Comment: Re:Too little, too late (Score 2) 37
No one uses WebM.
YouTube does. Wikipedia does. Wired Video does. Microsoft's Channel 9 does. Revision3 does. Et cetera and so on.
+ - ORBX.js: JavaScript-Based, Low Latency HD Video Codec->
Submitted
by
theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes "Mozilla and OTOY have announced a new video codec with a JavaScript-based decoder capable of delivering 1080p60 video with 25% better compression than H.264. Amanda Alvarez from Gigaom writes, 'Mozilla has teamed up with Hollywood rendering company OTOY to create a new codec to stream video and apps from the cloud directly to the browser. The JavaScript library ORBX can render apps, gaming platforms or an entire operating system in any HTML5-capable browser, including Chrome, Safari or Firefox, even on a mobile device. The announcement is another attempt at destabilizing the hegemony of the H.264 video-compression standard, famously advanced by Apple over Flash and present in all iOS devices, after the promotion of WebM by Matroska and Google. The impacts of the purely JavaScript-based system are multiple: for end users, the ability to run native PC apps on any device with an internet connection and to purchase and protect content without digital-rights management (DRM); for content creators, cheaper, faster rendering and the ability to distribute anywhere viewers can type in a URL; and for open web or cloud-computing advocates, a push away from proprietary or legacy plug-ins and an embrace of HTML5.' Mozilla's CTO Brendon Eich has some further discussion of ORBX.js on his blog."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - Epic Games Releases HTML5 Epic Citadel Demo->
Submitted
by
theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes "Epic Games has made the HTML5 Epic Citadel demo available for testing with Firefox 23 Nightly. Epic Games writes in their press release, 'Epic Games and Mozilla have continued a close collaboration first revealed during last month’s Game Developers Conference to release “Epic Citadel” on the Web running in HTML5. No plug-ins or added components are needed to experience the free app. “Epic Citadel” is built using standards-based technologies like HTML5, WebGL and JavaScript, and should work in any standards-based browser implementing those features. For optimal performance, Epic recommends loading “Epic Citadel” at http://www.unrealengine.com/html5 using Firefox Nightly version 23 or above, which includes optimizations for asm.js, a highly-optimizable subset of JavaScript pioneered by Mozilla, whose performance can rival native code.' Mozilla's Vladimir Vukicevic has posted some further details and presentation slides about the HTML5 port of Unreal Engine 3 on his blog and Epic Games has published an Epic Citadel HTML5 FAQ."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:Answered in reverse order (Score 1) 464
The "killer feature" for me on Gmail is conversation view, where it groups messages together in conversations, so instead of a ton of disparate emails, they're grouped together in a single line and can be seen in sequential order. Back when I switched over to Gmail, it was the only thing that had this feature, and now I find it indispensable, though it does sometimes screw up (since email was never designed to actually have this in the first place). Do other clients have this yet?
Yes: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addon/gmail-conversation-view/. My experience has been that webmail is inferior to having a mail client. Even simple things like correctly displaying email which contains styled HTML content doesn't work in, for example, Gmail.
+ - WebRTC Makes Firefox's Social API Even More Social->
Submitted
by
theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes "Mozilla has put together a demo which combines WebRTC with Firefox's Social API. Over on Mozilla's Future Releases blog, Maire Reavy writes, 'WebRTC is a powerful new tool that enables web app developers to include real-time video calling and data sharing capabilities in their products. While many of us are excited about WebRTC because it will enable several cool gaming applications and improve the performance and availability of video conferencing apps, WebRTC is proving to be a great tool for social apps. Sometimes when you’re chatting with a friend, you just want to click on their name and see and talk with them in real-time. Imagine being able to do that without any glitches or hassles, and then while talking with them, easily share almost anything on your computer or device: vacation photos, memorable videos – or even just a link to a news story you thought they might be interested in – simply by dragging the item into your video chat window.'"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
+ - The Shumway Open SWF Runtime Project->
Submitted
by
theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes "Mozilla is looking for contributors interested in working on Shumway. Mozilla's Jet Villegas writes, 'Shumway is an experimental web-native runtime implementation of the SWF file format. It is developed as a free and open source project sponsored by Mozilla Research. The project has two main goals: 1. Advance the open web platform to securely process rich media formats that were previously only available in closed and proprietary implementations. 2. Offer a runtime processor for SWF and other rich media formats on platforms for which runtime implementations are not available.'"
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:Not that Disruptive (Score 3, Informative) 286
To be disruptive, a device has to attract developers and users.
The developers and applications already exist. It's easy to make existing HTML5 applications installable to Firefox OS. Just add an app manifest and an application cache manifest. It would be easy for ZeptoLab, for example, to make Cut the Rope installable to Firefox OS.
This one hasn't even got a hardware vendor.
You should read one of Telefonica's press releases. Firefox OS has both operators and hardware manufacturers.
