With Windows 10, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) will be introducing a brand new browser codenamed Project Spartan, with Internet Explorer finally set to become obsolete. The browser will continue on as an alternative, mainly for enterprise customers, but for other users Project Spartan will be the go-to browser.

Microsoft’s marketing chief Chris Capossela announced during the Microsoft Convergence event yesterday that the manufacturer was working on a new name and brand for the Porject Spartan browser. Some of the new features that are set to be ushered in with Project Spartan include a new Edge rendering engine that can parse HTML markup directly, with the ability to also load legacy IE11 websites.

The browser will be delivered as a universal app, which means that for the first time, the same version of the browser will be available on Windows 10 as well as Windows 10 for phones. Considering Microsoft’s One Windows vision, it is possible a slimmed-down variant of the browser will be available for Xbox One as well. Ability to update directly from the store means that Microsoft can introduce new features without having to roll out an OS update. Also available in Spartan is extension support, and Cortana is also highlighted as an integral feature in the browser.

One of the main reasons in ditching the Internet Explorer brand is the negative connotation it carriers in the tech world. Microsoft tried to shake off the negative image of the browser by rolling out commercials, but ultimately failed to challenge the growing dominance of Chrome and Firefox. With Windows 10 heralding a new direction for Microsoft as a whole, Redmond is now looking to start afresh in the browser segment as well.

Microsoft is yet to figure out a name for Project Spartan, although it is likely given market research trends that it will feature Microsoft’s brand name in front of it. Microsoft Spartan, anyone?

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Mozilla has brought users one step closer to experiencing the virtual web by including WebVR — an API for browsers specifically designed for VR content — into the latest nightly and developer builds of the browser.

WebVR is currently compatible with the Oculus VR, Gear VR, as well as Google Cardboard. Future headset compatibility is planned as the API matures.

Though WebVR is far from mainstream, and only a handful of applications exist for it, its creators hope one day users would be able to peer into a virtual world offered by some web pages. For example, a car manufacturer would be able to give potential buyers a VR tour of a vehicle allowing users to view it from all angles before making a decision.

However, WebVR isn’t yet in the “mainstream” builds of Firefox. That will have to wait until the API is more mature.

We’re still making rapid improvements and changes to both the VR interfaces and the necessary platform support pieces. Once WebVR is more complete, we’ll discuss shipping plans to our Beta and Release builds,” Mozilla wrote in a blog post.

For the time being Mozilla has launched MozVR, a website dedicated to giving users examples of the potential of VR on the web.

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Firefox fans will soon be able to use their favorite browser on iOS, if a report holds true.

According to TechCrunch , Mozilla’s Jonathan Nightingale, the company’s VP of Firefox, said at a closed-door meeting that his organization plans to “be where are users our” and develop the browser for Apple’s OS.

“So we’re going to get Firefox on iOS,” he said.

Nightingale later tweeted out his comments which appears to confirm the report.

When Apple (NASDAQ: APPL) famously opened iOS to browser choice a few years ago, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) was quick to port over its Chrome browser. Mozilla’s Firefox was the odd man out as Apple did not allow developers to use third-party browser engines, which is something that Mozilla did not agree with.

We need to be where our users are so we’re going to get Firefox on iOS #mozlandia

— Lukas Blakk (@lsblakk) December 2, 2014

Apple insists that third-party browsers use Apple’s JavaScript and rendering engines. Opera bypasses both of these requirements by rendering the webpage on a server before sending it back to the device.

If Mozilla insists on using its own engine and backend, it’s not likely that Apple will allow Firefox on iOS without an uncharacteristic caveat. It’s up to Mozilla to drop these requirements, or for Apple to change its requirements.

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Mozilla rolled out a new version of Firefox late Monday. While the newest version of the browser contains many new features such as the webRTC chat client Hello, the change users will notice most is the absence of Google as the browser’s default search engine.

As Mozilla and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) did not renew their agreement this year to place Google as the browser’s default search engine, Mozilla struck a deal with Yahoo instead. Neither Mozilla nor Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO) have released the terms of the agreement between the two companies, but for the sake of context in 2013 Mozilla announced that it had received $275 million in revenue from Google that year.

Mozilla and Google had been partners for approximately 10 years, virtually since the first day of the Firefox browser’s existence. Relations between the two companies began to get frosty when Google launched its Chrome browser.

For now, the default search engine change will only impact users in North America. Users in Russia, Belarusian and Kazakh localizations will instead see Russian search engine Yandex as their default search engine within the browser.

Another update included in the new version of Firefox is webRTC chat client Hello. This provides an open-source chat, video and voice alternative to Skype or Google Chat.

The post Firefox 34 Marks The Beginning Of Mozilla’s Post-Google World appeared first on VR World.

Here is the daily roundup from Japanese consumer tech and tech business websites for November 13, 2014.

Playstation Vue TV service soon to launch on 2015
Sony Network Entertainment International (SNEI) and Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) unveils the Playstation Vue, a cloud-based on-demand broadcast TV service for the PS4 and PS3 consoles, which is slated to launch on March 2015.

Philips unveils three new 4K HD TV models
Philips has just showcased three new 4K TV models, the 40-inch BDM4065UC, the WQHD-enabled 27-inch 272P4APJKEB and the full-HD capable 23.8-inch 238C5QHSN. All three models are slated for release sometime this November, though prices are yet to be announced.

