Firefox 3.5.1 Allows Direct Audio Recording To Ogg-Vorbis
Through the newly released Jetpack 0.4, Firefox 3.5.1 users will be able to record audio directly in the web browser. Initially made for the simplification of Firefox add-ons development, Jetpack 0.4 comes with two new features: Audio Recording APIs and Page Mods APIs. Based on the audio encoding APIs, developers will be able to create add-ons which allows users to record high-quality audio in Ogg-Vorbis file format, directly from within the browser. The files can then be played back easily with new audio tag support introduced since Firefox 3.5.
The audio recording processes can be performed on all Firefox 3.5.x versions running on compatible platforms, like Windows, Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.
Regarding the capabilities of the new Jetpack 0.4 audio recording APIs, a short explanation was provided on Mozilla Labs blog: “Hot on the tail of the Firefox 3.5 release, Jetpack is adding the ability to record audio directly to Ogg-Vorbis format on all major platforms (i.e. Windows, Mac, and Linux). Firefox 3.5 added the ability to play sound with the <audio> tag, and now you can record it.”
On the other hand, the Page Mods APIs will permit developers to customize the features of any website viewed in the browser in “page mod”: “As Greasemonkey has shown, empowering developers to add features and functionality to any website is a powerful way to enhance the user experience of the Web. The new Page Mods APIs makes this really easy to do.”
Jetpack 0.4 is available for free download from the Mozilla Labs website. You just need to know only the basic web development technologies, such as HTML and JavaScript in order to use Jetpack APIs. Many tutorials about how to create your own prototypes with Jetpack are also available.
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