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.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

While Chrome is fast and stable, I like using Firefox because of some of the specific extensions and plugins that work with it. If you still love Firefox, then you’ll love the fact that Mozilla has just announced a Developer Preview Phone that will come with the lightweight Firefox OS, which is still being developed.

The Keon Firefox OS Smartphone has a 3.5-inch HVGA (480×320) touchscreen, 1GHz Snapdragon S1 processor, 512 MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, 1580 mAh battery, Wi-Fi, and a 3MP camera. The specs are nothing exceptional, but it will be continually updated with OTA OS updates. It will also be carrier-unlocked, so developers can tinker with it as much as they want. Its bigger brother will be the Peak, which will have the same storage, RAM, and connectivity specs, but it comes with a 4.3-inch HD screen, 8MP camera with flash, and a 2MP front facing camera with a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 CPU and a larger 1800 mAh battery.

Mozilla hasn’t announced pricing, but they will be available next month. For those of you who think that orange is too bright, it will also come in white.

[via Geeksphone]

Welcome to Tuesday evening everyone. Perhaps the biggest story from the afternoon, Samsung’s reported mobile roadmap for 2013 leaked out with the rumored Galaxy Note 8 leading the charge. We heard that the highly anticipated Galaxy S IV might be getting an announcement on March 22, while Microsoft finally announced Surface Pro’s release date, setting it for February 9, 2013. The iPhone might have its best-selling quarter yet in Q1, while Google revealed its earnings for Q4 2012 (spoiler alert: it made a lot of money).

Speaking of quarterly results, AMD posted its report for Q4 2012 as well today, but the company’s earnings ultimately left something to be desired. Microsoft might help Dell become a private company with an investment in the billions, while Surface RT is getting a new 64GB variant and a bunch of different accessories. ZeniMax Online Studios opened up beta registration for The Elder Scrolls Online today, and the 2014 Corvette has been spotted in the wild.

ASUS quietly introduced the VivoBook S330 notebook today, and we learned that Mozilla is working on a version of Firefox for the upcoming OUYA Android console. Synaptics has given its ClearPad touch technology to the all new Razer Edge Pro, and JVC has announced its new MirrorLink receiver, which plays nice with your smartphone. We heard that Zombieland is destined to become a web series after plans for a TV have been left behind, and Orchestra has opened up a reservation system for the soon-to-be-released Mailbox email client for iOS.

We saw a pair of new prototype glasses that protect you from facial recognition today, while Tasker for Android was given an all new user interface. Twitter was seen rolling out an update for embedded tweets, and Nintendo announced that it will be revealing new Wii U games during tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct livestream. Google said that Motorola had “12 to 18 months” of products in the pipeline when it was purchased by the search giant, AT&T seems to be experiencing some U-Verse outages, and we heard that a 5-inch iPhone may not launch until 2014. Finally tonight, Chris Burns delivers his review of the Wicked Audio Solus headphones and tells us why the Galaxy Note 8 is challenging the iPad Mini before its even announced. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of the night folks!

SlashGear Evening Wrap-Up: January 22, 2013 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

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.

According to a post on the OUYAForum by administrator Ed Krassenstein, a Mozilla developer spoke with Krassenstein on the progress that the team is making bringing Firefox over to the new console. The developer mentioned that there is still a lot of work to do, but he was nice enough to show us a quick photo of the progress so far (pictured above).

The photo was tweeted by mobile platform engineer Chris Lord, and he says that the browser is currently “kinda usable”, but it isn’t anything to look at really. However, it shows that the Mozilla team is serious about bringing their web browser to the open-source gaming masses, and hopefully we’ll hear some updates on the project within the next couple of weeks.

“We’re investigating what we need to do to make Firefox usable on Ouya. It already works and we have some preliminary patches for gamepad support, but there’s still quite a bit of work to be done to make it really usable. Part of this work will be making sure that WebGL and Canvas support performs well on the device, and making sure that the relevant APIs (such as Gamepad API) are also supported.”

The OUYA gaming console is an open-source Android-based console that not only has full access to the Google Play store, but will also have proprietary games specifically meant for the OUYA. Developer consoles have already been shipped out, so while Mozilla has a long way to go, they still have several months before the official OUYA launch to ship a final version of the web browser.

[via TechCrunch]

Mozilla working on Firefox for OUYA is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Following the previous reports about a Firefox smartphone in the works, here we are with an official announcement from Mozilla. The folks behind the popular free software community unveiled today its Firefox OS developer preview phones. The phones, developed in partnership with Geeksphone and Telefonica, sports a 3.5-inch HVGA multitouch screen, a 3-megapixel camera, and a 1580 mAh battery. Under the hood is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 processor, a 512 RAM, and a 4GB ROM. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Verizon Activates Over 6 Million iPhones In Q4 2012, AT&T Buys Alltel Wireless For $780m To Acquire 585k Subscribers And More,