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Firefox for Tablets on Nightly

September 13, 2011

Firefox for Tablets

We, Firefox Mobile front-enders, have been working hard for the last few weeks to get the new Firefox UI for tablets in place for general testing. It has now reached a functional state that is good enough for getting some early feedback. So, how can you help us?

First of all, you can simply install Fennec’s nightly build on your Android tablet and give us some thoughtful feedback on the UI. File bugs for the missing bits from the planned design, report interaction problems, let us know about broken bits, etc.

Secondly, if you want to contribute code, have a look at our current list of tablet-related bugs—see the dependent bugs—and let us know what bugs you want to work on. Setting up a Fennec development environment is fairly simple, you can find instructions in the wiki. Feel free to ask for help either on IRC (#mobile at irc.mozilla.org) or on the specific bug reports. Just ping mfinkle, mbrubeck, wesj, sriram, or me.

Keep in mind that this is very early stage work. There are lots of rough edges and design is continuously evolving. In case you missed it, Ian Barlow, from our Mobile design team, has blogged about the tablet UI design a couple of weeks ago—definitely worth reading. This is all looking very promising and we can’t wait to get it out to users once it’s ready!

Hello Mozilla!

August 23, 2011

This is my first post aggregated on both Planet Mozilla and Planet Mozilla Mobile. I guess it’s a good time to introduce myself to the Mozilla community. I joined Mozilla about a month ago to work on Firefox Mobile. I’ll be mostly focusing on UI-related bits and pieces of Fennec as part of the front-end group—which is in fact what I’m most passionate about.

Before Mozilla, I worked for three years at litl—a Boston-based startup—where I hacked on the cloud-based OS that powers the webbook. The litl OS is almost entirely written in JavaScript and it was while working on it that I really got hooked into the language. Before litl, I was part of Maemo’s UI framework team at Nokia where I worked throughout the entire development cycle of the N810 internet tablet.

I’m also a long time GNOME contributor. I’ve done all sorts of things in the project such as being a member of GNOME Foundation’s Board of Directors, being part of GNOME’s release team, and maintaining a few official modules. I don’t hold any official positions in the project anymore but I’m still working on a cool spare-time project based on GNOME platform.

My first month at Mozilla has been great overall. To be honest, I felt a bit overwhelmed in the first couple of weeks. It’s a quite humbling experience to join such a large community full of extremely talented and passionate contributors. It’s a whole new world to me and I’m learning quite a bit everyday—which is the very reason I joined Mozilla anyway. I hope to be blogging soon about the latest news on Fennec development. For instance, there’s some really exciting work being done on the tablet UI for Fennec now! Stay tuned!

Desktop Summit 2011

August 02, 2011

I could not attend GUADEC last year for a very good reason. So I’m really happy that I’ll be able to go to Berlin for the second Desktop Summit this year! This is my first GNOME conference without holding any official roles in the project since 2007. This means I’ll hopefully have more time to just hang out with my fellow hackers. I’ll arrive on the 6th of August and leave on the 10th.

I guess it’s a good time to announce that I’ll be giving two talks this year. The first one is about GNOME development in JavaScript with Gjs. It will be on the 7th of August (Sunday) at 9h40 in the morning. Hopefully, a few attendees will wake up earlier for this talk!

The second talk is about The Board, one of my current pet projects, which you have probably heard about. I’ll demonstrate the current features and talk about the future plans for the app. I hope to finish some awesome new features in time for the conference. Let’s see. This talk will be on the 8th of August (Monday) at 14h40.

This is also my first open source conference as a Mozillian. So, if you want to know a bit more about Firefox Mobile, just find me at the conference venue for a chat. All in all, I’m very excited about the conference this year! See you all there!

Orixá Mutante

July 05, 2011

Orixá Mutante

Davi Moraes is mostly known as the guitarist who played with famous Brazilian artists like Caetano Veloso and Vanessa da Mata. He’s a remarkable sideman but his solo albums are well worth having a look. Orixá Mutante is Davi’s second album released in 2004.

The album opens with Ganzá which has one of the grooviest guitar riffs I’ve ever seen. Som das Ruas follows with high-vibe funky beat. Pretoriana and I’m Still in Love with You bring the reggae sauce to the pot. Tô na Sua is a slow tempo funky balad with amazing vocalized guitar solos. Liquidificador de Orixás is a punchy afrobeat a la Femi Kuti. The album also features the original recording of Café com Pão which became a big hit a few years later in Salvador’s carnival.

Orixá Mutante is a great showcase of what I consider the best side of axé music. A fusion of all sorts of music genres, from Afro-Caribbean to funk. Style-wise, this album is similar to some of the best stuff by Carlinhos Brown such as Omelete Man which is, in my opinion, Brown’s greatest masterpiece. What differentiates Davi from Brown is his lyrical style as well as his strong focus on the overlayed guitar riffs.

This album should definitely be in your playlist if you enjoy good afro-groovy music!