Firefox/Planning/2013-10-16

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Planning Meeting Details

  • Wednesdays - 11:00am PT, 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# 99696 (US/INTL)
  • 1-800-707-2533 (pin 369) Conf# 99696 (US)
  • Vidyo Room: ProductCoordination
  • Vidyo Guest URL
REMEMBER
These notes are read by people who weren't able to attend the meeting. Please make sure to include links and context so they can be understood.


Actions from Last Week

Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases

Firefox Desktop

Current Releases

  • All is well, outside of a new stability issue we plan to address in FF25 (see bug 925459)
  • The upcoming ESR17 version is our last! Long live ESR24. Users will be updated automatically at the end of the cycle

Beta (133)

  • In our most recent beta (released today) we fixed FF24 security regression bug 916126 – Firefox 24.0b1+ does not mark downloaded executables as coming from Internet zone
  • Looking good two weeks out. Quality is good - we're only really worried about a new networking crash, a mobile bookmark regression, and a third party DLL crasher that we plan to block for Thursday
  • Final Beta (and our RC) will go to build on Monday
  • Sign-off is next Thursday, during our channel meeting
    • WebAudio is looking good

Aurora (54)

  • Beta build off of Aurora should be commencing soon, to prevent surprises around merge day
  • Metro testing continues on Aurora, and B2G 1.2 fixes are still being landed to keep our platform in sync
  • Check out upcoming 26 features at https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/26.0a2/auroranotes/

Nightly (134)

  • Discussion of download/update sizing (and install footprint) are being discussed on dev.platform. If you've got a horse in that race, please join in.

Firefox Metro

Firefox Mobile

Current Releases

Beta (133)

Full Feature List

Aurora (54)

Full Feature List

Nightly (134)

Full Feature List

  • Landed, bug 698437 - Allow navigation with directional controller
  • Significant Favicon patch overhaul, be on the lookout for regressions
  • bug 920006- crash in libutils.so@0xf74e (Nexus 10, Android 4.3), this is still a WIP

Developer Tools

Feedback Summary

Desktop

Mobile

UX & User Research

Market Insights from the Market Strategy Team

Desktop / Platform

Famo.us

  • Famo.us claims it put together a high-performance rendering engine, a physics engine to control motion, a gesture engine for touch, mouse, keyboard, and Leap Motion, and a multiscreen engine that enables developers to parse out the app to any number of displays. [1]

Qt

  • Digia, the company that bought Qt from Nokia is moving its development resources off Qt WebKit to WebEngine which uses Blink from Google. [2].


Google

  • Google extended its Vulnerability Reward Program [3] to specific "open-source" projects, including OpenSSH, BIND, ISC DHCP, libjpeg, libjpeg-turbo, libpng, giflib, OpenSSL, zlib, commonly used components of the Linux kernel (including KVM), and Chromium and Blink. [4] In the future, Google plans to extend this program to Apache httpd, lighttpd, nginx, Sendmail, Postfix, Exim, OpenVPN, and Toolchain security improvements for GCC, binutils, and llvm.
  • European Union’s antitrust inquiry into Google’s search practices reached a tentative deal requiring Google to give higher visibility to competitors’ listings on Web search queries, allowing Google to avoid a potential fine of up to $5 billion and a finding of wrongdoing that could limit its future activities. [5]
  • Google launched Web Designer, a new visual tool to build interactive HTML5 sites and ads for desktop and mobile. The current default layouts are for DoubleClick rich media ads and AdMob mobile ads. Google calls it a “professional-quality design tool” and is in public beta available for download for Mac and Windows. [6]
  • Sony and STMicroelectronics have already taken steps towards rebranding Google TV as Android TV, although Google has not made the announcement yet. [7] The TVs already ran older Android versions. The rebrand also comes with greater flexibility as Google previously required manufacturers to include a full QUERTY keyboard as well as a variety of other hardware specs with each and every Google TV device.


