The Weekly Wrap returns from a week’s hiatus to recap the leading stories of the last seven days.

Macworld

If you’re looking to offset the cost of a new device, you could sell your old one to SellYourMac.com. The company was at Macworld Expo to showcase their services.

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A new study by the Enterprise Desktop Alliance of over 450 IT admins across business and government departments suggests that 2011 could be the Year of the Enterprise Mac.

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Intuit on Tuesday will unveil the latest version of its accounting and small business management application. The new version, available later this month, is highlighted by the arrival of multi-user functionality.

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Word is out that Firefox 4, when it ships at the end of October or thereabouts, will probably not include support for older, non-Intel Macs.

Mozilla’s director of Firefox Mike Beltzner hinted at the change on a Mozilla developer mailing list last week: “I am gathering data on the number of PPC users we have, but the likely outcome is that we will not be supporting PPC for Firefox 4. More on that as I get the data.”

PowerPC Mac users have precious few options for modern web browsers these days. Firefox 3.6 will likely be the last Firefox option for PowerPC Macs, and Google Chrome only runs on Intel machines. Apple is still supporting PowerPC Macs with Safari releases, but the latest version, Safari 5, requires Mac OS X 10.5 or later — users still running 10.4 (Tiger) can only run Safari 4.1, which has many of the features found in Safari 5, but is likely the end of the line. Opera 10 runs on older PowerPC Macs, but it struggles. Opera 9 is more reliable, but has fewer features. Slim pickings, and getting slimmer.

Of course, the problem could be solved by upgrading. And we have — most of us already have second or third machines at this point.

Our aging computers, especially laptops, are often put into service as dedicated devices for streaming music, checking e-mail or browsing recipes in the kitchen. In today’s cloud-based world, you need a good web browser to do most of those tasks.

An old machine that still runs but doesn’t have a decent browser is basically worthless.

I have one such old Mac — a G3 iBook — and my personal savior has been Camino. It’s a fantastic browser built on Firefox code. It can handle all the necessary music streaming and Gmail duties, and it’s lightweight enough to do so without beachballing. I don’t need all my add-ons and doo-dads, just Flash Player and a reasonable level of stability. I’ve been using it for years.

Charles Moore over at GigaOM has been experimenting with other choices on his old Macs, trying SeaMonkey, iCab and an old build of Opera, all with varying levels of success.

What’s your favorite browser for your aging Mac? What web tools do you use to keep those old boxen cranking past their prime? Let us know in the comments.

See Also:

• Fourth Firefox 4 Beta Adds ‘Panorama,’ Hardware Acceleration
• Leaked Screenshot Shows a Cleaner, Simpler IE9
• Chrome 6 Beta Boasts New Look, Better Sync

View full post on Webmonkey

Mozilla hopes to deliver the second beta version of Firefox 4 to users before the end of next week, according to the minutes from its recent developer’s meeting.

Tuesday’s meeting notes show the team has picked next Thursday, July 22 as the proposed ship date for Firefox 4 beta 2.

There are several enhancements on the way in beta 2, but the one sure to raise the most interest (or the biggest stink) is the new tabs-on-top interface for Mac OS X users. Windows users got the tabs-on-top look as the default interface in Beta 1 earlier this month. With beta 2, the rollout continues to other OSes.

The tabs-on-top interface is a growing trend among browser vendors. It was popularized by Google Chrome, which shipped with top-tabs as the default within its initial release. Reaction was mostly positive — Opera now puts the tabs on top, and Safari tried the same thing in a beta release thing before abandoning it. But there are some within the Firefox user community who don’t want to see Mozilla’s browser make the switch just to chase the latest design fad.

Mozilla’s lead user experience designer Alex Faaborg defends the decision, saying it has nothing to do with fashion. By putting the tabs on top, he argues, Firefox 4 will be better suited to running web applications that sit in their own tab. It turns the tab bar into something much closer to a dock or a task bar — a fitting change, since the browser is becoming something much closer to a GUI for an operating system.

Here’s a mock-up showing several web apps running in top-placed tabs in Firefox. The browser may not end up with this design, but it nicely illustrates Faaborg’s idea.

Here’s a seven-minute video his team produced that furthers the debate:

Of course, if you don’t like your tabs up top, you can always revert to the old look in the browser’s View menu.

Some other stuff due in Firefox 4 Beta 2: CSS transitions, better handling of retained layers on pages and a new feature in the add-ons manager that confirms when an add-on has been installed.

As always, Mozilla’s ship dates and feature lists (especially for beta releases) aren’t final. The team usually sticks to the proposed plan, but don’t be angry or surprised if the release slips to the following Monday.

The final browser is expected within a few months, and you can read our preview of Firefox 4 on Webmonkey.

Illustration at the top courtesy of Mozilla. Firefox mock-up by Stephen Horlander and Alex Faaborg/Mozilla/CC.

See Also:

• Mozilla Moves Tabs to the Top for Firefox 4
• Firefox 4 Beta 1 Now Available for Download
• Firefox Sync Graduates From Labs, Ready for Firefox 4
• First Look: Firefox 4 Preview Delivers Speed, Revamped Interface

View full post on Webmonkey