We know that Firefox has never worked its best with Mac OS X, so we can only hope that this issue has now been solved. Having tried both Safari and Firefox, the former has the edge in performance, but much prefer the features on the latter. Having said that, I could go on for hours about the pros and cons of both products.

Anyway, back to the subject of the update, GMA News reports that last week Mozilla had learned of a bug that would cause the browser to crash in Lion, as well as a Java plugin issue with 10.6 update 5. Thankfully both issues have now been resolved. Could you imagine the pain that Firefox users would have endured, having spent hours getting their system ready (with these five easy steps) only to find that it would crash in Firefox?

Firefox 5.0.1 will be an out of cycle update, but is considered one of the most important, because if Mozilla had not launched it before the Lion release this would have been considered unwise, as it would have angered a number of its users.

Users of the current version of Mac OS X do not need to worry, as this is a non-issue for them. We also need to point out that this Firefox update does not affect any other OS. As for the next official Firefox update, version 6 is due on August 16 – 17, 2011.

Mac OS X Lion will offer a couple of firsts for Apple; the first is that the update will be made available for download via the Mac App Store. The second is its price, the upgrade will cost just $29.99 – how many new operating systems do you know that costs as little as that? This will be a huge test for the company; so will be interesting to see how many people take Apple up on this inviting offer.

More About: apple, Firefox 5, Mac OS X, Mozilla

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

Daniel Bailey of Conceivably Tech is reporting in an article that there is likely to be several new features, which are similar to some found in Google’s Chrome browser. A Firefox 5 preview is currently published, but it could take another four weeks before we know exactly what will be coming on the next version of Mozilla’s web browser.

Firefox 5 is thought to have four development stages with the second beginning on April 13th, with the final build being released on June 29. The UX planning pages have revealed nine new features which are planned for Firefox 5, but some could find themselves in later versions.

First you have tab multi-select which is similar to that found on Google Chrome. Users will be able to close or move them as well as having more than one. Add-ons are to receive standardized toolbar support, and there will also be an upload indicator.

There is set to be no Home button, with Mozilla adding a permanent Home tab instead. This is Mozilla’s way of doing away with the home button feature without losing usability of the web browser. An integrated PDF viewer is another new feature, and could be extended to other file formats including MP3.

Social website features look set to be a big feature with a new paper plane logo appearing in the URL bar. This will provide instant access to social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter. Users will be able to share websites directly from their URL bar instead of clicking a Like button.

This method of browser development means we can expect to see three new Firefox releases each year, with Google currently on a six week release phase. Microsoft on the other hand released their last two web browsers in two year cycles.

Have you been using Firefox 4? How have you found it?

More About: Firefox 5, Mozilla Firefox

For more Product-Reviews.net coverage:

• Follow Product Reviews on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to PR
• Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad