Private browsing mode has been included in the latest nightly release for Firefox 3.1 beta. This is a feature which didn’t quite make it into Firefox 3.
Private browsing allows you to browse the web “anonymously”. No cookies, cache, history, temporary files, or saved passwords will be stored while in private mode.
To turn on private browsing, go to Tools –> Private Browsing. You can download the latest nightly Firefox 3.1 beta build here.
Next generation releases of both Firefox and Opera will incorporate the royalty free Theora video codec.
The lossy video compression technology uses only has a small CPU footprint and will allow videos to be viewed in the browser without the use of a Flash player, or any other additional codecs installed.
Wikipedia however has been using the Theora codec for video for a while now. Kat Walsh, a Wikimedia Foundation board member believes “open media formats are critical for ensuring a future where everyone can create and share media freely”.
This is fantastic news for users. If Safari and Microsoft get on board, the future will be looking quite bright.
It looks like we won’t see a browser war for the iPhone just yet, with Apple refusing to let Opera Mini be released for the iPhone.
Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, Opera’s co-founder and chief executive said that “Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.”
Opera Mini is currently available for free for many other phones available today.
Computerworld has posted an article comparing Firefox’s 3.1 beta to the latest Chrome beta.
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols put both of these browser through the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test. Not surprising the results were very stunning with Firefox 3.1 beta taking it out.
Of interesting note is that Firefox 3.1 beta is almost 25 times faster when rendering JavaScript compared to Internet Explorer 7.
After the much anticipated release of Opera 9.6 a few weeks ago, Opera has released it’s first update for the 9.6 code branch.
Opera 9.61 addresses a few issues, including a problem with Opera Link which would cause duplicate enteries to appear. Several security flaws have also been fixed.
You can download the new version from the Opera website and you can see a full list of changes in the changelog.
New Google Chrome builds are showing support for Greasemonkey, albeit very basic and still in early stages of development.
Until now, Greasemonkey has been a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages.
Martin from gHacks writes “Only scripts in c:\scripts are loaded and only if the user adds the parameter –enable-greasemonkey by appending it to the program’s shortcut.”
Support for Greasemonkey has been added as of build 3499, which can be downloaded from the Chromium build FTP.
Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 Acid3 Results
After testing Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 on the Acid3 test, the new browser scores an impressive 89/100. This compares to other browsers as follows:
This is a great improvement and a step to being fully standards compliant. Mozilla still have some work to go to get to that magic 100 mark, but things are heading in the right direction.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 to the web. The new browser includes numerous improvements including:
You can download the Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 from the Firefox beta page. Currently the beta is available in over 35 languages.
I hope to put the browser through a few tests to see how it benchmarks in both Acid3 and JavaScript tests shortly. Stay tuned…
Sony has announced that the upcoming firmware version for PlayStation 3 will include support for Adobe’s Flash 9 player.
Firmware version 2.50 which should be released in the coming weeks will finally allow users to watch YouTube videos right from the consoles web browser.
This opens up a world of posibility, for things such as streaming HD movies through Flash on the PS3 will now be possible. It’s a great win for PS3 owners.
Fennec Acid3 Results
Mozilla has been working hard on it’s mobile version of Firefox dubbed Fennec. Building on top of Firefox 3’s reduced memory footprint, Mozilla is aiming to bring the desktop browsing experience to your mobile.
With the hastened development, the latest version of Fennec scores a very impressive 88/100 in the Acid3 test on Windows Mobile. In comparison Firefox 3 only scores 71/100, while Opera 9.6 scores 85/100.
Once released, Fennec is sure to set the mobile browser market on fire, giving stiff competition to already established browsers such as Opera Mobile. It’s sure to be an interesting year ahead for the mobile browser market.