Firefox Mobile 6 To Get Hardware Acceleration in Q2

Mozilla published the first outline of features for the upcoming versions of Firefox 6 and 7.

Firefox 4 Mobile has just been released as the technically most advanced browser for Android and Maemo, but Mozilla is advancing the mobile platform just as fast as the desktop version, which is already available as Firefox 5 preview.
Firefox 4 Mobile is based on the core Firefox 4 technology, which includes the JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine,  but hardware acceleration is missing at this point. The Mozilla roadmap currently has no information about Firefox 5 Mobile, but notes that Firefox 6 (Mobile) should enable layers acceleration using OpenGL ES on “at least a subset of Android hardware.”
We are expecting hardware acceleration to be enabled on the mobile version of IE9 as well, which means that Firefox would ensure the competitiveness of the Android platform as far as web browsers are concerned – even if we believe that Google is preparing a mobile version of Chrome for Android.
Proposed features for the desktop versions of Firefox are WebGL anti-aliasing for version 6 and (cross process) hardware accelerated layers composition on “all supported desktop platforms” in Firefox 7. Firefox 6 is due in early Q4 of this year, while Firefox 7 is targeted at mid-Q1 2012. Interestingly, the mobile version of Firefox 6 is listed under Q2 goals, which may refer to a non-final release only.

Daniel Bailey in Products on March 31

Trading Spaces: Microsoft Files Antitrust Complaint Against Google

For the first time ever, Microsoft has filed an antitrust complaint with the European Commission – in an effort to create a pathway to facilitate greater competition in the broader search market.

Google may only be estimated to hold about 60-70% search market share in North America, but it is close to 95% in Europe and Microsoft apparently sees an antitrust strategy as the only way to carve out room for its own Bing, which has grown, but remained largely behind expectations in 2010.
In a blog post, general counsel Brad Smith raises concerns that Google’s core search dominance now extends into more areas that prevents other search providers from competing. For example, Google blocks third party search engine access to YouTube, Windows Phone 7 devices can’t “properly” operate with YouTube, and monetized search boxes on websites prevent publishers from offering other search services. With all those Google boxes floating around, there’s no benefit or incentive for users to actually go to another search site. Microsoft also notes Google’s attempt to block access to book content and Google’s decision to keep data that is used by Google Adsense advertisers exclusive to Adsense. Microsoft indicates that this data should be transferrable to other advertising solutions.
In total, Smith used half a dozen examples to explain how Google “impedes” competition in the search market: “Search engines compete to index the Web as fully as possible so they can generate good search results, they compete to gain advertisers (the source of revenue in this business), and they compete to gain distribution of their search boxes through Web sites.  Consumers will not benefit from clicking to alternative sites unless all search engines have a fair opportunity to compete in each of these areas.”  Smith noted that ” Google should continue to have the freedom to innovate.” However, he states that Google is now restricting “others from innovating and offering competitive alternatives” and Europe needs to “ultimately” step in and stop Google’s behavior.

Posted by Kurt Bakke in Business on March 31 

Courtesy : www.conceivablytech.com