Make Firefox 4's Tab Bar Take Up Less Space

Chrome made a dent on the browser wars (aside from its touted page loading speed) because of its minimalist interface. Interface elements presented in a way that maximized screen real estate—especially moving the browser tabs to the window title.

You'd think that Mozilla would've come up with something similar for the Firefox 4 beta. Turns out that wasn't the case. Yes, the browser's title bar is now smaller, but the tabs are still below it. Luckily, the latest version of Mozilla's browser lets users work some CSS magic to push Firefox's tabs upwards. All it involves is adding the following code:

#appmenu-button-container{
position: fixed !important;
}

#navigator-toolbox[tabsontop="true"] #TabsToolbar{
padding-left: 80px !important;
margin-right: 105px !important;
padding-top: 2px !important;
}

#appmenu-button{
padding: 3px 5px 3px 5px !important;
height: 20px !important;
}

...to Firefox 4's userChrome.css file. Instructions on how to locate the file—and an important warning—are available on Gdgtry.

NASA Releases Unreal Engine MMO Preview Demo

After you finish this, try playing some Doom for space-marine training.

Last year we learned that NASA was working on an Unreal-engine powered MMO game called Astronaut: Mars, Moon, and Beyond. It's partly a recruitment tool to get the younger generation interested in space exploration and research, much like the aims are with America's Army.

The final version of the NASA MMO isn't out yet, but released this week is Moonbase Alpha as a free preview. You've got nothing to lose, so grab it on Steam if you've always wonder what it'd be like to be a space cadet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nis2t9EubBs

Firefox 4 Beta 1 Now Available for Download

Mozilla has announced that Firefox 4 Beta 1 is now ready for download and at the same time revealed some details about the newest iteration of the popular browser.

Windows users will notice a big change in interface design, which, among other things, has tabs located along the top by default. There's also a new Add-Ons Manager, which affords more space to managing add-ons, themes and plugins. Firefox 4 Beta 1 brings support for HTML5 and WebM, improvements to privacy, crash protection, and a boost in performance when it comes to start-up and page-load times.

Features expected in the future include the ability to sync your settings, passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs and other customizations across multiple devices; better privacy controls; yet more improvements to performance; and the same themes for OS X and Linux.

Mozilla's Mike Beltzner warns that not everything in this release will make the final cut but, as always, the best way to ensure your favorite features are included is to get in on the Beta and provide feedback to that effect. FF4B1 even includes a Feedback add-on to make it easier to send in your likes and dislikes.

Download Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Linux, Windows or OSX here and let us know what you think are the biggest and most important improvements.

Windows 7 Saves 43 Hours, or $1,400 Per PC

A good case for business to jump to the newest Windows.

We know from personal experience that Windows 7 is a faster, smoother, smarter and more capable operating system than it predecessors. But now businesses are finding that there may be a worthwhile investment in stepping up to a more modern operating system.

Microsoft blogged about findings published in an IDC whitepaper (sponsored by Microsoft, mind you) that showed that for businesses that use Windows 7, each user saves an average of about 43 hours, or $1,400 total benefit per PC, annually.

Furthermore, researchers at IDC found the payback to companies started just after seven months and a return on investment of 375 percent.

While such lovely and optimistic numbers were well accepted by Microsoft, the main savings thanks to Windows 7 are due to features that we've experienced as well in our enthusiast purposes. Such features include faster reboots, shorter start-up times and other under-the-hood performance upgrades. IT managers also cited fewer software failures as another time and money-saving feature.

Microsoft Announces InstaLoad Battery Technology

ometimes the smallest technological developments make a big difference.

It's not a big deal, but it is annoying. You check the little positive and negative markings on the battery cover (if they're there at all) and then you put them in the wrong way around anyway. Sure, taking them out and switching them around isn't going to make you late for your lunch date, but it's something you'd like to avoid if at all possible.

Thanks to Microsoft, it is. Microsoft recently debuted a new technology called InstaLoad, which involves doubling the number of contacts in the battery compartment. By including a set of positive and negative contacts at both ends of the compartment (instead of a single positive contact at one end and a single negative contact at the other end), Microsoft has enabled users to cram batteries in any way they like. This should come in particularly handy when changing batteries in the dark.

Microsoft is licensing the technology out to any and all third-party device suppliers and already counts Duracell on its list of licensees. If companies want to license the technology for accessibility products aimed at people with vision or learning disabilities, Microsoft is willing to license the technology royalty-free.