Beta available now for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows

May 29, 2015 03:15 GMT  ·  By

Today we are happy to inform you that Mozilla has published some details about the next major version of its popular, cross-platform, and free web browser, Mozilla Firefox 39.0.

On this occasion, we want to tell you about some of the new features that will be implemented in the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 39.0 web browser, due for release in about three weeks from today, on June 23, 2015.

The most important feature of Mozilla Firefox 39.0 is the enablement of the functions that promise to keep you safe from phishing websites or any other type of malware while you surf the Internet for downloads.

As you can see from the attached screenshot, there are two options ("Block reported attack sites" and "Block reported web forgeries") implemented in the Security section of the new tab-based preferences.

Those two options are part of Firefox's SafeBrowsing malware detection lookups, which will now work for downloads too. In addition, the malware detection service for downloads will also work for Mac add-ons.

Whether you're an end-user or web developer, we strongly suggest reading the "How does built-in Phishing and Malware Protection work?" article from the Mozilla Wiki to learn how exactly the new SafeBrowsing feature works.

Firefox 39.0 will bring support for new Unicode 8.0 skin tone emoji

In addition to the built-in SafeBrowsing malware detection service for downloads, which will be available for Mac OS X and GNU/Linux operating systems, Mozilla Firefox 39.0 will also offer support for new Unicode 8.0 skin tone emoji and for "switch" role in ARIA 1.1.

Among other changes, Mozilla Firefox 39.0 introduces many new features for developers, offers smoother scrolling and animation for Mac OS X users, of course, also improves the NPAPI plugin and removes support for SSLv3. Firefox 39.0 will also fix many of the bugs reported by users since the previous version of the software.

As usual, you can download Mozilla Firefox 39.0 Beta 1 for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows operating systems right now from Softpedia. Keep in mind that this is a pre-release version that contains some unresolved issues.

Update: We've updated the article with more explicit information about the ability of the SafeBrowsing malware detection lookups functionality that is already implemented in the current version of Mozilla Firefox. The malware detection service now works for downloads too on Linux and Mac OS X operating systems.

Update 2: It was brought to our attention that the new "malware detection lookups for downloads" functionality is designed to warn users if they download files that are detected as malware.

Firefox 39.0 Beta Changelog