Way back when, we had mentioned that Mozilla’s plans for “Weave,” their platform for syncing browsing information between different desktop/mobile clients, included support for synchronizing Firefox extensions or, as they’re known now, “add-ons.”
Well, it turns out that add-on synchronization isn’t isn’t here yet and keeps getting bumped from the official Weave roadmap. So, our plans for a completely synchronized Firefox experience among our PCs were somewhat dashed… until now.
We’ve been using Mozilla’s Weave extension/platform for some time now and the team, today, launched Weave version 0.7. Nothing major to report in this release, just some performance and UI improvements. However, Mozilla’s always had plans to enable the synchronization of your many different Firefox add-ons. I suspect that’ll be something that comes with the release of 1.0 but who knows what 0.8 or 0.9 will bring…
Enterprise, Microsoft, Software
CorasWorks, author of many development tools for Microsoft’s SharePoint platform, recently debuted what they refer to as AppEngine. AppEngine, in their own words, “is an innovative runtime environment for SharePoint that allows users to download and run plug-and-play business apps from CorasWorks and its application publisher partners, or custom built applications from third-party service providers.” Think of Apple’s iPhone/iPod Touch “app store…” but for SharePoint.
Microsoft updated their line of LifeCam-series webcams last week with the introduction of the 720p Hi-Def LifeCam Cinema. Available for pre-order tomorrow (8/24) on Amazon.com with a suggested retail price of $74.95, the Cinema is the latest in the long line of the high-quality LifeCam-branded webcams – a quality to which I can attest. In addition, Microsoft also announced the introduction of the LifeChat LX-1000, a “headset with high-quality audio and a noise-canceling microphone.”
I can be a Microsoft fanboy from time to time, I’ll admit that. I’ll also admit that I’ve been looking forward to Outlook 2010 since Outlook 2007 first arrived… mainly because when OL2K7 was released to manufacturers in late 2006, it was STILL missing alot of productivity features; some of which Gmail debuted with almost 3 years prior. I’m talking about conversation view, the ability to quickly move a message to a specific folder, effective keyboard shortcuts, etc.
The creators of the ever-popular </sarcasm> Zune music service & devices (that’s Microsoft for those of you who haven’t been paying attention) just announced an expansion of the existing Zune marketplace by extending “its video service to XBOX Live internationally this fall.”
Google is slowly rolling out a new feature to Gmail users: the ability to import existing mail and contacts via POP3.
For some time now, Gmail users have had the ability to “fetch” incoming mail from existing Yahoo!, AOL, Hotmail, etc. accounts but this marks the first time that you can actually migrate your entire inbox to Gmail with just one click.
According to an official press release from the big boys in Redmond, WA, using Windows 7 along with Windows Server 2008 R2 will grant you usage of Microsoft DirectAccess: “a new feature … that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access … without connecting to a virtual private network.”
Mozilla announced the official 1.0 release of Prism: the utility designed to enable your favorite web apps to live outside the browser.
Not only does Prism allow end users to create separate desktop apps for each of their favorite sites (think Gmail, Facebook, etc.), it also allows site devs to specify certain settings that can be activated specifically on Prism apps… settings like fonts, proxy settings, tray icons, etc.
The following is just a snippet of information about Prism’s history and future but you can read more on the official release post… or just check out prism.mozilla.com.
“The ability to run stand-alone web apps and access them like normal desktop apps provides instant benefits to end users. However, a number of the advantages are only available when software developers take advantage of Prism-specific features. With the release of Prism 1.0 beta we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling web app bundles.”
Are you using Prism… or do you just prefer the application shortcuts that can be created by Google’s Chrome browser? Voice your opinions in the comments.
Update: Just so you know, there are two ways to go about using Prism: a desktop application (for the Linux, Mac & Windows platforms – run it and just fill in the URL of the site you’d like to turn into a separate desktop app) or by the Prism Firefox extension.
Weave 0.3, Mozilla’s browser information synchronization architecture (which we’ve previously covered), has officially been released.
With Weave, you can synchronize your browser’s bookmarks, browsing history, passwords as well as any tabs that you might have open across any of your PCs – safely and securely. Here’s Mozilla’s official project description:
“Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together. It is part of the Weave project, which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser.”
Along with the 0.3 release, Mozilla is now officially supporting Fennec; Mozilla’s own mobile browser. Eventually, at least according to the project roadmap, Weave will enable you to synchronize your browser preferences and add-ons (read: extensions) in addition to all of the aforementioned items.
Give it a try by downloading from the official Mozilla add-ons site: Weave 0.3. Or, check out the official Weave project site at http://labs.mozilla.com/projects/weave/.
Do note, however, that the 0.3 release requires Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 or greater… which is still in a testing phase. (Hence the “beta” label.) Plus, if you do decide to g’head and upgrade your version of Firefox in order to take a peek at Weave, some of your other add-ons might very well break in the process. A great number of mine did.
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