Mozilla updates Firefox 3.1 with Alpha 2 build

The newest alpha adds new video support, background JavaScript calculations

(Computerworld) Mozilla Corp. on Friday launched the second alpha of Firefox 3.1, adding new video support and boosting the speed of some JavaScript computations.

Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2, code-named "Shiretoko," will be the last in a short series of alpha editions; Mozilla has set a late September code freeze for Beta 1 and will presumably deliver the first preview for the general public next month.

Mozilla added support for the new video element to Alpha 2 and the opening round of what's called "Web worker threads," it also enhanced the browser's performance and enabled drag-and-drop of tabs between windows.

Support for the video tag, part of the HTML 5 standard, has been pitched by developers as a way to ditch proprietary formats, including the popular Flash, and let site designers embed video directly into pages and then manipulate and control the video with scripting.

Mozilla is playing catch-up here with Apple Inc.'s Safari, which already supports the tag. Other browsers, however, including Google Inc.'s new Chrome and Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, have yet to offer support for the element.

Also in Alpha 2 is initial support for "Web worker threads," enhanced scripting functionality that lets site developers shift JavaScript computations to a background thread where they don't hit the performance of the Firefox user interface..............


More: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9114239&source=NLT_AM&nlid=1

Awesome, can't wait for them to finally release it, even if it is just a beta version, I wanna try it!

It's really nice. I like Firefox Can't wait. Firefox FOR THE WIN ( FTW )