Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 is the fourth development milestone and second beta release of Firefox 3.1, the next version of the Firefox web browser.
New features (for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows) include:
• Private Browsing Mode
• Faster JavaScript engine
• Improved rendering
• Support for new web technologies
Arnold Kim reports for MacRumors, “But one feature unique to the Mac build is support for Apple’s multi-touch trackpad which has been shipping in notebooks since January of this year.”
Supported gestures are even more robust than Safari’s support and include:
(“Swipe” refers to 3-finger Swipe)
• Swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
• Swipe Right: Go forward in history
• Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
• Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
• Pinch Together: Zoom out
• Pinch Apart: Zoom in
• Twist Right: Next tab
• Twist Left: Previous tab
More info in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “IslandGirl” for the heads up.]
How the hell does Firefox outdo Safari on multi-touch gestures?
Safari has to be the most pathetic product Apple makes. “It’s better than IE” sounded great about six years ago but not now.
yeah safari does suck. ichat sucks too.
Apple seems to to focus their hokus pokus on one thing at a time.
Safari has been on safari.
Safari is still better than IE and always will be unless they somehow make it so I can code a website for firefox or safari and for once… without altering code, redirecting to another page, or running a script… look exactly the same in IE
I have to agree. I was a die hard supporter of Safari, but I switched to Firefox when 3.0 came out and then the 3.1 beta came out with it’s Tracemonkey javascript. While not enabled then (an easy fix) it’s is now and it’s faster than ever! Now with the swipe gestures enabled as well as other gestures it rules! Also, it’s about time someone included a true “zoom” feature in a Mac browser! I hated the way that Safari would just increase the font size. I’m a Firefox user from now on!
I have been incredibly pleased with Firefox. The Stumble Upon add-on is worth it alone!
ichat sucks too.
Not sure what part of iChat such for you, but I’ve struggled hard and failed to find any other solution that allows me to have effortless 4-way video conference on moderate broadband connection. There may be other free video-conferencing solutions out there (for Mac too), but iChat blows them out of the water with remarkable robustness (keeps the audio and video streaming even if bandwidth drops down to 30kbps – dial-up speeds!!) and hardly ever has audio drop-outs. Far superior to Skype, MSN or any other A/V teleconferencing solution. So, how is iChat so bad?
But I don’t have a MultiTouch MacBook so it’s no good for me. Also, I love the Safari minimalist look. And did you know that, to make it more IE-like with stupid buttons, you can add some useful little tools by ctrl-clicking on the address bar and clicking “Customize Toolbar…”? So there we are. And I hate Firefox because it made my cousins’ MacBook kernel panic 3 times. So there. Again.
Yes, jtc, we know it’s better than IE. And so is my right nut. My point was that beating the lowest standard isn’t good enough in today’s highly competitive browser atmosphere.
The only two new “Features I could not get to work in Safari on my Macbook Pro (w/ mouse button) were:
• Twist Right: Next tab
• Twist Left: Previous tab
Every other gesture works just fine…
Safari is easily a terrible brower. I had very high hopes for the 3.0 version but have been crushed by how god awful it is. I just dont understand why Safari doesnt get better? Apple has over 16000 employees. Are only 1 of them working on Safari? And I try to use Safari on Windows also. My god, it just gets worse and worse.
I REALLY want to use Safari. But Apple’s quality just keeps diving into the Dumper.
I don’t know what you guys are smoking…but my Safari has not givin me any problem. I’m on my MacBook Pro Core Duo…and it’s a refurb that I bought back in 12/2006.
If you are happy with IE, then go back to it. I can tell you this, IE definitely sucks for me.
To all those posters that say Safari is a terrible browser, please, show some proof.
I am very pleased using the nightly builds of Webkit.
@ silverwarloc
You want proof? Fine, here’s your proof. EVERY last time I use Safari, after 1 or 2 hours of being on, it uses 99% CPU power. EVERY last time. I cant leave Safari on longer than 1 hour until that happens. Also, it is not uncommon at all for Safari to use 500-700 megs of RAM. I just dont have that kind of RAM to spare.
Safari CONSTANTLY loses my login information for about 7 forums that I frequent every day. Firefox never loses them.
It is a HUGE pain to use Safari, and trust me I have tried to use it a lot.
Our IT department here at work changed from Firefox 2 to IE 7 this week. The reason? Everytime they did a Winblows Server 2003 patch, it screwed up the Firefox profile. I begged to just upgrade to Firefox 3, but they said it wasn’t ready for prime time yet.
Mafia$oft’s extortion continues.
And, IE 7 has got to be the worst browser EVER! It can’t even remember the homepage I set for it. There is no global “history” menu item – you can only view the history for your current tab or window by clicking on a tiny arrow next to the forward and back buttons. There is no way to view all the sites you went to yesterday, for example. Absolutely TERRIBLE!
Ratty,
Download Webkit. It is the rendering engine for Safari and has solved all of those problems you describe. Safari’s version of Webkit is months behind. When you download Webkit and launch it, it will still say “Safari” in the menubar because only the rendering engine is Webkit. All the other bits are from the Safari frameworks. It looks identical to Safari except that the Dock icon has a gold rim around it.
@ Cubert
Thanks for the suggestion! Why is Safari so far behind?
Is Mozilla the first third-party developer to support Multi-Touch? Apple has at least an 18-month head start over MS with Multi-Touch and it seems it’s being wasted …
Cant wait for multi-touch!
Would download the Beta now, but don’t want to loose all of my beloved extensions/addons.
Meh. Sorry, but Safari is fine for me. Firefox just seems like a “hacker’s” browser — it concentrates on features features features features features and uber-customizability and less on the simple browsing experience.
Here’s an example: Why the hell does Firefox insist on opening up its initial window fullscreen? That’s just retarded. I didn’t buy a big monitor to have one app blot the whole thing out. Oh sure, knowing Firefox, there’s probably one of its umpteen zillion settings I could turn off to fix that, but why should I have to?
I have Firefox, keep it up to date, and use it for a few sites. But I could never imagine using it as my primary browser. Safari is just so much more of a simpler, cleaner experience.
——RM
@Ratty,
My only guess is their (unfounded) fear about overall stability, although I’ve found Webkit to be much faster and more stable than Safari.
Stop crying. Get a PC with IE and be happy for once.
@zit
I have a PC that just happens to run OS X – or if I so choose, I can run Windows and IE. Lines are blurring, aren’t they?
Wake up and join us here in 2008.
Ok, I downloaded webkit but it is not clear to me how to use it. It’s not an application like I expected. Do I just run Safari now and now it will use webkit? How do i get started?
Ratty,
It is an application. Drop it into your app folder and launch it. Like I said before, it will launch as Safari (in the menu bar) but will have a Safari icon with a gold rim around it.