Mozilla has released a new version of its browser on Tuesday, Firefox 44 compatible to Windows, Mac and Linux. The new version allows choosing to receive push notifications from websites following accorded permission. The push notifications appear similar to that of web, but are differentiated through appearing though not loaded in the tab.
User accorded permission lets the browser to furnish heads- up on important story or alert. The new feature is super useful for websites like email, weather, social networks and shopping, which are usually frequently browsed for updates.
Firefox 44 now allows Facebook, Twitter, Gmail and other services to send push notifications to the desktops instead of loading the whole app. This saves battery life and system resources, according to a report published in The Next Web.
The updated Firefox allows playing H.264 video in systems containing native decoder. It also ditches older, less secure web certificates. The Android version of the browser (yet to be released) will enable to choose a homepage to display on startup, get search history suggestions and use the native services for cloud printing, predicts Engadget. Google, the arch rival of Mozilla has added the same functionality to Chrome in April with version 42. Both Chrome and Firefox rely on the World Wide Web Consortium (WWWC/ W3C), the under construction web push protocol and the associated push 'Application Programming Interface' (API) for the feature, reports Computerworld. Firefox 44 also includes depreciation of support for the RC4 decipher over HTTPS connections safeguarded by Transport Layer Security (TLS). This feature has been attributed following an announcement made by all browser makers in September promising to drop RC4 support in 2016. The announcement has been made following a research revealing RC4 may easily be cracked. Google has reportedly dropped RC4 with introduction of Chrome 48, released last week. Microsoft has also pledged for the same for Internet Explorer (IE) and Edge during the earlier part of 2016. Firefox 44 has nodded support for the Google created 'Brotli' compression algorithm. 'Brotli' is believed to be 25% more efficient in squeezing files delivered to browsers. This results reduced page loading times and reduced data consumption for those on capped connection plans. Google has introduced its new updated browser with version 42 in last week that allows push notifications from websites. Following Google set trait, Mozilla has unveiled its updated browser version, Firefox 44 on Tuesday. Through introduction of Firefox 44, Google expresses its support for Google developed 'Brotli' compression which in turn will reduce page loading duration and data consumption.
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