Microsoft commits to user privacy in IE10; risks advertiser wrath over Do Not Track support

Microsoft has affirmed its commitment to shipping IE10 and Windows 8 with “Do Not Track” (DNT) enabled by default. In doing so, it’s set the stage for a major war over user privacy, and appointed itself an unofficial white knight of user privacy.

Feel free to pause a moment and let the cognitive dissonance fade.

For those of you just tuning in, Do Not Track is a proposed privacy flag whose implementation is currently being drafted by the W3C. As currently implemented, a browser with DNT activated notifies the target website that the user does not wish to be tracked. A website that supports DNT would (theoretically) honor the flag and agree not to track the visitor’s activities. DNT is a voluntary standard — there’s no federal or state law mandating its use and very few websites currently support it. If a website doesn’t support DNT, turning it on in the browser does nothing.

A number of advertisers have signed on to help draft the DNT standard in a bid to avoid a government-mandated solution that might be far more limiting, but that doesn’t mean they like it. Microsoft’s initial statement that DNT would be enabled by default came as a total surprise to many of the participants in the W3C’s draft process and was sharply criticized from certain quarters. In June, the W3C changed the DNT draft to propose that browsersmust ship DNT off by default and enable it only if the user gives “explicit consent.” This implied that if Microsoft went ahead and shipped IE10 with DNT activated, it wouldn’t be able to claim its browser supported DNT.

Microsoft’s unofficial response? “Bring it.” In a recent blog post, Brendon Lynch, MS’s Chief Privacy Officer, spelled out how DNT is implemented in IE10. Users who choose “Express Settings” for browser configuration at first-run will have their DNT flag enabled. Users who choose to customize their options will be prompted to set the flag manually. In both cases, users are told what the DNT flag is and how to change it if they choose to do so.

“Our approach,” Lynch writes, “is part of our commitment to privacy by design and putting people first. We believe consumers should have more control over how data about their online behavior is tracked, shared, and used.”

Ulterior motive?

A number of pundits have questioned whether or not Microsoft is using privacy issues to strike at Google’s advertising empire. The truth is, we don’t know. Some draft standards are widely adopted before the final version is complete — 802.11n was a good example of this — but with DNT, the implementation is still being worked on. Browsers that support DNT tend to do it in different ways, and websites are waiting for a better understanding of what they need to do before they go ahead with implementing it.

Microsoft’s decision to ship DNT as active by default isn’t actually going to mean much right away. It’s already led the W3C to consider modifying the DNT proposal; the business interests working on the standard are petrified that an opt-in network will destroy their companies and bombard users with constant requests for data sharing. Some of these concerns are shared by privacy advocates; a standard that destroys companies and creates an impenetrable tangle of pop-ups is in no one’s best interests.

Visit Wired with IE10 and DNT enabled, and this is what you'll see

For the moment, I’m willing to take Microsoft at its word. What’ll be critical to watch is how the company implements DNT on its own websites, what it advocates as the standard evolves, and whether its positions take principled stands on defending users’ rights, or are drawn in a way that benefits itself while choking out the competition. This is a move that really could go either way. If Windows 8 catches fire, it’ll fundamentally change the way Microsoft interacts with its customers and users. It’s fair to give the company a chance to demonstrate the principles it intends to uphold as part of that change — but it’s also fair to keep a weather eye on what’s going on behind the scenes.

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Apple vs. Samsung, Samsung gets cozy with Microsoft

Less than one week after a jury handed down a decisive win for Applein its case against Samsung, the Korean company now appears to be moving away from its embrace of Android to the relatively safer waters of Windows Phone.

On Wednesday, I argued that Microsoft was set to gain from the verdict due to its position as an alternative to Android. The Redmond, Washington company was smart enough to sign agreements with Apple for some of the same patents that Samsung was found guilty of infringing upon. Now according to a report in the Korea Times, it sounds like Samsung is finding Microsoft to be a much more attractive partner for that exact reason.

Some further evidence of the company’s shift may be found in its announcements this week at the IFA tech conference in Berlin.

The debut of its Windows Phone 8 powered device on Wednesday came as a shock to some. Given Microsoft’s tight partnership with Nokia, it was pretty much assumed that the first WP8 devices would have appeared there. But that wasn’t the case.

As its patent fight dragged on with Apple, Samsung may have seen the writing on the wall and begun to switch gears as Microsoft settled its own claims in the form of licensing agreements. While it’s certainly not raising the white flag here, it seems to at least acknowledge that getting the verdict completely overturned may be impossible.

