Is there anything Mozilla doesn’t create that facilitates your web surfing experience? Firefox 3 came out back in June, yet Mozilla is still working hard to provide its users with top end interactivity for its interweb softwares. Now, Mozilla wants to take its browser to the next level with instant messaging integrated into your web browsing. It’s called Snowl, that’s Snow and Owl combined for the less observant. Mozilla Labs lists a few key ideas behind their design phase:

• It doesn’t matter where messages originate. Whether they come from traditional email servers, RSS/Atom feeds, web discussion forums, social networks, or other sources, they are all the same.
• Some messages are more important than others, and the best interface for actively reading important messages is different from the best one for casually browsing unimportant ones.
• A search-based interface for message retrieval is more powerful and easier to use than one that makes you organize your messages first to find them later.
• Browser functionality for navigating web content, like tabs, bookmarks, and history, also works well for navigating messages.

As of now, Snowl is still in its prototype phase but is free to download at the link provided below. It supports two sources of messages: RSS/Atom feeds and Twitter. No word on whether or not Ogio will make a Snowl backpack. If they did, I’d rock it. Hit the jump for more information:

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I’ve got a problem and it’s with my former employer Michael Arrington. It’s not a personal problem at all, it’s just that he’s not making sense when it comes to his little Firefox Tablet he’s trying to build. Oh, and be warned - the page is bogged down by a gazillion comments, which brings me to my main point:

Michael Arrington owns a blog network, not a hardware distribution company. I have no doubt in my mind that the man is gifted enough to create a piece of a hardware that’s related to the Internet somehow. My main issue is that TechCrunch thinks its little Firefox Tablet can be manufactured for around $200. Wait a second, did I say $200? Oh right, that’s what was originally said and then changed to $300 later on. So already the price dispute is becoming bullshit.

If the price for the tablet exceeds $400, it’s a pointless effort. You can scoop up an Eee PC, Dell E Mini or iPhone for cheaper and they’ll all do a lot more than just browse Firefox. I know you love web apps Michael, but take a breather for a second and think about all of this.

You claim you want a touchscreen and a built-in webcam all for ~$300? Ridiculous. I assume you’re trying to profit off this - after all, why else would you even go for it? After browsing around, I found 12-inch touchscreens online for around $300. I realize that buying in bulk could lower that, but you’re forgetting the guts of this thing: CPU, RAM, and your 4GB SSD you requested. Bro, for $300, you are not getting this. I don’t care if you go as open-source as possible. There is just no way in hell TechCrunch is going to produce a touchscreen Internet browser to run web applications for $200 $300.

The specs he’s asking for, specifically, are:

Here’s the basic idea: The machine is as thin as possible, runs low end hardware and has a single button for powering it on and off, headphone jacks, a built in camera for video, low end speakers, and a microphone. It will have Wifi, maybe one USB port, a built in battery, half a Gigabyte of RAM, a 4-Gigabyte solid state hard drive. Data input is primarily through an iPhone-like touch screen keyboard. It runs on linux and Firefox. It would be great to have it be built entirely on open source hardware, but including Skype for VOIP and video calls may be a nice touch, too.

Don’t forget the competition from existing Internet tablets like the Nokia N800, Michael.x

Finally, you ask your readers for help in building it. When your product is finished and goes to market, how will these people be fairly compensated for their work? That’s what I really want to know. I could go on and on for hours about this but I think I’ve summed up the flaws in Arrington’s idea quite nicely. Hey, if he succeeds in pulling it all off and shoving it in my face, more power to him. I’d buy a $200 Firefox Tablet.

You may recall from our Father’s Day guide that I recommended Firefox 3 for a download. After all, it’s free, safe and full of computational power. Now that it’s June 17th, it’s time to help set a Guinness World Record for most software downloads in a 24-hour period.

Head on over to SpreadFirefox.com and pledge to to download FF3 when it’s released. Speaking of which, it’s June 17th and I have yet to see the official release of Firefox 3 become available. What gives, Mozilla? Delaying the inevitable?

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Update: Stix points out that FF3 will be released at 10AM PST. Thanks!

Update #2: Hack a Day tells the world how you can get FF3 early!

How big of a fanboy do you have to be to put your dog through the hassle of shaving a mohawk strip down the center of its back and then painting it Firefox orange. Can’t the ASPCA do something about this? Come on, animal cops, this is clearly animal cruelty.

Now, if only the doggy’s little bed was a little globe pillow, they’d be all set. How could you forget the blueness? And they call themselves nerds. — Andrew Dobrow

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Just visit the site. Yeah, it really does look like that (if you are using IE, not only are you crazy, you won’t get this article). That, ladies and gentlemen, is what a broken CSS file looks like. Walmart’s new video service is broken in Firefox! How can you expect to gain huge profits when you alienate over 10% of the people on the internet. Walmart needs to realize that, even though techies probably wouldn’t use Walmart to download videos, they are still the only one’s who really know how. By alienating them, it’s more than a shot in the foot. It’s more like a saw to the ankle. Yes, it’s that bad. –Nik Gomez

Walmart Video Downloads [via Digg.com]

Firefox merch is probably some of the best merch that money can buy. If you are one of the very inteligent people across the world who have made the decision to be a convert of a clean and extendable browser, that little picture of a T-Rex head should be very recognizable to you. While it isn’t the Firefox symbol, it is the symbol for Mozilla (they make Firefox). This very nice backpack that is made by Ogio Metro lets you show off your technical knowledge without you saying anything. Also, if you happen to be one that likes to thrash your backpack, this comes with a 30-year warrantee. They obviously stand behind the quality of their products, which says about the company as a whole. So why is this a backpack for your laptop? It has a ceter storage area for your large stuff, a laptop sleeve that opens from the side, a place for your power cords and mouse, and as stated before, the dino head is freakin’ sweet! This backback is being sold for a reasonable $70. For laptop protection, it’s definitely worth it. — Nik Gomez

Mozilla Ogio Metro Backpack [via Uncrate]

Mozilla has released an update for the best browser in the world: Firefox! The update version is 2.0.0.1 and as you might guess by this minute version change, not too much has visibly changed in the browser. There have been some security updates that fix some bugs Firefox has. The update has also added Microsoft Vista support (save for a couple caveats), which should be launching January 21, 2007. With the recent announcement that Firefox has reached the 25% market penetration, Mozilla cannot afford to have holes in their amazing browser which has gained its fame from its air-tight security and easy implementation of extensions and themes (add-ons). Go ahead, update Firefox and keep your computer safe. – Nik Gomez

Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.1 [via The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Shouldn’t Mozilla be spending their time fine tuning Firefox 2.0 before letting outlandish future projects get in the way? Of course they should, but in today’s lightining speed internet world, the name of the game is more, more, faster, more productive, more, more. So for those who love getting their hands on early software, here’s a little 3.0 goodness to keep you busy.

The early plans of Firefox 3.0 seem to focus on multi-platform integration. With the use of vectoring imaging and things we don’t quite understand because we are not from the year 2010 like the guys over at Mozilla. I think their attempt at platform integration is a lost cause though. Firefox will be the browser of choice by then if they focused more on their marketing then on their development of buggy software. — Andrew Dobrow

Download Firefox 3.0 Alpha here [Mozilla, via Gizmodo]