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Now that Mozilla has shipped Firefox 3.0 they have begun working on the next milestone that’s due out at the end of 2008. Firefox 3.1 Alpha (code named Shiretoko) is should be released on July 25th according to ZDNet, and the first Beta is expected as early as August.
The new release will have a decent number of new features, but most of them are designed to add some polish to the existing version of Firefox. Here are some things that you can expect to see before the final version makes it out the door:
- Tag autocomplete
- Bulk tagging support
- A private browsing mode
- Enhanced compatibility checking for add-on upgrades
- “Awesomebar” improvements
- More CSS3 properties
- and more…
One thing that can already be found in the nightly builds of Firefox 3.1 is a new interface for switching between tabs using the Ctrl+Tab key combination. What you’ll see is a thumbnail preview of each tab as you switch between them. Here’s an animated screenshot that shows how this will work:
The animation when switching between the tabs is pretty smooth, which is something you may not gather from the animated screenshot that I posted. This exact functionality, plus some, can already be attained by Firefox 3.0 users thanks to the Ctrl-Tab extension that served as a prototype for this.
It looks like Mozilla has given us something else to look forward to now. If you don’t feel like waiting you can jump over and grab the latest nightly release of Firefox 3.1 here, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
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Tags: Firefox, Freeware, Pre-Release, Software, Alpha, Browser, Firefox 3, Screenshots
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“Firefox 3.1 Alpha (code named Shiretoko) is should be released on July 25th according to ZDNet, and the first Beta is expected as early as August.”
LOL. Famous last words! Look at how long it took them to get Firefox 3 out. Granted Firefox 3.1 is suppose to be more of a “we didn’t get around to adding these features” than a redesign. So we shall see, but to have the first Alpha and Beta within in a month of each other seems a bit hasty to me.
Oh and I am going to check out the Ctrl-Tab extension and see if it is any good. I’ll likely do a review as well, since I am in mood to write them this morning.
That’s what I was thinking if they are shooting for an end-of-the-year release, but I’m guessing they’d rather get it out soon rather than later. Although when you consider what each of the different stages means it kinda makes sense. Alpha is when they get all features and functionality implemented, and then Beta is for bug fixes/polish. Since there aren’t going to be a lot of new features it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that they are moving into the Beta stage so rapidly.
I bet there are more complaints about adding extension functionality to the release itself
Looks pretty cool! I’m excited. Hey, r u sure about the private browsing? I didn’t see it at your Fx3.1 status meetings link.
I was using LastTab for ctrl+tab functionality, which has more features than Ctrl-Tab and was compatible with Fx3 before Ctrl-Tab, but the latter does look more like something to add to the general release I have to agree. Nice move
Hopefully they modify the awesome bar so that users can exclude some URL’s from it.
Looks awesome, I am using that extension right now and really adds to the whole eye candy. Plus looks like it belong with compiz-fusion.
The extension was originally started as a prototype for the feature though, and so it was expected that someday some of the functionality would get implemented.
It’s a number one priority for the first alpha:
[wiki.mozilla.org]
I think that would be too advanced for a built-in feature. I wouldn’t hold your breath for that.
It does actually look like something that would come with Compiz Fusion.
@Ryan: Awesome! So we’ll get two pretty big features (alt+tab and private browsing) right off the bat. Mozilla’s really stepping it up.
Hmm, it’s the 26th, where is it?
It is now slated for ‘End of July’ see [wiki.mozilla.org]