will have to include higher resolution images for buttons or other screen controls (something that many have already, since this was already exposed in the last WWDC).
Video calling
However, the biggest feature of the new iPhone 4 is probably video calling, thanks to its front camera. Apple calls it FaceTime, and it works iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi—at least for 2010. Apple claims that in the future it will be available over 3G.
The iPhone 4 can use both cameras for video calling, so you can broadcast what is in front of you to another iPhone 4.
iMovie for iPhone
The new iPhone 4 will be able to use a new editing software from Apple: iMovie for iPhone. It comes with 1,500 new features.
The new iMovie for iPhone works on even 720p high definition. You can use it to cut the video clips, add automatic Ken Burns effects for still images and a music soundtrack taken from your iPhone's tunes. After you are done with your movie, you can export it to 360p, 520p, and 720p.
It's a separate application, however, it doesn't come built-in with the iPhone 4.
iBooks
iBooks will also be available for the new iOS4. Apple claims that the new iPhone 4's 325 pixel-per-inch display will make the books perfectly readable. It will use the same controls as the iBooks application in the iPad.
Price and availability
The Phone 4 will be available in black or white on June 24, and will cost $199 and $299 for 16 and
32GB if you are a new user or you are eligible for an upgrade.
If you are an existing iPhone user, the early upgrade will cost you $399 and $499. Without contract the iPhone 4 is $599 and $699.
The curtain has been pulled back on iPhone 4, and the list of new features is massive: There's multitasking (finally!), a refreshed interface, and literally hundreds of other changes, all coming this summer. Here's the rundown.
The new OS will ship in June (Fall for iPad, and a developer preview is available today, so we can expect to have plenty of apps updated and ready for launch.
New Features: Multitasking, App Folders and More
• Multitasking: It's here, finally. It's handled with a simple task switcher: double click your home button, and you get a list of running apps. Select, switch, done. Multitasking is limited to audio streaming, VoIP and GPS apps, as well as a few other allowances: they can finish specific, important tasks in the background, for example. As far as non-music/nav/VoIP apps, those can be suspended in the background, but not left running. (See below.) Full details here.
• Fast app switching: With iPhone 4's multitasking, most apps aren't actually running in the background—just certain functions of the app, like an audio stream or a GPS lock. But! All apps can now be frozen, in full, so that when you reopen them, they're restored to exactly the state they were in when they were closed.
• Local notifications: Notifications can be sent between apps on the phone, not just from remote servers. In other words, if something important happens in an app you've opened and moved away from, a notification will pop up in whatever app you're using at the time, effectively saying "switch back to me!" It's a fairly clever way to keep track of multiple apps without the need for a start bar or dock-type interface. From Apple's dev guidelines:
The advantage of local notifications is that they are independent of your application. Once a notification is scheduled, the system manages the delivery of it. Your application does not even have to be running when the notification is delivered.
Apple's official line:
iPhone OS 4's new multitasking offers users a new way to quickly move between apps, and provides developers seven new multitasking services to easily add multitasking features to their apps. These services include background audio, so apps like Pandora can play music in the background, and VoIP, so VoIP apps can receive a VoIP call even when the iPhone is asleep or the user is running other apps. iPhone OS 4 provides multitasking to third party apps while preserving battery life and foreground app performance, which has until now proved elusive on mobile devices.
And some more technical details, again from Apple's developer guidelines:
An application can request a finite amount of time to complete some important task. An application can declare itself as supporting specific services that require regular background execution time. An application can use local notifications to generate user alerts at designated times, whether or not the application is running.
• App folders: Now you can sort your apps into folders! That's homescreen clutter solved, just like that. Apple's description:
Folders help users better organize and quickly access their apps. Simply drag one app icon onto another, and a new folder is automatically created. The folder is automatically given a name based on the App Store category of that app, such as "Games," which the user can easily rename. Using folders, users can now organize and access over 2,000 apps on their iPhone.
2160, to be exact.
• A new Mail app: Unified inboxes, multiple Exchange accounts, fast inbox switching, threaded messages: These new features are actually a huge deal, since the iPhone's mail client has barely changed since 2007, and Apple doesn't allow alternative mail apps. Apple's pitch:
iPhone OS 4 delivers the best mail experience on a mobile phone with its new Unified Inbox, allowing users to see messages from all their email accounts displayed together in a single inbox. With just a few taps, users can quickly switch between inboxes to see messages from any single account.
