The latest release brings the Mac OS X UI up to date with the Windows version – with all the tabs on top and new CSS3 goodness. Performance and startup time have also been improved significantly thanks to a rework on the XPCOM module. Scrolling and CSS3 animation performance would also see a boost thanks to a new Retained Layers system which can render and then cache the entire page in memory making it unnecessary to repaint everything on every refresh.

App Tabs now also make an appearance in the Firefox 4 Beta 2 build. You can right click on any open tab and “Make it into an App Tab” – which are like the Pined Tabs in Google Chrome. Javascript engine has also been optimized for further speed boosts, though I couldn’t test it yet on the SunSpider benchmark. There are over 650 changes from the previous beta build in total.

I couldn’t get the Acid3 score on Firefox 4 Beta 2, because AcidTests.org was down at the time of writing. I’ll update the post with benchmark performance stats and the Acid3 score as soon as I can test that.

For now you can download Firefox 4 Beta 2 for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux by following the link in the download box below.

The new Firefox 4 Beta 1 brings us the glimpse of the major new UI revision that’s going to be the part of the final version of Firefox 4. While I haven’t seen what’s in store for the Mac and Linux version, the Windows version would get support for deep Aero integration, as well as tabs on top – just like Google Chrome and Opera.

Mozilla is also working to remove most of the dialog boxes from Firefox 4 and implementing them as native tabs. This would allow them to port Firefox 4 to platforms which do not have a window manager, like the Apple iPad for instance (Note: I’m only using the iPad as an example). Of course the full transition of the UI would take time, but Firefox 4 Beta 1 does move the Add-ons manager into a tabbed process. Expect a similar treatment for the History browser and even the Options dialog.

As for performance, I haven’t run full tests yet but it definitely feels faster than Firefox 3.6, though not as much as Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 3 (phew!) and Google Chrome 6. Of course it is still a work in progress so expect more performance improvements. It also manages a 97/100 on the Acid 3 tests.

I couldn’t get a hold of the official changelog yet, so I’ll update the post as soon as I get it. As for a release date of the final version, Mozilla is eying November/December 2010 for the final release of Firefox 4.

You can find the download link below. The executable is for the Windows version only but you can find other operating systems by hitting the source link.

Update 2

Firefox 4 Beta 2 is now available for download!

Update

Here’s the official release notes.

• Tabs are now on top by default on Windows only – OSX and Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
• On Windows Vista and Windows 7 the menu bar has been replaced with the Firefox button.
• You can search for and switch to already open tabs in the Smart Location Bar
• New Addons Manager and extension management API (UI will be changed before final release)
• Significant API improvements are available for JS-ctypes, a foreign function interface for extensions.
• The stop and reload buttons have been merged into a single button on Windows, Mac and Linux.
• The Bookmarks Toolbar has been replaced with a Bookmarks Button by default (you can switch it back if you’d like).
• Crash protection for Windows, Linux, and Mac when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple Quicktime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins.
• CSS Transitions are partially supported.
• Full WebGL support is included but disabled by default at this time.
• Core Animation rendering model for plugins on Mac OS X. Plugins which also support this rendering model can now draw faster and more efficiently.
• Native support for the HD HTML5 WebM video format.
• An experimental Direct2D rendering backend is available on Windows, turned off by default.
• Web developers can use Websockets for a low complexity, low latency, bidirectional communications API.
• Web developers can update the URL field without reloading the page using HTML History APIs.
• More responsive page rendering using lazy frame construction.
• Link history lookup is done asynchronously to provide better responsiveness during pageload.
• CSS :visited selectors have been changed to block websites from being able to check a user’s browsing history.
• New HTML5 parser.
• Support for more HTML5 form controls.

This preview release seems to be the most significant of all with a lot of interesting demos showing the improved HTML5 capabilities as well as improvements to the rendering speeds and compliance with the web standards. This build also supports the Web Open Fonts Format (WOFF), and boasts an Acid3 score of 83/100.

Among the HTML5 features demonstrated, <video>, <audio> and <canvas> take the prime spots thanks to excellent demos ranging from concept web applications like a book store and cover-flow like video player to fun and interactive and highly addictive games like Tile Switch.

Improvements to the JavaScript engine boost the performance of the browser putting it head to head with Safari 5.0 and Google Chrome 5.0, while Firefox is left smoking the dust. After running the latest platform preview, I don’t really see a reason why Internet Explorer 9 wont be among my preferred browsers when it is released (I haven’t really used Internet Explorer since 2004 when I switched to Firefox).

In the chart on the top, the orange highlighted bars indicate the latest preview builds of the five major browsers while the blue bars show the previous and currently stable builds. The second chart shows how Internet Explorer 9 is catching up to the performance of Google Chrome and Safari.

If you are interested in trying out the latest build of Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview then you can find the download link in the box below. I’ll also post a few videos showing the new demos later with a more in depth analysis.

For those of you who don’t already know, WebM is a new media container ( a format that wraps audio and video together, like AVI, MPEG-4, or Matroska ) by Google, announced last month at the Google I/O conference. It will have On2 VP8 codec as its video component, and Ogg Vorbis for the audio. The new container is backed by Google, Mozilla and Opera as their video format of choice for HTML 5.

