NEW DELHI: Mozilla has launched the first beta of its Firefox 4 browser. Based on Gecko 2.0 Web platform layout engine, Firefox 4 Beta 1 is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
The first beta of Firefox 4.0 mainly revamps the browser’s looks. Like for Windows users, Tabs have gone on top by default (like Chrome). Mac and Linux users are expected to get this feature as a default in subsequent betas. Another new feature for Windows users is the new orange 'Firefox' button on the top left. Click on it and it takes users to a drop-down filled with the most popular application menu items.
Other new significant features in the Firefox 4.0 beta are:
- Add-Ons Manager: Gives users more space to manage their Add-Ons, Themes and Plugins.
- Enhanced support for emerging Web standards like CSS 3, Canvas and Web Sockets
- HD Video: Watch hardware-accelerated, super-smooth, HD-quality HTML5 video on YouTube using the new WebM format.
- Privacy improvements: The beta fixes flaws in some Web standards that could expose user's browser history.
- Crash Protection: When a plugin crashes or freezes, users will be able to resume browsing by simply refreshing the page.
- Jetpack SDK for new-style lightweight add-ons
- The new Firefox 4.0 beta also promises performance improvement, including new HTML5 parser.