firefox

Mozilla rereleases Firefox 16 after fixing critical flaw

Mozilla released a new version of Firefox (Windows, Mac) today, one day after yanking the Web browser to address security flaws.

Firefox 16 was pulled off Mozilla's installer page yesterday, just one day after its release, to fix a vulnerability that could have allowed a malicious site to identify which Web sites a user had visited, said Michael Coates, Mozilla's director of Security Assurance. The flaw was publicly disclosed yesterday by security researcher Gareth Heyes, who published proof-of-concept code to demonstrate the vulnerability.

Though Mozilla said it had no evidence that the vulnerability was being exploited in the … Read more

Mozilla 'temporarily' pulls Firefox 16 to address security flaw

Just a day after its debut, Firefox 16 has been "temporarily removed" from Mozilla's installer page while it addresses what is apparently a serious security flaw in the browser's latest version.

"The vulnerability could allow a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters," Michael Coates. Mozilla's director of Security Assurance, said on the company's security blog. "At this time we have no indication that this vulnerability is currently being exploited in the wild."

Mozilla is currently working on … Read more

How to enable Reader Mode in Firefox for Android

Web sites can look busy with distractions that prevent you from focusing on what you're actually trying to read. Seth Rosenblatt detailed the changes in version 16 of Firefox, including a new feature in the Android version called Reader Mode, which can display easy-to-read versions of Web sites.

Reader Mode in Firefox is similar to Safari Reader and Reading View on the Kindle Fire's Silk browser. It basically strips out all the ads, menus, and other Web page elements and reformats the page for easy readability.

To enable Reader Mode, wait for the Web page to load, then … Read more

PrivacyFix helps protect your privacy on the Web

Internet users can now better manage their privacy settings across the Web, courtesy of a new browser extension.

Released just yesterday, PrivacyFix supports Firefox and Google Chrome. The extension can automatically check your privacy settings across specific Web sites, including Facebook and Google. It then displays and explains your settings, giving you the opportunity to manage them directly.

After you install PrivacyFix, a window pops up in your browser showing you the default settings for Facebook to start. Can non-friends see your posts? Is Facebook sharing your profile with other sites? Is your name being used to "like" … Read more

Do Not Track proposal runs into more roadblocks

The Do Not Track proposal seems to be causing confusion and frustration among some W3C members charged with approving it.

Once ratified, the DNT policy would require advertisers and other third parties to turn off tracking for Internet users whose browser settings specifically restrict it.

The push for DNT has already created a chasm between advertisers, who naturally want the policy to be as lean as possible, and privacy advocates, who want tough standards.

Browser makers have also been caught in the furor. Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Internet Explorer already include DNT settings. But Microsoft has caused waves by … Read more

More HTML5 deemed ready-to-use in Firefox 16

A new version of Firefox has landed today with a big change for Web developers who prefer the browser, while a large handful of HTML5 gets a green light for browser support from Mozilla.

Firefox 16 ( download for Windows | Mac | Linux | Android) makes far fewer sweeping changes than the previous update to Firefox.

A number of HTML5 code has been "unprefixed," which means that Mozilla has decided it has matured enough to run in the browser without causing instability. The newly unshackled HTML5 includes CSS3 Animations, Transforms, Transitions, Image Values, Values and Units, and IndexedDB. Two Web APIs … Read more

Firefox makes a Metro move

With only a few weeks to go before Microsoft's big Windows overhaul, Mozilla puts forward its first version of Firefox preview optimized for Windows 8's touch interface.

How to install it Once you download and run the Firefox Metro Preview (download installer) in Windows 8, you must close Firefox in Metro and Desktop if you already have them installed, then open the Control Panel and set Internet Explorer as the default browser.

From there, run in Desktop mode the Firefox Nightly EXE that you just downloaded and set it as the Default when prompted. A Windows 8 prompt … Read more

Expect frustration from Faster Downloader

There are so many easy ways to download streaming media these days that we find absolutely no reason to bother with a program that's the least bit complicated. For that reason, we recommend that users who want to download video and music from streaming sites (where that's permitted, of course) look for something other than Faster Downloader to do it with. This unintuitive program left us scratching our head and wondering why the creators had so needlessly complicated what should be a simple process.

Faster Downloader boasts that it's "fully integrated" with Firefox and Internet … Read more

How to disable Java in IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari

Last week's notice by researchers at Security Explorations of an unpatched hole in the Java runtime environment may have left you wondering whether to disable Java until Oracle releases a patch. CNET's Topher Kessler noted in his report on the Java flaw that no malware exploiting the vulnerability has yet been documented.

Which leads to the question, "Do I need Java?"

The best way to find out is to disable Java in your browser and re-enable it only if you encounter a site that prompts you to download Java before it will open. Then you can … Read more