Mozilla has released a new update for Firefox 4 beta. This time, the main enhancements are native support for Sync, Mozilla’s online synchronization service, and Panorama, the new name for the tab organizing feature formerly known as TabCandy.

Here is a video introducing Sync:

And here is another for Panorama:

Note that this update doesn’t feature the new two column Firefox menu, and while the next update (beta 5) was meant to be feature complete, it was decided it won’t be the case in the latest meeting.

You are welcome to test the latest Firefox 4 beta, and provide feedback through the Feedback button.

PS: I know I owe you all a decent Firefox 4 review. I’m working on it!

The latest Firefox 4 nightly builds (Minefield) feature a new two columns menu that gathers the most frequently used actions to help users perform their browsing faster.

Introduced in previous Firefox 4 betas as a single column menu, this iteration divides menu items into actions like save, edit, send, print and exit in the first column, and managing  preferences, add-ons, downloads, and bookmarks in the second one.

I am not convinced of the dual purpose menu items that perform an action when clicking on the text and expand a submenu when clicking on the tiny arrow to their right. I find it somewhat confusing, but spending some time with it will be the best way to find out if it really adjust to what I most frequently want to do.

The new Firefox menu didn’t make it for the fourth Firefox beta cut last week (and coming this week), but should be generally available for the fifth, in early September.

As expected, the latest Firefox 4 nightlies feature Firefox Sync, Mozilla’s service that lets you synchronize your bookmarks, tabs, history, passwords, preferences, and other customizations among devices that support Sync: Firefox for desktops, for Maemo devices, and Firefox Home on the iPhone.

Just like the original Firefox Sync extension, its preferences are integrated with Firefox own options and is only noticeable by a small icon in the status bar.

If you don’t have an account yet, this is  a good time to get one for free and start moving all your browsing data to the cloud. Just install Firefox Sync and follow the instructions to set your account in a few seconds.

Sync fucntionality will be available in the next Firefox 4 beta update, expected for later this or early next week.

UPDATE: In the latest Firefox 4 beta update, Mozilla is officially branding Firefox’s visual tab organization feature as Panorama.

Latest Firefox 4 nightly builds now feature Tab Sets, the ability to organize your tabs by visually grouping them to match your browsing style, introduced a few weeks ago as TabCandy.

If you have tried the experimental build released at that time, you won’t notice much change except some important bug fixing for improved stability.

A new tab sets button is placed next to the list all tabs button to show your tab sets. From there just draw a box to create a new empty group, drag a tab between sets, drag a tab onto another to create a new group, resize groups and tabs, and so on.

It should be available with the next forthcoming Firefox 4 Beta 4, later this month.

If you are a fan of Foxkeh’s monthly desktop wallpapers, you will be happy to know that Mozilla Japan has taken a huge step forward and has made available Foxkeh’s Wallpaper Creator, a cool web application you can use to create your very own desktop wallpaper: choose a size, a Foxkeh design, a background, add a Firefox icon, resize and move whatever you want, change transparency, then save and set your masterpiece as your wallpaper.

As easy as it gets, all powered by the open web: JavaScript, canvas, and SVG. Enjoy!

Via Mozilla Hacks

After several months in development Aza Raskin has finally announced Tab Candy, an important update to tabbed browsing. Originally implemented as a low profile extension (the project page asked not to blog about it), it implements several ideas submitted for last year Mozilla Labs’ Design Challenge that asked people to reimagine tabbed browsing.

You definitely need to see the video to really understand what it does. In plain words it brings a visual way to organize large number of tabs into logical groups so that you can easily find what you are looking for, mimicking the way we usually sort things in the real world: assigning a space to them.

An Introduction to Firefox’s Tab Candy from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

The future is just as promising as the present: quick searching, tab sharing, and most interesting auto-grouping. For example tabs opened from a web search are most likely related and could make a group on their own, or adding tabs to existing tab groups based on keywords. I would also like to see Firefox capable of identifying communication sites like blogs, web mail, forums, lists, etc. It shouldn’t be hard to see where I tend to frequently submit large amount of text, or small chunks which would signal microblogging, for example.

You can try Tab Candy in this experimental Firefox build (based on Firefox pre-Beta 2 code). Note that there’s no official word on whether Tab Candy will be part of Firefox 4 or not.

Mozilla has released a new update for Firefox 3.6. Among the 126 bug fixes, this release patches 14 security vulnerabilities, 8 labeled as critical.

So, don’t take any chances and update right now: select Check for Updates… from the Help menu, and get the latest and greatest in just a couple of minutes.

Many years have past since Winamp’s golden years when Justin Frankel and company scored hit after hit with every release (save Winamp 3), but it’s still my favorite music player (no media player favorite yet), and I’m pleased to learn it has just become the latest WebM supporter, adding its important user base as potential consumers of the open video format.

Firefox Home, Mozilla’s iPhone application that brings your browsing history, bookmarks, and tabs from any computer or mobile device to your favorite closed device, is now available for free from the App Store.

Firefox users will need to install the Firefox Sync extension to synchronize their personal data to Mozilla’s Sync service. Once your data is there, you can access your data from your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.

While you won’t get a full Mozilla browser, you get the awesome bar quick search power, and an option to preview the web page within the app. Unfortunately, your Safari browsing is not synchronized back.

Firefox for Maemo 1.1 is now available for download for Nokia Internet Tablets.

This is the first upgrade for a mobile edition of Firefox, and comes just a few months after its initial release early this year.

It brings however, an important number of improvements:

• Portrait mode upon rotate
• New smart-tapping system that makes clicking on links, fields, and buttons easier
• Form assistant improvements, including autocomplete
• Redesigned start page
• Automatically updated add-ons
• Open links in a new tab and save images via our new context menus
• New web content theme for website forms
• Improved Site Menu
• Use volume keys to zoom
• Save page to PDF
• Built in Crash Reporter

Check the Firefox for Maemo 1.1 Field Guide for a nice description of all new and updated features.

Maemo 5 users can get it from Firefox for Maemo download page.