Meeting Notes Meetings notes from the Mozilla community

23-October-2013

Firefox/Gecko Delivery Planning: 2013-10-23

Filed under: Posts — Tags: — Jesper Kristensen @ 11:00 pm

Schedule & Progress onUpcoming Releases

  • Note: Please start using the ‘feature’ keyword on bugs that could benefit from advance notice to QA, Stability, User Advocacy, Press team and others so that those bugs show up on https://wiki.mozilla.org/Features/Release_Tracking once a target milestone is set — you can do this for any major code overhauls, or deprecation/spec changes to web properties as well

Firefox Desktop

Current Releases

  • Blocking Java by default was turned on last Friday and was disabled against this morning because of some important bank websites that didn’t work properly.
    • The minimum necessary change to the product is tracked in bug 926605

Beta (25)

  • We’re now code complete (fingers crossed). We had to spin an extra beta and respin the RC to disable OCSP stapling, which was causing intermittent Twitter/Tumblr/Soundcloud stylesheet issues
  • Sign-off is tomorrow, release is Tuesday
  • Web Audio will be a major focus of our notes/comms, and we’ll be running a special whatsnew page in Poland promoting FxOS

Aurora (26)

  • Nothing critical

Nightly (27)

  • Feature review is on Friday (use that feature keyword!), followed by a merge to Aurora on Monday

Firefox Mobile

Beta (25)

Fx25 is pretty darn amazing (4.4 stars, Just under 2.5 crashes per 100 ADU)

Aurora (26)

Nightly (27)

These will stick
Here are some notable landings, we will group into themes
    • bug 922338 – Update phishing-protection page in infoURL pref across Firefox products
    • Usability Fit and Finish: Overhaul of the favicon system bug 914296 – (FaviconRevamp) and Remove overscroll and show highlight instead bug 705246 and bug 791475 – Android updater notification should provide more information like progress
    • Progress on ANR effort: bug 909974, bug 926574
    • Progress on GeckoView: bug 927451
    • Make marketplace more discoverable in about apps:
    • Awesomescreen: bug 921265
    • Geckoview prototype for Android 2.3 => 4.2
    • IDE support
These were our initial targets but we’ll need to defer

Developer Tools

( no audible due to an appt. )

  • quiet week for outbound after the recent flurry of posts
  • App Manager grew a manifest editor! screenshot here.
  • lots of UI polish:
    • color swatches for css in the inspector
    • hiding extraneous properties in the netmonitor’s JSON view
    • the debugger layout is vertical when side-docked
    • working towards a lofty goal of switching to Codemirror instead of Orion for 27

Feedback Summary

Desktop

  • Busy week and it’s only Wednesday:
    • Java block… ooooohboy. This has been discussed to death and is now going to be reverted. Lots of bustage with logins for banks (Norway & India), no (some) pogo games, no citrix VPN. May be issues with some kind of turn on java then turn it off thing.
    • Twitter/Tumblr breakage on beta. Should be fixed now but we’re tracking.
  • We finally have an alert system set up. So you (yes you!) can get alerted when we have sudden spikes of certain words on Input. Right now, it’s a hacky proof of concept. Email Cheng if you want to be added (you’ll get lots of email right now because we have the sensitivity set very high).
    • For example, this morning you’d have found out that some users are having all their pages redirected to ww6.btosjs.info … we’re investigating.

User-Experience

Market Insights from the Market Strategy Team

Desktop / Platform

  • Research paper “What Are We Not Doing When We’re Online” offers potential areas to investigate for innovation with direct applicability to user’s lives. [1]
  • Research paper “Dusting the Web for Fingerprints” explains how advertisers evade “Do Not Track” and still track an individual across websites and even devices. [2]

Apple

  • Apple announced that iWork, a set of applications for Macs, iPads and iPhones that essentially duplicates what Microsoft’s Office offers customers, would be free to anyone who bought a new Macintosh computer or mobile device from Apple. [3]

Google

  • Google developed a tool for free expression called uProxy which consists of a simple browser extension that is capable of finding a user’s friends on Facebook and establishes a peer-to-peer encrypted internet connection with someone you trust. Currently in “restricted beta” mode, it is not an anonymizing network like Tor but will render an individual connection indistinguishable from all other encrypted conversations online. [4]

Microsoft

  • Microsoft has reportedly created prototypes for Internet-connected eyewear based on Kinect. [5]
  • Microsoft drops ‘RT’ moniker from original Surface, hides desktop mode on new RT tablets [6]

Facebook

  • Facebook is exploring “deep learning,” which will allow its machines to better understand all sorts of nuanced language and behavior that we humans take for granted, which can help its AI machines to learn to behave more like the human brain. [7]

Mobile

  • Nokia launched 2 Lumia devices, the 1520 and 1320, the first ones in the 6 inch size range. The 1520 is a 6-inch quad-core phone with a 20 MP camera that will be available for $750, primarily in the developed markets.
  • Apple launched the next version of the iPad, called the iPad Air. The new device is thinner, lighter and has more CPU speed. It will be available starting with the 1st of November in 41 countries in either Space Gray or Silver.
  • Nokia launched 3 new Asha devices: the 500, 502 and 503. They are versions of the Asha 501 and the lower – end (500) will be $69 SIM-free while the 503 is $99. The 500 has a 2.8-inch screen and a 2-megapixel camera, while both the 502 and the 503 have 3-inch screens and 5-megapixel cameras with LED flash. All three have WLAN, quad-band EDGE and boast one month of battery standby time. They’re all available with dual SIM capabilities. They will sell in Africa, APAC, Europe and the Middle East, while the 500 and the 503 will be available in Latin America as well. The value proposition is similar to the 501, but is more heavily centered on social apps and being faster to content: “One swipe to even more of what you love”, “Swipe. Snap, Share.”
  • Ars Tehnica article that explains Google’s strategy on how to drive the open source Android ecosystem.

Marketing, Press & Public Reaction

  • Brazil Desktop Campaign: We’re currently designing a campaign to coincide with the launch of Firefox OS in Brazil in order to leverage our partner’s spend in this region since Firefox will “be in the air.” Review campaign proposals this week. [Kristin, Laura & NoBox]
  • Australis Marketing Launch: The launch strategy has been finalized across engagement and we’re now in “wave” planning mode (a “wave” is a name for a large cross-engagement marketing campaign). UPDATE: The current projected launch date for Australis has moved from Firefox 27 (January 21) to Firefox 28 (March 4th). [Laura]
  • Consumer Value Proposition Discovery: Survey is in its last round of reviews and will be finalized by end of week. [Laura]
  • Indonesia Desktop Campaign: Viking from the Indonesia campaign is driving a large-scale national campaign to help increase usage levels within Indonesia within Q4. [Gen, Viking]

Questions, Comments, FYI

Planning Meeting Details

  • Wednesdays – 11:00am PT, 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
Retrieved from “https://wiki.mozilla.org/index.php?title=Firefox/Planning/2013-10-23&oldid=735550“

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