Firefox 11 Ready For Download only For Windows, OS X & Linux

 

It wasn’t that long ago when users had to wait an eternity for the developers over at Mozilla and Google to push out new versions of the popular Firefox and Chrome web browsers. In fact, pretty much every major browser version seemed to have an extremely long shelf life before the developers felt it needed an update and brought new and improved features to the public. Thankfully, it looks as though that trend of making users wait for improvements has been put to bed, with Mozilla pumping out the updates thick and fast for its Firefox browser.

It was only the end of January that the development team released Firefox version 10 into the wild, bringing numerous security fixes as well some additional features such as CSS3 3D transforms and anti-aliasing for WebGL. Just under six weeks down the line and Mozilla have today released Firefox version 11 which doesn’t offer any mind blowing enhancements or new features and can be seen as a more evolutionary update rather than revolutionary. The quick release seems to fall in line with the new browser update strategy which has been adopted to keep up with Google who decided to significantly reduce the time scales in between their Chrome browser releases.

Firefox is one of the world’s most popular web browsers and will obviously have a massive amount of people heading for the download button, but just what is included in the version 11 build? Well, as mentioned earlier, there isn’t a great deal to get excited about, but it does feature a few significant improvements which will benefit both developers and the average user, as well as offering the obligatory bug fixes which are present in every build.

The most notable addition to Firefox version 11 is the ability to migrate bookmarks, browsing history and stored cookies from Google Chrome, with Mozilla also adding synchronization features for add-ons and adding support for some additional CSS properties. From a developers point of view, Firefox 11 brings the availability of the CSS style editor as well as being able to fully visualize a web page in 3D thanks to the new page inspector 3D view. A number of fixes have also been implemented which were left outstanding in the previous build, most notably a fix which brings redesigned HTML5 video controls, as well as rectifying the issue which prevented Growl notifications from being displayed when using Growl 1.3 or later.
With the time scales between each release being significantly cut, it is to be expected that each new public release will be more of an incremental build rather than one which comes out with an array of new and impressive features. However, with that in mind, the shorter time scales will also see any annoying bugs or issues being ironed out a lot quicker.

    Download Firefox 11 [Windows]
    Download Firefox 11 [Mac]
    Download Firefox 11 [Linux]
 

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Facebook Timeline "The Voice" You Vote on Facebook

 

Fans of NBC’s The Voice can now vote for their favorite contestants via a new app for Facebook Timeline.

Facebook Timeline users can begin voting for artists on The Voice on Monday, when the app will be released. Fans can also share their views with Facebook
friends, connect with others and track artists via the app.

“This app gives our already socially-savvy fans another way to connect and share,” Vivi Zigler, president of NBC Universal Digital Entertainment, said in a statement. “From declaring their favorite artist to discovering friends’ preferences to interacting with more content, the app creates a fully social online voting experience.”

It also allows users to access related content from the show, including performance videos and blogs.

This isn’t the first time The Voice has turned to the online world to encourage voting. Last year, the show allowed fans to vote by buying the contestants’ songs on iTunes.

Other shows have also used social media to help with the voting process. In November 2011, the U.S. version of The X Factor allowed viewers to vote for their favorite performer via direct messages on Twitter

Meanwhile, American Idol let viewers vote on the show’s Facebook page during season 10.

Facebook announced in January that it would be adding apps to its site, so members could share more information about their interests, what they’re reading and what they’re doing online. Apps currently range from The Washington Post to Nike.

Are you more likely to vote for contestants on shows such as The Voice via social networking sites, rather than texting? Let us know in the comments.

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Apple Release Information about iPad battery indicator

There was another small dust-up this week over the new iPad and its battery, following a rash of complaints that the device charges too slowly. On Monday, DisplayMate analyst Raymond Soneira published an in-depth technical review of the new device, reporting that the battery indicator was showing more charge than it should.

According to Soneira, the battery indicator shows 100 percent charged before it reaches full charge, then continues charging and finishes its power cycle. With the battery at “100 percent,” he said, the iPad gets around 10.4 hours of battery life; with it charged past that point, he got 11.6 hours. In all of Apple’s ads, the company promises 10 hours of battery life.

when the battery indicator first says 100 percent the battery is actually only 90 percent charged and you get 1.2 hours less running time,” he wrote.

Apple responded to Soneira’s report in a conversation with All Things Digital, saying that the same is true of all iOS devices, and that the company has decided to show battery life that way to keep an optimum charge.

According to Apple vice president for iPad product marketing Michael Tchao, “That circuitry is designed so you can keep your device plugged in as long as you would like.” He added, “It’s a great feature that’s always been in iOS.”

