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Firefox 7 brings memory to the core
Saturday, 05 November 2011 08:47

 

The launch of the laFirefox 7 brings memory to the coretest Firefox version, which is version 7 provides significant modifications for the users who have been using the beta and Aurora versions for a while.

Some of these include the substantial reduction in memory requirements, which according to a company representative is between twenty and thirty percent with some instances being lower by fifty percent. This information was posted by the Firefox developer Nicholas Nethercote on his blog.

These improved performance features are the primary publicly available results of internal company project known as MemShrink. As implied by the name, this is about decreasing the impact of the browser on the system. The company provided numerous areas for improving in the Firefox 7 version. These include the problem faced by users when the browser remained open for extended time, or several tabs were simultaneously being used, or using the browser along with other programs required large memory usage. In addition, the MemShrink partially succeeded due to the fast update releasing cycle followed by the company, which was criticized by some users.

The focus on improved performance will be continued by the company. When you choose to install the latest version of the browser, you will receive a prompt asking you to choose a new unnamed reporting system, which is named as Telemetry by Mozilla. Similar to other security prompts that utilize user information to anonymously increase the rate of detecting possible threats, the company will crowd source the performance information to gain additional understanding on improving the performance of its browser in actual situations.

Dissimilar to other security measures, the Telemetry is an optional reporting technique, which ensures that the company does not collect user information without their authorization. Sid Stamm who is the lead engineer for privacy discusses about the security issues in his blog posts. Nonetheless, the shorter version is that the company is more receptive on the information collected by Mozilla and the reason it collates the information when compared to its competitors, such as Google, Apple, and Microsoft. Presently, Telemetry focuses on four groups, which include the usage of memory, core content of the CPU, the collection time of the cycles, and the speed provided at startup. If you are curious to know these statistics, you can opt to install the About Telemetry add-on that provides personal information on the gathered data.

 

In case you want to disable the Telemetry option, you can access Options, the click on Advanced, and undo the Submit Performance Data tab, which can be found at the bottom of the General Tab.

Additional modifications to the version 7 include an updated version of the hardware speeder Canvas for quicker HTML5 gaming and animated choices, and enhancements for Web designers. These features include additional support garnered for W3C navigational time APIs, which enable the developers to calculate the time taken to load a page and the navigation of the site in relation to factors, such as the bandwidth, and an improved Firefox tools set for the developers.

The Android version 7 includes several modifications, such as the capability of selecting text from a page to copy and paste it. Users can see the long-tap within the sites and the Android dragging handles that appear on the screen. In addition, there is a new Quit feature, which can be accessed from Preferences and the More tabs, which forces an departure from the web browser. Moreover, the web socket APS is compatible with the mobile gadgets and the image quality is improved on the Tegra tablets and smart phones. In addition, the new browser automatically detects your language preference. Moreover, the latest Preferences tab allows users to modify the language that shows up on the browser as per their demand.