• iBooks: Oh hey, that iBooks ebook reader app and accompanying ebook store we first met on the iPad has ambled on down to the iPhone. Nice, since you can now take your books with you wherever you go, as oppose to wherever you go with your iPad.
• Custom backgrounds: Jailbreakers have them. Hell, the iPad has them. Now you can choose a persistent background for your iPhone—and not just for the lockscreen.
• Game Center: Apple's going to roll out a centralized gaming service—a multiplayer network like PSN or Xbox Live—to help connect games to one another, by the end on the year. There are 3rd-party services that already do this, like OpenFeint. They will probably die. Full details here.
• iAd advertising: It looks like Apple's finally making use of Quattro, that mobile ad company it gobbled up a few months ago, by rolling out its own advertising platform, a turnkey ad plugin for app developers called iAd. The theory here is that instead of relying on links to external websites, which pull users out of apps whenever they tap on an ad, developers can use Apple's new tools to keep people in the app while still showing them advertising—sort of like popover browser windows. You can watch videos, play games, and even buy apps from within these ads. This is in the iPhone OS 4 developer tools, but it's not explicitly a part of OS 4, so you won't see apps with iAds until later this year.
• 5x digital zoom: Could this hint at a higher quality camera in the next hardware? 3.2 megapixels seems a bit low for 5x digital zoom.
• Bluetooth keyboards: Another carryover from the iPad, Bluetooth keyboard support will finally come to iPhone 4.
• A bevy of other new developer features, including 1500 new APIs to play with:
Which Devices Get It, and When?
When the software ships in the summer, iPhone 3GSes and iPod Touch 3rd-gens devices will get all of the new features. The iPhone 3G and Touch 2G will get "many things," which doesn't include multitasking. I repeat: the iPhone 3G won't get multitasking, ever. iPhone 2Gs will be left on a hillside somewhere to die of exposure, or something.
Apple didn't drop any clues about the next iPhone's hardware, but it's a fair bet that we'll see some changes come June.
What About the iPad?
The iPad won't get the 4.0 upgrade until Fall of this year, a few months after the iPhone does. So, you'll be able to multitask on your dinky little iPhone before you'll be even be able to listen to Pandora and check your email at the same time on your giant iPad.
Google Buzz is a new way to start conversations about the things you find interesting. It's built right into Gmail, so you don't have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch — it just works. If you think about it, there's always been a big social network underlying Gmail. Buzz brings this network to the surface by automatically setting you up to follow the people you email and chat with the most. Google focused on building an easy-to-use sharing experience that richly integrates photos, videos and links, and makes it easy to share publicly or privately (so you don't have to use different tools to share with different audiences). Plus, Buzz integrates tightly with your existing Gmail inbox, so you're sure to see the stuff that matters most as it happens in real time.
On your phone, Google Buzz is much more than just a small screen version of the desktop experience. Mobile devices add an important component to sharing: location. Posts tagged with geographical information have an extra dimension of context — the answer to the question "where were you when you shared this?" can communicate so much. And when viewed in aggregate, the posts about a particular location can paint an extremely rich picture of that place. Check out the Mobile Blog for more info about all of the ways to use Buzz on your phone, from a new mobile web app to a Buzz layer in Google Maps for mobile.
Google relied on other services' openness in order to build Buzz (you can connect Flickr and Twitter from Buzz in Gmail), and Buzz itself is not designed to be a closed system. Our goal is to make Buzz a fully open and distributed platform for conversations. Google is building on a suite of open protocols to create a complete read/write developer API, and invites developers to join them on Google Code to see what is available today and to learn more about how to participate.
BuZZ Tips and Tricks courtesy think digit
Google buzz is here to stay. Sure, it may not be the next Facebook or a Twitter replacement, but surely as a social media tool it has its pluses. Those of you who have been using it for a while now, will find these tips useful. Those who are not buzzing, there's no better time to start.
1. Send @ replies without knowing the persons email id.
Buzz allows you to tag people in your buzz posts by inserting an '@' sign in the post. This opens a drop down menu of all your contacts and you can add the contact you were looking for. The buzz post will then be automatically be emailed to the inbox of the person mentioned. However, what about people who are not in your contact list, and you are just commenting on their post? Simply hover over their name and in the browser's notification area you will see a link to their Google profile. It will be something like this: http://www.google.com/profiles/abcdef#buzz. Just copy the part before #buzz and sufix it with @gmail.com. In this example that would be @abcdef@gmail.com
2. Search tips
To search for comments from a specific user, try this operator "commenter:name” in the buzz search field. Use “author:name” to find all posts composed by a user. Similarly you can use “has:photo” or “has:video/link” to filter posts that have the respective attachments. This is quite a neat tool to discover active buzz users. The “source” operator will allow you to restrict the sources eg. Twitter, reader, flickr etc.
