The engineers who work on the Apps Project architecture have looked closely at existing formats and continue to engage in ongoing conversations with other app platform providers. In the past, in relevant forums and bugs, we’ve articulated some of our concerns around the existing specs, especially with regard to handling offline apps.

We recognize that many differences between the Mozilla and Chrome app manifest formats are largely cosmetic. We agree on the fundamentals. We’re continuing a conversation with Chromium engineers that we expect will bring us closer together in the months ahead.

It is also important to remember that Apps began as an experiment within Mozilla Labs, so we did what was fastest to get us out the gate. We started with a simple, extensible format – and that’s exactly where we are today. The apps preview for developers is a malleable offering. We believe the Apps project will be most successful if we can get all browser vendors to agree on both the APIs and the manifest format.

We will continue to have these conversations and hope to resolve the issues in order to converge on a standard. None of our current decisions are etched in stone. We value your feedback, so please keep it coming. We promise to continue to listen and respond.

—
Ragavan, on behalf of the Mozilla Labs Apps team

“As part of Mozilla’s mission to make the Web better we believe that apps should be available on any modern Web-connected device, operating system or browser…To get started, sign up for the Mozilla Labs Apps Developer Preview, where you can test the features of the marketplace app-submission and sale process.”

Developers can use this release to publish their application to users, or to create a Web App store or directory. Users can review a gallery of user experience ideas and beta-quality versions of Firefox and Chrome add-ons that integrate the Web App experience more tightly with the browser.

To get started, watch this short video which describes the main features of the release, then head over to our landing page to learn more.

Ready. Set. Build!

Head on over to the Mozilla Developer Network to understand how to:

1. Build a Web App
2. Describe your Web App using the stable manifest description
3. Use our stable JavaScript APIs to let your Web App interact with the browser

Check out this gallery of some of the cool Web Apps that developers have already started building using our APIs.

If you are interested in building a Web App Store, we have documentation to help you get started.

Further we have some nifty utilities that will help you test how your new Web App works in modern browsers:

1. Download the Mozilla Web App extension for Firefox and/or Chrome. This extension implements the application launch and application management APIs.
2. Use the Manifest Validator to ensure your Web App manifests are working.
3. Check out this proof-of-concept Web App dashboard written in HTML5. You may even be inspired to write your own dashboard!

To give you a taste of how we envision Web Apps will enable rich, immersive user experiences, head over to the user interface concepts gallery

What’s next?

In the coming weeks, we plan to pursue several new ideas, including:

• A deeply integrated “in browser” experience that spans the entire find, install, launch, use and manage flow.
• Syncing your Web Apps to your mobile devices.
• Supporting native browser controls and OS integration.
• Support for widgets and notifications to make your Web Apps more lively.
• and many more.

Give us feedback!

As always, we would love to hear from you as you build and deploy Web Apps. In particular, we’d love to hear if:

1. You have feedback on improvements you’d like to see in our APIs and documentation.
2. You have built an awesome Web App and want to show it off.
3. You have an amazing dashboard you’ve built.
4. You have an idea for a cool Web App.

We believe Web Apps enable us to package all the generativity of the Web as rich, immersive experiences that delight users. We look forward to building this world with you.
—
The Mozilla Web Apps team

• increasing responsiveness
• improving discoverability of remote tabs
• creating a less disruptive “start over” flow
• providing additional levels of data protection

Get your data faster

When you set up Weave Sync on additional devices, the service will start syncing more frequently so you can access your data within minutes. And, for computers, the setup process is smoother since all of your data is downloaded in one pass. Thus, all of your bookmarks will be immediately available. (Note: For the small percentage of you who have several thousand bookmarks, the initial setup may take a little longer).

Where are my remote tabs?

On desktops and laptops, you can now see all of your remote tabs on a single page in content. Additionally, you can access your remote tabs by clicking on the tab arrow at the right end of your tab bar or by typing in about:weave-tabs in your URL bar.

Less disruptive “start over” flow

When starting over, we’ve noticed that most of you want to reset your sync direction and do not want to enter your account information before you can do so. So, you now have an option to directly reset your sync direction from the main preferences screen.

Additional levels of data protection

With this version, Weave Sync will ensure that your most recent client changes will always persist. This prevents an inactive client from waking up and overwriting current data. We have also put in several other fixes that add additional levels of protection of your data on the client.

Also note that starting with this release, Weave Sync will be less strict about requiring that all of your devices run the same version of the add-on. This means in the future you should be able to continue syncing even after upgrading one device to a newer version (say 1.3).

Download Weave Sync and give it a try.

As always, let us know if you have any thoughts/comments by joining our discussion group. You can also find us on #labs on IRC.

About Weave Sync

Weave Sync is the first component of the Weave platform. Using this free browser add-on from Mozilla Labs, you can use security mechanisms to access all of your personal data across all of your supported devices, making your Web experience instantly more personal and useful. Weave Sync synchronizes your bookmarks, saved passwords, browsing history and open browser tabs. And all of your data is encrypted end-to-end to help protect your privacy.

— Ragavan S, on behalf of the Weave team

Your online identity, which is key to enabling a personalized Web experience, is not simply a single atom of data. It is a dense cluster of your accounts (e.g. e-mail, banking, shopping, etc.), relationships and other personal information, spread across the Web and throughout all of your personal computing devices.

