Firefox/Planning/2012-06-27
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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# 95312 (US/INTL)
- 1-800-707-2533 (pin 369) Conf# 95312 (US)
- Vidyo Room: Warp Core
- Vidyo Guest URL
Actions from Last Week
- sheila to confirm where people can find updated/detailed product reqs for basecamp
- kev to report back status on google play access
Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases
Basecamp & Kilimanjaro
Firefox Desktop
Release (13, 10esr)
- We’ve been investigating slow FF13/13.0.1 uptake – the leading theory is that the lack of partial updates from FF12->FF13.0.1 caused the update download to be larger for many, thus slowing down uptake
- bug 768576 – Please create custom 12.0->13.0.1 partial updates to help with uptake rate. QA currently testing.
- Firefox 13.0.2 spun up over the weekend with a fix for bug 686335, to help with uptake of Flash 11.3 fixes
- We’re holding this build in our back pocket given the ineffectiveness of the latest Flash update w/r/t crashes, and the fast uptake of the latest 11.3 update
- Reminder – the next released version of Firefox desktop will be 14.0.1, in line with Firefox for Android 14.0.1
Beta (14)
- We took bug 686335 in beta 9 over the weekend – please be on the lookout for plugin-related issues in feedback/bugs
- Beta 10 will be built tomorrow for a Friday ship. The beta #s this cycle are awkward – please instead think about the final planned beta going to build 7/9 (less than 2 weeks away).
Aurora (15)
- Background updates for Aurora 15 have now been enabled
Nightly (16)
Firefox Mobile
“Best update in Android app history”
Beta (14)
- 14.0.1 is the Beta now
Aurora (15)
- Tablet UI has started to land/uplift
- Looking to start uplifting more features from Trunk
Nightly (16)
- More text selection improvements
- Landed “Request Desktop” mode
- Reading Mode is enabled
- Detailed control for Clear Private Data
- Helper Apps support landed (and bounced)
- Webapp support has improved
Mobile Web Compatibility
- Updates from YouTube and Twitter (thanks to both!) this past week. Both sites now serve good mobile content to Firefox for Android.
Services
Firefox Sync
- Native Fennec is out, along with Native Sync. \o/
- Discussions about sync format changes are underway. Ping :gps if interested.
Apps In the Cloud Server
- No deployments due to fennec launch this week.
Add-on SDK
Please Read the Wiki today!
Release (1.8 -> Firefox 13, 14)
Stabilization (1.9 -> Firefox 14, 15)
- Next release scheduled for 7 August, 2012
Development (1.10 -> Firefox 15, 16)
- Merge to Stabilization scheduled for 7 August, 2012
Identity
- Patch for backend (with sample but not final UI) of BrowserID support close to landing.
- B2G v1 to use this backend but in a restricted manner to enable marketplace sign-in and purchases:
- Phone number “email” (555…@phones.carrier.com) provisioned via radio
- Phone can use special phone email to semi-automatically sign into marketplace and billing provider
- Phone “email” is hidden, not for use on other sites (as it discloses your phone number)
- We will tie phone accounts and real email (desktop) accounts after v1 launch, but before v2. e.g., by adding the ability to SMS your phone from the desktop to confirm you own that phone number
Apps
- App Test Days this week!
- Firefox Desktop 15 (Aurora)
- Landed: Support of native installation and and chromeless launch of apps for Win and Mac OS
- Firefox Desktop 16 (Nightly)
- Fit and polish for K9o requirements. Down to 5 blockers!!! WOOT!
- Firefox Mobile 16 (Nightly) – in progress
- Features: Native Install and chromeless window launch
- Proposed marketplace bundling with Fennec is an open issue. See bug 738545
- Features landing in nightly – check them out!
- Apps in the Cloud
- AITC client for desktop landed for FF15
- AITC client for mobile aimed to start for FF16
Feedback Summary
Desktop
Flash issues continue to represent 1/3 or more of our negative sentiment on Input and 15 or our top 20 SUMO issues. The issue is compounded by the fact that users are trying to turn the RealPlayer Record plugin back on thinking that the issue has been fixed or the blocklist did not work for them in the first place. We found a suggested replacement and are putting that into our documentation today. Flash 11.3 feedback is generally poor.
- Facebook photo/video uploads use the flash uploader — this is broken in 11.3
- SPDY Gmail/Twitter: I was able to find a user willing to work 1 on 1. Information sent to Patrick.
- Possible Hotmail/ESPN campaign: Bug filed[1] We are getting quite a few reports from users that their hotmail pages are being redirected to espn go after a few seconds. It may be a marketing campaign. Users report that it doesn’t happen in Safari or IE though. [2] [3] [4]
- Strange Google Characters: Bug filed [5] Google sites show symbols instead of text. Was mentioned for Twitter as well. SPDY related? Reset Firefox seemed to work. [6][7][8][9]
Beta:
Flash/youtube not working still increasing on a regular basis on the beta channel. Link. Looks like new version of flash hasn’t really improved the situation much.
