Firesheep is a Firefox extension designed as a way to show just how insecure some websites are. You can sit on an open network and ‘listen’ for passwords to popular sites that don’t properly or fully implement HTTPS and SSL. The folks at codebutler want to call attention to poorly coded sites and users who don’t think before sending their passwords over open WiFi Networks (and yes, people with less high-minded goals can also use the tool).

PreCentral reader Sebastian has ported the plugin over to webOS. The above video shows Firesheep on the Pre easily hijacking a Gowalla session. The webOS Firesheep app does not show a list of nearby logged in accounts like the Firefox plug in, but in the video it automatically detects the Gowalla log in and takes it over. 

The lesson? Ask websites that don’t offer secure login to do so. Or use VPN (which, by the by, is built-in to webOS 2.0). Or just keep an eye out for Pre owners at your local Starbucks and pay special attention if one happens to look at you and cackle maniacally.

Source: Youtube; Thanks Sebastian!  

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Dang, I think I got it backwards! Firefox on Palm Pre…

Submit your suggestions on future PreDoodle comics!

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The folks over at Mozilla Labs recently posted a new concept smartphone – the Seabird – and we can’t help but be impressed by their thinking. While we’re sure they’d be the first to admit the device is years from possible hardware fruition (or it would have a battery life of two minutes), we can’t help but be impressed. We also couldn’t help but notice what was on the screen: Android. Yes, Mozilla, purveyors of all things open source used an open source operating system on their conceptual super phone. We’re disappointed that this dual-project infrared-sensing headset/remote-packing conceptual super device doesn’t pack an equally innovative conceptual open-source operating system with fantastical user interface options.

Our man Rene Ritchie over at TiPb holds a similar opinion. Now you might be thinking that as the editor of an iOS-focused website he’d be cheerleading against Android devices (partly his job), but he’s a pretty level-headed guy. And his editorial on the Seabird is a work of prophetical literature. It’s good stuff, and an alternative take on the huge marketshare gains makde by Android, so we’re going to point you over to TiPb right now to make the read. Oh, and we’ve got a video of the snazzy Seabird concept in action after the break. 

Source: Mozilla Labs; Via: Android Central

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We haven’t often lamented the built-in web browser on our webOS phones, but in all truthfulness it is lacking in some areas and hasn’t evolved all that much since the initial release of webOS. With the appearance of default web browser selection (continually grayed out) in webOS, it became clear that Palm intends to open up the market to additional browsers. What we’re seeing now is among the first for webOS, and it’s called PreFox.

As the name would imply, it’s Firefox for your Pre. Specifically, it’s a port of Mozilla’s mobile-bound Fennec browser to webOS. Shoehorning it into the appropriate packing was a five month ordeal for developer Dave Townsend of Fractal Brew, and there’s still plenty of work to be done to make it fully useable. The developer notes that testing has only been done on Sprint Pre, and that it wasn’t until more recent releases of webOS (specifically the versions that support C and C++ coding) that it was even possible to make it work at all. There are still some bugs (notably the Too Many Cards error) to work out, but it does work.

Townsend notes that work on PreFox is slowing at this point due to the nature of finding and identifying bugs. To that end, a request for additional beta testers has been put out, with instructions for installation and bug reporting available at the PreFox website. PreFox is, of course, in rough beta form, so while it is functional, it’s not yet to the point of serving as a full replacement browser for your webOS device (it is very very slow and sometimes crash-prone). That said, it’s still plenty promising with tabs,  rudimentary extension support, and more; we can’t help but be interested.

Source: Fractal Brew; Via: Alice Carback on Twitter

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Yup, that’s Firefox of the Linux variety, running on a Palm Pre. It’s the work of Dave Townsend, a developer for Mozilla that works on Firefox (among other open source projects). We don’t have much other info on it, but given the interface, we and Palm Developer Relations Team chief Dion Almaer came to a pretty easy conclusion about it: this is the kind of stuff you can do with the PDK. To quote Kool-Aid Man, OH YEAH!

UPDATE: Dave has posted a "how I did it" article on his blog. Instructions are absent, which is understandable given the hobby project not-even-in-alpha status of this project. All-in-all, it was about two days of work porting the Android project version of Firefox onto webOS, and it’s still buggy and the cramming of the Firefox UI onto the Pre’s screen isn’t exactly a great system. But it’s potential, and potential is something we’re rather fond of here.

Thanks to Bo for the tip!

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There is this test call the Acid3 Test, and it is designed to test a web browser’s compliance with web standards, with an emphasis placed on Document Object Model and JavaScript. For an operating system based on web standards, you might think that webOS would have been scoring fairly highly with the test from day one. Not so, it would seem. In the early days of webOS, the browser scored a pitiful 1/100. With the update to webOS 1.3.1, the browser scored a 73/100 – better, but still not great.

Now, with webOS 1.4 out and about, the browser’s standards compliance has taken another step forward, scoring a 92/100. Obviously, that’s a great step forward as far as the browser is concerned, and we have been receiving reports of better performance and rendering on all manner of sites as a result. The score also vaults the webOS browser (seriously, it needs a name) to the upper tier of mobile browser compliance, topped only by Mobile Safari (100/100), Opera Mini (98/100), Firefox on Maemo (94/100), and Android’s browser (93/100). Of note, Safari and Android are both powered by the same WebKit core that hums underneath the webOS browser (and webOS as an OS), so full standards compliance is a possibility. At the very least, the score is worlds better than before and far ahead of Internet Explorer (Mobile: 5/100, Desktop: 32/100). For 99.999999% of users a score of 92/100 is going to be more than good enough for their browsing experience.

jack87 in our forums also notes that several sites (like costco.com) that previously failed out on webOS are now working. How about you, seeing better rendering now that you’re all 1.4′d up?

EDIT: Anchors (links that lead to a specific point on a page, e.g. comments) work now too! This blogger = happy camper.

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Score another point for fast and easy development for webOS. Mozilla Labs has announced they’re working on a Weave Sync client for webOS. Weave is Mozilla’s way of syncing bookmarks, passwords, history, and even open tabs from your desktop Firefox to your mobile device (and eventually to mobile Firefox on your mobile device).

On webOS, the client is "all just tests," which is to say you’re going to be doing some digging into .js files to get it working. Also, the client is just a viewer for your data, there’s no syncing or editing here. That last is perhaps not likely to change anytime soon, as webOS has the browser pretty well locked down.

What about mobile Firefox for webOS. We’re not Mozilla, so we don’t know – what we do know is that if you hit the menu inside the launcher and tap "Default Applications," a placeholder is there to someday set a different browser as the primary browser. So webOS is architected to allow for mobile Firefox (or mobile whatever), should somebody wish to get their tech onto the devices.

thanks to everybody who sent this in!

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