Mozilla is bringing a voice assistant to its Firefox browser. The company has released an experimental, new add-on that lets you surf the web with just your voice. Called Firefox Voice, it’s capable of recognizing natural-language speech and can do much more than simply fire up websites on command.
Firefox Voice offers the ability to perform a whole bunch of browser-related tasks hands-free. Once installed, you can ask it to open websites, switch to another tab, take the current web page’s screenshot, and more. You can invoke it either by clicking the add-on’s button or pressing the keyboard shortcut. Firefox Voice also understands natural language which means you don’t necessarily have to stick to specific commands.
For instance, you can say “Who created Breaking Bad” and it will pull a little Wikipedia snippet with the creator’s details. Firefox Voice can also search inside compatible web pages through URL manipulation. With this, you can, for example, ask it to “look up Florence hotel reservation in Gmail.” On top of that, it can execute a wide range of browser tasks such as reading the page aloud, muting a tab, or translating a website.
Firefox Voice is compatible with media controls as well. So if you’re on a website that’s playing some audio, you can trigger the add-on and adjust the playback without reaching out for the keyboard. Mozilla has bundled a handful of additional handy functions for a more convenient experience, such as assigning a long command a shortcut or pulling up directions, although it’s worth noting that unlike the voice assistants you’re used to, Firefox Voice can’t talk just yet. It only shows the results on the screen.
Mozilla has built Firefox Voice through the Google Cloud Speech Service, which means your audio recordings are processed by both Mozilla and Google. However, the company highlights that you have the option to set your data to self-destruct immediately.
“When you choose to use Firefox Voice, your voice recordings are sent to Mozilla and Google’s Cloud Speech service for processing to provide you with suggested text. We do not keep the recordings or the transcripts of the recordings unless we specifically request it and you specifically consent,” Mozilla says in Firefox Voice’s Privacy Policy.
Firefox Voice is still in beta and to test it, you will have to sign up for it here. Once you’ve registered, look for a download link and instructions in your email inbox.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.