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Here you'll find weekly news and headlines from Mozilla's Emerging Technologies organization, as shared at Mozilla's [https://wiki.mozilla.org/WeeklyUpdates Weekly Updates meeting]. (If that meeting doesn't occur, which happens occasionally, there won't be corresponding headlines here...) | Here you'll find weekly news and headlines from Mozilla's [[Emerging Technologies]] organization, as shared at Mozilla's [https://wiki.mozilla.org/WeeklyUpdates Weekly Updates meeting]. (If that meeting doesn't occur, which happens occasionally, there won't be corresponding headlines here...) | ||
{| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" | {| class="wikitable collapsible collapsed" | ||
! colspan="2" | 2020 ET Headlines | ! colspan="2" | 2020 ET Headlines | ||
|- | |- | ||
! colspan="2" | '''Latest''': [[# | ! colspan="2" | '''Latest''': [[#August 10th, 2020|August 10th, 2020]] | ||
|- | |||
| August | |||
| [[#August 3rd, 2020|3rd]], [[#August 10th, 2020|10th]] | |||
|- | |||
| July | |||
| [[#July 6th, 2020|6th]], [[#July 13th, 2020|13th]], [[#July 20th, 2020|20th]], [[#July 27th, 2020|27th]] | |||
|- | |||
| June | |||
| [[#June 1st, 2020|1st]], [[#June 8th, 2020|8th]], [[#June 22nd, 2020|22nd]], [[#June 29th, 2020|29th]] | |||
|- | |- | ||
| May | | May | ||
| [[#May 4th, 2020|4th]] | | [[#May 4th, 2020|4th]], [[#May 11th, 2020|11th]], [[#May 18th, 2020|18th]] | ||
|- | |- | ||
| April | | April | ||
| Line 23: | Line 32: | ||
|- | |- | ||
|} | |} | ||
== August 10th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Firefox Reality for PC''' -- Last week we released the public preview for Firefox Reality PC, the newest addition to the [https://mixedreality.mozilla.org/firefox-reality Firefox Reality] family off products. Built upon the latest version of Firefox itself, Firefox Reality PC Preview brings all the content of the conventional web into PC-based virtual reality for both tethered and wireless streaming headsets. In addition to letting you browse within an immersive VR environment, Firefox Reality lets you watch 360 videos or explore 3D web content created with WebVR or WebXR. More details and some sample video is in Thomas Moore’s [https://blog.mozvr.com/introducing-firefox-reality-pc-preview/ post] on our Mixed Reality Blog. | |||
* '''Doing More With Your Voice''' -- Last week saw the [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ public release of Firefox Voice 0.24] which includes, along with a variety of other features, our first realization of “Hello Firefox” wakeword support. Now you can activate and interact with Firefox entirely with your voice. This is also exciting as it’s the first major use of the [https://github.com/castorini/howl Howl] wakeword spotter system, which was developed by a team at the University of Waterloo, and is a significant contribution to an entirely open-source voice ecosystem. | |||
* '''More Voice, Part 2''' -- We also released [https://github.com/mozilla/DeepSpeech/releases/tag/v0.8.0 DeepSpeech 0.8.0] last week, with some enhancements to threading and performance that make it substantially more efficient on small platform devices for both mobile and embedded applications, and, for the first time, have enabled support for iOS alongside Android. | |||
* '''Reminder''' -- RustConf 2020 is next Thursday, August 20th. All the pertinent details -- speakers, schedule, how to take part, and even some digital swag -- are available on the [https://rustconf.com/ conference web site], and our own Nell Shamrell-Harrington will be our host for the event. | |||
== August 3rd, 2020 == | |||
* '''AV1 Adoption Accelerates''' -- AV1 will be [https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1644566 on by default] in Fenix, our new Firefox browser for Android, scheduled for release on August 25th. This includes the latest release of the dav1d AV1 decoder, which has been specially optimized for Arm devices. And VLC, the very popular free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework is [https://mailman.videolan.org/pipermail/vlc-devel/2020-July/135559.html adding support] for Mozilla’s own Rust-based AV1 encoder module rav1e. VLC already provides AV1 decoding and playback using dav1d, and with this addition will deliver full AV1 encoding and decoding support to hundreds of millions of users worldwide. | |||
