This article was published on February 4, 2014

Firefox 27 arrives with simultaneous Social API services, SPDY 3.1 and TLS 1.2 support, more languages on Android


Firefox 27 arrives with simultaneous Social API services, SPDY 3.1 and TLS 1.2 support, more languages on Android

Mozilla today officially launched Firefox 27 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. Additions include Simultaneous Social API notifications, SPDY 3.1 support, and more languages on Android.

Firefox 27 has been released over on Firefox.com and all existing users should be able to upgrade to it automatically. As always, the Android version is trickling out slowly on Google Play.

Transport Layer Security (TLS) version 1.2 has been added to both desktop and mobile versions of Firefox. This is the latest release, although it was originally defined over five years ago in August 2008.

Desktop

Firefox 27 includes an update to the Social API that allows multiple social integration partners to send notifications at the same time. Previously, users could only see notifications from the social provider they had indicated in their Firefox toolbar.

The Social API first arrived in Firefox 17 back in November 2012. Mozilla developed the feature “to enable social services and providers to integrate directly into Firefox to make users browsing experience more social, customizable and personal.” In other words, the integration lets you keep up with the latest social happenings without having to switch between, or open new, tabs.

Delicious-600x319

Since then, Mozilla added social partners Facebook, Cliqz, Mixi, MSN Now, and Weibo. Today, the company added two new providers: Delicious and Saavn.

The former lets you quickly share links to your Delicious network from wherever you are on the Web. The latter, a popular music player in India, lets you easily access top songs regionally, newest album releases, popular playlists, and the most popular radio stations.

Saavn-600x374

Social partners aside, here’s the full changelog for Firefox 27:

  • NEW: You can now run more than one service at a time with Firefox SocialAPI, allowing you to receive notifications, chat and more from multiple integrated services.
  • CHANGED: Enabled TLS 1.1 (RFC 4346) and TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) by default.
  • CHANGED: Added support for SPDY 3.1 protocol.
  • DEVELOPER: Ability to reset style sheets using ‘all:unset’.
  • DEVELOPER: You can now choose to deobfuscate javascript in the debugger (see 762761).
  • DEVELOPER: Added support for scrolled fieldsets (see 261037).
  • DEVELOPER: Implemented allow-popups directive for iframe sandbox, enabling increased security (see 766282).
  • DEVELOPER: CSS cursor keywords -moz-grab and -moz-grabbing have been unprefixed (see 880672).
  • DEVELOPER: Added support for ES6 generators in SpiderMonkey (see blog post).
  • DEVELOPER: Implemented support for mathematical function Math.hypot() in ES6 (see 896264).
  • HTML5: Dashed line support on Canvas (see 768067).
  • FIXED: Get Azure/Skia content rendering working on Linux (see 740200).
  • FIXED: 27.0: Security fixes can be found here.

If you’re a Web developer, you should probably check out Firefox 27 for developers.

Android

Firefox for Android hasn’t gained any major new features apart from TLS support. Lithuanian, Slovenian, South African English, and Thai locales has been added, but that’s pretty much it.

Here’s the full Firefox 27 for Android changelog:

  • NEW: Added Lithuanian, Slovenian, South African English and Thai to android multi-locale builds.
  • CHANGED: Enabled TLS 1.1 (RFC 4346) and TLS 1.2 (RFC 5246) by default.
  • CHANGED: UI improvements due to rewrite of favicon system (see 914296).
  • CHANGED: Removed overscrolling on web content (see 705246).
  • CHANGED: Experience better readability with default font set to Clear Sans.
  • DEVELOPER: Ability to reset style sheets using ‘all:unset’.
  • DEVELOPER: You can now choose to deobfuscate javascript in the debugger (see 762761).
  • DEVELOPER: Implemented allow-popups directive for iframe sandbox, enabling increased security (see 766282).
  • DEVELOPER: CSS cursor keywords -moz-grab and -moz-grabbing have been unprefixed (see 880672).
  • DEVELOPER: Added support for ES6 generators in SpiderMonkey (see blog post).
  • DEVELOPER: Implemented support for mathematical function Math.hypot() in ES6 (see 896264).
  • HTML5: Dashed line support on Canvas (see 768067).
  • FIXED: 27.0: Security fixes can be found here.

If you’re having difficulty keeping track of all these updates, don’t worry. Firefox 28 will be out in March.

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