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
Mozilla's latest State of Open Source AI report, using data through September 1, finds top Chinese open-weight models are closing in on closed US frontier systems, lagging by only a few percentage points on key benchmarks while costing far less to run. The report estimates the capability gap at roughly 4.4 months based on METR task-horizon data, close to Epoch AI's independent four-month estimate, and notes one Chinese model scored within a point of a leading Claude model on Terminal-Bench at under a fifth of the price.
tomshardware.com
· 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 new State of Open Source AI report from Mozilla, shared with Ars ahead of its September 15 release, finds that top open-weights models from Chinese developers now perform nearly on par with closed frontier models from US firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. It cites Moonshot AI's Kimi K3 scoring only three points below Anthropic's Fable 5 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, despite costing roughly 30 percent as much to run.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-15
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
Mozilla has officially rolled out a native ad-blocking feature in Firefox for iOS after a brief testing period. Built using Apple's WebKit Content Blocker technology and the EasyList filter, it strips out most third-party ads and trackers before pages load, cutting data usage and cleaning up cluttered sites. The feature is off by default and must be enabled through the browser's settings.
theverge.com
· 2026-09-01
Mozilla announced it will turn on JPEG XL decoding by default across all Firefox platforms starting with version 157, using its Rust-based jxl-rs decoder. The feature has been available as an opt-in Labs setting since Firefox 152 and behind a hidden preference since earlier releases, and now gains multithreaded decoding to match performance with Safari's implementation.
groups.google.com
· 2026-08-25
A longtime tech columnist who had repeatedly abandoned Firefox says the browser has gradually reeled him back in over the past year. He credits a combination of features, including a new theming engine currently available in the pre-alpha Nightly build, that now extends styling to toolbars, menus, and messages rather than just toolbars.
zdnet.com
· 2026-08-24
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