Tech Update: Firefox 10

Firefox has been upgraded to version 10 (now 10.0.1). Users set to the release channel will be updated automatically. Significant changes in this pass are notably subtle, focusing primarily on bug fixes, UI tweaks, and extension support. Among these are a couple points of interest:

Add-ons will now be compatible with newer versions of the browser by default, making regular upgrades a much smoother transition.

Full screen APIs in HTML5 will allow for the development of web applications that run full screen through the browser.

Read the comprehensive list of the changes here.

The latest version can be accessed here.

Chrome 17 released with prerendering and security features

Google has released version 17 of their Chrome web browser. Along with the usual list of bug fixes, Chrome has two major feature changes: prerendering pages and *.exe and *.msi file checking.

Prerendering pages, which the Google Chrome Blog likens to a sandwich shop you visit regularly knowing your order as soon as you walk in, works by loading the page you're navigating to in the address bar as soon as autocomplete detects an page you're likely to go to. According to the Chrome Blog this can significantly speed up loading pages, sometimes to the point of loading the page instantly as soon as you hit enter.

The other major feature update, *.exe and *.msi file checking, attempts to make browsing the web more secure by checking any *.exe and *.msi files you download against a list of known safe files. If the file isn't in the list Chrome will compare the metadata of the site against a list of known bad sites and warn the user that they may be downloading a malicious file. An older blog post from the Chrome Blog notes that while this is limited to executable files for the moment, Google plans to extend this feature to all resources on a page in the coming months.

Chrome should automatically update to the new version, or you can head over to the Chrome download page to pick it up if you haven't already.

Apple releases OS X 10.7.3 with Safari 5.1.3

Apple has released the 10.7.3 update for the OS X operating system. The update, which mainly involves bug fixes, "includes general operating system fixes that improve the stability, compatibility, and security of your Mac," according to the OS X 10.7.3 release notes page.

The biggest new features include support for several new languages, including Catalan, Croatian, Greek, Hebrew, Romanian, Slovak, Thai, and Ukrainian, and better RAW image compatibility with more digital cameras.

While the update includes a new version of Apple's web browser Safari -- version 5.1.3, to be precise -- as of this writing Apple has yet to release a list of changes in the update for the browser and it is, as yet, unavailable for other OS versions, including OS X 10.7.2.

For instructions on how to update to 10.7.3 and the full release notes, head over the About the OS X Lion v10.7.3 Update page.