SAN FRANCISCO — Mozilla on Tuesday began rolling out Firefox 157, the first stable version of its web browser to include the company's long-awaited Nova redesign, a sweeping visual overhaul that gives Firefox a softer, rounder and more colorful look.

The update also brings hardware-accelerated AV1 video decoding for video calls, fixes for high dynamic range video playback and the removal of Amazon as a built-in search engine option.

Firefox 157 binaries first appeared on Mozilla's file servers on Monday, with the official release scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 29. Most existing installations will update automatically.

A new look for Firefox

The Nova design marks what Mozilla has described as Firefox's biggest visual refresh in years. The company's Firefox user experience team has said the goal of the redesign is a browser that feels "cleaner, warmer, faster and more adaptable."

The redesign changes the appearance of nearly every part of the browser. Tabs now have a softer outline, with a subtle color gradient around the active tab. Panels, menus and settings dialogs feature more consistent rounded corners, and address bars, search boxes and sidebars have also been given a rounder shape.

Icons have been refreshed for both light and dark themes, spacing across the interface has been rebalanced, and pastel color tints have been added throughout the browser's frame. Mozilla has also updated areas such as the add-ons manager and theme picker to match the new style.

Nova technically appeared in earlier........

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