Pages

February 24, 2015

Firefox 36 Find out what is new

By Martin Brinkmann on February 24, 2015 in Firefox - Last Update: February 24, 2015 5

Firefox 36 will be released to the public on February 24th, 2015 by Mozilla.

All Firefox channels are moved up a version on the release day which means that Firefox Stable installations are moved to version 36, Beta versions to 37, Developer versions to 38 and Nightly installations to 39.

Firefox Extended Support Release builds are also updated to version 31.5 on the day.

The easiest way to find out which version (and channel) of the browser you are running is to type about:support in the browser's address bar.

The page that is loaded displays various information about the browser including the current version and channel under application basics near the top.

Firefox 36 download and update

firefox 36


All Firefox updates are already listed on Mozilla's public FTP server. The updates are made available in two different ways to the general public.
Most Firefox installations will be updated automatically thanks to the browser's built-in update feature.
To check for updates manually tap on the Alt-key on the keyboard and select Help > About Firefox from the menu that opens up.
The second option to obtain the update is to download it from Mozilla once it becomes available on the site.
While it may be tempting to download the release early from the FTP server, last minute changes may invalidate it which can lead to all kinds of issues.
  1. Firefox Beta download
  2. Firefox Developer download
  3. Nightly download

Firefox 36 Changes

Firefox 36 is a minor update in many regards but it includes several important changes under the hood that may impact functionality.
Full HTTP/2 support
This is an important addition to Firefox. HTTP/2 landed recently in its final form which needs to be integrated into web browsers so that users can benefit from it.
HTTP/2 is an update of the original HTTP protocol promising faster browsing, reduced bandwidth usage and secure connection improvements.
While Firefox 36 supports the final h2 protocol for negotiation, not all features of it are implemented in the version as Mozilla engineer Patrick McManus notes on his personal blog.


Partial Media Source Extensions (MSE) support


mediasource


Partial support for MSE was added to Firefox to support native HTML5 playback on YouTube. A quick check on YouTube revealed that Flash is still used when available in Firefox 36 and that you need to request the HTML5 player if Flash is installed.
If Flash is not installed or if it is disabled, the HTML5 player is automatically used on the site. This implementation is limited to select video resolutions only. You may notice that the highest resolution available is 720p when you use the HTML Flash player on YouTube in Firefox 36.
This changes when you set the parameter media.mediasource.enabled to true.
  1. Type about:config in the address bar and hit enter.
  2. Confirm you will be careful if the prompt appears.
  3. Search for media.mediasource.enabled.
  4. Double-click the entry to set it to true.
Once done, higher resolutions become available on YouTube.


Flash's protected mode sandbox can be disabled on Windows


flash protected mode


Protected Mode runs Flash Player as a low integrity process. While that is useful to most Firefox users, some experienced issues that they linked to protected mode.
You can disable the mode in the Firefox configuration. Mozilla plans to disable the mode completely in Firefox 37.
  1. Type about:config and hit enter.
  2. Find dom.ipc.plugins.flash.disable-protected-mode.
  3. Double-click the preference to set it to true.
The procedure disables protected mode in Firefox. You can verify that this is indeed the case by monitoring Flash process in the Task Manager. If you see plugin-container.exe in the task manager when Flash contents are running it is disabled.
Add-on compatibility changes
Several changes went into Firefox 36 that may affect add-on compatibility. What this means is that some add-ons may stop working completely or partially once you update the browser to version 36 of Firefox.
You find the list of add-on compatibility affecting changes on the official Mozilla blog.
Minor Changes
  • Pinned tiles on the new tab page are included in Firefox Sync.
  • The -remote startup parameter has been removed from Firefox. It was used to execute commands in an already running instance of the browser (e.g. open a new url)
  • Uzbek locale added.
  • Insecure RC4 ciphers are no longer accepted if possible (link)
  • 1024-bit RSA keys are phased out.
  • The Crash Reporter is displayed when the shut down hangs.

