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Mozilla's Prism hits 1.0, gets new goodies

Mozilla's Prism Project hits version 1.0 and comes with some nice new features like cross-platform notifications, automatic updates, and a way to clear private data.

Josh Lowensohn Former Senior Writer
Josh Lowensohn joined CNET in 2006 and now covers Apple. Before that, Josh wrote about everything from new Web start-ups, to remote-controlled robots that watch your house. Prior to joining CNET, Josh covered breaking video game news, as well as reviewing game software. His current console favorite is the Xbox 360.
Josh Lowensohn

Mozilla's "Web application as a desktop application" service Prism has hit version 1.0 (download Prism). On Friday, the company released it with its own standalone site, and an updated API that lets developers tack on Prism-specific features to their Web applications.

This version also comes with a few niceties like tray icon notifications, application-specific settings, and automatic updates. As with Prism for Firefox, you're also now able to clear private data like user names and passwords, along with any browsing history. What's neat in Prism's case is that it's just for that application, and not all the sites you've visited in other Prism instances.

It's safe to assume Prism will eventually make its way as a built-in feature of the next Firefox release. Competitor Chrome already has a feature that lets you do this on any site; however it does not offer things like taskbar and badge notifications.

As a refresher, here's how its Firefox version works. The video for the standalone desktop app can be found here.