Indeed, the Korea Times says that Samsung officials say that they are actively working on partnerships to get around Apple’s design claims, as well as a closer working relationship with Microsoft. This means the Android OS will likely appear on far less new devices while Windows Phone will become a bigger factor, again due to the patent protections it provides.

This is probably the smartest business move overall for Samsung. If it does get the ruling overturned, it will be business as usual and the company will be free to do as it pleases. But if it does not, and it needs some type of protection from further legal action, Microsoft’s Windows Phone is certainly a good alternative.

Such news has to have people in Redmond happy

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Broadband ‘tax’ may be in the works to expand high-speed internet access

The subject of taxation on the Internetis once again on the radar of politicos in Washington.

Federal Communications Commission officials are considering a proposed tax to be levied to all broadband internet connections nationwide. The tax would work the same as theUniversal Service Fund, a government-imposed fee that appears on all phone bills to ensure ubiquitous access to telephone service.

President Barack Obama made the concept of broadband access for all a cornerstone of his technology platform. While a noble idea, it will cost a good deal of money, and in some areas may not be a profitable venture. Thus, a fund like the USF, this time called the “Connect America Fund,” has been set up by the FCC.

Agency officials claim many as 18 million more Americans could gain broadband access over the next decade as a result of the new tax. With 19 million currently without broadband service, that means nearly the entire nation would be covered by high speed access by 2020.

The fee has some high profile supporters. Major technology companies — including AT&T, Sprint, and Google — have already expressed support for the idea. These companies obviously stand to gain from a government subsidy, since they are the ones providing the service. Others disagree, saying the FCC is moving ahead without any oversight from Congress.

“The FCC had no business taking money from a fund dedicated to expand phone service and creating a broadband internet subsidy,” writes Rick Moran of the conservative political blog American Thinker. “Creating another tax to subsidize internet expansion for large companies is unnecessary and will only lead to greater control of the Internet by government. Congress should wake up and nix this effort before it gets started.”

Regardless of whether you want to call it a fee or tax, or what have you, is some type of subsidy necessary considering our modern economy? You could argue yes. An increasingly larger portion of our economy depends on high-speed internet to get things done. Without any push to get the underserved connected, are we developing a class of the internet have-nots, where the benefits of our modern digital economy become harder to obtain?

It’s something to think about.

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Windows 8 phones home, tells Microsoft every time you install a program

Security researcher and blogger Nadim Kobeissi has uncovered evidence that Windows 8 doesn’t just keep a local log of installed programs — it phones home to tell Microsoft every time you install an application. This is a significant expansion of a technology Microsoft introduced in Internet Explorer 9, called SmartScreen. In IE9, Smartscreen was an optional feature that would warn users if they ran a program that wasn’t whitelisted/ lagged with a positive reputation according to Microsoft’s servers. It was part of a wider initiative to encourage developers to sign their code, and MS claimed that SmartScreen significantly reduced the chances of downloading and installing malicious malware.

Redmond decided to up the ante in Windows 8. SmartScreen is now a system-wide defense technology, enabled by default, and it tracks every program/application install on every PC. Since that data is sent to MS using a hashed value that contains the app installer and the code signature. Your IP information is also included, which makes it trivial for MS to trace back which IP addresses installed which software.

If the application has a high reputation, the install proceeds normally. If not, users are greeted with an explanation like this:

Or this:

If the system is offline, Smart Screen apparently tosses you a warning that gasp your machine is no longer protected, and Windows can’t – clutches pearls — help you decide if a program is safe to run!

Security advocates, thinking people, and everyone who isn’t Microsoft naturally find this troubling. For one thing, MS now has a database of what every IP is installing. Even if the company takes steps to make that information anonymous, there’s no way the government will ignore a centrally maintained database of activity once it believes it can link an IP address to particular users. Second, there’s the temptation to use this information for targeted advertising. If Microsoft sees an IP address installing video games or Xbox Live content, it know that’s probably a gamer. If you’re downloading cooking apps, you might like to see some ads for recipe websites.

This strikes at one of the problems with so-called anonymous data — it’s not actually anonymous. If I know your IP, the apps you install, and the websites you visit, I know an awful lot about you. I may not retain that data, but you can bet that governments and corporations will both want to get their hands on it. The earnings from monetizing the information, and the associated temptation, are potentially huge.

