NOTE: This is issue #101 of my newsletter, which went live on Monday, August 02. If you find this information useful and interesting and you want to receive future issues as they are published, ahead of everyone else, I invite you to join the subscriber list at frontendnexus.com.
In this issue, we'll explore the July updates to the web platform, how to get better search results with DuckDuckGo, and we'll cover a large list of recent browser releases. We got Chrome 115, Firefox 115 and 116, MS Edge 115, Polypane 14.1, and Safari TP 174 and 175.
On the Release Radar, we spot entries such as Astro 2.9, Deno 1.35, Prettier 3.0, Vite 4.4, or the Beta version of TypeScript 5.2. We round up the issue with a large number of resources, assets, and utilities for all your web design and development needs.
💻 Browser news
The month of July brought releases from all major browsers - Chrome, Firefox, and MS Edge got updated to version 115. This includes some interesting additions to the web platform, such as a new syntax for the CSS display property, or the option to create scroll-driven animations. More details can be found in Rachel Andrew's article below.
Chrome
Chrome 115 brings support for native scroll-driven animations and Fenced Frames, a new HTML element for embedding content in a restricted manner.
Developers got a lot of nice toys to play with. They can now see what nested grids are subgrids. There are new tooltips for showing specificity or value for custom CSS properties. The Lighthouse panel now uses Lighthouse 10.2. And the list goes on.
DuckDuckGo
Do you like your online privacy but the search results from DuckDuckGo are not good enough? Don't worry! You can get results from many other sources using the ! or bang modifier. Be aware though that this is a redirect, and the target website can track your further navigation.
Firefox
In this issue, we're dealing with two Firefox releases: 115 and 116.
Let's start with the earlier release, numbered 115. Users can now import their payment methods from Chrome-based browsers, along with some quality-of-life and security improvements. Developers can start making use of new features, such as the CSS animation-composition property, or the JavaScript Array.fromAsync() method.
Moving forward to release 116, which brings improved control over the sidebar interface, better upload performance on HTTP/2, and various security fixes. Developers should take a peek at the list of under-the-hood updates to the web platform and the add-ons.
Microsoft Edge
Microsoft Edge 115 introduces the Microsoft Edge management service, a new area inside Microsft 365 admin center. Along comes a list of new policies, together with fixes for various bugs and performance issues.
Polypane
Polypane users received a minor update to version 14.1. This release brings support for container queries inside the Elements panel, contrast lines in all color pickers, a new engine for hover synchronization, and many bug fixes and core improvements.
WebKit
The WebKit team also released two new versions (174 and 175) of the Safari Technology Preview. Each update brings a solid list of fixes and minor improvements.
📡 The Release Radar
- Astro 2.9 - a website build tool for the modern web
- Bun v0.7.0 - an all-in-one toolkit for JavaScript and TypeScript apps
- Deno 1.35 - A modern runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript
- Ember 5.1 - A JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web applications
- Fresh 1.3 - A next-gen web framework from Deno
- Neutralinojs v4.13.0 - Portable and lightweight cross-platform desktop application development framework
- Node v18.17.0 (LTS), Node v20.4.0 (Current), Node v20.5.0 (Current) - an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime
- octokit.js v3.1 - The all-batteries-included GitHub SDK for Browsers, Node.js, and Deno
- Preact 10.16.0 - Fast 3kB React alternative
- Prettier 3.0 - an opinionated code formatter
- Remix v1.19.0 - Create modern, resilient user experiences with web fundamentals
- TypeScript 5.2 Beta - a superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output
- typescript-eslint v6 - Monorepo for all the tooling which enables ESLint to support TypeScript
- Vite 4.4 - Next generation frontend tooling
🛠️ Front End Resources
- Commit Mono - an anonymous and neutral coding font
- CSS Gradient Generator - Create advanced CSS gradients
- DamnGood.Tools - Easy-to-use, fun tools—free (and open-source)
- Freeflo - Free, curated AI images and prompts for creative projects
- Free Icons - A collection of over 22,000 freely available icons for various design projects
- Free Illustrations Club - Free Vector, Hand-Drawn Illustrations For Your Next Project
- Huehive - Generate color palette from text using chat GPT
- ISO Republic - Free High-Resolution Stock CC0 Photos and Videos
- Mage Icons - Open Source Icon System
- OddContrast - A Color Contrast tool from OddBird
- PhotoRoom - Magic photo studio on the go
- SVGmix - Free SVG logos & icons download
- SVG/PNG Illustrations - Free and Premium illustrations
- UI Skeleton Gallery - A free customizable collection of SVG skeleton loader UI elements
There's more where that came from. Explore the rest of the Front End Resource collection.
Wrapping things up
Ukraine is still suffering from the Russian invasion - if you are looking for ways to help, please check Smashing Magazine's article We All Are Ukraine 🇺🇦 or contact your trusted charity.
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That's all I have for this issue. Have a great and productive week, keep yourselves safe, spend as much time as possible with your loved ones, and I will see you again next time!
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