Kelly's Tech Nexus

Last week, Google announced it would soon be ending support for older versions of popular browsers, with IE6 topping the list. This is a good thing, because these older browsers are riddled with security holes and IE6 in particular is despised by web developers for not following established web standards. This is sure to cause problems and hard decisions to be made by those organizations who use Google products and rely on IE6 for their browser; even though IE6 is antiquated by web standards, it is often still used due to incompatibility with existing web applications within an organization. Soon they will either have to fix these web apps to work with newer browsers or discontinue using Google Gmail, Google Docs, Calendar, etc.

From the article:

We plan to begin phasing out support of these older browsers on the Google Docs suite and the Google Sites editor on March 1, 2010. After that point, certain functionality within these applications may have higher latency and may not work correctly in these older browsers. Later in 2010, we will start to phase out support for these browsers for Google Mail and Google Calendar. Google Apps will continue to support Internet Explorer 7.0 and above, Firefox 3.0 and above, Google Chrome 4.0 and above, and Safari 3.0 and above.

via IE6 users to be evicted from Gmail, Google Calendar.

I’ve tested this out and it does seem to load pages faster and use a little less RAM than its predecessor. As far as I know all of my plugins work with this new version. To download it, either go to http://www getfirefox.com or in Firefox go to Help >> Check for Updates.

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Following five betas, two release candidates and a number of delays, the Mozilla developers have officially announced the availability of version 3.6 of their open source Firefox web browser, code-named Namoroka. The latest major release is based on version 1.9.2 of Mozilla’s Gecko web rendering platform and includes several improvements and a number of new features.

Firefox 3.6 features built-in support for Personas – lightweight “skins” that change the look of Firefox by changing the header and footer areas, and a new alert system that will warn users when their plug-ins, such as Adobe Flash, are out of date. Scripts can now be run asynchronously to speed up page load times and the browser can detect the orientation of devices, such as MacBooks, using the device’s built-in sensor. Other notable changes include support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies like the HTML5 File API, improved JavaScript performance – a 20% improvement over Firefox 3.5 – and the ability to display native video in full screen.

via Mozilla officially releases Firefox 3.6 – The H Open Source: News and Features.

Firefox 3.5.7 fixes the following issues:

* Fixed a common stability issue.

* Fixed a problem with how updates were being presented to users.

Please see the complete list of changes in this version. You may also be interested in the Firefox 3.5.6 release notes for a list of changes in the previous version.

via Mozilla Firefox 3.5.7 Release Notes.

The Mozilla Foundation has released version 3.0 of their popular Thunderbird e-mail client. Disgruntled Outlook users may want to take a look at this. Download available here.

Here are some of the new features (from the release announcement):

New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools

• New Search with Advanced Filtering Tools: Search results now include advanced filtering tools. You have the option to filter your results by sender, tag, attachments, people, folder, and mailing list. You can also filter your email using the timeline tool.
• New Global Search Field with Autocomplete: When typing in the Global Search field, Thunderbird autocompletes against your address book. You have the option of searching everywhere or filtering against different parts of the email such as by subject or by sender.

User Experience Improvements

• New Mail Account Setup Wizard: The new Mail Account Setup Wizard matches against a database of email settings from popular mail providers so that you will only need to provide your name, email, and password to set up new mail accounts.
• Redesigned Mail Toolbar: The Mail Toolbar is redesigned to include the new Global Search bar. Buttons such as reply, forward, delete, junk are part of each email message. You can add those buttons back to the main toolbar by customizing the toolbar.
• Tabbed Email Messages: Double-clicking or hitting enter on a mail message will now open that message in a New Tab window. Middle-clicking on messages or folders will open them in a Tab in the background. When quitting Thunderbird, visible tabs will be saved and will be restored when you open Thunderbird the next time. There is also a new Tab menu on the Tab toolbar to help you switch between Tabs.
• Smart Folders: The folder pane offers a Smart Folders mode which combines special mailboxes, like Inbox, from multiple accounts. Smart Folders is now on by default.
• New Message Summary View: Selecting multiple messages will give you a summary view of the emails you have selected.
• Column Headings: The column headings that are displayed and the order in which they are displayed can now be set on a per-folder basis.
• Message Archive: You can now file messages from your Inbox or other folders into the new Archive folder system.
• Activity Manager: The Activity Manager records all the interactions between Thunderbird and your email provider in one place.
• New Add-ons Manager: The new Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to find, download, and install Thunderbird Add-ons which includes Extensions, Themes, and Plugins. Note that few Add-ons are compatible with this beta at the time of release, as Add-on developers need to upgrade them.
• Improved Address Book: If someone is in your address book, it is indicated by a new star icon which you can click to edit contact details inline. If they are not in your address book, you can add them with one click of the icon. A new birthday field allows you to keep track of your friends’ birthdays. You can also add a photo for contacts in your address book.
• Improved Gmail Integration: Better recognition and integration of Gmail’s special folders such as Sent and Trash including non-English versions of Gmail. Thunderbird also uses All Mail as the Archives folder.
• For Windows Vista users, Thunderbird 3 is now integrated with Vista search results. On first start, Thunderbird will prompt to install its indexing system into Windows Vista and you can choose to see Thunderbird email and news messages in Windows search results.

• For Mac users, Thunderbird 3 is now integrated with Spotlight, can import from Mail.app, read your OS X address book, and use Growl for new mail alerts.

Performance Improvements

• IMAP Folder Synchronization: Thunderbird will download IMAP messages by default in the background to allow for faster message loading and better offline operation. This feature can be enabled on an individual folder basis via Folder properties, or for all folders in an account via Account Settings / ‘Synchronize & Storage’.

Sun Microsystems has released Java 6 Update 17, which fixes multiple security vulnerabilities. These include various buffer and integer overflows triggered by crafted audio and image files, which can be exploited by Java applets and ‘Java Web Start’ applications to escalate their privileges and allow system infection. A bug in the ‘Java Web Start’ installer can result in non-trusted Web Start applications being run as trusted applications and therefore obtaining escalated privileges. A vulnerability in the Java Runtime Environment Deployment Toolkit allows websites to inject and execute code.

Sun has also removed a vulnerability which could be exploited to fake digital signatures, triggered when verifying HMAC digests. The JRE update function should in future also update the runtime environment under non-English language versions of Windows.

via Java 6 Update 17 fixes multiple security vulnerabilities – The H Open Source: News and Features.

This would be a great time to check what version of Java is installed on your system. Old, outdated versions are a security hazard waiting to happen. Check here to see if it’s outdated or not.

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Originally introduced in 2004 with major language changes, the fifth version of Java reached “End of Service Life” (EOSL) status last weekend. To ensure the future availability of critical bug fixes, Sun Microsystems recommends that users either migrate their applications to the latest update of the Java Standard Edition (Java SE) or make use of the “Java SE Support for Business” service, which offers guaranteed support for old Java versions for up to 15 years.

The three previous Java versions (1.3.1, 1.4.2) already reached EOSL status quite some time ago, and Java 1.3.1, for instance, is now only updated for Solaris. The support for 1.4.2 ended on the 30th of October 2008. Once a version’s End of Service Life has been reached, no further security updates are released for this version. Users should, therefore, consider updating all the way to Java SE 6 (currently update 16). As Java installation programs don’t uninstall old software, previous versions need to be removed manually, for example via the Windows control panel.

via End of Service Life for Java 5 – The H Open Source: News and Features.