firefox

Having your browser store password data for sites can be a huge time-saver and convenience. Naturally, there are security issues to consider-- what if someone else uses your computer? Less severe but more irritating, what if you forget your password and need to log in on another machine? Unless you use the same password for several services, you could be left in a bad situation.

Instead of answering security questions to reset your password to something else you might forget, try these steps to figure out what it is.

Step 1: Open the log-in page for the service you're … Read more

ZTE, one of China's most prominent handset makers, plans to launch smartphones running the new Firefox OS early next year.

Speaking today to reporters in China, the company said it will launch handsets running Firefox OS in the first quarter of 2013. According to the Wall Street Journal, which was in attendance at the press event, the company didn't say how many Firefox OS-based smartphones it plans to launch, and offered no further details on the devices.

Mozilla announced its ZTE partnership over the summer. At that time, the company also named the operating system Firefox OS. The … Read more

Mozilla has begun building a new technology called IonMonkey into Firefox to improve its JavaScript performance.

High JavaScript performance is essential in today's hotly competitive browser market, because JavaScript is the language behind complicated Web sites and Web apps such as Google Docs and Facebook. IonMonkey has now been packaged into the "nightly" version of Firefox 18 for hardcore developers; that version is scheduled to become the mainstream version of the browser early in 2013.

IonMonkey is what's called a just-in-time compiler, or JIT for short. In olden days, JavaScript would run line by line in … Read more

The Internet Engineering Task Force has standardized the Opus audio compression technology as RFC 6716.

The move paves the way for much broader use of Opus for anything from playing music to online voice chats. Opus is what's called a codec because it defines how to encode and decode a stream of data for more efficient storage or transmission.

"Opus is the first state-of-the-art, free audio codec to be standardized. We think this will help us achieve wider adoption than prior royalty-free codecs," Jean-Marc Valin, a Mozilla employee and author of Opus, said in a blog post today. … Read more

If you're not a fan of relying on browser add-ons and plug-ins, you'll probably want to enable a feature that can help you ditch at least one of them. Firefox now has a built-in PDF reader, and while it doesn't offer all of the same features that Adobe's version does, it's more than sufficient for most uses.

Before you get started enabling the PDF viewer, make sure you have the latest version of Firefox and you've disabled the Adobe PDF viewer.

To check the version: click the menu at the top left-hand corner and … Read more

Browser maker Mozilla has patched a bug in the latest major version of Firefox that could have exposed the websites of those using the "Private Browsing" mode.

"Private Browsing," a feature implemented in most modern browsers, allows users to browse the Web without leaving any trace of the websites visited on the user's computer.

But shortly after the latest Firefox release was dished out to end-users, a bug report was filed to claim that any site visited while in the privacy-conscious mode "could be found through manual browser cache inspection," according to Mozilla's bug-reporting site Bugzilla.… Read more

New images have hit the Internet and purport to show what could be the design for Mozilla's upcoming Firefox OS Marketplace.

Engadget published photos yesterday of what it claims is the app store for Firefox's mobile operating system. The images show a small listing of apps, including Solitaire and Word Wars. Several app categories are listed, including business, games, and books and reference.

According to Engadget, once users click on an application to get details, they'll find a rating and the option to submit a review to the community.

Mozilla gave Firefox OS its name back in July. … Read more

Please note that the First Look video below is still applicable to Firefox 15, as is this Firefox How To collection, even though it features Firefox 4. A new video will be posted soon.

Review: Mozilla Firefox has undergone an enormous rebirth over the past two years. Since Firefox 4 debuted in March 2011, the browser has been hell-bent on improvements. These have come in large part on the rapid-release cycle, which sees a new version of Firefox every six weeks. Many people like them, but a vocal minority has pooh-poohed the increase in version numbers. That's hardly a … Read more

If you frequently access Web content in a language other than your mother tongue, you know how important it is to have a good translator handy. Firefox users should try ImTranslator for Firefox, a browser extension that makes it easy to access translations between numerous different languages. With a comprehensive set of translation tools, ImTranslator for Firefox is a great choice for both new-language learns and experienced polyglots who need a hand now and then.

Like most Firefox extensions, ImTranslator required a browser restart to complete installation. Once the extension was installed, we were able to access it both from … Read more