* '''Mixed Reality Excitement''' -- All the growing interest in Mozilla Hubs as a richer way of creating shared on-line experiences has resulted in demand for more Hubs events for larger groups of people. To help make that possible we’ve just demonstrated a way to share a 360 degree livestream broadcast of a Hubs room to YouTube from a Servo browser client. First successful 360 livestream broadcast of a Hubs room to Youtube from a Servo browser client. This allows more users to be part of more Hubs events Hubs without straining the resources of the Hubs server. You can check out the test [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9R6mu109GI video] on YouTube. Also, the recent draft specification for WebXR Hand Tracking [https://twitter.com/dannyaroslavski/status/1288022603525840896 generated] a [https://mobile.twitter.com/fernandojsg/status/1287421761018003460 flurry] of [https://twitter.com/stew_rtsmith/status/1287704676662730753 VR] developer [https://twitter.com/Marlon360/status/1287488821400133634 interest] - an implementation is now available in the Oculus Browser as well as Firefox Reality for HoloLens 2, and developers [https://twitter.com/Marlon360/status/1288605184050987008 rapidly] added [https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js/pull/19936 support] in [https://twitter.com/DePanther/status/1286961669768454144 multiple] popular [https://twitter.com/mrmaxm/status/1287393803066904576 frameworks]. | |||
* '''Firefox Voice has a Voice''' -- A major new release of [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ Firefox Voice], 0.23, gives smart-speaker-like text-to-speech functionality (“It’s 72 degrees and raining in Seattle”) along with several other new features, like Play Trailer for [video] and non-English Spotify. If you already have Firefox Voice installed it should have automatically updated, and if not you can download and install it from our Firefox Voice [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ web page]. (Be sure you enable Voice Responses from the Firefox Voice options page.) | |||
== July 27th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Browsing for Unity''' -- Unity's development tools and engine power more than half of all mobile games and nearly all applications for VR and AR today. Previously, we've made it possible to export web-based experiences from Unity. Last week we unveiled some early work addressing the other way that Unity developers want to use the web: as a component in their Unity-based virtual environments. Our new Unity browser plugin packages up Servo, a modern web engine written in Rust, so it can be used within Unity. Now developers can put web content, complete with custom search and built-in media playback, into any AR or VR experience they’re building with Unity. You can read all about it in Philip Lamb’s post on our [https://blog.mozvr.com/a-browser-plugin-for-unity/ Mixed Reality blog], complete with example videos and instructions on how to get started with the plug-in yourself. | |||
* '''A Show of Hands''' -- Last week we published a [https://immersive-web.github.io/webxr-hand-input/ draft W3C specification] for hand input for WebXR. Some mixed reality devices, such as Microsoft’s Hololens 2 and the Oculus Quest, now provide fully articulated information about the user’s hands when they are used as input sources. The draft API we have jointly proposed with Microsoft exposes the poses of each of the user’s hand skeleton joints, allowing a wide range of creative inputs based on precise hand orientation and position, for example to do gesture detection or to render a hand model in VR scenarios without users having to employ controller devices of any kind. Work is [https://twitter.com/fernandojsg/status/1286381837301022721 already underway] to add the API to popular 3D frameworks, as we expect this capability to be extremely popular. | |||
* '''15th Anniversary Recap''' -- We celebrated MDN’s 15th anniversary last week with a lot of fanfare and attention from our developer community. Chris Mill’s [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/07/mdn-web-docs-15-years-young/ Hacks blog post] took us through our fifteen most significant achievements in the last five years including some amazing statistics (fifteen million visitors a month, currently!), emergence of interactive examples, learning paths, and our widely-used compatibility data, and more. There was also lots of celebratory appreciation on our [https://mozilla.dev/communities/celebrate-mdn-15-years/ Developer Portal], coverage in our Developer Newsletter and on [https://twitter.com/MozDevNet/status/1286210718619099137 social media] where the combination of continued MDN growth plus our anniversary celebration helped us reach a new high in engagement. Happy Birthday, MDN! Looking forward to what we accomplish together in the next five years. | |||
