Mozilla on Tuesday launched the fourth beta of Firefox 4, adding bookmark and password synchronization, and revamping how people manage tabs.
What new features Firefox 4 will have?
1) Firefox 4 Beta attempts for the first time at accelerating Firefox 4's page rendering by tapping the graphics processor. The hardware acceleration, available only in Windows Vista and Windows 7, is disabled by default.
Firefox 4 Beta which calls its tab manager "Panorama", lets users collect tabs into sets, graphically displays those sets, and when users open a tab, shows only those tabs within the group. Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, considers this as the next step in the evolution of tabs.
Notably none of Firefox’s rivals have tried something like Panorama. Apple, for example, introduced "Top Sites" to Safari last year, while Google's Chrome has had a similar "Most Visited" feature since it launched in 2008. But both simply graphically represent frequently-visited sites using thumbnails.
No information on this front comes from Microsoft whose Internet Explorer 9 (IE9), is scheduled to ship as a beta on Sept 15.
2) Firefox Sync, another major feature of Beta 4: This feature is not new to Firefox. It’s the same service that keeps bookmarks, passwords, browser history, open tabs and other data consistent across multiple computers and devices since 2007. Sync has been available to users of earlier Firefox editions through an add-on or some free app; but this time the functionality has been built into the browser.
Chrome and Opera have had integrated synchronization since 2008.
3) Hardware acceleration: Firefox Beta 4 is the first browser to debut the technology of hardware acceleration. But, in a restricted manner in terms of operating systems supported by it. Hardware acceleration, is available only to Windows operating systems (requires Windows Vista or Windows 7); that too turned off by default. To switch it on, users must edit the browser's "about:config" file using instructions Mozilla has posted on its site.
The reason for this restricted availability is that Firefox 4, like IE9, relies on Windows' Direct2D API (application programming interface) to boost rendering speeds by shifting some chores from the computer's central processor to the graphics processor. In simple hardware acceleration needs graphics infrastructure, so that some browser page management can be thrust on that infrastructure; allowing faster page management.
Mozilla plans to end the beta status for Firefox 4 sometime in October November.
Firefox 4 Beta 4 can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux from Mozilla's site in 35 different languages.
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