Applications
developer Mozilla announced the release of Firefox 4 beta, the latest version
of the company’s popular Web browsing application. The beta offers easier
account and new device setup for Firefox Sync, expanded support for three-dimensional
graphics in the browser, and a revamped Firefox Add-ons Manager, among other
features.
The
streamlined Firefox Sync setup is designed to make it easier to bring Awesome
bar history, bookmarks, open tabs and passwords across a user’s computers and
smartphones. Based on user feedback, Mozilla also made it much easier to set up
Firefox Sync while still securing Firefox data with the same encryption.
In addition, Firefox 4 beta supports WebGL for most modern built-in graphics
cards, which is designed to make it easier for developers to create interactive
3D games, vivid graphics and new visual experiences for the Web without the use
of third-party plug-ins. WebGL is an open standard for accelerated 3D graphic
rendering on the Web that enables developers to build applications that until
now required a user to install plug-ins.
With
the revamped Firefox Add-ons Manager, add-ons now update automatically. The
Add-ons Manager is available on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms.
“Combined with our previous work to bring open HTML5 technologies for
animation, video, and sound to the Web, developers can now create amazing
experiences that are rendered directly in the browser, combining themselves
with live data from the Internet,” wrote Mozilla’s Mike Beltzner. “We are working
with the amazing community of add-ons developers to get the gallery of
thousands of beneficial and fun add-ons ready to customize the features, look
and functionality of Firefox 4 Beta.”
In October, Mozilla released its Firefox 4 beta 1 for Google’s Android and
Nokia’s Maemo mobile platforms. It includes features familiar to users of
Firefox’s desktop version, including Add-ons and the Awesome Bar, which
displays frequently visited and bookmarked URLs. By tapping the Awesome Bar,
users can access the Awesome Screen, which displays history, bookmarks and
tabs.
A recent malware security report by NSS Labs
found Firefox 3.6 caught 19 percent of the live threats thrown at the browser,
down 10 percent from the NSS Labs test
conducted in the first quarter of 2010. Trends show Safari and Firefox
converging at a protection rate of just under 20 percent, indicating that while
they share the Google Safe Browser feed, there is a difference in each
browser’s implementation.
From an initial list of 8,000 new suspicious sites, 1,209 potentially malicious
URLs were prescreened for inclusion in the test and were available at the time
of entry into the test. These were successfully accessed by the browsers in at
least one run. On average, 124 new URLs were added to the test set per day.
NSS Labs then assessed
the browsers’ ability to block malicious URLs as quickly as they found them on
the Internet, and continued testing them every 6 hours to determine how long it
took a vendor to add protection.
Midmarket News & Reviews 
