Mozilla will end Firefox support for OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 in August 2016

 

Mozilla announced that it will end Firefox support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, OS X 10.7 Lion, and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion in August 2016. Unlike Google, which also dropped Windows XP and Vista support, Mozilla seems to be sticking to only removing support for old Macs.

This means Mozilla will provide regular Firefox updates and security patches for Mac users on these operating systems for four more months. After that, the browser will still work, but it will be stuck on the last version released in August.

Mozilla also offers a Firefox version called Extended Support Release (ESR) for schools, universities, businesses, and others who need help with mass deployments. Firefox ESR releases are maintained for one year, and so Mozilla will continue to support it on OS X 10.6, 10.7, and 10.8 “until mid-2017.” Firefox ESR 45 will be the last version that supports these old OS X versions.

Mozilla correctly notes that “all three of these versions are no longer supported by Apple” and that “unsupported operating systems receive no security updates, have known exploits, and are dangerous for you to use.” If you want to continue getting Firefox updates, the company thus recommends upgrading your Mac.

It’s unfortunate that Mozilla is not doing the same with old Windows versions. Keep in mind that Microsoft retired Mainstream Support for Windows XP on April 14, 2009, and then pulled Extended Support for the operating system on April 8, 2014. Mozilla is thus going out of its way to support XP for additional years, even longer than Microsoft.

Windows XP users cannot upgrade to newer versions of Microsoft’s browser: IE8 is the latest version they can install. IE9 is only available for Windows Vista and Windows 7, while IE10 and IE11 are only for Windows 7 and Windows 8. Many XP users thus choose to use third-party browsers.
With Chrome no longer an option, many are likely going with Firefox.

Last month, XP still had about 11 percent market share, according to Net Applications. Vista had 1.41 percent market share, and the three old OS X versions had a combined 0.83 percent.

So if you’re wondering why exactly Mozilla keeps supporting Firefox on Windows XP and Vista, the numbers tell the real story. There are hundreds of millions using the browser on the ancient operating systems, and Mozilla would rather have those users than lose them.

But like Google before it, Mozilla is not helping these users by encouraging them not to upgrade. Even with an up-to-date browser, using Windows XP and Vista is simply a poor security choice.



Source: Venture Beat

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Mozilla launches Firefox 46

 


Mozilla on Tuesday pushed Firefox 46 to the stable channel for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. The latest version of the popular web browser is a pretty small update in terms of new desktop features with Mozilla instead focusing most of its attention on Android and behind-the-scenes security and stability improvements (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
The biggest change on the desktop side is GTK3 integration for Linux users (I told you it was pretty dull).
The full desktop change log is as follows:

• Improved security of the JavaScript Just In Time (JIT) Compiler
• Correct rendering for scaled SVGs that use a clip and a mask
• Screen reader behavior with blank spaces in Google Docs corrected
• WebRTC fixes to improve performance and stability
• Display dominator trees in Memory tool
• Allocation and garbage collection pause profiling in the performance panel
• Launch responsive mode from the Style Editor @media sidebar
• Added support for document.elementsFromPoint
• Added HKDF support for Web Crypto API
• Various security fixes

And the full change log for the Android release:

• Notifications about tabs opened in the background now list the URLs
• Firefox will request permissions at runtime instead of installation time (Android 6.0+)
• History and Bookmarks items added to menu
• Include default domains for inline autocompletion
• Clearer homescreen shortcut icons
• Add-ons that have not been verified and signed by Mozilla will not load
• Keep track of tab history under memory pressure
• Text to speech function in TalkBack now works while users swipe right
• Removed support for Firefox Sync 1.1 in favor of Firefox Accounts
• Top Sites panel now lists popular sites by default
• Dropped support for Android Honeycomb (version 3)
• Various security fixes

If you already use Firefox, your browser should automatically update to the latest version. Newcomers or those returning to Mozilla’s browser can download it by clicking here or download for Android here.



Source: TechSpot

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Push notification arrives on the latest update of firefox

Firefox 44, the latest release channel build of Mozilla's web browser, is now available for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. Notably, Firefox 44 lets users receive push notifications from websites so long as permission is granted (opt-in).

Mozilla says the push notification feature is similar to web notifications with the exception that you can now receive notifications from websites even when they aren't open. As you can imagine, this could be incredibly useful for things like e-mail, weather, social networking and shopping – you know, sites and services that you'd otherwise manually check for updates. Push notifications can be managed in the Control Center.

