Posts tagged Firefox
Mozilla unveiled Prism 1.0 Beta
May 9th
Today Mozilla has announced the release of the beta version of Prism 1.0, a cross-platform utility that allows users to run Web applications directly from their desktops.
Mozilla said in a blog post that the ability to run stand-alone web apps and access them like normal desktop apps provides instant benefits to end users. With the release of Prism 1.0 beta we are ready to start fostering an ecosystem that makes it easier for developers to create and distribute compelling web app bundles.
According to Mozilla, tens of thousands of end users have installed Prism-enabled sites. Based on their feedback, as well as the experience of website creators, Mozilla team has added more features to bring the user experience of web apps even closer to that of their desktop counterparts.
According to Mozilla, thousands of end users have already installed Prism-enabled sites. Notable features in version 1.0 include:
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New API functionality for allowing Prism-enabled web sites more desktop like power.
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Ability to set fonts, proxy settings and other application-specific settings.
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The ability to clear private data on demand.
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Applications are automatically updated when new Prism versions are available.
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Tray icon support, as well as submenus for dock and system tray menus.
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Full OS X 10.4 support, and further OS X specific enhancement.
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Support for SSL exceptions.
Find out more about Prism 1.0 beta and download the standalone version and Firefox extension from new Prism website.
Mozilla releases Firefox 3.5 Beta 4
Apr 28th
Just after the release of the Firefox 3.0.10, Mozilla has rolled out the final and the fourth beta of Firefox 3.5 and it’s available to download now, and it seems that Firefox 3.5 is not far away. This is the sixth development milestone release of Firefox 3.5.
Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 10 months.
The browser update is said to include better performance, improved Private Browsing functionality and a number of new web-programming features. The browser is now faster as it takes advantage of the TraceMonkey engine for running websites’ JavaScript programs.
Private browsing now leaves no trace on your computer at all, so prying eyes can’t see the websites that you look at when you have a bit of, er, ‘me time’.
Geo-browsing
Other improvements include: built-in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) technology for exchanging data between servers and browsers; support for tags to describe audio and video content; and support for location-based browsing.
The beta is ready to use now, but Mozilla does note on its website that “while this release is considered to be stable, it is intended for developers and members of our testing community to use for early evaluation and feedback.
Read the Released Notes here.
Download Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 Now.
Firefox 3.0.9: Release is available now
Apr 22nd
Yesterday Mozilla released a security and stability update for Firefox 3.x users.
Firefox 3.0.9 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux users as a free download from getfirefox.com.
It is strongly recommend that all Firefox users should upgrade to the latest release. Firefox 3 users will receive an automated update notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied manually by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.
For a list of changes and more information, please see the Firefox 3.0.9 release notes.
Firefox 3.0.9, the Web browser’s third update this year, fixes two critical vulnerabilities in the Firefox browser engine and two in its JavaScript engine, according to a security advisory posted Tuesday:
Mozilla developers identified and fixed several stability bugs in the browser engine used in Firefox and other Mozilla-based products. Some of these crashes showed evidence of memory corruption under certain circumstances and we presume that with enough effort at least some of these could be exploited to run arbitrary code.
Download Firefox 3.0.9 Now.
Mozilla rolls out Weave 0.3
Mar 31st
Behold, Weave 0.3 has been made available to the public.Weave Sync is a prototype that encrypts and securely synchronizes the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, so that your desktop, laptop and mobile phone can all work together.
In short it attempts to synchronize your Firefox experience with Fennec. and so on.
Here are a list of a few features that it provides:
- Get exactly same results on the Smart Location on each and every firefox browsers, thus enabling you to reach your favorite sites with just a small number of keystrokes.
- Making it possible for you to open any tab you have opened on any of your Firefox browsers.
- Have an exact copy of all the bookmarks on every single Firefox browsers.
- Conveniently sign in to your favorite and frequently visited sites using your saved passwords.
- All of this can be done in a secured environment since Weave Sync encrypts your user data before uploading it to Mozilla’s servers, thus enabling only you to access your data.
The features which are new to the 0.3 version include:
- Increased and improved reliability and performance.
- Provide supports to mobile browsers via Fennec.
- Supports and complements the 0.3 server architecture.
Enough talking about its features, coming to the part how to use it and test. To use it , you must have Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 installed. Here are the links where you can download both Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 and Weave 0.3
Mozilla Labs roll out a developer release for Weave
Mar 4th
Mozilla Labs have rolled out a developer release named Weave M4 Development Milestone for the Weave Client. The current release is targeted solely towards testing.
