The missing release notes are an indication that it will take anywhere from 24-48 hours before the new version of Firefox 3.6 will get officially announced by Mozilla. This will also be the time frame for the discovery of the new version by the automatic update check in the web browser.

The new beta release could be related to the updates yesterday which would suggest that the update fixes security and stability issues in Firefox 3.6. The only option to know for sure is to wait until the developers are publishing information on the Mozilla website.

Users who want to update the web browser right away need to wait until it gets posted on various download portals which usually pick up the new releases faster than the official Mozilla page.

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Add-ons product manager Justin Scott (reluctantly) announced the news this morning at an add-on-happy conference in Mozilla’s home town of Mountain View, California. “We’ll probably be doing a App Store pilot in 2010,” he said.

Scott did not provide details. But earlier in the morning, he did say that Mozilla has no intention of using DRM – not that you would have expected anything else. “I don’t know what we’ll do, but we won’t do DRM,” he said.

Clearly, an add-on App Store is a touchy subject for Mozilla, an open source outfit viewed as one of the leading champions of free software. Earlier in a panel discussion meant to answer the question “Do add-ons need a marketplace?,” Scott hemmed and hawed over the idea.

“I really wish we had more consumer feedback on these sorts of things,” he said. “We don’t get enough feedback from consumers who would actually be buying these add-ons. We haven’t really brought it up for discussion among them yet. But from what we hear, developers all want a store. But we’re not really sure how consumers feel about it.

“Occasionally, we do see people commenting on add-ons say ‘I think software should be free.’”

Yes, Mozilla already offers a central download page for Firefox add-ons – addon.mozilla.org, affectionately known as AMO – but this is not a place where developers can actually sell their browserware. The best they can do is request contributions from users, and at least one developer at today’s Add-on-Con reacted with incredulity to the waffling by Scott and various other add-on makers attempting to address the marketplace issue.

“Look at the Apple App Store,” the developer told the panel, referring to the application storefront the Jobsian cult has set up for the iPhone. “You guys are really smart guys. If you can’t see a great path like that, I think it’s a real bummer for developers.”

But thanks to some additional prompting from conference host Robert Reich – founder of the real-time search outfit OneRiot – Scott did admit that some sort of Mozilla marketplace is on the way. Though that’s all he said.

At one point, Reich also asked Scott if Mozilla might provide built-in access to an add-on marketplace run by a third-party – i.e., add it to the Firefox toolbar, where Mozilla already links users directly to Google and other search engines. Scott pretty much ruled out that possibility. But he did acknowledge that anyone could add an add-on store to Firefox – with an add-on.

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Other additions included a filter to only display add-ons specifically for one product. The latest addition to those pages is a language filter which can be used to display only add-ons that are offered in a specific language.

The displayed language filter uses information provided by the url that is accessed to display the filter. You might recall that the Mozilla website uses language encodings as part of their url structure.

A visitor from the United States would therefor be able to filter the add-ons so that only English add-ons would be displayed, a German would be able to do the same for add-ons that are provided with a German interface.

It sometimes happens that users land on a Mozilla page that is displayed in a different language which can be the case when following links from websites for example. The Mozilla website displays a pulldown menu at the bottom that allows the visitor to switch to another supported language.

This new feature can be helpful for users who prefer to use add-ons that are provided in their native language.

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The new version of Firefox fixes 140 bugs of which two have been rated as blocker and 21 as critical. It is therefor recommended for Firefox 3.6 beta users to update their web browser as soon as possible to fix the bugs and make the web browser more stable. Most of the bugs – if not all – seem to be stability bug fixes that fix possible crashes that can happen under certain circumstances in the older beta versions.

Firefox users who are interested in all the fixes in this new version can check out the detailed bug lists over at Bugzilla. About a quarter of the installed add-ons were not compatible on our test system including popular add-ons like Greasemonkey. It was however no problem to force compatibility with the Nightly Tester Tools add-on.

The Mozilla Firefox beta page lists downloads for all supported operating systems and languages.

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Here is more about the program, in a nutshell, from the developers:

When a friend’s link from YouTube or flickr arrives, your messaging client should be able to show the video or photos near or as part of the message, rather than rudely kicking you over to a separate browser tab. Notifications from computers and mailing lists should be organized for you, not clutter your Inbox or require tedious manual filter setup. It should be easy to smoothly integrate new web services into your conversation viewer entirely using open web technologies.

Raindrop will automatically separate out personal messages from those sent by mailing lists and other sources of automated alerts and communications, and users will be able to customize how they wish to group these notifications.

Instead of building yet another application to organize and prioritize communications, Mozilla’s goal with Raindrop is to help users get a handle on the messages they’re already getting, therefore making those existing channels of communication more meaningful.”We aren’t trying to invent new protocols or build new messaging systems, rather focusing on building a product that lets users get a handle on the systems we already use,” reads the post.

The current version of Raindrop is being referred to as 0.1, meaning “not yet ready for everyday use,” but the development team is looking for input from developers and users alike.

Mozilla hopes Raindrop will be customized by its users and will also become a platform for third-party products, according to the post.

