Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.4 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Navigator 9.0.0.4 was released earlier today in order to incorporate the security fixes included in Firefox 2.0.0.10. Please be sure to update your installation of Navigator when prompted by the automatic updater, or you can force the update manually by choosing “Check for Updates” from the Help menu. The release notes for this release are here.

You can also download the full installer for Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.4 from browser.netscape.com.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.3 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Navigator 9.0.0.3 was released earlier today in order to incorporate the stability fixes included in Firefox 2.0.0.9. Please be sure to update your installation of Navigator when prompted by the automatic updater, or you can force the update manually by choosing “Check for Updates” from the Help menu. The release notes for this release are here.

You can also download the full installer for Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.3 from browser.netscape.com.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.2 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Navigator 9.0.0.2 was released earlier today in order to fix a bug related to searching using both the location bar and the default Netscape search engine. Please be sure to update your installation of Navigator when prompted by the automatic updater, or you can force the update manually by choosing “Check for Updates” from the Help menu. The release notes for this release are here.

You can also download the full installer for Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.2 from browser.netscape.com.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.1 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Navigator 9.0.0.1 was released earlier today in order to incorporate the security fixes included in Firefox 2.0.0.8. Please be sure to update your installation of Navigator when prompted by the automatic updater, or you can force the update manually by choosing “Check for Updates” from the Help menu.

You can also download the full installer for Netscape Navigator 9.0.0.1 from browser.netscape.com.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9.0 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the official release of Netscape Navigator 9. The release is available for download from browser.netscape.com.

The following changes have been made since Release Candidate 1:

  • Added security measures when installing extensions from the sidebar browser
  • Fixed error that was displayed after updating (with auto-update) from 9.0b3 to 9.0RC1

For a complete list of the new features in Netscape 9, see What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9? at browser.netscape.com; you may want to also check out the Netscape Navigator FAQ for information on running Navigator 9 alongside previous Netscape browsers.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9 Release Candidate 1 Available

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape is pleased to announce the immediate availability of the first release candidate of Netscape Navigator 9. The release is available for download from browser.netscape.com.

Due to Netscape.com’s transition from a social news site to a traditional news portal (and the resulting re-launch of the social news site at Propeller.com), we made the decision to remove the built-in social news functionality from the Netscape Navigator Web browser. We will be releasing those features as stand-alone Propeller-branded browser extensions shortly, and our browser development efforts will be refocused on providing new features and browsing enhancements not specifically tied to a single Web service.

The following changes have been made since Beta 3:

  • Added splash screen
  • Fixed formatting bug in Mac license
  • Fixed a bug that was preventing custom background colors
  • Mini-browser enhancements
  • Removed social news integration
  • Exposed more preferences in the Preference Dialog for tabs and the mini-browser
  • Fixed reversed preference for opening searches in new tab
  • Fixed Mac bundle signature
  • Fixed default icon and file assocations
  • Moved custom FTP style out of userContent.css
  • Added URL correction preferences to Advanced Preferences page
  • Added drop-down menu to print button
  • Added drop-down menu to home button
  • Added Firefox profile importing
  • Added support for importing Netscape 8 bookmarks after the initial install
  • Fixed theme issues on Linux
  • Fixed truncation of Reload button label
  • Fixed bugs with URL correction and country codes
  • Added “Save to Linkpad” option to History context menu

For a complete list of the new features in Netscape 9, see What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9? at browser.netscape.com; you may want to also check out the Netscape Navigator FAQ for information on running Navigator 9 alongside previous Netscape browsers.

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Netscape Blog

And the winner is…

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

…Mario Herbert, who designed entry #11 from yesterday’s post. Congratulations Mario!

splash

Mario’s design will be the default splash screen for Netscape Navigator 9. We especially liked the clean look and the throwback feel of the ship’s wheel.

Many thanks to all of the other participants in the contest; the choice was difficult to make due to the high quality and aesthetic appeal of all of the entries.

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Netscape Blog

Navigator 9 Splash Screen Design Contest: The Entries

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

In no particular order, here are all of the entries in the Navigator 9 splash screen design contest. Feel free to campaign for your favorite in the comments section.

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splash-2splash-14splash-7splash-6splash-5splash-4splash-1splash-13splash-12splash-11splash-10splash-9splash-8
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Netscape Blog

Navigator Splash Screen Design Contest

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

We’ve gotten a lot of feedback during the Navigator beta period that many users want the option of a splash screen. Well, we’ve decided to give our design team a break and let you submit your own idea for how the splash screen should look. The winning image will be used as the splash screen in the final 9.0 release of Navigator, and the designer will (of course) be listed in the browser credits. We’ve already seen some great designs in the Netscape community forums, so we know that there’s untapped talent out there.

Send your designs in PNG format to browser@newnetscape.com; we’ll be posting them here as they come in. You have until September 20th to enter, and don’t forget to vote in the poll on what the final prize should be for the winner.

