The Mozilla Foundation has unveiled a logo for its forthcoming Firefox-based mobile phone browser. The project, also known as Fennec, is an attempt by the non-profit to build a browser for mobile handsets that's as popular as the desktop version. Currently, the most popular third party mobile browser is Opera.

The browser is only available in very early alpha versions for Symbian, Windows Mobile and in beta for the forthcoming Nokia N900, but promises the same "AwesomeBar", add-ons and tabbing functionality as the desktop variant. You'll also be able to sync your history, preferences and bookmarks between your desktop and mobile computers.

The new logo was designed by Yaroslaff Shekunov, who lives in Krasnodar, Russia. He cited his inspirations as "Firefox itself, your approach to the web-site execution, and of course my wife". He has a whole pile of other Mozilla designs too, that you might want to check out.

Firefox's normal logo was designed in 2004 by Jon Hicks, a graphic designer from Oxfordshire who was frustrated by the Camino compass and decided to design his own variant. Mozilla liked it, and he now consults on many aspects of Firefox's identity.

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a designer, Firefox is currently hosting a "Five Years of Firefox" competition to celebrate its anniversary. Entries for that close on 9 December, so you'll want to get your skates on. Hit up the challenge page for more details.

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Tags: Software Browsers Mobile phone apps Firefox Fennec Mozilla Foundation

Mobile Firefox gets its own logo originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Tue, 10 Nov 2009 15:48:09 +0000

Firefox is now?five, however if, like many, you've found yourself having to leave your favourite?browser?because of constant crashing there are plenty of ways to get your Firefox groove back and save yourself from Mozilla hell.

Here are three steps to insuring you can surf the Web with the friendly fox once again:

Disable all your apps

With so many Plug-ins available for the browser, one of the reasons you could be experiencing crashes is that one of them has gone rogue. If this is the case, the best way to find out is disable all your apps and then slowly turn them back on to see which one is causing the issue.

Safe Mode

Firefox comes with a Safe Mode for exactly this reason - trying to fix bugs. buried within the inner workings of Firefox is a handy box that when accessed will allow you to reset your browser to its "factory" settings.

On the Mac you can access this via the Terminal application in Utilities (/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox -safe-mode) while on the PC you'll find it by accessing the Run command within the Start Bar ("C:Program FilesMozilla Firefoxfirefox.exe" -safe-mode)

Once you've run the application you get to disable all the add-ons in one swoop, reset toolbars and controls, reset bookmarks back to the Firefox defaults, reset all user preferences to Firefox defaults and even restore the default search engine, giving you a fresh start.

Starting from scratch

If none of the above has worked, you've got to take drastic action and make your computer believe that you've never seen or heard of this Firefox browser program. First off you've got to delete it completely.

Unfortunately just deleting or uninstalling the browser from your Mac or PC won't solve your problems, as the browser buries itself into your computers profile and user settings. It's like pulling out a weed, you've got to get right down to the roots to clear out the infection.

Mac

For Mac users drag the Firefox app into the Trash and then remove the Library/Application Support/Firefox folder. This will remove Firefox completely, your bookmarks, browser settings, plug-in details the lot.?

PC

For the PC it's just as simple. First remove the program via the "Add or Remove Programs" tool then delete the Firefox Installation directory located at C:Program filesMozilla Firefox

Reinstall

Now you've removed all the traces of the browser on your computer you simply visit the getfirefox browser website, download the right version for you and reinstall.

If you've done the above, your browser will reinstall and you'll be able to use Firefox like you did before you became a constant crash victim - hopefully for another 5 years.

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Tags: Software PC software Mac software Firefox Browsers Mozilla Quick Guide

Firefox keeps crashing? Here's how to fix it originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:28:53 +0000

Mozilla's internet browser Firefox celebrates its 5th birthday today. "Five years ago today, Mozilla launched Firefox 1.0 with the belief that, as the most significant social and technological development of our time, the Internet is a public resource that must remain open and accessible to all. Within the first four days of launch, more than 1 million people had downloaded a brand new browsing experience", the open source organisation says in a blog post.

