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Mozilla wants to help you make your own AI, but without the cloud
With Llamafile, you can turn an LLM into a single executable file
As AI continues to evolve, more people are finding uses for large language models (LLMs), which can help with everything from text to image generation. However, not everyone has started leveraging AI in their daily lives. In some cases, AI and LLMs are still viewed as intimidating. Now, Mozilla wants to help knock down some of the barriers surrounding AI.
Mozilla gets serious about migrating Pocket users to Firefox accounts
You can still sign in to Pocket via your Google login or Apple ID
Mozilla attempted to build a better news aggregator than the leading Apple News alternatives in Pocket, a read-it-later app it acquired in 2017. The app, which started as a Firefox extension before evolving into a standalone offline reading app, has since received regular updates, the most recent of which was the ability to add articles to your lists on the web. In keeping with Mozilla's commitment to privacy and security, the company has now given Pocket users an ultimatum to migrate to Firefox accounts.
Mozilla: Google Play Store's fancy data safety labels are essentially worthless
Mozilla study reveals that there are often big discrepancies between Google’s labels and apps’ actual privacy policies
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Last year, Google made a big change to the Play Store, forcing all app developers to add data safety labels to their Play Store listings. This is supposed to help users understand which private data is accessed by the app and which of it, if any, is shared with third parties. Like with Apple’s Privacy Nutrition Labels, the goal is to make the most important bits of an app’s privacy policy easily understandable at a glance. A new study from Mozilla reveals that many top apps in the Play Store had at least some discrepancies between their privacy policies and the Play Store labels.
Firefox for Android is finally getting more extensions
Three new extensions join the short list of officially supported Firefox add-ons
Like many of the best web browsers, Firefox has been adding new features in response to user requests for greater online privacy. This includes a free tool called Firefox Relay, which lets you use email aliases to hide your identity while signing up for various marketing campaigns. After being exclusive to Firefox, the service was made available as an extension in Google Chrome last year, along with a few enhancements such as the ability to block some or all promotional emails. These capabilities are now being expanded to Firefox on Android, which has received additional extensions for the first time since 2020.
The vast majority of us use Google's Chrome browser, but it's not like we're short on alternatives. There are plenty of third-party browsers out in the wild, and one of the best browsers for Android is a historical rival of Chrome, Mozilla Firefox. The browser is far from its days of market domination, but it's still a very solid option in its own right and one of the few browsers out there that's not based on Chromium. Version 108 is now available for Android smartphones, and it comes with a series of improvements and additions to make your browsing experience better.
Mozilla's new privacy subscription combines VPN and email relay into one package
The Firefox company is combining its Mozilla VPN and Firefox Relay in a single subscription
Mozilla can’t make much revenue with its great free and open-source browser Firefox outside its partnership with Google, so the company is looking for other ways to make sure it can comfortably stay afloat. One way to do that is the company’s subscription services, like email-alias service Firefox Relay or Mozilla VPN. To combine these two products in one package, Mozilla has announced a new annual subscription that gives you access to both Firefox Relay and Mozilla VPN.
From phone calls, to emails, to text messages, as soon as we invent a new way to communicate, someone's going to start spamming people on it. Mozilla has a service called Firefox Relay that was designed to help keep spammers at bay, letting you protect your contact info through the use of email aliases. That system is now widening its scope to phone numbers, hoping to help similarly save you from spam SMS and annoying robocallers.
Thunderbird is taking over a beloved open-source email app to transform it into its own mobile client
Thunderbird forays into smartphones by taking over a beloved open-source app
Thunderbird is an email client that's older than most TikTok users and it has definitely seen brighter days. The client itself still looks straight out of 2003. So when its development team announced that the client was going to make its way to smartphones, we were intrigued to say the least. Could this be the boost Thunderbird needs to go back to its golden era? Thunderbird has just unveiled what it's planning to do as part of its grand entrance into smartphones. It involves the K-9 Mail app and it's excellent news for open-source as well as productivity enthusiasts.
Mozilla's Thunderbird is going mobile, ten years too late
Plans have been drawn to give this forgotten email client a place on your phone
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It's easy to forget about all the dedicated email clients out there — most people will just tap on the Gmail app or pull Outlook up on their browser. But among the ones that do get talked about, Mozilla's 20-year-old Thunderbird is rarely on top of anyone's list these days. With just 0.08% market share, it's at risk of becoming well and truly forgotten. Nevertheless (or, perhaps, because of this failure), the company is looking to give it a revival — part of those plans include having a mobile app.
Mozilla is finally adding AV1 support to Firefox a full two years after Chrome and Edge
Better late than never?
