Mozilla Labs has announced the availability of Weave 0.2, the third major release of its experimental Firefox synchronization add-on. This version brings a broader feature set, improved reliability, and streamlined notification support. Although it is still in the early testing stage, Weave is already effective and easy to use.

Despite its early stage of development, Weave shows a lot of promise. When I discussed future plans for the service with Mozilla Labs manager Chris Beard in March, he informed me that the eventual goal is to transform Weave into an entire…

The launch of the open source Firefox 3 web browser has set the new Guinness World Record for the largest number of software downloads in 24 hours. Mozilla’s mirrors served 8,002,530 complete, individual downloads during the download day event following the official release of Firefox 3 last month.

The download day grassroots marketing campaign was orchestrated by Mozilla's global marketing team. When the idea was first announced to the public in May, Mozilla encouraged enthusiasts to pledge in advance. Over 1.7 million users from…

KDE 4.1 beta 2 brings Plasma more polish and reliability. Ars tests the new KDE beta and looks at some of the usability improvements.

Although the panel configuration system is in very good shape, there are still some noticeable rendering issues that emerge in certain corner cases. For instance, when a panel is against the top edge of the screen but sized so that it…

OpenMoko has announced new distribution deals with hardware vendors. The agreements will make the Linux-based Freerunner mobile phone available to consumers in Europe and India.

Although the current version of the software shipped on the phone still has some rough edges and is primarily intended for developers, OpenMoko will provide updates via its web site and intends to gradually approach the point where the product is…

The government of California wants more ISPs to follow the lead of Verizon, which, at the behest of the New York Attorney general, blocked the entire usenet alt.* hierarchy in order to reduce propagation of child porn.

AT&T doesn't seem interested in adopting this draconian solution, however, and says that it is already actively blocking child pornography on usenet in conformance with its legal obligations. "AT&T has…

The official release of Firefox 3 has received widespread attention from the press and has gained a few unexpected allies, including television show host Stephen Colbert. In an episode of the Colbert Report that was aired on the same day as the Firefox 3 release, Colbert interviewed open Internet advocate Jonathan Zittrain, who encouraged Colbert t

During the segment, which can be viewed at the Comedy Central web site, Zittrain discusses the threat of malware and explains to Colbert that all it takes to compromise the security of a computer is to “visit the wrong web site, with the…

Mozilla’s Firefox 3 release event yesterday was an epic success. The servers logged over 8 million downloads during the 24-hour download day, and Mozilla has declared victory after exceeding its initial goal of 5 million downloads.

A big part of Firefox's success is its spirited grassroots marketing efforts. I discussed this with Mozilla evangelist Asa Dotzler, whose team was instrumental in organizing download day. Mozilla's strategy of inclusiveness and…

In honor of today’s Firefox 3 release, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team gave a cake to Mozilla. The tasty treat, which prominently displays IE’s blue “e” icon, just arrived here at Mozilla headquarters in Mountain View.

Portal jokes aside, the cake is a very friendly gesture of goodwill. As we have noted recently, the Internet Explorer team could learn a lot from Mozilla. Closer cooperation between Microsoft and Mozilla on standards and web innovation would be a…

The download counter here at Mozilla headquarters shows that Firefox 3 has passed a million downloads. Ars reports live from the official release party.

The Firefox team is in full celebration mode here at Mozilla headquarters. People are watching the numbers and excitedly discussing plans for Firefox 3.1, the next update. I met up with Mozilla user experience designer Alex Faaborg, who shared…

Mozilla is preparing for the official release of Firefox 3, which will land on June 17. Ars looks at add-on compatibility and some early plans for Firefox 3.1.

Many readers have asked about the status of Firefox 3 add-on compatibility and some have indicated that they won't be ready to upgrade until their favorite add-ons are supported. Mozilla Product Manager Alex Polvi has written a…

The Performing Rights Society (PRS), which collects royalties for musicians in the UK, has accused Lancashire police of committing copyright infringement by playing music in police stations and to callers on hold without an appropriate license.

The PRS contends that playing music that is audible to others constitutes a public performance, meaning that it can't be done without a license. The Lancashire police stations play music in the background, at office parties, and in staff…

Time Warner Cable will begin imposing bandwidth caps on consumers in Beaumont, Texas this week as part of a trial program. Consumers who exceed the bandwidth caps will pay $1 for every additional gigabyte consumed.

The caps differ depending on the tier of service paid for by the consumer. The lowest level of service is a 768Kbps connection with a 5GB cap for $29.95 per month. The high-end package will offer 15MBps with a 40GB cap for $54.90 per month….

India, Brazil, and South Africa have challenged ISO’s approval of Microsoft’s OOXML document format. The national standards bodies of those countries have filed for an appeal, citing insufficient review time and procedural irregularities.

"Since only 67 of the 1,027 responses by ECMA were discussed, the processes used to 'approve' the remaining responses by voting were questionable and did nothing to promote concensus, but simply 'approved'…

Support for a tabbed user interface in the Nautilus file manager is a feature frequently requested by users of the GNOME desktop environment. It’s finally here and you can try it yourself.

Christian Neumair finally started working on adding tabs earlier this year. The feature is now almost completely implemented and needs only a little bit more polish and testing before it is ready for widespread use. The work is being done in the…