The Lunascape Blog

Today, we have released version 6.5.1 of Lunascape with the Gecko engine updates to revision 1.9.2.18 (corresponding to the Firefox 3.6.18) and one occasional, but critical Gecko-specific bug fix. In some situations, the Gecko dll files failed to load when switching to the Gecko engine. This sometimes resulted in inability to browse the Web with Gecko engine, or caused Lunascape to crash. We hope those who has ecperienc3ed the issue become able to enjoy the Gecko engine by upgrading to this new version.

Download the latest Lunascape

Finally, here comes the Lunascape version 6.5.0 official release!

It has been a while since we first released the 6.5.0 beta last winter, but here we are. We have finally made it.

Unfortunately, a quick dial, one of the main features we have planned to add in this version, has been postponed to version 6.6.0., but we have made a major update on the Webkit engine (revision 80840) and fixed quite many engine-related bugs with this 6.5.0 official release. In fact, our performance with the engine has improved by 20% in speed according to the Sunspider JavaScript Benchmark. Also, we have updated the Gecko engine to revision 1.9.2.17, which is equivalent to the Firefox version 3.6.17. I am sure you will have better browsing experience with the Lunascape Webkit engine. Please give it a try to let us hear what you think!

Lunascape 6.5.0 official version download

Since the release of Lunascape ver.6.4.1, we’ve received some similar issue reports from users. They are to have either 1) an error massage “Failed to load data. Data may be corrupted. This is an invalid XML” after an installation/update or 2) the Gecko download or loading hangs or 3) both. Many of you may not have these issues because they only occur to a certain environment, which runs Windows XP SP3. However, this does not mean all Windows XP SP3 users, who use Lunascape 6.4.1 or later, encounter these issues neither… it’s only some of them.

Our development team has been working on the fix for a while and figured those issues occur to the Lunascape with Gecko 3.6 series. We will be fixing them in a Lunascape 6.5 official release, but meanwhile, we have decided to release Lunascpae 6.4.4 with Gecko 3.5 series to compensate for the issues.

Lunascpae 6.4.4 has Gecko engine that is equivalent to Firefox 3.5.17. If you prefer to stay using Gecko 3.6 series, you may choose not to update to this version, or you can download a Gecko 3.6.14 for Lunascape 6.4.4 from the Luna Labs.

Thanks to many positive feedback on the 6.5 beta. We’ve decided to move the schedule forward and to release Lunascape 6.4.1, which includes most of the new features introduced in the beta, today.

As many of you know, one of the new features is Online Bookmarks that allow you to bring your bookmarks with your iPhone or iPad. You can get access to your Online Bookmarks via iLunascape anytime. Also, you can sync your Online Bookmarks with the Firefox and from both ends using the Firefox Sync or the Lunascape’s Online Sync account. You can learn more on what you can do with the Online Bookmarks in the old entry.

The next major change is a much-anticipated upgrade of the Gecko engine to the Firefox 3.6 series. The 6.4.1 has Gecko version 1.9.2.13 that corresponds to the Firefox version 3.6.13. As a result, we’re temporary closing the ‘choose your own Gecko’ project on the Luna Labs and recommend users to use the upgraded Gecko (Firefox 3.6 series) with Lunascape.

Another change is in the Lunascape Settings dialogue. Some of the options are shuffled around and re-categorized in such a way that hopefully makes more sense to users, for now…. We plan to refresh the appearance and layout of the dialogue in a future release, so your feedback are welcome.

Last but not least, the Lunascape 6.4.1 is one of the first official release that includes translations made by volunteers. Yes, that’s right. Your contributions have made this version more complete! Thank you so much to those volunteers who has made it happen. We’ll create a thank you page on our Web site and list names of the contributors to show our appreciation. Translations made through the Lunascape Localizer will be kept reflected in every releases of Lunascape (the official global version and Europe language versions) from now on. If interested, please register yourself at the Lunascape Localizer.

We’ve also released an update of iLunascape Lite for iPhone (ver. 1.1.2) today. It has the Firefox Sync 1.6 support, so incompatibility between different versions is addressed, and you should have no issue accessing to your Online Bookmarks.

Hope you’ll enjoy this new release of Lunascape 6.4.1 and iLunascape Lite for iPhone 1.1.2.

2011 is the year of rabbit according to the Chinese zodiac and/or the Japanese Eto. The year of rabbit means that it’s going to be a slow-paced, quiet and peaceful, yet inspiring, positive and energetic year. Many of you may have new year’s resolutions, and I’ve asked users what should be our (Lunascape’s) resolution for this year. The answers are to make the Lunascape faster and to allow bookmarks import/export in an html file format. Ah, it sounds so basic and must-have features for the Web browsers that we must carry out! Well, this is a bit detailed resolutions, but I think this year Lunascape should focus more on its inner growth. We may not look dramatically changed or different from outside, but inside, we should mature the features we have, improving its usability/looks & feels and eliminating as many open bugs as possible to prepare for much more high-paced, aggressive year of Tiger in 2012.

To start our new year, we’ve released an updates for the iLunascape Lite for iPhone. It’s version 1.1.1 released yesterday on 2011/01/11 (JST). Now, you can open links in new background tabs and open bookmarks in new tabs! This version also fixed the occasional crash issue when zooming in/out Web sites in the browser, providing better user experience.

We hope you’ll enjoy this new features of iLunascape and wish you a much-loved and prosperity year of 2011.