mozilla

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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There is a great deal of focus being put on privacy lately thanks to the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal, but the social network is hardly the only culprit. Countless websites track users' online activity, mostly for ads, and web browsers often help them in exchange for a cut. Mozilla has always prided itself on not being beholden to such a business method, though it did try and fail a couple of times. Now Mozilla is taking a bold step that could antagonize advertisers and retailers by turning on Firefox's Tracking Prevention by default on iOS.

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Just in time for the AR explosion, Mozilla revealed their first version of Firefox Reality. That's a Firefox web browser for VR and AR platforms - mixed reality, in other words. This is a web browser made to appear in virtual reality, augmented reality, and in a way that allows simple VR and AR control.

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Mozilla, the company that recently called out Facebook's current default data settings, has just released an extension that addresses the platform's potential privacy issues. Called the Facebook Container Extension, this new offering stuffs Facebook into its own container tab whenever the social network is accessed, helping ensure the user's data isn't tracked.

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Mozilla just called out Facebook, saying it believes there are still issues with the social network's default privacy settings. Due to these concerns, Mozilla has chosen to "pause" its advertising on Facebook, giving the company a chance to earn back its business by taking "stronger action in how it shares customer data, specifically strengthening its default privacy settings for third party apps."

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It’s almost pointless by now to keep track of the version numbers of web browsers, considering the biggest ones like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox have passed the number 50 mark way back. Of course, it’s still just as interesting as ever to keep track of the features that these releases bring. And version 59 of Firefox has such treats for almost all its users, from desktop, to Android, to enterprise, and, yes, to Amazon Fire TV.

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Advertising is the business model of the Web, Mozilla concedes. But the non-profit foundation behind the Firefox web browser has so far been unable to adopt that. It has tried, of course, and got no small amount of backlash because of its standing in the open source and privacy-conscious community. Despite setbacks, it’s trying again, this time with a little help from save-for-later service Pocket. Which, by the way, Mozilla owns since February last year.

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Back in November, Mozilla introduced Firefox Quantum, a new "really fast" version of the Internet browser. Today the company announced an update for Firefox Quantum, adding new features while improving speeds and offering a smoother rendering experience. In addition, Firefox for Android is on the receiving end of some new capabilities, not the least of which is better Progressive Web Apps support.

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Firefox creator Mozilla confirmed Meltdown and Spectre flaws could be used to extract login info from users online. The chances of this happening to the average user are slim, but still most certainly significant. This adds to the already-massive set of devices and situations in which either Meltdown or Spectre could have effects on computer users.

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