FIREFOX

Firefox 4 Beta 3 Adds Windows 7 Multitouch Support

 

Arriving a week later than expected, the latest pre-release of the next major Firefox version adds just two headline features - Windows 7 multitouch support and a new way to represent JavaScript values.
In total, Firefox 4 Beta 3 includes 470 fixes and improvements. Firefox 4's most notable new features — tabs on top, WebM video support, the new JetPack extension system, and separate processes for plugins — have already surfaced in earlier betas and were covered in my hands on of Firefox 4 Beta.Windows 7 multitouch support is enabled through the Gecko 2.0 page layout engine's experimental support for proprietary MozTouch events. While Internet Explorer 8 includes touch support for things like zooming and navigating, the Firefox touch capabilities will allow Web developers to build applications that can accept touch input. The MozTouch events are similar to mouse events but add a "stream" for each finger used, along with "down," "up," and "move" actions.
Mozilla is making improvements to its JaegerMonkey JavaScript engine not only to speed it up in the face of stiff competition from the likes of Google Chrome, Opera, Apple Safari, and the upcoming IE9. This latest Firefox 4 beta release alters the way the browser's JavaScript engine handles JavaScript values. These, also called "jvals" are now represented using 64 bits instead of 32. Mozilla's release notes for beta 3 claim that the change "allows Firefox to execute heavy, numeric code (used for things like graphics and animations) more efficiently."