It also lets users lock full-screen videos in landscape mode

Mar 13, 2018 21:04 GMT  ·  By

Mozilla released today the Firefox 59 web browser for Google's Android mobile operating system bringing support for websites that use the HTTP Live Streaming protocol for video playback, and improved Private Browsing mode, and more.

Firefox 59 is currently rolling out to the desktop on all supported platforms, including GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows, but you can also install it on your Android device by downloading the APK from Softpedia. Besides various performance improvements and security fixes, this release is the first to support HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) video playback.

"We launched an entirely new engine in November, made significant improvements to graphics rendering in January, and are continuing to post performance gains and add features with this release," said Mozilla in the release notes. "On Firefox for Android, we’ve added support for sites that stream video using the HLS protocol."

Improved Private Browsing mode, Firefox as an Assist App

Firefox 59 for Android also lets users lock full-screen videos while in landscape mode, improves the Private Browsing mode to help prevent third-party data leakage by eliminating path information from referrers sent to third-party sites when visiting a web page, and removes the "about:" page.

Mozilla recommends Android users to use the "About Firefox" dialog instead of the "about:" page for any info they need to know about the web browser. Also, starting with this release, Mozilla added Firefox as an Assist App instead of the Firefox Search widget, allowing Android users to search the Web by long-pressing the home button of their device.

Other than that, Android users can easily transform websites into native apps that they can run from the home screen, as well as to play FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) audio files. Firefox 59 also adds support for Bengali from Bangladesh (bn-BD) and Nepali (ne-NP) locales.

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