iTechnoBuzz!!

The Mozilla Dev. team had planned to release Firefox Security update v3.6.2 at the end of this month first, but a critical security hole that allows remote attackers to access and control one computer made the Developer team to release this update today. The exploit is discovered by Evgeny Legerov and Secunia rated it as highly critical.

The Updated version (3.6.2) of Mozilla Firefox is all-ready released and is available at Mozilla Firefox home page, plus it is also available in Firefox Web-browser’s automatic update section.
The Developer team asked Firefox users to update their browser to the latest version, to avoid their systems being hacked or remotely accessed by attackers.

Bugzilla lists 111 bugs that have been fixed in Firefox 3.6.2 of which 21 have been classified as critical by the Mozilla developers. The recently reported security vulnerability is not the only security vulnerability fixed in the latest Firefox release. Firefox users should look at the known issues section in the release notes to make sure that they do not run into problems after updating their web browser.

FireFox 3.6.2 releasenotes:
Firefox 3.6.2 fixes the following issues found in previous versions of Firefox 3.6:

Firefox 3.6 has some cool consumer facing features like Personas and a better Plug-in Updater, but developers have a lot to be excited about too.  Developers will appreciate the increased stability, especially the work done to prevent crashes with third party software.  There are also enhancements like improved JavaScript performance and optimizations to speed up everyday Web tasks to make web applications snappier.  However, what developers will be most interested in are all the new features around CSS3 and HTML5 that bring the future of the Web to Firefox 3.6 today.

This is an exciting release because we have built on the progress we made with Firefox 3.5 just a few months ago and have implemented even more cutting-edge features that will make the Web experience more engaging and interactive than ever before.

Today’s Firefox 3.6 release and the upcoming mobile release of Firefox for Maemo are both based on Gecko 1.9.2 and bring a number of big features including:

• New CSS3 features: Improve your style with support for gradients, multiple backgrounds, pointer-events and more.
• Drag and Drop: It has never been easier to move files from your desktop to the Web.  You can now drag content into the browser window and leverage the FileAPI for instant access to that content.
• File API: Support for the latest HTML5 specification allows Web applications to access local files and interact with them in new ways.
• Web Open Font Format (WOFF): Add a touch of typography to the Web with WOFF support, which makes even more possible than the existing support for OpenType and TrueType fonts.
• Device orientation: Discover new ways to manipulate and interact with Web content with access to the orientation of supported laptops and devices.
• XMLHttpRequest improvements and more…

For a more in-depth look at all the changes that developers will want to know about please check out Firefox 3.6 for Developers on MDC. And if you haven’t already, go get Firefox 3.6 now!

After 4 beta releases and 2 release candidate release of Mozilla ThunderBird, yesterday Mozilla released final version of the powerful desktop email client Thunderbird 3.0 which is now available to download on Mozilla ThunderBird page.

The developer team din’t published any change-log details providing the details of changes from Release candidate-2 and final version of Thunderbird 3.0, but since the final release is a quick release from Release candidate 2, it states, not much changes are made from Release candidate 2 and final version.

Key Features of Thunderbird 3.0 are listed below:

• Tabbed Email: Provides the ability view individual emails and folders in tabs, and web pages via add-ons in tabs so users can quickly jump between them, just as one manages web pages in Mozilla’s Firefox. Folder tabs are remembered, so Thunderbird starts up pre-configured and personalized to each user.
• Filtered Search: Designed with search in mind, the new search interface in Thunderbird 3 contains filtering and timeline tools to help users quickly and accurately pin-point the exact email by word matches, correspondents or even attachment types at the moment they need it, all based on analysis of the user’s own emails.
• Message Archive: Archiving mail moves email from the inbox into the new archive folder system, de-cluttering the inbox while at the same time enabling users to find email months or years from now.
• One-click Address Book: A very quick and easy way to add people to an address book, by simply clicking on the star icon in the messages received from new correspondents.
  