3. Share any webpage on google buzz
Found something interesting in the vastness of cyberspace which you'd like to share on Buzz? As a Chrome user, you can do it in a jiffy with the Buzz it! [https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/mlbimplbdkhjjfhnlmhjnoemmnnehjif] extension. Once you decide to share something clicking on this button will bring up a dialogue box where you can give a title and add a note about the piece you are sharing. Click Post item and it gets added to your buzz stream via reader. For Firefox users there is a much more popular addon by the same name[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/75917 ]. This addon posts via the buzz@gmail.com email route. However at the time of writing this article the extension was not working :-(
4. Send buzz posts to twitter
Sending your twitter feed to Google Buzz is quite a simple matter. Simply go to settings tab and under the newly added buzz tab, you can link your twitter account. But pushing buzz posts into twitter is a bit of a tricky affair. There are two ways of doing this by using two different online apps. Each has its own advantages. The first is buzzcantweet [buzzcantweet.com]. Click on get started and it will prompt you to sign in with your google account. Next allow the app access through the twitter api and you're done. Some of the additional options on the settings page allow you to use your own Bit.ly account for link generation and...
Tweet only buzz which contains keyword "#twitter"
Exclude text after keyword
No link on short messages
The other option is to use Buzz2Twitter [http://reader2twitter.appspot.com/buzz] - A little difficult to set up but not rocket science. I noticed the Buzz2Twitter sync has lesser lag - probably to do with the pubsubhubbub protocol that it uses. To get started you need your Google Profile Number ID. Usually your Google profile with look like this https://www.google.com/profiles/yourname. To get your number ID click “edit profile” on your profile page. At the bottom of the page you'll find your profile URL; click “see other options”. Copy the number, paste it here [http://reader2twitter.appspot.com/buzz] and click submit. By default it uses goog.le to link to your buzz post but you can use your own bit.ly account too.
Getting your Google profile id number
Advantages of posting to twitter from buzz:
You can use buzz as your own very own Twitter image / link / video sharing service since all your twitter posts will be permalinked back to your image enhanced buzz posts!
No restriction of character count!
5. Keyboard shortcuts
Simply make sure keyboard shortcuts are enabled in your settings
Shift+l - 'like' a post
m - mute a thread (very useful if you don't want a popular thread to highjack your timeline)
r - reply to a post
j/k - go to the newer / older posts
o - expand post
# Bonus Tip: Import twitter contacts
Still in closed beta, but once it's up you can use this service to import twitter contacts to follow them on buzz. http://tw2buzz.com/. Be sure to register for an invite.
The author is a buzz enthusiast (for now) and is saddened by the fact that most content shared via buzz, twitter, and Facebook stands in this ratio:
Search Music Mania First Crush to get access to exclusive links to album, bollywood, hollywood mp3 and other content links
According to sources , the iPhone 3GS will be launched in India on the 24th of March.
Like before the handset will come with a dataplan and will be locked to the network providing the handset for a year. In this case it still isn't clear which service providers will be offering the iPhone 3GS.
The iPhone 4G is all set to hit the US market and we still haven't gotten 3G in India barring MTNL and BSNL.
The Google Nexus One though is expected to be launched here albeit in a stripped down avatar.
Chip czar Intel has once again set new benchmark records with its latest CPUs, the Core i7 series. CHIP reveals the technical innovations inside them.
Intel's development model for processors is known as the “Tick Tock” cycle. Every alternate year, they focus is on miniaturizing the existing production technology for CPUs (known as a process shrink—“Tick”), while in the next year a new architecture will be introduced, based on this process (“Tock”). The system has been functioning well for four years now. The Core i7 architecture, formerly known by its codename “Nehalem”, was introduced in November 2008, after the original Core architecture was shrunk to 45 nm around the end of 2007 (products codenamed “Penryn”). The new design brings a series of changes with it, all aimed at optimizing performance, power consumption and reliability.
New package
The last time Intel changed its processor package was in 2004, when it went from 478 contact pins to 775 pads. Since then, the package and matching socket has remained the same despite many CPU refreshes, but now Nehalem requires a radical turnabout. The new CPU requires about 600 more pins for all its new functions. Core i7 CPUs won’t fit into older motherboards since they now have 1,366 contact pads instead of 775. Even if they did fit physically, nothing would work since there are many new elements on the CPU which need to be connected to the motherboard and the rest of the computer’s components. The transition is understandable since it’s been a long time and there are genuine needs and advantages, but anyone who wants to use the new Intel technology must buy a new motherboard.
