Early design concepts for Mozilla Firefox indicate that the browser continues to bend toward the light emanating from Google Chrome. Designs released for the interface-focused branch of the nightly version of Firefox reveal a look that brings the browser even closer to looking like its Google competitor, although it definitely has its own approach.

The most notable changes come to the search bar, tabs, and add-ons. The search-specific search box, long a staple of Firefox, finally has been removed. Most likely this is because the designers have merged the search feature into the location bar. Mozilla told CNET when Firefox 4 launched in March that it has been slow to adopt the combined function search-and-location bar because of privacy concerns. While the combined functionality is available through add-ons now, it's hard to tell whether the unified search and location bar will be ready when the currently nightly, version 8, goes stable.

The designs also show that the in-focus tab will get rounded corners, practically identical to tabs in Chrome. However, background tabs will not look like their Chrome counterparts, instead retaining the current rectangular approach.

Add-on implementation will also develop closer to Chrome's icon-based approach, with add-on icons appearing next to the Home button on the left of the browser, and in a drop-down menu that's hidden behind a machine gear icon. That's cribbed directly from Google as it looks now, so that can be expected to change.

More importantly than how add-ons land in the interface, the mock-ups also show the ability to search for add-ons without opening a new tab, and the ability to drag-and-drop add-ons directly into the manager. That functionality does currently exist in Firefox, in that you can drag add-ons from your desktop into Firefox to install them, but this would be a fairly big under-the-hood change that would allow the feature to be extended to add-ons that aren't stored locally.

Related links
• Must-have Firefox Mobile add-ons
• How to sync Firefox 4 to Android
• Speed up Firefox 4 with a simple tweak

Full-screen Firefox would also get a refresh under the new designs. It would sport a single interface bar that would contain the location bar, Home button, tabs, and menu buttons. The Firefox design team, which published the screenshots, noted that they were designed to spark discussion and that, "Some of them are already out of date."

While the designs might be nothing more than a work in progress, they do indicate two things about the current state of browser development at Mozilla. For one thing, the design team has not been inactive and continues to refine the browser's look and feel. However, it also indicates that more than three years after its launch, and with a market share percentage that has yet to stop growing, Google Chrome continues to influence browsers beyond a mere need for speed.

Grocery shopping--it can be fun, annoying, relaxing, or done in a rush, but it is always necessary. So why not use a grocery app for your phone that can help make the process go smoother every time? While the number of grocery apps in the Android Market is mind-boggling, the amount of features per app varies greatly. Out of Milk is relatively balanced on features, ease of use, and quality in comparison to many others. Here's how to use it to simplify the necessary task of grocery shopping:

Step 1: Grab Out of Milk from the Android Market.

Step 2: Open the app. Create an account with Out of Milk, or bypass this step with the "Signup later" link in the bottom right corner.

Step 3: Decide which list you want to work with first. Flipping between the Shopping and Pantry lists will still save any items you have added to either list. You can use the in-app buttons or your phone's back button to navigate back to other lists.

Step 4: Name the list you're working with, and then open it.

Step 5: Add items to your list with the + button. You can manually type items in, scan the item if they have barcodes, or in the case of the pantry list, use the suggestion feature under the text box.

Step 6: Grocery shop! The app lets you long-press on foods to mark them off the list as they get added to your cart. If you make a mistake, no problem, the crossed-out foods are at the bottom of the list and can be restored with another long-press.

(Optional) Step 7: A single tap on any item will open a menu to let you mark it done, edit the item, move it to another list, delete it, or copy it.This is super handy for adding the foods you just bought to your pantry list without having to enter them individually.

Out of Milk also offers the ability to calculate prices with an adjustable tax rate, change lists to alphabetical order, keep a history of your lists and sync them online, and even set reminders for your shopping needs. They also offer a pro version for $4.99 that lets you share lists, use real-time syncing on lists, track coupons, and includes a widget.

 

Originally posted at How To

Angry Birds maker Rovio is witnessing strong growth in China and is expanding operations there to capitalize on it.

The company announced today it has opened corporate and marketing operations in China that will aid its plans to develop titles for Chinese users. To kick things off, Rovio in September will be launching the "Moon Festival" episode of Angry Birds Seasons to coincide with the country's Mid-Autumn Festival. Moon Festival will also be available to Rovio's users outside of China.

To help embed itself in the Chinese market, Rovio is creating "Angry Birds-themed moon cakes," as well as Angry Birds shoes at the country's largest online shoe company, Letao. Rovio said its first production run of the shoes sold out in their first week of availability.

China has proven to be an extremely important market for the Angry Birds franchise. According to Rovio, its game, which lets players slingshot birds at structures to kill pigs, has been downloaded 300 million times around the world. China has become the company's second-largest market and is expected to account for 100 million downloads by the end of the year.

Rovio's growth since Angry Birds first launched in the Apple App Store in December 2009 has not gone unnoticed. In March, the company announced that it had secured $42 million in a Series A round of funding led by venture-capital firms Accel Partners and Atomoico Ventures. Rovio said at the time that it would use the cash infusion to "facilitate its strategic expansion."

Originally posted at The Digital Home