Categories
Apple Mozilla

iPod Sync Teaser II

The new iPod sync extension is so simple that besides the options GUI (which most people will never need to touch), this is the only UI a user will ever see.

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Apple Hardware Mozilla

iPod Sync Teaser

Coming Soon

iPod Detected

Yummy. Properly detecting iPod, syncing address book, and everything. Very cool.

First release will likely be Windows only, but Mac support is easy once I get things stable. I just don’t feel like debugging on two platforms at once (reformat iPod each time).

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Apple Mozilla

mozPod Status Update (0.1)

I’ve gotten several emails about this now, so it’s time for an update. I’ve been busy with many other projects, and have been slow on this for a little while. It’s almost at 0.1 (our first release). Asa’s working on some icon love, and I’ve been testing a few things. I’m hoping to have a release out soon (few more weeks). Some general notes in no particular order or relevance (make what you will of it):

  • Supporting just about every field we can possibly support on the iPod
  • Sync speed isn’t bad.
  • 0.1 may be Windows only (recommended). It will install and [attempt] on the Mac, but I haven’t tested the code. So if someone is willing to give feedback, I’d welcome it.
  • International support may be an issue. Not only aren’t we localizing yet (we will, volunteers will be called upon in a future release), but I’m not sure all character sets work just right. Will need people to check on that.
  • Linux isn’t a supported iPod platform, but if someone is willing to answer some questions, leave me a comment with a real email address (never displayed online), and I’ll ask you what I need to know to add support.
  • All iPods with Address Book capabilities will be supported. See Apple’s website if you are unsure if your model does. As I recall 1st generation iPods don’t support it.
  • I do plan on supporting Calendar once the Lightning project stabilizes a bit and materializes. I don’t think it’s worth aiming at a moving target (at least at that rate of speed). Once releases are made and we start thinking about end users actually using it (rather than dreaming), that’s when I will get on that.

Summary
0.1 will be a rather rough release, just to get an idea of what we can do, and how it can be done. It’s far from a release quality product, and only recommended for those willing to give detailed feedback for fixing bugs.

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Apple Blog Mozilla

It’s all Coming Soon

I’ve got a bunch of things in the works:

  • mozPod (iPod sync for Thunderbird), version 0.1
  • reporter tool (extension and webtool)
  • new blog design, and new toys!
  • a secret something? (more a long term thing)

So things may be a little quiet as I wrap some stuff up, and keep up with school work. All are looking pretty good at this point. So I’m rather excited. So much work being done, and so little to actually show right now. But hopefully at some point in the future things will start seeing the light of day.

So keep your eyes on this general space for a new amazing design, big announcements (some bigger than others), and a secret something to be unveiled (the secret may be under wraps for quite some time) to be unveiled on a day of the week that ends in ‘y’. And yes, that’s the only hint I’m giving.

Don’t you love it when I post stuff like this?

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Mozilla

Don’t make browsers, make extensions

There’s been a ton of speculation regarding “gbrowser”, google’s alleged browser, Netscape’s Firefox based browser, now even thoughts Yahoo might be interested. Though I wonder if that really is beneficial to anyone involved?

I’m going to make the bold statement that custom browsers are bad, making extensions are good.

There are several reasons why custom browsers are bad:

  • Casual web surfers don’t always realize “Browser X, and Browser Y are custom versions of Browser A”. They see them all as different products. It’s confusing, especially when websites block them because of their UserAgent. “I’m not using ‘Netscape’, I use ‘Mozilla'”.
  • Anyone who distributes a browser is obligated to maintenance, statistically the vast majority in a project life cycle. Especially in regard to security updates. Get them out quick. It can sometimes involve some extra work, and has minimal benefit for the distributor.
  • Self-competition becomes a factor. One thing that confuses many people about switching to linux is the simple question of “what distro?” This question, and the inability to quickly make a decision turns many people away. Windows and Mac OS have the advantage of making it very easy.
  • Over branding. Yes there is such a thing. You put a brand in someone’s face for too long, and it loses it’s significance and impact. They overlook it. How many people actually notice a McDonalds when driving around? Most don’t even see them, simply because they are more common than traffic lights. Now how many notice less popular dining establishments? Quite a few.
  • Ineffective marketing. When you share 90%+ of the code, you share features with tons of others and really have very little to market. What you do have to advertise, is somewhat insignificant. Why download a new browser for a logo? Is that even a feature? Why can’t I just bookmark your page if I like it?

The Correct Approach
I personally believe the correct approach in this arena is extensions. A great example is the brand new Yahoo Toolbar, or SpeakEasy. Why are these the right way?