Goodbye FSB
The most significant innovation with the Nehalem architecture is the obsolescence of the Front Side Bus (FSB), which has been responsible for all communication between CPU and chipset so far. Its successor is known as the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). The FSB was replaced mainly because its bandwidth was found to be inadequate: QPI provides 20-bit wide, bidirectional links resulting in a maximum data rate of 25.6 GB/s. This is immediately twice the speed of what an FSB at its highest possible rating of 1,600 MHz could offer. QPI is very similar to the HyperTransport technology used by AMD since 2001, which is now at version 3.1 and achieves similar transfer rates.
Intel has chosen to adopt another technique very successfully applied by AMD: a memory controller integrated in the processor package. Intel’s desktop architectures until now have placed the memory controller in the chipset. The specialty of current high end Core i7s is their triple-channel memory controller. Three memory modules can now be ganged up to achieve data transfer rates fast enough to keep the CPU fed with fresh data so that its potential is used optimally. The result is that PCs which make use of this will have 3, 6 or 12 GB of RAM, which is unconventional compared to the progression we’re used to. However, lower-cost Nehalem CPUs which are yet to be launched will feature more traditional dual-channel memory controllers and a different, smaller socket with only 1156 contact pads.
HyperThreading makes a comeback
Since the end of the Pentium 4 generation, HyperThreading disappeared almost completely, but it is now making a comeback. Intel refers to a processor’s ability to process two program threads at the same time as Simultaneous Multi-Threading (SMT). So in addition to the impressive figure of eight CPU cores on a chip in the Windows task manager—four virtual and four real—SMT allows the cores to be utilized more efficiently, with a promised increase in performance of up to 30 percent.
New clock speed tricks
Core i7 processors can run with each individual core at a different clock speed. Turbo mode is especially interesting, because it allows some cores to be overclocked when a non-multithreaded task taxes one or two cores while the others are left idle. Such a situation allows the application to run more efficiently and utilize resources more effectively—and can result in a performance increase of up to 10 percent. On the other hand, a new power saving mode switches idle cores to the C6 state (deep powerdown). In this state, the core is simply disconnected from the power supply. This is taken care of by microcontroller logic which monitors the temperature and power consumption of each core.
New design: Small L2 cache and large common L3 cache
One of the weak points of the cache design on Intel’s previous CPUs was that on a quad-core CPU, each pair of two cores shared a 6 MB L2 cache which was exclusive to them. This was great for fast data exchanges between those two cores, but bad for exchanges between all four, which required the data to travel through the much slower Front Side Bus. In Core i7 CPUs, each core now has its own L2 cache, which is considerably downsized to 256 KB, but with its speed increased by 50 percent. Like in AMD’sAthlon CPUs, a common 8 MB L3 cache (for the current quad-core models) is added to enable data exchange between the cores. This cache receives all data from the cores’ L1 and L2 caches, which in turn considerably accelerates data processing. This allows each core to be shut down without any risk of losing data that's in transit between caches.
A CPU design for all applications
The scalability of the Core i7 architecture is quite unique. Nehalem is suitable for desktops, servers and notebooks as well. Thanks to the new cache design and the introduction of the QPI, two, four or eight cores can now be integrated in a single processor die. Furthermore, the high speed of the QPI enables quick communication between several CPUs on one motherboard for high-end and server configurations. When 8-core Nehalem chips are available, power users should be able to gang two of them up for a grand total of 16 cores and 32 virtual CPUs!
At present, three Core i7 models are available in the market, with more to come soon. By the end of the year 2009, lower cost versions of Nehalem (codenamed Lynnfield and Havendale) will hit the market, with many more innovations and performance advantages in store for users.
After much delay, Firefox 3.6 Final has been released. The new version brings many new features with a major change in the way extensions are handled which will make the browser more secure. While the 3.5 to 3.6 update might seem small, it has quite a few new changes which makes this an important update.
Here is a video of the new features in Firefox 3.6, in HTML5's video tag if your browser supports it:
Extensibility improvements
One of the biggest changes you might notice is in-built support for personas in Firefox 3.6 which means that personas can now be installed without the need for having the plug-in installed. Of course, if you already had the personas add-on installed you might notice nothing at all! With personas, Firefox can now easily be dressed with simple and light themes which change the looks of the browser without needing a restart. As stated before, this was earlier possible using the personas plugin but is now an integral part of Firefox 3.6.