Intel

  • Intel is seeking strategic partners such as Sammsung and Amazon to fund and distribute OnCue [[8]], a traditional pay TV service delivered over the Web starting 2014 [9]
  • Intel plans to expand into the global smart-grid microprocessor market following a jump in demand for energy-management technologies resulting from a boost in renewable energy output and overloading of traditional networks when production peaks. These microprocessors enable power generators and users to monitor usage, helping utilities adjust supply to consumption and reducing costs by saving energy in transmission. [10]


Microsoft

  • Microsoft has opened preorders for Windows 8.1, free for Windows 8 user and $120 for Windows 7 users. Microsoft will automatically upgrade Windows 8 machines on October 17. [11] It is
  • Microsoft has made the preview version of IE 11 for Windows 7 available to download claiming to be 30% faster than other browsers, support for more Web standards and developer tool improvements. [12]


Amazon

  • The new Kindle, the Fire HDX, is targeted at pure media consumers and enterprise users on the go. It offers screen resolution and clarity alongside enterprise-grade security and support. [13]



Mobile

  • More details on KitKat, the next Android version, have been leaked, on a device that has been called by the media the Nexus 5. It features even deeper integration with Google services, that are taking over more of the generic apps and overall experience. The Gallery seems to have been replaced by Google Photos and Google Search can now be accessed as a home screen page in addition to the upward swipe.
  • Android version distribution numbers for October put Jelly Bean at almost half of all devices (48.6%), split between version 4.1 with 36.5%, version 4.2 with 10.6% and version 4.3 with 1.5%. Ice Cream Sandwich is now on 20.6% of Androids and Gingerbread still on 28.5% of them.
  • MoboTap, the developer of the Dolphin browser partnered with local search engines in China, Japan and Russia and the US (DuckDuckGo) to have them as the default for its localized versions in the respective markets.
  • There are renewed rumors that Amazon is planning to enter the smartphone market, with 3 devices from HTC. This would pose challenges for both of the companies, as HTC risks being pushed out of the OHA consortium that produces Android, were it to ship devices that do not support the Google Play Store. For Amazon it would be harder to drive as much content sales on the smaller screen as they on tablets, due to the constraints of the environment, both physical and in terms of connectivity.
  • Apple confirmed that it will hold an event on the 22 of October. Expected to be announced are a new version of the iPad and updates to its MacBook Pro line.
  • Windows Phone was updated to add support for quad-core processor, larger displays and a set of mobile accessibility apps. The update will be deployed to handsets over the next several months. In the same time, Microsoft launched a new developer program called Windows Phone Preview for Developers, which will provide access to prerelease builds of the OP for developer phones. This provides app creators more time to port their content to the newest platform version and have it ready when it is mass deployed. Windows Phone is a minor platform, having shipped 3.3% (7.4 million) of global smartphone sales in Q2 of 2013, according to Gartner.
  • Flexible display and battery technologies are starting to become commercially available, with Samsung and LG both having released smartphones that can bend. Released in South Korea, the Samsung Round and the LG Flex curve each on a different axis. The Round model is a 5.7 inch device that bends latitudinally and is available from SK Telecom for $1014, and the Flex has a 6 inch display that can curve longitudinally.
  • The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has released its annual report on worldwide Internet usage. Numbers include 6.8 billion total mobile connections, 2.7 billion people connected to the Internet and 2.1 billion mobile broadband connections by the end of 2013. By the same time 40% of the world will be online, but 1.1 billion households or 4.4 billion people remain unconnected. Leading countries in terms of development of telecommunications services are South Korea, followed by Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Marketing, Press & Public Reaction

Product Marketing

  • First Run & Retention Study: Our test cohort has been collected and the next step is tracking their retention rates via a "funnel cake" test. This test will help us understand how the content shown on the First Run page affects retention rates. [Jen Bertsch, Web Production]
  • Search Engine Optimization: The first large batch of improvements is now live. Our first measurement to gauge how this is working is next Tuesday, Oct 22nd. The goal of these changes is to increase the amount of organic search traffic to our site (and thus, downloads) [Laura, Web Production]
  • Australis Marketing Launch: The launch strategy has been finalized across engagement and we're now in "wave" planning mode (a "wave" is a name for a large cross-engagement marketing campaign). The current projected launch date for Australis is with Firefox 27 on January 21. [Laura]
  • Consumer Value Proposition Discovery: We're in the final stages of creating the quantitative survey. This has taken longer than expected, as we're in round 4 of revisions, and our partners have been on holiday. We're aiming to finalize the survey by end of week. [Laura]
  • Desktop Campaign in Brazil: New initiative

Questions, Comments, FYI

Actions this week

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