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Fusion Radar: April 20, 2012

April 20th, 2012 - by brittany - Salt Lake City, Utah

Newest Version of Firefox Disables Flash

Description

Mozilla’s upcoming release of their popular browser, Firefox, will have Adobe Flash disabled by default. This means on any of those pretty restaurant or beauty sites that use Flash technology to show large images or play relaxing elevator music, visitors will not be able to be able to see the content.

The movement away from Flash isn’t new (iOS users are all too familiar with the “Flash not supported message”, but Firefox’s abandonment of the technology is noteworthy, because it is the first desktop browser to make the move away from Flash.

In large part because of HTML5, Flash has a much lower implementation rate than it did several years ago. However, Mozilla’s move may be more of a marketing move (disliking Flash is a trendy position to advocate) than a usability move.

DIY Apps from Apple

Description

Apple recently filed a patent relating to DIY app building. Although no one knows for certain if or when Apple will release a product based on this patent, it stands to reason that making app creation available to the masses could be in the near future.

If This Then That

Description

IFTTT is an online tool that lets you create event driven program links, that makes the internet work for you. If you are like me, and yawned while reading the previous sentence, think of it as “Digital duct tape … allowing you to connect any two services together.” In some ways IFTTT reminds us of Yahoo! Pipes, another tool you can use to mashup services and data.

Applications

The example IFTTT gives is a connection between Instagram and Dropbox: If a friend uploads a picture to Instagram, then the uploaded photo is saved to Dropbox. Another usage would be to link your favorite-d tweets to a Buffer app account. When you favorite a tweet, it gets saved automatically to your buffer app queue for timed tweets.

Passpack

Description

Passpack is an online password manager and password generator.

Applications

Secure your accounts from prying coworkers’ eyes, phishing scams, forgetfullness, and a lack of creativity.

Related News

If you have a site that requires user authentication and you want to show your users the strength/security of their passwords, try this script called zxcvbn.