Then there’s the fact that the server Windows 8 communicates with supports an insecure version of SSL (SSLv2), the OS never warns users that SmartScreen is spying on them, and the certificate security model has some known problems and has been prominently compromised in recent memory. Even if you don’t care that Microsoft has the data, the lack of transparency is deeply troubling.

How to blow your street cred in three easy steps

Step 1: Take a principled stand for user privacy, even when that stance will anger advertisers and companies like Google.

Step 2: Stick to your guns. Declare that enabling Do Not Track by default is the best way to respect users’ right to privacy. Create perception that you are doing this on behalf of users, not because you want to screw your biggest advertising competitor and market leader.

Step 3: Blatantly ignore user privacy. Send a report of all system activity back to headquarters via IP address, possibly with a flawed cryptographic protocol. Don’t tell users what you’re doing. Imply that if they disable this service, they’ll be making a terrible mistake.

That whoosh you hear is Microsoft’s burgeoning credibility on privacy and user rights flushing down the drain. SmartScreen can be disabled in user settings, but the default implementation raises serious concerns.

Microsoft has since reached out to us with the following statement: Although Windows SmartScreen is part of the Windows 8 Express Settings during the first-run experience and we recommend it be enabled, if users are concerned about sending this data to Microsoft, they can choose to not enable the feature.

We can confirm that we are not building a historical database of program and user IP data. Like all online services, IP addresses are necessary to connect to our service, but we periodically delete them from our logs. As our privacy statements indicate, we take steps to protect our users’ privacy on the backend. We don’t use this data to identify, contact or target advertising to our users and we don’t share it with third parties.

With respect to the claims of SSL security and data interception risk posed by the SSL2.0 protocol, by default Windows 8 will not use this protocol with our service. Windows SmartScreen does not use the SSL2.0 protocol.

The one part of this statement we take issue with is the “Users can choose not to enable this feature.” At present, the W8 setup screen does not tell the user that the feature sends data to MS on every application install. The downside and privacy concerns are not presented at all. This is odd considering that MS made such a point of pushing for consumers to be notified regarding Do Not Track.

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What is LTE-Advanced?

Recently, several carriers around the world have begun talking about LTE-Advanced, or at least a few features of LTE-Advanced. Notably, Sprint and T-Mobile in the United States have been quick to mention that their systems for LTE being deployed offer an easy upgrade path to LTE-Advanced. But what exactly is it?

LTE-Advanced is essentially the next level of LTE. In particular, LTE-Advanced is LTE that fulfills the criteria to be considered 4G by the ITU. To be called 4G, it has to be able to fulfill the requirements set forth in the IMT-Advanced specification. To accomplish this, LTE-Advanced includes many advanced techniques, technologies, and capabilities that older wireless standards do not include.

The main goal of LTE-Advanced is to provide the IMT-Advanced functionality while retaining backward compatibility with current LTE user equipment that subscribers own. This is important because otherwise early adopters would be penalized when the carrier upgraded to LTE-Advanced on the infrastructure side. LTE-Advanced will provide 1Gbps downlink and about half that on the uplink for fixed wireless (that is, for services like Verizon Wireless’ HomeFusion), while mobile access will be about 100Mbps on the downlink and about 75Mbps on the uplink. Both forms of access will have latencies comparable to wireline (DSL, cable) broadband networks, making it an excellent substitute for wireline networks for many types of internet-based systems.

Assuming that you have already read our explanation of LTE, this will describe what LTE-Advanced adds to LTE.

3GPP Release 10 – The first stage of LTE-Advanced

The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) develops telecommunications standards in concert with the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), the GSM Association (GSMA), and the many telecommunications companies that are members to these organizations around the world. Newer versions of these standards are referred to as “releases” by the 3GPP. 3GPP Release 8 introduced the first final version of LTE. Release 9 adds basic voice over LTE through IMS capabilities and further enhancements to many other parts of the LTE standard.

Release 10, on the other hand, introduces all the basic features to qualify for IMT-Advanced. It also further refines other parts from Releases 8 and 9 and adds additional features. Because each specification release is quite large and broad, only the most visible or most dramatic features are being covered.

IMS Voice – Priority users and emergency service use

Priority users of multimedia on the IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) stack was added in order to bring support for first priority voice call sessions for emergencies, like with disaster response and emergency medical teams in the event of a natural disaster. Calls by those groups musthave priority over everyone else. This functionality already exists in circuit voice networks built into the 3G voice standard, it is just now being introduced ahead of VoLTE being commonly used.

