Mozilla Unveils Firefox OS Smartphones At Mobile World Congress

 

ReadWrite - It started with a gecko, of sorts. It then became a fennec, a type of winter fox. Now, it is a smartphone, and soon it will be available all over the world. 

We are, of course, talking about Firefox OS, the open source, Web-based smartphone operating system created by Mozilla. The company announced Sunday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that it has partnered with device manufacturers and mobile operators across the world to launch Firefox smartphones in 2013. 

Mozilla also officially launched the Firefox Marketplace, an app store featuring mobile Web applications and websites that will be able to operate on the new smartphones. Both the Firefox OS and Marketplace are optimized towards HTML5 development and open Web standards using Mozilla’s Firefox browser as its backbone.

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Firefox 15 beta boasts support for Opus audio format, reduces add-on memory leaks

Engadget - Can't bear to part with your favorite browser extensions, but can't stand to see them devour your system memory? Maybe you should check out Firefox 15. According to Mozilla's Hacks blog, the browser's latest beta should patch up the majority of memory leaks gushing from Firefox add-ons. Also new, is the beta's support for Opus, a free audio format partially supported by Mozilla.     More

Firefox Beta 15 supports the new Opus audio format

What is it?

Opus is a completely free audio format that was recently approved for publication as a standards-track RFC by the IETF. Opus files can play in Firefox Beta today.

Opus offers these benefits:

• Better compression than MP3, Ogg, or AAC formats
• Good for both music and speech
• Dynamically adjustable bitrate, audio bandwidth, and coding delay
• Support for both interactive and pre-recorded applications

Why Should I care?

First, Opus is free software, free for everyone, for any purpose. It’s also an IETF standard. Both the encoder and decoder are free, including the fixed-point implementation (for mobile devices). These aren’t toy demos. They’re the best we could make, ready for serious use.    

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Firefox survives first round of surgery

CNET - Mozilla’s three months into an ambitious plan to bolt a long list of features into its browser. Competitors left it no choice.

Firefox to change its look–again (screenshots)

 

After years of tough competition from dominance-seeking Google Chrome and Internet Explorer, Mozilla faces a second year in a row of forced adaptations. Its aggressive Firefox 2012 development plan calls for surgeries both minor and radical to integrate many new pieces into the browser, but it may not survive post-op. At least, not as you know it.

So far, the changes have resulted in a Firefox which, simply put, runs better. Two of the most tangible new tools have changed add-on behavior. The addition of add-ons to Firefox Sync let you mirror the same add-ons at work and at home, and you won’t have to reinstall them manually if your computer crashes.

A second add-on change marks around 80 percent of add-ons as compatible by default with each new version of Firefox. This prevents the browser from worrying about the “maximum version compatibility” issue that was relevant back in Firefox 3, when updates were annual, but is much less of a problem when updates come every six weeks.

Other early 2012 victories for Firefox include Chrome migration; a new design for HTML5 media controls; better developer and Web platform tools; and a Firefox “hotfix” system for pushing out minor updates that don’t require a browser restart. Granted, these are the equivalent of medicating a patient to lower a fever while the virus still infects the body, but they’re good starts. They’re just more about keeping up with the competition than they are about forging ahead.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

The second quarter of 2012 doesn’t look particularly life-saving, either. Some of the highlights of what Mozilla wants to achieve before the end of June include an improved Home Tab and New Tab experience; in-location bar search that ensures user privacy; automatic browsing session restore with tabs-on-demand; a panel-based download manager; and silent updates.

These are achievements that Firefox is not boldly leading on. Some of them, such as the Home Tab and New Tab, and silent updates, are already in the Firefox Aurora development build, which means that they’re well on their way to reaching most people.    More

Mozilla begins development of Firefox for Metro

Summary: Mozilla today announced that it has begun “a very large project” to build a Metro styled version of Firefox for Windows 8. Can Firefox for Metro really be ready this summer?
Mozilla’s Brian R. Bondy revealed today that development has begun on Firefox for Metro.

Last month, Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler announced that a Metro version of Firefox was in early planning stages, with a blog post about Mozilla’s goals that in turn linked to a roadmap. Dotzler is listed as the product manager.

Today’s announcement fleshes out some of the key decisions that the Mozilla team has made in the past month.

According to Bondy, Firefox for Metro will mimic Internet Explorer 10’s split personality, as a “Metro style enabled desktop browser”:

Unlike Metro applications, Metro style enabled desktop browsers have the ability to run outside of the Metro sandbox. Meaning not only can we build a browser, but we can build a powerful browser which gives an experience equal to that of a classic Desktop browser.

