The Mozilla Blog

Editor’s note: Mozilla released Firefox 3.6 beta 1 on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 5:20 pm PT. Check out the Mozilla Developer News announcement reposted below for more details.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 is now available for download. This beta version of the next version of  Firefox is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3.6 can be followed in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #planning or #developers.

This first revision of the Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introduces several new features:

• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Web developers and Add-on developers should read more detail about the many new features in Firefox 3.6 for developers on the Mozilla Developer Center. For the full list of changes since the alpha release, see this list.

Testers can download Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in 53 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3.6 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

At this time most Add-ons have not yet been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta. If you wish to help test your Add-ons, please also download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter – your favorite Add-on author will appreciate it!

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we strongly encourage you to link to this Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 milestone announcement so that everyone will know what this milestone is, what they should expect, and who should be downloading to participate in testing at this stage of development.

Calling all Web developers! We’re looking for developers from all over the Web to help us build the Mozilla Developer Network.   Firefox is an important tool for many developers and as the Web continues to evolve as a platform, we need your input to enable better communication and collaboration to push the Mozilla project forward and make the Web better for everyone.

To learn more about the initial steps we’re taking to connect with Web developers, check out Chris Blizzard’s post on the Hacks blog.

We’re coming up on a pretty incredible milestone — Five Years of Firefox — on November 9, 2009!  In order to celebrate we’re kicking off a special campaign called “Light the World with Firefox.”  We’re putting a call out for the most creative use of the Firefox logo and light.

Here are a few ideas, but don’t feel limited!

• Spotlight: Borrow a projector and shine the Firefox logo on the wall during a Firefox party, or make a logo stencil and place it in front of a flashlight for a cool effect (think shadow puppets). Or, go crazy and get a searchlight to create your very own Firefox “bat signal“.
• Mash-Up: Think of the most interesting way you can combine Firefox and light. For example, create the logo out of candles on a birthday cake, program your very own lite-brite or light show, or create a fun wallpaper! If you’re really have a lot of time on your hands (and skills) you could even create a light show.  The more creative, the better.
• Mobile: Get the Firefox logo on your phone and take a picture holding it in front of a local landmark. Or, organize a bunch of friends for a big group photo with the logo on everyone’s phones.

Please upload all videos and pictures on Flickr with the tag “Firefox5″.  We’ll feature submissions on a special site launching on November 9th and the most creative actions will be rewarded with some cool Firefox swag.  Remember to have fun, but be safe and use common sense.  And, get permission before projecting our logo on public buildings!

If you’re looking for other ways to help celebrate the coming anniversary, here’s how:

• Host a party
• Join our Facebook group
• Sport a twibbon

We’re all looking forward to celebrating five years of hard work on the 9th!

Want to get into the Halloween spirit?  Today the Personas team welcomes over 40 different community-created persona Halloween designs.  Each design is now available on the Personas gallery.  To learn more, see the Mozilla labs blog post and these exciting new designs.

Last week, the Personas community welcomed its 30,000th persona design.  Also, within the new few weeks stay tuned – we’ll be officially launching a Holiday category, which you can start using today!

Today, Mozilla is excited to join the organizations listed below to endorse the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) specification.  We are also implementing this specification in  Firefox 3.6 and beyond.

The official endoresement and supporting organizations can be found below.  Hacks.mozilla.org also has a full post about WOFF implementation for Firefox 3.6 and beyond.

We endorse the WOFF specification, with default same-origin loading restrictions, as a Web font format, and expect to license fonts for Web use in this format.

Bold Monday http://www.boldmonday.com
Commercial Type http://commercialtype.com
Emigre http://emigre.com
Emtype Foundry http://www.emtype.net
Fonthead http://www.fonthead.com
FontShop International http://fontfont.com
Hoefler & Frere-Jones http://typography.com
House Industries http://houseindustries.com
Incipit http://incipit.com
Incubator http://vllg.com/Incubator
The Indian Type Foundry http://www.indiantypefoundry.com
International Typeface Corporation http://itcfonts.com
Jeremy Tankard Typography Ltd www.typography.net
John Downer http://www.aaupnet.org/programs/2007production/Bios/DownerBio.pdf (PDF link)
Klim Type Foundry http://klim.co.nz
KLTF http://kltf.de
Kombinat-Typefounders http://www.kombin.at
LettError http://letterror.com
Linotype http://linotype.com
Lux Typographics http://luxtypo.com
Mac Rhino Fonts http://www.macrhino.com
Mark Simonson Studio http://www.ms-studio.com
Monotype Imaging http://fonts.com
Okay Type & Design http://www.okaytype.com
OurType http://www.ourtype.be
Process Type Foundry http://processtypefoundry.com
Thirstype http://vllg.com/Thirstype
Type My Type http://typemytype.com
Type Supply http://typesupply.com
TypoNine http://typonine.com
Typotheque http://typotheque.com
Underware http://www.underware.nl
Village http://vllg.com

The Personas team at Mozilla is inviting students to enter their persona designs into the Personas Student Art Competition by Sunday, October 18th at midnight, PDT. Winners will be decided by community vote and celebrity judges like Anna Sui with cool prizes from Wacom Intuos and CandyBar for the top designs. Entering is free and easy so enter today!

View the announcement blog post with full details here.

The Mozlla mobile team has released Fennec 1.0 beta 4 for Maemo. This release brings noticeable improvements the user experience and UI of the browser. Specifically you’ll see:

• Improved touch-friendly theme
• Improved panning and zooming performance and behavior
• Add search providers from the site identity panel
• Manage search providers from the Add-ons Manager
• Simplified the Download Manager (removed searching and find file on disk)
• Streamlined the bookmarking process
• Simplified the bookmark management
• Popup notification when background tabs open
• Bookmark list now displays the URL and tags associated with a bookmark
• Added a product information page (about:fennec or use the button in Preferences)
• Support for add-ons options in the Add-on Manager
• Support for updating add-ons
• Support for the HandheldFriendly meta-tag (support for the viewport meta-tag is coming)

You can find more information on Mark Finkle’s blog, Mozilla’s mobile developer and platform evangelist.  The team has also spent time making sure Fennec runs well on Nokia’s N900 device.