Firefox has released a new beta of their web browser called Firefox “Lorentz,” a test build of Firefox 3.6.3 that’s designed to minimized crashes. Previously, when a plugin caused a crash in Firefox, the whole browser went down in flames too. But in Lorentz, this will no longer be the case. The page running the errant plugin will offer you the ability to submit a crash report while the rest of the browser remains up-and-running like usual. The improved stability is due to Lorentz’s process isolation, a feature which runs plugins as processes separate from the web browser itself.

Does this sound familiar? It should, if you’re a Google Chrome user.

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Google Chrome, the speedy little web browser from the Internet search giant, introduced the idea of isolated processes when the browser launched back in fall 2008. As explained by a Googler on the company’s official blog, Chrome put “each tab in an isolated sandbox,” so it could “prevent one tab from crashing another.”

The same philosophy is now seen in Firefox’s latest. The Lorentz build, which initially focuses on just Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime and Microsoft Silverlight, isolates plugins in separate instances, too. The end result? A browser that doesn’t completely tank quite so often.

If you do end up with a page that goes rogue, however, the screen turns grey and you’re notified of the plugin crash by way of a text message and a sad-faced lego-like logo. (See picture).

This image also seems to be cribbed from Chrome’s playbook as it closely resembles the sad tab image that accompanies Google Chrome’s “Aw Snap!” message that appears when something goes wrong with a web page. (Then again, a sad computer icon isn’t anything new, as Mac users will certainly tell you.) But in this case, it’s another reminder of how Firefox, once thought to be leading the way in browser innovations, now seems to be following in Google’s footsteps.

That said, Firefox enthusiasts are sure to welcome this change. And if you want to get all hacker-ish, you can even configure Firefox to isolate more plugins, too, as the Mozilla Links blog explains (via LifeHacker):

To have the Adobe Reader plugin running on its own process, create a boolean preference in about:config, name it dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.nppdf32.dll, set it to true, and restart. For Java, the preference must be named dom.ipc.plugins.enabled.npjp2.dll. You just need to know the name of the library (which you get from about:plugins), and create the preference accordingly.

To try Lorentz for yourself, you can grab the latest build here.

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As you might imagine, conversations tend to be more productive and enjoyable when they’re not interrupted and cut short all the time.  Google’s made a smart move, then, by upgrading Google Talk in several respects.

The upgrades actually pertain to one of Google Talk’s most advanced features: the voice and video chat plug-in.  As for what they do, users should experience fewer crashes when newer Macs are in the mix and benefit from increased webcam compatibility.

On the Google Talkabout blog, Google also promised increased plug-in stability and “fixes to the infrastructure used to set up and connect your video calls.”
 
This update would be something of a big deal under any circumstances; the last post on the Google Talkabout blog was made in September of last year, so the search giant’s proven that it hasn’t forgotten about this product.

But here’s a (big) added bonus: Jessan Hutchison-Quillian and Mikael Drugge, who are software engineers, wrote “From users who have chosen to ‘Report quality statistics’ in their chat settings, we can see a substantial increase in call connection rates and a big decrease in the call drop rate (see chart below).”

Google Talk looks to be much more useful now.

When you’ve got a global audience, maybe it’s good to make sweeping, ambitious statements. Maarten Lens-Fitzgerald, co-founder of Augmented Reality browser company Layar, was interviewed by CNN today and took the opportunity to claim that AR on phones is going to be so big in the future that only voice will be more popular.

Maybe. Many people in the Augmented Reality world are rolling their eyes at Layar’s incredible media exposure. They worry that relatively simple implementations of this technology paradigm will create such a bubble of hype that software developed over decades will suffer as well, if public opinion crashes in a let-down from high expectations.

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Fact of the matter is, sometimes Layar and other AR services work well and sometimes they don’t. None of the mobile applications currently available actually process the live video they are looking at and respond, some just postulate at what should be where you’re looking and others look for a very specific marker.

In other words, it’s not at all like the Terminator view shown by CNN to illustrate the concept. Live video AR (called “true AR” by some in the industry) is just beginning to make an appearance on mobile devices. Layar could not identify pant sizes walking down the street if it wanted to.

Either way, here we are: AR is becoming the hot new thing and not just among geeks. It’s hitting the mainstream. From CNN profiles like this to the next issue of Esquire Magazine. Even the New York Times is beginning to explore the possibilities – though the Times is both mainstream and full of super-geeks.

What do you think? Is Augmented Reality the next step for the internet? Displaying data about the world, on top of our view of the world, certainly seems compelling. Could mobile AR overtake traditional mobile browsing, photography, etc. and be second only to voice as the way people use their phones?

It seems possible. Here comes the future, when we get to find out.