IMS – Inter-Device Transfer

In Release 9, a feature called “inter-device transfer” was added to the specification. This feature added support for users who own multiple devices under a single subscriber account to be able to transfer IMS sessions among them through a form of handover that the user can control directly.

Release 10 extends this feature by adding support for transferring IMS sessions between subscriptions as well. For example: if you were watching TV on your smartphone, but arrived home and wanted to watch it on your TV instead, you could transfer the session from your mobile TV service under your mobile phone service subscription to your IPTV subscription and immediately be able to continue watching from your TV. This feature would be an invaluable feature for those subscribed to both AT&T Wireless and AT&T U-verse, in particular.

M2M – Network overload control

With 2G networks shutting down, the M2M (machine-to-machine, used for communication between specialized devices and systems) market is looking toward 3G and 4G to replace 2G communication systems.

M2M has a few requirements of its own: it must be able to handle large amounts of small data sessions, large amounts of continuous data sessions, and absolutely must minimize the amount of changes to hardware over a very long period of time.

Normally, the M2M market would just move to 3G systems and be done with it for the decade or so. However, there are several countries where 2G and 3G are being shut down, so the future of 3G is not quite so stable. Not to mention, many of these countries are ones with CDMA2000 networks, which have no future path anyway.

That being said, it becomes extremely important to ensure that M2M over LTE will not cause problems, so Release 10 introduces quite a few network-side improvements to rigorously control network quality and stability with M2M and normal subscriber usage of the network.

Femtocells

With the evolution of small cell networks (cellular networks that are comprised of large amounts of small radio stations with a short range and dedicated backhaul per cell) and hybrid macro/micro cell networks, a need has arisen for selective offloading and better management of sessions between the large network and the small cell network. Release 10 adds numerous enhancements to fix this.

Notably, Release 10 adds selective IP offload to the “Home eNode B” (the term used to describe a local femtocell used at home or in a business) so that certain types of traffic will go through the femtocell while the other traffic will go through the macrocell network or vice versa. Additionally, features to improve prioritization of neighbor cells for handover are included as well.

Handover to WiFi for offloading IP traffic

As we’ve discussed before, spectrum is a huge limiting factor to network capacity. Due to increasingly scarce amounts of unused spectrum, carriers around the world are starting to push WiFi usage more and more. In particular, AT&T in the United States offers free access to its repository of hotspots for mobile subscribers with cellular data plans.

With the addition of WiFi offload support in Release 10, carriers can choose to use selective offloading with WiFi to have non-IMS traffic run through the WiFi network while IMS still runs over LTE. Of course, it could all be offloaded to WiFi, but most carriers don’t seem willing to do that.

Sponsored data connectivity and IP access policy support

This feature is something AT&T has been talking about for some time. In particular, this feature allows AT&T to offer the ability for app and service providers to “sponsor” subscriber data access in order to allow subscribers to use a particular app or service without using up part of their data allotments. For good or ill, this feature is now part of Release 10. Additionally, carriers can specify policies that augment QoS (quality-of-service) to manage network traffic.

SU-MIMO for downlink and uplink

LTE uses OFDMA with a 2×2 or 4×4 MIMO configuration for downlink and SC-FDMA with a 1×2 MIMO configuration for uplink. However, this system is unacceptable to meet the LTE-Advanced efficiency requirements. In order to fix this, higher level MIMO configurations are necessary.

Release 10 extends the downlink air interface to support SU-MIMO (single user, multiple in, multiple out) with up to eight-layer spatial multiplexing, and the uplink air interface to support SU-MIMO with up to four-layer spatial multiplexing. This extension is intended for more complex (and suitably large) devices where the spatialization of the antennae is feasible. Simpler devices (like M2M and feature phones) can continue to use simpler configurations that use MU-MIMO (multiple user, multiple in, multiple out) specified in Release 8.

By using these more complex MIMO configurations, the reliability of the connection improves considerably. Not to mention, the average efficiency of the connection increases drastically with higher order MIMO.

Relays for LTE

Release 10 adds a new LTE coverage expansion option: relays. Think of relays as a more complex form of a repeater or signal booster. The idea here is to offer a way for carriers to extend coverage further more cheaply by not requiring the deployment of a full base station/tower node system. But, because this is a wide area network, security is a concern. Not to mention that frequency usage matters as well because cellular networks operate in specifically licensed bandwidths for a given area.

