One of Mozilla's big plans for the future is called 'Boot to Gecko,' and could result in a 'Firefox OS'.

Mozilla changed the Internet once. Will lightning strike twice for the Firefox developer?

That's what the company hopes will happen at the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona next week when it unveils the Mozilla Web Apps platform, a tripartite approach to app building that will level the playing field for building apps, the company said in a statement today.

The key leg of the Mozilla Web Apps platform is the Mozilla Marketplace. The major part of the statement was devoted to revealing that the Marketplace will throw open its doors to developers for the first time in Barcelona. The company hopes that it will attract those interested in developing apps that will be able to run on multiple platforms and across devices. Mozilla said the store will follow its mission statement for an open Web by pushing open Web technologies, such as HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.

Firefox to change its look--again (screenshots)

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The new look has been a long time coming for Mac users, now with better navigation, skin options, and more.

The Open Source VLC Media Player has been a long time favorite here at Download.com and a recent update gives the Mac app a complete overhaul to the interface.

VLC Media Player (Mac or Windows) made a name for itself as the open source alternative to default players from both of today's major operating systems. On Windows users would grab VLC to play files not supported by Windows Media Player and for Mac users, it was often the only way to play Windows-only media file types. VLC Media Player is not the only option for free video playback, but its one of the best, and this latest version gives the app a brand new look and several feature enhancements to sweeten the deal.

VLC Media player has always offered a number of tools and customization options to manage and watch video. Users get frame-by-frame advancement; granular speed controls allowing for on-the-fly slower or faster playback; and live recording of streaming video. There are also a number of effects you can add to your videos, and a full-featured audio equalizer with tons of presets to experiment with.

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Starting today, users of the Google Docs app for Android will get to collaborate in real time, while on the go. Just as on the desktop interface, collaborators will see the edits others are making, while they're making them, regardless of what device anyone is using. Real-time collaboration has always been a huge selling point for the desktop Google Docs, so perhaps this update will get more users to adopt the mobile version.

Also included with the update are a few interface changes that should make it easier to zip around and edit documents from your mobile device. Most notably, there's a rich text formatting toolbar at the top of the screen, offering options to add bold or italicized text, bullet lists, font and background colors, and more. It's a huge step up from the bare-bones editor that mobile users were forced to deal with in earlier versions of the app.

The updated Google Docs for Android (download) is available now in the Android Market.

Not long after Mozilla brought its browser to Android, the organization has adapted its Jetpack tools for building browser add-ons for mobile use, too.

"Now you can start developing add-ons for the mobile version of Firefox," said Dave Mason, Mozilla's product manager for add-on technologies, in a mailing list message yesterday about the latest Jetpack, formally called the Add-on SDK version 1.5. "For this initial release we have the page-mod API working so that you can, among other things, create add-ons that will display mobile-friendly versions of Web sites that do not have that option."

The mobile market is very important, given the tremendous growth in browsing from mobile phones and tablets, but Mozilla is having a tough time getting a foothold. The nonprofit organization is effectively shut off from Windows Mobile and iOS, and Google just released a beta version of its Chrome for Android.

But Mozilla is working hard on its Android browser--and building a browser-based mobile OS called Boot to Gecko (B2G) that it plans to showcase next week at Mobile World Congress. All this work is central to ... [Read more]