Japan celebrates Firefox’s 10th birthday
Firefox celebrated its 10th birthday last Tuesday, November 11, with the release of Firefox 33.1, introducing a number of updates that includes a new “forget” function. This time, Japan does their own celebration of its very first release.

Microsoft offers locally hosted Office 365 in Japan
Microsoft, in an effort to strengthen Japan’s steadily growing cloud-based business market, now offers Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM on locally hosted data centers in the country.

MetaMoji introduces live streaming service for class work
MetaMoji, the Japanese company that developed the group communication apps MetaMoji Note and MetaMoji Share, now introduces MetaMoji Share for Classroom. This new version features enhanced options that are optimized for live presence classes.

Toshiba develops driving assistant chip
In wake of the current trend of developing navigation systems for vehicles, Toshiba announces its development of its own driving assistant chip. The chip will aid vehicle drivers using image recognition, reproducing a 3D image of the objects detected within its effective scanning range.

Panasonic expands Let’s Note models eligible for battery exchange
Panasonic announces that it will be expanding the line up for old Let’s Note laptop models that are eligible for a battery pack exchange. The expanded list which includes the added models is available at the company’s official website.

The post Playstation Vue, Firefox Party, Toshiba’s driving chip: The Headlines in Tokyo for November 13 appeared first on VR World.

Internet Explorer has had a pretty bad reputation over the years as a pretty awful browser, and from the IE6 through the IE9 days, that was a pretty accurate statement. However, nowadays Internet Explorer is fairly good and the only browser on Windows worth anything for touch. The guys and gals over at FireEye managed to discover this Zero Day Exploit and dubbed the entire operation, “Operation Clandestine Fox.” They claim that this zero day exploit targets IE9 through IE11 browsers, which make up about 26% of all browser users around the world which is pretty significant. Microsoft has also put out a security bulletin on the issue stating that users using IE6 through IE11 could be affected, which would broaden the scope of this issue by millions more users.

While Microsoft claims this issue is occurring in “limited attacks” the potential for this attack to grow is now exponentially greater now that the issue has been discovered but not yet fixed. We don’t know the details of how long FireEye waited to let Microsoft resolve this issue before they announced it, but I have a feeling they didn’t just post about it and expect Microsoft to deal with the repercussions. Microsoft is a much more serious company when it comes to security, which is what makes this IE zero day vulnerability all the more puzzling. The fact that such a zero day has managed to exist through potentially all versions of IE and only get caught now is also a bit suspicious (now that we live in the post-Snowden era where anything could be deliberate).

The vulnerability itself as described by the FireEye team is that the exploit leverages a previously unknown use-after-free vulnerability as well as a well-known flash exploit to achieve arbitrary memory access and bypass Windows’ ASLR and DEP protections. What this ultimately means for users is that if you’re using Internet Explorer right now, you should probably stop doing so and switch to Chrome or Firefox until this issue gets resolved. Personally, I use four different browsers simultaneously, but I don’t really recommend that to anyone, especially in this case. If you must absolutely use Internet Explorer, then you should disable Flash (or uninstall it) and use your browser with a proper anti-virus application, even though it would just be easier to use Chrome or Firefox in the meantime.

The post Time to Run and Hide from Internet Explorer, For Now appeared first on VR World.

Browser wars are back, and they’re back in full strength: who is going to win? Mozilla Firefox leads the market share of alternative browsers and in some countries, such as Germany – enjoys leading market share. Google’s Chrome came out of beta, and then returned to beta status within the same year (1.0 beta becomes 1.0 – and 2.0 beta arrived this week) , while Apple made great progress forward with more stable and mature Safari. Version 4 is currently the leading browser in recently released Peacemaker, browser benchmark from “The Flying Finns” (Futremark).

So, what is Microsoft doing? Releasing its last internet browser based on current Internet Explorer technology. IE8 is the default web browser for Windows 7, but it is removable due to the completely new browser engine coming in late 2010.

IE8 was released some hours ago, and this version of “Exploder” will have to hold the fort for Microsoft until the next-gen technology debuts. If you want to try IE8, head over to official Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 download page or go to alternative sites such as TechPowerUp! or Softpedia.

The post Microsoft releases IE8: Last gasp or a fresh start? appeared first on VR World.

However, in the middle of watching the movie, my Blackberry rang (forgot to shut it down, my bad) with a question from a reader who claimed that he cannot access the site with Firefox. While I had no issues at all, I also received another e-mail from a reader that also could not access the site. I immedialtely pinged my friends who use Firefox, and received two problems and eight “no probs at all”… thus, it seems to be an issue on case-by-case basis.

Since I didn’t touch the blog at all, it seems that the massively hyped up change to WordPress 2.7 broke something in the process. While I had no issues with FireFox at all (for this blog, I am using FireFox, Chrome and Blackberry Browser), it seems that a limited number of readers may experience problems with any blog on WordPress while using FireFox. 

Thus, if you find any issues, don’t blame the author, rather forward the blame to the rendering engine

These tethering issues are a standard for any change in the software world, so update your Fiery-ferret to the last version, because my Fiery-ferret 3.0.4 had zero issues with WP 2.7. It might help, it might not.

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