Developers that want to implement push notifications on their website can learn more by checking out this Hacks blog post.

It's worth noting that Mozilla is simply playing catch-up at this point as it relates to push notifications. Google first introduced push notifications in Chrome nearly three years ago with Apple's Safari following suite a few months later.

Elsewhere, Firefox 44 enables H.264 video playback (so long as you have a native decoder), improves warning pages for certificate errors and untrusted connections and enables WebM/VP9 video support on systems that don't support MP4/H.264. The full change log can be viewed on Mozilla's website.


Source: Techspot

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Leaked Mozilla document shows Firefox OS tablet, TV stick, router, and even a keyboard computer

Earlier this month, Mozilla announced that Firefox OS smartphones would no longer be sold via carriers. Because the company refused to talk about what’s next for Firefox OS, aside from saying it will experiment with “connected devices,” many were left simply to speculate as to what could be in the pipeline. Mozilla confirmed the leaked document is legitimate.

Leaked by Spanish blog Hipertextual, the document shows four Firefox OS devices: a tablet, a router, a smart TV stick, and a keyboard computer. Two of these have been done in some capacity before, but all four are labeled as “connected devices.” We naturally asked Mozilla for more information.

“At Mozilla we work in the open and we are still at the early stages of exploring and prototyping new use cases for Firefox OS in the world of connected devices as an open source project with a clear focus on the user benefit and experience,” Denelle Dixon-Thayer, Mozilla’s chief legal and business officer, said in a statement. Great, but what about the above products; is this even a real leak?

“This document represents early product concept work by one of our developers,” Dixon-Thayer confirmed. Like any tech company, Mozilla loves to experiment with new ideas. That said, the company isn’t confirming that these projects are currently in development, so don’t hold your breath. They may never see the light of day.

Firefox OS smart TVs are also available. In addition, Matchstick already tried and failed to sell a Firefox OS-powered TV stick. Mozilla could try again with the Firefox brand, but it’s a hard sell, given the tight-margin competition between tech giants Google and Amazon.

The other two product concepts are more interesting. The router makes a lot of sense, while the keyboard computer is a bit of a stretch, but still very intriguing.

The Firefox Hub router (not to be confused with Firefox Hub add-ons) would apparently, and unsurprisingly, be focused on security. It could potentially mesh well with Mozilla’s privacy strategy.

The Firefox Pi would, meanwhile, push Mozilla’s Webmaker initiative, aimed at promoting the building blocks of the Web. The “Pi” in the name implies a potential partnership with Raspberry Pi.

Again, these are just concepts. Mozilla emphasized repeatedly that it isn’t yet ready to discuss the future of Firefox OS.

As it stands right now, we may continue to see Firefox OS tablets and smart TVs (even smartphones not sold via carriers are still possible), but nothing else. That said, given that Mozilla is making a point of not sharing any additional details right now, we expect more changes to be revealed in the near future (maybe even as soon as CES).


Source : Venture Beat

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Firefox 64-Bit finally on Windows

Weirdly, there’s never been a 64-bit version of Firefox until now. But if you’re running Windows 7 or later, you can now explore the internet with the browser while using twice its current 32 bits.

Making use of the full 64 bits will allow the software to capitalize on the assets of modern processors. It won’t necessarily run faster, but you should find that many web apps run better (or at all!), and the browser’s security should be stronger, too.

It worth noting that Mozilla’s Mark Mayopoints out that “Firefox 64-bit for Windows, by design, has limited support for plugins and users will notice that certain sites requiring plugins that worked in previous 32-bit versions of Firefox might not work in this 64-bit version.”

Source : Gizmodo 

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Mozilla stops working on Firefox OS smartphones

The move is sad, but not surprising. While Firefox OS did manage to get some traction in a few areas, particularly Africa and South America, it was never especially popular. Its early price advantage quickly evaporated -- it's easy to get a basic Android or Windows phone for less than $100. Moreover, that web-centric Utopia... well, wasn't. Although the platform did improve by leaps and bounds, it just couldn't keep up with the competition. It was light on features and slow, and most app makers just weren't interested in taking advantage of Firefox OS when a regular mobile website was often good enough.

