Firefox 59 arrives with a bunch of new features

Since the launch of Firefox 1.0 in 2004, Firefox 59 is considered the biggest update from Firefox for Windows, Mac, Linux, and this time with Android Assist. Firefox 59 arrives with some new features like, faster page load time, and private browsing mood that strips path information. Another feature for Amazon Fire TV users who will have a new design, in which they can pin their favorite web pages on the Firefox home screen for faster access. Another big thing from Mozilla is that Firefox Quantum for enterprise entered the beta phase yesterday.

Firefox 59 for PC is already available on Firefox.com, and if you are an existing user you should be able to upgrade to the new version automatically. Also, the Android version is available on Google Play.

After this short review, let’s see some of the new features in the new Firefox in more details. And let’s start with the PC version. Mozilla tried to improve page load time in the new version, Firefox 59 will support faster load page time for the Firefox home screen, as well as faster load page times for web pages by either using the cache in the network or the user’s hard drive’s cache.

Mozilla improved the way the browser renders graphics back in Firefox 58 on Windows platforms by using a new technique called OMTP (Off-Main-Thread Painting), now in Firefox 59 is using OMTP too, but this time it supports Mac as well.

Another big improvement is Screenshots, now the user can edit screenshots, draw on them, crop and re-crop saved screenshots for custom view.

The biggest improvement that Mozilla has made in Firefox 59 is stripping path information from HTTP links in private browsing mood, which prevents data leakage from third-party, and this will happen by removing information from referees sent to third-party websites. For example, when you click on any link while browsing the web to move from one website to the other, the new website will receive a referee with the address of the previous website, and in some cases, this referee may contain some of the data that you entered in the last website. The new website may sell this data to the highest bidder, which may cause a lot of problems depending on what were you doing on the last website. With the new feature, Firefox will be able to strips all the information in the referee to only the domain name of the previous website. To use this feature, you have to activate it in setting first.

Another small feature, but absolutely worth mentioning, is that Firefox will prevent websites from sending notifications asking to use your camera, location, or your microphone, instead you can choose trusted websites to use this feature.

Here’s a list of all the new features in Firefox 59 desktop version:

1. Faster load for the content in Firefox’s homepage.
2. Faster load page times using the network’s cache or the cache on the hard drive.
3. Improve graphics rendering using OMTP for Mac.
4. Drag-and-Drop to edit the homepage top websites as well as the new windows and tabs.
5. Improve screenshots and the ability to edit them.
6. Improve WebExtensions API.
7. Support RTP transceiver to give pages more control over calls.
8. More support for W3C to support input units like a mouse, pen, a touch screen pointer.
9. Added the Ecosia search engine as an option for the German version.
10. Added the Qwant search engine as an option for the French version.
11. Added setting to stop websites from asking to send notifications, or asking to use the camera or the microphone.
12. Big changes concerning security and safety.
13. Private mood will remove information from referees.

For Android Firefox, it includes all the changes and improvements in the desktop version, as well as the ability to setup Firefox to work with Android Assist, that means when you press and hold on the home button in your phone, it will open Firefox instead of Google Assistant.

Here’s a list of all the changes in Firefox Android:

1. The option of having Firefox instead of Google Assistant.
2. Added support for HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) to improve compatibility with video sites.
3. A lot of security improvement.
4. The “About” page was removed, there’s an “About Firefox” page now instead.
5. Lock video full screen in landscape mood.

Mozilla has more than half a billion users around the world. Therefore, it is considered as the main platform for web browsing. The company keeps upgrading and fixing its products. For example, even though this launch is one of the biggest launches for Mozilla, but the company already set a date for the next update, and that is in June 2019.

 

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