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New Firefox Build Adds Support for Multi-Touch Gestures

Christina — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:53:48 +0000

As MacRumors notes, this Monday Mozilla released its latest beta version of Firefox 3.1. Across all supported platforms, the “Beta 2″ version of the popular web browser will include:

-Private Browsing Mode
-Faster JavaScript engine
-Improved rendering
-Support for new web technologies

Users of Apple’s newest line of laptops, with built in multi-touch trackpad support, will also be pleased to find out that this version of Firefox will support even more gestures than Apple’s Safari. Experimental Firefox support for multi-touch track pad was first introduced in a pre-Beta build back in October of this year, by Mozilla’s Edward Lee. If Mozilla’s beta testing goes as planned, we can expect these changes, and more, to make the final 3.1 version of Firefox, which has yet to announce a release date.

Supported gestures include (with “swipe” referring to a 3-finger swipe:) (via MacRumors)

• Swipe Left: Go back in history (hold Cmd to open it in a tab)
• Swipe Right: Go forward in history
• Swipe Up: Go to the top of the page
• Swipe Down: Go to the end of the page
• Pinch Together: Zoom out
• Pinch Apart: Zoom in
• Twist Right: Next tab
• Twist Left: Previous tab

Please note that this version of Firefox is intended for developer testing and community feedback only.

Songbird Flutters a Sweet Tune but Can it Compete with Apple?

Dave — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 17:30:30 +0000

Earlier this week, Songbird, the open-source customizable music player powered by Mozilla technology made it’s official 1.0 launch. Set out to be an open design with a variety of integrated services, a vast array of add-ons and ever expanding developer community, is it possible that Songbird could ever pose a threat to Apple’s iTunes?

After two years of development Songbird is finally at an optimal stage of performance and stability, and while they claim there is plenty left to do, they appear to be enthusiastic with the currently integrated features. Built on Mozilla’s Gecko engine, the same that powers Firefox, the UI allows for a familiar tabbed browsing experience. Upon closer examination, you will discover that Songbird has a lot to offer in the way of customization and extendability, making it the media player that many have been in search of. The Songbird team has revealed that as of late 160k users/month have expressed an interest in an alternative player.

First Impressions:

In the past, users had noted Songbird to be a sluggish and buggy application, prone to unexpected crashes. Negative first impressions can pose a hindrance on future usage, so if you are one of the folks that had a bad first experience, I would recommend that you take another crack at it. My initial examination of 1.0 showed the player to be very responsive and stable. Directly following instillation you are met with a prompt to port over your iTunes library, which was as smooth a process as one could conceivably imagine, even importing DRM-protected media with the accompanying metadata. Initial operation of the browser functions as one would expect coming from Mozilla, with little in the way of default interface changes. A casual user may find it to be an awkward transition to browse with an application that looks like the offspring of Firefox and iTunes, yet the initial confusion will wear off after a few minutes.

The Add-ons

Songbird comes with a few add-ons that are already integrated upon installation. The first of which, mashTape, allows you to easily access a wealth of information, including artist bios and info, links, news, discographies, flickr photos and YouTube videos. Other default add-ons that come equipped with Songbird include Last.fm Scrobbling, SHOUTcast Radio and Concert Tickets. From here you can sync tracks to Last.fm’s services, stream music over the web and find local upcoming shows of your favorite bands. If these add-ons aren’t enough to tickle your fancy (when is it ever enough?) then you can choose from a list of over 300 additional add-ons that are currently available across categories such as Appearance, Playback & Management, Content & Discovery, Web Browser and Developer Tools.

The first add-on I chose to install was the Songbird recommended LyricMaster, which displays lyrics from the currently playing song, leading to the inevitable spontaneous karaoke outburst. Surprisingly, LyricMaster was able to display lyrics from every song that I tried out, even a few foreign gems. Ok, so now that my personal dance party is coming to an end, I decided to go ahead and customize the appearance by downloading a darker theme, called YABS, that is a bit easier on my ever degrading eyesight. I could probably go on installing add-ons for hours, but in the interest of saving time, let’s proceed.

Areas in Need of Improvement:

A first impression would not be complete without making mention of Songbird’s weaknesses. The Songbird team openly states that, “there are several features we’re proud of, but we’ll be the first to admit that others need ironing out, are experimental, or are just plain missing. There’s still a lot to do.” Songbird currently lacks CD Ripping, Watch Folders (Automatically importing media from defined folders), and extended Video support, which are all major features one could make use of. Fortunately, all of these are on their current development roadmap and should be made available in the near future. One other area that can be improved is that Songbird is not yet capable of automatically installing album artwork, leaving up to their user to manually add it in.

One question that skeptics may ask is, “does it have iPod support?” and the answer is a problematic, yes and no. There is an iPod Device Support add-on that allows you to play and sync your iPod music with your Songbird library using this Songbird extension, yet does not yet support iPhone and iPod touch devices. Such shortcomings may be enough to off-put the average user, yet hardcore audiophiles may find the ever expanding application to be right up their alley.

Should Apple Be Concerned?

If one were to dwell only on the features that are currently absent from Songbird 1.0, than it would appear as though Apple would have nothing to worry about. But will those folks be saying the same thing a year from now, as updated versions and future add-ons become available? It is difficult to make the assumption that nothing will ever be able to compete with the iTunes in their respective market.