As it stands, Mozilla has been scaling back some of its less-than-essential projects. It's already looking for someone else to take control of its Thunderbird email app, as an example. Like it or not, shedding Firefox OS on phones may be necessary to help Mozilla concentrate on browsers, ad blockers and other things central to its mission.


Source :Engadget

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Firefox finally comes to iOS worldwide

While Mozilla wants Firefox to be all things to all people, the browser has been noticeably missing from Apple's App Store. The software company put that down to the iPhone maker's software policy, namely that it'd have to use iOS' default browser engine instead of its own. Mozilla slowly came around to the idea and announced it wouldbring Firefox to iOS at the end of last year and now, after performing some localized testing in New Zealand, the browser is now finally available to iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch users.

Like its Android counterpart, which has been on the Play Store for more than three years, Firefox for iOS comes complete with a private browsing mode, Chrome-like predictive searching and support for Firefox accounts, which pulls over bookmarks, browser history, saved tabs and passwords. In my brief test, the browser was quick to load and rendered web pages without issue, but you probably won't notice much of difference between Firefox, Safari or Chrome. Whether you'll make the switch to Mozilla's latest app will likely hinge on what you're currently using on the desktop, but there's certainly nothing we've seen that could stop it from becoming a useful tool in your browsing arsenal.


Source :Engadget 

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Firefox brings its tracking-resistant private browsing to everyone

The private browsing mode in your current web browser probably isn't that private. It'll (usually) get rid of your history and cookies, but it won't prevent cross-site trackers from getting a feel for what you're doing. However, you now have an easy way to deal with that -- Mozilla hasreleased a finished version of Firefox with its promised stricter Private Browsing mode. Switch it on and you'll get tracking protection that blocks code from those ads and social services that follow you from site to site. There's also a central control panel on the desktop for managing privacy and security, including the option to turn tracking protection off if it's breaking an important page.

There are a few more perks, too, depending on what platform you're running. Desktop users now have a one-click option to mute audio in tabs, much your friends using Chrome. On Android, you can get both direct voice searching from the address bar as well as kid-safe browsing on a tablet's restricted profile. The upgraded Firefox is available now on all platforms, so give it a shot if you're interested in any of the new features -- especially if you don't want the internet looking over your shoulder.

Source : Engadget 

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Firefox 41 arrives with Hello instant messaging, Account profile photos, and multiple search engines on Android

Mozilla today launched Firefox 41 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Notable additions to the browser include instant messaging via Firefox Hello, profile photos in Firefox accounts, and different search providers in the search panel on Android.

Firefox 41 for the desktop is available for download now on Firefox.com, and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play.

Mozilla doesn't break out the exact numbers for Firefox, though the company does say “half a billion people around the world” use the browser. In other words, it's a major platform that Web developers target — even in a world increasingly dominated by mobile apps.

The most important addition to Firefox 41, from Mozilla's point of view anyway, is support for instant messaging. This addition is being made as part of Firefox Hello, which Mozilla calls “the first global communications system built directly into a browser.” When you're on a Hello video call, you can now send and receive instant messages as well in Firefox for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Next up, Firefox Accounts, an account system that provides access to Mozilla services, is getting slightly more personal. You can now add a profile photo in Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.

Last but definitely not least, Mozilla is moving towards requiring that all Firefox add-ons are certified and digitally signed throughaddons.mozilla.org, regardless of where they are hosted. In Firefox 40, the browser started warning users about unsigned add-ons.

Firefox 41 was supposed to disable extensions that haven't been certified by default. That has now been delayed until Firefox 43, though the browser will still offer a preference that allows signature enforcement to be toggled (you can turn off xpinstall.signatures.required in about:config).

In Firefox 44, both the beta and release versions of Firefox will not allow unsigned extensions to be installed, and there will be no way to override this.

Here's the full Firefox 41 changelog:

