Microsoft Edge 79

Hello.

The new version of Microsoft Edge was released on Jan. 15. This is built on the Chromium engine and the released vesion is 79.0.

We should install new Edge by our hands instead of Microsoft update now. But I heard that current Edge will be updated to new one by Windows update in several manths.

How to get

New Edge is available on not only Windows 10, but also MacOS, android and iOS.

We can get new Edge installer from the web site below for Windows 10 and Mac users. New Edge has new icon. For android users or iPhone users, Google Play and Apple Store provide that.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

Further information about upgrading Edge is here.
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/01/15/upgrading-new-microsoft-edge-79-chromium/

I understood that Edge 79 was provided for users to prepare to switch to new Edge before that will be provided by Windows update. After upgrading, new Edge will be automatically updated on aroud 6 week cycle, that will be like Chrome or Firefox.

References

We can download the installer and get support information here.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/edge

For people who want to know further or newer information, "Microsoft Edge Insider" will be fit them.
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/

The latest information will be available at "community" page.
https://www.microsoftedgeinsider.com/en-us/community

The developer blog is here.
https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/

1) https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2020/01/15/upgrading-new-microsoft-edge-79-chromium/

2) https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2019/04/08/microsoft-edge-preview-channel-details/

3) https://blogs.windows.com/msedgedev/2019/07/16/microsoft-edge-enterprise-evaluation-roadmap/

What will be changed.

New Edge will be upgraded on around 6 week cycle like Chrome or Firefox and this update is independent of Windows update. There are 4 update channels. The stable with 6 week cycle, the beta with 6 week cycle but newer version than stable, the DEV with every week and the CAN(Cannary) with every night. 1), 2)

Thanks to Choromium engine, new Edge can render web pages as same as Chome and boost the imprementation of HTML5 features and supporting developments of browser extentions. Firefox and Chrome have released new features (e.g. blocking user tracking by website, improving user password protection, imprimenting HTML5 features and so on) in short cycle. Additionaly, the user community have developed a lot of extensions with published browser API and documents. In the other hand, Edge looked steady even though Windows keeps IE11.

New Edge is considered to be used in enterprize. Acording to the article 3), administrators can controll updating of Edge. In addition, new Edge has (will have ?) IE 11 conpatible mode.

User Agent

I captured the HTTP_USER_AGENT of new Edge by every OS. Windows or MacOS versions are identified by "Edg/", Android version "EdgA/" and iOS or iPadOS versions "EdgiOS/".

Windows 10
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/79.0.3945.130 Safari/537.36 Edg/79.0.309.71

Android
Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 8.0.0; SO-04H) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/73.0.3683.0 Mobile Safari/537.36 EdgA/44.11.4.4122

MacOS
Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10_15_2) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/79.0.3945.130 Safari/537.36 Edg/79.0.309.71

iOS
Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 13_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.0 EdgiOS/44.11.15 Mobile/15E148 Safari/605.1.15

iPad OS
Mozilla/5.0 (iPad; CPU OS 13_3 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/605.1.15 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/13.0 EdgiOS/44.11.15 Mobile/15E148 Safari/605.1.15

For WebClass users

We found nothing of problem to use WebClass with it.

Firefox 72

Hello.

Firefox Desktop Browser 72 was released last week.

Firefox release schedules

Firefox release calendar

https://wiki.mozilla.org/Release_Management/Calendar

Firefox72

Mozilla provides two release notes. One is for users and the other is for developers.

Firefox 72 release note
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/72.0/releasenotes/

Firefox 72 release note for developers
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox/Releases/72

The release note for developers lists news and changes on APIs or developer tools that may be used by web contents developers or firefox plugin developes.

You can get overview of the new release changes and prepare to manage influence on WebClass functions or your learning materials.

Pickup for webclass

I think there is nothing special to do for using WebClass with new firefox.