Our Favorite Features in the New Firefox 70 Browser
It’s time to upgrade to the new version of Firefox Quantum. While your browser will eventually do it for you, I recommend forcing the problem by clicking the hamburger icon, clicking Help, and then clicking About Firefox. And while Firefox 70 is loading onto your desktop or laptop, here’s a quick tour of what’s new.
Save even more battery life on your Mac
Thanks to some improvements to Firefox’s layout pipeline – which you can read about here if you want some interesting details – the browser now uses a lot less power than ever before, in some cases a 3x improvement. I think this illustration from Mozilla says it all:
And if you’re wondering if Firefox’s improvements – moving to partial compositing – are being applied to other platforms, Mozilla said this:
“Firefox uses partial compositing on some platforms and GPU combinations, but not all. Notably, partial compositing is enabled in Firefox on Windows for non-WebRender, non-Nvidia systems, in relatively recent versions of Windows, and on all systems where hardware acceleration is disabled. Firefox does not currently use partial compositing on Linux or Android. “
Read for you a report of all trackers that Firefox blocks
Firefox now not only blocks cross-site tracking cookies on social sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter is a completely new feature, but you can now view your own privacy protection report that shows you everything Firefox has blocked in the background … … To view it, simply click the shield icon next to the address bar and select Show Report.
Not only will you get a somewhat detailed breakdown of how many trackers Firefox has blocked in the last week, but you’ll also get a quick overview of how many data breaches have occurred recently with the email address associated with your Firefox account – if you also subscribe to this free feature.
If you want to become a real gamer, I recommend setting about:protections as your browser home page in Firefox preferences (in the Home section). This way, whenever you click the Home icon or press ALT + Home on your keyboard, you can go directly to the privacy report. I find this to be more useful than a blank page, right?
Make even more secure passwords for websites
Firefox makes it even easier to create secure passwords for new accounts (or transfer your old, saved and secure passwords when you sign in) using the Lockwise feature in your browser. As Mozilla writes :
“Now, when you create an account, you will be automatically prompted to let Lockwise generate a secure password that you can save right in your Firefox browser. For current accounts, you can right-click in the password field to access the securely generated passwords using the fill option. All securely generated passwords are automatically saved to your Firefox Lockwise account. “
This is a pretty standard inclusion for any password manager. What I also love is the redesigned Lockwise toolbar, which you can access by clicking on the hamburger icon and choosing Logins and Passwords.
This screen not only makes it easy to delete, create and update your passwords, but you will also receive a notification if any passwords currently stored in Lockwise have been involved in any data breach. This is analogous to the 1Password Watchtowe r feature that I really like.
Even more Windows users get webrender
You may not know what webrender is, but you will feel its effects if you can use it – the performance and stability improvements that result from GPU rendering of web content rather than CPU. In Firefox 70, even more Windows users will be able to use webrender, as Mozilla opened this feature to those using Intel integrated graphics and screen resolutions below 1920 x 1200 pixels .