Personas is an effort to simplify the process of extending and customizing the Firefox experience for both the developers / designers and the end-users. Another project which makes the development and installation of add-ons simple is the JetPack project. With the Personas and JetPack projects, a Firefox user can install extensions and themes without needing to restart the browser. Like Personas, JetPack is available for download as an add-on and will be integrated in Firefox in the future.
A popular misconception is that these methods of extending Firefox will replace the current and much more powerful XUL-based plugin system. As the developers of Firefox have said, this is just not true. However the need for add-ons to use the rather more complicated XUL-based system should be considerably reduced as the functionality of JetPack nears that of the native system. Unless the plug-in adds significant functionality which is not exposed by JetPack, most add-ons will hopefully use that.
Performance improvements
JavaScript performance in Firefox 3.6 has been improved, and operations such as Garbage collection have been optimized to make for a smoother experience. JavaSctipt animations in particular should now appear much smoother.
In Firefox 3.5 we got the new TraceMonkey JIT (Just in Time) engine which improved the performance of the browser considerably. However, while TraceMonkey was enabled (by default) for webpage content, it was disabled for any scripts which run in the extensions. The functionality in Firefox extensions themselves is coded in JavaScript and XUL so while the performance benefits could have become applicable for the browser operations themselves this performance boost was absent from Fx 3.5. In Firefox 3.6 the browser will come with the new TraceMonkey engine enabled for chrome content as well and people with many add-ons installed should see a boost.
Many other improvements have been made in JavaScript performance in this version, and many operations have been become speeder up by many times.
A new JavaScript feature has also been added which allows for running scripts asynchronously. While this won't affect existing pages, it can be utilized by web developers to significantly improve a page's responsiveness. A web application such as Google Wave could then perform complicated JavaScript operations in the background keeping the UI JavaScript responsive.
Security upgrades
Firefox 3.6 has upgraded many aspects of plug-in and add-on security in this release. One of the most important updates being the way Firefox can be extended by external applications.
Earlier versions of Firefox allowed for extensions to Firefox being made by directly adding files to the components directory in the Firefox folder. Such add-ons were installed by 3rd party applications to integrate with Firefox. Since these add-ons were not managed by Firefox, they could severely affect the stability of the browser in case an update to Firefox made them incompatible.
Firefox 3.6 will now also warn you in case your plug-ins are out of date ensuring that you have the latest and most secure versions of each plug-in. Earlier a user needed to check for plug-in updates manually.
More web standards support
Firefox 3.6 furthers support for HTML5 and CSS3 features. Some of the most important ones being:
HTML5 file API. With this web application will be able to process local files
HTML5 Drag and drop API. For the drag and drop functionality in Google Wave. Future application could use this to allow you to drag and drop your images into the browser instead of using the file browse dialog.
Support for a poster frame in HTML5
Support for playing HTML5
WOFF Font support
New CSS support for background size, gradients and pointer events
Features! Features! Features!
Firefox 3.6 comes with many new small features which can make your web experience more powerful, such as hiding the menu bar to save space -- the menu bar will auto show when you use a keyboard accelerator -- screen orientation aware web pages and add-ons etc.
While this may just be a minor update in the Firefox release cycle it brings quite a few new features, and for Firefox 3.6 users, this is not the end. A change is coming in the very way Firefox delivers new features to users.
This new pattern of releases has be misrepresented in many places as a dropping of Firefox 3.7 from the release roadmap, however it is not an abandonment of features, just a revamp of how they are delivered.
For any user, an update which improves performance and security without any visual or interactivity changes is not something that will alarm the user. Mozilla's director Mike Beltzner equates this to finding out your car performance has increased significantly as result of a servicing. Nothing to be unhappy about and nothing that a user would mind.
However a changing the location of your gearbox, or painting your car pink are things you'd probably wouldn't want done before being told first!
In essence, any update to Firefox which does not affect the way the browser looks or interacts with the user need not wait for a major version upgrade to be delivered. For example, Mozilla's Electrolysis project, which allows plug-ins to run in a separate process is something which improves the stability of the browser -- since plug-in crashes will no longer crash the browser -- and yet the user need not be aware of anything more than the fact the their browser is working better.
Out of process plug-ins could then make it into Firefox as part of a 3.6.1 or 3.6.2, or other minor upgrade instead of waiting till 3.7. This could possibly delay the release of Firefox 3.7 as more testing will be required for the new feature, however 3.7 is not abandoned.
