Web browser news as it happens
In: Opera
15 Feb 2010Opera Software have released Opera 10.50 Beta 1 to the public, with a slew of stability and bug fixes since the first Alpha release.
New in Beta 1 is Aero Glass, Aero Peek, and Jumplists support for Windows 7 users, along with the new Opera Carakan JavaScript engine.
Early reviews and benchmarking shows Opera 10.50 is the [...]
In: Chrome
4 Nov 2009The developers of Google Chrome have moved a branch of Chrome 4 to the Beta channel, meaning that the browser is stable enough now for a larger testing audience.
Chrome 4.0.223.16 beta is available only for Windows at this stage, but includes bookmark sync. Extension support is however disabled at this time (though is still available [...]
In: Firefox
21 Apr 2009The 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 [...]
In: Chrome
18 Mar 2009Good 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 [...]
In: Firefox
13 Mar 2009After 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.
In: Safari
25 Feb 2009Apple 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 [...]
In: Firefox
2 Feb 2009Mozilla 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 [...]
In: Firefox
9 Dec 2008Mozilla 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:
Private browsing mode
Gecko 1.9.1 rendering engine
Tear off tabs to new browser windows
Support for HTML5 elements <video> and <audio>
A full [...]
In: Firefox
16 Oct 2008After 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 [...]
In: Firefox
16 Oct 2008Mozilla 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 [...]