Avencius

Most of us have a GPU these days, a powerful one that is. GPUs from AMD (previously ATI) and NVIDIA are work horses which offer unparalleled performance in graphical and (specific) computational tasks. Efforts like OpenCL or Direct Compute exist to lend the GPU for normal applications, but it seems that web browsers specifically are taking the lead.

DVD and Blu-ray players from like PowerDVD or WinDVD, but also the recent Adobe Flash Player 10.1 use the GPU to accelerate video playback (MPEG 2, MPEG 4 with H.264). Not only does CPU usage drop, it can also help in battery usage, as GPUs are more optimized for such tasks (and swallow less due to their efficiency).

Web browsers are actually also graphics intensive applications, especially with technologies being added like direct video playback with the video-tag, scalable vector graphics, intense use of the canvas (2D/3D) element, CSS transformations (demo-ed in Safari 5) and of course WebGL (an OpenGL ES stack using JavaScript). Internet Explorer 9 was one of the first to have hardware acceleration (although Opera already made plans with their Vega library, which now is the fastest software renderer), but isn't in beta phase yet. The developers of Firefox are also working on it, but it's disabled by default in Firefox 4 betas due to its immaturity at this time.

But there is also a new contender, Google Chrome 7 is entering the arena, while Chrome 6 is still in beta. Chrome 7 (and probably successors) aim to add more and more GPU support where possible, and the current development build has some parts included already. Continuing the multi-process architecture, the GPU accelerations lives in its own process, which is good for security measurements. As it's quite a big overhaul for the graphics sub-system, it will not be completely accelerated just yet. Some parts are, some parts aren't, but with Google's intentions and quick development, it's exciting to see who'll be king of GPU accelerated browsing this year!

As promised, Mozilla released the fourth beta of Firefox 4, bringing a few new features while stabilizing other parts as well. Development may not go as fast as some would have liked, but Mozilla seems focused on getting the right features in.

• Firefox 4 Beta 4 is available in 39 languages.
• Firefox Sync is now included by default.
• Users can organize their tabs using Firefox Overview.
• An experimental API is included to provide more efficient Javascript animations.
• Firefox now supports the HTML5 video "buffered" property.
• See the complete changelist from the previous beta.

As always the full binary download is available, existing beta users will receive the update automatically (or by triggering it from the Help menu). Good luck with hunting bugs!

Development work on Firefox 4 is going strong, beta 4 is expected to appear sometime next week.

• Firefox 4 Beta 3 is available in 34 languages.
• Web authors can now get touch events from Firefox users on Windows 7 machines.
• A new way of representing values in JavaScript that allows Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code (used for things like graphics and animations) more efficiently.
• See the complete changelist from the previous beta.

You can download the full binary from Mozilla, existing Firefox 4 testers will get the update automatically (or manually by checking for updates from the Help menu).

A bit behind in the news, but Opera Software released a maintenance build of their popular Opera web browser. As always this is a recommended release, as it contains several security fixes as well.

User interface

• "Fraud Protection" renamed to "Fraud and Malware Protection"
• Relative paths not working in the Filename setting for Speed Dial background
• Premature shutdown when using vBulletin's WYSIWYG editor
• Loading an animated png causes high CPU usage with no response from the browser
• yahoo.cn mailproviders SMTP entry not using a submission port
• Changing the default cookie preference to "Accept all cookies"
• Installing Opera 10.60 windows overwrites saved search preferences

Display and Scripting

• Google Calendar compatibility
• Unite listening on UDP 1900 even if UPnP service discovery is off
• Several cases where widgets will not run
• Premature shutdown when loading qq.com
• Setting the onload property of XMLHttpRequest blocks document memory from being garbage collected
• Opera treating binary files as plain text (opening it in the browser instead of showing a download dialog)
• Premature shutdown when loading the Canvas demo
• Printing from print preview results in either a freeze or corrupted page
• Widgets not having access to a network after restart
• "Accept cookies" and "only from the site I visit" settings being incorrect in Preferences dialog
• Premature shutdown occurring on startup of Opera under Windows 98
• Disk cache not working correctly in turbo mode

Security

• Fixed an issue where heap buffer overflow in HTML5 canvas could be used to execute arbitrary code, as reported by Kuzzcc
• Fixed an issue where unexpected changes in tab focus could be used to run programs from the Internet, as reported by Jakob Balle and Sven Krewitt of Secunia
• Fixed an issue where news feed preview could subscribe to feeds without interaction, as reported by Alexios Fakos

You can download Opera 10.61 from Opera's official web site, or if you already have an older release an update notification will appear automatically (or manually from the Help menu).

Apple has released Safari 5.0.1 a maintenance release for their popular WebKit based web browser. For the first extensions are now enabled by default, bringing the ability to alter the web browser to the rest of the world.

When Safari 5.0 was released Apple already unveiled support for extensions, which could be enabled in the developer's menu. This was done to give the internet community the time to research and develop extensions for Safari. This is one of the first and rare moments where Apple actually allows other companies to alter their product experience, instead of one well defined by Apple.

In honor to celebrate this event (following Firefox and Chrome), Apple launched the official Safari Extensions Gallery. On this Apple hosted web site several big names like Twitter, Bing, and Amazon have taken their spots to promote their web site enriching extensions. Such as being able to tweet from the browser instead of the web site, look up addresses directly in Bing, and adding items right away to your Amazon wish list. Of course almost traditional extensions like AdBlock exist and will find some exciting new users in Apple's top notch web browser.

