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Mozilla hits FF button with second Firefox 3.6 beta

With a bit of a mind flip, you're there in the time slip

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Mozilla has hastily released a second beta of Firefox 3.6 just over a week after pushing out the first test preview of its popular browser.

The update contains over 190 bug fixes, many of which the open source outfit said would improve the browser for web developers, add-on coders and users.

Of course the decision to bombard testers with a second beta so soon was probably also made following reports from users experiencing sporadic crashes with the first beta.

Quelle surprise: Mozilla said the second beta of Firefox 3.6 - codenamed Namoroka and based on Gecko 1.9.2 - comes with a number of new features including a mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing the browser.

Meanwhile, those users who are fussy about Firefox 3.6's appearance can now change it with a single click using built-in support for Personas.

The latest test preview of the browser will alert users about out of date plug-ins, native video can now be displayed full screen, JavaScript performance has been improved and there's also support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies, said Mozilla.

However, this being merely a beta of the upcoming browser, Mozilla warned: "Most add-ons have not yet been upgraded by their authors to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta."

It urged testers to download and install the Add-on Compatibility Reporter, in a move to encourage more people to tinker with the code.

Grab the beta here. ®

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