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mozilla-weave posts

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla Weave version .6 boosts performance, adds new features

Today, Mozilla Weave took another step forward. The browser synchronization add-on is now at version 0.6 and better than ever.

Apart from the old Weave sync kung fu - bookmarks, history, and passwords - the newest version can now keep your Personas up to date across multiple machines. Performance has gotten another boost, and there's a new about:weave page that allows for easier management of your preferences and Weave account.

[update] The first-time sync also now includes the option to specify which direction you want to sync. That's a welcome change, since it means no more deafult Firefox bookmarks sneaking into my Weave profile in the cloud.

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Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla Weave gets faster, adds Fennec support on WinMo in .5 release

I've been using Weave for a while now to stay on top of my browsing syncing chores. While it's still in beta, Weave has already come a long way since its initial release.

Yesterday, Mozilla Labs debuted version .5. The most noticeable change? Weave now stays out of the way while you're actively browsing in Firefox, waiting to go idle. On a mostly bare Firefox install (the only other addon I have installed is Personal Menu), Weave .4 caused the occasional performance hiccup. So far with .5, it's been smooth sailing.

The official blog post also reports improved performance in uploading and downloading - which I also noticed when setting up Firefox on my office system. While I can't provide an exact time, I'd estimate that it took roughly half the time to sync my profile from scratch as it did with .4.

Weave .5 also supports password and passphrase changes, handling for bookmark tags and smart folders, and adds support for Fennec on Windows Mobile. OpenSolaris users are now able to get in on the fun as well.

If you install Weave and you're concerned about security, you may want to head to its preferences screen and take the check out of the "automatically connect" box and choose not to remember your Weave password when you sign in next time.

Filed under: Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla Weave 0.4: Synchronize Firefox settings across computers

Weave 0.4
Mozilla has released an updated version of Weave, a Firefox plugin that lets you synchronize your profile, settings, and passwords across multiple computers. In other words, every time you change your bookmarks, web site login information, or other data on your work computer, the changes will be reflected on your home machine as long as you have Weave installed on both systems.

Weave 0.4 adds support for preference syncing, automatic logins, and support for Fennec 1.0 beta 2 for Maemo Linux. That last one means you the mobile version of Firefox for Nokia Internet Tablets can be configured to have all of your desktop bookmarks, passwords, and other settings with just a few clicks. Eventually Weave should also work with Fennec for Windows Mobile and other mobile platforms, which could save you an awful lot of time when setting up a mobile browser.

Filed under: Internet, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Mozilla Weave 0.3 syncs Firefox bookmarks, passwords, history

Mozilla Weave
It's been a while since we checked in on Mozilla Weave, an experimental project that lets you synchronize your data across Firefox browsers on different machines. This week Weave hit version 0.3 and the latest version does a lot more than synchronize bookmarks. It also lets you synchronize your saved passwords, browsing history, and even your open tabs.

The tab sync feature lets you login to Firefox on your laptop and instantly pull up any tabs that are open on your desktop. Even more impressive, Weave 0.3 works with Fennec, which is the beta version of Firefox for mobile devices like cellphones and PDAs. And that means you can open a few tabs on your desktop or laptop to read later, walk out of the house and start reading those same web pages when you load Fennec on your mobile browser on your way to work.

Firefox add-on Xmarks (formerly known as Foxmarks) provides similar features, but it doesn't have the ability to synchronize browser and tab histories.

Filed under: Weekend Review

Download Squad Week in Review

Download Squad logoTrying to figure out whether to see Indiana Jones or Sex in the City this weekend? Why not just skip the movies and catch up on some of the week's best software news?
  • Windows 7 says hello world, then runs and hides away
    After months of speculation, Microsoft has finally lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding Windows 7. And by lifted the veil, we mean one tiny little corner. We now know that Windows 7 will feature multi-touch capabilities. And that's about it.
  • Flipping the Linux Switch: Banshee learns to sing
    While Microsoft is busy keeping secrets, the open source Linux media player Banshee is free for anyone to use. The latest beta version adds a ton of features, allowing you to play MP3s, rip CDs, organize your music collection, burn discs, aggregate podcasts, or even connect to your Last.fm account.
  • Mozilla - They're unbeWeavable
    Mozilla launched Weave last year as a way to keep your Firefox settings synchronized across multiple computers. But for some reason Mozilla left out one of the most useful features: password synchronization. Fortunately, this week an updated version of the Mozilla Weave browser plug-in was released, which lets you synchronize your bookmarks, saved form data, cookies, and passwords.
  • Bubbles single-site web browser updated, adds extensions
    Before there was Mozilla Prism, there was Bubbles, a tool that lets you launch pretty much any web site in a stripped down web browser. Bubbles has been around for a few years, but the developers recently relesed a new beta version that adds support for user-generated extensions that give you more control over how the browser interacts with web pages. Extensions include a Gmail notifier and a Facebook chat application.
  • OpenOffice.org keeps getting slower with each new release
    Free and open source office suite OpenOffice.org has a dirty little secret. It's slow. Like, you have to wait 20+ seconds to open a document sometimes slow. And it keeps getting slower. It turns out that OpenOffice.org 2.4 opens documents slower than version 1.1.5. And OpenOffice.org 3.0 beta is even slower still. But you can't beat the price.
  • Adocu: Nanoblogging gets even nano-er
    Twitter took the world by storm by launching a blogging platform that limits your posts to just 140 characters. So it stands to reason that the only way to beat Twitter is to launch an even more limiting service, right? Adocu lets users post just a single word.

Filed under: Internet, Web services, Mozilla

Mozilla Weave to blur the distinction between web and browser

Mozilla Weave
Mozilla has just announced a new initiative that on its face sounds a lot like Google Browser Sync. The project aim's to give Firefox users increased "user control over personal information." In other words, you'll be able to store your browser data including bookmarks, history, and customizations on a Mozilla Server. That way you can synchronize your preferences across the browsers on your work and home PCs and any others you have lying around. You know, exactly the way you can with Google Browser Sync.

It sounds like there's a chance the project (known for now as "Mozilla Weave") will do more than let you synchronize your data though. Mozilla mentions that another goal is to allow "developers to build innovative online experiences." It's not yet clear exactly what kind of experiences Mozilla is talking about. But once your personal data is stored online, there could be all sorts of ways to interact with it. Like maybe a Mozilla-backed online office suite. Oh right, Google's got that covered. How about email? Oh right.

Mozilla Weave is still in its infancy over at Mozilla Labs, so it'll be interesting to see how the concept evolves. At the very least, it'd be nice to have a browser sync feature built by the folks who designed the browser in the first place.

[via Mozilla Links]

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