Developer Changes

  • Connect Developer Tools and Firefox for Android using WebIDE (link)
  • JavaScript code that is evaluated dynamically can be debugged now (link)
  • Promise rich output in the web console (link)
  • Additional paste options in markup view (link)
  • Support for meta name="referrer" added (link)
  • EMCAScript 6 Symbol data type enabled by default (link)
  • Improved ES6 generators (link)

Firefox for Android

firefox tablet
The Firefox 36 for Android update shares the majority of changes with the desktop version of the web browser.
There are only two changes unique to the Android version:
  • Maithili locale added to Android Lollipop devices
  • New Tablet user interface. Additional information about the new tablet UI are available on this website.

Security updates / fixes

Mozilla releases information about security updates and fixes after the final version of Firefox has been available for some time. They are added as soon as they become available.

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/02/24/firefox-36-find-out-what-is-new/

February 18, 2015

These powerful extensions make Firefox unique


While most web browsers support extensions and themes, or are about to, you will notice that they don't necessarily share the same capabilities.Google Chrome for instance has its fair share of extensions and while some of them are unique, it would not be all to difficult to create them for Firefox as well. The same cannot be said however for certain Firefox extensions as Google Chrome limits the capabilities of extensions far more than Mozilla's browser. This article offers a list of popular and powerful add-ons for the Firefox browser that will never be available for other browsers unless the company behind the browser improves the extension engine first. I encourage you to leave comments below to mention additional extensions that are unique to the Firefox browser.

 

Unique Firefox extensions

 

Only extensions compatible with the current stable version of Firefox, that is 35 at the time of writing, are listed. You will also only find add-ons listed here that offer a unique feature that cannot be replicated by other browsers and especially Google Chrome.
Some lesser known browsers may support one or the other feature though.


Private Tab


private tab


Private Tab - While most browsers support private or incognito modes, these are usually implemented as separate windows only.
This means that you will work with two windows, one regular and one private, which is not very comfortable. While you could theoretically only work in private browsing windows, it is not comfortable either depending on how you use the Internet.
Private Tab for Firefox allows you to switch any tab in the browser to a private one.


NoScript


noscript


I have to admit that I'm not certain on this one. NoScript is a Firefox security extension that blocks all scripts from being executed by default among other things.
Last time I read about the possibility of bringing this to Chrome, the author of NoScript stated that Chrome was not providing the functionality needed to make it happen.


Tile Tabs or Tile View


tile tabs


These two extensions allow you to tile the browser window to display multiple websites in a single tab. You can tile them as often as you like and get extensive options to customize the layout and save it as well.
Tile View and Tile Tab are both available on the Mozilla Add-ons repository.


Status-4-Evar


status bar


Status-4-Evar was designed initially to bring back the old status bar of Firefox that Mozilla replaced with the add-ons bar in Firefox 4.
Today, it can do a lot more than that but one of its features is to display a status bar in Firefox that you can add icons to again.


Hide Tab Bar with One Tab


hide-tab-bar


Why display a tab bar if you only display a single tab in Firefox? If you like to browse one tab at a time there is no need to display a tab bar. This can also be useful for kiosk displays or presentations.
Hide Tab Bar with One Tab hides Firefox's tab bar automatically if there is only one tab open in the browser.


All-in-One Sidebar


all-in-one sidebar


All-in-One Sidebar extends Firefox's native sidebar with additional features and options. The default sidebar can be used to display bookmarks or the browsing history.
The extension adds to that Downloads, add-ons, page info and the error console, and lets you switch between those options quickly.


Tab Mix Plus


multi row tabs


Tab Mix Plus is one of Firefox's most popular extensions. It adds lots of features to the browser, too many to list here.
One feature that is unique is that it can enable a multi-row tab bar in Firefox to spread tabs across multiple rows instead of using a scrollbar to display them.


Lightbeam for Firefox


mozilla lightbeam


The browser extension Lightbeam visualizes connections between web servers and sites that you visit in the browser. The most recent version comes with options to block resources right away in the browser.


Tree Style Tab


tree style tab


Tree Style Tab adds vertical tab management to Firefox. It uses sidebar space to display all tabs open in the browser.
The advantage of this method is that you can display more tabs at the same time that display more information compared to horizontal tabs.



FEBE


febe


FEBE, which stands for Firefox Environment Backup Extension, allows you to backup all Firefox extensions with a single click.
Additionally, you may use it to backup custom data such as bookmarks, cookies, search plugins or userChrome files.


