This is the fifth update for the new Proton user-interface which was released in June 2021. In this blog post, I cover some of the notable changes in this new browser update.
Mozilla has been consistently releasing monthly updates for the Firefox internet browser in 2021. That being said not all of their updates include major changes and new features.
In fact, in the last Firefox 92 browser update, there were no major changes implemented. Most of the changes were mainly related to fixes to security vulnerabilities. However, in this new Firefox 93 release, there were several notable changes which I will highlight in this blog post.
First up, Firefox now supports the new AVIF image format which offers significant file size reduction compared to JPEG, PNG & WebP file formats. It also supports features like High Dynamic Range; 8, 10 and 12-bit color depth; Lossless and lossy compression to name a few. You can check the link below to check if your browser supports AVIF fil format.
Secondly, the Firefox PDF Viewer now supports XFA Forms which are used by many governments and banks. XFA stands for XML Forms Architecture and developed by JetForm to enhance the processing of web forms. They are more flexible compared to standard PDF Acro Forms.
Thirdly, Mozilla introduced a new automatic unload tabs feature. When you have multiple tabs open in your Firefox browser running on Windows computers and the available system memory is critically low tabs are automatically unloaded to help reduce Firefox out-of-memory crashes.
Fourthly, Firefox now blocks downloads that rely on insecure connections.This will help protect against potentially malicious or unsafe downloads. You’ll see a warning message dialog box about a potential security risk when downloading a file, using an insecure connection.
Finally, there were a couple of enhancements to privacy protection in the form of improved web compatibility for privacy protections with SmartBlock 3.0 and a new referrer tracking protection in Strict Tracking Protection and Private Browsing. You can learn more about it in this article.
So these were some of the notable changes in Firefox 92. You can check the list of detailed changes in the Release Notes, you’ll find the links below. In terms of the Browsermark Benchmark test results, the overall performance of Firefox remained steady compared to the earlier version. On the other hand, Google Chrome has continues to outperform.
Well, that's it for now. Like I said, there was really not much in this update. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments section. Thanks for stopping by!
CREDITS: Browser Benchmark Tests Performed Using Browsermark from Basemark: http://web.basemark.com/ | Firefox information and logos used under Creative Commons License Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0) | Microsoft, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries | Google and the Google logo are registered trademarks of Google Inc., used with permission | Images and graphics used are public domain via Pixabay unless otherwise mentioned | Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