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Keyboard For iPad for Users who Fully Customize Their On-Screen Keyboard

iOS developer Ganbold, who has brought customizable keyboards to the iPhone has now released a similar tweak which brings the ability to alter and arrange the keyboard on a jailbroken iPad. 5 Row Customizable Keyboard for iPad has recently hit Cydia and works in the same manner as its younger brother, which is for the iPhone. Apple have a dedicated Settings entry within iOS that allows users to define certain international keyboards, but these are pre-defined layouts and don’t give the user a more advanced option of creating a keyboard to suit specific layout requirements.

Ganbold has today released his latest offering, which is a variant of the keyboard tweak dedicated to the iPad and is available through the BigBoss repository as a commercial installation for jailbroken iPads running iOS 5 or higher. Once installed, the keyboard is activated by heading over to Settings >> General >> Keyboard and then selecting International Keyboards to bring up a list of all available keyboards. Searching for, and selecting ’5 Row’ will activate the keyboard, turning the iPad into a 5 row typing powerhouse.

The tweak itself replaces the Russian keyboard and allows it to become customizable to most countries and languages that are not included in the native iOS installation on the iPad. Four keyboard rows and the forty four keys contained on them can be modified through the tweak’s settings panel, users will then need to repsring the iPad for any changes to take effect. One of the great things about this tweak is that it contains support for the iPad’s split keyboard, which is a very nice option.

5 Row Customizable Keyboard for iPad is available to download from the BigBoss repository right now, and requires an iPad running iOS 5 or above.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

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iPhone Allows To Be Used In Landscape Mode Multitasking Switcher for IOS

For those who prefer to embark on their iOS journey in a landscape orientation, it may be slightly annoying that certain native apps and parts of the OS  isn’t set-up with landscape support. Apps such as the default Settings app are strictly portrait-only affairs and no matter how ferociously you flip that device around; it refuses to to budge. The same goes for the multitasking switcher tray which can be invoked by double tapping the Home button on the device. The bar that appears along the bottom on the screen containing backgrounded apps is designed to work in portrait mode only.

The SwitcherLand tweak that has recently landed on the Cydia store aims to solve that issue by introducing support for the alternative landscape orientation when the switcher tray has been invoked by the user. It seems a little strange that such behavior hasn’t been built into iOS as standard by Apple, considering that the default behavior is to show the multitasking tray in portrait only mode, even if the open app is in landscape. With that being the case, the whole user experience is tainted when the Home button is tapped twice, meaning that the user has to literally flip the device to use the tray. While that might not seem like a big deal, it does seem to go against the whole seamless flow of iOS that Apple craves so badly.

After installation, SwitcherLand extends the abilities of the switcher tray to support the alternative orientation but still stays true to the original functionality and contains the familiar media controls, Music app access and even a orientation lock option that allows the user to lock the device into landscape orientation. This particular tweak contains no additional icons or settings entries and requires an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 5 or above.

SwitcherLand is available as a free of charge download from the BigBoss repository.

Of course, you will need to jailbreak your device to install this tweak. For jailbreaking the latest iOS 5.1 (tethered), follow the instructions posted here to jailbreak using Redsn0w, or here for Sn0wbreeze. For jailbreaking iPhone 4S and iPad 2, you can simply follow our step by step tutorial posted here to jailbreak iOS 5.0.1 using Absinthe on Windows or Mac. Those of you with an iPhone 4, 3GS, iPad 1, and iPod touches can use Redsn0w or Sn0wbreeze to untether jailbreak on iOS 5.0.1.

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Opera Mini 7 Better Support to Hardware Acceleration Better Tab Management

Android is known for the sheer variety of excellent third-party apps available in Google Play that are good alternatives to stock, pre-included apps. Mobile browsers, particularly, are available in the dozens with strong ones like Boat Browser, Dolphin and, of course, Opera Mobile/Mini.

Opera Mini was once the world’s most popular mobile browser, but since the rise of Android and iOS, it has lost a great chunk of its share. Still, it offers many features that you simply won’t get in stock browsers on the aforementioned mobile platforms. We’ll get to them in a moment.

Now, Opera has released a new version of its Opera Mini browser for Android with a handful of new features and improvements. Check it out past the jump!

Major new features in the latest version of Opera Mini [Google Play] – version 7 – are actually of the under-the-hood kind with things like support for OpenGLES-based hardware acceleration (which is geek-talk for “smoother scrolling and better performance”), support for Arabic and Hebrew, support for NFC-based Android Beam feature that comes on Android 4.0 and an Exit button. Improved features include being able to set as many websites on Speed Dial as you like, better tab management and a more refined user-interface for the find-in-page feature.

