Talking

Firefox 4.0 beta 2 just released yesterday.It built up a lot of improvements on the outline and enhanced the overall performance in order to face the competitions from the coming IE9 and Google Chrome.

The following long lists are the things done by the engineers in this latest version.

• Firefox 4 Beta 2 is available in 24 languages.
• Tabs are now on top by default on Windows and OSX - Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
• You can turn any tab into an "App Tab" by right-clicking on it and selecting "Make into App Tab" from the context menu.
• Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions.
• Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system.
• JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations.
• Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation.
• See the complete changelist from the previous beta.

As well as these features from previous Firefox 4 Betas:

• You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
• New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
• Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions.
• The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like).
• Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
• CSS Transitions are partially supported.
• Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time.
• Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently.
• Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format.
• An experimental Direct2D rendering backend is available on Windows, turned off by default.
• Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API.
• Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs.
• More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.
• Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload.
• CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history.
• New HTML5 parser.
• Support for more HTML5 form controls.

Developers can find out about all the changes and new features at the Mozilla Developer Center.

However,what I like here is the new feature-App Tab.You can see how it works in my pics:

I always open Google Reader and Facebook when I’m surfing Internet.The normal tab occupies unnecessary spaces.Well,now I can just simply make a right click on the tab and select to ‘make into App Tab’ and it then is reduced to a lovely size.It’s nice,isn’t it?

The bad thing is most of my existing add-ons are not yet supported.I think the developers will catch their work up.I just hope it won’t be too long.

If you wanna try this new Firefox,please get it here and install it.You will have a fresh experience.

If you are an Android phone user,I bet you know what I’m talking about.Since last month,Android 2.2(code name:Froyo) was introduced by Android team and in the past several weeks,some Nexus One users had reported they got some different patches of Froyo.

Some insiders of Google told that they were still doing the testing and bug-fixing and so only app developers and some press were given to try the new version first.However,today has a different story.In the early morning,I had got some information over the Internet that some builds for all Nexus One phones were found in the Google server and the direct links were exposed very quickly.I’m the one who downloaded and installed Froyo manually in my Nexus One by referring the instructions from the comments in Engadget.

One hour after I installed Froyo in my device,I caught an article from Google Nexus One board declared Froyo is starting to OTA to all Nexus One users from today.Most Nexus One users will receive the notification of upgrade by the end of this week.

So if you are so patient,you could wait for some more days to get the automatic upgrade;if you are just like me,you can download and install it manually to enjoy the power of Froyo first.

For Build number ERE27:http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-ota-42745.dc39ca1f.zip

For Build number EPE54B:http://android.clients.google.com/packages/passion/signed-passion-FRF85B-from-EPE54B.75b107d6.zip

Please follow the steps to get Froyo correctly running in your device:

1.Rename the downloaed file to update.zip
2.Put it at the root of your SD-Card and then turn off the phone.
3.Hold down the volume button and then press the power on button, it should go into a boot screen. Wait for a few seconds for it to load up proper and then select "Recovery" with the volume down/up button and press the power button.
4.Once you see an android holding a sign with an exclamation mark push volume down+ volume up + power button _at the same time_.
5.Select "apply sdcard:update.zip"(or something similiar) with the trackball and press it.
6.After the update is finished select "reboot system now" with the trackball and press it.
7.Wait for it to reboot, it can take a long time mind you.

(Thanks the reader afinite in Engadget for the detailed information.)

Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 beta just released 7 hours ago and I’m applying it in my laptop already.Windows Live Messenger is the most popular software for me,so I decided to try that first.

The default view has rich contents there,including ‘highlights’,’photos’,’status’ etc.It’s a real mixture of social network tool and instant message software.

It also has a traditional view aka a compact view to slim the windows.

Once you open a chatting window,you can find nothing changed except a bar with some functions.

So from now on,if you want to disappear to some of your friends,you can set to appear offline to the person whilst other people can still see you there.
Here are my rough comments on the very new Windows Live Messenger beta and I think I should take more time to dig out more knowledge on this.You guys could download and install this new stuff to try it out too.It may make you look cool,huh? 

Get it here…

(BTW,I edited this article on the latest Windows Live Writer beta,the experience is much better than the old version.Thumb up!!!)

What is QR code?

According to Wikipedia,a matrix code (or two-dimensional bar code) created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994. The "QR" is derived from "Quick Response", as the creator intended the code to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.

QR Codes are common in Japan, where they are currently the most popular type of two dimensional codes. Moreover, most current Japanese mobile phones can read this code with their camera.

I find that is a very interesting tool.In fact,if all products have QR code,we could use our smartphone with QR scanner to get enough information with just one click or something.

You could find a lot of QR code generator online,so you’re able to create a QR code to match any stuff you have,including your blog.

This is the QR code for my blog:

If you have Google Goggles or Barcode scanner in your mobile phone,just try to snap the QR code and see what you get.Is that great?

Firefox 3.6 comes out after 2 release candidates.The new Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 platform which is enhanced and providing some new features for the users:

Hurry up!Please click there to get the latest Firefox in order to enjoy a fresh experience on browsing the websites.I bet you will never regret.