New Firefox beta shows off HTML5-based audio abilities


8 Sep 2010

Mozilla has released the Firefox 4 Beta, offering new audio capabilities using HTML5, faster graphics and better security.

The Firefox 4 Beta has an audio API which allows users to visualise sound data in a browser.

The API exposes the raw audio data contained within the <video> and <audio> elements in HTML5, allowing developers to read and write audio within the browser.

The beta also focuses on faster graphics, using the built-in graphics hardware in Windows computers with DirectX 10 to achieve this.

Firefox will use Direct2D by default on supported hardware to speed up the display of content on graphically intensive websites.

Mozilla has posted a video on its blog, showing off these graphic and audio capabilities.

Mozilla has also implemented the HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS), which is a security protocol that increases the chances for secure connections.

The Firefox 4 beta is available from download here and Mozilla promises to release a more stable version in November.