Metro style enabled desktop browsers have access to most Win32 API and the entire new WinRT API.

Unfortunately a browser can only participate in Metro mode if it is the default browser. So if Firefox is not the default browser on a system, you can’t use it in Metro mode. This is a decision made by Microsoft.                   More

HTTPS and Tor: Working Together to Protect Your Privacy and Security Online – For Firefox & Chrome

EFF - This week EFF released a new version its HTTPS Everywhere extension for the Firefox browser and debuted a beta version of the extension for Chrome. EFF frequently recommends that Internet users who are concerned about protecting their anonymity and security online use HTTPS Everywhere, which encrypts your communications with many websites, in conjunction with Tor, which helps to protect your anonymity online. But the best security comes from being an informed user who understands how these tools work together to protect your privacy against potential eavesdroppers.

Whenever you read your email, or update your Facebook page, or check your bank statement, there are dozens of points at which potential adversaries can intercept your Internet traffic. By using Tor to anonymize your traffic and HTTPS to encrypt it, you gain considerable protection, most notably against eavesdroppers on your wifi network and eavesdroppers on the network between you and the site you are accessing. But these tools have important limitations: your ISP and the website you are visiting still see some identifying information about you, which could be made available to a lawyer with a subpoena or a policeman with a warrant.

Protecting your security and anonymity against real-time government wiretapping is considerably more difficult. In a country where ISPs are controlled by the government or vulnerable to government bullying, Internet users should be especially aware of what kinds of information is still visible to ISPs and may be subject to government surveillance. To a lesser degree, websites may be subject to the same kinds of government bullying and may be compelled to give up information about their customers.               More

Mozilla slows pace of Firefox 9 upgrades

Computerworld – Mozilla dramatically slowed the update pace of Firefox 9, the browser it shipped late last month.

The company also said it may repeat the slow-down in the future.

Firefox 9, which Mozilla released Dec. 20, has yet to be completely “unthrottled,” or offered as an update to all users, according to notes from a company meeting last week.

Like other software vendors, including Microsoft and Apple, Mozilla can offer upgrades to a fraction of its users rather than to everyone at once. The practice is designed to ensure that download servers aren’t overwhelmed, and to prevent bugs — if there are any in the update — from reaching all users.

Firefox 8, the edition that launched Nov. 8, 2011, accounted for 40% of all versions of Mozilla’s browser five days after its release, and broke the 50% mark 18 days after it shipped, according to usage statistics from Irish metrics firm StatCounter. Meanwhile, Firefox 9 accounted for just 7% of all editions of Firefox five days after its debut and required 24 days to reach 50%.

The slow-down was related to several bugs in Firefox 9 that Mozilla developers have investigated, including one mentioned last week in a status meeting that blocks some users running Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, from playing Netflix content.

While Mozilla issued Firefox 9.0.1 a day after shipping Firefox 9 — the former removed code that caused some Mac, Linux and Windows browsers to crash — it has not released a version 9.0.2 to patch any of the bugs that prompted it to throttle the upgrade process.                   More

The Best Firefox Extensions, 2011

PCMag.Com - You can’t beat the number of choices to add on to your Firefox browser. But if that’s too much for you, we’ve narrowed it down to 23 everyone should install.

It’s not much of a stretch to say Mozilla owes the success its Firefox browser has had these last six years to add-ons. Firefox was the first browser to embrace them. Add-ons encompass plug-ins (like Flash, Adobe Reader, QuickTime, etc) that make existing Web tech work, themes for changing a browser’s look, and of course, those capability-enhancing programs known as extensions that go beyond a developer’s dreams.

Of course, you could go your entire browsing life without installing an extension. Many people do. But without them, you’re missing out on making Firefox the powerhouse of Web surfing it can be. Take a look at our 23 choices for the best extensions, install a few, and try them out (they’re free, after all) and you’ll see just how useful they are.

 

 

1. FireFTP
Need to access a server somewhere with full-fledged FTP but don’t want to exit your browser? You don’t have to with FireFTP . It loads in a tab and gives you all the access you need without loading a separate program. It works with Firefox on Mac, Windows, or Linux, too.

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2. Tweetlight
Why cut and paste items you like into Twitter? With Tweetlight , just highlight, hit Ctrl+Shift+E (or use a context menu), and your selections can instantly get micro-blogged to followers. v

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3. Site to Phone
Sometimes porting favorite sites from your desktopbrowser to your mobile browser is a pain. Site to Phone minimizes that so you can send links that will work every time to iOS, Android, WebOS, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone 7 phones. This one works in every browser, with extensions for IE and Chrome, too.                   More

Firefox 8 cracks down on add-ons

CNET - Mozilla released Firefox 8 today, a version that weeds out some add-ons and that will shoulder more responsibility for the organization’s new fast-development process.

