So it turns out that Firefox Send is the new standard in sending large files securely. That along with Zuckerberg pulling damage control for Facebook, Jade Raymond joining the VP ranks at Google and Fortnite players on Switch looking to be matched with mobile players moving forward. All coming up, so settle in…
Instagram co-founder and former CEO Kevin Systrom said it is important for the future of the world that social media companies be policed well and seriously address the issues of misinformation and harassment on their services. “You start to realize … how important it’s going to be for the future of the world that we police these things well, that we take it very seriously and put real resources against solving the problems now that you’re at this scale,” said Systrom, speaking Tuesday evening at the WSJ Tech D.LIVE conference in Laguna Beach, California.
A raft of profit warnings from Apple Inc suppliers this week has fueled investor concerns that iPhone sales, in terms of volume, have hit a wall that could spell trouble for the company’s plans to make services its main pillar of growth. For the past year, investors had largely been willing to overlook stagnating unit sales of the iPhone because average selling prices kept rising. But it now faces fierce competition from mid-priced phones from makers such as Xiaomi Corp. Apple has often stated its plan to increase its revenue from paid services, such as Apple Music and iCloud. That, at least in part, requires a growing base of device owners driven by its iPhone, which analysts believe accounts for about two-thirds of the 1.3 billion Apple devices in use around the world. Wall Street analysts have expressed concerns that slower overall smartphone sales will make it harder for Apple to hold smartphone market share as people put off buying its generally more expensive phones. That, in turn, could hurt the growth of Apple’s services revenue, said Bernstein’s Toni Sacconaghi.
Well, Apple fans, it looks like your favorite gadget maker has one more surprise up its sleeve ahead of the holidays this year. Earlier this week, one of the most prolific leakers who covers mobile tech said that Apple “definitely” still plans to release next-generation AirPods this year. The leaker in question typically focuses his efforts on Samsung products, but he has been known to set his sights on Apple gear every now and then. His information is almost always accurate these days, so Apple fans had plenty to be excited about following his revelation. If you were among the people who got excited when you first learned that Apple will launch its long-awaited second-generation true wireless earbuds before the end of the year, then we have even more good news for you on Wednesday: A new leak appears to confirm the news, leaving precious little doubt that Apple’s new cord-free “AirPods 2” earbuds will hit store shelves in the coming weeks.
If you’re planning on picking up some cool new smart device for a loved one this holiday season, it might be worth your while to check whether it’s one of the good ones or not. Not just in the quality of the camera or step tracking, but the security and privacy practices of the companies that will collect (and sell) the data it produces. Mozilla has produced a handy resource ranking 70 of the latest items, from Amazon Echos to smart teddy bears.
If you aren’t one of the two million players to take a crack at the early stages version of Astroneer, here’s what to expect: The interplanetary survival sandbox game is a sort of mix of Minecraft and fellow space exploration game No Man’s Sky. In Astroneer, you play as a space explorer trying to survive and thrive in the treacherous terrain. As you travel through the solar system’s unique and uncharted planets, you’ll find resources that can be used to craft vehicles, build bases and conduct research. Astroneer will support crossplay between Xbox One and PC adventurers and will offer dedicated servers that will allow players to build and explore asynchronously.
Well, that didn’t take long. Just days after “Fortnite” players became able to dress their on-screen characters in NFL jerseys, a star player in real life was killed by someone wearing his jersey in the video game. Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes shared the tragic tale Tuesday on Twitter. “Yesterday i played fortnite for the first time in a while and someone killed me with my jersey on.. don’t know how i feel about it…,” he tweeted.
In an attempt better connect with America’s youth, the U.S. Army is starting up an esports team. The effort comes during a period in which the Army is having difficulty meeting its recruitment targets. As first reported by Stars And Stripes, an independent news organization which operates from within the Department of Defense, the Army esports team is currently accepting applications from active duty personnel, reservists and veterans. An online form indicates that there is interest in fielding teams for Fortnite, Call of Duty, Tekken, League of Legends, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Overwatch, FIFA, the Madden series and the NBA 2K franchise.
