Massive Firefox Update Hits Refresh On Browsing

The massive overhaul -- chockablock with new menus and new features -- comes at a challenging time for the company's leaders. Mozilla has been beset with internal strife as company co-founder and longtime CTO Brendan Eich was elevated to chief executive and then resigned 11 days later, following a public outcry over his financial support for an anti-gay marriage law in California.

Among the more than 1,300 changes, the sweeping improvements in Firefox 29 for desktops introduce a new Firefox Account to simplify its cross-browser Sync feature, a customizable graphical menu, and rounded tabs that emphasize the tab you're in over the others.

"People are using the Web differently than they used to," said Johnathan Nightingale, Mozilla's vice president of Firefox, "and we need to give them a richer set of tools for customizing the way that they experience the Web."

The New Interface

The visual changes take some cues from adjustments that Google has made to Chrome and Microsoft has made to Internet Explorer, such as the triple-line menu icon that now lives on the righthand side of the browser. Gone from Windows and Linux is the orange Firefox menu button.



Two smaller changes arrived early. People who use Firefox have already been exposed to the Download Manager button on the add-on bar, and the browser navigation Forward button disappears unless there's a page to move forward to.
But other improvements are more drastic. The menu button has jumped completely from the left to the right side of the browser, and introduces a touch-friendly, icon-based, customizable menu to Firefox fans.

"Most desktops are not touch enabled, but they're moving that way. You could say it's picking up design ideas from mobile, or you could just say that it's well designed," Nightingale said.
Nightingale doesn't expect everybody to like the new look. His solution? To call up one of the browser's best-loved features: customization.

"We've always been proud of our add-on experience, but the built-in customization tools were in need of love," he said. You can now drag-and-drop to customize the menu, just as you can with other browser interface elements such as the location bar or search box.

Another important interface change has been to ensure that tabs are readable. Tabs, Nightingale said, are a "critical detail."

"Talking about tabs is talking about how people do more than one thing at the same time on the Internet," he said. Firefox has developed a reputation as a browser than can smoothly handle dozens of tabs, and so Nightingale said it was important for Mozilla to make sure that tabs remained legible even as more of them got crammed onto the tab bar.

"We decided not to shrink and shrink the tabs, which would theoretically allow you to have more of them on the screen. It makes more sense to have nice smooth animation and keep some content there to give your eye something to look for," he said.The browser relies on your mouse scroll wheel or navigation arrows at either end of the tab bar for you to access overflow tabs.

Things You Need To Know About 2014 Samsung Galaxy S5

The much anticipated Samsung flagship, the Samsung Galaxy S5 unveiled. It was announced at the 2014 Mobile World Congress that take place at Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain. Here are the things you need to know if you are considering to get this Smartphone.

Appearance
It looks like its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy S4. A little bit bigger because the handset has 5-inch super AMOLED touchscreen display with 1920 x 1080 pixel display. The Samsung Galaxy S5 constructed almost entirely out of plastic. Dustproof – it should survive the dustiest conditions – and water resistant. The back of Galaxy S5 benefits from matt design with dotted texture that helps with grip.


Performance
The processor of Samsung Galaxy S5 is listed as a 2.5GHz quad-core Qualcomm Krait at 2GB of RAM. Internal storage is standard 16/32GB. Samsung Galaxy S5 can support 128GB microSD. Android 4.4.2 KitKat comes pre-installed so you can rest easy knowing you are about as up to date as you can get in the world of Google's world-conquering mobile operating system. New features of Android 4.4.2 KitKat include the ability to launch a Google search using only your voice, faster multi-tasking, simpler interface and improvements to how your contacts are prioritized, to name a few.

Camera
The Galaxy S5 looks to takes thing a step further with the introduction of a 16MP sensor and Selective Focus, a feature which allows you to adjust the focus of a shot after the image has been taken just like you can do aboard Nokia’s new Lumia handsets and the famed Lytro camera. Samsung has also improved the auto-focus speed, too – you now only have to wait 0.3 seconds – meaning rapid capture is on the cards.

Addition
Like the iPhone 5s, the Samsung Galaxy S5 also features a fingerprint scanner. Biometrics are going to be big in 2014 and from the looks of things Apple and Samsung are, once again, going to be leading the charge. Unlike Apple’s TouchID, however, Samsung’s fingerprint scanner will be open for mobile payments (via PayPal) from the get-go, as well as providing a quick and easy way to safely and securely unlock the handset.

Prize
A price is yet to be disclosed. Expect it to be around the £600 mark if previous releases are anything to go by. The Samsung Galaxy S5 will be available 'through Samsung's retail channels' from April. Vodafone, Everything Everywhere, Phones 4u, Three and the Carphone Warehouse have all confirmed they will stock the Samsung Galaxy S5 in the UK.

Amtel Infographic about Zombie Phone Killer

Zombie phones are mobile devices that the enterprise thinks are dead, but they're actually still alive and potentially costing companies a considerable amount of money. The infographic below, created by Amtel, shows how zombie phones manifest themselves, how costly they can be to organizations, and how to put a stop to this madness with Mobile Device Management (MDM). Find out more about Amtel's MDM solution, including how it can kill zombie phones and save your enterprise money.

“Javafog” Discovered: A Java Version of Icefog Malware

Security firm Kaspersky recently reported that they discovered a new variant of Icefog Malware targeting government agencies and several high profile companies precisely an American independent oil and gas corporation.

          Icefog is a Backdoor that allows hackers to get access to basic key information about an infected system, and can allow attackers to monitor and control infected PC’s. It is also able to upload, download and install other forms of Malware for various purposes, the main reason being to steal or edit data on the computer system. 

                Kaspersky Lab Experts Costin Raiu, VitalyK and Igor Soumenkov called it “Javafog”, this malware was written in Java code and extremely tough to detect, it includes only basic functionalities such as uploading and downloading files from the infected systems. Simple, yet very effective method on stealing information.

          In September 2013, Kaspersky Lab published an extensive analysis of Icefog, they continued to monitor the operation by sinkholing domains and analyzing victim connections. During this monitoring, they discovered a type of connection, which seemed to indicate a Java version of Icefog.

          Javafog uses the same payloads as the original Icefog campaign; it installs other specific Malware on to a victim’s computer, allowing communication with Icefog C&C servers. The main difference between them is that Javafog’s coding is written in Java. Kaspersky have confirmed that evidence suggests a various major US corporations may have already been affected by Javafog. Kaspersky managed to sinkhole 27 of 72 different C&C servers.

“The Javafog malware is harder to track than its original variant. Java malware is not as popular as Windows Preinstallation Environment (PE) malware, and can be harder to spot.” Kaspersky team said.

Security firm Trusteer advised that to prevent Java exploits and malware-based infiltrations, it is important to restrict execution to only known trusted Java files.