Firefox/Planning/2012-09-19
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
Contents
Actions from Last Week
2 carry-overs from this week
- Matt/Cheng to collate PDF.js feedback
- Gavin to update on the state of 3rd party add on drops
Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases
Basecamp
Firefox Desktop
Release (15, 10esr)
- Blog post for extended FF18 release cycle around holidays going out in the next week
Beta (16)
- Beta 4 went to build today, will be released before the end of the week.
- We're only 3 weeks away from release day
- Add-on hotfix communicating the 10.5 EOL will be going out in the next week along with a blog post
Aurora (17)
- CTP blocklisting is expected to be uplifted this week
- Reminder: FF17 is the base for the next ESR version, with a 2 cycle overlap alongside ESR10
Nightly (18)
Firefox Mobile
Release (15)
Beta (16)
- ARMv6 feedback continues to be collected from Google Play reviews and Input, in preparation for a possible release alongside FF16
Aurora (17)
- Uplift of new, simpler updater should be in today's build
Nightly (18)
- Landed <input type="date|time"> support
- Landed new menu structure
- Great new designs for upcoming features
- Project 256MB started to find ways to reduce the amount of memory used by Fennec
Services
Firefox Sync
- Kicked off weekly meeting to drive towards the next generation of Sync, using BrowserID tech for user auth.
- We are working towards a draft plan for next Tuesday, and plan to broadcast this widely by the end of next week.
Android Snippets
- New project to increase engagement with our Android users, including inactive users
- Should have a much more comprehensive update next week
Add-on SDK
Release (1.10 -> Firefox 16, 17)
Stabilization (1.11 -> Firefox 17, 18)
Development (1.12 -> Firefox 18, 19)
- Released 1.10 yesterday!
- 1.11 is going to be a major release, including [huge enhancements to page-mod http://blog.techno-barje.fr//post/2012/09/19/1.11-page-mod-release/]
- complete re-write is underway for context-menu module, possibly for 1.12
Landing progress:
- loader: ✓
- m-c landing plan - imminent, and a Q3 goal
Identity
Apps
Feedback Summary
Desktop
New Version of Flash Landed Yesterday, we aren't sure on how/if this changes the story for Firefox.
Mobile
Release Again, everything this week has been fairly quiet in SUMO land on the Mobile Side. 15.0.1 is performing well, reviews are trending up.
Beta We have started to gather Feedback from Input for Firefox Mobile Beta, already using it to look at trends. Read the Mobile Meeting notes for more.
The largest Issue for Firefox Beta is a crash on Nexus 7 which is by far the largest crash issue on Input. Bug 792473 is tracking this.
ARMv6 information on Input is limited, but we have the following devices and issues on Input:
- LGL45C: Crashes
- LG-VM701: Slow to Load
- LGL55C: Video Playback is slow
Just as a note, Input does not have much positive feedback for Mobile Beta, that is now going to Google Play.
User Experience (design & research)
- [desktop]
- [Australis] (Zhenshuo, Blake, Stephen)
- Customization: Usability Testing Findings on Australis customization - two areas for revision: toolbar customization and left click behavior
- Next steps: iterate and add specification on design, update wiki page, prepare for implementation
- [Social API] (Boriss)
- Still working on notifications of incoming messages (now using Toast), how networks can surface some of their brand while still feeling "Firefoxy"
- Still some visual/polish glitches - you may see window flickers and slow loading in nightlies, tracking in bugs
- Working on button behavior for hover, select, click on different networks (with different icons)
- [hometab/newtab/startpage] (Boriss)
- Mocking up user experience on different devices, summary wireframes, wiki with background, goals
- coordinating kickoff with desktop, mobile, research later this week
- [stub installer] (Madhava, Stephen)
- Final wordsmithing for two error cases
- [sync/identity] (zhenshuo)
- Desktop sync flow proposal (just updating existing flow) by later this week
- See Android section for mobile-specific sync update
- [project SPF (security/privacy)] (larissa)
- WIP Usable Security Insights - draft: Starter Frameworks and Principles v3 DRAFT.pdf
- working through the final report - should have a final draft later this week
- Mixed Content: Back-end is landing this week; ready to start with some visual design this week
- [webRTC] (Boriss)
- Added permission dialog for multiple webcam/microphone access to the design spec, this week adding notifications per tab
- [misc] Web notification UI mockups here (Stephen)
- [Australis] (Zhenshuo, Blake, Stephen)
- [metro] (yuan)
- Tab overflow for thumbnail view(Updated with feedback from engineering) - v3.solutions for preview
- Supporting UI Implementations
- Throbber and progress bar bug 772304
- Last tab behaviors bug 791044
- Writing up a blog post for public preview with Brian Bondy and the same time consolidating design docs into a Q3 Update
- [android] (ibarlow)
- General
- Production contractor starting Oct. 1 \o/
- Walked through FxAndroid roadmap with Karen, mapping out UX improvements
- Design work
- bug 785994 Updates to menu – mockups http://cl.ly/image/1W3W2g22431e
- Search Enhancements – sketches http://cl.ly/image/1Q2x3J2N1X1s
- Private Browsing & Guest Mode – sketches http://cl.ly/image/1d3L033E3o1U
- Safe Browsing mockups underway, coming soon
- UI Responsiveness efforts – working list https://firefox-ux.etherpad.mozilla.org/25
- Android Sync Setup Improvements
- Sketches – http://cl.ly/image/2r3B1C2i462g
- Working with Sync team and Desktop UX to scope work
- Top Sites customization on about:home – preliminary sketching http://cl.ly/image/1F1R2J1W1d1c
- First Run & Update UX – sketches http://cl.ly/image/3c460L2v1Z30
- Future improvements to about:home – sketches http://cl.ly/image/1x0A1K0r2g2m
- General
- [other/future]
- Updated proposal on inventing creative space, with examples and resources. proposal [PDF] has been sent out to WPR team. (Yuan)
Market Insights
Desktop/Platform
Accessibility
- An independent review found that Firefox on Windows has the best overall HTML5 accessibility features among all major browsers. Firefox scored 86/100 with other browsers scoring either 18, 40, or 45.
