NOTE: This is issue #046 of my newsletter, which went live on Monday, December 6th. 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.
We're getting close to the end of the year and the HTTP Archive is giving us a great gift with the publication of the (almost) complete 2021 Web Almanac. The talks from the State of the Browser conference are now available online. And I put together a roundup of this year's Advent Calendars dedicated to designers and developers.
In Browser news, we're getting a preview of both the new DevTools in Chrome 97 and the new sandboxing technology in Firefox 95. And Vivaldi launched version 5 for desktop and Android.
Last but not least, the software releases include Node v17.2.0, npm v8.2.0, and more.
2021 Web Almanac is here
We got a preview of the 2021 Web Almanac two weeks ago. Now we're getting the (almost) complete package. "Chapter 5: Media" and "Chapter 23: Caching" are still work-in-progress, but everything else is right here.
The Web Almanac is a very hefty bundle of information. That's why you might want to get a preview first. Stefan Judis compiled the highlights of this year's edition in an article which I'm linking below.
State of the Browser Sessions
State of the Browser is a yearly conference organized by London Web Standards, with widely varying talks about the modern web, accessibility, web standards, and more. We can now view the presentations of this year's edition.
2021 Advent Calendars Roundup
I'm tooting my own horn a bit here, but hey... It's my newsletter :) Just as last year, I put together all the Advent Calendars focused on the IT and Design industries. Most of the entries are long-lasting participants. There are a few great new appearances. And, unfortunately, some calendars are not running this year either.
Browser news
Chrome
Chrome Canary is running version 97, and we're getting a presentation of the changes happening with the DevTools:
- There is a new Recorder panel to record, replay and measure user flows
- The device list now holds more recent, modern entries
- The Edit as HTML UI now supports autocomplete and syntax highlights
- Column numbers are now included in the output error in the Console
- You can now sync DevTools settings across devices
Check out the article below for more details:
Firefox
Firefox 95 will feature a new sandboxing technology called RLBlox. This technique uses WebAssembly to isolate potentially-buggy code. Bobby Halley from Mozilla takes us behind the scene of this update, and the benefits it brings to users and developers alike.
Vivaldi
Vivaldi rolled out version 5 to all their Android and desktop users.
Desktop users can now create and share custom themes, while the new Translation Panel provides a new way to translate both full pages or just parts of them.
Android users can now stack their tabs on two rows, while those using a tablet now get a better experience with the addition of panels.
- Vivaldi 5.0: Announcing Shareable Themes, Translate Panel with automatic translations, and more
- Vivaldi 5.0 on Android doubles the fun: World’s first to introduce two rows of mobile browser tabs.
Software updates and releases
- docx 7.2.0 - easily generate .docx files with JS/TS
- Node v17.2.0
- npm v8.2.0
- Plotly.js v2.7.0 - open-source JavaScript charting library behind Plotly and Dash
- Polly.JS v6.0.0 - Record, Replay, and Stub HTTP Interactions
- React PDF Reader 1.0.0 - a simple and powerful PDF Viewer library for React.js
- Strapi v4 - open source Node.js Headless CMS to easily build customisable APIs
- WEBMIDI.js v3 - tame the Web MIDI API
Wrapping things up
That's about all I have for this update. If you enjoyed this newsletter, there are a couple of ways to support it. You can share the link to this issue on social media, and follow me on Twitter. Each one of these helps me out, and I would appreciate your consideration.
Have a great and productive week, keep yourselves safe, and I will see you again next time!
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