What should the prize for the splash screen design contest be?
Money 152 (49.7%)
Fame 51 (16.7%)
Glory 55 (18.0%)
Tom Drapeau’s voice on your home answering machine 48 (15.7%)
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Netscape Blog

Netscape Navigator 9 Beta 3 Released

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Netscape Navigator 9.0 Beta 3. The release is now available for download from browser.netscape.com for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Beta 3 includes the following changes from Beta 2:

  • New preferences in Tabs panel of Preferences dialog
  • Added “Link Pad” to the “Clear Private Data” dialog
  • Fixed issue with Link Pad icon blinking indefinitely
  • Added News preferences to Netscape.com pane of Preferences dialog
  • Fixed bug with feed processor that was causing both a memory leak and excessive CPU usage
  • Added tab preference for opening bookmarks
  • Added tab preference for links opened by Netscape.com integrated components
  • Changed URL correction confirmation to be enabled by default
  • Fixed bug in URL correction that was interrupting the auto-addition of “www” and “.com”
  • Fixed bug that caused the “Confirm correcitons” item in the Location bar’s context menu to be hidden
  • Added button in preferences to easily disable Netscape.com integration
  • Various performance fixes

For a complete list of the new features in Netscape 9, see What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9? at browser.netscape.com; you may want to also check out the Netscape Navigator FAQ for information on running Navigator 9 alongside previous Netscape browsers.

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Navigator 9 Beta 2 has been released

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Netscape Navigator 9.0 Beta 2. The release is now available for download from browser.netscape.com for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Beta 2 addresses the following issues that appeared in Beta 1:

  • Added URL as a tooltip to Linkpad entries
  • Added “Reload” to the FAS and Tracker sidebar context menus
  • Closing the last tab will now close the browser window
  • Fixed the CFBundleSignature on the Mac DMG
  • Fixed bug when removing the location bar while customizing the toolbar
  • Various fixes to in-browser voting
  • Various performance fixes

Automatic updates have not yet been enabled for Beta 1 users, but they will be available soon. For a complete list of the new features in Netscape 9, see What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9? at browser.netscape.com; you may want to also check out the Netscape Navigator FAQ for information on running Navigator 9 alongside previous Netscape browsers.

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Navigator 9 Beta has been released

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape is pleased to announce the immediate availability of Netscape Navigator 9.0 Beta 1. The release is now available for download from browser.netscape.com for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Some of Navigator 9’s new features are listed below; for a complete list, see What’s New in Netscape Navigator 9? at browser.netscape.com; you may want to also check out the Netscape Navigator FAQ for information on running Navigator 9 alongside previous Netscape browsers.

What’s New In Navigator 9?

URL Correction

Navigator 9 will automatically correct common typos in URLs. For example, if you accidentally type googlecom, Navigator will fix it be to google.com. The browser will watch for nearly 30 different types of common mistakes and correct them for you (asking you to confirm, if you choose to enable confirmation).

News Menu and Sidebar

The latest news is built right into the browser, under the News menu. Provided by Netscape.com, you can customize this menu to contain only the news sections that you want to monitor.

In-browser voting

Share your opinions with the world! The icons in Navigator’s address bar let you share interesting stories you find as well as vote on stories shared by others.

Sidebar mini browser

You’ve always been able to have bookmarks open in the sidebar, but we’ve improved this functionality and extended it to all links, not just bookmarks. Additionally, we’ve added a navigation toolbar to the sidebar for even easier split-screened browsing. Just right-click on a link and select “Open Link in Sidebar” to get started!

Extension Compatibility

Navigator 9 shares its architecture with the latest Mozilla technologies; as such Navigator 9 will allow you to install extensions that are compatible with Firefox 2.

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Netscape Blog

Netstripe: Netscape 9’s Theme for Firefox

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape 9 is on its way, but to tide you over until it gets here, we’re releasing Netscape 9’s theme (called Netstripe) as a separate add-on for Firefox. Here are some previews of the great work done by our designer, Andy Fraley. (You can install the theme by following the instructions at the end of this post.)

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Figure 1: Theme preview image

 

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Figure 2: Toolbar and tabs (click for full view)

 

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Figure 3: Add-ons dialog

 

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Figure 4: Bookmarks Manager

Netstripe is compatible with Firefox 2.0 through Firefox 2.0.0.*. To install the theme, you can either download it from Mozilla Addons or just complete the following steps:

1. If you are running Firefox on Windows, install the theme using this link:

Install Netstripe for Firefox 2 on Windows

If you are running Firefox on Mac OSX, use this link.

Install Netstripe for Firefox 2 on Mac

2. Restart Firefox after installing the theme.
3. Open the Addons Manager (Tools > Add-ons).
4. Click on the Themes tab.
5. Select Netstripe and press “Use Theme”
6. Restart Firefox.

