Anyone riding the BETA channel can do a manual update to download ff3.5.3 otherwise you can download from here – http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/3.5.3-candidates/build1/

Opera Mobile 9.7

Last week saw the release of an Opera 10 beta, this week Opera have released a beta of mobile 9.7 (available for win mobile 6.1 only at the minute, a blackberry and android versions are in the works).
What surprised me a little was that we were in the middle of a beta for version 9.5, which has now disappeared with no update off Opera to the beta mailing list. The 9.5 beta hadn’t been updated since early February so it does make a little sense that the updates to the mobile version of Opera would result in a jump in version numbers. I download the update yesterday and i have to agree with Opera, the browsing speed has greatly improved even with their new turbo browsing feature turned off. Apart from the browsing speed I couldn’t tell much difference between 9.5 and 9.7 and the feature list is pretty much identical. One interesting addition in 9.7 is the inclusion of dragonfly (operas answer to firebug) Bug fixing via mobile hasn’t really been on my development check list, more of an after thought, but as more and more people use their mobiles for browsing I think Opera have pulled one out of the bag by including dragonfly with the browser.

Firefox 3.5:developer

Mozilla yesterday released a developer version (post-beta but pre-rc) of Firefox 3.5 to enable us to do some final testing before they push out the release candidate of 3.5.  As mentioned several time in the past, 3.5 brings a whole host of new features: html 5 entities, improved css, and not forgetting the almost mythical @font-face rule. All developers should digest the feature list soon as possible. The RC is expected to be released within the next week or two and a push to general release couple of weeks later. Download the latest release from the beta channel.

Safari 4

Apple also stuck their finger in the browser release pie by announcing an end of the Safari 4 beta at their Worldwide Developers Conference. Safari 4 also includes more  support for html5 and css3 entities and its own version of PORN private browsing mode.  You can download Safari 4 direct from the safari homepage or read more about “whats in” safari on the new features page, although not much it seems…

Google Chrome

It wouldnt be fair to not  mention  an update for Google Chrome while Im talking about browser updates. While their hasnt been all that much pumping out of the developer channel for chrome recently there has been some good news for linux and mac fans. Early developer builds of chrome are now available for both platforms but developers have urged your to NOT download them, unless of course you enjoy potential crashes and an incomplete browser. Might be worth a dabble tho…

This latest version is very close to prying me away from Mozillas Firefox browser due to an improvement to the dragonfly developer tools.  Untill now they were about as good as Microsofts attempt at coping firebug, a good start but not that useful in locating and resolving faults. This new version is a hugh improment, mainly because of the ability to edit the DOM and view http headers.

There are a raft of new features available in Opera 10, from the expected improved UI and faster javascript engine to a feature similat to one used in Opera Mini called Turbo . This feature is the one that most people will be interested in. Opera Turbo is a compression technology which basically acts like a proxy but speeds up your connection by compressing the data stream before sending to your browser. On Opera mini this works great as mobile speeds on none 3G and GPRS phones are quite slow. Opera are building it into their desktop browser to improve connections on wireless devices like laptops and netbooks so your connection on the train or wi-fi cafe can be given a boost.

You can download and try it out here, aswell as read more on the bells and whistles opera are throwing into thier next incarnation. Remember this is a BETA release and so report any bugs you find to the man.

We have been waiting for a mobile version of Firefox since forever, currently on WM6.1 we have a choice between using Internet Explorer 6 Mobile or Opera Mobile, There are some other browsers available but none that really tear people away from IE or Opera.  While Opera Mobile is vastly superior to IE6mobile and renders pages as a desktop browser does, it unfortunately comes with a small price tag unless bundled with your operator and so means a lot of people are stuck using IE. Fennec is about to change all that.

I’ve been playing with Fennec since its release on the 15th and  I have to say its rather good. Navigation is quick to respond and doesn’t take long to get used to, like existing mobile browser users swipe and tap the screen to pan and zoom in on pages, tabs and menu items are available by pulling the left and right edges of the screen respectively, to open side menus, this works well on a mobile device as you save space for viewing the website,  although I did find when reading some pages I accidentally opened the menus more than I’d liked.

Websites load as expected and without any particular long load times, other than the expected result of mobile browsing, I tested via WI-FI and didn’t notice any load time at all, built in javascript engine was able to handle some very javascript heavy sites like Facebook with out giving up in the way mobile IE does. I could even get Youtube working once I’d enabled plug-ins.

There is support for basic add-ons and as mentioned before tabbed browsing, both of which help to improve the mobile browsing experience although opera has had both these (tabs and widgets) for a while, Fennec seems to load them quicker than the version of opera i have installed.

The only problems i found while testing fennec were a result of my win mobile device, it seems to use a lot of memory which my poor tytnII doesnt have much of spare, am sure on the newer win mobile devices it runs fine.

