Notable changes in 3.6 Beta vs. Firefox 3.5

• Supports file-based Drag and Drop so you can Drag and Drop files from your desktop in the browser. Mixed with the File API (mentioned below) this can make for a very powerful set of features for people building photo and video uploaders or anything else that wants to import data.
• @font-face now supports the WOFF format.
• We support multiple background images for background-image.
• You can now specify the background size via -moz-background-size
• We now specify a very powerful pointer-events property that lets you control whether a particular element can receive events.
• You can now specify an algorithm to render images via the image-rendering CSS property.
• Poster images now work for video elements.
• Support for a new geo-location feature that will return an approximate address for your location.
• Support for orientation events.
• Check more features Firefox 3.6 for developers page

The creative team at Mozilla is excited to introduce you to a brand new initiative – the Mozilla Creative Collective! The Mozilla Creative Collective is a community of artists and designers, and is intended to be a counterpart to our development and engineering communities.

The Creative Collective is a community of artists and designers inspired by the Mozilla ideals of openness, innovation and participation.

Mozilla hopes to gain support for the Creative Collective. They have a start-off Creative challenge up already.

Design Challenge

“People and Robots, Best Friends Forever.”   More>>

Faster JS Processing: Firefox 3.5 includes the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine, which Mozilla says makes it deliver unprecedented performance with today’s complex Web applications. As Mozilla claims it to be, Firefox 3.5 is more than two times faster than Firefox 3 and ten times faster than Firefox 2.

Also, With a new management function in place, Firefox keeps memory usage under control. The XPCOM cycle collector continuously cleans up unused memory.

With Firefox 3.5, users can enjoy video and audio content from within their browser, without the need for any plug-ins. Web developers can embed audio and video into Web pages in open format Ogg Theora, courtesy a new feature of HTML 5. Mozilla claims that it’s the first to integrate this feature directly into the browser like playing music and video files..

Firefox 3.5 includes features designed to protect users’ privacy online and provide greater control over their personal data. With Firefox 3.5 users can have their browser history never record visits to a particular site. Also, FF 3.5 has support for many new languages.
Location Aware Browsing aims to save users time by allowing websites to know where they are located. If a user chooses to share his location with a website, it can use that information to find nearby points of interest and return additional, useful data like maps of the area. This is an optional feature.

Mozilla is close to releasing its near-final version of Firefox 3.5. Earlier this month, Mozilla set Friday to be Firefox 3.5 RC1 Test Day. But RC1, the first release candidate designed to be more stable than the earlier Firefox beta versions, wasn’t finished for the occasion.

“Even though RC1 hasn’t been released yet, the test day will still go on with the latest nightlies (nightly builds of Firefox based on the latest source code) which are practically RC1 minus some minor uplifts,” quotes Aakash Desai of Mozilla’s QA (Quality Assurance) team. Mozilla has set up the “Litmus program” to encourage broad testing of its software.

The latest RC (at the time of posting) is RC4. All 3.5 beta versions can be found here.

“An important part of the success of Mozilla Firefox is it’s ability to customize the web experience using Firefox add-ons. Mozilla is in need of experts in web technologies such as JavaScript, HTML&  CSS to help in reviewing newly submitted add-ons to AMO, Mozilla’s central hub for add-ons. AMO Editors assist in:

• Reviewing new and updated add-ons to ensure that Mozilla users have a great experience
• Working with developers to improve their add-ons through advice and code suggestions
• Helping Mozilla to develop guidelines to streamline the review process

The role is both challenging and rewarding as you get the opportunity to evaluate the work of top-notch developers from throughout the world and determine how to improve their efforts. If you’d like to contribute to the Mozilla project and gain valuable knowledge&  experience in the process please apply to become a AMO editor here: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Update:Editors/Applying“

In the address bar, type  about:mozilla and about:robots to find somethin quirky..

about:mozilla

Mammon slept. And the beast reborn spread over the earth and its numbers grew legion. And they proclaimed the times and sacrificed crops unto the fire, with the cunning of foxes. And they built a new world in their own image as promised by the  sacred words, and spoke of the beast with their children. Mammon awoke, and lo! it was caught but a follower.

from The Book of Mozilla, 11:9
(10th Edition)

about:robots

# Robots may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

#             Robots have seen things you people wouldn’t believe.

#             Robots are Your Plastic Pal Who’s Fun To Be With.

#             Robots have shiny metal posteriors which should not be bitten.

ONCE YOU’RE IN PICLENS, YOU CAN:
1. Scroll the 3D Wall by dragging your mouse across the screen.
2. Zoom-in and out by clicking an image or by using the scroll wheel on your mouse.
3. Toggle between full-screen mode and the 3D Wall (Full screen 3d browsing).
4. Jump to the corresponding webpage of the image by clicking the globe icon.
5. Watch the latest news, sports, and entertainment feeds.
6. Search popular websites including YouTube, Google, Flickr, Amazon etc..
Some other cool features :

• Shop Amazon– The 3D Wall transformed image search. Now PicLens launches online shopping! into the 21st century. Browse and buy seamlessly just like window
• Discover– MSNBC, ESPN, movie trailers…Get the latest news, photos, and video feeds.
• Return to PicLens– An essential for playing with pictures: toggle in and out of your desktop, the browser, and PicLens!

Latest version : Beta version 1.8 at http://piclens.com/beta
Or check out the mozilla Addons page

Here is a complete list of all available Language packs and Dictionaries available for Firefox. They do not come with the default installation and  need to be installed separately. All Lang Packs and Dictionaries are .xpi files and can be installed directly by clicking on the necessary pack and “Add to Firefox” button. be sure to add addons.mozilla.org to ‘allow’ list in order to install the packs. If you ever wanted a non-english firefox or customize firefox in your own local language, just install the non-english language packs :

Aero style glassy icons on a light background.

Aero Fox Sliver redone for Firefox 3. Aero style glassy icons on a light background.

This theme is my basic version meaning it contains the full features of the navigator toolbar, bookmarks toolbar and tabs while the rest of the theme uses features from the default Windows theme. This is a lite version of the theme for users who need nothing more than just the main toolbar and do not use a lot of extensions and other add-ons.

Source : Here