The Mozilla Blog

We’re very excited to announce the official release of Firefox 3.5! You can download Firefox 3.5 at firefox.com and enjoy the new features and faster performance. If you’re using the latest version of Firefox 3.0, you can get Firefox 3.5 by clicking on the Help menu and then selecting Check for Updates.

The Firefox 3.5 press release is available here.  We also compiled a guide to frequently asked questions. You can also check out this video for a guided tour of what’s new in Firefox 3.5.

Mike Beltzner, Director of Firefox has a comprehensive post here.  The post includes a list of some of the coolest Firefox 3.5 features, excerpted below.

• Firefox 3.5 is available in more than 70 languages – get your local version.
• We have included tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode, and the ability to go back in time and Clear Recent History.
• Firefox 3.5 has support for the HTML5 <video> and <audio> elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio.
• The browser features faster performance on complex websites thanks to the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
• Users can enjoy Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation.
• Web developers can make use of native JSON parsing, and web worker threads.
• This release includes improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
• Firefox 3.5 supports new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, <canvas> text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.

Editor’s note: Mozilla announced the Firefox 3.5 release candidate on Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 9:13 pm PT. Check out the Mozilla Developer News announcement, reposted below, for more details.

Please note: the Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes many new features as well as improvements to performance, web compatibility, and speed. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this release candidate.

A new version of the Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate is now available for download, containing fixes based on the feedback obtained from the previous release candidate. This updated milestone is focused on providing a preview of the functionality provided by the new features and changes that will be included in Firefox 3.5. A video highlighting some of these new features is also available. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3.5 can be followed at the Firefox 3.5 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #shiretoko.

Testers can download Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 70 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3.5 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

Users already running a Firefox 3.5 Beta or Release Candidate can obtain an update to this latest Release Candidate version by selecting “Check for Updates…” from the “Help” menu.

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we strongly encourage you to link to this Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 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.

Yesterday, Mozilla Japan shared the Discover Shiretoko campaign with the world!

Discover Shiretoko was born as a collaborative project between Japan’s Shiretoko Foundation and Mozilla Japan. Shiretoko is a national park in Northern Japan - it is also the codename for the latest version of Firefox. The campaign is designed to help more people learn about Shiretoko national park and the newest version of Firefox.

You can read a full post about Discover Shiretoko on Foxkeh’s blog.

Firefox 3.5 is the fastest Firefox ever – check out this video of Director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner running through the new features. Please note, you can view the video without plug-ins using Firefox 3.5 and get a first-hand look at native audio/video support in the browser. You can download the Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate here.

In other Mozilla video news, later today we’ll be releasing the latest in our series of Fastest Firefox videos. Check out the already-posted World’s Fastest clapper and World’s Fastest sport stacker videos.

Editor’s note: Mozilla announced the Firefox 3.5 release candidate on Friday, June 19, 2009 at 4:19 pm PT. Check out the Mozilla Developer News announcement, reposted below, for more details.

Please note: the Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate is a public preview release intended for developer testing and community feedback. It includes many new features as well as improvements to performance, web compatibility, and speed. We recommend that you read the release notes and known issues before installing this beta.

The Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate is now available for download. This milestone is focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.5. Ongoing planning for Firefox 3.5 can be followed at the Firefox 3.5 Planning Center, as well as in mozilla.dev.planning and on irc.mozilla.org in #shiretoko.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

* This beta is now available in more than 70 languages – get your local version.

* Improved tools for controlling your private data, including a Private Browsing Mode.

* Support for the HTML5 and elements including native support for Ogg Theora encoded video and Vorbis encoded audio.

* Better performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.

* The ability to provide Location Aware Browsing using web standards for geolocation.

* Support for native JSON, and web worker threads.

* Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.

* Support for new web technologies such as: downloadable fonts, CSS media queries, new transformations and properties, JavaScript query selectors, HTML5 local storage and offline application storage, text, ICC profiles, and SVG transforms.

Testers can download Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate builds for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux in over 70 different languages. Developers should also read the Firefox 3.5 for Developers article on the Mozilla Developer Center.

Note: Please do not link directly to the download site. Instead we strongly encourage you to link to this Firefox 3.5 Release Candidate 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.

Exciting news! Today, Dailymotion, one of the world’s largest video entertainment websites, announced support for the new open video and web standards available in the current beta release of Firefox 3.5. Dailymotion issued a press release about the news. Mozilla’s own Director of Evangelism, Chris Blizzard, has a great post about the news as well, excerpted below.

Dailymotion has been an excellent test case for us because they haven’t just encoded with the formats that we support but also built a full-fledged player using HTML, CSS and JavaScript that looks, feels and acts like the flash-based players we see on the web today. They also make it possible to embed open video using an clever