Hasta La Gadget!

Mozilla has announced that sometime soon, it will be no longer automatically load any plugins on Firefox except the latest version of Flash, instead utilizing Click to Play, which requires users to manually authorize the use of a plugin. This is in an effort to reduce security risks that result from automatically using plugins like Java and Silverlight.

Plugins – and especially Java – are notorious for posing security risks, being used by hackers and malware to infiltrate unsuspecting users. Previously, these plugins would load on a website automatically in Firefox. That changed when Mozilla introduced Click-to-Play, which prevented plugins from automatically loading content and requiring user authorization instead.

Another issue with automatically loading plugins concerns stability, with Mozilla stating that poorly-made ones are the #1 reason the browser crashes, and likewise they can present a large drag on performance. Limiting the plugins that load will keep users from experiencing sudden browser crashes and high memory use. It is for these reasons Mozilla is moving ahead with its plan.

Sometime in the unspecified future, the company will tweak Firefox so that Click to Play is default for all plugins, regardless of version, with the exception of the current version of Flash. Everything else – Silverlight, Java, etc. – will all be blocked by default. Users will still be able to configure Click to Play, however, so that some plugins automatically load on certain websites, or so that plugins are never run on other sites.

[via Mozilla]

Mozilla to implement Click-to-Play for all Firefox plugins except Flash is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
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Did you hop on the new Chrome beta track for Android? There’s a treat waiting under the hood. Google’s Brandon Jones has confirmed that the latest build enables the flags page, letting us toggle hidden elements — including the rather big deal of WebGL support. Anyone with reasonably quick graphics can now experiment with full 3D on their phone without having to hack or use a plugin, whether it’s wild music videos or lovefests. Just remember that the experience won’t be as seamless as it is on the desktop. You’ll likely have to force the desktop version of a page just to see the graphics code, and few if any WebGL developers are optimizing for the performance and screen size of a phone. If you’d still like to get a peek at what could be the future of the mobile web, hit the source to join the beta flock.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

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Via: Brandon Jones (Google+), The Next Web

Source: Google Play

Chrome users with something to hide have heretofore been required to sign in to Google to keep their omnibox searches hidden from prying eyes — but today’s Chrome 25 beta update changes that. Now all searches are automatically encrypted, whether you’re signed in or not. It’s certainly not the first browser to implement such a security feature — Firefox 14 switched to HTTPS for all searches last year — but it’s a welcome change all the same. With web voice recognition and security whitelists on the docket as well, the latest version of Chrome is setting up to be quite the must-have, especially for those who want to keep their Justin Bieber search results to themselves.

Filed under: Internet, Google

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Source: Chromium Blog

Opera has been in the mobile web browser game for some time now, but it looks like it’s set to soon shake things up considerably. As detailed in an internal video obtained by Pocket-lint, the company has been working on an all-new mobile browser dubbed “Ice,” which ditches the company’s own Presto engine in favor of WebKit (bringing it in line with the likes of Safari and Chrome). What’s more, Ice looks to fully embrace a touch interface optimized for smartphones and tablets, with gestures replacing buttons and icons on a central home screen replacing tabs. You can apparently look for it to land on both Android and iOS sometime in February, with a new desktop version of Opera set to follow in March (details on it are comparatively light). Head on past the break for some highlights from the video.

Filed under: Cellphones, Internet, Mobile

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Pocket-lint

Not content to dominate internet search in China alone, Baidu and France Telecom’s Orange are partnering to capitalize on African and Middle Eastern markets as well. Today they launched a co-branded version of Baidu’s browser on France Telecom’s Egyptian operator MobiNil — it’s essentially the same as the one released last year for the Chinese market but in English / Arabic instead (a French version is also coming). The browser is a pre-installed app on carrier-sold smartphones and features bookmarks for Orange and Baidu services. According to Orange, smartphone adoption in the region has become widespread due to the increased availability of 3G networks — demand apparently doubled in Egypt in the second half of 2012 alone. With nearly 80 million potential customers at hand, Baidu could certainly give Google a run for its money yet again. You can peek at the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Baidu and Orange launch mobile browser for Africa, Middle East

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

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Via: The Next Web

Source: Reuters, Orange