As part of its attempt to haul Firefox out of its speed slump, Mozilla has named and shamed the add-ons that slow Firefox down the most.

The folks over at Firefox HQ recommend checking the list if you're suffering from slow start-up times, and to remove them if you are. It also recommends uninstalling any add-ons that you no longer use, as they could also be responsible for blocking things up.

So who are the biggest culprits?

• FoxLingo, a translation add-on that James rates pretty highly. As add-ons go, it's a good one, but with all the power of Google Translate just a click away, we're not sure that anyone really needs a translation add-on anymore.
• Firebug, a developer's tool that the average user is unlikely to miss. If you're a professional looking for a replacement,your best options are to ask around on development forums. In the meantime, try Fiddler.
• AniWeather, a cute animated weather forecast add-on. In fact, it's probably the animation that slows it down so much. Instead of clogging Firefox up, then, why not take a look at a nice desktop version? If appearance is high on your list, definitely check out Meteo Fusion or YoWindow - you won't be disappointed.
• FlashGot, a mythical download helper. It's pretty popular, so its inclusion on the list is likely to upset quite a few people! If it just has to go however, you're in luck. Just the other day we wrote an article about the best download helpers, and luckily for you, lots of them integrate completely with Firefox. Check them out here!
• FoxClocks, a little extension that adds a selection of world clocks to Firefox. This is one of the easiest replacements to make - even Windows will let you add multiple world times to the task bar in Windows Vista and 7 (right-click on the clock > Adjust Date/Time > Additional Clocks and add the ones you want). Even if you want a separate app, you're spoiled for choice - what about Clock! or ClocX?

There are 50 add-ons on Mozilla's list, but you're sure to be able to find a replacement if you decide to uninstall. If you're having any problems, let us know and we'll try our best to come up with a solution. Alternatively, you could always make the ultimate replacement - how about swapping Firefox for Chrome , IE 9 or Opera?!

Have you ever searched for yourself on the internet? It’s a fun and potentially ego-boosting pastime for most, but be warned - some of you are bound to find things you wish weren’t there: angry drunken blog rants, unfortunate photos, leaked videos, useful information and more. If you are one of them, UnGoogleMe is a new browser add-on that’s perfect for you.

Easy to install, and compatible with IE 6, Firefox 3 and Chrome beta builds, UnGoogleMe will change the way you interact with the internet. Now, when you see search results, there will be a small red ‘x’ next to each one. Click this, and your result will disappear forever (unless the search engine’s algorithm is changed, then it may need re-deleting). Incredible but true: UnGoogleMe lets you delete yourself from Google and other search engines!

Sharp readers may look at UnGoogleMe and think, ‘what’s to stop me deleting other people too?’ It’s a good question, and the answer appears to be - nothing. Like most technology in the 21st century, celebrities have been the first to make use of this powerful tool, deleting their rivals and competitors in a cycle of hatred where only one celebrity will be left standing. And guess what? There’s nothing to stop you deleting that one too!

Until search engine providers find a way around it, it seems that like some nightmarish nanotechnology grey goo scenario, UnGoogleMe is going to eat away the internet before our very eyes.

On the other hand, people may surprise us by using it fairly and responsibly, helping the future of UnGoogleMe seem much brighter.

Download UnGoogleMe here, and take control of your, and everyone else’s, public information.

The new Photoshop for iPad app has been unveiled at Adobe's Photoshop World event. This video of the Photoshop for iPad presentation showcases the app’s ability to handle layers, allowing the user to produce creative masterpieces on their iPad.

Our highlight of this short demo footage is the impressive layer animation, which is designed to help novices understand how layering in Photoshop works. It looked so cool that you can even here some gasps from the audience in the video.

Photoshop for iPad is still in development stage but as soon as we hear more details about release dates, compatibility...  we’ll let you know!