If you have Chrome or Edge on a Windows 10 machine with an updated software package and great graphics support, you can probably run the AV1 video codec. As far back as 2020, Google and Microsoft were officially supporting hardware acceleration in their flagship browsers, but the Mozilla Foundation didn't make including AV1 video support in Firefox a priority because it requires PCs with up-to-date, more powerful hardware. According to Mozilla, that was just a small percentage of PCs.
Can Firefox replace Google Chrome on your Android phone?
Firefox has come a long way since last year's redesign
Mozilla Firefox might be a beloved desktop browser, but on Android, its market share looks like nothing but a rounding error. That might be one of many reasons why Mozilla decided to rewrite its mobile browser from scratch with a new rendering engine, a revamped interface, better performance, and more privacy features. Now that Mozilla has had one and a half years to fine-tune the product, I decided to give this new Firefox a thorough test on my Android phone to see how it compares against the standard most people stick with, Google Chrome.
Firefox Lockwise, Mozilla's dedicated password manager app, is shutting down in December
After Mozilla added autofill support to its browser last month
Mozilla introduced Firefox Lockwise to Android way back in 2019. As a password manager, it made it easy to bring your saved account information to any app on your phone without relying on your browser. With a recent update to Firefox transforming it into an autofill service, Lockwise is no longer needed, and a shutdown date is now planned for next month.
Firefox 94 for Android comes with a sleek new homepage and tab switcher improvements (APK Download)
Helping you stay on top of things
Firefox 94 has just been released to the stable channel after its usual weeks-long beta phase. Following the big redesign back in May 2021 (which was much more pronounced on desktop than on mobile), Mozilla is back at it with smaller design and usability changes in this release. There's a redone new tab page/homepage that makes it easier to jump back into your browsing sessions, and old, long-ignored tabs will get out of the way by default.
Firefox for Android's new tab page is now even more customizable than Chrome (APK Download)
Firefox 94 Beta is rolling out now
Mozilla has released the first Firefox 94 beta for Android, and it’s packed with interesting additions. While Firefox 93 focused on security and added a proper system-wide password manager, Firefox 94 is concerned with improving the user experience. There’s a new homepage shortcut in the address bar and big changes to the new tab page (or homepage, as Mozilla calls it).
Firefox Focus 93 comes with new interface, icon, and features inspired by the real Firefox
Focusing on design this month
While the majority is probably familiar with Firefox for Android, fewer people likely know Firefox Focus, the smaller and even more privacy-focused sibling of the full browser. You can basically consider it an auto-incognito browser that blocks trackers and discards browsing history after some time, so it's ideal when you just want to look up something real quick, without bothering with a full tabbed browser experience. And today, Mozilla has shared that the Focus browser is in for a huge update with a new UI and icon as well as tons of features from regular Firefox.
Firefox 93 for Android wants to become your new password manager (APK Download)
The latest browser version can act as an autofill service across all of Android
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The last few Firefox releases haven't exactly been exciting on Android, but that's changing with version 93 — if you use Firefox as your password manager, that is. The new release can serve as your password autofill service across all of your apps on Android, much like Mozilla's own Lockwise app (or any other competing password manager, for that matter).
Firefox 92 launches with support for your 2FA USB security key (APK Download)
The update is now rolling out on the Play Store
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Ever since the redesigned Firefox for Android landed back in 2020, development has stalled a little. Mozilla has only added a few new features to the browser since, like improved tracking protection, a small interface lift, and improvements to HTTPS connections. Unfortunately, Firefox 92 doesn't change much about that. The latest version of Firefox is now rolling out to the Play Store, and it only brings a handful of features to the table.
Get Firefox 91 five days ahead of the official release date (APK Download)
It's already available for download
Mozilla has already published the first stable Firefox 91 version, a full five days ahead of the official release date. It comes with a few select changes, but we're still left eagerly awaiting some hotly anticipated features that were long promised. For what it's worth, you can download it right now over at APK Mirror.
Chrome will nag you to stop visiting sites without HTTPS
Full-page warnings incoming for HTTP websites in Chrome 94
We may not like everything Google plans for its browser and the open web (FLOC, Manifest v3, and Chromium's dominance come to mind), but there's one thing everyone can agree on: Staying secure on the web is always important. Google and other browser makers have long been pushing webhosters and website owners to use the encrypted, more secure HTTPS standard over HTTP, and they've already managed to win more than 90% of regularly visited websites over. To get hold of the rest, Google wants to make HTTP sites an even less appealing place to visit starting in Chrome 94, slated to arrive in September.
Firefox 90 introduces new tracking blocker to fix broken site logins (APK Download)
No more broken Facebook logins in Firefox
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As always, Mozilla started rolling out Firefox 90 for Android ahead of the official release on July 13, and we've already spotted quite a few changes on our own. But now the company's official changelog is up, filled with some more details on what's new in Firefox 90. Let's dive in.