Nightly releases of Firefox 4 now include Aero Glass for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users, with the feature still a work in progress.
“The feature was available first in early April but pulled back soon after to iron some important bugs” noted Mozilla Links Percy Cabello.
The above screenshot also showcases the ability to hide the menu bar, and move the tab bar above the location bar.
Keen users can test the new interface by downloading a copy of the latest Firefox nightly.
Google has announced a new format for the HTML5 video war, called WebM and using the VP8 codec.
The new video format is royalty free and designed specifically for use on the web. The WebM project is sponsored by Google, Mozilla, Opera, AMD, Nvidia and Oracle amongst others and is aiming to become the standard way we view video on the web in years to come.
All major browser have announced support for the format, except for Apple.
“In its HTML5 support, IE9 will support playback of H.264 video as well as VP8 video when the user has installed a VP8 codec on Windows” commented Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch.
“Video will finally become a first-class citizen of the Web. This is a big deal, and the day will be remembered in the history of the Web” wrote Håkon Wium Lie, CTO, Opera Software. Opera also have preview builds of the browser available which support the WebM video format.
Mozilla was also quick to follow, with preview builds of Firefox that also include support for WebM. Chrome builds should follow in the coming week.
Apple has been very quiet on the matter, not stating whether it will support the format in it’s Safari browser, and whether this format could make an appearance on iPhones, iPads and iPod touches.
This is a great day for open web standards.
Mozilla has given a presentation discussing Firefox.Next, now officially known as Firefox 4, which bypasses the often talked about Firefox 3.7 version number.
New features set to make an appearance in the browser include:
Currently, a Firefox 4 Beta is expected in June next month, with a possible final release planned for November, or Janurary if development slips past the November time-frame.
The full 50 minute presentation can be downloaded or watched online.
Mozilla have released a pre-alpha build of it’s popular Firefox browser for Android devices. The browser, previously known under the Fennec codename, has been released to gather feedback from the Android community.
This news comes just a month after Mozilla announced it was putting Windows Mobile development on hold, and shows there is still life in the mobile version of Firefox outside of Windows Mobile and Nokia Maemo devices.
So far, the browser is only confirmed to be working on the Motorola Droid and Google Nexus One at this early stage of development.
Vladimir Vukićević has stated that this early build has poor memory management, and this build requires Android 2.0 or above, and likely an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device. This is on top of a few other smaller issues.
Firefox for Android can be downloaded from http://bit.ly/fennec-android.
Mozilla has released a multi-process beta version of its Firefox browser, code named Lorentz.
“Firefox “Lorentz” provides uninterrupted browsing for Windows and Linux users when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If a plugin crashes or freezes, it will not affect the rest of Firefox. You will be able to reload the page to restart the plugin and try again” said the browser release notes.
The multi-process, or out-of-process plugins support first started appearing in early versions of Firefox 4 back in March, but Mozilla has now almost finished the task of porting the code back to the Firefox 3.6 branch.
Out of the box, it only supports Adobe’s Flash, Apple’s Quicktime and Microsoft’s Silverlight plugins, but support for other plugins can be added via the about:config menu.
The multi-process plugin feature is only available for Windows and Linux users, with support for Mac OS X coming in the near future.
A download is available from the Firefox Lorentz website.
Mozilla have pushed out an urgent Firefox 3.6 update, which closes a critical security issue.
It’s the only change for Firefox 3.6.3, which closes a hole that could potentially allow remote code execution after a user visits a site with the infected code.
Full details for Firefox 3.6.3 can read in the release notes, including more detailed information about the fixed security issue.
Firefox 3.6.x users will receive a notification from the browser when it is ready to be updated, or it can be downloaded directly from the Firefox website.
The Chrome development team have today announced a new partnership with Adobe which bundles Adobe’s Flash with Google Chrome browser.
The latest development builds include Adobe Flash Player 10.1.51.95 (10.1 beta 3), and allows Chrome users to receive updated Flash updates automatically without the need of user intervention.
“The traditional browser plug-in model has enabled tremendous innovation on the web, but it also presents challenges for both plug-ins and browsers. The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems. This can lead to incompatibilities, reduction in performance and some security headaches” explains Google.
This move will ensure participating plug-ins are always up to date, increasing browsers security, while also integrating plug-ins tighter within the browser ensuring they become more stable.
Mozilla is also in on the plan, with Google using Mozilla’s next generation browser plug-in API. Other plug-ins such as Adobe’s PDF reader are expected to come further down the track.
Adobe’s Flash Player can be found from today with today’s dev channel update for Chrome; version 5.0.360.4 for Windows and Mac and 5.0.360.5 for Linux.
Mozilla has announced that they are stopping development for Firefox on Windows Mobile devices.
The announcement is no surprise, with the announcement of Windows Phone 7 series expected to limit the device to just Internet Explorer on it’s mobile devices, much like Apple has done with it’s iPhone.
“We have been building a version of Firefox for Windows Mobile for quite a while, with the expectation that Microsoft would be doubling down in the mobile market and hoping that they would put out a great new mobile operating system” wrote Mozilla Mobile Team Technical Lead, Stuart Parmenter.
“While we think Windows Phone 7 looks interesting and has the potential to do well in the market, Microsoft has unfortunately decided to close off development to native applications. Because of this, we won’t be able to provide Firefox for Windows Phone 7 at this time” continued Parmenter.
All hope isn’t totally lost, with Parmeter adding “while I hope that we do see Microsoft provide us with a way to build Firefox for Windows Phone 7, we will continue to focus on the things that we can control: building a great consumer product on both Android and Maemo.”
Mozilla have released an update for Firefox 3.6 users, taking the browser to version 3.6.2.
The latest update fixes several security issues, one of which is rated as critical, the highest on the Firefox security severity scale.
A full list of changes can be read in the release notes.
Existing users are strongly urged to accept the update when their browser prompts them in the next 2-3 days, or alternatively, Firefox 3.6.2 can be downloaded from the Firefox website.
Dear Mozilla and Opera,
Get with the <video> programme! Ogg Theora has lost the HTML5 video format war.
The evidence is all in front of us. The battle seems to have been won with the final move by Microsoft, who have announced that they will support the H.264 and MPEG-4 formats for Internet Explorer 9, completely ignoring the OGG video and audio formats.
In contrast, both Firefox and Opera only support the Ogg video, which is a free open source video format that is not covered by any known patents.