Gizmodo: firefox mobile

Firefox Mobile Pre-Alpha Now Available for VGA Windows Mobile Phones

John Herrman — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:11:35 EST

Just as Mozilla's developer wiki cryptically promised last week, a pre-alpha build of Firefox Mobile 'Fennec' has been made available for the HTC Touch Pro, though it'll work on many other VGA (480x640) WinMo phones.

The build is very rough and probably not usable for day-to-day browsing—early reports suggest that the loading time is very long, and that page loading is ~~quite slow~~ pretty much broken—but it might provide a glimpse of where Firefox Mobile is headed, how it will render pages and if its novel control scheme is usable on a device smaller than the N810.

The CAB download is available here, but I had no luck launching the app on my T-Mobilized HTC Touch Diamond variant. Let us know about your successes and failures in the comments. UPDATE: A consensus has emerged! It's not at all ready yet. It's to be taken as an assurance of forward movement, I guess. [WMExperts via Slashphone]

Firefox Mobile Headed for Windows Mobile as Early as Next Week

John Herrman — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 08:15:02 EST

Adorably-mascotted Firefox Mobile 'Fennec' is on its way to an early February release for the Windows Mobile-powered HTC Touch Pro, according to a post on the project's developer wiki.

The quote isn't gospel, but it's a pretty solid indicator:

We are targeting a Milestone release for the first week of February, targeting the HTC Touch Pro

The Touch Pro is an interesting choice for the first release; the decision, I'd wager, stemmed from the ease of porting—resizing interface elements and managing the GUI is much easier when you got the Pro's 480x640 display to work with, and dealing with performance issues, which were evident in the early Nokia N810 build as well as the emulator, wouldn't be so hard on this relatively beefy piece of hardware. Not to mention the fact that the QWERTY keyboard simplifies finger-friendly text input.

Whatever the reasoning, the release of a Windows Mobile version of Fennec represents significant progress toward a wide Windows Mobile release. Plus, I don't see why this build wouldn't at least sort of work on other VGA WinMo phones like the functionally identical Touch Diamond. [ElectricPig via ShinyShiny]

Firefox Mobile Coming to Symbian in April

matt buchanan — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 08:45:00 EST

Firefox Mobile, already on Windows Mobile and Linux, is coming to Symbian in April, reveals Firefox's Christian Sejersen. Totally out of the picture are BlackBerry, iPhone and Android, unfortunately. [Christian Sejersen via UnwiredView]

Firefox Mobile Won't Be Foxing Up Android Anytime Soon

matt buchanan — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:30:00 EST

Often, when people carp about Mobile Firefox or Opera not being able to run on the iPhone 'cause of Apple's SDK restrictions, they'll point to Android and say "I can't wait for Mobile Firefox on Android" or some variation of that, since Android theoretically doesn't have any limitations. I've got some bad news for those people. Firefox Mobile (aka Fennec) isn't coming to Android anytime soon.

The issue, which we discussed in our primer on what sucks about programming for Android, is that everything has to be written in a custom form of Java to run on Android. And Mozilla's Jay Sullivan says they aren't playing that—there won't be Mobile Firefox on Android until Google accepts programs not written in Java. And uh, that could take a long, long while. Anyone else sorely, bruisingly disappointed? Cause that basically leaves Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile as the only places to get your Firefox Mobile on. [ABC News via Android Community]

Download First Firefox Mobile Alpha Release

matt buchanan — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:40:00 EDT

The first Firefox Mobile alpha—codenamed fennec, after the fox—is up for download, as promised a few weeks ago. Currently, the only actual mobile thing it runs on is Nokia's N810 tablet, but you can play with it on Windows, OS X or Linux. Since we saw the Windows Mobile version over the weekend, it'll probably follow soon, which'll be the first real taste of it for most people. [Mozilla via ComputerWorld]

First Screens of Firefox Mobile Surface with Few Surprises, No Release Date

Jack Loftus — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Early October saw Mozilla CEO John Lilly claiming Firefox Mobile would be available in a few weeks. That's still the case today, but one additional bit of info we can deliver to you are some of the first screen shots of the browser to hit the net. According to the Unwired, these screens are of Firefox Mobile running on a Windows Mobile Professional touchscreen smartphone. In a separate screen, developers were able to run an Acid3 test with a score of 88/100. Not too shabby for a mobile browser. [The Unwired]

Firefox Mobile Alpha Version Coming to Nokia N810 Tablet Next Week

John Mahoney — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:30:00 EDT

Fans of Nokia's open-source internet tablets will be the first to take Firefox Mobile for a spin, reports PC Advisor, with an alpha release coming as early as next week (confirming what we saw earlier this week). The choice of the Linux-based N810 makes sense for the first dry run, as its hardware and open development platform already easily supports other Mozilla spin-offs, and the touchscreen will allow for fine tuning of FFM's touch-based interface for smartphones. The alpha will apparently feature Firefox 3's smart URL bar and support for add-ons. A more widespread beta is expected for 2009. [PC Advisor via CrunchGear]

Mozilla CEO: First Firefox Mobile Alpha Release "In a Few Weeks"

matt buchanan — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:00:00 EDT

When we saw Firefox Mobile in action a few months ago, it looked pretty snazzy, but we were a bit concerned by a few reports floating around that it might be a long wait to actually get our hands on it. Happily, that's not the case. Mozilla CEO John Lilly says that we'll see the first Firefox Mobile alpha releases "in a few weeks." Is anyone else psyched for Firefox Mobile and the start of a whole new browser war? I am pretty bummed that the iPhone won't be one of the battlegrounds though because of the SDK restrictions. [Linux Insider via Unwired View]

Firefox Mobile Video Proves It Actually Exists

Adrian Covert — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:24:04 EDT

Whoa—Aza Raskin, Mozilla's Head of User Experience, just put out a video showing off some of the features they've been working on for Firefox Mobile. Though it's still in the early stages, some of the features like the navigation buttons on the sides of the pages, browser actions on the footer, search bar functions and the multiple window interface all look cool... Between Opera, Safari, Skyfire and Firefox, it will be interesting to see who ends up with the best mobile product in the end. [Aza's Thoughts via Into Mobile]

Mozilla Prepping a Mobile Firefox Browser

Louis Ramirez — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:40:10 EDT

Looks like our favorite Web browser is about to go mobile. Mozilla head honcho, Mitchell Baker, told the folks at APC magazine that Mozilla is working on a Firefox to go for your cellphone. It's a long-term project (meaning it's not coming out any time soon), but the goal is to allow it to work with all the add-ons and plug-ins that the full version works with. As long as it works on my smartphone, sign me up. – Louis Ramirez

Firefox Will Move to Mobile Phones: Mozilla CEO [APC via Gadgetell]