Overall for an alpha development Im very impressed, the basics are already in place and Im looking forward to the next release.

Fennec is available to download here or if you don’t have a win mobile device you can install it to your desktop by grabbing a copy of the fennec desktop build.

Watch a walk through of  the new features included in the Win Mobile Alpha build courtesy of Madhava Enros

The most notable change in this version is the increment in version numbers from 3.1b3 to 3.5b4. As noted in my previous post this is due to the inclusion of a number of significant bug fixes and additional features to the code base.
This latest beta includes updates to TraceMonkey, Firefox’s  Private Browsing Mode and also support for more CSS and  HTML5  attributes. You can read a full list of updates in the beta release notes.

For those interested in downloading and testing this new version, here is the beta release email.

Greetings to all of our great community testers – you are our most
valuable resource. We now have Firefox 3.5 Beta 4 available for testing
(Note: Since my last missive, we have changed the release name to
Firefox 3.5, the release formerly known as Firefox 3.1). Note that this
build is a beta and is intended for pre-release testing. We would like
your help in testing the release and identifying any possible
regressions or issues.

*What to Test/Where to Get Builds**:*

(Note: If you are riding the “beta” channel, you can manually check for
updates and update to this build). Otherwise you will have to download
from the directory below.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Please hammer on these builds mercilessly to make sure that things work
well! If you notice things that worked in Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 and do not
work in this release, we would like to know about it right away.

Read the Release Notes
*Please also make sure to read the Release Notes which detail the known
issues: http://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.5b4/releasenotes/

***_How to Report Feedback_:*
(1) File a bug in *https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/. *Note in the comment
if it is a regression from a previous release. Things to remember when
filing a bug:
(a) Always include the Build ID that you tested on. If you type
about: in the URL bar, this will give you the Build ID.
(b) Always include clear Steps to Reproduce the bug
(c) Always check to see if your bug has already been filed. This link
will help: http://tinyurl.com/2465be
(d) Use the regression keyword if it indeed a regression from a
previous release.
(e) If you happen to crash, please include the Breakpad ID in the bug.
You can get this by typing about:crashes in the URL bar.

(2) If you don’t wish to file a bug, report issues through
http://feedback.mozilla.org or through the
mozilla.feedback.firefox.prerelease newsgroup (also available on Google
Groups). However, we prefer bugs as feedback is easier to track.

Thanks in advance to all of you for helping test Firefox and making it
the browser of choice for millions of people all over the world! We are
getting ever closer to the final release and thank you for your
participation.

marcia, on behalf of
Team Mozilla QA

Greetings to all of our great community testers – you are our most valuable resource. We now have *Firefox 3.1 Beta 3* available for testing. Note that this build is a beta and is intended for pre-release testing. We would like your help in testing the release and identifying any possible regressions or issues.

*_What to Test/Where to Get Builds_:*

(Note: If you are riding the “beta” channel, you can manually check for updates and update to this build). Otherwise you will have to download from the directory below.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all-beta.html

Please hammer on these builds mercilessly to make sure that things work well! If you notice things that worked in Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 and do not work in this release, we would like to know about it right away.

_*Read the Release Notes*_
*Please also make sure to read the Release Notes which detail the known issues: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.1b3/releasenotes/

***_How to Report Feedback_:*
(1) File a bug in *https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/. *Note in the comment if it is a regression from a previous release. Things to remember when filing a bug:
(a) Always include the Build ID that you tested on. If you type about: in the URL bar, this will give you the Build ID.
(b) Always include clear Steps to Reproduce the bug
(c) Always check to see if your bug has already been filed. This link will help: http://tinyurl.com/2465be
(d) Use the regression keyword if it indeed a regression from a previous release.
(e) If you happen to crash, please include the Breakpad ID in the bug. You can get this by typing about:crashes in the URL bar.

(2) If you don’t wish to file a bug, report issues through http://feedback.mozilla.org or through the mozilla.feedback.firefox.prerelease newsgroup (also available on Google Groups). However, we prefer bugs as feedback is easier to track.

Thanks in advance to all of you for helping test Firefox and making it the browser of choice for millions of people all over the world! We are getting ever closer to the final release and thank you for your participation.

marcia, on behalf of
Team Mozilla QA

Mozilla have announced that the forth beta version (due for release 14th April) of the next instalment of popular browser Firefox will skip a few versions from 3.1 to 3.5.

Firefox director Mike Beltzner announced on the developer news blog that due to the inclusion of many new features (TraceMonkey, Private Browsing , etc not to mention the number of bug fixes already added to Firefox 3.1 ment that an increase in version number to reflect the changes was required.

Further updates for us Add-On developers is to be announced in due course via the wiki, and probably the mailing list too.

for more information, visit these sites:

• mozilla developer news
• mozilla developer wiki
• the register