• New: Enhance IME support on Windows (Vista +) using TSF (Text Services Framework)
• New: Ability to set a profile picture for your Firefox Account
• New: Firefox Hello now includes instant messaging
• New: SVG images can be used as favicons
• New: Improved box-shadow rendering performance
• Changed: WebRTC now requires perfect forward secrecy
• Changed: WARP is disabled on Windows 7
• Changed: Updates to image decoding process
• Changed: Support for running animations of 'transform' and 'opacity' on the compositor thread
• HTML5: MessageChannel and MessagePortAPI enabled by default
• HTML5: Added support for the transform-origin property on SVG elements
• HTML5: CSS Font Loading API enabled by default
• HTML5: Navigator.onLine now varies with actual internet connectivity (Windows and Mac OS X only)
• HTML5: Copy/Cut Web content from JavaScript to the OS clipboard withdocument.execCommand(“cut”/”copy”)
• HTML5: Implemented Cache API for querying named caches that are accessible Window, Worker, and ServiceWorker
• Developer: Removed support for binary XPCOM components in extensions, use addon SDK “system/child_process” pipe mechanism for native binaries instead
• Developer: Network requests can be exported in HAR format
• Developer: Quickly add new CSS rule with New Rule button in the Inspector
• Developer: Screenshot a node or element from markup view with the Screenshot Node context menu item
• Developer: Copy element CSS rule declarations with the Copy Rule Declaration context menu item in the Inspector
• Developer: Pseudo-Class panel in the Inspector
• Fixed: Picture element does not react to resize/viewport changes
• Fixed: Various security fixes

If you're a Web developer, more details are available for you here: Firefox 41 for developers.

Android

Firefox 41 for Android isn't a major release by any stretch. That said, a number of new developer features have been added.

As for new features, you can now use different search engine in the search panel, swipe-to-close tabs on Android tablets, and the bookmark manager has received duplicate detection. The rest is mainly improvements and bug fixes.

Here's the full Firefox 41 for Android changelog:

• New: Quickly search with different search providers from the search panel
• New: Swipe-to-close tabs on tablets
• New: Overlay to manually search and copy/paste login credentials from login manager when they're not auto-filled
• New: Improved bookmark management with duplicate bookmark detection
• New: Improved box-shadow rendering performance
• New: Open Android applications from a web page via Intent URIs
• New: Locale added: Croatian (hr)
• Changed: Updates to image decoding process
• Changed: User Agent now includes Android version
• Changed: Support for running animations of 'transform' and 'opacity' on the compositor thread
• HTML5: MessageChannel and MessagePortAPI enabled by default
• HTML5: Added support for the transform-origin property on SVG elements
• HTML5: CSS Font Loading API enabled by default
• HTML5: Copy/Cut Web content from JavaScript to the OS clipboard withdocument.execCommand(“cut”/”copy”)
• Developer: Removed support for binary XPCOM components in extensions, use addon SDK “system/child_process” pipe mechanism for native binaries instead
• Developer: JavaAddonManager can now send, receive and respond to messages from Gecko
• Developer: Experimental new “speed dial” home panel add-on API (example add-on)
• Developer: Generic API let's developers create a grid of icons and then optionally allow for a large header image
• Fixed: Support for playing MP3 files on Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and above
• Fixed: Various security fixes

Mozilla typically releases new Firefox versions every six weeks, and we thus expect Firefox 42 to arrive sometime in November.

Source : Venture Beat 

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Mozilla is ready to test Firefox on iOS, but only in New Zealand

iPhone and iPads owners looking for a browser alternative are one step closer to seeing Mozilla's option on their devices, but right now a "preview" of the app is only available in New Zealand. In a blog post it says this limitation is so it can gather feedback before taking it to a few more countries ahead of any public launch. Assuming you are a Kiwi, you can try out its Intelligent Search with suggested results across certain sites, and sync your info from the desktop with a Firefox account. Everyone else is invited to sign up for a notification of when the app will arrive in their country.

SOURCE: Mozilla Blog

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Firefox is about to work a lot more like Chrome

Mozilla is beginning to make a series of changes to Firefox that'll make certain aspects of the browser operate a lot more like Chrome. The changes are broadly designed to make Firefox more secure and stable, but they also have the downside of making it less customizable and potentially more of a resource hog.

"Developers who already support Chrome extensions will benefit."

There are a few key changes that Mozilla is making to get there. The first is that it's changing how extensions (which Firefox calls "add-ons") connect to the browser. Mozilla is beginning to require that they use a new method that's very similar to what's used by Chrome and Opera. While that means Firefox extensions may need to be rebuilt, it'll mean that Chrome and Opera extensions should be able to add Firefox support with minimal changes. "Developers who already support Chrome extensions will benefit since they will have one codebase to support instead of two," Mozilla writes in a blog post.