Mozilla has released this week a new version of Firefox web browser designed for VR and AR headsets. The browser which is called the Firefox Reality, according to Mozilla, is intended to be used for augmented reality headsets instead of using PC or smartphones.
Firefox Reality Browser For AR, VR
What’s good with Mozilla’s Firefox Reality browser is that it is compatible with other platforms. The browser has been developed using opensource resources and is privacy-friendly. Firefox Reality also features a special interface for VR and AR headsets.
The company said that the new browser was built to discuss “new opportunities and challenges of browsing the immersive Web.” Mozilla’s attempt to use the emerging mixed reality web standards allows its global users to experience games. The company’s new browser also assured the users that no apps would be installed for a particular headset.
“The future of mixed reality is about delivering experiences, not about building applications. There shouldn’t be friction moving from one experience to another,” Sean White, Senior Vice President, Emerging Technologies, of Mozilla said in a blog post.
Moreover, Mozilla’s new browser was developed using the company’s technology and web engine Servo.
Mozilla, in another blog, pointed out that, “From the Servo team (who recently joined the Mixed Reality team), we will gain the ability to experiment with entirely new designs and technologies for seeing and interacting with the immersive web.”
Mozilla now offers an alternative browser for Firefox, one that supports AR and VR headsets.
In a blog post on Tuesday, Mozilla announced a new version of its Firefox web browser. This browser, dubbed Firefox Reality, is specifically designed to be used with virtual and augmented reality headsets.
According to Mozilla, the new mixed reality browser has been built to tackle “new opportunities and challenges of browsing the immersive Web.” It is meant to be cross-platform, privacy-friendly and open source.
With the use of emerging mixed reality web standards, Firefox Reality allows consumers to use it without installing additional apps. And unlike others, the new browser will work on various devices and platforms.
Senior Vice President of Emerging Technologies Sean White explains the product in detail. “The future of mixed reality is about delivering experiences, not about building applications. There shouldn’t be friction moving from one experience to another.”
As with their desktop browser, the VR-friendly browser is open source. The company has already released its source code and developer builds for different platforms on GitHub.
There is no news yet as to when the browser will be available to the public. What we do know for certain is that it will be available with HTC Vive Focus and other headsets supported by HTC’s Vive Wave VR platform at launch.
Mozilla will be releasing more updates for Firefox Reality in the coming weeks so stay tuned!
After the escalating feud between Google and Amazon. This time we are seeing another war involving Mozilla and Yahoo.
Reports claim that Mozilla has officially dropped Yahoo as the official search engine provider for its browser Firefox. This means that Mozilla Firefox users will not be able to use Yahoo as the default engine.
Firefox users noticed the changes just last month in the browser’s default search engine. The move has caused a looming legal battle between the two tech companies.
Now, Mozilla and Yahoo sued each other because of the deal back in 2014 which made Yahoo as the default search engine for Firefox. According to tech analysts, the 2014 deal was actually favourable to Mozilla.
The deal has actually provided Mozilla an option to back out the deal. If Mozilla had opted not to pursue the deal, the company will be receiving a huge amount of money amounting to $375 million annually until 2019.
However, such annual payment is only possible if Yahoo was acquired by a third party company and Mozilla has a new unsuitable partner.
Recently, Mozilla has launched a major update to its browser called the FireFox Quantum. Firefox’s major update came as Mozilla terminated the deal with Yahoo just last month.
Meanwhile, Firefox users have actually lauded the new major update, earning a wave of positive reviews. Mozilla issued a statement on Tuesday, explaining the company’s decision in a blog post.
“We recently exercised our contractual right to terminate our agreement with Yahoo based on a number of factors including doing what’s best for our brand,” Mozilla said.
A number of factors include quality web search, and users’ context experience. In the end, Mozilla argued that staying with Yahoo may have a negative impact in the long run.
Responding to Mozilla’s move, Yahoo has sued Mozilla for breach of contract.
“Yahoo has suffered and will continue to suffer competitive injury to its business and reputation, among other harm,” Yahoo said in a statement.
