NewsNo Surprise: Firefox 3.1 Beta Is Even Faster Than Firefox 3
Posted 10/15/08 at 04:15:04 PM by Alex Castle
The first Firefox 3.1 beta has been made available for download, bringing with it a number of cool new features. However, possibly the coolest of those features, the lightning-fast TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, is disabled by default. Fortunately, it’s a quick fix to turn it on, and Seth Rosenblatt at CNET explains how:
“To activate it, type "about:config" into the Smart Bar, then type "javascript.options.jit.content" into the filter. Double-click on the preference listed to change the boolean setting from "false" to "true." Close the window and you should notice an immediate improvement to the JavaScript rendering speed.”
He used the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark test to demonstrate the improvements in the new engine, which completed the test in 2788 milliseconds, compared to 5447 ms for Firefox 3.0.3. Always the skeptics, we tried the benchmark ourselves, and witnessed an even more dramatic improvement. For us, speed more than doubled, from 4725 ms to 2227 ms.
So if you’re trying out the 3.1 beta, enable the TraceMonkey engine and see what it can do for you. Share your experiences after the jump.
NewsNvidia, Opera Combine to Refine Web Browsing Experience on Mobile Devices
Posted 09/10/08 at 06:49:03 PM by Pulkit Chandna
Nvidia and Opera have teamed up to provide a rich web browsing experience on mobile platforms. Nvidia will now provide “an optimized Opera 9.5 browser in its suite of pre-integrated, in-house and third-party software for the NVIDIA Tegra family of computer-on-chip Windows Mobile and Windows CE solutions.”
The alliance will provide a highly fulfilling browsing experience for the user’s delectation. As Nvidia’s Tegra chip has media acceleration and integrated GPU, the Opera 9.5 browser running on it will be able to support accelerated vector graphics and video content. The browser will also support JavaScript.
The web browsing experience currently available on most smartphones leaves a lot to be desired. But browsing on mobile devices is destined for a considerable leap in the near future as success of mobile devices is beginning to rest heavily on the browsing experience they offer.
NewsTraceMonkey Will Supercharge JavaScript Execution in Future Firefox Versions
Posted 08/26/08 at 08:27:34 AM by Mark Edward Soper
In Firefox 3, JavaScript execution is already 20% faster than in Firefox 2. That's great, but it's minimal compared to the speedups coming in future Firefox versions, thanks to a new JavaScript rendering engine called TraceMonkey now in development at Mozilla (Firefox 3's JavaScript rendering engine is known as SpiderMonkey).
Techspot.com reports that the new TraceMonkey JavaScript execution engine coming in future versions of Firefox will provide at least a 2x performance increase over SpiderMonkey, based on information posted by Mozilla's Mike Shaver (its VP of Engineering). However, that might be a conservative estimate. Shaver reports that TraceMonkey runs core JavaScript primitives such as function call, global loop, and empty loop at at speeds over 20 times faster than in Firefox 3. Benchmark performance (see figure accompanying this article) is just as impressive. According to Shaver:
The goal of the TraceMonkey project — which is still in its early stages — is to take JavaScript performance to another level, where instead of competing against other interpreters, we start to compete against native code.
So, how long before TraceMonkey elbows SpiderMonkey out of the way as "top monkey" in the Firefox JavaScript execution game? A stripped-down version of TraceMonkey is now being incorporated into Firefox 3.1 (it's turned off by default in current builds), but the full version of TraceMonkey won't see the light of day until version 4.0, according to Techspot.com.
Hit the jump for your chance to comment on what you think faster JavaScript execution will mean for you.
NewsUse Your Web Browser's History to Identify Your Gender
Posted 07/30/08 at 02:51:45 PM by Paul Lilly
Believe it or not, your browser might know more about you than even your spouse. Whether you use Firefox, Internet Explorer, or any of the several alternative browsers, a peek in your browsing history reveals what games you're playing, where you shop, what you shop for, where you booked your upcoming vacation, and it even knows what turns you on. But up until now, your browser had no way of knowing whether you're a male for female. Not anymore.
Mike Nolet, CTO and co-founder of AppNexus, has devised a nifty little algorthm that analyzes your browser's history and then predicts your gender probability. The code comes from a modified version of Paul Cook's Social History javascript, and with a little bit of tweaking, Nolet has made it capable of predicting whether you're a male or female. But just how accurate is it? After quickly analyzing the sites I had recently visited (it works much faster on Firefox than IE), the likelihood of my being male came back 100 percent. Save for this one Halloween party in college, that's pretty damn accurate. And eerie. Are there really no women who dig shopping at Newegg, throwing down cards at Pokerstars, and drooling over Kawasaki's 2008 sport bike lineup?
Try it out for yourself and post your results below.
NewsIE Climbs Into the "It's Not a Bug, It's a Feature" Browser Doghouse with Unpatched GIF Vulnerability
Posted 07/01/08 at 03:08:34 PM by Mark Edward Soper
According to Kapersky Labs analyst Roel Schouwenberg, GIF files can include embedded JavaScript, and under certain circumstances, can be used to launch a cross-site-scripting (XSS) attack. Internet Explorer's vulnerable to this threat, and at least one web site's already been affected.
To find out how long Redmond's known about this problem, and how another browser vendor set Microsoft an example in how to deal with a reported vulnerability, join us after the jump.
NewsJavaScript Vulnerability Gives a Whole New Meaning to "Get Adobe Reader"
Posted 06/26/08 at 02:27:24 PM by Mark Edward Soper
If you're running Acrobat or Reader 7.x or 8.x, the bad guys have you in their sights with an in-the-wild exploit that targets a JavaScript handling vulnerability. This vulnerability is cross-platform: this time, MacOS and Windows users alike need to update their installations.
To find out how to get the updates you need to protect your system, keep reading.
NewsLeaky Addons Make for Big Security Risks for Firefox Users
Posted 01/30/08 at 04:23:52 PM by MarkSoper
Find out why your favorite Firefox add-ons can leave your system crying "Don't Chrome Me, Bro!" - and how to protect yourself.
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