Giving the user control over the Web experience has been a longstanding Mozilla priority, and Firefox 8 (download for Windows | Mac | Linux | Android) takes a new step here. With earlier versions, third-party software could extend Firefox with new features–Skype’s tool for highlighting phone numbers for easy online calling, for example. With Firefox 8, though, third-party add-ons will be disabled by default.

“These add-ons installed by third parties present a number of problems: they can slow down Firefox start-up and page loading time, they clutter the interface with toolbars that often go unused, they lag behind on compatibility and security updates, and most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons,” said Mozilla programmer Justin “Fligtar” Scott in a blog post about the feature.

Mozilla also is working to make sure that people really want the add-ons that already are installed. A dialog box will appear once after the new browser is installed that lets people select which add-ons to enable or disable. Those the user installed will be enabled by default, but those installed by third parties will be disabled by default.

Add-ons have long been a competitive asset for Firefox, but Safari, Chrome, and Opera now have their own versions of the technology. And add-ons can be a disadvantage, too, if they aren’t updated at the same pace as Mozilla now updates Firefox or that aren’t covered by Mozilla’s automatic compatibility testing system.

The rapid-release process, pioneered by Google’s Chrome and in use with Firefox since earlier this year, yields a new browser every six weeks. Among the implications: Differences from one version to the next are smaller, new features can be brought to users without waiting a year or more; delaying a feature carries a lower penalty and doesn’t hold up other features; and slow-moving business customers and add-on programmers have had a harder time keeping up.

The rapid-release transition caused a lot of indigestion, but Mozilla is committed to it. A major course correction, though, appears likely with the proposal of the Extended Support Release version that’s updated every 30 weeks.

Updating Firefox rapidly is a priority in part because new Web features developing rapidly and the browser market is arguably more competitive than ever. Firefox’s previously steady growth in usage has plateaued with the arrival of Chrome, and Mozilla is at a grave disadvantage in the mobile browser market, where Firefox isn’t installed anywhere by default.

A lot of Firefox users remain on version 3.6, which predated the rapid-release era. That’s likely to change, though: On November 17, Mozilla plans to flip the switch for recommending Firefox 3.6 users update. Since many people typically follow the upgrade recommendation, that’ll mean Firefox 8 will be the introduction many Firefox users will have to the rapid-release philosophy.

 

When Firefox 8 is run for the first time, it will ask users 

what add-ons they want enabled. By default, it’ll 

suggest turning off add-ons that were installed 

by third-party programs and enabling those the 

user installed. (Credit: Mozilla)

Mozilla isn’t ceasing support of Firefox 3.6 yet, though. Today, it also plans to release the latest maintenance version, 3.6.24.

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20 Best Browser Apps of 2011

Whether you want to stay on top of your to-do list, find out who is tracking you online, or sling a few birds at pesky pigs, here are 20 apps that are well worth your time.

 

Make Your Browser More Useful and Fun

Remember when you used your browser exclusively for surfing the Web–visiting websites, reading articles, and maybe watching a video or two?
Those days are long gone. Your browser is now a source of apps for games that you can play for hours, services that will keep you safe, and simple utilities that can be useful or fun. Read on to learn more about our choices for the 20 best browser apps of the year.

Ghostery

As you surf the Web, you’re not alone. Chances are, you’re being followed by tags, tracking cookies, Web bugs, beacons, and more. Ghostery helps you find out when and how you’re being tracked, and gives you the power to put an end to it.
Ghostery is available for Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari.

 

LastPass

I review a lot of software for PCWorld. And after I’m done with the review, I uninstall most of the apps I test. But not LastPass.
I would be lost without this free password manager. With its ability to remember and generate secure passwords, LastPass may not be a flashy product, but it’s one of my personal favorites.
LastPass is compatible with Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, and several mobile browsers.

 

Angry Birds

Since using LastPass has freed me from the hard work of generating and remembering passwords, I now have more time to focus on the important things in life. Like Angry Birds.
This insanely addictive game is available in a browser-based version. Just starting slinging away.

Angry Birds started as an app available through the Chrome Web store, but it is now compatible with all major browsers.

See The Rest of the Browser Apps!

Mozilla puts mobile Firefox on the front burner

Mozilla is expanding development of Firefox for Android with new efforts to improve its performance, lower its power consumption, adapt it for tablets–and keep the browser maker relevant in the hottest area of computing.