Weave, launched way back in 2007, is an experiment by Mozilla Labs attempts to identify ways for enhancing Firefox user experience, providing users more control over their personal information. It also focuses on providing developers various options for building innovative online experiences.One important area for exploration is the blending of the desktop and the Web through deeper integration of the browser with online services.
The development uptil now has focused mainly on enabling Weave Sync to encrypt and synchronize the Firefox experience across multiple browsers, between desktop and mobile devices to be specific, in a secured manner.
The M4 development milestone is an developer release of the Weave client released early. The release is on track with the planned development milestones. This development milestone is available only for testing purposes, and to solicit wider testing and feedback from the Mozilla community.
The new features in M4 are :
- Preliminary support for Fennec for all data types, i.e. bookmarks, history, tabs, and saved passwords.
- Redesigned sync protocol and server architecture.
- Client optimization to improve CPU and memory efficiency.
- services.mozilla.com now hosted on a redesigned hardware server cluster.
If you are interested in getting yourself involved with testing and development tasks, register yourself for a Weave account, install the latest development milestone and get your hands dirty.
Apple releases Beta version for Safari 4
Feb 25th
Yesterday(24th February, 2009), Apple released Beta version for their browser namely “Safari 4″. Apple’s share gaining web browser contains the latest Javascript engine. It supports the latest web standards.
Safari contains an engine dubbed as “Nitro”, which is said to run Javascript 4.2 times faster than Safari 3. According to Apple, this beta version contains 150 features in total.
Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing stated:
Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward. Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications.
In terms of performance, Apple asserts that the latest Beta release executes Javascript 30 times faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer, in comparison to Firefox 3, Safari runs 3 times faster. It loads HTML web pages 3 times faster than Microsoft and Mozilla browsers .
Safari contains a handful of new user interface related features such as:
- Top sites, which display a certain amount of frequently visited web pages, so that user can access their favorite sites with a single click. Moreover this feature also notifies the user if any of their favorite sites were updated since their last visit by displaying a star on the top right corner of that site’s wall preview. This is a feature which you do not find in IE or firefox
- Cover Flow, to make searching web history or bookmarks “as fun and as easy as paging through an album art in iTunes.”
- Full History Search, which enables the user to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages to easily access their recently visited sites.
- Smart Address Field, which automatically and dynamically completes web addresses by displaying a list of suggestions from Top Sites, bookmarks and browsing history.
- Smart Search Field, which enables the user to fine tune their search with recommendations from Google Suggest or a list of recent searches.
- Full Page Zoom, which enables you to take a closer look at any website without affecting the quality of the site’s appearance.
- Windows like look for Windows version of Safari, and uses standard font rendering and native title bar, borders and toolbars.
- Built in tools for web developers to debug, tweak and optimize a website for peak performance and compatibility
Firefox 3.1 release likely to be delayed
Feb 22nd
There are reports that suggest that release of Mozilla Firefox version 3.1 is likely to be delayed. The reason for this delay is attributed to the problems posed by “TraceMonkey”. Some of the developers have suggested to remove the new Javascript Engine dubbed as TraceMonkey so that release of Firefox can get back on track.
Firefox developer David Baron seemed puzzled regarding how long Firefox 3.1 should be held up by TraceMonkey problems. He quoted:
Without TraceMonkey, we probably could have shipped 3.1 final by now, or, if not now, within the next month.
Mozilla has made most out of their Javascript engine, for example performance boost since its introduction last summer. However the bugs of TraceMonkey and the slow pace in patching them is the primary reason for the delay in releasing their next version.
Few Mozilla Developers are of the view that removing TraceMonkey would solve the delay problem. However it seems that removal of TraceMonkey is not an optiom. Mike Shaver, Mozilla’s vice president of engineering stated:
We’re always looking at all of our choices, but I don’t think it’s likely. TraceMonkey is a big part of Firefox 3.1, and a big part of what we want to have for users.
Shaver went on to say that Firefox 3.1 in its current state is still “quite a stable product”.
Mozilla Firefox 3.1 was once thought of as a “fast-track” update to June 2008′s Firefox 3.0. However in the current situation the new browser’s progress has been much slower than originally planned. At one point, Mozilla was planning a final release as early as during the last months of 2008, and hinted that it would use just a single beta to do so but that did not happen.