According to a ZTE spokesperson, the company is eyeing to release their Firefox powered smartphones before the year ends or early 2103.
Mozilla, which developed the Firefox browser, will as well lead the charge for the Firefox OS.
The world’s fourth largest mobile phone vendor is planning to separate themselves from Android and Windows, as they delve making Firefox OS as their OS of choice.
According to ZTE spokesperson David Dai Shu, “We are trying to increase our efforts in coming up with our own operating system, while introducing products based on Android.”
“It’s all part of our wider plans to create a better balance of products using various operating systems. We won’t just rely on Android or Windows,” he added.
He added that ZTE will unveil the operating system together with Mozilla in the months to come. He added that the company will be releasing the first Firefox powered device together with the roll out of the OS or a little later.
Majority of ZTE’s smartphones carries the Adnroid line while the ‘Tania’ line carries Windows.
Dai noted, “We are working with a regional telecom carrier outside of China to unveil products based on our own operating system.”
Firefox has been updated by Mozilla to further improve on the performance of the latter for Android devices as well as desktop users.
Mozilla has rolled out the updates for their Firefox Web browser and users shall notice the difference in performance in its developer and gaming features.
The company reduced memory add-ons to improve the speed of Firefox.
The web browser can now support compressed textures, enabling developers to create intense graphics in gaming, which gamers will be happy about.
Mozilla also improved the Javascript engine and WebGL capabilities of the Firefox.
Mozilla has also rolled out a Javascript Debugger that is built with Firefox. It can be used to remotely debug apps through Firefox in your smartphones.
The update is applicable on almost all Firefox browsers for Android.
The browser for Android now features the “Awesome Screen” feature popular on the desktop application of Firefox. This feature allows the users to store bookmarks, data, passwords and browsing history.
Users can now also sync their Android Firefox browsers to their desktop Firefox browsers.
Another new addition is the much improved HTML5 capability of the new Firefox browser. This update creates new possibilities for web applications.
Mozilla and its latest HTML5 based operating system for mobile devices received a pat from the back from major telcos, as they are about to step on to the OS market.
With a great catchy name, Firefox OS, Mozilla’s bid to enter into the OS wars started on the right track as quite a number of operators and manufacturers were optimistic as to what Firefox OS can achieve.
According to Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs as told to The Next Web, “The introduction of the open mobile OS continues the Mozilla mission to promote openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web for users and developers. As billions of users are expected to come online for the first time in the coming years, it is important to deliver a compelling smartphone experience that anyone can use. The large number of operators and manufacturers now supporting this effort will bring additional resources and diversity to our global offerings.”
The introduction of Firefox OS by Mozilla is aimed to give an open Web standards based experience across different platforms at an affordable rate.
The Next Web report also added that carriers who have vowed support for the Firefox OS are Etisalat, Telefonica, Telecom Italia, Sprint, Smart and Deutsche Telekom.
TCL Communication Technology and ZTE also voiced their support to the OS by making devices that will be supporting Firefox OS.
Do you think Mozilla will be a tough rival for iOS and Android?
Mozilla announced that they released the latest version of their Firefox browser, the Firefox 14. This latest entrant to the browser wars is Mozilla’s latest open sourced web browser that features improved security, enhanced support for modern Web standards and minor tweaks.
One of the most important changes Mozilla made in Firefox 14 is its security search feature. This change allows that browser’s built-in search to use an SSL-encrypted HTTPS address by default for all Google searches. This ensures that queries can’t be intercepted by packet sniffing.
Mozilla announced this latest feature last May when it was rolled out in the Aurora channel.
This new feature only works with Google searches as of the moment, though Mozilla is going to make this available to other search engines.
At the same time, Firefox 14 will no longer display a favicon in the URL bar. In lieu of this, it will display either a padlock or a globe. Icons displayed will depend on the site you are visiting whether it has SSL enabled.
Mozilla also introduced official support for the Pointer Lock API. This functionality will be good news to the gamers due to its wide variety of potential uses for this segment of users.
Have you tried the Firefox 14? What are your comments about this new bowser?
