Dev Stack
Firefox 157 ships a redesign and hardware AV1 for WebRTC
Firefox 157, out September 29, 2026, adds hardware AV1 decoding for WebRTC calls, a CSS at-rule() test and Mozilla's biggest visual refresh in years.
Firefox news and analysis
Firefox and the browser extension fight: a built-in AI sidebar, Firefox 157 shipping JPEG XL image support, a benchmark questioning that format's edge over AVIF, and Firefox becoming the last major browser to keep classic ad blockers working. Each story names the version.
Tech Industry
Firefox Smart Window beta now runs on Mistral Small 4
Mozilla says Mistral Small 4 powers the Smart Window beta in the US, Canada and France, and that users can still pick a different model.
Dev Stack
JPEG XL critique says AVIF now beats it on compression
A new benchmark puts AVIF ahead of JPEG XL across the fidelity range, and clocks a 1,918-byte JPEG XL file at 17.43 seconds to decode.
Dev Stack
Firefox 157 will ship JPEG XL with a Rust decoder
Mozilla will enable JPEG XL by default in Firefox 157 at the end of September, but only after commissioning Google Research to rewrite the decoder in Rust.
Tech Industry
Edge begins dropping Manifest V2, leaving uBlock Origin to Firefox
Microsoft Edge has begun phasing out Manifest V2 extensions, cutting off classic uBlock Origin and leaving Firefox as the last major browser still running it.
The daily brief
Three to five stories a day, and what each one means for the people who build software. Free, no spam.