Firefox 81 comes with support for physical multimedia controls, hardware acceleration in Linux and these other novelties

Firefox 81

Today, September 22 and four weeks after v80 release, Mozilla had planned to launch a new major version of its browser. And here it is: a few moments ago the Firefox 81 release, a delivery that also comes without really outstanding news, but with one that will interest those of us who usually play content from the fox's browser: the possibility of controlling playback through physical multimedia keys, or from the controls of headphones or a virtual medium.

For everything else, although it does not appear in the news note, firefox 81 enable VA-API / FFmpeg hardware acceleration by default on systems using X11 / X.Org on Linux. This was a novelty that was introduced in the previous version, but it arrived deactivated; interested users should activate it from the configuration page about: config. Below you have the rest of the news that have arrived with Firefox 81.

What's new in Firefox 81

  • Now you can pause and play audio or video in Firefox directly from the keyboard or headphones, providing easy access to control the media when we are in another Firefox tab, another program or even when the computer is locked.
  • In addition to the default dark and light themes, with this release, Firefox introduces the Alpenglow theme - a colorful look for buttons, menus, and windows. We can update Firefox themes in settings or preferences.
  • For US and Canadian users, Firefox can now automatically save, manage, and fill in credit card information, making shopping in Firefox even more convenient. To ensure the smoothest experience, this will be rolled out gradually for users.
  • Firefox is compatible with AcroForm, which will soon allow you to fill out, print and save compatible PDF forms, and the PDF viewer also has a fresh look.
  • Users in Austria, Belgium, and Switzerland using the German version of Firefox will now see Pocket's recommendations in their new tab with some of the best stories on the web. If you don't see them, you can activate Pocket articles in your new tab by following these steps. In addition to the new Firefox tab, Pocket is also available as an app on iOS and Android.
  • Fixed a bug for language pack users where the default language was reset to English after Firefox updates.
  • The browser's native HTML5 audio / video controls received several important accessibility fixes:
    • Audio / video controls remain accessible to screen readers even when temporarily hidden from view.
    • Elapsed audio / video and total time are now accessible to screen readers where they were not before.
    • Several unlabeled controls are now labeled, making them identifiable to screen readers.
    • Screen readers no longer intrusively report progress unless requested by the user.
  • We will soon find Picture-in-Picture more easily in all the videos you watch with new iconography. This is something that I personally have not been able to identify in either the Beta or the Nightly version.
  • The bookmarks toolbar is now automatically revealed once bookmarks are imported into Firefox, making it easier to find your most important websites.
  • They have expanded the supported file types (.xml, .svg, and .webp) so that the files you have downloaded can be opened directly in Firefox. This is in addition to other support, such as the PDF of the previous version.

Firefox 81 It is now available for download from its official website, which we can access from this link. Windows and macOS users will be able to download a self-updating installer, while Linux users will download binaries that will also be automatically updated from the browser. As for those of us who use the version offered by our Linux distribution, Firefox 81 will appear as an update in the next few hours.


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