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Firefox 83 for Mac Brings HTTPS-Only Mode, Pinch to Zoom, and Performance Improvements

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Mozilla has released Firefox 83 on Mac, bringing new features and improvements, including a new HTTPS-Only Mode, pinch to zoom, and more.

firefox 83
HTTPS-Only Mode is Mozilla's latest security feature that ensures users establish fully secure connections to every website they visit. If a website doesn't support the HTTPS encrypted protocol, Firefox asks for user permission before connecting.

Enabling HTTPS-Only Mode is done through the Preferences menu (the three lines icon in the top-right corner of the browser). Select Privacy & Security and scroll down to the section HTTPS-Only Mode. Then choose Enable HTTPS-Only Mode in all windows.

A new pinch zooming feature also comes to Firefox on Mac. Users can now pinch to zoom using a trackpad to zoom in and out of webpages.

Elsewhere, Picture-in-Picture now supports keyboard shortcuts for fast forwarding and rewinding videos. The arrow keys can now be used to move forward and back 15 seconds, along with volume controls. For a list of supported commands see Support Mozilla.

Mozilla has also improved functionality and design for a number of Firefox search features, and improved page load performance by up to 15%, page responsiveness by up to 12%, and reduced memory usage by up to 8%.

Part of the JavaScript engine that helps to compile and display websites has also been replaced, improving security and maintainability of the engine at the same time.

Firefox 83 is available to download from the Mozilla website and works on Apple Silicon CPUs via emulation under Apple's Rosetta 2 that ships with macOS Big Sur. Mozilla says it is working toward Firefox being natively-compiled for these CPUs in a future release.

Tags: Firefox, Mozilla

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Top Rated Comments

timidpimpin Avatar
timidpimpin
76 months ago

But on a touchscreen-less Mac? What's the point?
Track pad gestures.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
M
mike...
76 months ago

But on a touchscreen-less Mac? What's the point?
If you use a MacBook or have a Magic Trackpad pinch-to-zoom is nice and natural. You don't need a touchscreen.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Risco Avatar
Risco
76 months ago
I was a beta tester for Firefox from 0.6, but once I moved to Mac in about 2013 I realised they only cared about Windows ago and stopped using. Having pinch and zoom might just bring me back!

EDIT> Pinch and zoom still rubbish!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ArtOfWarfare Avatar
ArtOfWarfare
76 months ago

Good to know that Firefox is still alive. I've been using Chrome for like ages.
In my experience, Chrome is crap. I never used it much on Mac (Safari is generally better), and on Windows I use Firefox.

Chrome wastes a lot of time sending god knows what to Google's servers. Besides the security implications, it just slows the entire browser down as it won't display a page until it hits fonts.google.com or whatever other stupid Google service it wants to hit for no reason.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Konigi Avatar
Konigi
76 months ago
They didn't update the icon yet. What a disappointment!

For the rest, indeed nice features. Firefox remains the most stable, secure, and fast browser, in my experience. Extremely satisfied.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
velocityg4 Avatar
velocityg4
76 months ago
I'm not really sure what took so long. I didn't even realize you couldn't do pinch to zoom before. Although you could apparently enable it in about:config. Just goes to show how often I zoom in or out on web pages.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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