Items tagged with Firefox
At one point in time, it seemed like Adobe's Flash animation plugin was invincible. How could such a widely-used API ever die off? Well, as it turns out, when the plugin in question has been riddled with security vulnerabilities for most of its life, sometimes the developer will do the world a favor and put the solution out to pasture. In 2017, Adobe announced that it was doing just that. Flash was effectively dead, or at least will be by the end of 2020. Shortly after that announcement, Google announced that Chrome would cease support for the plugin at the same time, and inevitably, we knew every...
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A bug in Firefox that was first reported 12 years ago is still being exploited by malicious websites. The bug essentially allows a malicious site to ensnare a user by repeatedly showing them an "Authentication Required" pop-up login box. When the users tries to close the login box, a new one appears. The only way out is to close the browser. Users have reported this flaw in Firefox several times over the years, including yesterday (Saturday), but it's never been resolved. Here's the most recent report (edited for clarity)... "When I was browsing some site, a pop-up ad window appeared... At first...
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The Firefox team is cooking up a new batch of experimental add-ons at its Test Pilot site to help make your life hopefully a little easier. One of the add-ons that Mozilla cooked up is Price Wise, which designed to help you track price drops on items you have been thinking about buying. Other extensions at Mozilla's Firefox Test Pilot page aim to make it easier to work and collaborate with others on projects that require multiple web pages of research. As Black Friday is fast approaching, let's start by taking a look at Price Wise. To use this feature, all you need to do is navigate to...
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Mozilla is taking the web browser experience to the next level. Mozilla has just released Firefox Reality, the first dedicated VR web browser. The browser is free and available to download for Viveport, Oculus Go, and Google DayDream headsets. This is the first web browser intended to be used entirely in a VR headset. Andre Vrignaud, Head of Mixed Reality Platform Strategy at Mozilla, remarked “We had to rethink everything, including navigation, text-input, environments, search and more... The result is a browser that is built for the medium it serves.” Users will be able to visit...
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Last week, we brought you news that Microsoft is was testing a new prompt within the latest Windows Insiders builds of the Windows 10 October 2018 Update that would harass users to break free from third-party browsers like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, and instead try out the also-ran Microsoft Edge web browser. However, it appears that Microsoft's little experiment generated much more negative attention than it anticipated from Windows Insiders. The company has decided that based on the feedback it received, it will not be including the warning messages when the final release...
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When Microsoft rolls out its big update for Windows 10 in October, there will be a new and annoying popup for users who try and install Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox on their machines. Word comes from beta testers of the update report the screenshot below pops up if you try and install a competing browser on your PC. The popup notes that users already have Edge as part of Windows 10, and claims that it is the safer and faster browser. While the popup tries to talk users out of installing the alternative browsers, it will still allow you to install the other browsers if you click the “Install...
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Have you noticed that YouTube pages appear to load slower in Edge, Firefox, and Safari compared to Google's own Chrome browser? If so, you are not alone. Google redesigned the YouTube experience last year, but the site still uses an older shadow API that is only used in Chrome, which makes other browsers render YouTube much slower. Chris Peterson, a program manager at Mozilla, noticed the performance disparity and posted about the topic on Twitter. According to Peterson, the YouTube page loads five times slower in those other browsers "because YouTube's Polymer redesign relies on the deprecated...
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Mozilla introduced its Test Pilot program to allow users to test experimental features on the desktop version of its Firefox web browser. Mozilla is now expanding Test Pilot to the mobile space with Firefox Lockbox and Firefox Notes. Both Lockbox and Notes are standalone mobile apps and are capable of syncing with their desktop Firefox counterparts. Lockbox is a password manager that helps you manage all of your online accounts. Given that Lockbox can sync between your desktop and your smartphone, you'll never have to worry about remembering a password you created on your laptop when...
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Data breaches have become way too common, and we are not just talking about personal accounts being compromised through phishing attacks, malware, and the like. Companies with an online presence (so pretty much every company in the world) are targets, and since many sites require that you register with an email account, there's a good chance your information has fallen into the wrong hands. As an added security precaution, Mozilla plans to test a new Firefox Monitor security feature using data from the 'Have I Been Pwned' (HIPB) website. Created by Troy Hunt, HIPB is a website where you can input...
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Ads are what drive much of the web experience as we know it—without them, more websites would have to erect paywalls or figure out other ways of generating revenue. Typically that means seeing ads on webpages. However, a similar business model is creeping into Firefox, with Mozilla announcing plans to add sponsored content to new tabs in Firefox 60 in the US later this month. "We believe the Internet can do better. So earlier this year, we started to explore a new model and showed an occasional sponsored story in Pocket’s recommendation section on Firefox New Tab. Starting today, we’re...
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Mozilla has announced the launch of Firefox 59, which is available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. The new release builds on Firefox Quantum and is a significant update for fans of the browser. Among the performance enhancements of the new browser include faster load times for content on the Firefox Home page. The faster page load times are thanks in part to loading from the networked cache or the cache on the user hard drive. Graphics rendering has been improved thanks to a move to Off-Main-Thread Painting (OMTP) for Mac users; this feature landed for Windows and Linux back in Firefox 58....
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Mozilla ended 2017 with a bang by retooling its Firefox browser with a focus on speed with the release of Firefox 57. Now called Firefox Quantum (it is okay to still refer to it as simply Firefox), Mozilla's browser is noticeably faster than previous versions—over twice as fast, according to Mozilla. It is a solid foundation to build upon, and Mozilla is doing that, with Firefox 58 bringing even more improvements to browser space. If you are a Firefox user, you can initiate an update to the latest release by clicking on the three horizontal lines in the upper-right corner, clicking on Help,...
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Isn't it nice when malware authors make it easy to remove their dirty code? Sometimes all you have to do is open the Control Panel and uninstall the offending program, just like any other application. And for browsers, simply nuke the extension that is causing trouble. Unfortunately, some recent browser extensions for Chrome and Firefox are making things difficult on users by cleverly hiding their whereabouts. The extensions in question hijack Chrome and Firefox to redirect web searches and drive up click counts on YouTube videos, presumably to generate ad revenue. That in and of itself is not...
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When it comes to recommending the Edge browser to its massive customer base, it often seems as though Microsoft is talking to a brick wall. For the past two years, the company has continually assaulted Google Chrome, highlighting the browser's well-known shortcomings with respect to consuming resources and draining batteries. However, Windows 10 customers don't seem to be listening -- at all. According to the latest numbers from NetMarketShare, Google Chrome has 59 percent of the browser market, while Microsoft is looking rather dire in its positioning, with a dismal 3.78 percent share. Despite...
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