Other than that, Opera Mini maintains its usual set of unique features that make it an absolute must-download for folks on slow mobile internet connections. Opera Turbo compresses web pages on its own servers before sending them to you for quicker access, a tabbed UI, Opera Link to sync bookmarks and settings with desktop Opera and a whole lot more!

We highly recommend you install Opera Mini on your Android device. Even if you have access to high speed internet all the time, it’s best to keep Mini installed just in case.

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Google Create New Maps For Android Users Google Maps 6.5 Better Navigation and suppor HD Graphics

Google Maps is – unsurprisingly – a stock feature of the Big G’s mobile operating system, and has today been served a pretty significant update.

If you’re running one of the premier devices on the market (Galaxy Nexus etc.), then there’s High Definition support which is not only easier to read, but nicer to look at in general. We live in an age where our digital devices are all marketed as facilitating groundbreaking/wonderful/beautifully crisp/(insert adjective) high definition, so you could say the Maps update is not before time.

As well as the HD visuals, the interface has been tweaked for those running Ice Cream Sandwich, and the app now includes preferred public transit mode as well as route options.

Although Ice Cream Sandwich has struggled to reach the masses, but has been widely praised for its new look. The new Google Maps certainly fits in nicely with ICS from an aesthetic point of view, and we’re pretty sure you’ll be as pleased with the updates as we are.

With the voice dictation shown in the video, the ad could easily be mistaken for one of the many Siri videos we’ve been bombarded with since October – but for the tasteful guitar sounds in the background!

The feature allowing users to select and prioritize transit mode has been in the pipeline for a while, and includes a handy ‘Recommended Route’.

Google has been bullishly dominant on the maps front over the past few years, and as well as being on every Android device, Google Maps is also pre-loaded on each and every iOS device. If Apple has its way, that won’t be the case for much longer, since the Cupertino company has reportedly been preparing an alternative of its own.
To conclude, you may also want to hit up the YouTube page of Google Maps, where you’ll find a dozen videos outlining the awesomeness of the updated app, explaining users the benefits of Maps on their Android devices.

Should you prefer to simply cut to the chase and crack on with the app, however, check out the download link below.
Be sure to check out our Android Apps gallery to explore more apps for your Android device.

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Apple Release Next Year 5" inch Retina Display Touching Device

From day-to-day, we see and hear many rumors and supposed ‘inside information’ regarding unconfirmed, unannounced, and unspecified products. Some are plausible, and make sense, if only vaguely, whilst others seem somewhat far-fetched.

The latest in the constant barrage of Apple related gossip reckons the fruit company to be working on a brand new mobile device, complete with a five-inch Retina display. Larger iPod touch? Smaller iPad? Surely not, you might dismiss.

But when one considers the source – Macotakara – the story does gain a little credibility, since the Japanese Apple blog has come through with some useful nuggets of info in the past. Apparently, the device will boast either a 1,600 x 960 pixel or 1,280-by-960 pixel display, and release sometime next year.

Macotakara does concede the source of its info is simply Chinese Whispers, but it’s certainly enough to get us thinking – particularly with the rumors (albeit somewhat unbelievable) that Apple is plotting a smaller iPad having done the rounds earlier this month.

The iPod touch route seems an unlikely one for Apple to take. Although my colleague Oliver Haslam has stressed the device’s importance in terms of Apple maintaining its domineering position in the market, bumping up its size would not seem like a logical move. Apple keeps the touch cheap, so although many perceive it as "an iPhone without the phone bit", it scrimps on almost every feature, right down to the inferior Retina display compared with its cellular cousin.

So that, by rule of elimination, leaves the only feasible possibility to be a mini-me version of the iPad, or a five-inch iPhone. Each seem equally unlikely given that the iPhone and iPad measure in at 3.5 inches and 9.7 inches respectively, so both would take a disproportionate leap in either direction. Then again, as we know, the Samsung Galaxy Note has been selling rather well, seemingly finding a happy median between phone and tablet. Could Apple possibly follow Samsung’s lead?

Let’s face it, although the Samsung Galaxy Note isn’t for everyone, it has certainly caught the attention of the tech world – something scarcely instigated in this market by a company other than Apple. Those that have bought it seem to love it, and those that haven’t have at least considered making the purchase.

What are your thoughts? I’m inclined to think this is make-believe, since I personally don’t subscribe to the notion that Apple will bring out a smaller tablet, and I am even less inclined to think Apple would go large on its iPod touch.

You can follow us on Twitter, add us to your circle on Google+ or like our Facebook page to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google, Apple and the web.

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