Theme Font & Size Changer


firefox theme font changer


Use the extension to change the global font size and style of the Firefox user interface. If text is too hard to read, increase its size to improve its readability. Need more space? Decrease the text size.
Now You: Did I miss an add-on? Lets hear about it in the comments below.

Source: http://www.ghacks.net/2015/02/09/these-powerful-extensions-make-firefox-unique/

February 8, 2015

The Ultimate Guide to Watching Online TV with Private Internet Access

Open the door to a world of video-streaming and entertainment through Private Internet Access.
Virtual private networks (VPNs) allow you to push your network traffic through an encrypted tunnel, making it easy to hide your identity, and to browse the Internet securely when using public access points.
Traditionally, they were one of the tricks of the trade for business travelers — VPNs were used primarily for weary, far-flung employees to to access their company’s internal network from public WiFi networks provided hotels and cafes. Other more privacy-concerned organizations used VPNs as a way for remote workers to send privileged communications without the risk of interception.







But more recently, the general public has started to use anonymous VPN services – such as those provided by Private Internet Access — in other, more interesting roles. For example, many use them in order to mitigate against ISP-level censorship, as is common in countries like China, the UAE and yes, even the United Kingdom. Others use VPNs as a tool to defend themselves against government surveillance of the Internet.
As a tool, VPNs are useful and versatile. Indeed, we’re a big fan of them at MakeUseOf and have listed some of the unusual potential applications for VPNs in the past. But did you also know that VPNs can help you catch up on the latest TV shows?
Yes, it’s true. There is a phenomenal amount of streaming websites which allow you to watch the latest shows, but are only available in certain locales. You might be familiar with some of the more prominent ones, such as Hulu, Netflix, and the BBC’s iPlayer.
These sites only allow people living in certain countries to access them. It seems unfair, doesn’t it? Just because you live in France or Germany, doesn’t mean that you should have to go without the latest episode of Family Guy. Similarly, just because you live in the US doesn’t mean that you should have to wait to watch the latest episode of Doctor Who.







With a VPN (we recommend Private Internet Access), you can bypass geographical restrictions by visiting those sites through local VPN endpoints — in other words, the websites will think you’re within the country and allow you access. While you might have already been aware of this geo-restriction workaround, you may not realize the vast quantity of amazing programming you can watch by accessing certain streaming video websites with a VPN.
This guide aims to show you what’s on offer, and to tell you the VPN endpoint you’ll need to use to access it. We’re going to take a trip across the world. From the US, to the UK, and finally Australia. Let’s see what we can watch.



Hulu

Hulu was founded in March 2007 with the vision that people should be able to watch the TV shows they want, legitimately, having to resort to illegal downloading. The principle was simple: you can watch a variety of television shows, clips and movies supported by advertisements. To access certain premium products from Hulu, you might have to pay a flat monthly fee.
Unsurprisingly, Hulu has been nothing short of a huge success. According to Internet ranking service Alexa, Hulu is one of the top 500 visited websites worldwide, and is visited by almost 25 million people each month. It has been a pioneer in the online streaming space.


vpn-hulu



But, there’s a pretty significant downside. Hulu is only available to residents of the United States and its associated territories, and Japan. That’s bad news for everyone else.
Around 2010, there were rumblings the video-on-demand titan would dip its toe into the European market, and expand into the UK and Ireland. Consumers on this side of the pond waited with baited breath. But unfortunately, due to the complex nature of licensing digital content for streaming, the plans were cancelled.
Which is a shame, because there are some phenomenal television on Hulu. Shows like South Park.







Earlier this year, Hulu signed a three-year deal to exclusively stream the hugely popular and profane animated series by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The entire catalog of 17 seasons is currently available to stream, in full length and uncensored.
Truth be told, if you love comedy, Hulu has you covered. It has everything you could possibly hope to watch. Their lineup ranges from the bitingly funny Colbert Show, to Scrubs, to the late-night institution that is Saturday Night Live.
If comedy isn’t your thing, Hulu also has no shortage of dramas, thrillers and action shows. Shows like the Vampire Diaries, Law and Order: Special Victims Unit, and Nashville.






