Firefox Beta gets IonMonkey

[nsane.forums]

Kung fu movie fans might be tempted to call the new beta "the browser with the IonMonkey fists," as it gets a much faster, new Javascript engine, a smart security improvement, and other useful tweaks.

Firefox Javascript performance on Mozilla's own Kraken benchmark.

A Javascript engine called IonMonkey, Mac Retina compatibility, and better touch support move into the new Firefox Beta, released today.

Firefox 18 Beta (download for Windows, Mac, and Linux) arrives with a new "just-in-time" Javascript compiler called "IonMonkey" for faster site load times. While it doesn't appear to have been independently tested yet, Mozilla's own IonMonkey benchmarks from September indicate that it will make the stable version of Firefox 18 about 25 percent faster than the current Firefox 17. The features are expected to reach the Firefox stable channel around the first week of January.

Firefox Javascript performance on Google's V8 benchmark.

The new Firefox beta also allows you to disable insecure content at will on Web sites that have been secured with HTTPS. In the beta, the feature is only available through about:config.

The Mac version now works with high-definition Retina displays, and all Firefox Beta platforms support W3C touch screen-specific events, as well as MozTouch events.

Other changes include built-in viewing of PDFs, and early support for WebRTC, which eventually will let browsers run P2P apps, perform voice calls, and power video chats without plug-ins. Full notes on what's new in Firefox 18 beta can be read here.

View: Original Article

[alaindc]

Other changes include built-in viewing of PDFs

it's just me or this feature was available in 17 beta?

[RMD]

Last but not least lockups almost every third time I use it - GOOD STUFF! (Sarcasm intended)

[demoneye]

kungfu fun will probably call it "ironmonkey" fists not the above one u dork!

10x for article :)

[anuseems]

IonMonkey, the new Javascript engine Mozilla has been building for Firefox, is now just a single release away from making its way to the stable release channel. Firefox 18 arrived for beta users this week, and it’s bolted on IonMonkey as well as several other fairly major additions.

Firefox 18 will finally catch up to Safari and Opera on OS X by adding support for Retina displays, and Mozilla’s open source PDF.js reader has brought integrated viewing of Adobe‘s ubiquitous document format. Mozilla has also added support for W3C touch events, which should help make Firefox 18 a better fit on the numerous Windows 8 convertibles, touchscreen notebooks, and all-in-ones that are now arriving on store shelves.

There’s also been one key security-related update: Firefox 18 can now disable insecure content on sites that are being accessed via HTTPS. It’s a privacy protection feature, and will prevent those insecure connections from leaking data. To turn it on, head to about:config and search for allowinsecure. Make sure network.websocket.allowInsecureFromHTTPS is set to false — it appears to be by default, but it never hurts to check.

Mozilla has done a good job of keeping pace with Google in terms of functionality in recent times, and with IonMonkey now on board, Firefox has taken a big step forward in performance, too. In a quick run through the Sunspider benchmark, Firefox 18 put up a time that was just 15ms slower than the Chrome 24 beta. And while solid benchmark results don’t always translate to gains on the real Web, Firefox 18 definitely seems to handle Javascript-heavy websites better than the previous version did. Gmail fires up faster, for example. Perhaps not blisteringly so, but there’s enough of a difference that you’ll notice.

@ https://blog.mozilla.org/javascript/2012/09/12/ionmonkey-in-firefox-18/

[DKT27]

Threads merged.

[calguyhunk]

Other changes include built-in viewing of PDFs

it's just me or this feature was available in 17 beta?

Has been there since FF15 Beta :)