Web Worker Daily

Mozilla has just released the final version of Firefox 3.5. As I noted in my review of the release candidate, JavaScript performance — critical for many web apps — is massively improved thanks to the new TraceMonkey engine, making 3.5 feel very fast indeed. I tried running the final release through the Sunspider performance benchmarks, and it doesn’t look like there are any major differences between it and the release candidate.

In addition to improved performance and standards compliance, Firefox 3.5 also features new privacy controls, location-aware browsing, and the ability to play video and audio content without using plugins. A quick video tour of the new version is available here.

Firefox 3.5 is a free download for Windows, Mac and Linux from Mozilla.

Share your thoughts on Firefox 3.5 in the comments.

If you’re using the new Release Candidate of Firefox 3.5, and many of us are, it’s worth looking into the posts at the Mozilla Hacks site to get to know how some of the most powerful new features in the browser work. There are more than 5,000 new features in the new version, as detailed in the Release Notes. Here are some of the more compelling tutorials and videos to look into at Mozilla Hacks.

Read the rest of this entry »