== July 20th, 2020 == | |||
* '''RustConf 2020''' -- One month from today, on August 20th, we’d love to have you join us for [https://rustconf.com/ RustConf 2020]. This year marks the fifth annual RustConf and, as you’d expect, the 2020 edition will be an all on-line virtual event. Mozilla’s very own Nell Shamrell-Harrington will be the host for this year’s conference, which in addition to presentations and content will include community Discord rooms, digital breakouts and meetups, and some real-time polling to make it an interactive experience. All the pertinent details -- speakers, schedule, how to take part, and even some digital swag -- are available on the [https://rustconf.com/ conference web site]. | |||
* '''Firefox Voice Speaks''' -- We’ve released v0.22 of Firefox Voice, which introduces new text-to-speech capabilities. Now not only can you use your voice to interact with Firefox (“What’s the weather in Seattle?”) but Firefox will be able to speak in response (“It’s raining.”). The code for v0.22 is on [https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-voice Github] and as soon as we wrap up some packaging efforts will be installable through the Firefox Voice [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ web page] and/or the Firefox Voice add-on itself (if you have it installed already). | |||
* '''Celebration Reminder''' -- We mentioned last week that this week we’d be celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of MDN this week. We’ll have more details and a recap next week, but did want to remind you to keep an eye on [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/ MDN], our [https://hacks.mozilla.org/ Hacks blog], [https://mozilla.dev/ Mozilla Developer Portal], social media, and other relevant locations for activities commemorating the amazing history, community contributions, and impact of MDN. | |||
== July 13th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Countdown to Fifteen''' - In July of 2005 a new resource for developers appeared on the Internet. Known as the “Mozilla Developer Center”, it combined a variety of previously shared documentation and some newly created content as part of a new community-based project focused on developer documentation and resources. That project has grown steadily in scope, contribution, and impact to the point where over fifteen million developers make use of it every month. This month what started out as Mozilla Developer Center, and which we know today as “MDN Web Docs”, celebrates its fifteenth anniversary. Stay tuned for further news of ideas we have for those celebrations, and if you’re so inclined, outfit yourself with celebratory regalia at our MDN Web Docs [https://shop.spreadshirt.com/mdn-store/mdn+15th+anniversary?idea=5f05defa1cbf3a5c9b973784 on-line store]. | |||
* '''Testing Firefox with Machine Learning''' - Firefox is an incredibly complex piece of software, rapidly changing as large numbers of developers build new features and check-in changes. That’s possible in large part through our extensive continuous integration (CI) system, which needs to run fifty thousand test files for ninety different supported configurations across an average of three hundred code pushes a day. That’s 1.35 billion test file runs a day, if we would run them all. Over the years we’ve introduced many optimizations, though there’s still a lot of human intervention involved. Last year our CI team wondered if machine learning techniques could help us, especially in analyzing past test results. Last week Andrew Halberstadt and Marco Castelluccio published a fascinating [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/07/testing-firefox-more-efficiently-with-machine-learning/ Hacks blog post] detailing that work and their findings. Though it’s still early in their explorations the results have been amazing. | |||
* '''Recording Immersive Web Content''' - One of the interesting things about being in a Mozilla Hubs room is that there can be things going on all around the room, even when your avatar isn’t looking at them. However, this also means that it can be difficult to share the experience of the room later with someone who wasn’t there in person. To address this, the Alan Jeffrey from the Firefox Reality team has created a tool that records a 360 degree video of immersive web content like Mozilla Hubs - rather than recording only what your avatar is looking at, it records the whole 3d environment surrounding it instead, allowing anyone viewing the video later to “look around” to see what you missed. To get a sneak-preview of this new technology, check out this [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buivCKjTtbk low-resolution test recording] from this [http://rawcdn.githack.com/mrdoob/three.js/master/examples/webxr_vr_rollercoaster.html three.js example webpage]. | |||