Your Web browser, as your most trusted relationship in your life online, has nearly perfect knowledge of everything you do on the Web. We envision a world where your browser will play an even more active and critical role in helping you control and shape your online experience.

To realize this vision, we need to increase the browser’s understanding of your online identity and provide a platform for building new capabilities that securely take advantage of this rich, dynamic set of data that represents the digital “you.”

And so, today we are announcing an initiative as part of the Mozilla Labs Concept Series to explore these and other new concepts for online identity in the browser.

Ideas, Use Cases and Open Questions
Here are some of the initial ideas, use cases and open questions to help get things started.

• As you connect with new sites and people online, how can your browser help you manage all of your account information?
• How can your browser help when you discover something cool on the Web that you want to share with your friends?
• What role can your browser play in helping you manage your Web contacts and relationships?
• What can your browser do to enable you to securely share data with websites and third-parties in return for context-rich Web experiences?
• How can your browser help you manage and stay informed about how and where your data and data about you flows on the Web?

Guiding Principles
We believe any solution that helps people take control and manage their online identity should:

• ensure that it is easy for people to set up their own services (as needed) with freely available open standards-based tools
• provide users with the ability to fully control and customize their online experience, including whether and how their data should be shared with their family, their friends, and third-parties
• respect individual privacy (e.g. client-side encryption by default with the ability to delegate access rights)
• leverage existing open standards and propose new ones as needed

Initial Concepts and Prototypes
Over the next few weeks, you will see a wide range of activities as we begin a focused exploration through the Mozilla Labs Concept Series and host discussions with the wider Internet community about your online identity. We hope that you’ll add your voice to the discussion.

To kick things off, we will be releasing a series of initial concepts and prototypes to provide thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole.

How to Get Involved

• Read more about and explore the initial concepts and prototypes for Online Identity
• Learn more about the Mozilla Labs Weave project
• Discuss, debate and add to the conversation around online identity in the Online Identity Concepts discussion group
• Join us in #labs on irc.mozilla.org.

– Ragavan Srinivasan on behalf of the Mozilla Labs team

Featured speakers:
1. We’re very excited to host several Seedcamp companies at our Jan 26 meetup. From the Seedcamp website: “Seedcamp is a programme created to jumpstart the entrepreneurial community in Europe by connecting next generation developers and entrepreneurs with over 400 mentors from a top-tier network of company builders.”

We hope to have companies such as Brainient, Codility, Kwaga, Platogo, and many many more giving us lightning talk style presentations.

2. Jay Sullivan, VP Mobile at Mozilla will talk about our Mobile strategy and show off some cool demos, including our upcoming version of Firefox for mobile devices.

3. In addition, we will also have a round of updates on various Mozilla projects from Labs, Addons and more.

If you are planning on attending, be sure to RSVP on the Meetup page. We hope you’ll join us for food, fun and lots of good discussions.

– Ragavan Srinivasan, on behalf of the Weave team

1. The event will start at 6:30 PM.

2. The venue is Twitter HQ 539 Bryant St., San Francisco, CA 94107. Many thanks to the fine folks at Twitter for helping host the event.

3. Alexander Limi and Alex Faaborg from the Firefox team will be giving an informal chat on what to expect in the future versions of Firefox.

Please RSVP on the Meetup page if you will be coming. Thanks to those who’ve already done so.

Hope to see you all there.

Original post below

It’s time for another edition of Labs Night, our monthly meetup to discuss Mozilla Labs projects, your projects and the Open Web. Our October session will be Thursday, 10/08 6-9 pm. We haven’t yet settled on a venue yet as we are looking at a few different venues in San Francisco. We will post an update as soon as we’ve picked one. The event is open to everyone, so if you are in the San Francisco area feel free to stop by.

We have two awesome speakers this time around, so it will be double the excitement. Brett Slatkin and Brad Fitzpatrick from Google will talk about all the cool work that’s happening on the real time web. In particular, they’ll talk about Pubsubhubbub and Webfinger.

We will also hear what a lot of the Mozilla Labs projects have been working on, in 5 minute lightning talk style presentations. We’ll have a few slots open for other lightning talks as well, so if you are working on a cool project, this is a great opportunity to show and tell.

As with previous Labs nights, there will be some good food.  Please RSVP on the meetup page if you plan to attend as that will help us determine how much food to order.

PS: We are also working on getting someone from the Firefox team come give a talk. Stay tuned for more info.

Our featured speaker this week is Li Gong, Chairman and CEO of Mozilla Online, the Beijing based subsidiary of the Mozilla Corporation. Li will be talking about a wide variety of topics related to firefox, the mozilla community and the open web in China.

We will also hear what a lot of the Mozilla Labs projects have been working on, in 5 minute lightning talk style presentations. We’ll have a few slots open for other lightning talks as well, so if you are working on a cool project, this is a great opportunity to show and tell.

And if that’s not enough, we’ll also be providing pizza.  Please RSVP by commenting on this blog if you plan to attend. Hope to see you there!

PS: We may have another super exciting speaker this week. We will post an update once we hear confirmation.