This release strategy might be adopted for future versions of Firefox as well.
Firefox 3.7 and beyond
So what can you expect from Firefox 3.7 and beyond? Some very interesting things are on the line. Firefox 3.7 has become quite famous already, many months before its release due to the visual revamp it comes with.
Firefox 4 is to come with an even bigger visual upgrade, as the browser will adopt a look similar to Chrome, and works towards this has already begun. In Firefox 3.6 you now have the option to hide the menu bar to save space, and Firefox 3.7 will come with a visual style which lies between the current and Firefox 4 styles.
In 3.7 the menubar will be gone, and the browser will adopt a more native look for each OS, with Glass transparency support in Windows Vista / 7. By version 4 you will probably have a UI with tabs on top no menu bar, no bookmarks bar, no space wasted at all!
There are some features in works for Firefox which are very very exciting. Among those would be the new JetPack model for creating add-ons, however that is not it. Here are some of the features coming in future versions of Firefox which I find most exciting:
Multi-process plugins. Plugins such as Flash and Silverlight will run in a separate process than the browser, meaning that a crash of a plugin doesn't mean the browser will crash as well. This might be extended to add-ons and Tabs too in the future.
Integration of Mozilla Weave with Firefox. Currently available as an add-on, Weave synchronizes your browsing history, your password, your bookmarks and even you open tabs so you can access them from any Firefox set up with weave.
Home Page. Firefox, starting with 3.7 will feature a new home page like the one in Chrome.
App tabs. With a growing focus on web application, app tabs will allow Firefox to recognize some tabs as application. Think of this as pinned tabs in Chrome.
New notifications system. While the notification bar is nice, it is quite flawed, as it has poor support for multiple notifications and it is difficult to get it back in case you dismiss it hastily.
Tab progress bar. Tabs will feature a minimalistic progress bar which will give feedback of loading progress. You can get an idea of what this will be like by installing this extension.
New updater. With a new updater for Firefox users will get better notification of new major Firefox releases. While this is something which doesn't seem too glamorous, it means that more users will upgrade to newer Firefox versions faster.
New approaches to tab management. While Firefox might be good at handling tabs, the fact that any power internet user will need to install some or the other extension for the same means something is missing. Fortunately, the developers have some nice ideas.
Firefox 4 will be a completely new browser, and while many users might feel that the old design was better, this is where add-ons and themes come in! They are the biggest strengths of Firefox giving us the worlds most customizable browser.
While you patiently wait for the new Firefox versions to arrive you can stay ahead of the rest by downloading and using the Nightly versions of Firefox,, which as their name suggests are crated every night from the latest version of the Firefox code.
Note: If you are worried about doing important work on a potentially highly unstable browser, here is a small trick for you. You can actually run two version of Firefox in parallel by using a special commandline parameter. However this will require you to create an additional profile as the same profile cannot be used by two instances.
Launch Firefox with the commandline parameter "-no-remote -P"
You can do this by creating link to the Firefox executable file and adding the "-no-remote -P" at the end.
Here the "-no-remote" allows you to run multiple instances of Firefox (different or same version) on the same computer, and the "-P" launches the Profile manager which will let you create and select a profile to use with this instance.