== July 6th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Moon Robots!''' -- Back in April we mentioned DLR, the German national aeronautic and space agency had approached us about their interest in DeepSpeech, Mozilla’s open source speech recognition engine. Last week they issued a press release formally [https://www.dlr.de/content/en/articles/news/2020/03/20200701_dlr-and-mozilla-researching-technologies-for-voice-control-of-robots.html announcing] that collaboration as part of their Openvocs project. The goal of the DLR effort is to create a compact, efficient speech recognition system that can be embedded in satellites, space station systems, and robots so they can be effectively controlled in a hands-free way by astronauts or remotely from a control room. Results of the work will be available as open source and applicable to other embedded environments. Obviously we’re excited about collaborating with DLR and the idea of our work playing a role in the future of space exploration. | |||
* '''Common Voice Dataset Release''' -- The middle of 2020 brought an important [https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/common-voice-dataset-release-mid-year-2020/62938 dataset update] from Project Common Voice. This latest release contains 7,226 hours of contributed voice data, 5,591 of which have been confirmed by our diligent contributors. Not only is Common Voice growing, it’s continuing to diversify as this release now includes voice recordings in 54 languages, 14 of which are new. Importantly, Common Voice also launched its first ever [https://voice.mozilla.org/en/datasets targeted data segment], allowing us to construct speech models for specific, narrowly-defined use cases -- in this case turned for simple commands such as “yes”/”no”, digits recognition, and “hey Firefox”, which we’ll be using with [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ Firefox Voice] and to help benchmark DeepSpeech. | |||
* '''The DNA of the Web''' -- Last week Kadir Topal, MDN Product Manager and Victoria Wang, Sr.Firefox UX Developer, appeared (virtually) on stage at Google’s [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3QPKK0JPtI&feature=youtu.be&t=50 Web.dev Live] event to talk about Mozilla’s Web Developer Needs Assessment (DNA) report. Recognizing the need for clear insights from designers and developers about what they most need from the web, we carried out a detailed global study in 2019 and published our first DNA Report, gathering insights from more than 28,000 developers in 173 countries. The results have been tremendously useful to browser vendors, tool makers, and standards bodies, and in part due to that interest we’re gearing up for a second round of research in order to publish the second annual edition of the report. In the meantime you can read the [https://insights.developer.mozilla.org/ 2019 report] on MDN. | |||
* '''Voice of the User''' -- The Experiences & Design team has completed mid year deliverables for two key projects, both focused on designing experiences & products that people love. The first, focused on older adults, so far resulted in a product concept that tackles issues of isolation by augmenting independence and removing barriers to independent living. The second, focused on minors, resulted in a product concept where early signs of unhealthy or abusive online instances are proactively flagged and addressed through AI-powered mechanisms. To ground the two concepts, the team has so far iterated ideas with over 2,000 users worldwide and numerous experts in the two user domains. Next step is to user test functional mockups to further refine concepts. | |||
