Mozilla’s Brian Bondy provides an update on the Firefox for Metro project.
It’s mostly a laundry list of setup work that has to be done before the actual project can begin. But this line jumped out at me:
Firefox on Metro will not simply be Firefox desktop copied into the Metro environment, we are embracing the framework instead of fighting it.
That’s a promising start.
It’s been roughly a month since Google was caught circumventing privacy protections in order to track user behavior on its sites.
Regulators worldwide have been busy in that time collecting data of their own.
From a report in the Wall Street Journal (paid subscribers only) this morning:
Regulators in the U.S. and European Union are investigating Google Inc. for bypassing the privacy settings of millions of users of Apple Inc.’s Safari Web browser, according to people familiar with the investigations. Google stopped the practice last month after being contacted by The Wall Street Journal.
[…]
In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission is examining whether Google’s actions violated last year’s legal settlement with the government in which Google pledged not to "misrepresent" its privacy practices to consumers, according to people familiar with the investigation.
The fine for violating the agreement is $16,000 per violation, per day. Because millions of people were affected, any fine could add up quickly, depending on how it is calculated. The FTC declined to comment.
A group of state attorneys general, including New York’s Eric Schneiderman and Connecticut’s George Jepsen, are also investigating Google’s circumvention of Safari’s privacy settings, according to people familiar with the investigation. State attorneys general can have the ability to levy fines of up to $5,000 per violation.
In Europe, the French Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés, or CNIL, has added the Safari circumvention technique to its existing pan-European investigation into Google’s privacy-policy changes, according to a person close to the investigation.
There are hundreds of millions of users of mobile Safari, which is the default browser on every iPhone and iPad. At $16,000 per user per day for a practice that has gone on for several years, the fines could be gargantuan. Expect Google to settle quickly.
This is actually brilliant:
In many ways Internet Explorer is superior to Chrome—in my experience, it depends on the relative value you place on privacy and speed, respectively. But getting the tech press or Silicon Valley crowd to take it seriously? Good luck with that.
So putting the word hate right out there is a good idea. Yes, yes, IE6 blah blah blah. A lot has happened in five years. If you don’t like Internet Explorer today, why not?
And the site positions Internet Explorer as the scrappy underdog: “Comebacks come in many shapes and sizes.”
Bonus: This is really clever and funny and not in a cringing way.
All the headlines are going to the big security fix in this month’s Patch Tuesday delivery for Windows.
I was intrigued to see four updates available that were targeted specifically at the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The package didn’t include the Critical MS12-020 fix, which Microsoft says is available via Windows Update for anyone still running the Windows 8 Developer Preview. That suggests that the vulnerability is already fixed in the Consumer Preview code.
So what’s there?
This article introduces an update that improves the accuracy of the performance tracking data that is collected for the Windows Store on a computer that is running Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The performance tracking data helps us analyze and address potential performance issues. The tracking data is more accurate with this update. However, this issue does not affect the normal function of the Windows Store.
2683474 You cannot start an application from the tile in Windows 8 Consumer Preview
You cannot start an application from the tile on a computer that is running Windows 8 Consumer Preview. This problem may occur when the following conditions are true:
- This application was previously started.
- This application then became suspended.
- The Windows shell crashed and restarted when the application became suspended.
2680826 Some apps may stop working several days after installation in Windows 8 Consumer Preview
If you install a new app from Windows Store on a computer that is running Windows 8 Consumer Preview, the app may terminate unexpectedly several days later.
2683430 Application Compatibility release for Windows 8 Consumer Preview
A Windows Application Compatibility Update is available that improves the compatibility experience in Microsoft Windows Consumer Preview. Microsoft regularly releases application compatibility updates for Windows operating systems.
When you install Windows 8 Consumer Preview and then install a ZTE Mobile Broadband device from VIVO and TeliaSonera, some of your applications may not start.
It’s encouraging to see bug fixes like this rolled out so quickly.
I just visited google.com using Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 8.
Because I was signed into my Google account, my Google profile appeared in the upper right corner, along with a notification that there was something new for me to look at. Here’s what I saw when I clicked that notification:
Update to a modern browser… Hmmm, what could they possibly mean?
By the way, if you use the F12 Developer Tools to change the user-agent string to Google Chrome, the page displays just fine. Cheap shot, Google.
In a related development, WordPress is also getting confused by Internet Explorer 10. I have an up-to-date, self-hosted installation of WordPress. When I visit the Dashboard, here’s what I see:
Thankfully, the Browse Happy website isn’t shilling for any browser maker. It’s just designed to educate people who might be a revision or three behind.
Still, WordPress, you might want to fix that.
The collective uproar over Microsoft’s decision to kill the Start menu in Windows 8 reminds me of this discussion I found in microsoft.public.win95.shellui.
It’s from May 27, 1997:
I know it’s almost 2 years since Win95 was released, but even after a
year of almost daily use I’m still trying to get used to it and I hope
someone can offer words of wisdom: I still prefer the Win3.x way of
finding and then launching programs from pretty icons in group windows
in Program Manager rather than, as we do now, with multiple layers of
pure text menus (Start | Programs | many submenus, etc.) I don’t like
the length of time it takes to wade through these submenus, and I
particularly don’t like the excessive hand/mouse activity it involves.
I especially don’t like not having a Program Manager which I can easily
Alt-Tab to in order to get to these icons.I know I can minimize my open apps to get to my desktop icons, and I
know there’s Power Toys which will allow you to access your desktop via
a text menu, and I know there are other workarounds for this issue.What I don’t understand is why the developers felt that this new way is
an advantage. Can someone please help me see this?
The responses are downright poignant.
(Tip: You could replace that hideous newfangled Windows 95 Start menu with the time-tested Windows 3.x Program Manager by setting shell=progman.exe in System.ini.)
See also: Competing visions of the future of personal computing
Google confirmed today that they plan to release a version of Chrome that supports Metro style browsing in Windows 8.
The Chrome for Metro announcement comes on the heels of Mozilla’s revelation that they’ve begun work on “a very big project” to develop Firefox for Metro.
Those are two big “gets” for Windows 8, and the availability of either browser will reassure loyal users of both programs that they can safely upgrade.
These two announcements got me to thinking, though: What are the killer apps for Metro? What apps do you need to see with full Windows 8 support before you’ll switch?
I’m thinking Adobe has several entries on the list, and iTunes isn’t there at all. (That’s the point of iCloud, isn’t it?)
Twitter and Facebook will have official Metro clients, I’m sure. Dropbox should be there, and Spotify, and (duh) Angry Birds.
What else? Please use the comments to tell me what Windows 8 apps you’re looking forward to.
Wow, my website traffic sure dropped off this morning between 2:00 and 3:00 AM. It’s almost like that hour never existed:
One nice thing about PCs and smartphones is that they usually handle Daylight Saving Time transitions correctly. If you live in the U.S. (except in Arizona or Hawaii) and have any not-so-smart clocks, you’ll need to set the time forward by one hour.
Over at ZDNet, I’ve put together a blog post that explains why some Windows 8 testers are unhappy with the Metro style Start screen. I also have some recommendations on how to customize Start to overcome some of those objections.
I explain, in detail, how to give your Start screen a complete makeover so it becomes a useful gateway to the Windows desktop. I also introduce a handful of keyboard shortcuts that will make switching between the Start screen and the desktop much easier.
The blog post is here.
For the step-by-step instructions, see The Metro hater’s guide to customizing Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
Here’s what you’ll find in that gallery:
It also includes the five Windows 8 keyboard shortcuts you must know:
Much of this material will, of course, appear in the upcoming revision of Windows 8 Head Start.
Ed Bott 