Firefox is the second-most widely used browser on computers, but things are different in the mobile arena. There, Firefox is at a serious disadvantage compared to mobile browsers such as Apple’s Safari and Google’s unbranded Android browser that are built into the operating systems.

Mozilla, by comparison, must convince people or phone makers to install Firefox, and even then restrictions keep it off several mobile operating systems.

But Mozilla clearly has recognized that mobile computing is rapidly expanding beyond the niche of technophiles and wealthy folks who want a high-status phone. Firefox won’t have an easy time carving a place for itself on new mobile devices, but Mozilla is doing its darndest to build a browser that will attract users.

One illustration: When Mozilla programmer Dave Mandelin began an active discussion about what Firefox needs to run better on ARM processors, which dominate the phone and tablet market, a broad, active discussion took off. Mandelin wasn’t very gentle.

“If you have a powerful device, Firefox performance is in many ways pretty good. But UI [user interface] responsiveness and memory usage seem to be in pretty bad shape,” Mandelin said. “So we need to get better measurements and start improving performance in those areas, today.”

And Mozilla, barred from bringing its browser to major mobile operating systems such as Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone, is moving beyond browsers, too.

“Smartphones and tablets are where the next billion people will expect their personalized experience to be available to them anytime, anywhere,” Mozilla said in its vision statement that Mozilla Vice President of Products Jay Sullivan published earlier this year. “To significantly affect Internet life in the future, we will have to deliver value on major OSes, whether we are allowed to ship our own browser engine or not.”


Getting a Fennec foothold
That operating system barrier has made it harder for Firefox for mobile, code-named Fennec, to gain a foothold.

The two initial operating systems for Fennec were Maemo from Nokia and Windows Mobile from Microsoft. Maemo became MeeGo when Nokia merged the effort with Intel’s mobile Linux project, but through a major Nokia restructuring, MeeGo has been consigned to oblivion.

Microsoft, meanwhile, overhauled Windows Mobile 6.5 to produce Windows Phone 7–and one aspect of that shift is the removal of the software interfaces necessary to run Firefox.

Another possible avenue, Research in Motion’s BlackBerry operating system, doesn’t look promising, either. Although RIM started a closed beta test of a native developer kit (NDK) last week for BlackBerry tablets, the company told CNET in a statement that won’t enable browsers such as Firefox, as it’s currently engineered, on phones.

“We do not have any plans to bring an NDK to the BlackBerry OS today,” the company said in a statement. “It would have to be written in Java to run on our platform. Opera, Bolt, and other browsers have been ported to the BlackBerry smartphone platform to date.”                   More

5 awesome Mozilla Firefox secrets

CNET - While Firefox might be your chosen browser for its speed, useful add-ons, and open-source culture, it’s also packed with many useful built-in features.

We dug through Firefox‘s endless list of features to find you the best, little-known secrets you can start using right now.


1. Customize search with Smart Keywords
A little-known Firefox feature lets you run searches within any given Web site from the browser’s address bar. For example, to search for “TouchPad” within Amazon.com, all you’d have to do is type “amazon touchpad” in the Firefox bar.
To create a smart keyword, head to a Web site and locate the search field. Then, right-click the search field and select “Add Keyword for this search…”. Create the bookmark, store it in a folder, and your smart keyword is now enabled. Try it with reference sites like Wikipedia and IMDB for quick access to answers.


2. Open multiple Web sites at launch
Who says you can have only one home page? You can set Firefox to open all your favorite Web sites at launch. For example, I’d like CNET, Facebook, and Twitter to launch every time I open my browser.

In Firefox, go to Options > General. In the home page field, enter URLs separated by pipes. For example “http://www.cnet.com | http://www.facebook.com | http://….” and so on. Then, hit “OK” and relaunch your browser to see the magic happen.         More

Mozilla hustles to handle demise of Google Toolbar for Firefox

May update Firefox 3.6 next month to give users a way to migrate bookmarks

Computerworld - Mozilla is scrambling to deal with Google's decision to drop the Google Toolbar for Firefox, according to notes on Mozilla's website.

Earlier this week, Google announced it was killing Google Toolbar for Firefox, and would not be updating the add-on to support Firefox 5 or future versions of the open-source browser.
Mozilla shipped Firefox 5 a month ago.

"For Firefox users, many features that were once offered by Google Toolbar for Firefox are now already built right into the browser," said Google in a message Tuesday. "Therefore, while Google Toolbar for Firefox works on versions up to and including Firefox 4 only, it will not be supported on Firefox 5 and future versions."