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In an interview earlier today Mozilla’s CEO John Lily announced that Mozilla would be on the edge of releasing an iPhone app:
“Mozilla will release an app to the iPhone App Store in the next few weeks,” Lilly said. “It’ll surprise people.”

An app? What would it be? He didn’t give any further details for the moment but it’s pretty clear that Apple would never allow Firefox on the App Store. Apple’s guidelines clearly forbid duplicating iPhone’s core functionalities.

Nowadays, Apple has already been heavily criticized for the limitations put on third party developments, and this only adds insult to injury for Apple. Further more, Mozilla needs to acquire a license from Apple allowing for Firefox running on the iPhone. Currently, Apple forbids programs that interpret code themselves without using Apple’s APIs, making it impossible for Mozilla to release Firefox browser for the iPhone. Mozilla will instead aim for more open platforms, such as Android. For whatever the reasons, Apple’s limitations on software development may be cause for greater problems down the road, as more developers are put down by these limitations.

So, it is interesting to note what kind of an application is Mozilla actually working on. While it’s quite natural for anyone to assume it might be a new browser, keeping in mind Apple’s stand on third party browsers, we can also expect a software other than a browser. It could be anything, ranging from a bookmark sync tool or a plug in for the existing Safari browser.

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Yes, many users who received the message were a bit puzzled as they did not install the plugin in first place. Remember the Microsoft .net Framework Assistant incident earlier this year when Microsoft installed the plugin in the Firefox web browser without notifying the user? The installation of the Windows Presentation Foundation plugin is basically the same deal.

The Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin gets installed when the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5 SP1 gets installed in the Windows operating system. Users who noticed the installation also noticed that they were not able to uninstall the plugin, only disable it in the Firefox plugin manager.

Mozilla today blacklisted the Windows Presentation Foundation Plugin. Not because of the silent install but because of a security vulnerability, or to be precise a remote code execution vulnerability. The vulnerability was reported on October 16 and measures to block the plugin were initiated today. Interested users can read up on the vulnerability at the Bug listing at the Mozilla website.

This raises several interesting questions. Could Microsoft be held accountable if computer systems are successfully attacked? Microsoft is not the only developer that is adding plugins to Firefox without asking the user. The Mozilla developers should consider implementing a security control to block unwanted plugins from being installed. Users who have not received the message in Firefox yet should check in the plugin section if the plugin is installed and if it is enabled or disabled. It should be disabled immediately if it is not already.

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The tool is called Plugin Check. It detects all plug-ins for Firefox and advises users if they are outdated. It sounds like no big deal, but you have to consider how many security threats are posed by plug-ins. One example is the seemingly endless exploits associated withAdobe Systems Flash plug-in. Plug-ins are bits of code created to extend the feature set of browsers and are often created by independent developers not associated with the browser’s creators, i.e, Mozilla for Firefox or Microsoft for Internet Explorer.

In fact, keeping plugins up-to-date is becoming increasingly important. Mozilla says that about 30 percent of browser crashes are caused by obsolete plugins. Besides that annoyance, however, they also pose a security risk. That’s because out-of-date plugins are increasingly exploited by hackers in Web-based attacks that place malicious software on the victim’s computer. Flaws in Adobe’s Flash and pdf formats, Apple’s QuickTime, and RealPlayer have all been widely exploited in this way in the past few years.

However, security conscious Firefox users can use the Plugin Check site for now, but the checks will be built into the upcoming Firefox 3.6 browser, expected by year’s end Nightingale said. That should help keep many more Firefox users up-to-date.

Even better, Mozilla plans to add the Plugin Check as a built-in feature in future versions of Firefox. Of course, I’d recommend visiting Plugin Check once a month or so, just to make sure you’re not running any outdated Plugins.

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Thanks to the Add-on Developer Hub, you wil be able to build a better extension now. In fact, The Mozilla team has put in lots of effort into creating a place to centralize the help, tutorials and guidance you’ll need to build the next great Firefox extension.

Here are the 4 categories mainly to dive into:

API & Language Reference – The official documentation on APIs and languages. What you need, when you need it, to create your masterpiece.

How-to Library – Get add-on development guidance in a top-notch collection of tutorials, articles, and more.

Add-on Builder – Auto-generate add-on packaging by entering basic info and picking UI parts. Get working without setup.

Case Studies – Start-to-finish success stories. See how add-on developers made magic with Mozilla.

For more help on how you can build that extension you’ve always wanted, or how to make your current add-on for the browser even better, just visit the Add-on Developer Hub, which is really helpful.

In total, Mozilla team has put together a fantastic guide to help you build an extension onto the Firefox browser.  With the guide they did, you can build a better Firefox add-on.

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For the most part, Firefox 3.6 will look a lot like version 3.5 of the browser. Mozilla is holding off on a major visual refresh until Firefox 4.0 is released sometime next year. But the update should bring a better session restore, improved page rendering, and overall faster performance and better stability.

Firefox 3.6 won’t be a major update. After 3.6, Mozilla will release Firefox 3.7 early next year, with major update Firefox 4.0 due out in the second half of 2010.

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