Mozilla has released a second Firefox 3.1 alpha preview, incorporating some new under-the-hood improvements like HTML 5 video tag support, more CSS 3 properties and improved performance.
Firefox 3.1 alpha 2 is still rough around the edges though and is intended for developers, not everyday users. Alpha 2 also lacks some of the standout features scheduled to land in the final release of Firefox 3.1, like the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
Among the features that did make the alpha 2 cut, perhaps the most important are the increased CSS 3 and HTML 5 support. The support for HTML 5's new video tag offers web publishers an easier and better way to embed video in their page, though with Internet Explorer potentially years away from including similar support, you might not want to convert your site just yet.
Firefox 3.1 also adds some more CSS 3 properties like border-wrap, text-shadow, box-shadow and several more. With the CSS3 spec still not set in stone, Mozilla has packaged the properties within the -moz-property namespace.
So far there's no specific date for the first beta of Firefox 3.1, but Mozilla's roadmap calls for beta 1 to arrive in late September or early October 2008. In the mean time you can download and test alpha 2, though for everyday use we recommend sticking with Firefox 3.
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