The desktop team over at Opera have just released a version 10 alpha release of their popular alternative web browser.
Opera 10.1 Alpha includes many new features, including the long awaited auto-update, an inline spelling checker, and scores a perfect 100/100 in the Acid3 test.
A full run down can of other new features can be found on the Opera Desktop Team’s blog. You can download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 using the links below:
Download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 for Windows
Download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 for Windows Classic
Download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 for Macintosh
Download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 for Macintosh (Intel-only)
Download Opera 10.1 Alpha 1 for UNIX
Opera
Acid3, Alpha, Opera, Opera 10
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:
- Firefox 3 scores 71/100
- Opera 9.6 scores 85/100
- IE7 scores a dismal 12/100
- IE8 Beta 2 scores 21/100
- Safari 3.1.2 scores 75/100
- Safari 4 Beta 100/100
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.
Firefox
Acid3, Beta, Firefox, Firefox 3.1 Beta 1
Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 to the web. The new browser includes numerous improvements including:
- Web standards improvements in the Gecko layout engine
- Added support for CSS 2.1 and CSS 3 properties
- A new tab-switching shortcut that shows previews of the tab you’re switching to
- Improved control over the Smart Location Bar using special characters to restrict your search
- Support for new web technologies such as the <video> and <audio> elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, web worker threads, SVG transforms and offline applications.
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…
Firefox
Acid3, Beta, Firefox, Firefox 3.1 Beta 1, Mozilla
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.
Firefox, Opera
Acid3, Fennec, Firefox, Mozilla, Opera, Opera Mobile
WebKit passing Acid3
The WebKit development team has just passed another huge milestone. The WebKit browser engine used in Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome now fully passes the Acid3 test.
The Acid3 test checks how well browsers comply with the latest standards, in particular JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM).
Maciej Stachowiak of the WebKit team attributes this feat to “recent speedups in JavaScript, DOM and rendering.”
Unfortunately, it will be a few months before we see this in Safari and Chrome, but while you wait you can download a nightly build of WebKit and test this for yourself.
Chrome, Safari
Acid3, Apple Safari, Chrome, Google Chrome, JavaScript, Safari, WebKit
