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January 09, 2013

Firefox 18 Supports IonMonkey JavaScript, WebRTC and Retina


The ongoing evolution in Mozilla Web browser Firefox has resulted in some attractive features for the browser. Tech Crunch reports that the latest stable version of Firefox, Firefox 18 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android, features Mozilla’s new IonMonkey JavaScript compiler, WebRTC and Retina.

IonMonkey is reportedly 25 percent better than the developer’s old compiler. Consequently, most Web apps and browser-based games should be significantly faster on Firefox 18, claims Mozilla.

Mozilla, according to Tech Crunch reporter Frederic Lardinois, is demonstrating the new features in a 3D Web game called BananaBread. The 3D Web game, developed by the Mozilla Developer Network, is powered by combination of HTML5, WebGL and JavaScript.

Besides IonMonkey JavaScript, Firefox 18 also supports high-resolution Retina displays. In fact, the use of a new algorithm for scaling images, resulting in better image quality on quite a few sites that depend on in-browser scaling.

Preliminary support for the in-browser WebRTC communications framework for real-time video and audio chats is also new in Firefox 18. However, a feature that didn’t make it into this release is Mozilla’s new built-in PDF reader.

While the organization has been working on this feature for a while, it’ll only make it into the beta release, expected to arrive on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Firefox for Android is also getting an update. Like the desktop version, Firefox for Android now uses Iwhile, and onMonkey. In addition, the mobile browser also features opt-in search suggestions in the Awesome Bar.

These, according to Mozilla, are conducted over a secure connection to protect your user data. Furthermore, mobile browser now also includes new anti-phising and anti-malware features that warn users when they encounter a malicious website.

Lastly, Firefox for Android also boasts its integration with the Google Now search widget.




Edited by Braden Becker
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