Firefox Beta and Developer Edition
Release Notes

Release Notes tell you what’s new in Firefox. As always, we welcome your feedback. You can also file a bug in Bugzilla or see the system requirements of this release.

52.0beta Firefox Beta

January 25, 2017

Version 52.0beta, first offered to Beta channel users on January 25, 2017

New

  • Added support for WebAssembly, an emerging standard that brings near-native performance to Web-based games, apps, and software libraries without the use of plugins.

  • Added automatic captive portal detection, for easier access to Wi-Fi hotspots. When accessing the Internet via a captive portal, Firefox will alert users and open the portal login page in a new tab.

  • Enhanced Sync to allow users to send and open tabs from one device to another.

  • Enabled multi-process Firefox for 32-bit Windows users with touch screens

  • Added user warnings for non-secure HTTP pages with logins. Firefox now displays a “This connection is not secure” message when users click into the username and password fields on pages that don’t use HTTPS.

  • Implemented the Strict Secure Cookies specification which forbids insecure HTTP sites from setting cookies with the "secure" attribute. In some cases, this will prevent an insecure site from setting a cookie with the same name as an existing "secure" cookie from the same base domain.

Fixed

  • Improved text input for third-party keyboard layouts on Windows. This will address some keyboard layouts that

    • have chained dead keys
    • input two or more characters with a non-printable key or a dead key sequence
    • input a character even when a dead key sequence failed to compose a character

Changed

  • Removed support for Netscape Plugin API (NPAPI) plugins other than Flash. Silverlight, Java, Acrobat and the like are no longer supported.

  • Removed Battery Status API to reduce fingerprinting of users by trackers

  • Improved experience for downloads:

    • Notification in the toolbar when a download fails
    • Quick access to five most recent downloads rather than three
    • Larger buttons for canceling and restarting downloads

Developer

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