For those of you operating a Windows-mobile powered device, this day promises not to disappoint.  For, you see, Opera decided to release the latest version of their eagerly-anticipated (and what seemed to be indefinitely-delayed) mobile Web browser.  The beta is a free download but will most likely require the purchase of a registration upon it’s final release.  (The last version of Opera Mobile cost about $30…and wasn’t that good.  Granted, it was still better than any version of Internet Explorer Mobile but that’s not saying much.  This version trumps the last one and I’ll most likely be willing to purchase it to improve the Windows-mobile Web browsing experience any way I can.)

Improvements over the last version (v8.65) include performance enhancements, pan & zoom browsing (remarkable and very iPhone-esque), Web standards compliance and the ability to save Web pages and/or images to your phone.

Try it out and I think you’ll agree that it’s definitely the best Windows-mobile based browser out there…at least until Mozilla officially enters the market.

Source: http://www.opera.com/products/mobile

Since Firefox 3 was first released to the public in alpha status, many have enjoyed the new bookmark tagging feature which allows you to not only bookmark your favorite sites but also organize them using tags like many modern online bookmarking services.  In fact, this new feature has even given people the desire to migrate their existing data from the del.icio.us bookmarking service into Firefox.

Delicious allows you to export your bookmarks to an HTML file and while the file does include your various tags, Firefox 3 does not allow tags to be imported via an HTML file.  Instead, the browser uses the .json data interchange format to deal with tags.  So, up until now, I’ve been able import my del.icio.us bookmarks into Firefox via HTML but the many different tags I’ve assigned using the del.icio.us service were NOT imported.

Fortunately, the latest release of Flock, the social browser we’ve covered before, can act as a transition tool to allow for the type of import you want.  Flock, by default, automatically merges del.icio.us bookmarks with your own local bookmarks (including tags) when you engage one of Flock’s "social" features and login to the Delicious service.

Now, as you may have read, the Flock 2.0 beta was released today.  This release finally uses the Firefox 3 code-base thus enabling Flock to use the same bookmarking system (for the most part) as Firefox.  So, if you enable the Delicious service from within Flock 2.0, you can then export your bookmarks to a .json file once Flock has finished integrating them with your local bookmarks.  (Note, this can take more than a few hours depending on the amount of bookmarks you have stored on the del.icio.us service.)  To do this, open up the Favorites Library by going to Favorites > Organize Bookmarks from within Flock 2.0.  (You’ll notice an interface similar to that of the Firefox 3 bookmarks library.)

From there, select the "Import and Backup" option from the main menu and save the .json file to any directory you’d like.

Now, open up Firefox 3 and head over to Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks.  From the main menu, select Import & Backup > Restore > File:

Find the .json file in your file explorer and import the contents.  Once Firefox is finished importing your bookmarks, the tags section over in the navigation area will now contain the entire list of tags you’ve created/assigned through del.icio.us:

Now, normally in Firefox 3 or Flock, you could click on one of those tags and any bookmarks related to that tag would then be displayed over in the left-hand side.  What’s strange, and something I’ve yet to figure out, is that the bookmarks DON’T display in the area on the left when selecting a tag in the nav area.  However, when you type in a tag or a keyword relating to a site you’ve bookmarked from inside the location bar (a.k.a. "awesomebar" or "address bar") in the main Firefox window, the appropriate results display:

Regardless, your favorite sites are now discoverable from within Firefox even if the situation isn’t 100% conventional.  You should also note that, with this scenario, an HTML export of your bookmarks from within Firefox doesn’t perform properly.  A .json export and restore (like we did above) does, however, work properly but you end up with the exact same result…no visible bookmarks in the Bookmarks Manager.

Anyway, it’s a temporary solution if you’re wanting to migrate your data.  If you have any other suggestions or solutions, feel free to contact us (suggest *at* fansoftech *dot* com) or drop a comment below.

Update: the fine individuals at e-accent.com have created a site dedicated to this very idea: http://delicious.e-accent.com.

Basically, you backup your current bookmarks from Firefox (to the .json format.)  Then, you export your current bookmarks from http://del.icio.us (with tags).  Once you have those two files, you can merge them together with e-accent’s tool and the site will generate a .json file that you simply import into Firefox 3.

It worked like a charm for me but I did notice that I needed to un-check the "notes" option when exporting from the Delicious site in order for the e-accent tool to generate a proper merged .json file.  Now, I have all of my del.icio.us bookmarks WITH tags inside Firefox. 

I’ll now be using Mozilla’s Weave Firefox add-on to synchronize these bookmarks with my other machines.  I’m already using Weave to synchronize browser cookies and passwords so this conversion just allows me to rid myself of one extra extension that I have to keep up with when re-installing Firefox on any of my machines.

Just over two months ago, we were among the first to bring attention to a preview version of the del.icio.us extension designed to be compatible with the latest release (3.0) of the Firefox web browser.

Five days ago, the Del.icio.us team announced and subsequently delivered the final version of that extension to the official Mozilla Firefox add-ons repository.  Be sure to check out the official blog post from the del.icio.us team detailing all the new features in the release: "Firefox 3, Delicious and You."

Overall, the extension provides a great way to keep your bookmarks (with tags and notes, too) synchronized on each of your computers and, of course, on your http://del.icio.us account.

(FoT Tip: If you’re a nut for synchronization, you should also check out the Mozilla Weave extension for Firefox.  In addition to bookmark synchronization, Weave also allows you to sync stored passwords, cookies, browser history and saved form data.  Check out what we had to say about that a couple of weeks ago.)

Microsoft devotees shouldn’t feel left out as the team has also announced and released a beta version of an add-on for Internet Explorer.

