October 22, 2008

Experimental version of Firefox supports MacBook multi-touch gestures

Minefield_logoThe new multi-touch gestures on the MacBook have made me a happy camper but since Firefox is my default browser of choice I miss out on the gesture goodness.  The new MacBooks support these gestures in Safari but Firefox is left out in the cold, at least until now.  One of the Mozilla developers has put together an experimental version of Firefox 3.1 beta that supports these gestures on supported Macs.  What does experimental mean?  This special beta version of 3.1 is even more beta than the others as it is not official.  It also means that this gesture support may not even make it into the final 3.1 version so using it is totally at your own risk.  It’s not by accident that when you install this experimental version that is is known as Minefield.  The gesture support is pretty good and I’ve been playing with it for a while.  Of course none of my add-ons are supported in this but that’s to be expected.  Here are the gestures that are recognized by Minefield:

  • Swipe Left: Go back in history [press Cmd to open it in a tab]
  • Swipe Right: Go forwards in history
  • Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
  • Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
  • Pinch Together: Zoom out
  • Pinch Apart: Zoom in
  • Twist Right: Next tab
  • Twist Left: Previous tab

So go have fun but don’t say we didn’t warn you.  :)

(via Lifehacker)

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Comments

Gestures from the pad drivers of the Asus Notebook are well fonctionning with standard Firefox.

3 fingers (left and right), go back or forward in a page history, a click with 2 fingers on a link open it in a new onglet, zoom on a page or a picture with 2 fingers (like for iPhone), 2 fingers down is like Alt+Tab, 2 finger for scrolling Up and Down, or Left to Right in a zoomed page(and reverse)….

So touch is available on Asus cheap machine with no need to get modified apps.

For others, i recommand gestures apps. A must have on notebooks or stations. Strokeit is one of them, but an easier one to modify and usable on a USB Key (for a mobile practice on all Windows PC) is Mazzick available here

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=18983

Touch is just another way of the mouse gestures concept. Apple introduce a really nice variation, not a true revolution. And i apreciate it on the Asus EEE NetBook. For many of us, it’s more affordable.

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