• WebRTC: Firefox Beta includes WebRTC components that enable developers to easily integrate real-time communications across the Web, whether on websites or mobile web apps. The components DataChannels and PeerConnection along with GetUserMedia enable the Web with Real Time Communication capabilities including video calls and file-sharing between browsers.
• OdinMonkey: Firefox Beta includes OdinMonkey, an asm.js optimization module for Firefox’s JavaScript engine, that allows developers to deliver gaming performance that rivals native speeds without the need for plugins and enables developers to create visually compelling and fast gaming experiences on the Web. Together with Epic, Mozilla recently showcased this by porting Epic’s Unreal Engine 3 to the Web and demonstrating Epic Citadel running in the browser.
• HiDPI support for Windows: For Windows users, Firefox Beta includes HiDPI support. Firefox Beta now follows Windows’ display scaling options to render text larger on high resolution displays.
• Web Notifications API: Now developers can create simple notifications for Web apps using this Web Notifications API. With the notifications API, developers can alert Firefox Beta users to a specific event, such as a new email or Tweet.
• Font Inspector:  The Font Inspector allows developers to see what fonts are being used on a specific Web page, to make adjustments or matches based on the type of design. The Font Inspector displays the font with editable “Abc” placeholder text, names the typeface and shows the @font-face CSS.  The Font Inspector allows developers to visualize font usage for the selected element and it supports pages that use the new web fonts.

For more information:

• Download Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux

• Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux Release Notes

Now the latest release of Firefox Beta includes the remaining WebRTC components, PeerConnection and DataChannels, on by default. PeerConnection allows the Firefox browser to set up real-time audio/video calls, and DataChannels allow browsers to share almost any kind of data (text, video files, html pages) peer-to-peer, either during or outside a video call, for example, by dragging an item into a chat window. DataChannels are used today to reduce latency in real-time games by allowing gaming apps to connect peer-to-peer. And with WebRTC now on by default in Firefox Beta, developers can test WebRTC much more widely than before because Firefox users won’t have to enable WebRTC in their preferences.

In upcoming releases you can expect to see:

• TURN support — which enables two WebRTC end points to connect even when the NATs at both ends would otherwise cause the call to fail
• Audio/video improvements
• Android support

To test WebRTC now, you can download Firefox Beta here and refer to the WebRTC page on MDN. We’re pleased to turn WebRTC on by default in Firefox Beta and look forward to seeing what innovative apps developers create with it.

Maire Reavy
Product Lead, Firefox Platform Media

We’ve blogged before about how we’ve built the health report with privacy in mind and what our plans for it look like, but our long term hope for the feature goes well beyond the report you see today. As the health report uncovers patterns of problems in Firefox, we can build better support information for our users. In many cases, we will be able to detect these problems before they get out of hand, and your browser can start healing itself. The health report is enabled by default in Firefox but, if you don’t want your browser health information added to the pool, you can disable data sending either from the report itself, or from the Firefox preferences window.

Firefox already protects and heals itself in numerous ways (automatically blocking insecure and unstable plugins, restoring tabs and content after crashes, detecting phishing and malware sites before they can attack) and the Firefox Health Report gives us a powerful new tool. If you’re curious about what’s going on under the hood, you can find the health report in your Help menu. If you’re not, rest assured that we’re fascinated by this stuff, and we’ll use it to make Firefox the smoothest, fastest, most excellent way for you to live your life on the web.

Johnathan Nightingale
Vice President of Firefox Engineering

Today, Epic and Mozilla are making the Epic Citadel demo available, so that you can try it out for yourself. For best results, we suggest using a newer version of Firefox Nightly (Firefox 23 or better) which includes optimizations for asm.js and support for Web Audio API. The demo will also run in Firefox 20 (the current released version) because the core technologies are just standard web technologies, but there will be some performance degradation and a lack of Web Audio-dependent audio effects. The demo will also work in other browsers but it heavily depends on the quality of the WebGL implementation, memory management and JavaScript engine.

To achieve the performance that makes these advancements possible, Mozilla developed asm.js, a highly-optimized subset of JavaScript that enables Emscripten-compiled applications to reach near-native performance.  This baseline performance enables developers to create visually compelling and fast gaming experiences on the Web.  With this technology, the Web simply becomes just another target platform for developers.

If you’re a games developer and want to learn more, please visit the new Mozilla Developer’s Network Games landing page, which we’ll be expanding in the coming weeks. The Emscripten project and information about asm.js are also useful if you’d like to take a look at what it would take to port your own games or other apps.

For a quick snapshot of what you’ll see in the Epic Citadel demo, here’s a video (now in 1080p), as well as some gameplay footage from the unreleased “Sanctuary” demo.

Enjoy!

