With good reason too. Firefox remains an incredibly powerful and customizable browser although persistent memory leakage problems and competition from Google Chrome have dented its popularity.

There are a few interesting improvements in Firefox 21. There's a new Enhanced three-state UI for Do Not Track (DNT) to enhance privacy protection. Firefox should also start a bit quicker on your Mac as it suggests what can be done to improve start-up time (such as disabling certain unused add-ons). There's also a new Firefox Health Report feature which monitors how stable and well oiled your version of Firefox is. Other than this, there have been some minor cosmetic changes to functionality and some developer focused improvements.

The interface is pretty much the same as previous versions of Firefox, with a minimalist toolbar and there's still no way of removing elements that you may not want such as Java and .Net Framework. The major downside for most users however is that some plug-ins or add-ons won't work with the latest version of Firefox yet - so if you have a lot installed, prepare to be disappointed.

One major problem that persists is the high usage of RAM when Firefox is displaying Flash videos such as YouTube. Firefox runs an extra "Plugin-container" process for Flash videos that can occasionally consume 100% of your CPU and cause your Mac to freeze temporarily.

Something that's been introduced in more recent versions of Mozilla Firefox is Facebook integration. Firefox now supports Facebook's social API so you can have dedicated buttons for Facebook in your browser. Mozilla Firefox supports Facebook's Messenger within Firefox, giving users desktop notifications as well as a persistent friends list and activity feed on the right. Conversations will open up as overlays on top of whatever website you're on so you can multitask while you chat.

Mozilla Firefox 20 isn't a revolution in the development of Firefox, but there are some useful improvements that still make it a decent browser.

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We've already given you a lowdown on the most important changes in Mountain Lion most of which are features taken from iOS. Here we will take a more in depth look at the features OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion has to offer.

A universal share button has been added to Safari's URL bar for reading later, add to bookmarks, e-mail, or Twitter. Facebook sharing has also been integrated into OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion, as anticipated.

Password Tabs allows you to see passwords saved in Safari.

Omnibar is an added feature to Google Chrome in Mountain Lion. It integrates the address bar and search box including Google searches, favorites and history.

Messages replaces iChat. Lion users can try the beta version of Messages which is the same as iMessage on iOS but the final stable version only works on Mountain Lion. Amongst other things, Messages offers unlimited free iMessages, video conferencing with Facetime and photo/file sending.

Time Machine now allows you to select more than one hard drive to save backups. Time Machine can now also run in PowerNap mode, which allows the operating system to update itself while the computer is sleeping.

Software updates are now fully integrated with the Mac App Store and can be downloaded directly.

Game Center is the same as on iOS. Gaming is becoming increasingly important on OS X and Game Center allows you to download games, play against friends and save your progress. AirPlay will allow Mac and iOS users to play against one another. You can also share your scores on Facebook, Twitter, Mail, or Messages in OS X 10.8.2 Mountain Lion. Additional integration with Facebook includes being able to "like" individual games and challenge friends to beat your high scores.

iCloud Synchronization is far more extensive in Mountain Lion than Lion where synchronization is limited to favorites and history. Mountain Lion extends the capabilities of Mountain Lion allowing the synchronization of documents too. iCloud will also sync settings, tabs, and bookmarks between Mac and iOS devices.

Mail. Contacts and Calender are all in sync thanks to iCloud in Mountain Lion and you can now configure it Microsoft Exchange, Gmail and Yahoo!, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo and AOL accounts. In addition, your Facebook friends' contact information and profile pictures will now appear in Contacts as well.

Other surprises in Mountain Lion

- The screensaver now includes the option to create iPhoto style presentations

- Screen Sharing allows you to easily share your screen with other Mountain Lion users.

- Printing has been simplified.

- Searching for words in the dictionary is simpler. Three clicks have been replaced by one.

- Launchpad and Dashboard include a search tool, making launching apps quicker.

- Mail includes a Safari style search tool but ditches support for RSS feeds.

- X11 goes the same way as Java: you have to install it separately.

- AirPlay now support mirroring to an AppleTV with up to 1080p resolution but only stereo sound. Users can now give presentations or watch video on a TV from their Macs using AirPlay.

Final thoughts

The last major change to OS X was OS X 10.5 Leopard. It was followed by a faster and more subtly improved Snow Leopard 10.6. OS X 10.7 Lion was then released in summer 2011 with most major changes related to how you control OS X via a Trackpad to create a more iOS experience. Everything then points towards the fact that Apple are likely to release a new OS X once a year, the same as iOS for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch with OS X moving closer and closer to iOS with each release. Considering that the price of each OS X update has come down too, it’s foreseeable that future versions of OS X will be downloaded for free like iOS.

Naturally, this increasing move towards iOS will delight those that love using their iPhone and iPad. Those that prefer their mobile device and Mac to be treated as mainly separate user experiences, may not be so enthusiastic but Mountain Lion provides some great new functionality and is well worth the upgrade from Lion.

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This means that anything that appears in Google Canary, will eventually probably appear in both the developer and stable versions, so if you want to stay at the very cutting edge of Google Chrome, Canary is what you need. The good news is, when you install Google Canary, it won't install itself over any other version you've got installed, so you can test it to your heart's content.

However, since its completely untested and designed for those that want to help Google develop the next version of Chrome, you'll find it very unstable and unreliable at times and be warned that it will send anonymous usage stats back to Google.

If you want to see the cutting edge latest in the development of Chrome, Google Chrome Canary is your answer.

Download Google Chrome Canary 27.0.1419.0 Alpha in Softonic

The biggest addition to the latest Google Chrome (Beta) is the inclusion of speech recognition for applications. The browser includes a new Web Speech API, which provides developers tools to integrate speech recognition within their web apps. There is some controversy over the security of such an API as apps will have permission to record and send audio.

Google Chrome (Beta) also adds some security enhancements, most importantly for extensions. Extensions that don't explicitly ask for permissions will be blocked automatically. This is great and will force extension developers to be more transparent.

If you want to check out what's on the horizon for Chrome, download and try the Google Chrome (Beta).

Download Google Chrome (Beta) 25 in Softonic

The ESPN Cricinfo extension for Google Chrome, gives you the latest cricket news, features and live scores from ESPN's extensive cricket coverage service. In addition to alerting you about a new story via auto notifications, it also shows the current scores in a tooltip when you hover over the ESPN Cricinfo icon.

It also includes Wicket Alerts - just select one or more matches to follow and whenever a wicket falls, the ESPN Cricinfo icon will change to a W on a red background. Just click the icon to see the wicket that fell. Alternatively, you can be notified by a Desktop Notification. To configure which one to use, visit the Options page to enable Desktop Notifications. Note however that one bug with ESPN Cricinfo is that the "Disable notifications from ESPNCricinfo" doesn't work and so you have to disable it completely from the Options page.

Finally, you can filter news stories by country. Just click on the small gear cog icon in the top right corner of the extension to access the Options page and you can select up to two countries.

ESPN Cricinfo is a must have add-on for all fans of cricket and Google Chrome.

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Compared to the latest stable version 11 this edition contains modifications that make it worth trying for die-hard Chrome fans. As you expect from Google Chrome, you get a web browser with a sleek, minimalist design.

Even compared with Safari and especially Firefox, the browser has very few buttons. All settings and options to choose your extensions are accessible via icons in the top right.

Please note that this version of Google Chrome is strictly a developer release so bear in mind that you may occasionally encounter bugs and the developers are very keen to hear feedback on such problems.

The latest developer version of Google Chrome gives you a taste of what's to come from one of the fastest growing browsers out there.

Download Google Chrome (Dev) 19.0.1084.15 in Softonic