Firefox

Firefox 46 Released

Mozilla has released the next scheduled update for Firefox with Firefox 46 on April 26th. Changes in this release include: Improved security of the JavaScript Just In Time (JIT) Compiler GTK3 integration (GNU/Linux only) Correct rendering for scaled SVGs that use a clip and a mask Various security fixes Screen reader behavior with blank spaces in Google Docs corrected WebRTC fixes to improve performance and stability There were some fixes and other items in this release which can be viewed via the Release Notes. Depending on the user’s update settings, users should be prompted to install the new version or…

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Seems like every couple months people start crying ‘the sky is falling’ with Firefox and Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) plugins. Earlier this week there was a flurry of activity with Bug 1165981. Again people seem to think that Firefox is not going support NPAPI plugins anymore on Windows since the 64-Bit (Win64) versions does not (except for Flash). As a reminder the removal of NPAPI support only applies to the Win64 version of Firefox. The 32-bit Windows version still supports all the NPAPI plugins including Java and Silverlight. However, Mozilla does plan on discontinuing support in the future with the Firefox 32-bit…

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Firefox News

Yes, it has been a while since The Guru has posted non-release news. Here’s some Firefox news from the past month. Firefox for iOS adds Security Features (The Mozilla Blog)- Changes to the Firefox Password Manager now allow iPhone/iPad users to add a 4-Digit password to the password manager for extra security. Inviting Conversation (Mitchell’s Blog) - Mitchell Baker, Mozilla Foundation Chair is looking to invite conversation about the Open Internet, Mozilla and Mozilla’s mission in a series of upcoming less “official” blog posts. Shipping Some Firefox Features Outside of the Release Cycle (Mozilla Future Releases) - Now new bloat features will be introduced more often and…

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NoScript Beginner’s Guide

I won’t leave home without it. “This NoScript Beginner’s Guide has been designed to provide new Firefox or NoScript users with information on how the browser add-on works. I have published a guide for regular users in 2014 which you may find useful as well.“NoScript is a long standing security add-on for Firefox that is rated highly on Mozilla AMO and quite popular with more than 2.3 million users.“It is often confused with ad-blockers, and while it does that to, it is much more than that and the ad-blocking is more of a side-effect of the extension’s functionality than something…

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Mozilla Firefox 45 Removes Tab Groups, Provides Security Updates

“Mozilla today released the Firefox 45 Web browser, which provides users with incremental feature updates and security fixes.“Among Firefox 45’s new features are improvements to the Firefox Hello communication tool that first debuted in the Firefox 34 release in 2014. With the update in Firefox 45, Mozilla is now providing users with the ability to share the tab they are viewing when a conversation starts. While Firefox Hello has been in the stable release of the Firefox Web browser since 2014, Mozilla still labels the feature as a beta technology. …” Source: eWeek Mozilla Firefox 45 Removes Tab Groups, Provides Security…

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Firefox 44 Released

Mozilla released the next major update for Firefox on January 26th with Firefox 44. New features in this release included: Improved warning pages for certificate errors and untrusted connections Enable H.264 if system decoder is available Enable WebM/VP9 video support on systems that don’t support MP4/H.264 In the animation-inspector timeline, lightning bolt icon next to animations running on the compositor thread Support the brotli compression format via HTTPS content-encoding Screenshot commands allow user choice of pixel ratio in Developer Tools Firefox Can Now Get Push Notifications From Your Favorite Sites There were some fixes and other items in this release…

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Mozilla to Adjust 2016 Firefox Release Schedule

Mozilla has announced they are tweaking the Firefox release schedule for 2016. They still plan on pushing out the same amount of releases per year, just the timing between releases is going to fluctuate between 6 to 8 weeks. Four years ago Mozilla moved to a fixed-schedule release model, otherwise known as theTrain Model, in which we released Firefox every six weeks to get features and updates to users faster and move at the speed of the Web. We studied the process carefully and learned a lot. We have also identified additional areas for improvement and it’s time we iterate…

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Add-ons for a Better YouTube Experience

“From blocked videos to annoying ads, there are many things about YouTube we don’t like. These restrictions and distractions only dampen the amazing experience that the video-sharing website is meant to provide. If you are a Firefox user, however, you won’t have to worry about such things. Firefox offers a variety of add-ons that let you fix pretty much any annoyance that YouTube has. Furthermore, they also let you download videos right to your desktop so that you can watch them whenever you want, even without a connection.“So, without much ado, here are some of the best Firefox add-ons that…

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Using extensions in Firefox

Looks like I got caught assuming again. I’ve been using FF for a long time and the primary reason has been the extensions/add-ons therefore everyone uses it for that reason. Gizmo’s posted a how-to for the add-ons today and caused me to rethink that assumption. “… Counting the number of Firefox installations from which the foundation receives this anonymously submitted data, Mozilla staff estimates that around two in five users don’t have add-ons installed on their Firefox browser. …” Source: Softpedia Mozilla: 40 Percent of Firefox Users Don’t Have Add-Ons Installed “Firefox has tons of useful add-ons that can make your…

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The Ghacks user.js Firefox privacy and security list

“… The newest version of it, featuring hundreds of advanced preferences for Firefox, has been released today. The latest version of the preferences list contains 298 different preferences for Firefox, and it is growing with every release. …” Source: gHacks Tech News The Ghacks user.js Firefox privacy and security list has been updated

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