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Meet Firefox For Mobile [Video + Feature Highlights + More Info]

Artem Russakovskii — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:47:21 +0000

When I visited Mozilla's offices about 6 months ago, I saw a mobile testing station which included about 20-30 different phones lounging around, with their chargers plugged in. I knew something serious was coming soon. There were rumors about Firefox for Mobile for a while but nothing to really show for it. That was then…

Today, however, we know a lot more. Firefox for Mobile, codenamed Fennec, is coming next month (see More Info below) and looks very promising.

Here is a recent video of the Firefox's mobile and design teams discussing and showing the features of Mobile Firefox:

Feature Highlights

For the busy folks, here are the highlights from the video:

Mobile Firefox uses as much screen real estate as possible to show the page
swipe screen left to see the open tab list
swipe right to see navigation buttons
awesome bar knows what you're looking for as you start typing, just like in your desktop Firefox
sync using Mozilla Weave – seamless sync desktop and mobile, including history and open tabs
location based browsing – allows sharing your location with websites automatically (obviously, with your approval only – excellent!)
security and privacy are the #1 priority
mobile add-ons – they're trying to create the same development platform that the desktop Firefox already uses. Yup, that means AdBlock is coming.
HTML 5 support

And some more from Mozilla and GigaOM's interview with Mozilla CEO John Lilly:

support for Javascript, CSS, Flash, SVG, video, and audio
based on Firefox 3.6 engine which is not even available for desktops yet
Firefox for Mobile will initially support Windows Mobile and Maemo, followed by Android and Symbian

surely, iPhone owners are out of luck as Apple will never allow a competing browser app on their market. Great – another reason to switch to Android
Blackberry users are also out of luck as BB uses Java
Android also uses Java and initially Mozilla ignored it. However, later the Android NDK came out, which allows building of applications in C/C++ and this fact changed everything

the first public releases should be available in December 2009, according to this article.

Some useful linkage:

Mozilla's own Mobile wiki page
Mobile features
Supported platforms (looks slightly out of date)
GigaOM: On Mobile Phones, Firefox’s Big Bet Is Nokia & Android
Firefox Headed to Android Phones

Conclusion

Firefox for Mobile is going to be a serious contender in the mobile web space – we know how serious these guys can get, don't we? After all, they've turned a barely known browser into a #2 in the last few years (soon to be #1, right?). Surely, they can do it again, this time in mobile.

I will be trying out Mobile Firefox (for Android) as soon as I get my hands on it, so expect a detailed review then. I have little doubt that it will replace my plain mobile browser.

What do you guys think?

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Have You Pre-Ordered Starcraft 2 Yet? No? Here’s What You Need To Know

Artem Russakovskii — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:18:58 +0000

I could not be more excited about the upcoming Starcraft 2. Announced in 2008, a whopping 10 years after the first Starcraft release, the news sent shockwaves through millions of Starcraft fans, myself included.

I’ve been watching and anxiously awaiting the release and, while the final release date is unknown at this point (I'll update the post when it is announced), I’ve assembled a list of current Starcraft 2 facts, summarized as bullet points.

But before I get into that, here’s the most important part you need to know to be able to get your hands on the game right after it’s released and play online ($49):

There will be 3 separate Starcraft 2 games (take a guess why 3 and not 5 or 2).
You will be able to play as any race online via battle.net using any of the 3 games in the trilogy. Good, I was wondering about that. Now that I think about it, being able to play only as Terran for months would be kind of weird.
The 1st game will center around Terrans and will contain a Terran campaign. It will be called Wings Of Liberty.
The 2nd game will center around the Zerg race. It will be called Heart Of The Swarm.
The 3rd and final game will center around the Protoss race. It will be called Legacy Of The Void.
(Those are some f***ing well named games. The best thing I could come up with was “Starcraft 2: The End Of Korean Economy”)
Each campaign will have 26-30 missions, rather than 8-10. This is done with the sole purpose of getting me fired for not coming to work for 3 weeks.
Again, the final release date is unknown at this point but there are rumors of an upcoming beta. You have to be a God level human to get your hands on it, so I don’t qualify [yet].
Some units are new, some are removed, and most of the others have modified abilities and stats.
Development of SC 2 was announced on May 19, 2007 under the codename Medusa but was originally started in 2003.
There are plans to include VOIP (in-game voice chat) into the game. Oh noes, did we not figure out how bad of an idea it is yet? Ever tried playing Counterstrike without turning off voice for 2 minutes? I dare you.

So, who else is psyched?

While we are all forced to twiddle our thumbs waiting for the release, the least I can do is provide these carefully picked HD videos to ease your misery:

[HD] StarCraft II Terrans: Wings of Liberty PC Games Gameplay – Battle Report #1 – Terran vs. Protoss

[HD] StarCraft 2 Gameplay – BlizzCon 2008

[HD] The Now Classic Huge Gameplay Demo From 2007

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Halloween 08 Light Show

Artem Russakovskii — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:18:09 +0000

This is insane. Probably the best Halloween light show I've ever seen. Best part starts around 0:50. 3:53 is great too.

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Hug A Developer Day

Artem Russakovskii — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 06:59:58 +0000

Man, this video hits too close to home. Developers all over the world are in pain, so go ahead – hug one right now! Dedicated to all developers at blinkx, MySQL, and beyond.

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Matt Dancing 2008 – Stunning [VIDEO]

Artem Russakovskii — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 23:50:16 +0000

Hey, it's Matt again from www.wherethehellismatt.com and his 2008 video is absolutely stunning. In short, Matt goes around the world and performs a little dance, purposely bad. The scenes from his videos were already amazing enough but this one absolutely tops them all. This my most favorite video in a long while.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo. Be careful, you may turn all teary-eyed for a minute, even if you're a guy – yeah.

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