== June 29th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Safari Web Extensions, WWDC and MDN''' -- Last week at their annual Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced that Safari is adopting a web-based API for browser [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/What_are_WebExtensions extensions] similar to Firefox’s WebExtensions API. Built using familiar web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, the API makes it easy for developers to write one code base that will work in Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Edge and Safari with minimal browser-specific changes. Users will have more control over their web experience because they can use their favorite extensions everywhere. Moreover, as a result of the collaboration around this announcement, Safari is now covered as part of [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Add-ons/WebExtensions/Browser_support_for_JavaScript_APIs MDN’s Browser Compatibility Data] through information officially contributed and maintained by Apple. Check out the [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/06/welcoming-safari-to-the-webextensions-community/ Hacks blog post] for more details. | |||
* '''Summer Camp''' -- [https://indieweb.org/2020/West IndieWebCamp West] took place this past weekend, the first 100% online IndieWebCamp based on Pacific Time Zone hours, and it set a new record for IndieWebCamp attendance with well over fifty people taking part in the online stream. It occupied the mid-summer calendar spot that the in-person IndieWeb Summit would have taken, and drew a wide range of creators, web developers, experienced IndieWeb practitioners, and personal website builders of all ages. <br/>'''Over 12 hours of videos''' from the keynotes, personal site intros, breakout sessions, and hackday demos along with more recap details are '''[https://indieweb.org/2020/West/Schedule#Saturday all posted on the event website]'''. It’s clear more & more people are interested both in taking control of their online presence & data, and expressing themselves with much more creativity online these days, so watch the [https://events.indieweb.org/ IndieWebCamp Events listings] for info on future sessions and come join us on the '''[https://chat.indieweb.org online chat]''' & '''[https://events.indieweb.org/tag/hwc weekly Homebrew Website Club meetups]'''! | |||
* '''Expanding the Web of Things''' -- [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/06/mozilla-webthings-gateway-kit-by-okdo/ We’re excited] about last week’s news from OKdo, highlighting a new kit [https://www.okdo.com/project/get-started-with-webthings-gateway-kit/ built around Mozilla’s WebThings Gateway] open source code base. OKdo is a UK-based global technology company focused on IoT offerings for hobbyists, educators, and entrepreneurs. Their idea is to make it easy to get a private and secure “web of things” environment up and running in either home or classroom. OKdo chose to build this kit around the Mozilla WebThings Gateway because it is open, standards based, provides strong privacy protection for user data, and has an active community of contributors, and we’ve been delighted to work with them on it. | |||
== June 22nd, 2020 == | |||
* '''Five In A Row''' -- Stack Overflow just released the results of their annual developer survey, gathering insights from nearly 65,000 developers in 186 countries. And, for the fifth year in a row, Rust was the most loved programming language. Eighty six percent of developers using Rust said they plan to continue to do so, nearly twenty percentage points ahead of the second-place finisher, TypeScript. More details are in the full [https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted published report], including developer work habits, how developers deal with “getting stuck” on a tough problem, and general insights from around the world, | |||
* '''New Insights into Web Compatibility''' -- Our [https://developer.mozilla.com/ Developer Portal], which helps developers stay up to date on all Mozilla’s resources and activities, just launched a [https://developer.mozilla.com/topics/web-compatibility/ whole new section] detailing Mozilla's contributions toward web compatibility--and why it matters. You’ll find articles about how Firefox support web compatibility, how MDN’s browser compatibility data helps developers build compatible sites, the benefits of standards, and more. | |||
