Facebook Messenger for Firefox Is Official Now

Mozilla is making it official, it's now announcing that the Facebook Messenger experiment is live for Firefox Beta users. The app had been available over the weekend and Firefox Beta and Aurora users could have started using it already, but Mozilla only now announced it.

"For the last few months we’ve been building the Social API – a way to allow you to plug your favorite social sites into Firefox – and we are ready to start our first Social API test with Facebook Messenger for Firefox," Mozilla wrote in its announcement. "We’re really excited about it and need your help testing the feature to make it better as we get ready to release to all Firefox users," it said. The feature has been available, if you knew where to look, for a few days, but it should be much more visible now. By default, if you're running Firefox 17 Beta or Firefox 18 Aurora and visit Facebook, you could be invited to install Facebook Messenger for Firefox.

If you don't want to leave things to chance, you can visit Facebook's Messenger for Firefox page and turn it on in your browser. If you do enable it, everything should be familiar, the friends list is identical to the one on the site, the chat window too. In case you're wondering, you're not logged into chat by default, you have to enable it and you can disable chat or make yourself invisible without "turning off" the entire Facebook Messenger. Overall, the entire experience should be completely familiar to most people. The difference is, of course, that you're connected to Facebook all the time.

You see new messages as soon as they arrive, as well as get activity notifications almost in real-time. You don't have to keep a tab open, that you switch back and forth to, Messenger is always there in the sidebar. You can, of course, hide the sidebar or log out of Messenger at any time. The Social API, which enables Facebook Messenger for Firefox, is designed to support any type of social site. Twitter, Gmail, even a news app could be built on top of it. Mozilla envisions the Social API being used for anything from email to music listening. The Facebook integration is just one small step. There's another layer to all of this, Mozilla has been careful to protect your privacy, while enabling you to enjoy the benefits of always being connected.

Facebook Messenger for Firefox
Image credits to Mozilla

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Android 4.2 Leaked ROM Unveils with Multiple User Accounts

One of the features that Google is expected to include in the upcoming Android 4.2 operating system release is support for multiple accounts on the same device, the latest reports on the matter suggest.

There is no official confirmation on whether the feature will indeed be included in the new platform release or not, but the guys over at Android Police did find mentions of it in a recently leaked Android 4.2 ROM. Clues that such a feature was coming to Android have emerged online a while ago, and some more info on the matter is now available. Info extracted from the aforementioned leaked ROM shows that Google is getting ready to set new permissions for applications, so that they can be used by more than a single user on the same handset. The news site found out that Phone, Settings, and SystemUI featured some multi-user permissions in the aforementioned system dump, which comes as proof that the operating system could soon offer support for multiple accounts. Each user will be able to configure the device in the manner they like the most, starting with management settings, SystemUI, and phone book.

While each user will be able to create and delete accounts, it’s as yet uncertain which action will be available for switching users. Other findings related to the upcoming OS release include support for Parental Controls for each user, which include the option to allow Play Store purchases per account through the use of a PIN code. Google is also expected to bring a series of visual changes to the operating system, including the addition of a new set of icons for the calendar, gallery and camera. Details on how the new icons will look like haven’t emerged as of now, though it might not be too long before they do. The OS is expected to be officially announced on October 29th, and all the necessary details on it might arrive at that time.

Android logo
Image credits to Google

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ASUS PadFone 2 Quadrant Benchmark, Scores 7500

ASUS’ new PadFone 2 smartphone appears to be a beast right from the start, with its quad-core processor capable of delivering impressively high performance levels.

The device has already been benchmarked, and the score it delivered places it high above rival devices. In Quadrant, for example, it sits nicely at the top with a 7500 score. The guys over at mobilegeeks were those to run this test on the device, both with the PadFone slate on and off, and it registered high performance levels in both cases. More can be found in the video above.

For those out of the loop, we should note that the smartphone was announced with a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064 chip clocked at 1.5 GHz and accompanied by 2GB of RAM. The handset sports a 4.7-inch touchscreen display, while the accompanying slate comes with a 10.1-inch screen, and with a thinner body than the one of its predecessor.

ASUS Padfone 2 Quadrant Benchmark http://www.mobilegeeks.com ASUS has come out with a high end smartphone running Qualcomm's beefiest processor, the Snapdragon S4 Pro APQ8064. We take it for a test run with Quadrant and it bascially kills all competition, we've never seen scores this high.

We even have the 4.7 inch Padfone running the benchmark in the 10.1" 1280 x 800 tablet docking station.
Video credits to MiniPCpro

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Samsung Baffin, Affordable Quad-Core Smartphone for South Korea

South Korean mobile phone maker Samsung Electronics is reportedly gearing up for the release of a new quad-core smartphone on the local market, one that has been spotted with the codename of Baffin and model number SHV-E270.

Rumor has it that the new device will hit the market with an Exynos 4412 processor packed inside, a quad-core chip clocked at 1.4GHz and sporting an ARM Mali-400 MP GPU. Moreover, the new device is said to arrive with a WVGA (480 x 800) screen and with buttons placed beneath it. LTE connectivity will be included in the device, along with Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean.

The smartphone should hit the market at SK Telecom (SHV-E270S), KT (SHV-E270K) and LG U+ (SHV-E270L) in the country (with LTE / W-CDMA / GSM connectivity for the first and LTE/CDMA2000/W-CDMA/GSM bands for the second).

Samsung logo
Image credits to Samsung

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Run Windows 8 OS on Any PC with Western Digital My Passport Enterprise

As all special software features, Windows To Go cannot gain fame in absence of hardware that supports it but, fortunately, it is an easy enough capability to implement. Microsoft saw to it and Western Digital spared no time in taking advantage of that.

IT sales nowadays run on how assured consumers are that they are buying the right thing. That means that having a label clearly stating “Windows To Go certified” goes a long way, even though, theoretically, any external storage device, be it HDD, SSD or flash drive, should work that way. Western Digital has just announced that its My Passport Enterprise portable hard disk drive has been certified for Windows To Go. My Passport Enterprise is described as a 500 GB HDD with a sleek and compact design. Normally, it is used for storing important work documents and presentations and projects, but now it can be employed to run a customized version of the new operating system on any notebook, desktop and even Wintel tablets. As if that alone was not enough, WD also tossed in the BitLocker full disk encryption technology, which separates the data from the host PC's internal HDD and avoids accidental disclosure. No trace of the data is left on the host computer. All in all, the drive can be a useful, convenient even, tool for any businessman that wants to take his or her work with them wherever they go.

Prior to Windows 8, only Windows Embedded Standard 7 supported booting from a USB source. Windows To Go is more accessible and can be deployed with tools such as ImageX. The first time Windows To Go boots on a computer, it installs the drivers for the hardware found in it, with no reboot required. Finally, both USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 connections are supported. Western Digital is shipping My Passport Enterprise for $119.99 USD / 119.99 Euro.

Western Digital My Passport Enterprise
Image credits to Western Digital

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