While the current HTML 5 specifications haven’t yet declared it, many believe that WebM would be the default standard for HTML 5, the other contenders being H.264 and the open source Ogg Theora. AMD, ARM, and Broadcomm and Intel have also jumped forward pledging hardware acceleration, while Google is planning to deploy the new container on YouTube when it makes the transition to HTML 5 from its current Flash 10 based player.

Google Chrome 6 is the first desktop browser shipping with support for WebM on all platforms (Windows, Mac and Linux). The other two would be Mozilla Firefox 4.0, and the next version or Opera. Microsoft has stated that Internet Explorer 9 would support any DirectShow compatible codec and Apple has also made similar claims saying that Safari would support WebM if the codec is installed in QuickTime.

Other major changes in the list include:

All

• VP8/WebM support has been added
• Crash when changing networks or waking from sleep.

Windows

• See All

Mac

• Fix a crash when downloading a file with no tabs open.
• Fix idle renderer CPU usage regression.
• Add a preference for the tab key cycling between just form fields, or links as well.
• Download shelf now slides out instead of collapsing.

Linux

• CUPS “add printer” crashes tab.

You can download the latest developer build of Google Chrome 6 from the download box below, but be advised – the Developer channel is inherently more unstable than even the Beta Channel.

Firefox 3.6.4 was originally going to be released as Firefox 3.7. The major highlight of this new version is Google Chrome like out of process plugin architecture. Plugins like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight now run in a separate process, and if one of the plugins crash, it will not crash all the other tabs you have open.

The implementation however, doesn’t look as robust as Google Chrome’s since Chrome isolates every tab and plugin preventing them from interfering with each other’s process as evident from the above screen shot. Nevertheless, it is a step forward in the right direction, paving the way for Mozilla Firefox 4 which would feature a brand new redesigned User Interface, along with a powerful JavaScript engine and an overall improved technical architecture.

As for Firefox 3.6.4, if all goes well with the release candidate build, then we could see the final version by the end of June. You can download the latest pre-release build from the download box below.

The new options let you control which sites are allowed the use of certain content like Cookies, Images, JavaScript, Plugins and Popups. You can create allow and deny settings on a per-site basis allowing you increased control over your web-browsing experience.

There’s also a hotlink to Adobe Flash Player’s Storage Settings where you can set the maximum disk space allowed for Flash content. You can also view websites which are storing Flash data on your computer along with the data they store.

Together these new features add a lot of Value to an already superb browsing experience. Of course these new features might not attract the average user, but in corporate and more restricted environments, like schools and libraries, fine control over the content are a must have.

The developer channel of Google Chrome today pushed out a new major version again, Google Chrome 5. Just like the previous version update, there seems to be no major new features, yet Google has decided to update the major build number.

The only change I was able to spot was a new Content Settings option under the privacy section (screenshot bellow), which allows users to tweak different content like images, cookies, JavaScript etc on a per-site basis.

You can globally disable any of the above elements or tweak them individually for every site using the exceptions. Surprisingly, the Exceptions… button doesn’t work yet, along with the rather interesting link to configure Adobe Flash storage settings. Looks like Chrome team accidentally slipped out this build even before it was ready.

Though this build is only available for the Developer Channel, you can still download this build because it does feature a number of bug fixes and improvements over the last one. I guess the features would be implemented as minor updates are released for this build.

Download Google Chrome 5 for Windows

Download Google Chrome 5 for Mac

Mozilla have released yet another update to the latest beta version of its popular browser – Firefox 3.6. The new beta, labeled revision 5 is said to address over a 100 issues from the previous beta release of the browser.

Interestingly, this release also makes Firefox 3.6 one of the only few versions of the browser, which have remained on the beta branch for so long, even though Mozilla itself claims this release to be stable. Another highlight for the Beta 5 release is that, now about 70% of that huge library of add-ons is compatible with Firefox 3.6, so you can rest assured the most of your favorite extensions would work with the new version – though there still might be a couple of loose bolts here and there.

Among other new editions in this release are:

• Support for the HTML5 File API
• A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

This still might not be the last beta release for Firefox 3.6 because some of these new features would still require testing and there are still add-ons that need to be updated to support the new version. But you can safely download this version to replace your existing Firefox 3.5 installations, because starting with Firefox 3.6 Beta 5, all versions of the beta node would also receive automatic updates to newer versions.

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 for Windows

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 for Mac OS X

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta 5 for Linux

After weeks of waiting, Firefox 3.6 has finally reached the Beta milestone. The latest version of the browser has many newer features and performance improvements compared to Firefox 3.5 which was also recently updated to 3.5.4.

Lets just hope that Firefox 3.6 has better handling of those persistent memory leaks which have plagued Firefox 3.5. Some newer features include:

• Support for Windows 7 Aero Peak.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

You can download the latest beta version from the following link.

Download Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Beta

Firefox is getting a brand new feature with its next service update – Firefox 3.5.3 (No they won’t call it Firefox 4.0 just because of one new feature). It will warn users about outdated plugins, starting with the insanely popular Adobe Flash Player in the upcoming update.

As the Mozilla Developer blog points, about 80% of the users are running an outdated version of the player which is but surprising and alarming in my opinion. Of course I don’t expect everyone to upgrade to alpha/beta builds like I do but still, at least keep up with the latest stable release. Keeping your software up to date means your safe from most known vulnerabilities which may harm your computer or information.

In fact I’d advise you to update all the software you have installed including your OS. But spend wisely because certain $29 updates my just get you into more trouble.