InfoQ Homepage Web Browser Content on InfoQ
-
Privacy and Security a Top Priority in macOS Mojave and Safari 12
At their annual Developer Conference WWDC Apple previewed macOS Mojave, the latest version of the company’s desktop operating system, and Safari 12, the updated web browser. Apple has stated that enhanced privacy and security are a top priority with these releases.
-
Firefox Introduces Web Authentication API
With the Firefox 60 release on May 9, Firefox became the first major browser to support the Web Authentication API. This API enables users to avoid text-based passwords for websites and instead uses a local device with a biometric check or private PIN to generate a secure cryptographic identifier. Support for the API is in development for Chrome and Edge, and under consideration for Safari.
-
Service Workers Now Supported across All Major Browsers
With the Windows 10 April 2018 Update released on April 30th, and the Safari 11.1 release on March 29, Edge and Safari join Firefox and Chrome in enabling Service Workers by default. Developers can now develop Progressive Web Apps providing offline functionality and expect them to function across all browsers except Internet Explorer and Opera Mini.
-
Firefox Releases Facebook Container Extension
Firefox has released an extension that it claims will stop the company snooping on users’ non-Facebook web traffic. The Facebook Container extension isolates users' identities to a separate container tab, which makes it harder for Facebook to track other web activity.
-
Safari 11.1 in iOS 11.3 Enables Payment Request API
In the 11.3 version of iOS, released Thursday, March 29, Apple included version 11.1 of Safari which enables the Payment Request API. This allows web developers to allow users to make payments with saved credit cards and mobile wallets, streamlining payment and checkout flows. With Android already supporting it, the Payment Request API is now available for 98% of the US and UK mobile markets.
-
Google Releases Puppeteer 1.0
Puppeteer 1.0 has been released and includes dozens of improvements, including measurement of JavaScript heap and page performance, and code coverage information for JavaScript and CSS.
-
With Firefox Version 58, WebAssembly Gets 10X Faster
With Firefox 58, Mozilla is shipping a 2-tiered compilation system for WebAssembly that they claim allows them to parse and compile WASM code at 30-60 MB/s, or as fast as it comes in over the wire. Benchmarks indicate around a 10X speedup from previous versions of Firefox, and over 10X faster than Chrome.
-
W3C Releases HTML 5.2 As Official Recommendation
The W3C released the HTML 5.2 update to the HTML specification as an official recommendation on December 14, 2017. This update adds new features like the dialog element, obsoletes old ones like the HTML plugins system, and integrates work from other W3C committees such as support for the Payments Request API and the Presentation API.
-
Firefox Quantum Commits to Cross-Browser Extension Architecture
With the Firefox 57 “Quantum” release, Firefox now only supports extensions based on the WebExtensions API, joining Chrome and Edge in supporting extension development with pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript based on a cross-browser shared extension architecture.
-
WebAssembly Now Supported across All Browsers
With releases on September 19 for Safari and October 31 for Edge, Apple and Microsoft join Google and Mozilla in providing support for WebAssembly in production browsers. All four companies’ browsers can now run code compiled to the wasm binary format.
-
W3C Publishes DRM as a Recommendation
After a divided vote, the World Wide Web Consortium has adopted Encrypted Media Extensions as a full recommendation, formalizing closed-source Digital Rights Management into the specification. In response, the EFF has resigned from the W3C.
-
Google's Puppeteer Joins Crowd of Headless Chrome Tools
Google's new tool, Puppeteer, is a custom-built Node API used to control headless Chrome. It joins a number of existing community tools that solve the very painful problem of working with the Chrome DevTools Protocol. The addition of Google's tool will hopefully result in more options and capabilities for web developers.
-
Adobe Will No Longer Support Flash after 2020
Adobe has announced the termination of Flash by the end of 2020. Browser vendors have published timelines outlining the steps to phase out the technology in their respective browsers.
-
Babylon.js 3.0 Released, Supports WebGL 2
Babylon.js, Microsoft's native JavaScript-based 3D game engine, has reached version 3. The new version supports WebGL 2 and includes a rewritten component for handling physical based rendering (PBR). In addition, developers can use the playground, an in-browser editor, and Spector, a WebGL debugger.
-
Google Is to Remove Support for PNaCl
After de-staffing the PNaCL/NaCl team last year and adding default support for WebAssembly in Chrome in March of this year, Google has officially announced the retirement of PNaCl in favor of WebAssembly.