Mozilla is also beginning to require that all extensions go through a security check before they can be installed (currently, only extensions that are submitted to Mozilla's official add-ons gallery go through these checks). While there will be some way to get around this — mostly for developers — this means that every extension that the average person installs will have to pass through Mozilla. For the most part, that's going to be a good thing. "Extensions that change the homepage and search settings without user consent have become very common, just like extensions that inject advertisements into web pages or even inject malicious scripts into social media sites," Mozilla wrote earlier this year. There are obviously some huge security issues in letting extensions run through a web browser unchecked, and Mozilla is beginning to change that.

Mozilla is trying to make Firefox more stable and secure

The other updates relate to changing technologies inside of Firefox itself. For one, Firefox's behind-the-scenes tab management is soon going to work a lot more like the way Chrome handles tabs. Rather than running the browser and web content all together, Chrome splits them up so that the browser frame is separate from each individual browsing tab. It means that if one tab crashes, everything else can keep moving just fine, rather than the entire browser going down with it. There are also some security enhancements that come with tabs being kept independent of each other. This is essentially the model that Firefox is moving over to. At first, Mozilla will simply be separating the browser and the web content into two items, but over time it sounds like the plan is to break apart each tab. That might lead to some of the resource issues that Chrome has, but there's a good argument to be made that it's a fair trade-off for stability and security.

Finally, Mozilla is changing some of the underlying technology that it uses to build Firefox. That result is that extension developers aren't going to be able to alter the browser in quite as deep of a way. That's going to be a disappointment for some, but it's certainly not a reason for immediate outrage: Firefox has long been far more customizable than other browsers, but it was customizable in a way that could pose security and stability issues. Currently, "add-ons have complete access to Firefox’s internal implementation" of core technologies, Mozilla writes. That's apparently also led to development slow downs, which Mozilla hopes to avoid by changing what extensions are capable of.

These changes are going to be rolling out over the next year or so, with some starting much sooner. Extensions are going to have to be approved starting with Firefox 42, which comes two versions from now. Firefox 43 is supposed to begin separating the browser itself from the content inside its tabs; the deeper changes will come about around 12 to 18 months from now. It's likely that that's when developers will have to switch over to the new method of making extensions.

Source : The Verge 

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Firefox hijacks Cortana searches on Windows 10

Firefox 40 has just launched, and Mozilla proudly announced that it's Windows 10 compatible. Firefox 39 ran just fine on Windows 10, of course, so what's new? For one thing, Firefox's ability to hijack Cortana searches.

If Firefox 40 is set as your default web browser on Windows 10, it will automatically re-route queriesthat Cortana sends its way from Bing to whatever your default search provider happens to be. After the update to v40, clicking the “search the web” button fired my request to see the Indians-Yankees score off to DuckDuckGo.

Interestingly, Mozilla chose to make this functionality an opt-out, and it's easy enough to see why. If you've set a default browser and a default search engine and that's the combo you use to look things up on the Web, there's a very good chance that you want to use it even when you start your search from the Windows desktop.

Still, making the setting an opt-out is a bit of a curious move from Mozilla. They're altering the way Windows 10 behaves by default without giving the user that choice up front. It's possible that some users want to let searches initiated by Cortana get sent to Bing, yet Firefox 40 assumes that they'd rather use their browser default. Their CEO also just got finished blasting Microsoft for ignoring user choice… and opt-ins are always a better way to respect choice than opt-outs.

Mozilla has also introduced numerous features like this on the first tab that Firefox loads following an update. Why not tell users about it there and let them opt in instead?

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Firefox Sends Users Away From Bing

At the end of last month, we brought you word on how Mozilla's CEO was far from happy with the Windows 10 upgrade as he claimed that users of Windows 10 were cajoled to make use of Microsoft's Edge web browser. Well, it looks like Mozilla has taken steps to “rectify” such a situation, where Firefox 40 on Windows 10 will steer Firefox users away from Bing.

In other words, users are no longer required to make use of Bing for web searches from Cortana on the Windows 10 taskbar in Firefox 40, as Firefox will deliver results from the search engine which has been picked by the user as the default – unless your default is Bing, of course, then the situation would not have changed a single bit. .

While making use of Firefox does not limit this as the only option in replacing Cortana's Bing searches with Google or a different search engine, but it must be noted that Firefox remains the only browser at the moment that will be able to perform such a task sans the need for pesky third-party extensions, and we guess it is only a matter of time before Google trods the same path. Well, what do you think of this particular move by Mozilla?

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