Firefox/Planning/2012-10-31

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Planning Meeting Details

• Wednesdays - 11:00am PDT, 18:00 UTC
• Mountain View Offices: Warp Core Conference Room
• Toronto Offices: Finch Conference Room
• irc.mozilla.org #planning for backchannel
• (the developer meeting takes place on Tuesdays)

Video/Teleconference Details - NEW

• 650-903-0800 or 650-215-1282 x92 Conf# 99696 (US/INTL)
• 1-800-707-2533 (pin 369) Conf# 99696 (US)
• Vidyo Room: ProductCoordination
• Vidyo Guest URL

REMEMBER

These notes are read by people who weren't able to attend the meeting. Please make sure to include links and context so they can be understood.

Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases

Firefox Desktop

Release (16, 10esr)

• 16.0.2 was released on Friday
• Waiting to hear back about the outcome of our stub installer experiment before deploying the English installer to release/beta download page
• We've successfully pushed the hotfix cert update to >90% of affected users (today's the deadline)

Beta (17)

• Reminder about the 11/20 release date
• External CTP blocklist testing for all vulnerable versions of major plugins started yesterday
• Beta 4 will be released before the end of the week

Aurora (18)

• Localized stub installer testing will begin in the next couple of weeks, targeted for being deployed for release during the 16/17 release cycles
• Reminder about the FF18b1 release date (11/26)

Firefox Mobile

Release (16)

• 16.0.2 was released on Friday

Beta (17)

• Crash fixes

Aurora (18)

• IME fixes
• Crash fixes

Nightly (19)

• Progressive tile drawing is now enabled by default bug 795259, bug 803013
  • Also turned off java screenshots with that
• Expire unused tabs bug 792143
• IME fixes
  • complete rewrite to make Android IME threadsafe is expected to land this week \o/
• Crash fixes

Misc

• Test builds on the new Razr i (Android x86) are very promising. Responsivness and performance are very good.
• DevTools did a massive amount of work and now you can use Web Console with Firefox for Android. Finkle blogged.

Firefox Metro

• Platform work moving ahead to get elm migrated to m-c
• Product and UX are working on finalizing user stories/requirements for the initial launch.
• First draft of MVP Feature list available and entered into Bugzilla, queries available at Metro Wiki Page
• Initial round of LOE estimation is finished

Services

Firefox Sync

• Firefox Account prototype up and running
• Some major bugfixes:
  • bug 806087 - massive memory usage during Sync, frequently causing OOM crashes. Resolved by backing out bug 778993
  • A number of Sync users were seeing errors while syncing. This was determined to be a combination of bug 806656 (Android Sync creating malformed records) and bug 806460 (failure to appropriately handle malformed records). Fixes have landed for Fx17 and later, and the next Beta builds will contain these fixes.

Product Announcements

• Client code is riding the trains, service is not online yet.
• bug 806024 is tracking enabling this service

Firefox Health Report client

• More patches, more reviews, charging forward on p0 data reporting pieces.

Add-on SDK

Release (1.11 -> Firefox 16, 17)

Stabilization (1.12 -> Firefox 17, 18)

Development (1.13 -> Firefox 18, 19)

• released SDK 1.11 yesterday, AMO update will be tomorrow, Builder should ge this new release later today
• Q4 goals include 2013 Roadmap and PRD's for landing and enhanced developer tools
• no audibles from me until Dec 5 due to Mozcamp & PTO, will see if Mossop can drop by.
• What's Jetpack For? blog post by Dave Townsend on the surprising truth about the Jetpack project!

User Experience (design & research)

• [Firefox Concept Week]
  • The Firefox UX/UR team had a great Concept Week last week. Lots of interesting ideas that came out of the research -- Larissa Co already wrote a great overview earlier this week: https://blog.mozilla.org/ux/2012/10/fx-concept-week/, keep an eye the Mozilla UX blog for further updates as we all plan to write about the experience.

• [User Research - Project Meta]
  • Project Meta - AKA the Firefox user segmentation project, starts next week! We will be in the field all week in Toronto, Charlotte, NC, and Los Angeles.

• [desktop]

• • [Australis] (Zhenshuo)
    • Australis customization mode and notification exploration
    • Working with SUMO team on the new Help menu in Australis, and possible firstrun/update experience.

• • [Social API] (Boriss)
    • Filing remaining polish & performance bugs now that we have a wider audience
    • Collecting feedback from beta users on user experience issues
    • Sketching v2 features

• • [newtab2/hometab] (Boriss)
    • Digitizing new mockups for next version
    • Getting plan for prototype implementation together

• [project SPF (security/privacy)] (Larissa)
  • Close out on HSTS Cert Error message (for now-- doing an entire revamp of all these messages in the future)
  • Discuss Stub Installer implications with Metrics team to try and come up with the design solution (w/ Stephen)
  • Take another crack at Mixed Content site identity messages
  • Schedule brownbag!!!

• [metro] (yuan)
  • Remote tabs UI bug 801056 [Exploration sketch - http://cl.ly/image/3O2R3S04103c]
  • Walked through all new Win8 store apps on Official Windows 8, collected ideas for designing first-run welcome page.
  • Making IxD specs for V1 release features: bookmark and snap view.