And much like Amazon and Netflix, Hulu has its own original programming — shows you won’t find anywhere else, from the short-lived but critically acclaimed The Confession starring Keifer Sutherland and John Hurt, to the comedy stylings of Kevin Smith’s The Spoilers, which is their flagship film review show. Think Roger Ebert, but with a severe case of potty mouth.
If you’re not in the US, you can watch these shows on Hulu with a VPN from Private Internet Access. Just set your endpoint to an American one, and you’re golden.

Netflix

When Netflix first opened its subscription service in 1999, it was revolutionary. For the first time ever, consumers could rent movies online instead of having to drive down to Blockbuster and fork over cash for a scratched, beaten-up VHS tape. You’d just have to sign up to Netflix, request a specific film, and within a few days, a DVD was sent to you in the post.
A few things have happened since 1999.



vpn-netflix



Firstly, DVDs are slowly (but surely) going the way of the cassette tape. Now, everyone’s all about the streaming video. The driving force behind that has been the rise of fast and unmetered household broadband connections. This significant change in the home Internet market has made it possible for people to watch high definition content from their homes, with no physical media involved, and has resulted in the astronomical growth of Netflix.
Almost fifty million people own subscriptions to Netflix, which is available in the United States, Canada, South America and huge swathes of Europe. The march of Netflix shows no signs of stopping, either. Starting in the middle of 2015, it will make its debut appearance in New Zealand and Australia.
So, given that it’s nearly ubiquitous, why would you use a VPN service to watch Netflix?
Well, simply put — regional programming. The programming available in the UK is vastly different in quantity (and quality) than in, say, the United States, or Canada. If you want to catch up on previous seasons of Community, your best bet is Canadian Netflix. If you’re fan of The Thick Of It, or Top Gear, your best bet is British Netflix.






Fortunately, Netflix allows travelers to use their subscriptions in other countries. If you’re a European subscriber and you’re on vacation in the United States, Netflix will treat you like one of their American customers and allow you to enjoy the local offering.
With that said, wherever you are, you’ll be able to catch up on their award-winning original programming. Shows like Orange Is The New Black, which has earned its share of acclaim for dramatization of Piper Kerman’s true story of what happens when an affluent Bostonian’s criminal past catches up with her.
Netflix’s original content also extends into documentaries, such as The Square, which covered the Tahrir Square uprisings in Egypt, and was the first Internet-only documentary to earn an Oscar.







And I can’t not mention Lilyhammer, which features E Street Band member Steven Van Zandt as a New York gangster turned informant, who has found himself adjusting to live in the vastly different world of rural Norway.
Better still, Netflix cannot tell the difference between someone genuinely on vacation and someone connecting over a VPN service. So, what’s on offer?
Well, quite a lot. It’s hard not to overstate the vast differences between regional libraries. At the time of writing, Netflix US had just short of 9,000 movies and shows available to stream. British consumers have to make do with around 3,500 movies.
Your mileage will vary. I’ve found shows exclusively on Netflix Canada or Netflix Mexico. Similarly, some shows are only available in the UK or America. Your best bet is to switch between VPN endpoints.

CBS Online

If you don’t live in United States, you might not be familiar with CBS. But I’m fairly sure you’re familiar some of their work, and the shows they own the licenses to. CBS owns the rights to some of the biggest blockbusters you could care to name. I’m talking about massively successful, international successes.







Successes like Star Trek. Some years ago, CBS acquired Paramount Pictures. With it, they received the rights to Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise. This is a franchise which is stretched for over fifty years and boasts some of the most dedicated fandom of all science fiction. It started with Canadian crooner William Shatner as Captain Kirk, and then went onto have successful reboots in the 90s with Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek DS9 and Star Trek Voyager. We won’t mention Enterprise.
More recently, the American broadcasting titan has had successes with the likes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation; the latest reboot of the Sherlock Holmes franchise, Elementary, starring Lucy Liu and Jonny Lee Miller; and Two and a Half Men.
But the jewel in CBS’s crown is The Big Bang Theory. Although incredibly divisive, this is one of most watched shows on primetime television. Each episode draws in a mammoth 20 million viewers, and is the number one show in every Nielsen age category, from 2 to 11, to adults 55 and older.







