Today marks the release of the latest version of the Firefox web browser – Firefox 3.6 Some changes to the popular web browser have come about in the latest release, and are outlined below.
Lightweight themes
Included in Firefox 3.6 are lightweight themes, also known as Personas. When using Personas, users will have the ability to quickly change themes without having to restart the browser. Visit http://www.getpersonas.com to find the theme for you and check out our previous article about spicing up Firefox’s appearance with Personas.
Detecting device orientation
Firefox 3.6 adds accelerometer support, allowing the web browser to detect the orientation of your device (i.e. for tablet PCs, the browser will now auto-orient itself when you tilt it sideways). There are a couple of different ways that developers can implement this feature, so make sure to checkout the Mozilla Developer page for more information.
Standards support
A major upgrade in Firefox 3.6 is improved standards support, including full-screen support for Theora video. Support for WOPP fonts has also been included in this release of Firefox, allowing web developers to include smaller font packages and improve website speeds.
Out-of-date plugin notification
Keeping your system secure is important to all users. Although Firefox will stay up-to-date, you may be running outdated plugins. Firefox 3.6 improves out-of-date plugin checking and helps users to install the necessary updates. You can check if you have the latest version of your plugins by running the Mozilla Plugin Check.
Performance improvements
As with every new release, many improvements in speed and performance have also been included. As Director of Firefox Development Mike Beltzner describes in the video below, Firefox 3.6 is around 20% faster than Firefox 3.5.
Watch the video below from Director of Firefox Development, Mike Beltzner, as he describes some of the new features in Firefox 3.6
Download Firefox 3.6 from Mozilla. Once you’ve had the chance to update Firefox, let us know your thoughts of the latest release in the comments.
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