Get Firefox 3.5 Now!!
The coolest fox on the internet gets an upgrade! The much anticipated updated for the webs most loved browser was released on June 30th 2009 at 03:50 (Firefox 3.5 *ahem* *ahem*) with a gazillion updates for the new web.. well, ahem.. I am exaggerating.. yes.. But there are a lot of cool new features! Check it out yourself!
Lets do a quick feature rundown and then jump to the links..
The first thing you will notice when you run Firefox 3.5 is the start up time and then if you are tech enough will notice how small the memory footprint is.. After browsing around a bit you are sure to notice that those heavy websites you used to visit are loading smoother and faster than ever before..
Ok, first off, most of the things listed on the features page were already implemented in fx3 and lets just assume that its there for the uninitiated..
For the security minded there are two new features, the first one is the clever undercover mode which lets you go into a Private Browsing mode which lets you browse without leaving any trace on your computer. That means, no data is stored on the computer by Firefox 3.5. Yes, this was earlier implemented on other browsers like Google’s Chrome and Microsoft ie8(? – I still use ie6 :D)
The second security feature is the Forget this site option, which lets you delete all traces of a site from the history panel.. Its as simple as right clicking on the URL and saying forget this and fx35 removes all traces of it from your computer.
The performance enhancements in fx35 has made the browser twice as fast as its predecessor, how? A faster JavaScript engine(JS is the elixir that makes your favorite web application tick)! TraceMonkey(A part of SpiderMonkey, the JavaScript engine) is 10x faster than when it was compared to Firefox 2. Developers would be glad to know that the DOM access(accessing stuff inside tags and putting them in tags using scripts) is 2x faster in fx35!
Open Video and Audio, HTML5 audio and video support has been a major highlight for fx35 – now video can be embedded, played back, and controlled by HTML, JavaScript and CSS. That really means faster and better video playback with no over head (mainly those imposed by proprietary software)
Another feature that most developers have been waiting for is Cross-site XMLHttpRequests(XHR), think of it as your favorite web app being able to get you information from thousands of websites without having to use crazy workarounds(like AJAST)..
With fx35 web designers everywhere can rejoice to the fact that they can have that exact same font they used in their comp. yes! with Downloadable TrueType and OpenType fonts in your designs instead of relying on the fonts installed on the user’s local machine you can have websites looking and feeling exactly the same as your designs across all platforms. w00t!
Location aware browsing? well, usually websites (try) to find out where you are coming from using your IP and age old Geolocation-ing techniques. Location aware browsing is something very similar but a bit more effective, since the Geolocation API is built into the browser and finds your location using information based on your WiFi information using Google Location Services. You can choose to share(or not) your location with websites wanting the information to provide you things from better search results to the coffee and what not.. :P
Native JSON support; now you(the developer in you) no longer need rely on server side scripts or custom JavaScript functions or piece together by hand a JSON Object. Two very handy built in functions take care of it for you..
Fx35 gives you access to multiple worker threads through JavaScript! which translates to more power and speed for your web applications as your scripts can use the power of multi core CPUs. The potential this feature unleashes is huge!
Anti-Malware, Clear Recent History, Color Profile Support, Over Add-ons, Awesome Bar, Tags, Platform-Native Look & Feel, Session Restore, Firefox – Translations, Offline Browsing, Support for Next-Generation Graphics are some thing improvements that this version looks up on.. This is of course apart from the huge list of awesome options and tools tha Firefox already has at its disposal!!
For a huge list of changes that would make more sense to developers check out the devpage – For a full list of changes, check out the developers page.. and please understand that these changes are what makes the future of the web possible!!
Links
The Firefox 3.5 Feature listing – http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/features/
For a full list of changes and technologies available check out the developers page – https://developer.mozilla.org/En/Firefox_3.5_for_developers
and to download?
The easiest option if you are already using Firefox would be to start firefox, goto the “Help” menu and Click “Check for updates”
or