The year 2009 is now coming to a close, and it's time to take a look back over the past 12 months through photographs. Historic elections were held in Iran, India and the United States, some wars wound down while others escalated, China turned 60, and the Berlin Wall was remembered 20 years after it came down. Each photo tells its own tale, weaving together into the larger story of 2009. This is a multi-entry story, 120 photographs over three days. Please see also part 1 and part 2. (40 photos total)
Fireworks illuminate the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin November 9, 2009, during celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. (REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay)
The new PS20 solar tower at the Solucar Platform in Sanlucar la Mayor, southern Spain, seen on Sept. 23, 2009. PS20, one of the most powerful commercial solar tower in the world, consists of a solar field made up of 1,255 mirrored heliostats aimed at the tower, producing steam which is converted into electricity generation by a turbine. (AP Photo/Miguel Angel Morenatti) #
A reveler of Leandro de Itaquera samba school parades at the Sambadrome, as part of Carnival celebrations in Sao Paulo, Brazil, late on February 21, 2009. (MAURICIO LIMA/AFP/Getty Images) #
Supporters of ousted Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya clash with soldiers near the presidential residency Tegucigalpa, Monday, June 29. 2009. Police fired tear gas to hold back thousands of Hondurans outside the occupied presidential residency as world leaders from Barack Obama to Hugo Chavez appealed to Honduras to reinstate Zelaya as president. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix) #
Ted Kennedy Jr. kisses the casket of his father in Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica during a funeral mass in the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston on August 29, 2009. President Barack Obama, three former presidents and a nation's elite gathered in the rain to attend a grand Catholic funeral for Ted Kennedy, America's legendary political patriarch. (JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images) #
A Hindu woman devotee offers prayers after taking a holy dip in the waters of river Ganga in the northern Indian city of Allahabad May 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Jitendra Prakash) #
A young girl and her dog looks out from a vehicle as she and her family wait for security clearance at a checkpoint on the outskirt of Bannu, a town on edge of the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009 as they flee a military offensive in South Waziristan. Pakistani troops and the Taliban fought fierce battles in Waziristan, a militant sanctuary near the Afghan border, with both sides claiming early victories in an army campaign that could shape the future of the country's battle against extremism. (AP Photo/Ijaz Muhammad) #
Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) employees work on the last-pre cast segments (rings) of the Phase-II underground tunneling project between neighborhoods Jangpura and Lajpat Nagar in New Delhi on October 12, 2009, part of a larger project to have metro lines to cover the entire National Capital Region for the 2010 Commonwealth Games (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A US Marine of 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade runs to safety moments after an IED blast in Garmsir district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan on July 13, 2009. Two US Marine soldiers were killed when the explosion occurred as they tried to clear a route into the Taliban heartland of southern Helmand province. (MANPREET ROMANA/AFP/Getty Images) #
A US Marine from Fox Company 2nd Battalion 3rd Marines rests as his platoon finishes searching houses for the day during day two of Operation Germinate into the restive Bhuji Bhast Pass in Farah Province, southern Afghanistan, on October 8, 2009. The Bhuji Bhast Pass is effectively a Taliban corridor, mined with IEDs from one end to the other, and lined with villages that are hostile to the Western troop presence. (DAVID FURST/AFP/Getty Images) #
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo is unveiled in Mojave, California December 7, 2009. Billionaire Richard Branson on Monday unveiled the first commercial passenger spaceship, a sleek black-and-white vessel that represents an expensive gamble on creating a commercial space tourism industry. (REUTERS/Phil McCarten) #
A North Korean woman carries water she collected from the Yalu River in the North Korean city of Hyesan, which borders China's Changbai county, April 6, 2009. (REUTERS/Reinhard Krause) #
A competitor crosses the Start/Finish line during the Northern Ireland Bog Snorkeling Championships in Peatlands Park, Dungannon, County Tyrone July 26, 2009. (REUTERS/Cathal McNaughton) #
Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic watches a shot during Game 1 of their NBA Finals basketball game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Los Angeles, June 4, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson) #
Wadee Daoud, a five-year-old visually impaired Palestinian boy, reacts to light after a teacher opened the window blinds in his classroom at the Helen Keller Center for blind and visually impaired children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina September 10, 2009. The Center was founded as a home for blind girls by English missionary, Mary Lovell, in the 1890s. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) #
A local woman on a crutch shouts at Chinese soldiers wearing riot gear as a crowd of angry locals confront security forces on a street in the city of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region July 7, 2009. Hundreds of Uighur protesters clashed with riot police in the capital of China's Muslim region of Xinjiang on Tuesday, two days after ethnic unrest left 156 dead and more than 800 injured. (REUTERS/David Gray) #
Owen Rabago (left) wipes a tear from the face of his father, Specialist Sheldon Rabago, as his mother Nancy wraps her arms around both of them during a candlelight vigil at Hood Stadium on the Fort Hood Army Post in Fort Hood, Texas November 6, 2009. The day before, An Army psychiatrist opened fire at the post, killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. (REUTERS/Jessica Rinaldi) #
