14 DAY TRIAL // While Mozilla still hasn't officially announced the latest beta release of its upcoming Firefox 4, it has been available for download for almost day now. Behind schedule, even the revised one, Firefox 4 Beta 8 comes with quite a lot of bug-fixes, as the focus was on polishing, but also with better Sync support, a refreshed Add-On Manager and improved WebGL support.
Firefox 4 Beta 7 was feature complete, so don't expect anything new in the latest release. However, there are some interesting updates in there and Firefox 4 is looking a lot better than when the first beta was made available.
"Firefox now supports WebGL for a larger number of built-in graphics cards on Mac and Windows, allowing more people to experience vivid games and new 3D graphic visualizations on the Web," Mozilla explains.
Google has just announced that WebGL support is enabled by default in the Chrome 9 Beta. It has been available in Firefox 4 Beta for quite a while, but it is now getting better with most Windows and Mac users able to make the best of what the 3D web promises. Linux users, unfortunately, will have to wait a some more.
"The new Sync interface makes it easier than ever to bring Firefox with you anywhere you go, whether you're on your desktop, laptop or your mobile phone," Mozilla described another improvement in the Firefox 4 Beta 8.
Sync started out as a Mozilla Labs experiment and evolved to the point where it could be part of the browser. Sync has been built into Firefox 4 from the get-go, but the experience has improved quite a bit since.
"The Firefox Add-ons Manager now looks and feels more polished compared to the first beta release, with automatic add-on updates and a smarter interface that makes it even easier to manage your add-ons and discover awesome new options for personalizing the way you browse," Mozilla added.
The new in-tab add-on manager has been introduced in Firefox 4 as an alternative to the dialog-based one in Firefox 3 and previous versions. While the idea was solid, to move the configuration windows to the browser itself, it felt a bit unpolished and needed some work.
Mozilla still hasn't made any announcement, but you can grab Firefox 4 Beta 8 from the download links below. There are a couple of more betas expected, with the next one coming in early 2011, and then a couple of release candidate so don't expect Firefox 4 final to land until spring 2011. Firefox 4 Beta 8 for Windows is available for download here. Firefox 4 Beta 8 for Linux is available for download here. Firefox 4 Beta 8 for Mac is available for download here.