But besides extensions there are several bug fixes as well:

• More accurate Top Hit results in the Address Field
• More accurate timing for CSS animations
• Better stability when using the Safari Reader keyboard shortcut
• Better stability when scrolling through MobileMe Mail
• Fixes display of multipage articles from www.rollingstone.com in Safari Reader
• Fixes an issue that prevented Google Wave and other websites using JavaScript encryption libraries from working correctly on 32-bit systems
• Fixes an issue that prevented Safari from launching on Leopard systems with network home directories
• Fixes an issue that could cause borders on YouTube thumbnails to disappear when hovering over the thumbnail image
• Fixes an issue that could cause Flash content to overlap with other content on www.facebook.com, www.crateandbarrel.com, and other sites when using Flash 10.1
• Fixes an issue that prevented boarding passes from www.aa.com from printing correctly
• Fixes an issue that could cause DNS prefetching requests to overburden certain routers
• Fixes an issue that could cause VoiceOver to misidentify elements of webpages

You can update your existing Safari from Apple's Software Update (on Windows this is a menu entry, on Mac OS you can find it under the Apple menu). Of course a full download is also possible from Apple's web site. Anyway, enjoy this newly updated contender in the browser space who does introduce extensions for their web browser, following the lead of two big alternatives.

Continuing the development of the eagerly anticipated Firefox 4, a second beta release has been made. The releases are intentionally released often to have a better and up-to-date testing experience for those involved.

Although it remains a beta, it is interesting to see how Firefox 4 matures to a stable release this year. Presently it's not recommended for normal end users to use this build for daily purposes, but it is safe to take a look at what is to come.

As usual with betas, the changes are numerous:

• Firefox 4 Beta 2 is available in 24 languages.
• Tabs are now on top by default on Windows and OSX - Linux will be changing when the theme has been modified to support the change.
• You can turn any tab into an "App Tab" by right-clicking on it and selecting "Make into App Tab" from the context menu.
• Web developers can animate content using CSS Transitions.
• Responsiveness and scrolling improvements from the new retained layers layout system.
• JavaScript speed improvements due to engine optimizations.
• Changes to how XPCOM components are registered in order to help startup time and process separation.

You can find the entire release notes of this and the previous beta release at Mozilla's site. If you like new web stuff than this Firefox 4 build will make you happy. Remember to give your feedback once you've downloaded and installed it.

Continuing the normal stream of maintainence builds, Mozilla issued a new Firefox which has several stability and security fixes.

The current changelog is meager, but the Bugzilla entry has much more:

• Fixed several security issues: 8 critical, 2 high, 4 moderate
• Fixed several stability issues

You can download the entire file from Mozilla's site, existing users will be automatically updated, or by selecting it from the Help menu.

Update: Mozilla issued a new release dubbed Firefox 3.6.8 that fixes a single stability issue affecting some pages containing plug-ins.

It has been a while since Mozilla showed big progress, although Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 showed important improvements in the areas of JavaScript performance and separate plugin processes. But that was all just a game of catching up with Chrome, Opera and Safari.

For the most part you'll probably think that Firefox 4.0 is another sequel on catching up with the competition, and well, that cannot be denied. Regardless of who was first or last, this beta is only a rough example of what to expect sometime this year when the final product is finished.

The first thing you'll notice is the focus on platform integration. Previous releases just don't fit in well on Windows, and thus 4.0 finally leverages Aero found in Vista and 7. A new Firefox button in the top corner compresses the normal menu into a most often used mini menu, reducing vertical space used by non-browsing content. No doubt you'll find this similar to Opera's approach (which actually shares space with tabs, while Firefox does not) or the (recently combined) page/tools drop down menu buttons in Chrome. Just like the competition the tabs are now at the top on Vista and 7. For other platforms like Linux and Mac there are some small changes, but most of the work is just not finished yet (such as tabs on top).

One exciting change introduced is experimental Direct2D hardware acceleration, similar to IE9 (which is also in test phase). This may improve performance significantly if executed correctly. For Mac there is acceleration through Core Animation for plug-ins if they support it. Hopefully we'll see full hardware support for all platform in the later test releases. Of course there is more such as WebM support, separate plugin processes for all platforms (not just Windows and Linux), WebGL support, and much, much, more.

Do note that this is a rough release and certainly not polished in looks or functionality, when trying your downloaded copy. Mozilla shows that Firefox isn't at its end yet, 4.0 looks to be major leap. The question remains, will this leap be big enough against the aggressive competition like Chrome, Opera and Safari or even IE9?

Opera Software has released the latest version of their web browser, Opera 10.60. Unlike previous 10.x releases there is no limitation on platforms, Windows, Linux and Mac releases are simultaneous once again.

Besides being the first stable Linux release there are some other goodies inside this package. Carakan, the newly written JavaScript engine found in Opera 10.50 has been tweaked and enhanced to bring up to 50% more speed, staying on the heels of Google Chrome. Other changes include support for more HTML5 standards and WebM, the open video codec from Google used for instance on YouTube. Lastly there is now geo-location support as well as search suggestions, helping you to make the right search queries.

Existing Opera users may find their web browser prompting for the update, but it's also triggered from the Help menu. The full download is available from Opera's site, and includes all the changes inside described in the changelog.