Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Front-End News, the show that brings you information on the latest events in the industry.
Here are the highlights of what I have prepared for you today:
- Mozilla unveils a new and improved mobile Firefox
- Addy Osmani tells us what is The Cost of JavaScript in 2019
- NodeJS receives a new update
- New tracking prevention features are being released for Microsoft Edge Chromium
As always, I have also prepared a video version for those that prefer listening instead of reading. If you enjoy this format, I would appreciate it if you would subscribe to the YouTube channel as well.
Mozilla unveils a new and improved mobile Firefox
Once more I’m leading with a Mozilla story. That’s like, what… the 4th time since I started this news show. And I can only be happy about it, as diversity is an essential part of the web, in my opinion. Anyway, back to the topic at hand.
Mozilla announced the release of a new mobile experience, called Firefox Preview and it is a step further down the path open with Firefox Focus, back in 2016. The new app will feature the same fast and secure experience provided by GeckoView, the company’s own mobile engine, with extra features enhancing privacy and security.
The early-release version is now available in the Google Play store. If you are a developer and/or an early-adopter, Mozilla has a message for you: download it, try it and provide feedback to help them make it better.
Source:
Reinventing Firefox for Android: a Preview - Future Releases
The Cost of JavaScript in 2019
“The dominant costs of processing scripts are now download and CPU execution times”. This is the over-arching summary of Addy Osmani’s presentation named “The Cost of Javascript in 2019”. This was made back in April at the PerfMatters Conference, but we now have the video and the supporting article published on the V8 developer blog.
I think it’s really worth the time to both see the video of the presentation and to read the article. There are a lot of great insights into the role JavaScript plays on the modern web. And yes, they are very fast when running on desktops or top-of-the-line mobile devices. The processing time increases a lot though on cheaper and older devices.
In the age of ever-present JavaScript frameworks powering up a large fraction of the modern web, it’s a good idea to stop for a moment and realize that not everyone has the latest phone and they might not have the best mobile data connection. #LetsMakeTheWebGreatAgain for everyone.
Sources and references:
- https://twitter.com/addyosmani/status/1143768354265559040
- https://v8.dev/blog/cost-of-javascript-2019
NodeJS updates to 12.5.0
NodeJS has been bumped up to version 12.5.0 and there are a number of notable changes to mention. The most important ones arethe updates for the V8 and OpenSSL dependencies, while startup time has also been improved due to V8 snapshots being enabled by default. You can check the full list on the NodeJS blog announcement.
Source:
New tracking prevention for Microsoft Edge Chromium
Microsoft is definitely out to make the new Chromium Edge an appealing browser. The latest preview build is including a new tracking prevention mechanism.
You need to activate a flag to enable these features. Once done, a new section appears in the privacy settings area. There are three levels of tracking prevention, from basic to strict, with the middle-of-the-road option being the default one.
This is still an experimental feature and it’s bound to change before it reaches final form. Further updates will continue to roll out as the development process continues.
Source:
Question of the day
What browser are you using on mobile? Are you using the default one that comes with your device or another one you downloaded? Please let us know in the comment section down below. Bonus brownie points go to Opera Mobile users.
That’s all there is in this edition. Follow Front End Nexus on Twitter at https://twitter.com/frontendnexus to be notified as soon as a new update happens. I also want to encourage you to subscribe to the YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgACtqiDmnSaskDIBsK54ww. I can unlock some more options once the channel hits 100 subscribers, so your support is highly appreciated.
Have a great and productive week and I will see you next time!
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