Hasta La Gadget!

Chrome 27 Beta browser has been released by Google, bringing with it some goodies for developers, as well as faster page loading to the tune of about 5-percent. Users who don’t mind dippingo into beta territory can grab the latest download now from the Chrome beta page. We’ve got a run down of the new features and improvements after the jump.

The obvious feature most users will notice is the speed improvements, which are said to increase the rate of content loading by 5-percent. This is due to behind the scenes changes to the browser’s resource scheduler, decreasing pre-loaded resources and using an idle connection more often. In addition, webpagetest.org Speed Index values are now included in the metrics used to assess page load speed improvements.

Other changes and additions are specific to developers, and include HTML5 date and time forms, which are featured in the image above. There’s also now live audio input to Web Audio API for the Windows and Mac versions of Chrome, as well as Sync FileSystem API for Chrome Packaged Apps. Improvements have been rolled out for the network panel, bringing customizable columns and the ability to “Copy as cURL” a resource by right-clicking on it.

There are a variety of other features for devs, which those who are interested can check out in full here. In case you didn’t hear, Google announced yesterday that it will be forking a new rendering engine called Blink from WebKit, promising to bring with it speed and to eventually spur innovation. You can read more about those plans, as well as what one Chrome dev has to say, here.

[via Chromium]

Chrome 27 Beta now available, promises faster speeds is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google’s decision to branch off from WebKit and develop its own Blink browser rendering engine is a matter of speed not fragmentation and control, one Chrome team developer has argued, pointing out that what’s currently the de-facto standard has already become a weight around devs’ necks. “To make a better platform faster, you must be able to iterate faster” Google London’s Alex Russell argues, likening the sluggishness of adding and tweaking WebKit features to the inefficiency of using an old computer when newer, faster ones are available. As a bonus, he points out, developers will be less likely to inadvertently break something when modifying the Blink engine, a situation Russell says can often occur when dealing with WebKit.

“Blink gives developers much more assurance that when they change something, it’s only affecting the things they think it’s affecting” he explains, thanks to the engine’s Content API boundary. That’s the part of Blink which – though for the large part following the WebKit API design – differs in that it isolates Chrome developers “from inner workings of content.”

For Russell, though – and presumably Google as a whole, given its web/cloud-centric focus – the speed potential for jumping ship to Blink is what really makes the fragmentation worthwhile. The Chromium team has enjoyed such streamlining in Google’s own “Chromey” parts, he points out, and now will get the same in the underlying engine. That, the reasoning goes, means a browser that is improved faster and keeps better pace with the demands of users and developers.

“Directness of action matters, and when you’re swimming through build files for dozens of platforms you don’t work on, that’s a step away from directness. When you’re working to fix or prevent regressions you can’t test against, that’s a step away. When compiles and checkouts take too long, that’s a step away. When landing a patch in both WebKit and Chromium stretches into a multi-day dance of flags, stub implementations, and dep-rolls, that’s many steps away. And each step hurts by a more-than-constant factor” Alex Russell, Chrome team, Google

The losses from adopting Blink are the obvious ones, Russell says: divorcing development from “a community of hugely talented people” working on WebKit, for instance. Some old faces are likely to be present, however; Opera has confirmed, TNW reports, that it too will be using Blink having already committed to switching to Chromium back in February.

“When we announced the move away from Presto, we announced that we are going with the Chromium package, and the forking and name change have little practical influence on the Opera browsers” Opera spokesperson

Who will follow next remains to be seen, though given Google’s footprint in smartphones and tablets with Android, not to mention its push to move users onto the web in Chrome OS, developers certainly won’t be able to avoid Blink moving forward.

Speed matters argues Chrome dev as Google under fragmentation fire is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Perpetually forgetful Android users no longer have to adopt a Chrome beta to coordinate their lives. Just a month after the test version of Chrome 26 arrived with autofill and password syncing, its stable version has appeared with the same option to remember form and login details between supporting desktop and mobile Chrome builds. There’s no talk of the SPDY-based proxy, however: aside from tune-ups, the syncing is the main highlight. That’s still enough for us to justify swinging by Google Play for the update.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

Comments

Via: Chrome Releases

Source: Google Play

It’s a fairly bold claim, but Mozilla and Samsung have announced today that they’re now attempting to “rebuild the web browser from the ground up on modern hardware.” That initiative takes the form of Servo, a new web browser engine designed for Android and ARM and based on Mozilla’s Rust programming language, which itself sees a new release today. Expectedly, details on the browser engine remain light, with Mozilla and Samsung offering no indication of a release schedule or a final product. In the blog post announcing the engine, Mozilla says only that it’ll be “putting more resources into Servo” in the coming year as it also aims to complete the first major revision of Rust, and that it and Samsung will be “increasingly looking at opportunities on mobile platforms.” You can find the full announcement, and the source for both Rust and Servo if you’re so inclined, at the source link below.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Comments

Via: The Next Web

Source: Mozilla

Mozilla has just updated its Firefox browser to provide users with several new features that they have been asking for. The new Firefox 20 improves private browsing, integrates your download window with your toolbar, brings getUserMedia to developers, and offers an overall better user experience. Firefox has also simultaneously updated its Firefox Browser for Android app with similar features.

Before the update, you would have to choose between regular browsing or private browsing with Firefox. You couldn’t have both. Now, Firefox has taken a page of out Google Chrome’s book and is now allowing you to simultaneously do both. This is great if you have multiple email accounts and do not feel like signing out of one just to access another. It’s also great for “other” things as well. This new feature is included in Firefox Browser for Android.

Also with this update, Firefox’s Download Manager is now integrated into your toolbar, so you can easily monitor your downloads without opening another window. You will be able to view and minimize your downloads with one simple click. And finally, Mozilla has integrated getUserMedia with its browsers, which allows developers to create web apps that can utilize the user’s camera and microphone. You can download the latest Firefox browser here.

Firefox Browser for Android now allows you to add shortcuts to your homescreen for your favorite sites, similar to Google Chrome’s Android app. Mozilla has also provided support for ARMv6 devices, so now many more lower-end Android phones will be able to take advantage of Firefox Browser for Android. Mozilla states that by supporting ARMv6 devices, it is able to bring its service to over 50 million more phones. In similar news, Mozilla is also gearing to launch its FireFox OS phones later on this year to over 18 operators. It’s an impressive OS looking to break into the mobile market.

[via Mozilla]

Firefox 20 improves private browsing and user experience is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.