Mozilla have made Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 available for download and it  brings with it a number of new features not seen in Firefox before. The new beta runs on the Gecko 1.9.2 web rendering engine, and includes various improvements for web and add-on developers alike. Mozilla also point out that they have improved the start up time for Firefox. This should come as a welcomed announcement as many have started to moan about how long Firefox takes to load up these days.

Other new features and improvements include:

• The ability to change the browser's appearance through the use of Personas
• Support for the WOFF Font format
• Improved JavaScript and browser performance
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 elements
• An updated plugins system that will alert users about out of date plugins
• And finally the ability to display native video full screen with poster frames. Native video was introduced in Firefox 3.5 and allows developers to make use of HTML5's and tags to embed related content directly into the web page without having to worry about flash.

Mozilla point out that most Add-ons have not yet been updated to be compatible with Firefox 3.6 Beta and so it is only recommend that web developers or testers download the new version.

If you are interested in downloading the new Beta it can be found via the Official Firefox Blog.