Mozilla Releases Thunderbird 8.0

Along with the new Firefox 8.0 release, Mozilla has also released version 8.0 of its Thunderbird E-mail client, for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux.  The new version, which is based on the same new version of the Gecko rendering engine as Firefox,  incorporates a number of changes, including:

• Add-ons installed by third party programs are now disabled by default
• New Search and Find Shortcuts
• Improved accessibility of the attachment list

There are also a number of other improvements, including fixes for several security vulnerabilities..  More information is available in the Release Notes.

As with Firefox 8.0, the first time you start the new version, you will get a dialog showing all installed add-ons, which will ask you to confirm the ones you want to keep.  This is a safety measure to alert you in case another application has installed an add-on without telling you.

You can obtain the new version via the built-in update mechanism, or you can download a complete installation package, in a variety of (human) languages.

Apple Updates Java for Mac OS X

Apple has released new versions of the Java run-time software for Mac OS X.  As Mac users probably know, Apple packages and releases its own Java updates, which means there is typically a delay between the availability of a new version (for Windows, Linux and UNIX) from Oracle, and the release of Apple’s version.  This new release from Apple corresponds to Java version 6 update 29, released by Oracle in October.   This release fixes a number of security flaws, some of them serious.   More details are available in the security bulletin.  There are actually two new Apple versions: Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 6, and Java for Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Update 1.

If you have Java installed on your system, I recommend that you update to the relevant new version as soon as you conveniently can.  You can use the built-in Software Update mechanism, or you can get the new version from the Apple Downloads page.