NOTE: This is issue #096 of my newsletter, which went live on Tuesday, May 9. 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.
The WebKit Documentation portal is now available to all developers interested in the internal way of a web engine. Firefox will fight fake reviews with the help of Fakespot. And Chromium replaces the lock icon with a new tune one, bringing more attention to the security options menu hidden below it.
In Browser News, we got a roundup of last month's changes, and a list of updates for all major browsers: Chrome 113, MS Edge 113, Firefox 113, and Safari TP 169.
It's a rich target environment on the Release Radar, including Angular 16, Electron 24, Node v20.1.0, or Qwik 1.0. And we wrap up with a few Resources, such as an icon set, a package of abstract design assets, and a "periodic table" of the most popular WordPress plugins.
Introducing WebKit Documentation
The WebKit team has released a new repository of documentation on the internals of their web engine. The project aims to support contributors by exposing information in an easy and organized way.
Trustworthy Shopping with Firefox and Fakespot
Mozilla announced its purchase of Fakespot, a startup that uses AI and machine learning to identify fake and unreliable reviews. While Fakespot tools will continue to be available across all browsers, some future iterations will be unique to Firefox.
- Mozilla: Fakespot becomes part of Mozilla, bringing trustworthy shopping tools to Firefox
- TechCrunch: Mozilla buys Fakespot, a startup that identifies fake reviews, to bring shopping tools to Firefox
An Update on the Lock Icon in Chromium browsers
The Chromium team announced they will replace the ubiquitous padlock icon with a new tune icon. The goal is to "emphasize that security should be the default state, and to make site settings more accessible." This way, users will be more enticed to access the controls hidden under that icon and find out more about the security settings of each website.
💻 Browser news
Another month passed, bringing the roundup on the updates to the web platform in April: Chrome (and Edge) 112, Firefox 112, the inert attribute, the linear() easing function, CSS Nesting, CSS animation-composition, and a new headless mode for Chrome.
Chrome
Chrome 113 adds support for WebGPU, a new API that exposes modern hardware capabilities, and enhances the Privacy Sandbox with First-Party Sets. This feature allows organizations to declare relationships between websites so that browsers allow limited third-party cookies access for specific purposes.
Developers can now override Response Headers using the DevTools, you can use autocomplete with Console commands, and a lot more.
Firefox
Firefox 113 just launched today, bringing an enhanced Picture-in-Picture mode, better protection for private windows, more secure generated passwords, and an improved, redesigned accessibility engine.
Under the hood there is improved support for CSS colors level 4, the search in source files is now better, and you can now override a JS file in the debugger.
Microsoft Edge
Edge users got new features with the release of version 113. The security mode provides more protection, macOS users will receive further updates via EdgeUpdater instead of Microsoft Autoupdate, and you can now return to the last point you were in a PDF file with the latest policy for PDF View Settings.
WebKit
The WebKit team released Safari Technology Preview 169, adding support for overflow-block and overflow-inline media query features, as well as fixing a long list of issues.
📡 The Release Radar
- Angular v16 - The modern web developer’s platform
- Astro 2.4 - The all-in-one web framework designed for speed
- axios v1.4.0 - Promise based HTTP client for the browser and node.js
- Babylon.js 6.0 - a game and rendering engine packed into a JavaScript framework.
- Capacitor 5.0 - A cross-platform native runtime for web apps
- electron v24.2.0 - Build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
- Highlight.js 11.8.0 - JavaScript syntax highlighter with language auto-detection
- Marked 5.0 - A markdown parser and compiler
- Mercurius 13.0.0 - Implement GraphQL servers and gateways with Fastify
- Next.js 13.4 - The React Framework for the Web
- Node v20.1.0 (Current) - an asynchronous event-driven JavaScript runtime
- NodeBB v3.0.0 - Node.js based forum software built for the modern web
- Nx 16 - Smart, Fast and Extensible Build System
- Playwright v1.33.0 - a framework for Web Testing and Automation.
- pnpm v8.4.0 - Fast, disk space efficient package manager
- Qwik v1.0 - Instant-loading web apps, without effort
- Supercluster v8.0.0 - A very fast geospatial point clustering library for browsers and Node.
- Tremor v2.4.0 - The React library to build dashboards fast.
- tween.js v20.0.0 - JavaScript/TypeScript animation engine
🛠️ Front End Resources
- Binary PNG Pack - 30 transparent abstract design assets
- Plugin Table - The Periodic Table of WordPress Plugins
- Tetrisly Icon Library - 260+ essential icons
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 get in touch with 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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