Firefox/Planning/2014-10-29

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
• AirMozilla: for broadcast and saved recordings

Schedule & Progress on Upcoming Releases (Lukas/Sylvestre/Lawrence)

• 33.0.2 shipped yesterday
  • updates are enabled at 5%, collecting feedback today
• 33.1 gtb today
• 34 desktop beta5 gtb Thursday
• 34 desktop/mobile beta6 gtb Monday

Firefox Desktop & Platform (Javaun/Chad/Martin)

Current Releases

Beta (133)

Aurora (54)

Nightly (134)

UX (Madhava)

Firefox Mobile (Mark/Brad/Jenn)

Work In Progress

• Active areas at the moment
  • Privacy Coach add-on
  • Second Screen (casting/mirroring)
  • Tablet Refresh
  • Standalone WebRTC
  • Janus Proxy

You can find more on upcoming feature plans in the[roadmap]

Uplifts from the past week

Beta (133)

• Scrolling on Bing locked when toolbar reappears over search field ( Bug 1055883 )
• "Remember this decision" does not work for choosing a client certificate on Firefox for Android ( Bug 1081711 )

Aurora (54)

• files deleted from Firefox download manager are still listed in Android download manager ( Bug 1070086 )
• also add files downloaded in private browsing to Android download manager ( Bug 1070488 )
• crash in java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: invalid value for param: totalBytes at android.app.DownloadManager.addCompletedDownload(DownloadManager.java) ( Bug 1071116 )
• Unable to Remove bookmarks via context menu ( Bug 1074787 )
• Can't visit any pages in guest sessions ( Bug 1082224 )
• Regression: Android MP4/MP3 video/audio playback broken ( Bug 1082550 )
• Stumbler: list of scanned wifis needs proper size limit ( Bug 1084423 )
• Stumbler: remove condition to only build in Nightly ( Bug 1084557 )
• FilePicker.js: "File is not defined" after selecting file to upload ( Bug 1085158 )

Landings from the past week

Nightly (134)

• Contextually display hint about private browsing ( Bug 1014293 )
• Use android.media.MediaCodec for decoding/encoding on recent Android ( Bug 1014614 )
• Implement crash reporting in Java to allow for detection of early-stage crashes ( Bug 1043457 )
• videos without an extension in the source URL aren't castable ( Bug 1048688 )
• Use ordered arguments in nativeWindow.deprecated ( Bug 1054177 )
• Add snippet pointing to info detailing around search provider choices and how to manage them ( Bug 1056651 )
• Create landing page providing users info about search providers and search provider management ( Bug 1056653 )
• Move "Exit Guest Mode" menu item to Tools menu ( Bug 1061612 )
• Use DialogFragment for Onboarding v1 start pane ( Bug 1072831 )
• Crash java.lang.RuntimeException: Unable to start activity ComponentInfo{org.mozilla.fennec/org.mozilla.gecko.preferences.GeckoPreferences}: java.lang.NullPointerException ( Bug 1078395 )
• Crash in [@ mozilla::dom::HTMLInputElement::nsFilePickerShownCallback::Done(short)] uploading an image on imgur.com (Android) ( Bug 1080709 )
• Update string and image on "first run" view of Search Activity for V1 ( Bug 1084590 )
• FilePicker.js: "File is not defined" after selecting file to upload ( Bug 1085158 )
• crash in operator new(unsigned int) | libstagefright.so@0x8d949 [Sony Android 4.4] ( Bug 1085744 )
• Regression: touch video controls are busted ( Bug 1086996 )

Developer Tools (Jeff/Rob/Dave)

Feedback Summary (Cheng/Tyler/Matt)

Desktop

Mobile

User Experience Research (Bill)

• Forget study completed. Changes underway based on results.
• Planning for multi-device workflow/task continuity qualitative research.

Market Insights from the Market Strategy Team (Kev)

Something to Think About

Lifehacker posted an article this morning around all the things you can do from within Chrome's address bar. Firefox can do a number of the same things, but it's interesting to see the continual improvements the Chrome team has made around search (and service) integration, and also the productivity hacks (like searching drive without going there) that people come up with to make a feature more useful than it's intended design.