  • Both leave security to the Mozilla Foundation, users can get updates as soon as they are released, they don’t have to wait for the distro’s cobranded builds to become available.
  • Users get new features as the product is updated. Don’t need to wait for the distro to update the cobranded builds.
  • Users choose branding, can uninstall it if they wish.
  • Less downloading. I change from speakeasy to yahoo, I don’t need to download a new browser, just install the extension.
  • Cross platform. It’s much less work to support Mac and Linux users when you provide an extension rather than a custom build. Get the whole audience.
  • Lower cost. It’s much less development to release an extension rather than a browser.

What do they lose?
Really nothing. You can do pretty much everything via extensions. You can create a skin, add features, overlay menus, add toolbars etc. etc. There’s quite a few possibilities.

Conclusion
Releasing your own browser, unless you really make radical changes (Camino, Galeon, K-Melon) is somewhat of an ineffective use of resources. You can accomplish the same thing, while providing better service to customers by trying to use an extension framework. Extensions by nature have less development requirements, easier to update, allow the user to have the latest browser, and give the user choice.

I personally think Yahoo and Speakeasy have done an excellent job. They accomplished their goal and really addressed the point I’m trying to make in this post. I just hope some other companies will seriously consider what they are doing, before they try and get their users to install hacked up copies of Firefox.

Extensions and Themes are the best way to customize a browser. If at all possible, try to keep within those frameworks. You’ll thank yourself later when you realize that you need little/no changes to work perfectly with Firefox 1.5 or later.

Categories
Mozilla

Extension Idea: Fun With Acronyms

Take a list of common acronyms like this, and create an extension similar to the acronym tag so that a user can put their mouse over an acronym and get the actual meaning of it.

Should work for html, and plain text emails.

Would be quite useful.

Categories
Mozilla

mozPod Status Update

I’ve promised mozPod for some time, well it’s getting close to a 0.1 release, just a few more things I want to do. Some cool things in the past few days:

  • Supports most fields, so you’ll get lots of info on your iPod. iPod doesn’t support everything Mozilla does, so we can’t get it all, but we do a great job anyway.
  • Sync isn’t complete, but it’s not bad, pretty quick for most reasonable Address Books
  • Should feature an exclusive Asa Dotzler sync icon (or so he promised). I had the option of using an unpublished Picasso, but I declined instead choosing a Dotzler.

It’s not done yet, but were starting to look usable, and that’s a good thing πŸ˜€

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Apple Mozilla

mozPod Status Update

I mentioned a little while ago that I was working on mozPod, to bring iPod sync to Mozilla products. I stopped for a while because I don’t have USB 2 on my laptop, and that makes hooking an iPod up really really bad. In fact, it’s pretty much been sitting in a box since November (yea, that’s bad). Well I ordered a USB 2 Card for my laptop the other day. It shipped, so I should get it in a few days. But it will be another few days until I get a protective case for my iPod, so I won’t be taking it with me, so I’ll only be doing a tiny bit of hacking.

Oh yea, the reporter tool has been consuming a ton of the time I devote to open source work. So as that starts to slow down a bit, mozPod gets a little more time.

Now if anyone wants to write some synchronization code, feel free to do so. πŸ˜‰

Update [12-26-2005]: It’s out, and available here.

Categories
Mozilla

Speakeasy distributing customized Firefox

Speakeasy is now offering a customized version of Firefox. One can assume it’s branded, and contains some bookmarks, and links of Speakeasy nature. Of particular interest was this quote:

Mozilla Firefox: Speakeasy Edition has been customized to work best with a Speakeasy broadband connection, taking just a few seconds to download. The simple installation process quickly imports all current browser favorites, passwords and other settings. In addition to pop-up blocking, tabbed browsing, increased privacy and security, embedded Google search and smoother file downloading to the computer desktop, the Speakeasy Edition of Firefox offers specialized options including select bookmarks and a custom look and feel.

In 2005, Speakeasy will add more features to its edition of the browser to enhance Speakeasy services for their customers including Voice-Over IP, business utility and network performance.

Categories
Mozilla

Reporter Status Update

Well, they aren’t done yet, but I thought I’d share some new reporter screenshots. As you can see quite a few refinements. Still a little rough, but I think it illustrates how simple the process is. There’s some obvious UI uglies still in there. It can take well under 30 seconds to submit a report.

Privacy Statement

Form

All done!

We automate the collection of just about all the important data, so we can make sure we get a pretty accurate rundown of what is included.

Still missing is collecting some buildconfig info. So if anyone knows why the following code doesn’t work, let me know:

function getBuildConfig() {
 
  var ioservice =
     Components.classes["@mozilla.org/network/io-service;1"].
       getService(Components.interfaces.nsIIOService);
  var channel = ioservice.newChannel("chrome://global/content/buildconfig.html",
                                     null, null);
  var stream = channel.open();
  var parser = new DOMParser();
  var buildconfig = parser.parseFromStream(stream, "UTF-8", stream.available(),
                                   "application/xhtml+xml");
  return buildconfig.documentElement.firstChild.textContent;
}
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