Mozilla's CEO Makes the Case for the Firefox Mobile OS

via allthingsd.com

No one likes a duopoly — in the tech business industry, that is. And one of the largest duopolies today is the mobile OS split between Apple’s iOS operating system and Google’s Android.

Mozilla, the foundation behind the popular Firefox Web browser, wants to take the lead amid the multiple companies vying for third place. The company is working on the Firefox OS, a mobile system software initiative similar to what Google is doing with the Chrome OS for the desktop. In a nutshell, it’s taking the set of standards coding for a browser environment and bringing it to an entire operating system for the phone.

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Mozilla Unveils Firefox OS Smartphones At Mobile World Congress

via readwrite.com

It started with a gecko, of sorts. It then became a fennec, a type of winter fox. Now, it is a smartphone, and soon it will be available all over the world.

We are, of course, talking about Firefox OS, the open source, Web-based smartphone operating system created by Mozilla. The company announced Sunday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, that it has partnered with device manufacturers and mobile operators across the world to launch Firefox smartphones in 2013.

Mozilla also officially launched the Firefox Marketplace, an app store featuring mobile Web applications and websites that will be able to operate on the new smartphones. Both the Firefox OS and Marketplace are optimized towards HTML5 development and open Web standards using Mozilla’s Firefox browser as its backbone.

Mozilla claimed three initial manufacturers ready to build and deploy Firefox OS smartphones: LG, Alcatel and ZTE. These devices will be distributed to 17 global carriers in nine countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Serbia, Montenegro, Poland, Spain, Hungary and Venezuela. (Note that these are largely developing markets, and the list does not include the United States.) Since the announcement yesterday, Sony has also said that it would build and release Firefox OS smartphones in 2014. On the other hand, market leader Samsung has said that it is not interested in building smartphones for Mozilla (likely due to its investment in the similar Tizen platform).

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This Is Firefox OS in Action

via gizmodo.com

Firefox OS won't be coming to the U.S. until 2014, and chances are that its rather budget approach is not for you, dear gadget-obsessed Gizmodo reader. But Firefox OS burst onto the scene today at Mobile World Congress with announcements of new, upcoming handsets, and a global roll-out plan.

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Mozilla's First Peak Of Firefox OS Smartphones

via readwrite.com

Mozilla is turning its dreams of a smartphone running its own custom-built mobile operating system into a reality. In conjunction with Geeksphone, Mozilla announced two developer preview mobile devices today, dubbed Peak and Keon. Running Mozilla’s Firefox OS, neither of the phones are much to look at from a hardware perspective and are designed to bring the Web back to the forefront of the mobile ecosystem.

Keon is a low-range hardware option running a 1-GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a 3.5-inch screen, a 1580 mAh battery and a 3-megapixel camera. If that sounds basically like an iPhone 3G, well, it's really close to one from a hardware perspective.

Peak is slightly more powerful. It runs a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon processor with a 4.3-inch screen, 8-MP back and 2-MP front camera with a 1800 mAh battery. This phone would have been very happy at the top of the smartphone market… in 2011.

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New Safari vs. Chrome and Firefox

via businessinsider.com

With OS X Mountain Lion, Apple rolled out a new version of Safari that gives Chrome and Firefox a run for their money.

It took the best from Chrome and Firefox and then added some.

Here are the new reasons to switch (back) to Safari.

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Firefox For Android Purrs Onto The Scene

via businessinsider.com

The final version of Firefox for Android was released today.

Previously, the popular browser was in a Beta release.

The app brings mobile speed and security to your favorite Android-powered device.

What we really like about the app is it's ability to take advantage of add-ons giving you a more desktop like experience.

While we think that this is a solid release from Firefox the app still leaves something to be desired. We like Firefox but the app for Android really doesn't separate it from the pack. We prefer Chrome.

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What's Firefox worth to Google? Nearly $1 billion

via download.cnet.com

Don't let the StatCounters and the NetApplications of the world fool you: despite stagnant and even slightly negative market share growth, Firefox and its default search box is still extremely valuable to Google.

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Mozilla: We're more than just Firefox, you know

via download.cnet.com

Although Mozilla has never limited its stated goals to merely building an open-source browser, there's no doubt that Firefox has been the highest-profile project from the Mozilla Foundation. But now, with skyrocketing mobile connectivity and Google's shockingly fast ascent in the browser world, Mozilla Messaging CEO David Ascher restated yesterday what the nonprofit organization is about, where it's going, and why you should care.

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Google renews search deal for Firefox

via news.cnet.com

Mozilla, the maker of of Firefox, today announced that it has struck a new three-year deal with Google in which Google will remain the default search engine in the browser.

The financial terms were not disclosed, but reaching a new deal with Google has been seen as critical for Mozilla, a Silicon Valley nonprofit software maker.

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OS X 10.5 Leopard may lose Firefox in 2012

In a recent discussion about the support of OS X 10.5 for its popular Firefox Web browser, Mozilla developers have been considering the removal of support for Leopard.

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Firefox 8.0 Out Now, Will Bring Twitter Search to Millions of People

via readwriteweb.com

Firefox 8.0 was just announced for download and one of the biggest changes that users will notice is that Twitter search has been added to the default search options in the top of the browser. Answers.com and CreativeCommons are out (ouch) and Twitter is in.

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Download Firefox 8 - ahead of schedule

via businessinsider.com

Firefox 8 won't hit the presses until November 8, but as always, Mozilla has uploaded the final version to the web a couple days early.

gHacks spotted the files on Mozilla's FTP servers.

Firefox 8, which comes just six weeks after the launch of Firefox 7, includes some slick new features.

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Google Chrome turns 15, Firefox goes Bing

via digitaltrends.com

While speed has become less of an issue with each browser revision, Google and Mozilla are turning to expanded features to entice more users while Microsoft remains quiet about any changes to Internet Explorer.

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Firefox 7 New Features

via businessinsider.com

It almost seems like the routine has become "another day, another version of Firefox."
Version 7 was released to the general public today -- you can grab it here.
There are plenty of new changes and improvements. Here are some of the more interesting ones from Firefox 7.org:

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Firefox for Android tablets makes first appearance

via news.cnet.com

Adapting Firefox for tablets is on Mozilla's mobile-browser priority list, and now the first version has appeared in "nightly" builds for developers to try out.
"It has now reached a functional state that is good enough for getting some early feedback," said developer Lucas Rocha. There are lots of rough edges and design is continuously evolving."

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Mozilla officially releases Firefox 6

via engadget.com

You may have caught wind of one sly fox unofficially popping up over the weekend. Well, as we reported, that fox -- specifically Firefox 6 -- is now officially ready for your downloading pleasure. If you're a diehard Mozilla fan, or just an armchair browser expert, you're probably already hip to the new Firefox rapid refresh cycle that's seen three releases in the past five months. If not, the folks at Mozilla sent along a couple of nifty graphics (available after the break) to show you how the new timeline works. Alternately, if you're not interested in how your latest install made its way to your device, feel free to download the real deal at the source links below.

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