Relays for LTE will offer many of the same external features of regular towers, but will not have its own backhaul. Instead, it will pull in from a neighbor cell and then push out a new signal like that one. That will allow it to extend the range of a cell much further, and extend coverage. This is more useful in rural areas, where not as much backhaul is required to support a given area.

Lots of new TDD and FDD spectrum blocks approved

Clearwire’s 2.6GHz spectrum is now officially approved for usage with TD-LTE. It is defined as LTE band class 41. This is obviously required for Clearwire to migrate from WiMAX to LTE TDD.

Dish Network’s 2GHz S-band spectrum for North America is now approved for FD-LTE usage. It is defined as LTE band class 23. This is required for Dish Network to begin the process to procure equipment to deploy LTE, should it desire to do so.

LightSquared’s 1.6GHz L-band spectrum for North America is approved for FD-LTE usage. It is defined as LTE band class 24. While this is required for LightSquared to begin the process to procure equipment to deploy LTE, it will probably never happen because of interference issues.

Europe recently released 3.4GHz-3.6GHz and 3.6GHz-3.8GHz bands for wireless broadband usage. The 3GPP has approved TDD usage on both bands as LTE band classes 42 and 43, respectively.

Sprint’s LTE deployment required a new band class to be approved, so the 3GPP approved band class 25, which includes the existing PCS spectrum (previously approved as LTE band class 2) and adds the G-block PCS spectrum. While this is approved for Release 10, Sprint is using this with Release 8 and Release 9 level specification features. This does not mean Sprint is out of compliance or anything like that, though. Sprint just has to add support for the finished features in 3GPP Release 10 to upgrade to Release 10. This band essentially supersedes the previously defined band class for PCS (band class 2).

3GPP Release 11 – Coming soon to a carrier near you

3GPP Release 10 was completed at the end of 2011, giving plenty of time for telecommunications equipment vendors to make infrastructure equipment that is Release 10 compatible, and thus be able to advertise some degree of LTE-Advanced compatibility for equipment purchased in 2012. Release 11, on the other hand, is not scheduled to be finished until the very end of 2012. That being said, there are some features of the specification worth noting.

Extending FDD Upper 850MHz

The Cellular 850 band is unusual in that it is a American band that is used outside of the Americas as well. While PCS 1.9GHz has seen limited deployments in Asia due to CDMA One/CDMA2000 deployments there, the vast majority of CDMA One/CDMA2000 deployments were on Cellular 850. Currently, several separate band classes exist for portions of the 800MHz-900MHz range: band class 5 (Cellular 850 used in the Americas, Oceania, and South Korea), band class 6 (subset of Cellular 850 used in Japan), band class 18 (ESMR 800 used by Sprint in the US, Telus in Canada, and KDDI in Japan), and band class 19 (expanded version of band class 6 for Japan). Accordingly, the 3GPP merged band classes 5, 18, and 19 into a new global 850MHz band in order to improve economies of scale on that band. This works well with the FCC now allowing Sprint to deploy LTE on ESMR 800. This new band is LTE band class 26, and essentially supersedes all previously defined 850MHz frequency bands. No one has made equipment for the band yet.

Carrier aggregation

In order for LTE-Advanced to support larger amounts of data throughput, LTE-Advanced needs to support wider frequency bandwidths (notably 40MHz or more). In order to pull this off without losing backward compatibility, carrier aggregation was introduced in Release 10 to allow combining multiple pipelines together to create a larger single pipeline. It is essentially the same thing as channel bonding for wireline broadband networks.

While Release 10 did introduce the core specifications for this feature, Release 11 develops this feature further by defining potential band combinations and bandwidth sizes supported through aggregation. Consequently, carrier aggregation is the big target for Release 11.

AT&T, in particular, has pushed for approval of the following band combinations to be approved: Band 4 (AWS) with Band 17 (Lower 700 minus A block), Band 2 (PCS) with Band 17, Band 4 with Band 5 (Cellular 850), and Band 5 with Band 17. European network operators have pushed for Band 3 with Band 7 and Band 7 with Band 20. Verizon Wireless has pushed for Band 4 with Band 13 (Upper 700 C block) so that it can use carrier aggregation with its newly acquired AWS spectrum and its current LTE spectrum. American regional carriers are pushing for Band 4 with Band 12 (Lower 700) and Band 5 with Band 12.