Mobile
Feedback on release is super positive (4.1 stars overall for v14 as of midnight–more than 2,000 5-star reviews in the first 24 hours!!), some notable quotes:
Better than Opera
Now in version 14.0, the competition goes to Firefox outright. The performance is outstanding – it loads quickly and the framerate is better than the stock browser and Opera Mobile. The user interface is intuitive and a pleasure to use.
Best android browser This has overtaken Opera as the best browser. Once you install the phony add on it is perfect. The flash support works better than Opera and the stock browser. Overall perfect cant fault it. Well done Mozilla!
Better than Chrome and Stock and Dolphin
Smoking fast Wow! Well worth the wait. So much faster than the stock browser and sync gives me all my bookmarks and history.
Simply the best! Amazing update!!! The best browser for Android at the moment. Starts instantly! Very fast. Supports Flash (suck it Chrome). Easy to use. Made it my browser, deleted all other. Keep up good work, Mozilla!!!
Chrome dumped I just updated Firefox and this is so fast I can’t keep up with it and I’m loving it. I just dumped my chrome in favor of this well polished product.
Wow!!! This is the best android app update ever. Smoother than butter scrolling, super fast launch, great UI. Bye Google Chrome , you have been replaced!
Excellent! It’s incredible fast! Love it! Switching from chrome to firefox now 😉
Great Works much better than chrome, dolphin or stock browser. So far….
Wow!! I just uninstalled Dolphin on my Evo 4G. I’ve tried FF a few times only to be left with disappointment. Not this time, I decided to try it again after reading about it on Wired/Webmonkey and it is FAST! and *apple* smooth. Thank you!!
Better than Safari
Awsom Have been using Firefox for years and just recently switched from iOS to Android, and amazed by the fact that I can continue using Firefox as my primary browser. Love it!!!! Poor iOS users don’t know what they’re missing.
Makes me think I should go back to Firefox on my Desktop
Such a massive update!!! Work great!!! this update take me back to firefox on desktop
Very impressed and glad they listened to the feedback. Thanks mozilla and fellow users.
Incredible The new firefox is super fast, feature rich, beautiful and just awesome. I have finally found a browser that I will consistently use.
Great experience Since the 14.0 Firefox has improved so much.. I was struggling b/w Chrome Beta and Firefox Beta.. and I guess Firefox will be my primary choice specially due to startup time improvement. I use Firefox on desktop, so this make perfect combination 🙂
Issue:
Main issue, representing the largest percentage of low reviews in first 24hrs is lack of tablet support/tablet blockage (fix is in-progress; planned for v15)
UX & User Research
UX Design
- [metro] (Yuan)
- Overall design draft document!
- more detail on the snap view
- related – Yuan and Mozilla UX interns Chris and Brian participated in a Microsoft Win8 Hackathon and won first prize — details to come
- [Desktop]
- [Australis]
- sketching through variations on the customization panel and mocking up some improved affordances example 1, example 2 (Zhenshuo)
- Australis customization overall thinking in this etherpad
- Continuing to support tab-bar and toolbar implementation with assets, guidance (Shorlander)
- [home/new tab] iterating on touch versions of home/new tab and customization in its next version, explorations being added here (Boriss)
- [Australis]
- [Android] (Ian)
- Did you hear? We shipped Firefox on Android. Some good analysis of the UI decisions in the Ars Technica review
- Final revisions/refinements on what we’d like to see in Fx15/16 (phone and tablet)
- e.g. – menu refinement
- and tab drawer refinement
- polishing the ongoing text selection feature work
- starting to design private browsing
- Testing nightly on a selection of ARMv6 phones – first reaction: we run really surprisingly well; much better than the default browser already
- Digging into some engagement/marketing feature requirements (Madhava, Ian)
- [B2G Firefox] (Larissa)
- [Social API] Supporting implementation with assets, guidance (Boriss)
Market Insights
Desktop / Platform
Mobile
Summary below, full update here and in your inbox.
- New Android version, 4.1, and new device(s) rumoured for Google I/O
- Android dominates the Chinese smartphone market with 55%, iOS at 12%
- ZTE looking to expand to high-end range and Western markets
- Microsoft showed the Windows Phone 8 platform, its next proposition for smartphones
- Amazon app stores to open to Western European countries
- Mobile payments main factor for growth of NFC applications
Marketing, Press & Public Reaction
Marketing
- Focus is on achieving 2012 ADI growth goal, and the Firefox features, and engagement campaigns that will get us there
Press
- Firefox for Android gets a major update, may be the best mobile browser yet (hands-on)
- Hands-on: Firefox for Android may become your favorite mobile browser
- Firefox for Android: All-New and Much, Much Better
- Firefox for Android loses beta tag, speeds up mobile web
- Firefox For Android Reborn
- VIDEO: Firefox for Android changes course, goes native
Questions, Comments, FYI
- Who knows about Metro l10n-wise? How would we ship what?
Actions this week
- sheila to confirm where people can find updated/detailed product reqs for basecamp once they exist
- axel to update us on l10n for metro