August 19th, 2009
Jetpack is an experiment in using open Web technologies to enhance the browser, with the goal of allowing anyone who can build a Web site to participate in making the Web a better place to work, communicate and play.
Aligned with Mozilla’s goal of enabling open video and audio on the Web, we are pleased to announce the release of Jetpack 0.4, which includes experimental support for recording audio directly to Ogg-Vorbis. These new audio encoding APIs will allow developers to build Jetpacks that record high-quality audio directly from within the browser, which can then be played back using Firefox 3.5’s new audio tag support.
This update to the rapidly evolving Jetpack APIs also enables the ability for developers to add features or functionality to any website being viewed in the browser using the “page mod” API.
What’s New?
Audio Recording APIs
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. Live streaming coming soon. Check out the Voice Memo demo which lets you annotate any webpage you are looking at with your voice. You can also check out the Audio Recording API documentation.
In Jetpack using audio is as simple as:
jetpack.future.import('audio');
jetpack.audio.recordToFile();
var path = jetpack.audio.stopRecording();
The result is an audio file encoded in Ogg-Vorbis, which you can then playback with jetpack.audio.playFile(), or if you choose to upload the file to a remote location, using the <audio> tag.
Page Mods APIs
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. You can see them in action in the anti-procrastinator demo, or in the Page Mods API documentation.
Get Involved
Mozilla Labs is a virtual lab where people come together online to create, experiment and play with Web innovations for the public benefit. The Jetpack experiment is still in its infancy and just getting started. There are many ways to join the team and get involved:
- Install and play around with the initial Jetpack API and demos
- Write a JEP
- Report a bug
- Grab the source code and fix a bug or add a feature
- Discuss, debate and add to the design in the Jetpack discussion group
- Join us in #jetpack on irc.mozilla.org
We’re also looking for a full-time product manager and software engineers to join Labs and work on Jetpack! What title is better than Jetpack PM? Check out the career opportunities available.
– Anant Narayanan and David Dahl on behalf of the Jetpack development team.
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