AT&T is also working on getting the supplemental downlink channel in 700MHz it purchased from Qualcomm approved along with potential combinations. The current combinations suggested are with band 2, band 4, and band 5.

On the TDD side, intra-band carrier aggregation is being supported in order to allow more efficient utilization of the larger chunks of spectrum allocated in TDD bands. Europe and China have band class 38, Asia has band class 40, and Clearwire has band class 41. It is expected that 2x20MHz aggregations for LTE-Advanced will be common on TDD deployments.

Lower 850MHz band for Americas except the US

Carriers across the Americas (except the US) have spectrum on the SMR (specialized mobile radio) band and want to migrate from iDEN technology to LTE. Currently, the 3GPP is working on developing the band specification and will approve it as LTE band class 27. To be clear, this has nothing to do with the Cellular 850 spectrum, as these frequencies are below it. These were reserved quite some time ago for SMR usage, and have never been used for anything else.

Asia-Pacific Digital Dividend (700MHz)

Asia has finalized the spectrum to be freed up from the switchover to digital TV, and while the spectrum lies on the frequency range that the American bands do, it isn’t likely to be configured the same way because the 700MHz band plan for the USA is absolutely insane. No one wants to use that configuration if it can be helped. The 3GPP is working on figuring out the band plan with the various regulatory authorities in Asia.

LTE-Advanced is continuously evolving

Just like LTE, LTE-Advanced is continuously evolving to meet the needs of everyone who uses wireless broadband services. As the replacement for 2G and 3G networks that intends to unify the world under a single standard, it needs to be able to serve every possible use case. The 3GPP has a tough challenge ahead of itself. It needs to consider literally every market in the development of the standard, but it seems to be doing a good job right now.

There is more to LTE-Advanced, and more is always coming to the table. Expect far more improvements and features to come to LTE-Advanced. As an open standard with nearly infinite capabilities due to its all-IP system, anything is possible. As LTE-Advanced networks come online, we will see some truly innovative technologies develop that take advantage of these networks.

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Firefox 15 available to download, finally fixes add-on memory leak

Mozilla has released Firefox 15 for PCs, smartphones, and tablets. The most standout features are a completely silent background updater (like Chrome), significant memory footprint improvements, a built-in PDF reader, better SPDY protocol support, and a new native UI for Firefox Mobile on Android tablets.

Mozilla debuted an early version of the background updater in Firefox 12, but it still harried the user with various pop-ups. With Firefox 15, the browser now downloads and applies updates in the background, and then switches to the new version the next time you open the browser — just like Google Chrome.

The Firefox add-on memory leak has finally been fixed. For almost as long as I can remember, the only surefire way to reduce Firefox’s bloated memory footprint was to close it down. In theory, closing tabs should have the same effect — forcing add-ons to relinquish their memory allocations — but until now it hasn’t. Your mileage will vary, depending on which add-ons you use, but in general you should notice quite a big reduction.

The built-in PDF reader (pictured below), provided by PDF.js, is turned off by default but can be turned on by visiting about:config and setting pdfjs.disabled to false. After some preliminary testing, it seems about as capable as Chrome’s built-in PDF reader, but a bit slower. This is just a preliminary implementation though — it might speed up by the time final code ships in a later version.

The update to SPDY v3 brings Firefox 15 back into line with Chrome, which rolled out SPDY v3 in Chrome 19. SPDY is Google’s updated version of HTTP, and a direct competitor of Microsoft’s HTTP S&M. Both SPDY and S&M bring new and much-needed functionality to the very old HTTP spec, such as multiplexing, improved security, and modes that better support mobile devices. SPDY is an open source spec that can speed up surfing by up to 50%, but at the moment it’s only really used by Google’s web properties — still, you definitely notice the difference when using search or YouTube.

Finally, the desktop version of Firefox 15 has improved WebGL support (and a very cool playable FPS demo, if you want to appreciate what WebGL could do for browser-based games) — and the tablet version of Firefox Mobile has had its interface completely reworked (pictured above). If you don’t have WebGL enabled (if you use IE, for example), check out the video below.

For a complete list of changes, hit up the changelogs for Desktop Firefox 15 and Mobile Firefox 15.

Download Firefox 15 for Windows, Mac, or Linux. (Android link will follow soon, once the Play Store updates.)

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