On a separate note, we’ve been alerted that there are files out there masquerading as “leaked” versions of Netscape 9. You can be sure that Netscape 9 has not been leaked, and when it is available, the only legitimate (and safe) place to get it will be browser.netscape.com.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape Browser 8.1.3 Released

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

We’re pleased to announce the 8.1.3 release of the Netscape Browser (Windows only). New in this version are security updates to the 8.1.x browser line – see the Security Alerts page at browser.netscape.com for more information on the bugs fixed in this release.

Remember to uninstall your current 8.x installation from the Control Panel’s Add/Remove Programs dialog before installing 8.1.3. Your profile information will remain intact and will be recognized by the new 8.1.3 installation.

Download and install Netscape 8.1.3 today!

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Netscape 9’s Sidebar Browser

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

In Netscape 9, we’ve built upon Firefox’s option to load a bookmark in the sidebar by extending sidebar browsing to all links. (Right click on any link and choose “Open Link in Sidebar;” you can also drag and drop a link onto the sidebar if it is already open.)

In order to properly support this feature, we’ve enhanced the sidebar browser by adding a navigation menu, address bar, and link target toggle. The default link target is to have all links clicked in the sidebar launch in the main browser window, which is best suited for a single webpage that has lots of outgoing links (like your My.Netscape page, example shown below). You can also choose to toggle this and just browse in the sidebar as if it was a regular browser window.

mini-browser
My.Netscape in the sidebar; click to view the full image.

The sidebar browser can be opened with a toolbar button, a hot-key combination, or via the View > Sidebar menu.

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Netscape Blog

Netscape 9’s Revolutionary Feature

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

What is the biggest feature lacked by Web browsers today? Security? No. Advanced privacy settings? Not even close. Full-size 24×24 activity indicators? Absolutely.

For Netscape 9, we’ve brought back the big throbber from days of old and stuck it right on the end of the toolbar – Bam! (Throbber 9.0 is not content to hide up at the end of the menubar.) So say goodbye to squinting to see if your page is still loading; this bad boy is 576 pixels of in-your-face load-status animation.

loading_24 loading_24 loading_24 loading_24 loading_24
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Netscape 9 Mystery Menu Revealed

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Congratulations to Sebastian Moser, who correctly guessed that the new menu in Netscape 9 is “News.” The News menu (and sidebar) will display stories from the channels at Netscape.com, where the popular articles are decided by the site’s members. You can customize which channels are displayed in the menu, and since voting is built directly into the browser, clicking on any of the news items will bring you directly to the story, not to an intermediate Netscape.com page.

That’s it for browser news today, but make sure to tune in next week for the biggest browser news yet.

Side note: Take a minute to check out the new My.Netscape, which has been redesigned and is being relaunched today.

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Netscape 9: What’s my line?

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Rather than just posting a new browser feature or an update on Netscape 9’s development, I thought I’d switch it up this week and have a little contest.

Netscape 9 will have a new top-level menu (as in File, Edit, etc.) that does not appear in Firefox or any previous version of Netscape. The first person to correctly guess the name of the menu and its function will get their name included in the Netscape 9 credits, which you can view in the browser via the “About Netscape” dialog.

You must post your guess below, and anyone with inside knowledge of the browser (like a current or former Netscape employee) is ineligible. Your name is probably already in the credits, so you’d have nothing to gain anyway.

Let the guessing begin!

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Netscape 9 and Social News

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Netscape 9 will include built-in tools to share, vote for, and discuss interesting things you find on the Web directly from the browser’s URL bar. The image below shows the state of the address bar for a page that

a) hasn’t been submitted to Netscape.com
b) has been submitted and you haven’t voted for it
c) has been submitted, and you have already voted for it.

voting
The vote and comment totals are shown in the tooltips for the images as well as in the status bar.

We feel that having these tools in the browser by default will introduce the idea of social news to a whole new set of users, and it should make it easier for those who are already familiar with the concept.

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Netscape 9 Saves You Time

This post originally appeared on the Netscape Blog.

Ever tried to visit google.cmo? How about irs.gvo? I’m sure that everyone has, at one time or another, made common mistakes like these when typing addresses in the location bar. What normally happens is that you notice your mistake after waiting for the page to load and it fails. That wait is a waste of your time – your browser spell-checks everything else you type, why not URLs?

Netscape 9 will be the first major browser to automatically correct common typos entered in the location bar. For example, if you accidentally type techcrunchcom, Netscape will fix it be to techcrunch.com. If you type slashdot.orgg, Netscape will change it to slashdot.org. mozilla,cmo gets changed to mozilla.com, and so on and so forth – no fuss, no muss. The browser will watch for nearly 30 different types of common mistakes and correct them for you (asking you to confirm, if you choose to enable confirmation), hopefully saving you some time and frustration in the process.

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