Ever wondered if your Instant Messaging chats are being tracked or monitored? It seems that Yahoo! Messenger is already doing so by automatically deleting instant messages referring to the FilesTube site. According to a report which first emerged on TorrentFreak:

Those who try to paste a FilesTube link to their contacts in the Messenger app will notice that it never reaches its destination. The link goes directly into Yahoo’s dark hole and neither end of the conversation is alerted to this “feature”.

FilesTube is a Polish operated meta-search engine which doesn't actually host its own material and according to TorrentFreak, even honors U.S. DMCA requests to remove searches related to copyrighted material.

At Softonic, we did our own little test and sure enough, we found that links to FilesTube were not being received in IM chats:

TorrentFreak however claim that the auto-deletion appears to be applied randomly. In their own tests sending FilesTube links to their contacts, they claim they had no problems in getting them through.

Some users may be outraged at what they see as outright censorship but it could be argued that Yahoo! are merely "pre-empting" any risk of them being accused of facilitating privacy in the future. However, this is a difficult argument to make as a) It seems like its only FilesTube that's been targeted and b) FilesTube is a meta-search engine and doesn't actually host its own material - there are far worse sites out there when it comes to piracy.

Apart from the questions this incident raises over privacy, auto-deleting certain terms also doesn't seem like a particularly effective way of stopping users exchanging links from certain sites. The most obvious solution for users would be to use a URL shortening service like TinyURL when sending FilesTube links.

It should be stressed that at the moment, the issue seems isolated to FilesTube links and not to any other sites. However, if you are concerned about Yahoo! censoring IM chats, you can always use an IM service based on the Jabber open source protocol such as Trillian or Pidgin.

The final version of Firefox 4 for Android hit the Android Market today. Firefox 4 Mobile has been around in various guises for a while (release candidates, betas, etc.) but today it got its official full release.

Coming just a week after the release of the desktop version of Firefox 4, the mobile web browser is designed to make browsing the web as effortless and enjoyable as it is on a PC. Firefox 4 Mobile boasts a really clean, intelligent user interface, with a tabs and options hidden away in pop-out panels, so that all the screen space is utilized for viewing pages.

Firefox 4 for Android includes some very useful features, such as Awesome Screen, Firefox Sync, page sharing and a customizable search toolbar. Best of all, Firefox 4 Mobile supports add-ons, meaning you can extend the functionality of the browser in the same way you do with extensions in the desktop version.

Read our full review of Firefox 4 for Android to find out more.

Popular iPhone app Skyfire has been updated to 3.1.0, bringing with it some really nice features that are sure to please fans of the browser.

First off, Skyfire is now fully translated and localized in seven languages - Italian, French, Portuguese, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish (obviously in addition to English!), making it even easier for everybody to get in on the action.

The developers also seem to be making a really big effort to find video sites that don't work well with the browser, fix them, and provide alternatives while you are waiting. To this end there are two great new features. One is the Related Sites feature - if you come across a video website not yet supported by Skyfire, this will provide you with a selection of alternatives to use while they fix the problem. Secondly, they are introducing Video Support Flow, a feature that allows Skyfire users to connect directly with engineers so that they can report issues and focus attention where it is really needed.

Last, but not least, there's a new User Agent Interface, which gives users the ability to unlock video content and easy toggling between iPhone (Safari), Desktop and iPad view.

Unless you have been asleep under a tree for the last week, you can't have failed to notice that Amazon has done something pretty impressive - it has stolen Google's thunder by launching Cloud Drive.

Even though the name is a little clichéd, it does give you a pretty good idea of what to expect. Cloud Drive is a cloud-based file storage service provided by Amazon. You upload the files you want to store and access - music, videos, photos, etc - and are then free to access them whenever you want using the Cloud Player - an internet based service for Macs and PCs, but currently only available in the US.

Cloud Drive is free for up to 5 GB of media - after that, you have to pay. Interestingly, Amazon are providing mobile access, but only for Android, Blackberry and Palm. Thinking back to last week and the release of Amazon Appstore for Android, it seems that the internet giant is intent on targeting the vast market that the iPhone hasn't yet managed to tap.

