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Archive for: firefox

Mozilla Removes Dangerous Add-On

Mozilla official blog recently announced the removal of an add-on which was transmitting personal and confidential data from users to a remote site.

The add-on is called (or was) Mozilla Sniffer, which it was uploaded on June 6th to the official add-on site from Mozilla. And it was downloaded by 1800 users and 334 had this add-on active. The behavior of this add-on apparently took all of the private browsing data from users (like user names and passwords), and send it to a remote site.

Since Mozilla blacklisted this add-on; all of those who had it working should see this feature disabled from their browsers.

Mozilla also makes a contradictory statement about this situation:

Mozilla Sniffer was not developed by Mozilla, and it was not reviewed by Mozilla. The add-on was in an experimental state, and all users that installed it should have seen a warning indicating it is unreviewed. Unreviewed add-ons are scanned for known viruses, trojans, and other malware, but some types of malicious behavior can only be detected in a code review.”

But later in the same article:

Having unreviewed add-ons exposed to the public, even with low visibility, has been previously identified as an attack vector for hackers. For this reason, we’re already working on implementing a new security model for addons.mozilla.org that will require all add-ons to be code-reviewed before they are discoverable in the site”.

Damn right you’ll be reviewing those add-ons! If you are publishing add-ons, features and options for your product within your site, you should be aware there’s a responsibility behind it.

Firefox 3.6.4 with Tab Crash Protection

Mozilla team released a new Firefox version, the 3.6.4, with an interesting milestone: Tab crash protection, preventing your browser from crashing when there’s an error.

Since forever Internet browsers had tons of problems accessing more badly design complex web apps, and the reason always have resided in the plugins used: Adobe Flash, Shockwave, Silverlight and several other that are present in almost any browser session; but now Mozilla Firefox created for their first time in history a version which will prevent the entire browser from crashing when there’s a plugin problem.

If there’s a crash generated by a web site, let’s say using Flash, the tab generating that problem will be reloaded without stopping any other tab or the browser. Besides this update, the new version does not bring us many differences, check the complete changes here.

And you can download directly the latest Mozilla Firefox version from here.

Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome

Two years ago I wrote an article on the major updates made to the Flock browser and the impact it would have on social search

Flock logo.

Flock, the social browser, is not built on Chrome.

and browsing. Since then Flock, the social browser, has always been that fringe browser that a few people used but didn’t grab the audience it was hoping for. What did help Flock was the fact that it was built on the Firefox browser framework which made it easy to develop for since it was open source. The Flock browser allowed for many unique plug-ins very similar to Firefox, thus offering a seamless user interactive experience with the added bonus of social networking.

This week a huge announcement was made that Flock was leaving the Firefox backbone and moving to Chrome. Touted as a social browser there is definitely something to love about it, but does it really know where it wants to go? The interface has undergone a drastic overhaul moving away from the complex menus and tabs and moving more towards a simple interface with fully customizable group and friend options.

In a world where social platforms like Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and Hootsuite have been integrated into desktops and/or browsers, it feels like Flock is still running too many steps behind. Has Flock lost its luster? Perhaps, but there’s nothing wrong with reinventing yourself.

New Flock from Flockstar on Vimeo.

Fix the Firefox Slow Problem in Ubuntu 10.04

This is how anyone can fix the Firefox slow problem in Ubuntu 10.04

Open your Firefox and type about:config at URL address bar and hit enter. To make a False into True, select the line to change, and double click. On the 2nd option change, right click and select Modify

- network.http.pipelining > Make it True

- network.http.pipelining.maxrequests > Make it 8 or 10

- network.http.proxy.pipelining > Make it True

- network.dns.disableIPv6 > Make it True

I hope this helps for some users

Firefox by Numbers

Here at Crenk we have posted a lot of articles which show specific infographics of the leading web products, eg. Facebook by Numbers, Google by Numbers and the Apple iPad by Numbers. Here is the latest infographic we have come across and its about Firefox.

Firefox is one of the worlds most popular browsers, known for it performation, customizability and security. Firefox has been a leader in open source software and their adoption rates have been amazing.

via SixRevisions

Two Malicious Ad-Ons Made It Onto Firefox

optimisedA bit of an embarrassment for Mozilla Firefox – and it comes at a a bad time too, right when they’re loosing their dominance in the browser world as Chrome catches up.

Mozilla has been known as a very safe browser as compared to its old enemy, Internet Explorer. In fact, many people used it for just that reason. So the last thing Mozilla needed was reports of Malware in two ad-ons which were available for download from their website.