And unsurprisingly, CBS wants a piece of the lucrative web streaming market. So it should come as no surprise they’ve released their own ersatz iPlayer. And you know what? It’s pretty good.
A surprisingly large swath of their catalog is available. Like the BBC’s iPlayer (below), some shows only include recent episodes which aired in the past few weeks. Don’t expect to watch the full back-catalog of Two Broke Girls, The Mentalist, or The Big Bang Theory.







Other shows are different though.
As previously mentioned, the entire Star Trek catalog is available to watch on the CBS player. Every episode, in its entirety. Ditto with Everybody Loves Raymond, Jericho, and Canadian cop drama, Flashpoint. Video quality isn’t too bad. It tends to hover around the 480p mark.
With that said, there’s a catch. From all these shows (in CBC parlance, ‘classics’), only a small selection of episodes are free. If you want the whole thing, you’ll have to become a member of CBS All Access, which is their premium (and paid) streaming package.
And if you’re used to advert-free BBC iPlayer and Netflix, you won’t be too happy to hear that the free episodes come jam-packed with advertising. Expect a 40-minute TV episode to feature at least four advertisement breaks, with each lasting minutes.
If you’re desperate for your Star Trek fix and you don’t fancy opening your wallet, you can circumvent this by watching them on startrek.com. Predictably, this is geo-restricted to customers in the United States, however. To watch it, you’ll need to fire up a US-located VPN, as you will with CBS Online, for that matter.

BBC iPlayer

Founded in 1922, the British Broadcasting Corporation is a media institution of magnificent proportions. With a stated aim of ‘to educate, inform, and entertain’, the BBC has produced some of the most enlightening radio and television programming the world has ever known.
It started life as a smattering of radio stations in the late twenties, before going on to pioneer broadcast television in the late thirties. This was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, only to resume in 1946. Since then, it has carved itself out a niche in the British television landscape as a fiercely independent producer of high-brow programming.



vpn-bbc


And although the BBC is one of the oldest broadcasters in the world, they’ve still managed to modernize. In the mid 70s, they pioneered a system named CEEFAX, which was almost the TV analog of RSS feeds. It allowed users to passively receive up-to-date news through their television sets, transmitted over the airwaves.
And two decades later, BBC launched their digital services. Those with the right kind of TV and receiver could take advantage of crisper, cleaner video and audio.
So, given this track record of innovation, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that the BBC has managed to create an incredible streaming product that allows viewers to watch their favorite BBC shows, all from their web browser, Internet TV box, tablet, games console, or smartphone.







Meet iPlayer. It’s available on a startling array of devices, and allows you to catch up on videos aired in the past 30 days. It also allows you to watch television shows as it’s being broadcast, although if you’re a UK resident doing this without a TV license, you might be breaking the law. So, what’s on?
Well, if you’re a parent, you’ll certainly get a kick out of Ceebeebies. This is the section of the iPlayer site aimed at toddlers, babies and young children. This boasts a wealth of programming that should be sufficient to keep a child occupied on a rainy afternoon, including the charming Rastamouse and the educational and slightly moralistic Justin’s House.




vpn-cbeebies



And for slightly older children, there’s CBBC. This has locally sourced programming, like Terry Deary’s Horrible Histories, as well as American imports, like PBS’s Arthur. For technologically-inclined youngsters, there’s also Technobabble, which gently introduces the viewer how technology impacts the world around them.
We’ve not even mentioned the rest of the BBC’s offerings, yet. Obviously, there’s the likes of Doctor Who, which has captured the attention of fans both young and old for the past fifty years. Petrolheads will enjoy the coarse stylings of the Top Gear crew, whilst fans of drama will enjoy the variety of serials produced by the BBC on a regular basis.
Shows watched on iPlayer aren’t interrupted with adverts, since it is funded by UK license fee payments.
As you might expect though, you’re only going to get the BBC iPlayer in the UK. If you’re outside, you’re going to have to use a VPN service like Private Internet Access. Set your endpoint to the one with the Union Jack.

