Firefox 3.1 with multi-gesture support
Have you got a new, fancy-shmancy unibody MacBook, Pro or Air? Then this special build of the world’s favorite open-source browser is for you. Alternately, if you’re running an legacy PPC Mac, there are optimized builds just for you, too (sans the nifty gestures).
In a blog post, Edward Lee (via LifeHacker) writes about a serendipitous discovery he made about Firefox compatibility with Apple’s multi-touch gestures. Not only had someone requested this functionality (ie submitted a bug) for Apple’s newest glass trackpad portables, but Tom Dyas started submitting patches “with the help of Camino, Mac, DOM guys.”
That said, Edward took it upon himself to take the Firefox patches, tweak ‘em slightly, add some refactoring and release a specialty build for the world to try out.
Here’s a listing of the gestures supported:
✏ Swipe Left: Go back in history [bonus! hold Cmd to open it in a tab]
✏ Swipe Right: Go forwards in history
✏ Swipe Up: Return to top of page
✏ Swipe Down: End of page
✏ Pinch Together: Zoom out
✏ Pinch Apart: Zoom in
✏ Twist Right: Next tab
✏ Twist Left: Previous tab
Get your copy of Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 “pre” with Multi-Touch Gestures here (16.4MB).
CPU-specific builds
Another Lee, this one with the given name of “Neil,” has created Firefox builds that are optimized for use on specific CPUs. You won’t get a huge performance boost by running a Firefox build designed just for your processor, but every little bit helps especially on older machines.
So, whether you’ve got the latest Intel chip inside your Mac or a legacy PPC processor, Lee’s got a build of the Mozilla’s current shipping version of Firefox for you:
Two guys surnamed Lee have taken the time to brew up fresh ‘n’ tasty builds of Firefox just for Mac users. That’s pretty cool.
Got some Mac-only coolness? Jot us a note with link(s) in the comments below…
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