The official Twitter app for iOS has been updated to 3.2.2, and although it contains various bug fixes it doesn't bring in the fix many users have been calling for.

Since the beginning of March, Twitter's new  'Quick Bar' has been annoying users. The Quick Bar adds trends to your Twitter feed, so you can always see what's trending, and includes one promoted trend. A promoted trend seems to be a bit of an oxymoron - if it's promoted then it's an advert, and not really a trend, is it?

While this trend bar no longer floats around the Twitter app like a bad smell, it still can't be switched off, meaning you are forced to see whatever trends are happening in the region you choose. As many people have pointed out, what's trending is not always what you want to see, and can also sometimes be offensive.

Hopefully the Quick Bar will quietly disappear soon. It's no longer mentioned in the iTunes store description, so we can still hope it will be retired! Otherwise, if you really want to be rid of this annoying 'feature', either switch app (I like Echofon), or switch to an Android device, where the official app is free of the Quick Bar!

Skype for Mac has been updated to version 5.1.0.914 adding support for external iSight cameras connected by Firewire, the ability to focus on specific speakers in conference calls, quick dialing, contact groupings on the right and call quality ratings. However, it's disappointing that more important issues haven't been addressed yet. In particular:

• The new wider interface hasn't been slimmed down despite widespread complaints from Mac users

The new larger interface introduced in version 5 has probably caused the most controversy. Its arguable that Skype has now become one of those rare applications where the Windows interface is actually more user friendly than the Mac version. In fact, some users have reverted back to the slimmer version 2.8 for Mac (there was no version 3 or 4 for Mac by the way). To their credit, the developers have minimized it a little bit in recent updates but its still got a long way to go before Skype feels like the slimline application it once was. If the developers really can't slim down the interface any further, maybe they could just include a version 2.8 skin that users can revert to if they choose.

Update: It seems that since this post was written and to at least improve the chat interface, Skype have launched a new "design your own chat template" competition for Mac Skype users. Prizes include an iPad 2 and a MacBook Air.

• Group video calling is still a premium feature

The removal of group video calling from the free version of Skype was one of the biggest disappointments in Skype 5. When applications such as iChat allow this for free, there seems little justification for Skype making this a premium feature. Even more annoyingly, during the beta testing period, group video calling was a free feature. Now that Skype for Mac has "gone Gold", it costs $4.99 per day or $8.99 per month just to have group video chats.

• Some features are still only available in the Windows version such as Facebook integration

Of course its nothing new that Macs are often treated as an afterthought by developers as Jon has argued but would it really be that hard to add Facebook integration or a snapshot feature to the Mac version of an application as popular as Skype?

Skype is one of the truly great web innovations but it now has serious competition on the Mac now in the form of Facetime. It would be a shame to see it go downhill just because the developers have decided to bloat and reduce the functionality of a perfectly good app.

Ten years ago today Apple released the first desktop version of its renowned operating system Mac OS X. Mac OS X 10.0 was the first Mac operating system named after a big cat (Cheetah) and it brought many changes to Apple computers.

Unlike the desktop OS used by Apple until that moment – versions 9 and earlier – Mac OS X is a Unix-like operating system based entirely on the OpenStep technology developed by NeXT, the computer company founded by Steve Jobs after he was forced to resign from Apple. Mac OS X had a completely new codebase, design, file system and hardware support.

After version 10.0 launched in March 24th 2001, succeeding releases of Apple’s operating system continued with the original cat-based naming pattern: Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and soon, Lion.

Happy birthday, OS X!

Shazam is updating its iOS and Android apps with a new feature that lets you share new music with your Facebook friends.

The new Shazam Friends feature in the popular music discovery app allows you see a real time feed of songs that your friends are tagging. This ever-updating list of tags is designed to help Shazam users discover even more new music, based on what peers are listening to.