The Social API enables providers to offer features like a social sidebar, toolbar notification buttons and the ability to easily chat with your friends.

As more and more services integrate with Firefox via the Social API sidebar, it will be easy for you to keep up with friends, family, news, and events no matter where you are on the Web. For example, you can stay connected to your favorite social site or service even while you are surfing the Web, watching a video or playing a game.

To test Cliqz, upgrade to the latest Firefox Beta and then visit the Cliqz activation page and click “Install.”

To test msnNOW, upgrade to the latest Firefox Beta and then visit the msnNOW activation page and click “Turn On.”

Firefox beta users in Japan will be able to activate Mixi through their existing Mixi accounts.

We need help from our Beta testers to test the new providers before we get ready to release them to all Firefox users. To provide feedback, click “help” and then “submit feedback.”

We will expand testing with additional social providers in Firefox Nightly, including CliqZ and Mixi, MSN Now and Weibo soon.

We are really excited about the possibilities that Social API brings to the future of browsing including ways to integrate even more social providers, e-mail, finance, news and other applications and services into your Firefox experience. Stay tuned for more details and when we start beta testing the the additional social providers.

• Open Source Custom Fonts: Firefox for Android Beta comes with the custom, open source fonts Charis and Open Sans that will replace the default Android fonts for a visually appealing and clear reading experience.

• HTML5 Compatibility Optimizations: Firefox for Android Beta includes improvements to HTML5 compatibility, as tested on HTML5test.org, the leading industry HTML5 compliance test. Firefox scores 411 and 14 bonus points (out of a total of 500).

For more information:

• Download Firefox for Android Beta
• Firefox for Android Beta Release Notes

• More Do Not Track Options: Do Not Track includes three options “Do Track,” “Do Not Track” and “no preference” to better represent user’s choice to opt-in or opt-out of online tracking. To access the Do Not Track options and indicate your preference click on “preferences” then “privacy.”
• Restore thumbnails on new tab page: If you close a tab thumbnail on the new tab page there will be an option to “undo” and restore your thumbnail.

For more information:

• Get Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux
• Release notes for Firefox Beta on Windows, Mac and Linux

• Per-tab private browsing: Firefox for Android Beta comes with new per tab private browsing, allowing you to switch between private and standard tabs within the same browsing session. Private Browsing helps protect your privacy online and provides greater control over your personal data by allowing you to browse the Internet without saving any information about which sites and pages you’ve visited. Private browsing data will not show up in your AwesomeBar History or Awesome Screen shortcuts.
• Customizable shortcuts on the home screen: Now, you can customize the shortcut images on the home screen with your favorite or most frequently visited sites so they are only a click away. Tap and hold your top sites, tap “pin,” and you’re ready to go.
• ARMv6 Expanded Support: Firefox for Android Beta adds support for additional ARMv6 processor devices. This update brings Firefox for Android Beta to roughly 25 million more devices. Firefox for Android Beta is now available to phones with minimum requirements of 600MHz, 384MB, QVGA. New devices supported include: Samsung Galaxy Next (GT-S5570, GT-S5578), HTC Aria (S31HT), HTC Legend (A6363), Samsung Dart (SGH-T499), Samsung Galaxy Pop (SCH-i559), Samsung Galaxy Q (SGH-T589)

For more information:

• Get Firefox Beta for Android
• Release notes for Firefox for Android Beta

• Per Window Private Browsing Mode: Firefox makes it possible for you to view a Web page in private browsing mode and regular browsing mode simultaneously, in two separate Firefox windows. You can easily open a link in a new Private Browsing Window, just right click on any link and choose “Open Link in a New Private Window.”
• Updated Firefox Download Manager: Firefox makes downloading content from the Web even easier. You can view and monitor download progress right in the Firefox toolbar rather than a separate window.

• Plug-in warning: When a plug-in hangs for more than 11 seconds, Firefox will notify you so you can restart the plugin rather than restarting Firefox, allowing you to keep browsing the Web, uninterrupted.
• getUserMedia: A new HTML5 DOM API that allows the browser to capture local camera and/or microphone streams directly, without the need for third party plugins . It allows JavaScript developers to quickly and easily write code to access the user’s camera or microphones. gUM is the first API component of WebRTC, which enables real-time, interactive, peer-to-peer audio/video calls and data sharing.
• Developer Toolbox: Firefox Beta now includes the developer toolbox, providing quick access to popular developers tools such as the Web Console, Debugger, Inspector and Style Editor in one handy window.
• Canvas Blend Modes: Canvas Blend Modes allows developers to define how they want canvas to draw an image over an existing image, for example by changing pixel color values to create different visual effects.

For more information:

• Get Firefox Beta for Windows, Mac and Linux
• Release notes for Firefox Beta on Windows, Mac and Linux