* '''Publications''' -- Last week Yulia Startsev finished her three-part Twitch stream “Compiler Compiler”, providing a guided tour of how the JavaScript Specification is implemented in SpiderMonkey, the JavaScript engine in Firefox. You’ll find an overview in her [https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/06/compiler-compiler-working-on-a-javascript-engine/ Hacks blog post] along with links to the recorded stream. More episodes are planned, so stay tuned. And the prestigious Journal Machine Vision and Applications published a paper co-authored by Eren Golge in our Speech/ML team. Entitled “[https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s00138-020-01079-0?sharing_token=btObwLVrTcSX4DR_YCrWmPe4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6mjhb1ofXVLFz2OQhsq0gBmqbYcp-kldmiz958RRZpXYrfxG-WKdCc8dF105FZfk3jYDakJ1NtSCdHbro5ABXrOvW5SwPM7isP-lO0mwsrnXm6HHMEEsugbM1Iw1eGEck%3D I-ME: iterative model evolution for learning from weakly labeled images and videos]” the paper describes new and improved ways to recognize elements of the real world, in this case images and videos, even when you only have limited training data upon which to operate. | |||
== June 8th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Smart Development Hack''' -- In April the EU along with several government and corporate partners [https://ec.europa.eu/international-partnerships/news/coronavirus-eu-calls-smartdevelopmenthack_en announced] “[https://toolkit-digitalisierung.de/en/smartdevelopmenthack/ Smart Development Hack]”, a global hackathon to find and fund innovative solutions that could boost response to coronavirus. The ten winners out of over a thousand entries included “[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pr0ikab5Gqg Mbaza - an AI Based COVID-19 Chatbot]”, which will provide access to valuable COVID-19 information in plain language on any phone at any time. Mbaza is the work of [https://digitalumuganda.com/ Digital Umuganda], a startup in Rwanda that has been working with us as part of our Common Voice and Deep Speech community. Using the [https://www.newtimes.co.rw/technology/rwandan-startup-wins-over-rwf3-billion-covid-19-hackathon award funding] Digital Umuganda will be able to develop speech recognition for under-represented languages Kinyarwanda and Swahili, and contribute to the broader impact of our voice work. | |||
* '''Android Assistant exploration''' -- The Scout team at Mozilla has been exploring voice assistants for a while. We've put a lot of work into [https://voice.mozilla.org/firefox-voice/ Firefox Voice Beta], on desktop, where we recently released version 0.20, including contributions from over 60 contributors ([https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-voice github]). But some of you might be also interested to know we've been exploring options for an open-source, privacy preserving alternative Android voice assistant. [https://github.com/mozilla/firefox-voice/tree/master/android-app Firefox Voice on Android] is a technical proof of concept, and we're continuing a lot of user studies and explorations to understand the potential for this project. | |||
* '''ET Speaker Series''' -- We regularly host a series of timely and topical speakers to provide Mozillians with insights into research happening broadly in the world. You may not know that all of those talks are collected and shared as a [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnRGhgZaGeBu_vwhJmaL953ZA8c5vuQ7h playlist] on Mozilla’s YouTube channel. Most recently we were delighted to host [http://www.baeza.cl/ Ricardo Baeza-Yates] to talk about Bias on the Web. His [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brr8cZHf2ec talk] takes a data scientist’s view of bias and talks about the responsibility to address bias in science, a topic that’s always of impact but understandably getting considerable increased attention today. | |||
== June 1st, 2020 == | |||
* '''MDN News''' -- We have completed our work on a mobile UI redesign, significantly improving the user experience and performance of the mobile view, making it much cleaner and easier to use. This should help developers get the information they need even when traveling light or using a mobile device in their work. Content-wise, the new “[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Tools_and_testing/Client-side_JavaScript_frameworks Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks]” we mentioned a couple of weeks ago when it became available as a draft, is now complete and on-line. And the [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms MDN Web Forms learning module] now has a full set of assessments (for example [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Forms/Test_your_skills:_Advanced_styling Test your skills: Advanced styling]). | |||
* '''Compiler Compilers''' -- Dev Rel have teamed up with Yulia Startsev, from Mozilla’s JavaScript team, recently kicking off a three part guided tour of SpiderMonkey -- the JavaScript engine inside of Firefox. [https://developer.mozilla.com/events/compiler-compiler-yulia-startsev/ Each episode] will be broadcast live on Twitch and recorded for replay any time. The next session is this coming Friday (June 5) at '''8am''' Pacific time and '''17:00 CET'''. Come join us to learn more about Spider Monkey and also how to improve your JavaScript programming. | |||
