firefox_logoFirefox 3.5 was unleashed yesterday, but what’s new in Mozilla’s open-source app update? As well as being super-fast and super-secure Firefox 3.5 has a number of other features to make your web-surfing as smooth as possible. Find out what they are here…

It’s twice as fast as Firefox 3.0
Mozilla has told us that the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine makes Firefox 3.5 twice as fast as Firefox 3.0. Put it next to Firefox 2, though and it’s like sticking one of us in a race with Usain Bolt. It’s ten times faster!

Say goodbye to plug-ins!
Ogg Theora might sound like a woman’s name from the 1920s or a caveman’s theory, but Firefox 3.5 delivers the first native integration of audio and video directly into the browser. That means everyone can watch open format Ogg Theora videos, with no need for pesky plug-ins.

Mozilla launches Firefox 3.5

More privacy
Firefox 3.5 has a new Private Browsing mode that makes sure nothing you enter online will be stored from that moment on during your browsing session. It’s also got a unique ‘Forget this Site’ feature that removes every trace of a site from your browser. We can’t think what 15-year-old adolescent boys will be using this feature for…

Location Aware Browsing
The Location Aware Browsing feature in Firefox 3.5 allows websites to use the information of where you’re located (as long as you give it permission first) to find points of interest in your vicinity, and deliver you other useful tools such as local maps.

Out now | £free | Mozilla

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  • MetalMickey

    Good to see Mozilla adopting Opera Pioneered technologies.

    Location Awareness..
    http://labs.opera.com/news/2009/03/26/

    HTML5 Video…
    http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/11/25/

  • Poppa_P

    I’ve update mine, you can renable several multitouch gestures for Mac users.

    http://cultofmac.com/how-to-add-tab-gestures-to-firefox-35/12381

  • dingdong

    I’m sure Opera has adopted technologies that were pioneered by other browsers…

  • MetalMickey

    @dingdong Like… I can’t think of any.

    Pretty much everything Firefox and Chrome have eventually ended up stealing, came from Opera.

    Tabbed Browing, Mosue Gestures, GreaseMonkey, Speed Dials, HTML5 Video, Location Awareness, Widgets the list is pretty long.

    Still i’m sure you are happy with your new browsers, thats full of 2007 Opera Technology, it;s just it shame it does not also get Operas small memory footprint and unblemished security record too (Firefox has almost as bad a track record as IE these days. I am beting a 3.5.01 critical security updated within a week).

  • Peter Vigren

    MetalMickey: Look up tabbed browsing on Wikipedia, Opera is mentioned as number five, two years after tabs were introduced.

    And I don’t think Greasemonkey qualify as Mozilla stealing something for their web browser, unless you mean by making it possible to extend the browser itself and thus allowing someone to create Greasemonkey is considered stealing. But I give them that, userscripts was quite a nice thing to add.

    I’m not entirely sure what you mean with widgets but it is mentioned not until version 9 (2006) of Opera and if you by widget mean extension/add-on, then it would seem imho that Firefox had that before Opera by two years.

    However, HTML and CSS, two web technologies, weren’t their implementations pioneered before Opera? Everyone implements something that the competitioners have done, if it was good. Especially if their browser didn’t have the “luxury” being invented before or during the browser wars.

    As for HTML5 Video, the whole point with it is that everyone should be able to see the video without plugin (just like you don’t need plugins for CSS) and if I haven’t misunderstood entirely (?) it is in the draft of HTML5 that you must support it. If Opera came up with that part in the spec, then that’s good. But it’s weird to say that others steal if they implement specs.

    As for the talk about security, I haven’t seen any unpartial experts seriously believing that Firefox would have as bad security record as Internet Explorer. Sure, there are bugs, even critical ones, but they are fixed fast. If Opera is indeed as secure as you say, then that is something marvelous and I wish the browser all the best, but I really don’t see the point in frantic lies just to try to show how good Opera is. If it is good, it will show, no need to try to backstab Firefox for that one. Microsoft’s way is hopefully not Opera’s way.

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