The unstoppable machine that is Firefox appears to have surpassed 400 million downloads according to the Spread Firefox site. This number should not be confused with actual installs, but is an impressive figure nonetheless.

It wasn’t that long ago that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer had a stranglehold on the the web browser market, especially after the closing of Netscape. That turned out to actually to be the best thing that ever happened in the browser wars as it led to the direct spawning of the Mozilla Group, which brings us Firefox.

Firefox 3 is still somewhere off in the future, and you can expect to see the numbers jump once that is finally released.

[via Mashable]

Skype was back up and running on Saturday, but the question remains if this week’s outage will have a lasting effect on the confidence people place in the service. Will anyone feel comfortable using Skype as their primary voice communications tool if a multi-day outage is possible?

Villu Arak of Skype had few words on the matter thus far, but promises more to come on Monday.

Hello friends,

Take a deep breath. Skype is back to normal.

On Monday, we’ll provide a more detailed explanation of what happened. Until then, we’d like to apologize and thank you. Precisely in that order. We know how difficult and frustrating the past two days have been. And still, your good wishes kept flowing in. Thank you for the amazing patience, trust and support!

Hopefully there will be more details at that time that will allay people’s fears of another such outage happening.

[Via Mash]

If you’re a WordPress blogger + Firefox user, then this plugin is definitely worth considering. Anirudh created this plugin which integrates into your Firefox browser, giving you a shortcut to install themes and plugins for WordPress with just a click of your mouse. The most attractive feature? You don’t need to go through the hassle of downloading files into your own pc, unzipping, then uploading using a ftp client. The Firefox extension installs and uploads the theme or plugin you want directly from its zip location into your blog folder for you from your browser, hence OneClick!

It seems Google wants to kick out Microsoft from its throne which it has been holding for so many years. Google will be targeting Microsoft PowerPoint with a yet to be named free presentation software. You won�t have to wait much longer for this software as it will be unveiled this summer with Google Apps. It already comprises of free spreadsheet, word processing and calendar programs. You will be able to use it online but can save and view the files offline too. You had been shelling out more than $300 to avail Office suite but Google surely plans to make it a history with its free software.Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google stated:

We believe we can bring presentations to a new level of user satisfaction. We don�t think it competes with Microsoft, because it doesn�t have all the functionality of Office. It�s a different way of sharing information, more casual, and a better fit to how people use the Web

The CEO of the company states that they are not targeting Microsoft but this is hard to believe and by offering similar software and that too free of cost it seems that Google would surely be able to eat into Microsoft�s Office customers at some point of time.

Via usatoday

Mozilla released the latest build of their popular mail client today. Beta Marker reports:

Mozilla Thunderbird is a redesign of the Mozilla mail component. The goal is to produce a cross platform stand alone mail application using the XUL user interface language. The intended customer is someone who uses Mozilla Firefox (or another stand alone browser) as their primary browser and wants a mail client based on mozilla that “plays nice” with the browser.

(more…)

I recently found this cool Firefox trick which coud be a good office practical joke. Just enter this code into your Firefox address bar and hit Enter:

chrome://browser/content/browser.xul

A window of Firefox will open inside Firefox. Reason for this? Who knows..

I tried it in my browser and it worked great, although the the fox suddenly slowed down and became laggy.
Try pasting the url in the address bar of the new FF window. Firefox inside Firefox inside Firefox inside Firefox inside Firefox inside Firefox inside Firefox� see what happends! (;

Disclaimer: I guarantee that this will work with Firefox. But I have no responsibility of any damage that cause Internet Explorer users by Using this with IE to Open Firefox inside IE. (Go on, I know you want to try it)

Skype recently releashed the latest update for their popular VOIP chat client. So far its the best video conferencing software I have come across. Although I’m still not 100% happy with the quality of the video and audio. I guess our local pipes are to blame. For those of you who have been in a cave for the last five years read below, tech savvy readers click the link below.

Skype is the next phenomenon from the people who brought you KaZaA. Just like KaZaA, this uses P2P (peer-to-peer) technology to connect you to other users not to share files this time, but to talk for free with your friends. The technology is extremely advanced – but super simple to use. You’ll be making perfect quality free phone calls to your friends in no time.

Download here

If your feeling brave take the very latest features in the Skype beta for a spin and tell them what you think. Beta Program

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fring � is focused on one simple target. Greater value for the individual. fring does this by harnessing the power of the internet to enable simple daily communications.

The fring � community is growing fast. It�s all about mobile communicators like you and me who are unhappy about being tied to a single provider and being taken advantage of by the all-powerful telcos. fring offers a simple alternative to communication by innovatively leveraging internet and mobile environments to serve your telecommunication needs. Join their community and become a fringster!