The next update to Firefox will enable the browser to detect the orientation of any accelerometer-equipped device on which it is running. This way, the browser itself can actually actively adapt to the orientation being used and possibly offer a few advantages, among which are automatic rotation in order to match the current orientation and offer additional screen space. Notebooks such as Lenovo’s ThinkPads and Apple’s MacBooks come with accelerometers built-in to them, but I think it would be rather troublesome to have to lift your 2-kilo computer off the table just to see this feature in action. I immediately thought of netbooks, with their small footprint and relatively light weight. This will easily be my favorite Firefox feature once netbooks with built-in accelerometers are available. Then we can all view reading materials such as e-books and other documents more conveniently on our small, unassuming netbooks. Can’t wait for it either? Well, let’s hope the manufacturers are working on it.

Via Deep Tech

Whether you’re new to the netbook world, or have had your netbook for a while, new tips on how to make the most of the screen size and resolution are always welcome. Today JKK have posted of more tips to improve your browsing experience with a netbook display from Lifehacker. The first tip is of how to remove the tab button, which JKK point out that Ctrl + T does the job just as well, if not quicker. Another small tip poised is removing the magnifying glass from the search box. Admittedly it doesn’t give you much extra space but, enough to warrant it as a handy tip. Lifehacker also explain how to remove the back and forward button from the display, along with stop/reload. To remove these buttons the userChrome.css file needs to be edited but, you can pick and choose which bits of the tips you want to use for yourself. Read more on how to edit the userChrome.css here.

While there’s many tips and tricks for optimizing your web browsing, one Firefox and netbook user, has created an extension for Firefox to allow you to optimize the look of your browser, to make the best of the viewing space. With the addon you can gain up to 60 pixels vertically, which is equal to about 10% of the viewing space on a netbook with a 10 inch display. You just need to download the addon Meerkat, install and restart the browser.

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TechCrunch’s “dead simple and dirt cheap touch screen web tablet to surf the web,” called the CrunchPad, has been given the go signal by Mark Finkle to use Fennec, Mozilla’s open-source mobile web browser. Firefox was actually Michael Arrington’s first choice for a browser for CrunchPad, but Mark Finkle suggests that Fennec might be more suitable.

Fennec is designed to work well on mobile-class processors with tighter memory requirements. Fennec is also designed for touchscreens and supports the same add-ons mechanism as Firefox. Since Fennec is built on XULRunner, other XUL-based apps (Songbird, Chatzilla) get a free runtime.

So if you’re one of the few people who have access to a CrunchPad prototype, just go ahead and try it out to see how well it works.

Via Mark Finkle