Finally! A beta for Firefox 4! Are you one of those who experience crashes lately? If yes, welcome to the club. If not, still read on! I might be able to make you change your mind about your current browser.
Last Tuesday, Mozilla announced their first beta for Firefox 4 and its ready for downloading and testing! Clicky.
The beta has several new features, including privacy and speed enhancements.
They said that the new features include privacy and speed enhancements. Finally! I remember whenever I used facebook chat, my Firefox lags, there were even certain occasions when the browser stopped responding and closed. It was just until recently that i was able to fix this properly through the application configurations by promising to "be very very careful".
In two to three weeks time, Mozilla plans to unravel a new beta version and other beta versions weeks later in accordance to the beta testers' feed backs.
The Firefox 4 Beta 1 added a new add-on manager which supports Google's WebM format and fixes some flaws in certain web standards that could expose users' browser history like some old browsers did.
Mozilla has moved the tabs to the top, changing the browser's look. The beta replaces the Menu bar on Windows 7 and Windows Vista PCs with a single Firefox button. These changes will soon be incorporated to the browser's Linux and Mac versions as well.
The crash protections(released first in Firefox 3.6.4) some of us know, is also included in Firefox 4's first beta. This protection allows the users to resume browsing by just refreshing the page after a plug-in crashes or freezes. Start up and page load responsiveness has also improved in the beta version.
Here are some of the other features added to the new version:
- Jetpack SDK (software development kit)
- websockets
- support for the new CSS3
- and many more (check the Mozilla website for more details)
In the future, Mozilla will speed up the browser through the use of various technologies such as hardware graphics acceleration and more asynchronous input/output.
Firefox 4 will include a feature that will let users synchronize their settings, passwords, bookmarks, history, open tabs and other customizations across multiple devices.
Firefox has been crashing a lot lately, and it would really be nice if they could finish the beta's and create a new release right away. But, all that takes time, so, until then, we'll have to be contented with our betas.
Most of today's teenager generation revolves around the internet, social networks online games, online virtual communities and what nots. The important thing is, can the browsers keep up with the users and the technology required to fuel our hunger? Whether they like it or not, they'll have to, otherwise someone else will.
So, what are you waiting for?
Also, if you have any questions, suggestions or any violent reactions, don't hesitate to post a comment or send us a feedback.
