Mozilla Firefox 4 launched in the Philippines with Alab as Mascot

Mozilla Firefox launched its latest Version 4 together with the introduction of a mascot for the Philippines, Alab for Filipino flare, attired as a revolutionary Katipunero.

The image above shows community leader, Regnard Raquedan, introducing Alab, as the Mozilla Firefox mascot for the Philippines that was created by Martin Jimenez.

I am happy to be part of the Mozilla Firefox community.

Mozilla and its community in the Philippines

The Philippines holds a special place for Manila. I think we surprised them in Mozilla starting with the vigor of the 5th Year Anniversary celebration in 2009.

Credit for the celebration and other activities to create a grass roots community of young developers goes to pro bono Mozilla community leader, Regnard Raquedan.

Gen Kanai from Mozilla, who actively looks after the community in the Philippines, came with a large team for the launch. I think the local attendance for the launch by 186 mainly young developers and tech geeks ought to have warmed his heart.

I did notice, during the Q&A, that our developers were asking questions at the edge of browser technology giving benchmarks with strong competitors, Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

From the media pack, I grabbed the list of what’s new in Mozilla Firefox 4.

What’s New in Firefox 4

Mozilla Firefox 4 is the fastest ever at two to six times faster than previous releases. It lets Web content take center stage with features like App Tabs and Panorama that allow easier and more efficient Web navigation.

It also delivers industry-leading privacy and security features like Do Not Track and Content Security Policy.

Also, Firefox 4 supports modern Web technologies, including HTML 5 for building amazing websites and Web applications.

Fastest Firefox Ever

• Performance: Firefox is up to six times faster than the previous release. With improved start-up and page load times, speedy Web app performance and hardware accelerated graphics, Firefox is optimized for rich, interactive websites.

Streamlined Interface

• App Tabs: give a permanent home to frequently visited sites like Web mail, Twitter,Pandora, Flickr.
• Switch to Tab: easily find and switch to any open tab from your Awesome Bar without opening duplicate tabs.
• Panorama: drag and drop tabs into manageable groups to save time while navigating many open tabs.

Private and Secure Synchronization

• Firefox Sync: access your Awesome Bar history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices.

Most Customizable

• New Add-ons Manager: easily discover and install more than 200,000 add-ons to customize the features, functionality and look of Firefox.

Private and Secure

• Do Not Track: Firefox is leading the Web towards a universal standard Do Not Track feature that allows users to opt-out of tracking used for behavioral advertising.
• Firefox puts privacy first, fixing flaws in some Web standards to prevent others from accessing your browser history.
• HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS): automatically establishes secure connections to stop “man in the middle” attacks and keep sensitive data safe from interception during the log-in process.
• Content Security Policy (CSP): prevent cross-scripting attacks by allowing sites to explicitly tell the browser which content is legitimate.

Cutting Edge Tools for Web Developers

• The JavaScript engine incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, along with enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter for faster page-load speed and better performance of Web apps and games.
• HTML5 support in Firefox includes hardware accelerated, high-definition video (WebM), 3D graphics, offline data storage, professional typography, touchscreen interfaces and the Mozilla Audio API to help create visual experiences for sound and more.
• Firefox 4 also improves existing tools like CSS, Canvas and SVG to enable developers to make exciting Web pages.
• Firefox provides uninterrupted browsing when there is a crash in the Adobe Flash, Apple QuickTime or Microsoft Silverlight plugins. If one of these plugins crashes or freezes, it won’t affect the rest of Firefox. Simply reload the page to restart the plugin.

SYNTHESiST is a Firefox beta tester

SYNTHESiST, while not a techie geek, has been a beta tester for new developments since joining the community as a media, i.e. blogger, representative.

Today, they released beta Version 4.0.1 to test new features. As always, I am happy to oblige.