The latest code freeze for Firefox 3.5 beta 4 (formerly 3.1) deadline has slipped. The reason being due to some remaining outstanding priority 1 issues.
“Code freeze was scheduled for today, but as just announced, some of the P1 blockers have not yet been resolved and so we’ve delayed the freeze to wait for these fixes,” said Firefox’s Director Mike Beltzner.
Beta 4’s release is still slated for next week. A list of remaining P1 blockers can be found on Bugzilla.
Good news everyone! Google Chrome is getting faster. The Google Chrome Blog has details of the new beta, which suggest that the next version of Chrome is up to 35% faster.
The benchmarks used include Google own V8 benchmark, where the browser was an 25% faster, and the Sunspider benchmark which achieved a result 35% faster than the current stable release.
These improvements should make their way in to the stable release shortly.
After numerous delays, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 has finally been released.
The release fixes many outstanding issues from Beta 2, and improves features and performance such as private browsing and the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
The full details of the new beta are available in the release notes, while the new beta can be downloaded from Mozilla.
Apple has released Safari 4 beta to the public.
The release is incredibly impressive, with over 150 new features, including support for some HTML5 elements along with improvements in the rendering engine.
Safari 4 also scores an impressive 100/100 in Acid 3 which tests a browsers standards compatibility. Opera 10 alpha and Safari 4 beta are now the only two main web browsers to reach this feat.
Safari 4 includes a new JavaScript rendering engine called Nitro. It’s claimed to be 4 times faster than Firefox 3.1 and 6 times faster than Internet Explorer 8. Benchmark results should be out soon.
Users can download Safari 4 beta for both Windows and Mac today.
Mozilla has delayed Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 for a second time, citing numerous bugs in the browsers new JavaScript engine.
Last Wednesday’s status meeting for 3.1 reveale there are still 18 bugs remaining. The meeting minutes show the extent of the delay. “At this time, we don’t have a good estimate for when we’ll be done”.
After the last delay, Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 was expected to be released Febrary 2nd. A new release date is not yet known.
Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.1 Beta 2. The new version comes with plenty of bug fixes and a final set of features which are expected to be in the final release of Firefox 3.1.
New features include:
A full list of features can be found in the Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 release notes. Users already using Beta 1 will be automatically updated, while new users can download Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 here.
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…
Google has just opened up Chrome’s dev channel. The dev channel gives early access to new features and bug fixes. Google promises to release Chrome updates to the dev channel frequently, providing webmasters the ability to test their sites and script with the latest version of the Chrome browser.
Google does warn however that dev channel releases are prone to be less stable than their Beta cousins released on the main Google Chrome website.
To subscribe to the dev channel, you simply need to download and install the Google Chrome Channel Chooser. Full details and installation instructions can be found on the dev channel website.
Opera has released a beta version of its next generation web browser. The browser includes some fancy new features, including Link It. Link It allows you to synchronise searches and typed history across multiple computers. You can read a full list of changes in their changelogs.
Included in the release is a new version of Opera Mail. You can download the new beta software from the Opera Software website. Happy testing!