Mozilla's latest Firefox update makes it easier for users to control their privacy level, the company has announced. The browser's Content Blocking section has been redesigned to offer two different view options, making it easy to see what settings are available and what each one offers. As well, the update brings improved performance management and support for video compression tech AV1.
You can say what you want about Mozilla’s attempts at earning money but you can’t criticize it for lack of trying. In fact, the non-profit open source organization has a knack for throwing out ideas and experiments and getting users to be their guinea pigs. Or brave testers, if you will. Those experiments all came from the Firefox Test Pilot garage, which is sadly now closing up shop. Mozilla assures fans of the browser, however, that experiments will stop. In fact, it promises there will be even more.
Mozilla, the not-for-profit organization behind the popular Firefox browser, is always searching for ways to keep the lights on while developing and distributing a complex and sophisticated piece of software for the price of free. Many of those, especially the ones that involved sponsored content, a.k.a. ads, have been met with criticism and opposition. It seemed that Mozilla was taking yet another stab at it without telling anyone and the reactions were unsurprising.
Cookies may sound delicious but, in the World Wide Web, they can also be dangerous. To your privacy at least. Sites and ads have long abused these piecemeal bits of data to go beyond improving user experience and improve advertiser profits instead. Since website owners seem less inclined to care, web browser makers are taking matters into their own hands. In the latest update to the privacy-focused Firefox Focus, users can specify the kind of cookies they can allow into their experience or, at their own risk, accept them all.
They call it the holidays but for some people, those days are even more nerve-wracking than regular days. From the travel accommodations that have to be made to the presents that have to be bought, people are flooded with more information than they would normally get during any other day. And since most of that information is coming from the Web, Mozilla is trying out some new tricks to let Firefox help rather than add to the problem, like keeping track of prices for you or helping you email links to yourself.
They may sound delicious but like their sugary and carb-filled real-world counterparts, browser cookies can be bad for your digital wellbeing. Especially when said cookies come from third-party sites that want to track your every move, even when you ’ve moved away from that site. These tracking cookies leave crumbs that vendors and even hackers can follow to potentially violate your privacy or even influence your mind. Firefox version 63 will finally put a stop to that but only if you tell it to.
Among the major web browser makers, Firefox is still hailed as the most open and most privacy-respecting option around, despite a few hiccups in its history and some problems with performance. Its parent organization, Mozilla, however, doesn’t have the same near limit-less resources as, say, Google or Microsoft or Apple. The not-for-profit organization is always looking for ways to stay afloat, not all of them successful or warmly received. Its latest attempt doesn’t involve ads, fortunately, but does involve users forking a bit of money if they want.
Virtual reality is all about immersing yourself in a made-up world that looks (in theory) like you’re really in it. The last thing you need is a flat floating rectangle that shatters that illusion. That said, if you ever need to access the Web, that’s exactly the only way. Mozilla, however, says it doesn’t have to be a painful and disconcerting experience. With Firefox Reality now in its version 1.0 stable release, one of the world’s biggest web browsers is taking a step towards blending the 2D web and the immersive web.
Mozilla has always presented Firefox as the champion of open source and privacy on the Web, at least in contrast to the likes of Google Chrome. That doesn’t mean it hadn’t had a few missteps along the way, like its controversial “Sponsored Tiles”. It’s walking on thin ice again with its new “Firefox Advance” Test Pilot experiment that uses a smidgen of machine learning to recommend sites related to what you’ve been browsing. Fortunately, it is, at least for now, still an experiment you don’t even have to use.
Mozilla’s Firefox browser may have had a successful run on the desktop but it hasn’t been smooth-sailing when it came to mobile. That’s especially true for iOS where it was only recently that it was able to actually have an actual web browser for iPhones and iPads. In the meantime, it has seemingly fallen by the wayside compared to Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. With its Test Pilot experiments, Mozilla aims to bring some of its desktop features and technologies to smartphones, like passwords on iOS and notes on Android.
Mozilla, the company behind the Firefox browser, is working on a new Web browser called Scout. Unlike its current bowser, Scout will be created with accessibility in mind, enabling users to access content using voice commands. The company describes Scout as an exploration at this point, having revealed it at an event today.
The nascent VR market has more or less settled into two camps, Oculus and Vive. Four and a half if you count Oculus-powered Gear VR, Google Daydream, and Windows Mixed Reality. Needless to say, there's a bit of fragmentation going on, especially when you factor in prices and system requirements. WebVR, and particularly Mozilla's new Firefox Reality, promises to democratize VR by making experiences available on all VR platforms and devices. And its first actually usable application is Hubs by Mozilla, a VR chat world where you take on the appearance of a clunky, floating robot.