firefox

Short, compact, and screaming orange, the Firefox OS-based Geeksphone Keon is equal parts intriguing, frustrating, and perplexing. But it isn't your typical smartphone.

Instead, the Keon is a developer preview device that's been created to fulfill a specific need as a testing bed for the nascent Firefox mobile operating system, itself in deep development.

Reviewers rarely get a chance to become so intimate with a preproduction handset running experimental software -- the thought of exposing unfinished products in states of vulnerable development tends to make phone makers and software smiths squeamish. But this is Mozilla, the champion of … Read more

Mozilla has a deal for programmers: We'll supply the phones if you supply the apps.

In an effort to ensure there will be good Firefox OS apps in the Firefox Marketplace, Mozilla is offering developer phones to programmers who have compelling ideas for software. In a blog post Thursday, Mozilla employee Havi Hoffman tried to drum up interest:

If you can show you've got a great app idea and the skill to build it, we'd love to see your apps in the Marketplace when the Firefox OS launch begins later this summer. And to sweeten the deal, … Read more

Are typos slowing down you and your Web-surfing ways? If you are typo king or queen, give Nbar a whirl. It uses fuzzy string matching to guess the meaning behind incorrectly entered URLs in Firefox. For example, if you enter "hugg" in Firefox's URL bar (aka the Awesomebar), the extension will suggest The Huffington Post, should that be a site in your history.

The extension does not require a restart and provides two settings. The first, Search threshold, controls how many suggestions will appear in the drop-down menu as you type. The second, Word distance, adjusts the … Read more

The reuse-and-recycle mantra can be extended to Firefox windows, in an effort to create less pollution on your desktop. With the Open in Private Window extension, you can reuse an existing private browsing window instead of Firefox's default of opening a new private window.

After installing the extension and restarting Firefox, the browser will no longer open a new private window if such a window is already open. Instead of launching a new one, it merely calls up the private window you already have open. Sure, it would be nice if the extension would open a new tab in … Read more

If left to its own devices, Firefox lets you open a private window for Web browsing on the sly, but the browser does not extend such functionality to new tabs in your current window. If such flexibility sounds appealing, then the Private Tab extension for Firefox is just thing for you.

The extension couldn't be easier to use, though you'll need to be running the latest version (20.0) of Firefox for it to work. Private Tab doesn't require a restart and simply installs a new menu item on Firefox's File menu (on a Mac, anyway).… Read more

Facebook's engineers like Google's WebP and want Mozilla to build support for the image format into the Firefox browser.

Google hopes to speed Web performance with the image format, which can do the job of both of today's major graphics formats, JPEG and PNG. Facebook began testing WebP support in April.

And now it looks like the powerful company has become Google's biggest ally in the effort to promote WebP. Mozilla is deciding whether to reverse its earlier opposition to WebP, and Facebook programmer Bryan Alger on Wednesday encouraged Firefox developers to do so in a … Read more

If you ask people what they like least about the Internet, the three items at the top of their list of complaints will likely be trackers, ads, and viruses.

While you may not be able to eliminate these and other Web nuisances, you can minimize their effect on your browsing via three free add-ons for Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer: Ghostery, Adblock Plus, and Web of Trust. (Note that Adblock Plus is not available for IE; blocking ads in Internet Explorer 10 is accomplished by using the program's Tracking Protection feature, as explained below.)

Do-it-yourself do not track … Read more

Like their counterparts in the real world, computer criminals are always looking for vulnerabilities they can exploit. Instead of an open window or unattended wallet, malware purveyors watch for holes in software that allow them to install their spying and stealing payloads onto the computers of unsuspecting users.

As the most recent Volume 14 of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report indicates, browsers have become the favorite target of computer crooks. In the last quarter of 2012, JavaScript and HTML were the most likely source of computer infections, according to statistics gleaned by the company from its Malicious Software Removal Tool.… Read more

A new codec from Mozilla and OTOY will let browsers run high-performance rendering apps like Autodesk and high-definition video without plug-ins, the companies unveiled Friday.

The new, open-source digital stream encoder and decoder, called ORBX.js, obviates the need for a plug-in like Flash, Sliverlight, or QuickTime to run HD video in the browser. Mozilla and OTOY expect live TV, watermarked video, and cloud gaming to all get a boost in HTML5-enabled browsers that support it. Currently, that list includes all five major browsers: IE 10, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera.

"Thanks to our ongoing efforts in making the … Read more