Firefox can finally orient itself, at least in terms of iPhones and MacBooks. Mozilla's latest browser, Firefox 3.6 beta 1, can now talk to accelerometers such as those in many Apple devices, thanks to orientation event objects introduced in the new Gecko 1.9.2 presentation engine at the browser's core. Also among DOM enhancements are drag-and-drop for file transfer and the ability for Web workers to self-terminate.

And that's just the beginning. The download of Firefox 3.6 beta 1 for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows contains thousands of bug fixes, including numerous repairs to CSS image rendering and text alignment.

There also were significant updates to XUL, and separate pages were created to advise extension and plug-in developers of how to update your work. For plug-in developers, you'll need to know that main () is no longer supported as an entry point. There are also some user interface changes and Mac OS X-specific mods, and with Gecko 1.9.2, the old Code Fragment Manager will be officially phased out. For extension developers, the add-on package has been modified, and there are UI and HTML 5 compliance improvements to deal with.

Firefox 3.6 also reportedly supports some aspects of Windows 7, including Aero Peek and taskbar thumbnails (does anyone like these?), but will not support Jump Lists when released later this year.