Channel 4: 4oD

Channel 4 is one of the UK’s four main terrestrial broadcasters, and has an interesting place in British broadcasting history.
It started life in 1982 as an alternative to the duopoly that existed at the time between the BBC and rival broadcaster ITV. And in the next twenty years, Channel 4 carved itself an important place in the UK media landscape. This is largely the result of its fiercely brave documentary programming, as well its tendency (for better, or for worse) to produce shows that pioneer new formats. This is doubly true when it comes to reality television, given Channel 4 was one of the first stations to broadcast Big Brother, which has since enjoyed success in the USA and India.
And not entirely unsurprisingly, Channel 4 programs can be streamed online. Anyone with a smartphone, tablet, computer or smart TV may view their programming through Channel 4’s 4oD player.



vpn-4od



But what’s on offer?
Well, one of the biggest strengths of 4oD is its extensive back-catalogue. Unlike the BBC, Channel 4 allows you to stream a huge variety of previously-aired shows.
Shows like Skins. When first broadcast in 2007, it shocked many viewers with its controversial and visceral look into what life is like for teenagers growing up in modern, inner-city England. All seven seasons of Skins are available to stream online.



vpn-skins



Channel 4 also produce some phenomenal drama shows. Shows like the darkly-funny Babylon, by Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle, and Peep Show, featuring Mitchell and Webb.
There’s also no shortage of American imports, including The Big Bang Theory.
Their factual broadcasting is something to write home about, too. Their documentary repertoire is too vast to mention, although their standout series is Dispatches, which has tackled everything from social injustice, to poverty in modern day Britain, to regulation of the banking system. Their filmmaking is fierce, and fearless.









Channel 4 also has a decent amount of sports broadcasting. Although they lack premiership soccer and top-tier rugby, they offer other, more niche sports like professional poker, to American football, to cycling. If you have unusual taste in sports, Channel 4 has you covered.
But unlike the BBC’s content, 4oD’s broadcasting are supported by advertising. Although they’re technically publicly funded, they’re very much a commercial entity who fund their works through commercial means. This means advertisements.
But if you don’t fancy watching 4oD through their own website, they also serve their content through YouTube. Although, it’s worth noting that like the main 4oD website, it is only available to viewers based in the United Kingdom.
So, how do you get the best of UK public broadcasting? Through a VPN, of course. Just set your endpoint to the United Kingdom.

ABC’s iView

The UK has the BBC. Canada has the CBC. So, it makes sense that Australia has the ABC.
Founded in 1932, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation is the antipodean equivalent of the BBC, having spent the majority of its life producing high-brow educational and cultural programming. For the first 40 years of its life, it was a radio-only organization, but later, it inevitably joined the television revolution.
Since then, the ABC closely followed the path its British counterpart has taken. It too has launched digital TV stations, leaving the fuzzy analogue world behind, and it too has launched an Internet streaming site.



vpn-iview



It’s called iView, and if you want to enjoy the best of the Australian television world, you need to check it out.
But what’s on offer? Admittedly, the ABC doesn’t quite have the blockbuster successes of the BBC. Many of their shows isn’t internationally known, which is a shame. Otherwise, their programming lineup is excellent, particularly their comedy franchises.




Perhaps the most widely known is The Chaser. This six-piece comedy group has had a number of successful runs, including the internationally known Chaser’s War On Everything which was notorious for courting controversy and tabloid outrage. After a brief hiatus, their latest show is The Chaser’s Media Circus, which is currently airing on broadcast television, and can be watched on iView.
And if you remember Summer Heights High, you’ll probably remember Jonah, the slightly recidivist playground bully with a tendency to interrupt his classes with amusing tirades of chain-profanity. He has his own show with Jonah from Tonga, and that’s also available on iView.
There are even some pretty incredible science programming. One standout example is Catalyst. If you’re familiar with Bill Nye The Science Guy or Bang Goes The Theory, this show will feel pretty familiar.
Given the ABC’s close relationship with their British counterpart, it’s hardly surprising there’s also a wealth of British programming. At the time of writing, they’re airing a documentary featuring the life story of Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, featuring former Python Eric Idle, in addition to David Attenborough’s Kingdom Of Plants series and Death In Paradise.