• New Mail Account Setup Wizard: Getting started with Thunderbird 3 is faster than ever with the new account set-up wizard that requires simple information, like email addresses and passwords to get going instead of a user’s IMAP, SMTP, SSL/TLS settings.
• Smart Folders: Combines individual mailboxes to help manage multiple email accounts in one spot. For example, by selecting the Inbox, users can view all the incoming emails from all their different accounts without having to go to each email account separately.
• Add-ons Manager: The new add-ons manager can help users find, download, and install hundreds of add-ons enabling them to customize Thunderbird 3 and add functionality or change the appearance.
• Better Integration with Gmail: Now integrates with international versions of Gmail and Gmail’s special folders such as sent and trash.
• Better Integration with Windows and Mac OS X: Updated look and feel, improved import tools, search integration, and address book support for Windows 7, Vista and Mac OS X Snow Leopard.
• Gecko 1.9.1 Engine: The same Web page rendering engine and graphics infrastructure used in Firefox, provides the latest Web Standards support and security enhancements.
• Automated Updates: Thunderbird’s update system notifies users when a security update is available and automates the download and installation process to keep users safe.

In the previous post of mine, I had updated you about the critical security vulnerability in Firefox  3.5 . In response to this, Firefox 3.5.1 update is now available. The updated setup is now available on Mozilla Website.If you are using Firefox 3.5 allready, you can update your Firefox to v3.5.1 simply by going through

Help >> Check for updates..

A new window like the in the screenshot will pop out and all you need to do, is to click on Update Firefox.

A critical security vulnerability was discovered in Firefox3.5, and this update fix that vulnerability on its own. If the update is still not available for you, you can fix this problem manually by going through the following steps:

• Enter about:config in the location bar to access advanced preferences.
• Look for javascript.options.jit.content and double click it to set it to false.

If you had allready applied the above steps, and this update is available for you, then you need to undo the manual changes you did before. To do this, simply follow the previous 2 steps and double click javascript.options.jit.content and set  it to true. Now, you are ready to update your Firefox to v3.5.1

If you does not get the update option in your Firefox, you can get it from their US website by clicking here.

The Mozilla team is working on decreasing the start-up time of Firefox, which i guess will be provided in next update at the end of this month.

Firefox 3.5 release candidate v3 is allready out and free to download from june 24th 2009. But, the final version is on the boundary sides and will be out with many more new features.

For Firefox fans, which do not take interest to read the developer pages, here I am providing a small list of some of the new features which firefox is going to provide in v3.5 final :

• Undo Closed Window/Tabs:
  Accidental click on cross button of firefox tabs was one of the major problems I was facing nearly everyday. And I am quite happy with this new feature to Undo these accidental termination of tabs and browser windows. In firefox 3.5, you can undo the termination of your tabs and rowsing window.
• Privacy Mode:
  Firefox named this feature as “Privacy Mode” but the fans, they named it as the “Porn Mode”. In firefox 3.5, once you switched ON the privacy mode, nothing will be saved about your browsing details (like what you surf/ downloaded/cookies/cache/session etc.). This feature will come out to be a gem for shared computers users. In this way, they will be secured to doo their online deals with no one knowing. Also they will be saved from scammers, and their details about what they shopped and with what details all will get secured.
• Trace Monkey JavaScript Engine:
  Firefox 3.5 now embedded with Trace Monkey is going to use the Trace Trees technique which will add a native-code compilation to Mozilla’s JavaScript engine (known as “SpiderMonkey”). In total it will provide faster JavaScript and make JavaScript powered sites like gmail massively faster.
• Drag Tab to a new browsing window:
  In Firefox 3.4, you were allowed to drag/drop tabs in a browsing window to reorder them. In Firefox 3.5, you will be able to drag a tab off from the tab bar to move it on to it’s own new window.
• Video and Audio tags:
  the new HTML5 tags <video/> and <audio/> are supported by Firefox 3.5.
• Geolocation:
  This is a great new feature that mozilla is providing in Firefox3.5. This feature allows a site to gather information about your internet connection and by using a location collection service (provided by Google) it will find out your location. Now, there is no need to enter your zip code or city, let Firefox doo it for you.
• New Icon:
  The FireFox 3.5 icon is in a way better than the previous one. It is not really new, but its a bit sharp at foxy tail and quite refreshed. Here is a 256×256 px png icon on this post cropped to 60%. But if you want to download all size files along with PSD , you must check Alex Faaborg official blog.

The list I just provided, consist of some of my favorite features. There are many more. Want to check all of them? Then you must refer to the “Developer Page”.

After taking a look over all the upcoming features. Tell us which of them are your favorite. Use the comment box for the same. Feel free to share the post with your friends or socialize it in your own way.