Gizmodo: mobile firefox

Firefox Mobile "Fennec" Now Open to All Brave WinMo Alpha Testers

Stephen Climpson — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:01:59 EDT

Good news if you're a Windows Mobile user and were feeling left out the Mozilla's Fennec mobile browser party. Today's Alpha 2 release should now work with most devices using the Windows Mobile 6 platform. (Support had initially been limited to the HTC Touch Pro and some other "VGA phones".)

Newly added treats include updated themes and a tweaked UI, improved add-on support and numerous bug fixes. We gave the alpha a quick spin and found that while a bit slow, it shows plenty of promise. The interface and overall experience is actually pretty usable, and it renders pages beautifully.

A corresponding Maemo release for Nokia's N810 has also been made available. If you want to know what all the fuss is about (or you're one of those add-on writing folks we love so much), then you can experiment with the desktop versions for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Update: And it looks like there may be some reprieve coming to neglected Android users as well, eventually. [Mozilla—Thanks, Tim!]

Mobile Firefox Hits Beta 1, Available for Nokia N810

Jason Chen — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 23:03:52 EDT

A walkthrough of Fennec (mobile Firefox) beta release 1.The Firefox Mobile, a.k.a. Fennec, just hit Beta 1, and can be downloaded right now for any Nokia N810 internet tablet. No "real" phones can use this yet.

The video above takes you through the walkthrough of Beta 1 and gives you a good roundup of some of the more notable features. The most promising feature in our opinion, just like the best feature on the desktop version of Firefox, is the add-on support. There's already a couple extensions available (sample video below).

[Mozilla via Pavlov]

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]

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]

Mobile Firefox Is Six Times Faster Than Nokia's Browser on the N810

matt buchanan — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 21:00:00 EDT

Anyone worried about Firefox's penchant for leaving a massive memory footprint when it makes the move to mobile can breathe a little bit easier. The hard optimization tweaks made during Firefox 3's development cycle have paid off: Benchmarks on Nokia's N810 show that the latest Mobile Firefox build is six times faster than the built-in browser, which is actually based on a Firefox 3 alpha. But the coolest stuff is yet to come.

The touchscreen version was already looking pretty solid, but Mozilla plans on doing some real interface innovation to make it easier to punch in URLs and flip between multiple pages. Better still, it'll have full add-on support so you can keep your favorite extensions. The mobile browser space is finally about to get actually exciting. [Ars Technica, Chris Blizzard]

Mobile Operators Resisting Firefox on Phones

Sean Fallon — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:20:56 EST

Ever since Mozilla began work on a mobile version of its Firefox browser, convincing mobile operators to allow it has been an uphill battle. Naturally, an open internet would be a great benefit to users, but the operators would lose precious revenue from content providers. They would also have to contend with the expensive problem of beefing up their 3G networks. Unfortunately, open internet access is going to be a battleground for mobile operators whether they like it or not. Let's hope they can figure it out soon—Mozilla plans on dropping their mobile browser by the end of 2008.[Computer World and PC World via IntoMobile]

Mobile Firefox Might Make Safari Feel a Little Touchy

matt buchanan — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 17:00:23 EST

Remember that mobile Firefox announcement from a couple of months ago? Turns out, there's two flavors in the works: a regular version for vanilla cellphones, and one that's for touchscreen smartphones like the iPhone. The goal is be functionally consistent with Firefox 3, though Compiler thinks it looks "remarkably similar" to mobile Safari. But could Firefox be better than Safari? Would you switch? [Mozilla via Mozilla Links via Compiler]

Mozilla Plans to "Rock" Mobile Web with Mobile Firefox

Matt Buchanan — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:40:39 EDT

Move over, Opera. Mozilla's VP of Engineerring, Mike Schroepfer, has declared that Mozilla plans to finally jump into mobile web and "rock it," as specs on mobile devices are finally hitting where they need to be for a "no compromise" browsing experience.

Specifically, they're announcing that

•Mozilla will add mobile devices to the first class/tier-1 platform set for Mozilla2. This means we will make core platform decisions with mobile devices as first-class citizens.

•We will ship a version of "Mobile Firefox" which can, among other things, run Firefox extensions on mobile devices and allow others to build rich applications via XUL.

Mobile Firefox won't hit until after Firefox 3 is completed, however, and they've yet to determine which mobile platforms they'll support. Still, it'll be interesting to see the game Mozilla brings to the larger mobile space. [schrep's blog via mocoNews]