* '''IndieWeb Summit now IndieWebCamp West''' -- Over the last few years Mozilla has helped host IndieWeb Summit, a global gathering of IndieWeb contributors and creators, and we’d planned to do so again in our Portland office this coming June. This year, instead, IndieWeb Summit is becoming IndieWebCamp West Coast, the first 100% online IndieWebCamp based on Pacific Time Zone hours. This event is now scheduled for June 27-28 2020, as the in-person 10th Annual IndieWeb Summit was scheduled for that week. All the details including how to RSVP, participate remotely, and suggest session topics, are on the [https://indieweb.org/2020/West IndieWeb site]. | |||
== May 18th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Firefox Reality v10 Release''' -- We’ll be releasing the latest version of Firefox Reality this week. This is a feature-packed update to our browser on standalone VR headsets. In addition to releasing to the HTC and Oculus app stores, we’ll also be releasing this version in cooperation with our newest partner, Pico. Firefox Reality will be the default browser on Pico’s latest generation headsets. Among the many features included in this version, this release also includes support for WebXR, the successor to the WebVR spec. This makes Firefox Reality the only standalone browser with support for both WebXR and WebVR, which helps our partners and developer community transition gracefully into developing apps for WebXR. | |||
* '''Shop MDN Merchandise''' -- Last week saw the launch of our new MDN Web Docs Store, the official source for MDN branded merchandise. Proceeds support the MDN Web Docs platform directly. First day sales were strong, across our three different online storefronts: one in [https://shop.spreadshirt.com/mdn-store North America], one in [https://shop.spreadshirt.co.uk/mdn-store-eu/ Europe], and one in [https://shop.spreadshirt.com.au/mdn-store/ Australia]. The MDN Web Docs Store is part of our partnership with Spreadshirt, which also includes our Mozilla Mixed Reality branded merchandise [https://shop.spreadshirt.com/mozillaMR/ store]. | |||
* '''New JavaScript Learning Pathway''' -- In addition to providing detailed information on the specifics of web platform APIs, MDN Web Docs also includes a wide-ranging learning area that offers introductory articles and examples to help new web developers start creating web sites. A new learning module “[Understanding client-side JavaScript frameworks https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Tools_and_testing/Client-side_JavaScript_frameworks]” is now available in draft form for testing and use. This module represents the final major part of the [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Learn/Front-end_web_developer Front-end web developer learning pathway], and we’d welcome any feedback you might have. | |||
* '''Benchmarking rav1e''' -- Our rav1e AV1 encoder has been submitted for participation in the Moscow State University [http://www.compression.ru/video/codec_comparison/hevc_2020/call_for_codecs.html annual video codec comparison]. For over fifteen years a team of researchers at MSU have performed objective performance and quality comparisons of video codecs and published their results, providing developers with detailed insights into how their implementations stack up. Last year’s comparison analyzed eighteen different codecs, with all those results published publicly. Findings from this year’s comparison will be shared starting in August, so we’ll provide more details then. | |||
== May 11th, 2020 == | |||
* '''Rust Survey 2019 Results''' -- We’re happy to report that the results of our fourth annual survey of the Rust community are out and covered in depth in a [https://blog.rust-lang.org/2020/04/17/Rust-survey-2019.html post on the Rust Blog]. The survey was available in fourteen different languages and we received 3997 responses. Looking at the results, which you can see in much greater detail in the blog post, Rust usage continues to grow and developer productivity improvements have been appreciated. The primary reason given in answer to the question “Why not use Rust?” is that “My company doesn’t use it”, which tells us, perhaps most importantly, that commercial Rust adoption is still the biggest impact opportunity area (and is why that’s so important to us). | |||
