Mozilla's Firefox 156 release improves large JPEG handling by using libjpeg-turbo's IDCT scaling during decoding instead of loading full-size images first, cutting memory use up to 20 times and doubling decode speed. The update also makes the built-in PDF.js viewer start up to 45% faster by loading its background worker earlier, and expands sponsored address bar suggestions to France, Germany and Italy. Firefox 157, due in about two weeks, is expected to add support for the JPEG XL image format.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-16
Mistral has struck a partnership with Mozilla under which its AI models will power Firefox's built-in AI assistant. The deal aims to broaden Mistral's reach among everyday consumers by tapping into Firefox's established user base.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-16
Mistral AI and Mozilla announced a partnership making Mistral's models power Firefox's beta AI browsing assistant, Smart Window, which helps users navigate searches, recall browsing history, and pull information from open tabs. The rollout starts in France and North America, with the UK and Germany planned later this year.
mistral.ai
· 2026-09-16
Mozilla worked with Lincoln Loop and a design lead to rebuild Firefox.com using only modern, native CSS, dropping preprocessors like Sass entirely. The project exported custom properties straight from design files and used CSS Grid and Flexbox, building a system of more than 70 components and 25 page templates as Wagtail components so non-engineers can assemble pages. The site now supports 19 locales, with a lightweight branded stylesheet ensuring older browsers still get basic accessible styling.
josprague.com
· 2026-09-15
A compression engineer revisits JPEG XL's standing on the Web, noting that despite its technical strengths over JPEG and WebP, Chrome dropped support in 2023. He points out that a new Rust-based JPEG XL decoder has since appeared in Firefox and parts of Chrome, partly to avoid repeating a security flaw once found in WebP, but argues this alone doesn't settle whether JPEG XL deserves broad Web adoption.
giannirosato.com
· 2026-09-14
A security researcher published a proof-of-concept called the Deathray, a tiny WebGPU program that locks up a Mac's graphics pipeline after a single click on a malicious webpage. The bug reproduces across Chrome, Firefox and Safari on Apple Silicon Macs running macOS Tahoe, but does not cause the same lasting freeze on other operating systems. An infinite compute-shader loop feeding a shared buffer into a render shader appears to be the trigger, forcing victims to hard-restart their machine.
auberon.xyz
· 2026-09-10
Brave released new benchmark data asserting its desktop browser consumes 44% less CPU, 28% less memory, and 10% less energy than Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, while loading full pages about 20% faster. The company attributes the gains largely to blocking ads, trackers, and analytics scripts that would otherwise generate extra background processing after the visible page content loads.
news.slashdot.org
· 2026-09-08
Solipsism Browser is a new open-source Android browser built on Chromium that launched about three months ago, offering extensive customization and design options typically associated with Firefox forks rather than Chrome. Despite its early stage, reviewers note it already feels highly polished and distinct from mainstream Chromium-based browsers.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-04
A Hacker News poster described being stuck in a repeating Google reCAPTCHA challenge when trying to access archive.is using current Firefox on Linux with strict privacy settings enabled. Disabling Privacy Badger and switching to private browsing did not resolve the issue, prompting the user to ask whether other Firefox users are experiencing similar problems.
news.ycombinator.com
· 2026-09-03
A follow-up Wireshark analysis of Firefox 155 confirms an earlier finding: toggling off Mozilla's AI kill switch disables generative AI features but does nothing to stop background telemetry or advertising data collection. The retest comes six months after Mozilla's CEO publicly called the AI switch one of the browser's most important features, even as onboarding flows never mention what the control actually covers.
marius.blog
· 2026-09-02
Mozilla has rolled out a new feature called Ad Blocker within Firefox for iPhone and iPad, designed to stop many third-party ads and ad trackers from loading on web pages. The tool is off by default and must be manually switched on through Settings > Browsing > Ad Blocker, and it requires iOS or iPadOS 15 or later. Mozilla says the rollout is gradual, so not every user will see the option immediately.
cnet.com
· 2026-09-01
A commentator pushes back against a wave of criticism aimed at Mozilla's Firefox browser for maintaining a presence on X, noting that critics who switched to alternatives like Vivaldi remain active on the same or similar platforms. The piece frames this backlash as misguided given Firefox's shrinking market share and its role as one of the few browsers not built on Google's Chromium engine.
newsonaut.com
· 2026-09-01
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