TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Firefox 3 RC1 is a developer preview release of Mozilla's next generation Firefox browser.

Alternatively you can download the latest stable version of this software.

Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 33 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 14,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers.

Features:

* Easier password management. An information bar at the top of the browser window now appears to allow you to save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation. You can now install extensions from third-party download sites in fewer clicks, thanks to the removal of the add-on download site whitelist.
* New Download Manager. The download manager makes it easier to locate your downloaded files.
* Resumable downloads. You can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* Full page zoom. From the View menu and using keyboard shortcuts, you can now zoom in and out on the content of entire pages -- this scales not just the text but the layout and images as well.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu. Tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu features.
* Save what you were doing. Firefox 3 prompts you to see if you'd like to save your current tabs when you exit Firefox.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior. Opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs instead of replacing the existing ones.
* Easier to resize location and search bars. You can now easily resize the location and search bars using a simple resize handle between them.
* Text selection improvements. You can now select multiple ranges of text using the Control (Command on Macintosh) key. Double-clicking and dragging now selects in "word-by-word" mode. Triple-clicking selects an entire paragraph.
* Find toolbar. The Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management. Users can now disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* Integration with Windows Vista. Firefox's menus now display using Vista's native theme.
* Integration with Mac OS X. Firefox now supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates.
* Star button. The new star button in the location bar lets you quickly add a new bookmark with a single click. A second click lets you file and tag your new bookmark.
* Tags. You can now associate keywords with your bookmarks to easily sort them by topic.
* Location bar and auto-complete. Type the title or tag of a page in the location bar to quickly find the site you were looking for in your history and bookmarks. Favicons, bookmark, and tag indicators help you see where the results are coming from.
* Smart Bookmarks folder. Firefox's new Smart Bookmarks folder offers quick access to your recently bookmarked and tagged places, as well as pages you visit frequently.
* Bookmarks and History Organizer. The new unified bookmarks and history organizer lets you easily search your history and bookmarks with multiple views and smart folders for saving your frequent searches.
* Web-based protocol handlers. Web applications, such as your favorite web mail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is provided for other protocols as well. (Note that web applications do have to register themselves with Firefox before this will work.)
* Easy to use Download Actions. A new Applications preferences pane provides an improved user interface for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.
* Improved look and feel. Graphics and font handling have been improved to make web sites look better on your screen, including sharper text rendering and better support for fonts with ligatures and complex scripts. In addition, Mac and Linux (Gnome) users will find that Firefox feels more like a native application for their platform than ever, with a new, native, look and feel.
* Color management support. By setting the gfx.color_management.enabled preference in [about:config], you can ask Firefox to use the color profiles embedded in images to adjust the colors to match your computer's display.
* Offline support. Web applications can take advantage of new features to support being used even when you don't have an Internet connection.