"In just five years, that number has swelled to over 330 million users worldwide; almost a quarter of Internet users worldwide choose Firefox. Today, Firefox ships in more than 70 languages and offers users more than 7000 add-ons to help customize their browsing experience".

When Firefox launched Microsoft's Internet Explorer alone controlled a whopping 99% of the browser market. Fast forward 5 years and Firefox enjoys a 23% browser market share, although with increasing competition from the likes of Opera, Apple and Google. Hit play now to see the (slightly indulgent) celebratory video above.

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Tags: Software Online Browsers Firefox Mozilla Statistics Video

VIDEO: Firefox celebrates 5th birthday originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Mon, 09 Nov 2009 12:46:16 +0000

Back in August, we told you about InvisibleHand, a Firefox add-on which spends most of its time hidden but pops up if it discovers that you're looking at a product you can get cheaper somewhere else.

Commenters on our post loved it, and now you can try out the latest version of the add-on before anyone else. The company behind InvisibleHand has offered 200 Pocket-lint readers access to the new version, which adds Google search integration, a "more refined" notifications experience and support for German retailers.

?You can grab it right now by being one of the first 200 readers to head over to? ?http://preview.getinvisiblehand.com/ and use the code: "invisiblePL" without quote marks. When you've downloaded it, head on back here and let us know what you think in the comments section.

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Tags: Software Firefox Beta InvisibleHand Software updates

Invisible Hand 1.8 beta invites available originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 17:42:44 +0000

Mozilla has issued a new beta version of its Firefox browser - version 3.6 is now available to download in RC1 edition. Originally it was due for a mid-September release, but it slipped a little for reasons unknown.

The update includes version 1.9.2 of the Gecko engine - which Firefox uses to render web pages. That means that it should be a little speedier than before. Previous versions of the software have used version 1.9.1 and Mozilla says that it's possible that the browser will stop supporting 1.9.1 entirely with the release of Firefox 3.6.

Tab previews have appeared too - if you use ctrl-tab to switch between tabs (like you might use alt-tab to switch applications) then you'll get a preview window showing you which tabs you have open. Opera has this feature, but Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer don't at the time of writing. There's also the option to get thumbnail previews on the taskbar for Windows 7 users.

The build is available to download right now. You can grab it from the Mozilla Foundation's FTP.

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Tags: Software Software updates Browsers Firefox Mozilla

Firefox 3.6 reaches beta originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:54:02 +0100

Google could easily crank out a Chrome Frame for Firefox, in the same way that it has for Internet Explorer, according to Mozilla's VP Engineering, Mike Shaver. "The code is certainly there", he told Computerworld.

"But source code doesn't speak to intent", he added, indicating that he doesn't know whether such a plugin is in development at Google. The frame, which launched on 23 September for Internet Explorer, allows IE users to use the speedy WebKit rendering engine that Chrome itself uses.

Google has admitted that it launched Chrome Frame for Internet Explorer because it wasn't worth the time and bother to make Google Wave work nicely in IE6, which doesn't support HTML5 standards.

However, given that Firefox - and other browsers like Opera - support these standards, there'd be no need for Google to make Chrome Frame for those platforms, except for completeness' sake.

Shaver hopes that won't come to fruition: "I'd be unpleasantly surprised if Google did do a [Firefox] plug-in". "We wouldn't want Google to do for us what they did for Microsoft".

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Related links:

• News - Google Chrome Frame aims to bring IE6 kicking and screaming into today's web
• News - Microsoft warns of Chrome Frame security flaws

Tags: Software Online Google Firefox Mozilla Foundation Microsoft Chrome Google Chrome Frame Browsers

Google planning Chrome Frame for Firefox? originally appeared on http://www.pocket-lint.com on Fri, 02 Oct 2009 10:11:47 +0100