Once you’ve updated the app, the new ‘Friends’ tab will let you: browse all your friends’ tags, add buddies to your Shazam history, use stream services to play songs from their playlists, post tags to Facebook and Twitter, and invite pals to use Shazam Friends.

The new feature is already available in the updated Shazam for iOS, and Shazam says it will hit Android devices in the coming weeks.

An update has arrived for Windows Phone 7 that adds a host of new features to the mobile operating system, including copy and paste.

There are plenty of other goodies in the new Microsoft OS, dubbed 'NoDo'. These include faster game and application performance, a slicker Marketplace search, improved WiFi connectivity, Outlook and MMS enhancements, plus tweaks to the Facebook account sync. Check this neat little video from WinRumors, which demonstrates some of the new features.

The update, which was announced by Steve Ballmer at last month’s GSMA Mobile World Congress, will be available to all Windows Phone 7 users through the Zune software. The rollout of updates is being done in phases, so have a little patience if you haven’t been invited to upgrade your Windows Phone 7 device yet.

Opera has just announced that it has updated Opera Mobile to 11 and Opera Mini to 6. James has already shown us that it's his browser of choice on Android, and a hot favorite on Symbian, so it's clear that Opera is an app to be reckoned with. With this double dose of innovation, however, it's even harder to know which to pick - is Mobile or Mini the best browser for you?

As you might have guessed from the name, Opera Mobile is the version of the browser optimized for use on mobile devices and tablets. It's got everything that you would expect from a regular browser, even using the same engine as the desktop version. In other words, Opera Mobile is as close as you can get to standard desktop browsing on a mobile device.

Opera Mini is the version Opera has released to make mobile browsing the fastest, lightest experience possible, saving you money in the process, especially if you pay for your mobile internet as you go. It does this by shrinking webpages down to a tenth of their size before sending them, which obviously makes for a much smaller, quicker experience.

[Image courtesy of Opera]

Although Opera Mobile and Mini are on very different version numbers, this update has brought the same changes to both. Both include improvements to make scrolling and zooming much smoother, something that really enhances mobile browsing. Added to this is new pinch-to-zoom functionality, something that users of other browsers missed when using Opera.

Also added is a Twitter, Facebook and blogging share button, which is pretty essential for anyone with even a passing interest in social browsing. Finally, for all you lucky tablet users, Opera Mini and Mobile have also been optimized for tablet use. Opera isn't shy when it comes to mobile platforms, so there are quite a few to choose from. Have a look here to make sure you get the perfect one for you.

Apple have just released the latest update for Snow Leopard, 10.6.7. This release seems mainly to be aimed at stability and bug fixing, and while this isn't the most fascinating of subjects, it is important.

The main highlights of 10.6.7 improve reliability for Back to Mac and make the App Store more stable. More specifically, it fixes the freezing that could result from clicking the Updates tab in the App Store. Dedicated Mac fans are more interested in the fact that it should be one of the last updates before Lion is released - exciting stuff!

For a more detailed description of the of the update, read this.

Firefox 4’s launch is only a few days away but the guys over at Mozilla still enjoy keeping us on tenterhooks with articles, videos and other small bits of information about their browser’s next big release. The last example to join this list is an awesome online planetarium where you can check all sorts of interesting facts about the Solar System.

The most outstanding thing about this planetarium is that it’s entirely coded in HTML5 and CSS3, as a demonstration of the amazing possibilities of these new technologies. The Planetarium showcases the use of CSS3 Transitions on CSS3 Transformations, which were already introduced in the Beta version of Firefox 4 and enable you to animate any HTML element on the page.

CSS3 Transitions are applied to CSS properties, showing changes as animations rather than applying those changes immediately. The result is a smooth, seamless animation that works on Firefox 4, Chrome and Safari… and doesn't require Flash.

Download Firefox 4 and go for a walk in space now!