* '''AV1 for both Images and Video''' -- You’ve been hearing a lot about AV1 as a video format for streaming and mobile entertainment, but you may not know that AV1 also supports still images through AVIF (the AV1 Image File format). AVIF support just landed in Firefox 77 Nightly (behind the image.avif.enabled pref) so developers can begin using it in their [https://resources.link-u.co.jp/avif/images.html websites and content]. Two popular image editing tools, GIMP and ImageMagick, are working on adding support for AVIF so you'll soon be able to create and edit your own AVIF files. | |||
* '''Web & Machine Learning Workshop''' -- The [https://www.w3.org/2020/01/machine-learning-workshop/ W3C Web and Machine Learning Workshop], originally planned to take place in Berlin, is reforming as an on-line event and Mozilla is helping with that transition. The primary goal of the workshop is to bring together providers of machine learning toolkits and framework providers with Web platform practitioners to enrich the Open Web Platform with better foundations for machine learning. This mean a broad range of planned topics -- dedicated machine learning APIs in the browser, use of computing platforms like WebGL, WebGPU and WebAssembly, and how browser can bring better privacy, security and accessibility perspectives to bear. Attendance will be free, and we’ll keep you posted on dates and details. | |||
== May 4th, 2020 == | == May 4th, 2020 == | ||
* '''Fuzzing WebAPIs''' -- Fuzzing Firefox with WebIDL - Fuzzing, or fuzz testing, is an automated approach for testing the safety and stability of software by supplying specially crafted inputs to identify unexpected or even dangerous behavior. For the past 3 years, the Firefox fuzzing team has been developing a new fuzzer, called Domino, to help identify security vulnerabilities in the implementation of WebAPIs in Firefox. Domino has led to the identification of over 850 bugs, 116 of which have received a security rating. You can read more about Domino, and get a great introduction to fuzzing, in [[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/04/fuzzing-with-webidl/ Jason Kratzer’s post] on our Hacks blog. | * '''Fuzzing WebAPIs''' -- Fuzzing Firefox with WebIDL - Fuzzing, or fuzz testing, is an automated approach for testing the safety and stability of software by supplying specially crafted inputs to identify unexpected or even dangerous behavior. For the past 3 years, the Firefox fuzzing team has been developing a new fuzzer, called Domino, to help identify security vulnerabilities in the implementation of WebAPIs in Firefox. Domino has led to the identification of over 850 bugs, 116 of which have received a security rating. You can read more about Domino, and get a great introduction to fuzzing, in [[https://hacks.mozilla.org/2020/04/fuzzing-with-webidl/ Jason Kratzer’s post] on our Hacks blog. | ||
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* '''We’ve unveiled [http://iot.mozilla.org/ “Project Things”] our Web of Things initiative''', and our first project, an open WoT gateway, is available on [https://github.com/mozilla-iot/gateway github] for download and use on a Raspberry Pi' Give it a try! Turn your lights on and off at home with it. (We do.) | * '''We’ve unveiled [http://iot.mozilla.org/ “Project Things”] our Web of Things initiative''', and our first project, an open WoT gateway, is available on [https://github.com/mozilla-iot/gateway github] for download and use on a Raspberry Pi' Give it a try! Turn your lights on and off at home with it. (We do.) | ||
* '''We trust you’re keeping an eye on what we’re up to with Developers by following our [https://hacks.mozilla.org/ Hacks blog]''', but in case you aren’t Lin Clark published another great “Code Cartoon”, this time explaining how you can add WebAssembly to JavaScript on your web page and what’s going on under the covers when you do that. And we have posts from Andre Vrignaud and Jukka Jylänki about the latest and greatest for gaming on the Web. | * '''We trust you’re keeping an eye on what we’re up to with Developers by following our [https://hacks.mozilla.org/ Hacks blog]''', but in case you aren’t Lin Clark published another great “Code Cartoon”, this time explaining how you can add WebAssembly to JavaScript on your web page and what’s going on under the covers when you do that. And we have posts from Andre Vrignaud and Jukka Jylänki about the latest and greatest for gaming on the Web. | ||
== See Also == | |||
* [[Emerging Technologies]] | |||