Two add-ons in the experimental section of addons.mozilla.org were found to be containing malware,” Mozilla said on its security blog. “These were not originally detected with the anti-malware scanning tools that we have been using. We have since increased the number of scanning tools, and will be taking additional steps to minimize the risk of further incidents.

It is thought that well in excess of 4,000 downloads of the ad-ons have taken place since they were first released in September. So are you one of the thousands of people who inadvertently infected their own machines? Well if you downloaded Sothink 4.0 and all versions of Master Filer then there’s a good chance you are. These installed Win32.LdPinch.gen and Win32.Bitfrose.32.Bitfrose Trojan respectively. So if you have downloaded these, I suggest running a scan of your system ASAP.

Top 4 Video Downloaders for FireFox

Firefox is home to many browser plugins.

Firefox is home to many browser plugins.

Firefox plugins are extremely useful. I’ve made the switch to Google Chrome as an experiment to see if I can live without the plugins, but I find myself opening up a second browser from time to time because the plugins are just so useful. I for one love capturing video from sites for a variety of reasons. It’s not always easy, especially if it’s a Flash embed, you’ll more than likely end up having to remember the URL or bookmark it in order to come back to it.

Well for those of you who have not been made aware of some of Firefox’s handy plugins to pull videos from the sites you visit, Crenk is sharing the top four plugins we think you’ll want to use in 2010 to get the videos you need.

Flashgot

This is the mother load in terms of what you can capture on sites. Not only can you capture videos from the site, but you’ll also get photos, and audio files. It’s not always the most user friendly plugin out there, but when you need to mass download content from a site, this plugin is hard to beat. I include it only because it’s so versatile, but the rest are going to be straight video downloaders.

Ant.com Video Downloader

This unique downloader is one that I just plugged into my browser last week. What I like about it is that I’ve yet to come across a site it can’t strip the video from. I surf a lot of sites and not everything is posted on YouTube so we’re not sharing only YouTube plugins only because we figure our audience wants something a little more diverse. Ant.com definitely falls into the diverse category, not only offering you the ability to download but also the ability to instantly watch what you download in their built in video player. It’s a nice way to make sure you got what you wanted without having to dig into the folders on your system.

Flash Video Downloader

This no nonsense downloader claims to be able to download from 200+ sites. While other plugins simply mention that it’s rare when their plugin does not download videos, at least this one gives you a good idea of how many sites it’s been put up against. Most of us, being creatures of habit, will explore the same video sites over and over again, so once we know it works on those particular sites, we’re golden. The plugin pulls from sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Break, and more, but it also has the power to pull mp3′s, mp4′s, and flash games.

Download Flash and Video

A nice combo in this plugin. You get the ability to capture movies, but also capture that Flash video that was once unattainable due to the format. This particular plugin takes out the complexities by making it easy as one click. With one click you’re downloading content from popular video sites, but you also have the ability to capture games, much like the Flash Video Downloader above.

MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free

twitter logo The Twitter homepage, while useful, is left in the dust when compared to the other alternative desktop applications out there and even some of the mobile apps. While it has the core functions it lacks in terms of productivity and extra features which could be so easily added.

A great ad-on for Chrome and Firefox called FlyMonkey pretty much fixes all of that. Below, you can see a screenshot of my Twitter with three columns, each serving it own purpose. This is done by adding features to your Twitter page (via a red ‘+’ sign above your screen). You can add extra columns for DMs, replies, mentions and an arsenal of different options.

monkey fly sc

They also integrated the Bit.ly URL shortener and Twitpic into Twitter. As you are typing a tweet, two options appear below called ‘Photo’ and ‘URL Shortener’. I found these very handy indeed.

So if you want to change your Twitter experience but don’t fancy moving to a third-party alternative, get FlyMonkey.

Multifox Offers Your Browser Multiplicity in Functionality

multifox

Multifox, Firefox exentsion

Firefox is the crown jewel when it comes to extension friendly browsers. In the beginning IE could not compare, but more recently other browsers have started to adapt to extensions, but Firefox is by far the leader in this field. Many of us have tried to switch to other browsers like Chrome, but we felt naked with out the extensions. Personally it was a hard transition for me, but over time I’m getting used to it.

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New Thunderbird Appeals to Masses

thunderbird

In the battle over email application supremacy, Thunderbird has been one of the  most highly developed for web application next to Google’s Gmail. Consistently we’re treated to new releases, updates, and efforts to make the user experience more comfortable and seamless with other email providers as it works to be the catch all for all of our digital communication. Most recently Thunderbird introduced a bevy of plug-ins over the summer that increased the usability of the application, but also made it more fun. Millions of dedicated Thunderbird users keep this email client in constant development and whats being released this week is no exception.

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