Mozilla preps the beta version of Firefox for Android with security and usability features, while the dev build of desktop Firefox for Linux finally gets H.264 support.

(Credit: Mozilla)

A slew of new features are being readied for the Android version of Firefox that will bring it closer to its more popular desktop counterpart.

Firefox for Android 25 Beta introduces the recent security addition to desktop Firefox called mixed content blocking, to help tighten mobile browsing security, and adds a guest browsing feature.

Guest browsing protects the primary user's history, open tabs, and bookmarks, while allowing the guest user to take advantage of browsing data that Private Browsing mode doesn't record. When the guest session closes, the browsing data gets deleted and the primary user's session is automatically restored. Don't be surprised if the guest browsing feature finds its way into Firefox OS at some point, so that people can hand off their Firefox phones to friends or children with less worry.

The new beta lets you set any image from the Web as your phone's wallpaper or as a contact's avatar photo. The settings menu has been redesigned to categorize similar settings together, and the browser is now available in 27 languages.

For developers, the beta comes with two new features. One supports "page actions," which add-on developers can use to create a "quick-action" that appears as an icon on the Firefox URL bar. Think of it as a streamlined add-on.

The other developer feature allows for remote debugging, so you can fix Web pages in Android Firefox using the same tools as in desktop Firefox.

Speaking of desktop Firefox, the Aurora build of the Linux version is slated to get support for the H.264 video codec. This will help Linux users watch videos in Firefox that had previously been unavailable to them. Firefox 26 Aurora for Linux is expected to ship sometime in the next week.

Full release notes for Firefox for Android 25 Beta are available here.

Source: Cnet