Mozilla have announced the release of Firefox 3.6 Beta 1. The new release includes a slew of new changes:

• 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• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.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.

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 can be downloaded from the Firefox beta website.

The final Firefox 3.6 is expected late November or early December.

Mozilla have released Firefox 3.5.4 and Firefox 3.0.15 with a basket full of bug and security fixes.

Firefox 3.5.4 closes 11 security issues, 6 of which were rated as critical, 3 moderate, and 2 low. A total of 124 bugs were fixed for this release. A full list of changes can be found in the release notes.

Firefox 3.0.15 closes 10 security issues, 5 of which were rated as critical, 3 moderate, and 2 low. A list of changes can also be found in the release notes.

The two updated will be pushed out to exsisting Firefox 3 and Firefox 3.5 users, or can manually be downloaded.

Download Firefox 3.5.4
Download Firefox 3.0.15

Mozilla have announced that they will support the Web Open Font Format (WOFF) from Firefox 3.6.

Firefox will be the first browser to support WOFF, but support in other browsers is expected to follow.

The WOFF has several advantages over current TrueType and OpenType formats in that it is compressed.

One example given by Mozilla Hacks shows a 3.1MB TrueType Font compressed to a 1MB WOFF, quite a massive saving.

WOFF support can be seen in the latest nightly release of Firefox.

It looks as if Windows 7 support is on its way for Firefox 3.6, rather than Firefox 3.7 as previously announced.

The move is likely to come with this weeks upcoming release of Windows 7 to the public on October 22nd.

Features supported include jump lists which can be accessed by right clicking on the Firefox icon and allows users to perform their most recent tasks. Tab preview is also included which shows all open tabs when hovering over the Firefox icon, and gives the users the ability to jump to any tab from the previews.

Users will also be able to monitor the progress of their downloads from the taskbar, without needing to be in Firefox.

The feature is expected to appear in future beta versions of Firefox 3.6 in the coming weeks, and can be seen in current nightly builds of the browser.

With the browser about to enter beta, Firefox 3.6 is set to get computer orientation detection. The feature which is set to appear in the mobile version of the browser, Fennec, will also be added to Firefox 3.6 before its final release.

“Originally built as something that we would include for our upcoming mobile browser release, we’ve made it available on desktop systems as well. Many modern Macbooks and Thinkpads contain devices and drivers that expose this information. We’ve added support for Linux, Macs and some Thinkpads where drivers and devices are available.” wrote Christopher Blizzard, a Mozilla employee.

A demo video can be seen below:

Mozilla is set to extend its new plugin check feature, which debuted in Firefox 3.5.3 and would check on first run if Adobe Flash player was up to date.

The feature which was so successful, is expected to be expanded in Firefox 3.6, covering other plugins such as Adobe Shockwave Player, Adobe Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, Windows Media Player and Java.

While not fool-proof, it’s certainly a forward step for browser security. More information on the plugin check feature can be found on the Mozilla blog.

Web browser market share results are out for September 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer has had more than a 1% drop this month, falling from 66.97% to 65.71%, it’s biggest single month drop since November 2008.

Other browser have had a good month, with Firefox moving from 22.98% to 23.75%.

Safari has moved from 4.07% to 4.24%, while Google Chrome has passed the 3% mark moving to 3.17% – up from 2.84%.

Opera has also had a good month, most likely helped by the release of Opera 10, hitting a share of 2.19%, up from 2.04%.

The browser wars seem to be slowly eroding Microsoft’s dominance, which can only lead to greater innovation and better browsers for consumers.

Mozilla has updated both Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3 to close several security holes, 3 of which were rated as critical.

A full list of changes can be found in the Firefox 3.5.3 and Firefox 3.0.14 release notes.

The update will be automatically pushed out to current users, or can be downloaded directly from the Firefox website.

Mozilla has posted a new roadmap, outlining the future for Firefox in the next 12 months. At this stage, Firefox 4.0 is due to hit somewhere between September and November 2010 according to the roadmap.

New features for Firefox 4 are said to include platform enhancements, including running tabs in separate processes, interface enhancements, and speed and responsiveness improvements.

Also on the roadmap are Firefox 3.6 and Firefox 3.7, due October or November 2009 and February or March 2010 respectively.

Firefox 3.6 is aiming to include Windows 7 enhancements, including Jump Lists and Aero Peak. The browser is also expected to include light weight themes (persona’s) and big improvements to the Tracemonkey JavaScript engine.

Firefox 3.7 is biggest draw card is each add-on will be placed in its own process, making the overall browser experience more stable (especially with poorly written add-on’s). This release should also see some form of bookmark syncronisation.

The next 12 months are looking bright for Firefox, with some great new features expected.

This months browser share statistics are out thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

August has panned out like another typical month, with Internet Explorer dropping to 66.97% in August, from 67.68% in July.

Firefox jumped slightly to 22.98% from 22.47%, while Safari remained the same at 4.07%.

Google Chrome also increased its share from 2.59% to 2.84%, while Opera was also up from 1.97% to 2.04%.