This answer led me down the right path but is specific to python and the topic is more broad. So, I'm adding an answer for Java which was a bit more tricky. At this time I am using selenium 2.25.0.
//make sure have correct import statements - I had to add these
import org.openqa.selenium.Capabilities;
import org.openqa.selenium.remote.RemoteWebDriver;
WebDriver driver = new FirefoxDriver();
Capabilities caps = ((RemoteWebDriver) driver).getCapabilities();
String browserName = caps.getBrowserName();
String browserVersion = caps.getVersion();
System.out.println(browserName+" "+browserVersion);
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