Mozilla has released the first beta version of Firefox 3.6 and is available to download. This new version of Firefox comes with several new features such as ability to personalize appearance with a single click.

It is built on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, containing many improvements for web developers, Add-on developers, and users.

New Features in Firefox 3.6 Beta 1:

• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Download Firefox 3.6 Beta 1

Mozilla has launched a new feature that allows users to create "collections" of their favorite Firefox extensions.

Add-on Collections can be organized by theme – i.e. extensions for students or web designers – or as bespoke selections of your favorite browser plug-ins.

Users can simply visit the Collections Directory, browse through the various collections and install the various extensions separately.

Alternatively, you can download the Add-on Collector extension for Firefox, and subscribe to various collections.

The Collector extension will notify you when new add-ons are added to the collection, but they won’t be automatically installed on your browser.

Each collection also has its own RSS feed, so you can keep up-to-date with new additions that way.

Mozilla has created several sample collections to get the ball rolling, but it hopes they will soon be overtaken by user-generated compendiums. Collections that get the most subscribers will be ranked highest on the Collections website.

Firefox 3.5, which is due out in final release at the end of the month, will allow people to edit digital images from within the browser without need for a third-party application. The software will also include the ability to run videos directly in the browser without the need for a third-party viewer or player, and will allow other elements of a Web page to interact with that video content.

As an open-source company, Mozilla aims to give people technologies based on open standards that help them leverage the Web as both a content-delivery engine and platform for developing applications.

The new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, is twice as fast as the one in Firefox 3.0, and allows for image editing from within the browser without need for software such as Adobe Photoshop. JavaScript is a standard scripting language for Web applications.

We can do this just as well with an online Web application as well as you could on a local application.

Firefox 3.5 also allows developers to build applications for other parts of a Web page that can interact with the video playing, which has potential for enhancing next-generation Web-based applications such as advertising campaigns as well as enterprise applications.

A preview of Firefox 3.5 is available now, but Mozilla delayed the first release candidate that was scheduled for this week until next week to iron out some last-minute bugs. The final release of the browser is still expected at the end of the month.