A section of the Rocky Mountain News newsroom sits empty on February 27, 2009 in Denver, Colorado. The edition on Friday the 27th was the last one for the nearly 150-year-old daily, Colorado's oldest newspaper. The owner E.W. Scripps Co. announced the day before that the paper was closing down after efforts to sell the money-losing newspaper failed. (John Moore/Getty Images) #
Police officials detain a suspected militant from the site of a shooting at a police training center in Lahore March 30, 2009. Pakistani security forces took control of the police academy in Lahore on Monday after militants rampaged through the complex, killing at least eight cadets and wounding scores before holing up inside for hours. (REUTERS/Mohsin Raza) #
Miss USA, Kristen Dalton, applies lipstick while posing for photographers on the "Top of the Rock" observation deck at the Rockefeller Center in New York September 2, 2009. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson) #
Chinese parents gather to sleep at an auditorium after they accompanied their children to a university to start their first semester in Wuhan, central China's Hubei province on September 7, 2009. (STR/AFP/Getty Images) #
An injured girl cries during an evacuation after an earthquake hit Padang, Indonesia's Sumatra island September 30, 2009. A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the city of Padang on Indonesia's Sumatra island on September 30, 2009, killing at over 1,000 people and trapping thousands under rubble. (REUTERS/Muhammad Fitrah/Singgalang Newspaper) #
Burnt out trees outside Kinglake that were destroyed by fire are viewed from this aerial shot on February 8, 2009. Over 170 people were killed and entire towns razed in one of the worst wildfire disasters in Australian history, sending thousands fleeing in scenes Prime Minister Kevin Rudd compared to "hell". (MARK SMITH/AFP/Getty Images) #
Maldivian Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Ibrahim Didi signs a declaration calling on countries to cut down carbon dioxide emissions ahead of a major U.N. climate change conference in December, in the Maldives, October 17, 2009. The Maldivian president and ministers held the world's first underwater cabinet meeting, in a symbolic cry for help over rising sea levels that threaten the tropical archipelago's existence. (REUTERS/Maldives Government) #
A rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the northern Gaza Strip flies towards an Israeli target Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue) #
An Israeli boy takes cover under a desk in a bomb shelter at a school in Jerusalem June 2, 2009, after a siren was sounded during a nationwide civil defense drill simulating a rocket attack. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun) #
A Jewish settler (right) and a Palestinian demonstrator shout at each other during a protest against an illegal outpost near the Israeli settlement of Kharsina in the West Bank city of Hebron on May 22, 2009. (HAZEM BADER/AFP/Getty Images) #
The NASA space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in silhouette, side by side during solar transit on May 13, 2009, from west of Vero Beach, Florida in this image released by NASA May 14. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km (375 miles) and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds during a risky but successful mission to rescue the Hubble telescope. (REUTERS/Thierry Legault/NASA/Handout) #
Scientists at CERN's control center celebrate after the successful restart operation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on November 20, 2009 near Geneva, Switzerland. The world's biggest atom-smasher had shut down after its inauguration in September 2008 amid technical faults, and restarted on November 20, 2009. CERN spokesman James Gillies said the injections lasted a fraction of a second, enough for "a half or even a complete circuit" of the Large Hadron Collider built in a 27-kilometer (17-mile) long tunnel straddling the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva. (STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images) #
Seven-time Tour de France winner and Kazakh cycling team Astana (AST)'s Lance Armstrong of the United States rides in the pack under heavy rains on July 17, 2009 in the 200 km and thirteenth stage of the 2009 Tour de France cycling race run between Vittel and Colmar. Armstrong went onto finish the tour in third place, behind winner Alberto Contador. (JOEL SAGET/AFP/Getty Images) #
A car plows into a parade that included Queen Beatrix and the royal family on the national Queen's Day holiday in the Dutch city of Apeldoorn April 30, 2009. Ten people were injured and eight killed in the attack, including the 38-year-old driver, who narrowly missed the open-top bus carrying Queen Beatrix and the royal family. (REUTERS/Robin Utrecht/Pool) #
A gymnast balances on the beam during a practice session for the World Gymnastics at the O2 arena in London, Monday, Oct. 12, 2009. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant) #
Warning:
This image contains graphic
or objectionable content
Militants from Hizbul Islam haul the bloodied body of Mohamed Ibrahim, 48, from a chest-deep pit after stoning him to death for illicit sexual intercourse with a woman in the Afgoye district, Somalia on December 13, 2009. Ibrahim was sentenced to death by a local Islamic court after he was found guilty of infidelity. (REUTERS/Stringer) #
A hunter holds his hawk during an annual hunting competition in Chengelsy Gorge, some 150 km (93 miles) east of Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 5, 2009. (REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov) #
U.S. Navy Chief Petty Officer Bill Mesta replaces an official picture of outgoing President George W. Bush with that of newly-sworn-in U.S. President Barack Obama, in the lobby of the headquarters of the U.S. Naval Base January 20, 2009 in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. (Brennan Linsley-Pool/Getty Images) #
Supporters cheer during the opening ceremony of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Alexandria, Egypt on September 24, 2009. Host Egypt played against Trinidad and Tobago in the opening soccer match, winning the match 4-1 . (REUTERS/Marko Djurica)