Why we should care: Chrome's modifications to the address bar aren't ground-breaking, nor are they changes that came about overnight. They are a series of iterative changes to a core function that work well with Google's external services, and focus on increasing utility which, not coincidentally, increases the value and stickiness of the Google experience as a whole. Continued improvements to existing features (and watching how people are riffing on those features) is a good thing, and is something to consider as part of our general product upkeep, particularly around the opportunity to do more with services (both ours, and others) that promote the open web as a platform.

Worth a Read

• Benedict Evans updated his popular "Mobile Is Eating the World" presentation, and posits that mobile effectively is technology today. He's also put together a post on Tablets, PCs and Office that goes a little bit into technology cycles, but the important bit he pushes in both places is the concept of screens being the window to your stuff, and the platform under the screen being a commodity (e.g. processing power is becoming less of a limiter) that is really simply the interface that better fits the task at hand.
• Ars Technica has an overview of some of the more interesting changes in Lollipop which focus on unbundling apps and APIs to mitigate fragmentation risk, an enhanced setup process focusing on user experience, and the shift in the Nexus brand from a market-share builder to a premium offering.
• Google's Sundar Pichai was promoted last week in a move that solidifies Google's movement towards a unified, backend-anchored, multi-screen experience. Pichai was originally fronting Android and Chrome OS (and a couple other related services), and now takes on Google's most important web properties, including Gmail, Search, AdSense, and the infrastructure that runs it. This gives business units inside Google better alignment around company goals, and shows the confidence Google has in Pichai. Expect further alignment in Google's unified experience movement through products like Inbox and moving more Google Account data in the cloud, where it doesn't rely on a client app.

Notes

• re/code's Code Mobile event is on, as well as WSJD Live (read/watch the Jack Ma interview) and there's lots of good stuff to be had. Check back often, and I'll summarize next week.
• Microsoft announced this week that they'll be supporting WebRTC, opening the door for browser-based services that make use of Skype.
• Following some arewefastyet tweets, the Chromium Dev team mentioned that they had landed a bunch of changes that will improve layout times by around 10%.
• Google launched its Inbox mail app to consolidate Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo! mail in one place. Chrome-only for now, and it needs an invite. Positive feedback from most, and another way to bring more content into the Google lens.
• Amazon added to the pile of HDMI-connected streaming sticks with it's Fire Stick, and Google's updated the hardware in the Chromecast, but no new features announced yet.
• Google launched its Fit product, aimed squarely at competing with Apple's Healthkit.
• Apple's pushing Safari to non-Safari users on Yosemite, including Firefox users.
• Microsoft is opening up its Office 365 service (via APIs) to Android, iOS, and third-party web sites/apps (and, at the same time, offered unlimited OneDrive storage to 365 subscribers - double whammy), giving other applications the ability to do useful things with your data, calendars, and mail.
• Lots of discussion over the last week on Apple apps like Spotlight that phone home and send info back even if you don't actively do anything.
• Opera updated its Coast browser, adding iPhone 6(+) support, widgets, and the ability to open links from other browsers in Coast.
• Youtube is looking at ways to offer a paid subscription service which would (likely) all but eliminate pre and post roll ads. If this rolls out, expect even more ads on the free service.
• Walmart joined CVS and Rite Aid in disabling Apple Pay in a move that's likely linked to their membership in the Merchant Customer Exchange. While you're hear a lot around what's best for the customer, this is around the multiple billions to be had in transaction fees and, more importantly, who gets the user data behind it.
• Interesting interview with T-Mobile USA CEO John Legere who pushed unbundling contracts and iPhone support for the network, which continues to show strong subscriber growth (but are still struggling with making a profit) at the expense of the 800-pound gorillas.

Marketing, Press & Public Reaction (Arcadio)

• Humble Bundle Campaign: ran October 14 - October 28
• 2M clicks to HB landing page
• $500k revenue generated
• 90k bundles sold
• 200k+ social shares in week one
• 67+ articles written

• Firefox for Android 33
• 90+ article written
• H.264 and Roku and Chromecast support mentions

• New Firefox for Android product page landing today:
• Google Play en_US updated with new messaging
• Localization bug filed for the GP locales we ship; ongoing process
• Onto Beta listing

Questions, Comments, FYI