It’s been quite some time since Google updated the official "Google Browser Sync" Firefox extension.  If you’re unfamiliar with it, the extension enabled you to synchronize your browser bookmarks, history and passwords with any other computer on which you might be running Firefox.

Not only has it not been updated since 2006, the extension isn’t even compatible with the 3rd release of the Mozilla Firefox browser.  (As is typically the case with Google, mum’s the word on any plans and nearly 100 status requests have gone unanswered in the official forum for Google Firefox extensions.)

Mozilla answered the cries of many, however, when it released "Weave" late last year.  The official extension (from the company who brought you the Firefox browser itself) allowed for synchronization of your bookmarks, history and saved form data.  With the next release, they added support for cookies.

Now, with today’s release, they add support for passwords as well…thus leaving Google Browser Sync entirely useless.

The extension even allows for developers to extend Weave for their own applications but you can read more about that, and Weave’s many other features, on the Mozilla Labs blog. Or, you can just download it now: https://services.mozilla.com/.

Note: once you begin the initial synchronization, be prepared for the browser to choke just a little bit while the sync occurs.  Once you’re finished with that initial synchronization, however, it’ll be as smooth as silk to keep your browser information up-to-date on all your computers.

Now, if they only would allow for synchronization of Firefox extensions…

“The extension’s integration into the Firefox Web browser is unparalleled and offers the following priceless, time-saving features…”

Apple today released the public beta of its’ Safari Web browser.  The unique aspect of today’s release, as you might have guessed from this post’s title, is that a Windows version of the beta was released as well.  With the exception of the Quicktime/iTunes combo, this, as far as I can recall, is the only other software application that Apple has released for the Windows platform in recent history.

Safari, of course, is just the latest in a long, long, long line of Windows-based Web browsers including Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Flock.  So, why does Apple think you should use it on your XP/Vista machine?  Speed.  As far as I can tell, this seems to be the only major difference between Safari and its’ many other competitors.  As an example, Apple claims that Safari “loads pages up to 2 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2.“  We did a test here and noticed that some of the pages we were pulling up in Safari were, in fact, coming up faster than they were in Firefox.

However, being able to pull up cnn.com 200 milliseconds faster (that’s 0.2 seconds, people) doesn’t seem to be worth giving up the plethora of Firefox extensions that are available to me.  Nor do I feel that it’s worth giving up my beloved Ctrl+Enter, Shift+Enter and Ctrl+Shift+Enter shortcuts for entering addresses.*  Other than the speed factor, Safari also includes everything we’ve come to expect from a modern browser including tabbed browsing, a pop-up blocker, and even something Microsoft has YET to comprehend: inline search.  Again, Firefox has it covered there as well.

I might also add that this beta release includes some graphic display issues (ironic, huh?) that one might not expect from a public beta; perhaps an alpha release, but not a beta, and certainly not from Apple - a company known for smooth graphics in its’ apps and OS.  Of course, this is a very minor issue and shouldn’t prevent you from giving the browser a test if you’ve been wanting to.

*While in Firefox, type in “google” in the address bar.  Instead of hitting “enter,” try the combinations I referred to instead.  Hitting “Ctrl+Enter” will automatically add the “http://” and “.com” to your address and take you to the page.  “Shift+Enter” adds the same prefix but takes you to the “.net” TLD.  And, as you might presume, “Ctrl+Shift+Enter” would take you to Google’s philanthropic site located at the “.org” TLD.

Update: Apple also previewed the latest version of the Mac OS X OS, Leopard at WWDC which boasts over 300 new features including:

“…a new Desktop and Dock with Stacks, an intuitive new way to organize files; an updated Finder featuring Cover Flow™ and a new way to easily browse and share files between multiple Macs; Quick Look, a new way to rapidly preview most files without opening an application; Time Machine, a new way to easily and automatically back up and restore lost files or a complete Mac®; Spaces, a powerful new feature to create groups of applications and instantly switch between them; and enhanced iChat and Mail applications, which easily allow users to communicate even more creatively.”

Check out the complete press release at Apple.com: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11leopard.html.

The first release candidate for Firefox 2.0 is available for download.

Why are you still here?

Go!

technorati tags:mozilla, firefox, rc1

Google Browser Sync
Google has released an official Firefox extension to be used as a tool for synchronizing the following Firefox profile aspects: Cookies, Saved Passwords, Bookmarks, History, as well as your last active session's open Tabs and Windows. This thing is going to save me and a lot of other people some serious time. Now, if only they'll synchronize extensions…

(The extension seems to be working perfectly even in Flock. However, I'm not entirely sure the browsing history is being synced. That's possibly because of the way Flock stores its' browsing history…I believe it's different than Firefox.)

Firefox 3.0 Will Not Be Supported for Windows 98, ME Users
The Mozilla Foundation has publicly stated that the 3rd generation of the Firefox browser will no longer support these two elderly operating systems. Despite the negative reaction from some people, I have to agree. Why support an OS that Microsoft itself isn't even supporting anymore? I'd rather see Mozilla spend their time on newer, much-needed features than trying to make sure the browser is compatible on one operating system that's nearly 10 years old and another that's considered by most to be one of the worst tech products of all time.

(from TechWhack.com)

Yahoo Launches Custom IE7
Customized by the Internet Explorer Administration Kit, Yahoo has launched their own version of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 featuring the Yahoo! Toolbar and Yahoo! Mail integration.

"This might be their way to take on Google’s collaboration with Mozilla Firefox browser and Microsoft’s integration of IE7 in the upcoming Vista operating system."

Gee…ya think?

(from TechWhack.com)

After alpha test upon alpha test upon release candidate upon release candidate…Mozilla has finally released a well…final version of Firefox 1.5 You can download it here and, while you’re there, check out the new Firefox homepage and “Add-ons” section.