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Firefox has won a legion of users and programmers due to security, speed and new features. From time to time Mozilla release beta versions of their browser. These versions are earning the name of Minefield, that doesn’t have perfect stability, factor that makes it true Minefield. The Minefield is a browser and interesting for developers, because it brings the power of the new version. Although it is not yet stable, developers can use the news from Mozilla to create new applications and content to the browser. The latest version of Mozilla Firefox Developer Preview drew much attention because it brings some significant changes as well, both Visual and performance, addition of “Do Not Track”, which aims to increase the privacy of users, preventing information about your browsing to be sent outside. Latest Beta version also gained further improvements in performance and stability.

The Firefox 4 came to its first release candidate. The first RC version offers mainly the stability and performance improvements. Firefox 4 generally introduces a new interface, faster java script engine, support for WebM and WebGL and improved management of plugins. Mozilla Firefox 4.0 RC works with Windows, Mac OS X and Linux and is available with a variety of different language packs.

Attention! Version for Testing

Minefield shouldn’t replace your default browser and we recommend that you don’t access e-mail accounts or database using this version. Minefield is not recommended for everyday use, because there are still some holes and flaws in the program code.

Renovated GUI

If you constantly track the Internet, must have seen the articles about Firefox 4. If you haven’t read, you might be surprised with some modifications that Mozilla is planning. One of the great news is that you can use the tabs at the top.

In addition to this novelty, Mozilla has added new menu in the latest version of Minefield (temporary name that will be changed in the final version of the browser).

Centered on a Button

This can be noticed to centralize many functions in the Minefield button that after the official release will be called Firefox. But if you don’t like it, access the “Customize” option in Minefield button and click “Menu Bar”, as has always been used in Mozilla browser.

Add-ons Manager

Add-ons are exposed in a separate tab called “Add-ons Manager” and not in a popup window as formerly. The sidebar menu greatly facilitates access to any add-ons, themes and plugins, shown separately and with information.

Lightness and More Speedy

One of the long standing and brutally attacked by its critics has always been the memory consumption of Firefox. But after using this version, you will feel the real difference. Browsing speed has also changed and became faster. This is mainly due to the use of Direct2D, a feature that speeds up the loading process when there are images and various elements on a webpage. This tool doesn’t mean a weight to the browser, because it works perfectly on any machines, even with old computers.

WebM

With the current version of Minefield, is already possible to make videos on YouTube using WebM together with HTML5. The browser already comes with codec enabled; but the user needs to perform some steps on YouTube itself to access videos with the new codec. Check out:

1. Access YouTube.
2. Perform your search. Preferably international contents search (the term “Trailers” results in various compatible videos), because there are not many videos converted to HTML5 yet.
3. Append “&webm=1” to the end of the URL.
4. Click the desired video.

Beta Developments

One of the big features is the recognition of multitouch for users of Windows 7. Mozilla Firefox now also supports Hardware Acceleration. Another option that has now been amended in the standard settings of the browser is related to synchronization. Firefox Sync allows synchronizing of bookmarks, history and passwords between multiple machines accessed by the same user.

Firefox Panorama was previously known as Tab Candy. In the upper right corner of the browser is Panorama button, right next to the button used to add a new tab in Firefox. Click and drag the mouse cursor anywhere on the flap created to generate a new group of tabs. Rename the way you want and thus to group tabs into several different segments, such as work, personnel and many others. You can also resize groups and drag them to whichever you prefer, ranking by size or other topics.