Firefox 44 Gets Official Release And Some New Features

The latest version of Firefox has been officially released, and users should be prepared some new features.

According to the changelog Mozilla released for Firefox version 44 everyone’s favorite fox based web browser now has Web Push notifications.  This latest added trick should save users on battery power, and time.

Web Push Notifications

Enabling the Web Push notification option will, with a user’s permission, allow websites to send messages directly to the desktop, even when the website in question isn’t open. This should prove to be a useful tool, especially for those people who don’t want to ever miss a message or notification from the likes of Gmail, Twitter, and Facebook The best thing about this new addition however is that if  Web Pushes aren’t your thing, they can easily be disabled from within the options menu.

Web Push notifications will allow users to close Firefox tabs that aren’t needed, which will save unnecessary CPU time, memory usage, and help prolong battery life. Mozilla are adamant as well that as with webcams and geolocation, websites will have to ask users to grant access specifically if they want to send notifications. Websites will also be limited by how many push notifications they can send to any one user. Sites that exceed their given quota will have their push abilities disabled automatically.

Improved Warnings And Faster Loading

Firefox has also boosted its security measures for untrusted connections and certificate errors, improving the warning message pages’ users see when they stray close to the edge.  As well as this this Fox 44 has added support for the Google created “Brotli” algorithm which will allow data downloaded by Firefox to be up to 25% faster. The Brotli algorithm compresses files so users should see web pages loading faster. This will also help reduce bandwidth which will be handy for those people worried about download limits.

Enhanced Codec Support

Other changes in Firefox 44 are that H.264 is now enabled if the decoder is already on users’ systems, and that WebM/VP9 will be automatically enabled by default if the former isn’t available.

Issues Solved

As usual with each new Firefox release, several critical updates have been issued, and vulnerabilities have been addressed. These fixes include an issue with unsafe memory manipulation,  some memory safety bugs, a buffer overflow issue with WebGL, and flaws related to some cryptographic protocols.

Blast From The Past

And finally, while Windows XP and Windows Vista may have been long abandoned by Microsoft, Mozilla haven’t forgotten and have fixed the bug that disabled screensavers when watching videos.

Anyone who wants to get their hands on the new and improved Firefox 44 an download it here from FileHippo.com