If Songbird continues to add customizable aspects giving users complete control over the application, then iTunes may have a serious battle on its hands. Similar to how Firefox became the open alternative web browser, so to will Songbird be the open alternative media player. While the current iTunes has matured into a cultured piece of software, it’s only fair to allow Songbird the same amount of time to properly develop future versions.

Apple Helps Mozilla Fix Potential Graphics Exploit in Firefox

Aviv — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:14:55 +0000

With help from Apple Inc., Mozilla has been able to successfully fix crash errors in their flagship product, “Firefox”.

The Mozilla organization says that Apple helped fix crash errors in their Firefox browser. Earlier versions of Firefox 3 were said to have bugs that would repeatedly cause the software to crash, sometimes even corrupting memory at the same time. Mozilla explains that the bugs were creating an exploit for a malicious party to launch arbitrary code, such as malware, however no threats have emerged.

Two of the fixed bugs in Firefox were found by Drew Yao of Apple Product Security, in the software’s image rendering code. Additionally, several related bugs were discovered in other areas of Firefox, such as the JavaScript and layout engines. “A portion of these also affected software other than Firefox 3, including Firefox 2, Thunderbird, and SeaMonkey; users who update to the latest versions of the programs, such as Firefox 3.0.2, should however be in the clear.”

[via Macnn]

Feature: [video] Google’s “Chrome” and Mozilla’s “Ubiquity” – Changing the Way We Web

Aviv — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:05:24 +0000

Mozilla and Google are trying to change the way we browse the web. Google with the release of a new web browser called “Chrome”, and Mozilla Labs with mind-blowing projects like “Ubiquity.” Google’s “Chrome” browser is being released today, and the far more impressive “Ubiquity” has been available only as a prototype.

Browsers like Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox are the way we access the internet. Without a web browser, websites are simply piles of code and images. But web browsers as we currently know and love them, while utilizing the great services available, still make it hard for the everyday user to experience, and for developers to create, a seamless browsing experience. Google, with “Chrome“, and Mozilla with “Ubiquity” are both hoping to change this.

So why are we launching Google Chrome? Because we believe we can add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.

On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox”, we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.

The web gets better with more options and innovation. Google Chrome is another option, and we hope it contributes to making the web even better.

Chrome will be using Webkit, the same open-source rendering engine that loads your web pages in Apple’s Safari. Contrary to Webkit, Firefox uses the rendering engine Gecko (A video of Mozilla’s Firefox 3 rendering a webpage can be found here).

So what does this mean for the future of the web? All of the major technology players have been making a big push towards cloud computing, web-based applications and service as a software.

Major players in the game include Apple with Mobile Me, Google with all of their offerings, Microsoft, Amazon, and then all of the e-mail clients.

But Google’s offerings haven’t always been the best. Google Docs is a great service, and the entire Google Apps suite is phenomenal. It gives small businesses, as well as large corporations and organizations the ability to manage data and work together over the internet. But they are not industry dominating like Gmail. As far as a team-collaboration suite, 37 signals’ BaseCamp demolishes what Google has to offer in that space. Blogger is Google’s blog publishing platform, and while great, many would argue that Wordpress — with the depth of its community, and rich, robust plugin directory — makes Blogger look like its fledgling little brother.

The question is, Will Chrome really change the way we browse? Or will it be another so-so addition to Google’s already huge plethora of offerings. Google will be releasing the first version of Chrome for Windows users, with Mac and Linux versions following.

Mozilla’s Contribution

In case you haven’t heard of Mozilla Labs, it’s where Mozilla conceptualizes about the future of the web. Through collaboration with other media professionals and in-house prototype development, Mozilla is utilizing everything the web has to offer while trying to create a seamless, ubiquitous way of browsing.

The overall goals of Ubiquity are to explore how best to:

• Empower users to control the web browser with language-based instructions. (With search, users type what they want to find. With Ubiquity, they type what they want to do.)

• Enable on-demand, user-generated mashups with existing open Web APIs. (In other words, allowing everyone–not just Web developers–to remix the Web so it fits their needs, no matter what page they are on, or what they are doing.)

• Use Trust networks and social constructs to balance security with ease of extensibility.

• Extend the browser functionality easily.

The below video is straight from Mozilla’s Ubiquity homepage. If you have 6 minutes, I would highly recommend watching it. Aza Raskin from Mozilla points out extremely valid points, that could change the way we browse the web, and utilize web services, forever. A lot of people are talking about Web 3.0, and a semantic web with endless possibilities. Currently however, a user cannot access any information available on the internet unless it has been inputted/programmed at one time or another. No other company is approaching how to solve these vexing issues, and bridge the information online as intuitively as Mozilla.

So what do both Chrome and Ubiquity have in common? Google and Mozilla both play an absolutely enormous role in how we as users will experience the internet in the future. Google’s dominating market share in search, and Mozilla with what Walt Mossberg calls the “best browser around,” (Firefox 3) are both set up to hand-carve the future of the web as we know it.

Though we don’t exactly know how serious Google is going to get with Chrome, we can only hope it gets the attention it deserves. If Google can leverage its market share while introducing a new standards compliant web browser, web developers and end users may forever benefit from such robust environments. Microsoft’s truly archaic Internet Explorer may finally be able to retire for good, and the web may turn into the open, compliant, rich, robust platform that we need. Both Google and Mozilla are heavily focused on perfecting the user experience, while effectively communicating, and navigating through the mass amounts of data available online today.

The results we can expect to see and experience are truly exciting, and there couldn’t be two more perfect companies to take on the web’s challenges ahead.