Lighthouse 9.0, Web Almanac 2021, Brave Wallet, Chrome 96, Firefox Relay, Safari Technology Preview 135

NOTE: This is issue #044 of my newsletter, which went live on Monday, November 22nd. 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.

There are a lot of updates this week. Lighthouse 9.0 is now available via PageSpeed Insights, Chrome Canary, and on the command line. We can now explore 7 out of the 21 chapters of the 2021 Web Almanac. Brave Wallet allows users to store crypto directly in their browser. Chrome 96 update rolled out and it brings fixes to 25 security issues. You can better protect your email with Firefox Relay. Safari Technology Preview 135 is out. Last, but not least, Electron 16 and TypeScript 4.5 are the important releases of this issue.

Lighthouse 9.0

Lighthouse 9.0 is now available via PageSpeed Insights, Chrome Canary, and on the command line. It will arrive for all Chrome users with Chrome 98.

This update introduces a new API for user flows. Now you can measure performance during page load and during interactions with the page.

The report also received a refresh. It is now easier to see the results and the conditions of the test.

One last major update is the improvement of the accessibility report. You now receive a complete list of issues, such as all elements sharing a duplicated ID.

What's new in PageSpeed Insights

Let's also have a look at some recent changes happening with PageSpeed Insights. There is now a clean separation of mobile and desktop reports. The sets of field and lab data are also marked properly. There are more details about how the Core Web Vitals assessment is calculated. And the entire tool has received a Material Design refresh.

What's new in PageSpeed Insights

Web Almanac 2021 Preview

The Web Almanac 2021 team has an early gift for us. 7 out of the 21 chapters are complete, and we can explore them online. Enjoy!

Browser news

Brave

Brave users now have a crypto wallet, built right into their browser.

Chrome

Chrome 96 update rolled out, and it brings fixes to 25 security issues. That alone should be a reason to upgrade to this version.

Developers also get better support for PWAs, with the manifest id and protocol_handlers properties. Priority hints are now available as an experimental feature.

Things didn't go completely smooth though. There are reports that the new update is breaking experience for some social media features, video rendering, and more. If this is happening to you, have a look at the article below for a stop-gap solution.

Google Chrome 96 breaks Twitter, Discord, video rendering and more

Edge

Microsoft seems to be back to their shenanigans from the Browser Wars era when it comes to aggressive promotion of their Edge browser on Windows 11.

Microsoft blocks EdgeDeflector to force Windows 11 users into Edge

Firefox

Mozilla introduces Firefox Relay. This new tool creates aliases to hide your real email address from public view. Emails are automatically redirected to your inbox in the background.

The free version allows for five aliases and up to 150kb attachments. If you need more, you can use the Premium version. It gives you one subdomain alias where you can create unlimited email aliases.

In related news, Mozilla Firefox is now available as an app inside Windows Store, following an update to the store policies.

Mozilla’s Firefox browser arrives in the Windows Store

WebKit

There is a new release for the Safari Technology Preview. This update brings support for accent-color, lazy image loading is enabled by default, and a lot more.

Release Notes for Safari Technology Preview 135

Software updates and releases

Electron 16.0.0 - build cross-platform desktop apps with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS
Execa v6.0.0 - process execution for humans
Plottable v3.12.0 - A library of modular chart components built on D3
React 18 Beta -
Teaful v0.8.0 - tiny, easy and powerful React state management
TypeScript 4.5 -

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!