Mozilla has released Firefox 59 for desktop, Android, and iOS devices.
The desktop version is said to offer faster page load times, faster loading of the Firefox home page, improved graphics rendering, and other improvements including new tools for annotating screenshots.
Firefox for Android now supports streaming video from sites that use the HLS protocol (HTTP Live Streaming), and the ability to start a search in Firefox by long-pressing your phone or tablet’s home button.
That new search feature lets you replace Google Assistant with a Firefox search, but it requires a device running Android 7.1.1 or later, and you’ll need to go into the phone’s settings to enable it. You can find instructions at Mozilla’s website.
Mozilla for Android will also let you lock video in landscape mode when watching a full-screen video, and private browsing mode now removes path information from referrers sent to third-parties (that change is also included in the desktop version of Firefox 59).
Mozilla says it’s also redesigned the menus, new tab page, and other features in Firefox 59 for iOS.
Other desktop changes include the ability to crop, highlight, or draw on screenshots, improved RTC (Real Time Communications) features, WebExtensions API updates, and a new option that lets you stop websites from sending notifications or accessing your device’s location, camera, or microphone.
You can find more details about the latest releases for desktop, Android, and iOS in the Firefox 59 release notes.
Later this week the company will also update its web browser for Amazon Fire TV devices with a new start page that shows saved websites to save you the trouble of typing them manually.
via Mozilla
“That new search feature lets you replace Google Assistant with a Firerfox search”
I wonder if Google will have an issue with this. I for one am thrilled! I hope it doesn’t get nuked.
But why?? Firefox search uses google now…so it makes no difference to google…
I’m just disappointed that apple and Mozilla chose to use google over bing..but money talks….google gave apple $3 billion and gives mozilla $300 million every year.
Why would you be disappointed? Bing is absolutely horrible. Money indeed talked previously when Bing was the default, sorry defect, search engine.
Lol bing is NOT horrible..it is about 95% as good as google results. I agree google has a slight edge but thats not the point. By not supporting googles competitors you are perpetuating their monopoly. I mean why doesnt firefox just say use Chrome instead of their browser. Google became a verb in the english language thus its dominance in search but chrome only got such dominance because Google abuses its monopolies in search and youtube to pester users to download chrome again and again till they give in or the noobs who dont know and just download whatever, then theres the fanatics who wont even try other products let alone give em a fair shot. For a search engine to improve, it needs data, it needs constant users to keep improving its algorithms and also the AI of respective companies use the search engine as the foundations. Thats why… Read more »
Firefox can be set to use any search engine. I use Startpage. I am assuming this will be the same for the new version of Firefox.
Yes, it’s the same in my FF v59.01 64-bit. All my anti-Google search settings are untouched after the update.
I like the android Firefox browser better than the android Chrome browser. This is with the Nvidia Shield TV box and a wireless keyboard. Haven’t tested them on a phone.