Recently ConceivablyTech.com tested out both release candidates on two of their test rigs, you can see two pages of benchmark test results here, many expected Firefox 4 RC to dominate, however in Flash and HTML5 tests IE9 RC came out on top, that said Firefox 4 RC done better in the JavaScript benchmarks.

One thing we must remember that the IE9 RC has been patched since its first release, also it is unsurprising to see that IE9 does better in the HTML5 tests as our previous post revealed how it Internet Explorer 9 was the best browser available in terms of HTML5 performance.

ConceivablyTech suggest that IE9′s hardware acceleration is what other browsers need to beat, whilst Firefox 4 is an improvement when compared to Firefox 3.x it still has a lot to do to compete with the likes of Google Chrome and regain some of its lost market share, perhaps Firefox 5 will be the version to wait for…

Have you tried out the Firefox 4 RC? If so, will you continue to use it?

More About: Internet Explorer 9, microsoft, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox 4

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There now appears to be more evidence that the final Firefox 4 version is on its way soon, with news just coming in that Mozilla released the Firefox 4 Beta 10 on Tuesday night. As Christina Warren over at mashable.com reports, this comes just 10 days after the Beta 9’s release.

Although the release notes for Firefox 4 Beta 10 are rather sparse, we do know that a few changes have been made in order to make the browser more stable. We also know that the latest Beta should bring better Flash support to Mac OS X users.

Despite the fact that Mozilla has already received over 1 million pieces of feedback throughout the Firefox 4 Beta, they are still asking users to provide even more. According to Kurt Bakke over on the conceivablytech.com website, Beta 11 is scheduled for a final build this Friday.

More About: Mozilla Firefox 4

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A recent post on the Mozilla Dev Planning Google group revealed that Mozilla’s developers have been working tremendously hard on Firefox 4 and hope to reach Release Candidate status by early February, Sicore also urged beta testers to not disable major plugins such as Flash and Silverlight as any bugs found need to be filed for developers to fix.

Full details regarding what new features Firefox 4 will bring can be seen here, the interface has been overhauled and has a much “Chromier” look, once installed you will notice a new tab location, a new switch to tab option in the awesome bar, a new Firefox button for access to all of the menu items you need and an all new feature called app tabs.

You can watch a video introducing you to all of these new features here, I must say that it looks as if Firefox 4 will be a step in the right direction,however I think that I will be sticking with Google Chrome.

What browser are you using currently? Will you switch to Firefox 4?

More About: Google Chrome, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox 4

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Raskin, who was the brain-child and designer of the ‘Tab Sets’ or ‘Tab Candy’ that made it into older and current beta builds of Firefox 4 said he intends to leave the company on January 1, 2011 in favour of a new company called Massive Health.

Commenting on his own blog yesterday, Raskin said “Each of us has a unique ability. I want to use mine – the knowledge to make products which are disruptively easier and more enjoyable to use – to change people’s lives.”

What he means by life changing does not concern the internet or email and the politics that come with it. Raskin said that he wants to make peoples lives better by “helping them get and stay healthly.”

With Raskin leaving the company, does this mean that Mozilla will sorely miss the designer and his unique design elements? Does this mean the future of Firefox will change? If you were a a designer, how would you design Firefox, or any browser for that matter?

More About: Firefox 4, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Firefox 4

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Beta 8 was pencilled in for a release on November 30, but some in-house problems prevented that release as they prepared to fix nagging issues with the application.

Most of the problems centered around synchronization, and security issues, but now it would seem that they have most of the bases covered so you should see the release appear on the Mozilla website next week.

For those of you have tried previous Firefox beta, this one should be much more stable as crashes are far less significant.

Mozilla say that “based on the Fennec Beta 3 schedule, which is targeting Dec 7th as ship, we feel it’s best to align Beta 8 with that date.” They also state with their patch notes that “there is a pending change to the way Sync UI works for adding another client.”

How is Firefox 4 Beta treating you so far? You happy with it?

Source: ZDnet

More About: Firefox 4, Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox 4

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Although Mozilla were a little late delivering Beta 7 due to heavy crash counts across the board, users can now download the beta that integrates a device called JaegerMonkey.

But all may not be as it seems. Ingenus LLC conducted some significant benchmarking tests that resulted in limited instances of a 300% speed increase, that averaged out at around 2.38x faster than Firefox 3.6.12 overall. More in depth testing results can be viewed by visiting the source below.

For those of you interested in downloading the beta to test it for yourself, check out Mozilla’s beta page.

Source: Information Week

More About: Mozilla, Mozilla Firefox 3.6, Mozilla Firefox 4

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At the moment July 22nd is looking likely, however this is in no way guaranteed, the main talking point is that it looks as if this beta will bring the tabs on top feature to the Mac version of the application. By default the first Firefox 4 beta applied the tabs on top feature to Windows-based computers.

For those of you who have not experienced tabs on top, it is a slight UI change where the tabs are above the address bar, its simple, but in my opinion vastly improves today’s web browsers. Both Google Chrome and Opera use tabs on top, therefore it seems as if Mozilla are borrowing ideas to stay competitive in today’s web browser market.

Other features which the Firefox 4 beta 2 will offer are currently unclear, however we should know in roughly one weeks time when it launches.

What new features/functionality would you like to see?

Source: Cnet

More About: Mozilla Firefox 4

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In recent benchmarking tests Firefox 4 was 27% faster than Firefox 3.6.6 (the current stable version), however JavaScript benchmarks show that is slower than Apple Safari, Google Chrome and Opera.

ComputerWorld’s benchmarking tests utilized the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark suite running on Windows Vista Business, each test was ran three rimes and scores were averaged out, you can see an image showing the results towards the end of this post.

Firefox 4 is still in its beta stages, therefore we must hold our judgment until the proper release turns up, however things aren’t looking too promising.

Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome, which is your preference?

Source: ComputerWorld

More About: Mozilla Firefox 4

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Firefox 4 Beta 1 (See screen shot) supports a number of operating systems, such as OS X, Windows and Linux and brings a number of advanced features. The look has had an overhaul and you will also notice a number of improvements to the privacy settings.

If you visit the Mozilla Blog they are asking users to share with them their thoughts of the new browser, and to gauge feedback as to if they like what will eventually come the full version of Firefox 4.

Some of the new features include: New Add-Ons Manager, Crash Protection, Increased Performance, HD Video Support and much more. You will notice that the beta browser will now offer greater support for HTML5; you can just see the smile on Steve Jobs’s face.

If you have downloaded Firefox 4 beta 1, then please share your thoughts below.

More About: Mozilla Firefox 4

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The first developer builds carried the Firefox 3.7 name, but was quickly changed to the Firefox 4 guise as they want to show that Firefox is still one of the leading browsers currently available. A new UI that reduces clutter, new addon manager and a central permissions manager are all part of the new version.

First off, the release is called ‘MineField’ and will be the name for all early beta releases. It also comes with a new icon that can be seen from the image to this post.

Once the browser is open, you can see significant changes to the browsers menu bar. In my opinion, it looks quite similar to that of Google Chrome. Smaller buttons, less clutter. It seems to be the way forward for web browsers.

The addons manager has also undergone some cosmetic changes, and rather than opening in a miniture window as before, it now has it’s own dedicated page (or tab) so you can manage the addons much more simply.

Overall, It definitely seems that this new version of Firefox is much more sleek, and modern to previous versions. It is also faster, but whether or not this will be the case with the proper release is currently unclear, but likely.

For those of you who are interested in checking out the latest candidate build, then you can download it from here, you can also see a few screenshots below.

Source: WWWery

More About: Mozilla Firefox 4

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