How to Enable D2D in Firefox 4

Firefox 4 will be bringing hardware-accelerated graphics with Direct2D support in Firefox 4, but that will not be enabled by default. The Firefox team believes that feature is not quite ready to be rolled out for everyone.

Even though it’s not enabled by default, you can still enable it manually with the help of the instructions given at the Firefox Wiki.

How to Enable D2D in Firefox 4

Follow the instructions below to enable D2D support in Firefox 4:

1. Enter ‘about:config’
2. Click through the warning, if necessary
3. Enter gfx.font in the ‘Filter’ box
4. Double-click on ‘gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled’ to set it to true
5. Below this, right click and select New > Integer to add a pref setting
6. Enter ‘mozilla.widget.render-mode’ for the preference name, 6 for the value
7. Restart

Firefox 4 beta 4 will be released on Monday which will have support for hardware-accelerated graphics!

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Firefox 4 Beta 4 Releasing on Monday

Mozilla will be releasing Firefox 4 beta 4 for download on Monday, just days after beta 3 was released, Neowin reports.

Firefox 4 beta 4 will be released with two new features: hardware-accelerated graphics for Windows users and tab sets.

Hardware-accelerated graphics with Direct2D will not be enabled by default as their code is not that ready yet. D2D will make Firefox faster by helping in displaying texts and images.

Tab sets (aka tab candy) will allow users to group their tabs together into sets, such as ‘Work’, ‘Home’ etc.

Mozilla will release Firefox 4 beta 5 probably next month, which will be the last beta release before RC is released.

[via Neowin]

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Fennec for Android Pre-Alpha, Download Now!

Fennec for Android, Firefox Mobile, ‘super’ pre-alpha version is now available for download! Yes, it is still in its very early stages, but atleast it could open websites ;)

It has been a long time since Firefox has been talking about Fennec for Android and promised with an alpha release soon. They kept their promise, and the first alpha release is out for public download.

I have tried it on my Nexus One and it seriously has the best rendering of webpages among other Android browsers. Why and how? I’ll get on to this in another blog post. It has many bugs and glitches, but it performs the basic functions well, including installation and adding of Firefox Mobile addons. I even tweeted using the TwitterBar addon for Fennec here.

Download Fennec for Android

You need to have atleast a Motorola Droid or Nexus One in order to try out Fennec. Download it from the link below.

Download Fennec for Android

Some points to keep in mind, taken from the developer’s blog.

• We’ve only really tested this on the Motorola Droid and the Nexus One.
• It will likely not eat your phone, but bugs might cause your phone to stop responding, requiring a reboot.
• Memory usage of this build isn’t great — in many ways it’s a debug build, and we haven’t really done a lot of optimization yet. This could cause some problems with large pages, especially on low memory devices like the Droid.
• You’ll see the app exit and relaunch on first start, as well as on add-on installs; this is a quirk of our install process, and we’re working to get rid of it.
• You can’t open links from other apps using Fennec; we should have this for the next build.
• This build requires Android 2.0 or above, and likely an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device.
• Edit: This build must be installed to internal memory, not to a SD card.

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Fennec for Android Download Now Available

Fennec for Android is now available for download, unofficially though. Mozilla said they would be soon releasing a working, simple alpha release of Fenenc but it’s nowhere to be seen so far.

A developer at Android forums managed to grab the dump from Mozilla Wiki and compile it in to an app that he tried and tested on his Motorola Droid.

I tried to make it work on my Nexus One, but it didn’t work at all. Next I’ll be trying it on my HTC Hero, but I doubt it will work on that too as it is on Android 1.5 – may be I’ll have to flash an Android 2.0 ROM on it. Get Fennec now!

Check out the demo videos the developer uploaded below:

If you enjoyed this post, y

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Firefox for Android Coming in February

Firefox Mobile is still in development and we are already hearing of a Firefox for Android version expected to release next month. Firefox for Maemo and Windows Mobile is already in development.

Firefox for Android alpha version is being expected in February as the development work on it started back in December 2009. This news was posted on the German Firefox community site.

It is not sure what features the Firefox for Android will have, but it seems it will be a very basic app to display web pages.

A look at the Firefox Android wiki pages hints that the Firefox for Android will run on Android devices running on Android 1.6 or higher. It won’t work on Android 1.5 devices like the HTC Hero, HCT Droid Eris etc.

The Firefox for Android wiki page can be found here. Or you can grab the Firefox for Maemo 1.0 Release Candidate version for the Nokia N900 by pointing to Firefox.com/m.

[Via TheMobileBlog]

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Accelerate Page Scrolling in Firefox 3.6

Firefox 3.6 was released a few days back and is available for download. The tips and tricks for Firefox 3.6 have already started popping up on the Internet.

This latest Firefox release brings in lots of new features and updates. It was downloaded over 4.5 million times on the first day and  has been downloaded 17 million times in its first week.

In the early Firefox 3.6 builds, a new page scrolling was implemented which was later turned off due to some compatibility issues. That feature is still better for many who find the current page scrolling slow in Firefox 3.6.

How to Accelerate Page Scrolling in Firefox 3.6

To enable this, follow the simple steps given below:

1. Go to about:config by typing it in the address box.
2. Now search for mousewheel.acceleration.start using the filter box and set it to the number of successive mouse scrolls that will trigger acceleration. (Recommended: 3)
3. Then in mousewheel.acceleration.factor change its value to how many times faster you want to scroll. (Recommended: 5)

That’s it! Your page scrolling with the mouse wheel in Firefox 3.6 should be a lot better now. You can play with the number of values and see what works best for you.

[Via Mozilla Links]

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Firefox 3.6 Portable now Available

Firefox 3.6 (final) was released yesterday which brings in better Javascript speed, Personas support and tons of new improvements i.e. speed.

PortableApps has released a portable version of Firefox 3.6 which you can carry anywhere you want.

This version would allow Firefox 3.6 to be used from your USB stick. No data will be saved on the computer you will be using it. It has the same features as the final (full) Firefox 3.6.

Download Firefox 3.6 Portable

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