• [android] (ibarlow)
  • Polishing the Private Browsing UI -- more finalized look http://cl.ly/image/3y0J140E3P2C and http://cl.ly/image/3o3Y1z0x451S
    • bug 806927 PBM - Add menu controls
    • bug 806929 PBM - Add context menu controls
    • bug 806932 PBM - Add controls for tab button long press
    • bug 806933 PBM - Add tab menu controls
    • bug 806937 PBM - Change UI theme for private tabs
    • bug 806938 PBM - Tab tray changes
• Error page / Safe browsing UI refresh mockups: http://cl.ly/image/3G42273f3b2j

• [prototyping] (bwinton)
  • Wrote a prototype addon to change the colour of the chrome when we're on unsafe sites.
  • Exploring ways of getting newly created tabs to go into a new Tab Group.
  • Continuing work on FaaborGraffle

Market insights from the Product Marketing Strategy Team

Desktop / Platform

Google

• Google launched the Get Your Google Back campaign. This effort targets Windows 8 users, showing how to put a link to the Google search engine on the Start screen and how to make Chrome the default browser.
• The Chrome Remote Desktop tool left beta and is now generally available as Chrome extension.
• Chrome 24 will ship with Shadow DOM and MathML, and the webkit prefix for window.performance.now() has been removed.
• Google launched Free Zone, a tool to use Google Search, Gmail, and Google+ on mobile phones without incurring any operator data charges. Optimized for feature phones, it is currently being tested in the Philippines.

Microsoft

• The European Union has ruled that Microsoft need not be forced to open its Windows RT operating system to rival browsers.
• The EU, however, also sent a formal Statement of Objections to Microsoft regarding its removal of the browser ballot screen in Europe from February 2011 to July 2012. Microsoft has 30 days to respond, at which time the EU may choose to fine the company.
• Microsoft released a new operating system, Windows 8, and are spending $1.5b to promote it worldwide. The Microsoft BUILD conference is underway, and the company is offering developers $8 developer SDK accounts, $92 off the regular price

Opera

• Opera released its Q3 2012 financial results, showing revenue growth of 40% to $56m for the quarter, with EBITDA of $17m. The number of operator-installed Opera Mini browser users increased 112% to 42m

Yahoo!

• Yahoo! announced that their web properties would not honour the DNT flag sent by IE10 browsers

Mobile

Windows Surface was released:

• general consume version, enterprise-optimized version to come later
• "personal" and "about you" positioning, common with Windows Phone
• strategy shift from "personal computer to personal computing"
• use cases: domestic entertainment (HDMI, USB ports) and personal productivity (hardware keyboard, stand)
• reviews are reserved due to steep learning curve of new UX, sluggish performance and app catalogue

Windows Phone 8:

• re-written to be based on Windows NT kernel -> app portability with Windows 8
• key features: data usage management, wallet and personal organizer tools, sharing optimizations
• personal and individual-centric messaging
• main critique points: lack of upgrade path for Windows Phone 7 users and under-competitive app catalogue
• flag-ship device: Nokia Lumia 920, to be available in North America and Europe
• other OEMs: Samsung, HTC, Huawei

Google Nexus and Android 4.2:

• announced Nexus 4, 7 and 10, to be available on the 13th of November
• Android 4.2 key features: multiple user support for tablets, wireless display sharing, swipe-based keyboard input and photo-taking enhancements

Marketing, Press & Public Reaction

Mobile

• As of today, Firefox for Android has a 4.0 star rating in the Google Play Store
• Firefox's Youtube page has been revamped w/ improved design and video-viewing flow
• Current Projects
  • Releases
    • FX17 to feature ARMv6 and A11y, FX18 to feature Phishing and Malware Protection
  • ASO (App Store Optimization, similar to SEO)
    • New Description in the Google Play Store, project underway to re-design screenshots
  • Revising Android snippet messaging on about:home to improve CTR
  • Strategy work for 2013 is underway
• Recent & Planned communications:
  • October 30th: Firefox & You focused on "Halloween & Security"
  • November 3rd: Social Posts (Twitter & FB) to promote Firefox for Android

Press

Harvey blogged about Mozilla's stance on the EU browser ballot technical glitch, which garnered coverage in a number of tech blogs this morning:

• Microsoft's browser ballot screw-up cost Firefox 9M downloads
• Mozilla blames Microsoft for 9 million fewer Firefox downloads

Great CEO profile on Gary on BBC.co.uk last week:

• Friday Boss: Mozilla's Gary Kovacs

Additional coverage resulting from the Social API release on Oct. 22nd:

• Mozilla Begins Firefox Social API Testing

Neutral/straight-forward coverage resulting from Friday's 16.0.2 release:

• Firefox update fixes security flaws
• Mozilla Firefox 16.0.2 Locks Down on Location Security

Let there be cake!

• Internet Explorer and Firefox teams celebrate new versions with cake-giving tradition
• Mozilla sends Microsoft a cake for shipping IE10

Actions this week

• Sheila to check on empty-stack crash rates to see if the sync OOM fix moved the needle.