Given Australia’s proud sporting history, it makes sense iView has a lot to offer in this respect. Fans of national, regional and international sport are covered, and there’s everything from basketball to Aussie-rules football.
Like the BBC iPlayer, ABC iView doesn’t run advertising on their online video. It’s always good to know that whatever you watch won’t be interrupted with an advert for dishwasher soap or toothpaste.
As you might expect, watching the best of Aussie TV is easy. Just set your VPN endpoint to Australia, and you’re golden. Mate.

Around The World With A VPN

There’s some great programming here. And we’ve travelled across the Anglophone world, from America to the United Kingdom, to Australia. There’s a lot on offer, and whether you’re a parent looking for some family-friendly viewing for your children, or if you’re just looking for some visceral, cutting-edge comedy, we’re confident there’s a site out there with the right content for you.
But far too often, getting that content isn’t possible without circumventing some geo-restrictions.
We’re able to do that by using a VPN service, and there are no shortage of VPN providers. Indeed, we’ve written about them in the past, and we’re big fans of Private Internet Access. Why?




A few reasons, actually. We love their strong, industry-standard encryption, which prevents governments and ISPs from intercepting our traffic. We love how many endpoints they have, which stretch from America to Romania, to Israel, to Australia, and everywhere in between. We love their hands-off approach to customer privacy, with no logs retained. We love how affordable they are, with a subscription costing only $39.95 per year, which works out to about $3.33 per month. We even love how you can pay with Bitcoin, as well as most major credit cards and Paypal.

You can find out more at their official website.
Are there any other video streaming sites you recommend? Found any clever ways to get around geo-restrictions?

Source: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-ultimate-guide-to-watching-online-tv-with-private-internet-access/

February 7, 2015

How to stop autoplay videos

PCWORLD-Norm Arlt asked "How do I stop the How-To video from automatically starting in my browser when I click on an article?"

I sympathize. We all deal with this annoyance. In fact, I'm willing to bet that everyone reading this article who hasn't already solved this problem knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Most of these videos run on Shockwave Flash, so I'm going to concentrate on that technology. The trick isn't to block Flash entirely, but to make it work only with your permission.
How you do this varies with each browser. So I'll offer instructions for the three most popular ones. Christopher Breen of Macworld offered these alternative fixes as well.

Chrome

  1. Click the menu icon on the upper-right corner and select Settings.
  2. Then scroll down to the bottom of the page and click the Show advanced settings link.
  3. Scroll down further until you find the Privacy section. Click the Content settings button.
  4. In the resulting Content Settings dialog box, scroll down to the Plug-ins section. Select Click to play, then click the Done button in the lower-right corner.
    0101 block flash chrome 2
From then on, a Flash window will appear as a gray box with a jigsaw piece icon in the center. If you want to watch the video, click in that box.
0101 blocked chrome

Firefox

  1. Press Ctrl-L to go to the address bar, and type in the local URL about:addons.
  2. Click Plugins in the left pane.
  3. Find Shockwave Flash in the list of plug-ins.
  4. Click the Always Activate pop-up menu on the right, and select Ask to Activate.
    0101 block flash firefox
When you visit a page with an embedded Flash video, the video window will again be a box, but this time it will be white with Adobe's Flash logo (a stylized letter 'f') in the center. A gray bar at the top of the page will give you options to continue blocking or allow the flash.
0101 blocked chrome
If you click Allow, you'll get options to Allow Now or Allow and Remember. If you want to allow it at all, I recommend Allow Now.