+ - Formula 1 ECU Adapted for Use in Hospitals->
Submitted
by
theweatherelectric
theweatherelectric writes "The electronic control unit used in Formula 1 cars has been adapted for use in hospitals. James Allen writes, "As a result of a chance conversation between a McLaren engineer and a paediatrician, Birmingham Children’s Hospital has been trialling the ECU in a children’s intensive care ward; the idea is that the F1-derived unit can measure all the key signs from the child, sense trends and detect developing problems earlier than the electronics previously used by the NHS. The unit normally measures oil pressures, brake temperatures and the like. Here, a lightly adapted version of the F1 ECU is being used to measure things like heart rate, oxygen levels and blood pressure in an ill child. And, inevitably, it is far more capable than the units currently used in hospitals; it can take a heart cardiogram 125 times a minute, instead of once an hour, for example." Birmingham Children’s Hospital is seeking a further £2 million to continue the trial and extend it across the hospital."
Link to Original Source
Link to Original Source
Comment: Re:Only thing missing... (Score 2) 880
How would they know?
Because they're professional game developers and they've worked with both closed and open drivers. The Intel Linux GPU driver team spent time working with Valve's Linux team in Bellvue. The Valve guys told the Intel guys that they like open source drivers better. You should read the blog post I linked to.
Comment: Re:Only thing missing... (Score 3, Insightful) 880
Why would Valve care if the drivers are Open Source?
Because they find them easier to work with. To quote a recent blog post by one of Intel's open source GPU driver developers: "The funny thing is Valve guys say the same thing about drivers. There were a couple times where we felt like they were trying to convince us that open source drivers are a good idea. We had to remind them that they were preaching to the choir.
Comment: Re:Only thing missing... (Score 1) 880
Good luck getting real open source drivers out of Nvidia, ATI/AMD, and Intel for their graphics hardware.
Intel develops open source drivers for their graphics hardware. See for yourself on their Intel Linux Graphics website. Intel worked with Valve recently to improve their drivers for Valve's games. Phoronix has some statistics on the development history of Intel's open source drivers.
Comment: Re:No shit (Score 1) 395
My favourite example is the HTML 5 Angry Birds game.
Angry Birds Chrome is a poor example of an HTML5 game as it relies on Flash for audio. If I try it with Firefox 14.0.1, for example, without Flash installed I get a message which tells me that I either need to install Flash or use Chrome as it has Flash built-in. Better examples of HTML5 games which work without Flash are Cut the Rope, Pirates Love Daisies, World's Biggest Pac-Man, and Word Squared.
The development of the first three games was funded by Microsoft to demonstrate that credible applications can in fact be built against an HTML5 runtime. They also demonstrate that there are already high quality applications available for Firefox OS. It's pretty trivial to make them installable on Firefox OS.
Comment: Re:Battery life and Peformance (Score 1) 91
From what I understand they're banking on the fact that writing an app for Firefox OS will use the same technologies as making a webpage, which should make it viable for a huge developer community.
Yes, especially because that developer community already exists. Even Microsoft has already inadvertently funded the development of a few Firefox OS applications. The HTML5 version of Cut the Rope, for example, already runs on Firefox OS. To make it an installable Firefox OS application all that would need to be added is a manifest file and an install page. And similarly for other Microsoft funded HTML5 games like Pirates Love Daisies and World's Biggest Pacman.
Comment: Re:Tunderbirds are NO! (Score 5, Interesting) 378
What more is there for email?
Something more for Thunderbird is integrated instant messaging. I want unified email and instant messaging in one application so I'll have unified contacts and search. The number of instant messaging services supported by Thunderbird seems like it will be limited at first but that will improve with time and perhaps there will be add-ons available to support more services.
Comment: Re:Good, but a little pointless. (Score 1) 137
I see no evidence that that is true.
I see no evidence that it isn't true. Browsers are more capable and faster today than they were even two years. Every browser maker wants their browser to be the fastest and the benchmark is the speed of other browsers. Competition breeds improvement.
And indeed there are plenty of other browsers on the platform.
There are no other browsers on iOS. There are only shadows of other browsers. If you can't have your full browser stack on iOS, there are no competiting browsers.
It's only the rendering engine that's mandated to be one defacto-standard. And that's for user experience reasons.
*Only* the rendering engine? You mean the most fundamental part of any browser? In any case, it's both the JavaScript engine and the rendering engine that are banned. My user experience would be improved by being able to run full Firefox on iOS. I like Firefox. I can run Firefox on Windows. I can run Firefox on OS X. I can run Firefox on Linux. I can run Firefox on Android. There is no justification for not being able to run Firefox on iOS. The quality of the user's experience is for the user to decide, not Apple.
People are not all the same. Neither are corporations.
If you want to draw an analogy between people and corporations, corporations are psychopaths. This may help you: http://www.economist.com/node/2647328