Amazon
- Amazon has confirmed that it "tracks webpages visited by Kindle Fire users with its Silk web browser to produce suggestions based on trends."
- All the new Kindle Fires released will use Microsoft's Bing search engine
Browsers
- Paul Irish has published a good summary of recent academic research into frontend and browser development.
- Chrome for Android now includes the full multiprocess Chrome sandbox.
- Google announced that they were dropping support for Internet Explorer 8 from all their web services, as of November 15. Some analysts have interpreted this move as a "bald attempt to get them to switch browsers to Google's Chrome".
- Support for Do Not Track has landed in Chromium
Microsoft
- Microsoft posted some interesting statistics regarding the growth of malicious cross-site scripting attacks on the web, and describing how Internet Explorer's XSS Filter addresses them.
- In Europe, Maxthon has replaced the Safari browser in the Windows Browser Ballot screen.
- Microsoft has also pledged to comply with any requests made by the EU regarding the support of third-party browsers on Windows 8
- Microsoft officially confirmed that Windows 8 will launch on October 25
Opera
- Opera now requires that all addons be installed via a trusted whitelist. The default whitelist is http://addons.opera.com.
Privacy
- Roy Fielding, a lead Apache developer, has added a patch to the Apache server codebase so that it will ignore the privacy settings from Internet Explorer 10 browsers
Security
- A shortcoming in browsers including Firefox and Opera allows crooks to easily hide an entire malicious web page in a clickable link - ideal for fooling victims into handing over passwords and other sensitive info.
- The German government has asked its citizens to stop using Microsoft Internet Explorer due to a newly-found security hole.
Mobile
Summary below, full update here and in your inbox.
- New iPhone launch will maintain Apple at ~20% shipment marketshare for 2012
- Amazon continues tablet strategy with new Kindle Fire releases
- Foxconn, Samsung to build factories in Brazil, Indonesia
- Chrome accounts for 2.7% of iOS Web traffic
- First Motorola Intel-based smartphone announced for Europe and Latin America
- Android reached 500 million activations
Marketing, Press & Public Reaction
Marketing
Meeting conflict; here's an update:
- In the middle of planning release communications: Main themes for Firefox 16: Dev tools, Silent updates now here. Firefox 17 Beta: Social API
- Main focus continues to be on ADI growth and the features and projects that will help that: Stub Installer, a new batch of download optimization projects and more
Mobile
- We've reached 1 Million ADIs and 6 million active installs last week!
- Main theme for FX16 & FX17 will be Reader Mode & Accessibility
- In the Google Play Store Communication category, Firefox increased from #27 to #12 in the last 30 days (we have higher placement than all other browsers except for Chrome)
- Review Solicitation is proving to be a valuable tool: the number of issues reported at input.mozilla.org have increased 3-4x, providing a level of feedback we have never had
- Current Campaigns:
- about:home snippet is still live
- one-off email about tablets went out yesterday
- We're running twitter & fb advertisements
- Met with 5 mobile advertising agencies last week
Press
update: Currently working on materials for 10/9 release cycle.
Google Chrome Finally Jumps on the ‘Do Not Track’ Bandwagon
Google Chrome To Get 'Do Not Track
When the Privacy Button Is Already Pressed
German government tells public to stop using Internet Explorer
Questions, Comments, FYI
- Running next week's meeting (heh.)
Actions this week
- Matt/Cheng to collate PDF.js feedback
- Gavin to update on the state of 3rd party add on drops
- John J to establish Mozilla Preferred spelling of crapton[ne]
- John J to run next week's meeting