Adobe released an emergency update to its Flash Player today that patches up a few security holes discovered in its system. Hackers were using the security holes in Adobe’s Flash Player to launch attacks solely at Firefox users. A security bulletin released by Adobe stated, “These updates address vulnerabilities that could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”
Sony has announced that it will be launching its own Firefox OS mobile device in 2014. It’s joining the ranks of LG, Huawei, Alcatel, and ZTE in launching devices on the HTML5 platform. Bob Ishida, Deputy CEO at Sony, stated that Sony’s engineers are working alongside Mozilla’s in order to bring a Sony-branded Firefox device or devices to the world next year. The openness of the Firefox OS is attractive to Sony, who wants to create devices on a platform with little to no restrictions on usage.
Firefox OS devices will launch on 18 operators all across the globe and they will be the World's first "Open Web Devices". The first markets that will launch the devices include: Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Sebria, Spain, and Venezuela, with more market places coming shortly after that. Mozilla is working with handset makers Alcatel, Huawei, LG, and ZTE to develop their Firefox OS smartphones, and all of the smartphones will utilize Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors.
Mozilla plans on bringing Web Real-Time Communications not only to its Firefox browser on desktop PCs, but to mobile devices as well. Mozilla says that WebRTC features will be able to sync with your existing phone number, and you won’t have to download any additional plugins to use it. The WebRTC capabilities will be able to perform many functions, including voice/video calls and SMS/MMS messaging.
The PDF file format is incredibly popular, and it's almost always used when sending documents to someone over the internet. Mozilla recognizes the PDF's ubiquity and has released Firefox 19 today, complete with a built-in PDF viewer. This allows users to skip the browser plug-ins altogether when opening up PDFs in Firefox.
The OUYA gaming console has attracted the attention of both gamers and game developers, but it's also attracting the attention of the folks over at Mozilla. The developers behind the Firefox web browser are making a version specifically for the OUYA gaming console, allowing open-source gamers to browse the web using one of the world's most popular web browsers.
Mozilla has launched its latest Firefox beta for mobile and desktop, bringing a host of new features, including Retina Display support. Also tossed into the mix is W3C Touch Event support, as well as opt-in search suggestions and improved phishing security for Android users. You can nab the latest download over at the Mozilla website.
Yesterday, Mozilla launched Firefox 16 to much fanfare. A little more than 24 hours later, it pulled the installer from its website, citing a security vulnerability that was identified. According to the notice published by Mozilla, the installer will be available again tomorrow, in addition to the automatic update that will fix the issue for those who have already instead it.
Mozilla is still keeping up with their promise for rapid releases of their Firefox web browser, and it actually just seems like yesterday when the company released Firefox 15 to the public. However, version 16 is out today and it comes with some pretty substantial features for several different platforms.
If you’ve been keeping an eye on Firefox Beta for Android at all, you’ll know the browser has seen a flurry of updates over the past few weeks bringing performance improvements as well as additional features. Mozilla now say that that the stable version has now been updated to add all those improvements, which includes Flash and HTML5 support, a tab redesign, and revamped welcome page.
Mozilla continues to work on nightly Firefox releases. The most recent version, bringing the browser up to version 16.0a1, brings a new design to the table as well. Caschys Blog has been handed a portable Windows version of the latest nightly which shows off the redesign in more detail. Gone are the boxy edges from the old versions, replaced with smooth rounded corners reminiscent of Google Chrome’s current UI.
Microsoft seems to have ruffled a few feathers with its plans for browsers on Windows RT. Mozilla blasted the company over being unable to produce a fully working browser, restricted instead to the Metro interface and guidelines, while Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer would be able to run on Metro and the classic desktop interface. Google also voiced concerns, and now the US Senate Judiciary Committee will review the arguments to see if there’s any merit.
