14 DAY TRIAL // Released to the public just yesterday, the new, final version of Firefox 3.6 brings numerous nifty enhancements and tweaks for all supported platforms, including Mac OS X. Fans should be most pleased with the addition of a theme capability called Personas, which allows them to change the look of the browser without having to restart it.
A Plugin Updater has been set in place as well. It detects out-of-date plugins. A form completion that suggests answers for common questions has been implemented, alongside other new (admittedly smaller) features. Overall, Mozilla has been able to improve the stability and speed of the browser – by as much as 20 percent, according to the company – enabling better JavaScript performance, faster startup times, and a snappier responsiveness.
“Firefox 3.6 is built on Mozilla's Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering platform, which has been under development since early 2009 and contains many improvements for web developers, add-on developers, and users,” Mozilla says. “This version is also faster and more responsive than previous versions and has been optimized to run on small device operating systems such as Maemo.”
According to Mozilla, notable Firefox 3.6 features include:
- Available in more than 70 languages. - Support for a new type of theme called Personas, which allow[s] users to change Firefox's appearance with a single click. - Protection from out-of-date plugins to keep users safer as they browse. - Open, native video can now be displayed full screen and supports poster frames. - Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness, and startup time. - The ability for web developers to indicate that scripts should run asynchronously to speed up page load times. - Continued support for downloadable web fonts using the new WOFF font format. - Support for new CSS attributes such as gradients, background sizing, and pointer events. - Support for new DOM and HTML5 specifications including the Drag & Drop API and the File - API, which allow for more interactive web pages. - Changes to how third-party software can integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
On the Mac side, Mozilla Firefox requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later (Snow Leopard supported), an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor, 128MB of RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater) and roughly 200MB of hard drive space. The latest version of the popular web browser can be obtained using the link below.