Internet Explorer

  1. From the menus at the top of the window, select Tools>Manage add-ons.
  2. In the resulting Manage Add-ons dialog box, make sure that Toolbars and Extensions is selected on the left. Wait for the list to appear.
  3. Find and double-click Shockwave Flash Object on the right (it's listed under Adobe and will likely be near or at the top).
    0101 block flash ie
  4. In the resulting More Information dialog box, click the Remove all sites button. Then close the dialog boxes.
    0101 block flash ie 2
The Flash windows may not appear at all, or they may appear blank. A bar at the bottom of the window will offer options to allow Flash to play. Click the x on the right to say "No."
0101 block flash ie blocked

Benchmarks: Internet Explorer 11 vs. Spartan vs. Google Chrome 40 vs. Firefox 35

If you haven’t experienced or tested the Spartan yet (and by that we mean IE’s new rendering engine) then here’s something that I am sure a lot are curious about: a set of tests that compare Spartan versus other web browsers, including IE.
Thanks to guys at AnandTech, that’s exactly what they did with Windows 10 build 9926 running on Core i7-860.
Here are the results:



Benchmarks: Internet Explorer 11 vs. Spartan vs. Google Chrome 40 vs. Firefox 35



As you can see from the picture above, Spartan (IE Experimental) offers a significant boost compared to IE11 although it was still not enough to beat Google Chrome 40 or Firefox 35 in some of the benchmarks.
[Via: AnandTech]

Source: http://www.favbrowser.com/benchmarks-internet-explorer-11-vs-spartan-vs-google-chrome-40-vs-firefox-35/

February 2, 2015

Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1 is Out for Free Download – Check Out the New and Updated Features

Mozilla Firefox has gone through numerous tests and it has survived these tests and that is why it is standing tall as one of the leading web browsers on the planet today.
More than a decade now into its operations, this company has already established very firm grounds when it comes to the global market, with Google Chrome the only serious threat the company has seen since its development as a web browser. Other players like Internet Explorer, which will soon be replaced by a Spartan web browser in the upcoming Windows 10 from Microsoft and Opera have lagged behind in the pecking order when it comes to the world of web browsing applications.
There is continued competition that keeps coming from these other browsers and despite Firefox being ahead of them in terms of global popularity, this company does everything it can to keep its position at the top by offering users some of the best features that are availed in each of the updates the company releases for this product.
Regular updates for Firefox web browser
One major thing that has kept Mozilla Firefox strong and going is the fact that the company is always on its toes with rolling out of updates to their platform and these come out on a very regular basis. These updates are usually aimed at fixing anything that is deemed missing in the older version of the browser, any issues resulting from the use of the older version as well as to introduce new features to the platform that will ensure the current user-base does nothing but increase.
Earlier this week, Firefox launched the latest version of their web browser by the name of Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1. In this new version, this company has worked its way into providing users with fixes to bugs discovered in the previous version of Firefox in addition to including numerous updates and in the following section, a few of the top features of the new Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1 have been highlighted.
Firefox 35.0.1 comes with numerous security and bug fixes
The new web browser from Mozilla Firefox comes with better security as it has received fixes to bugs and major security holes that may have existed in the older version of the application. In earlier versions of the browser, it was very easy for Firefox to crash thanks to the inclusion of the Enhanced Steam extension. This is no longer the case with the new web browser as it ensures that users no longer have this problem again when browsing the web.
Users of previous versions of Firefox had complained of startup crashes. The new update has moved in to fix this issue and users of the latest Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1 will not experience the browser crashing again during startups. Furthermore, the Kerberos authentication is properly working on this new Firefox platform, unlike with the previous versions.
There had been reported issues regarding potential crashes of Firefox when on Godaddy webmail and this issue has been taken care of in the new version.  In essence, this new Firefox 35.0.1 is equipped with lots of fixes to previous bugs that had been identified in older versions. It is recommendable that you update to the latest version as soon as possible and start enjoying seamless and flawless browsing.
New features in Firefox 35.0.1
The new Firefox 35.0.1 comes with some new features as well and they include the Firefox Hello feature that features a new room-based model of conversing and a new search user interface that has seen some improvements and has been enabled for more locales with the new browser.
Users of the new Firefox browser will also be able to access the Firefox Marketplace using the “Tools” menu. You’ll also access an enhanced handling of the changes in dynamic styling in order to increase the responsiveness of the browser, in addition to using tiled rendering on Mac OS X.
With the new Mozilla Firefox 35.0.1, you’ll be treated to some of the best quality when it comes to resizing images. You can download the latest version of this browser from the official Firefox browser for free and start enjoying these amazing features.

Source: http://thefusejoplin.com/2015/02/mozilla-firefox-3501-free-download-check-updated-features/