FIREFOX 4 IN LAST BETA?

For Mozilla's next browser version, let's hope eight is enough. The independent software foundation has just released Beta 8 of the heavily overhauled new version of Firefox. Firefox 4 sports a trimmed-down user interface (as has been the trend started with Google Chrome and followed by Opera and IE9 beta). The browser also makes some significant internal changes, with a new add-in system, a faster JavaScript engine, and lots more HTML5 compatibility.

To all this goodness, Beta 8 adds a simplified syncing setup, support for WebGL 3D graphics, and a redesigned Add-ons manager. Firefox director Mike Beltzner announced the beta release on a Mozilla Blog post yesterday.

Firefox's syncing allows users to automatically recreate their history, bookmarks, open tab sets, and passwords on other computers and smartphones. The new process automatically generates a short key that you enter when you want to add devices to your syncing account, similar to a lot of device's Bluetooth pairing setup.

WebGL is an open 3D graphics API related to the Khronos Group's similar OpenGL. It allows developers to create rich interactive visual environments inside a browser without the need for plug-ins like Adobe Flash, using the HTML5 Canvas element. Beltzner's blog post states that the beta's WebGL implementation supports "most modern built-in graphics cards."

On the add-in front, Firefox 4 Beta 8's Add-ons manager allows extensions and other add-ons to update themselves automatically, without that bothersome dialog when you start the browser up. The new design also makes it easier to find add-ons of interest, according to Mozilla's Jennifer Boriss. "The new Add-ons manager will be easier to use, sleeker, and faster than ever before," claims Boriss in a separate blog post. Taking a page from Google Chrome's playbook, the new add-on gallery appears in a browser tab page rather than a separate dialog window.

In the JavaScript benchmark wars, this version brings Firefox closer to the competition, but in quick-and-dirty runs of the Sunspider benchmark, Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 7, Google Chrome 8, and Opera still beat it handily. On a 3.16GHz dual-core machine, the scores were Firefox 4b8: 254ms, IE9PP7: 203ms, Chrome 8: 216ms, and Opera 11: 229ms. [PC Magazine]