Firefox 4 Mobile Beta for Android and Maemo

By | October 8, 2010 | 31 Comments

Today is a good day for Android users; as yet another browser competitor enters the ring.

This time it’s Firefox 4, built on the very same technology platform as desktop web browser; however, with optimizations for mobile phones in mind.

Maemo users have also received a Firefox 4 Beta build to play with.

Features

  • Pinch-to-zoom (Android), double-tap, or use the volume rocker (Nokia N900) to zoom in and out
  • Tabbed browsing in thumbnail view lets you easily see and open the site you want
  • Location-Aware Browsing gives you content and info relevant to your location
  • Find in Page in the Site Menu lets you quickly find text on the webpage
  • Share Page in the Site Menu lets you send content to email, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader
  • Forget Password in the Site Menu tells a website you no longer trust to forget your private data
  • Add Search Engine in the Site Menu lets you quickly add a new search engine to your Awesome Screen
  • Context Menu lets you Open in New Tab and Share by long tapping and holding a link
  • Smart Tapping lets you tap on links, widgets and other Web content with accuracy
  • Password Manager lets you choose to remember site password to avoid typing

and more…

Download.


About (Author Profile)


Vygantas is a former web designer whose projects are used by companies such as AMD, NVIDIA and departed Westood Studios. Being passionate about software, Vygantas began his journalism carrier back in 2007 when he founded FavBrowser.com. Having said that, he is also an adrenaline junkie who enjoys good books, fitness activities and Forex trading.

  • http://www.sumake.eu narzędzia pneumatyczne

    That is some good news :)
     

  • everybody

    WebM video? Sweet.
    Fireofox for Mobile? Not so much. It’s very slow and heavy even on high-end devices. :/ And there is no option to compress web pages. Seems like I will have to wait for Opera Mobile for Android.

    • http://www.sumake.eu narzędzia pneumatyczne

      yeah, maybe not much people will use it, but it is still the competition and as such this can be considered as good news :)
       

    • Tiago Sá

      Not webM, dummy, it’s Theora.

    • http://www.phonetvinternet.com/ Phone TV Internet

      You have to remember it’s still in beta. They’ve only tested on 4 Android devices so far according to the supported devices section of the Firefox 4 mobile beta page. They’ll get it together. It’s Firefox!

      • nvm

        Exactly. It’s Firefox. Or Bloatfox as it’s known. Knowing that it’s Firefox, we know that they will not get it together.

        Mozilla’s attempts at mobile browsers have been miserable failures so far.

        Maybe Firefox will run without lagging all the time when phones have 3 GHz CPUs and 4 GB RAM…

        • Foo

          And you still have to pay to get Opera without ads…

          • nvm

            Aha? Good for you. Why should I care, exactly?

          • Foo

            Because what I wrote is closer to the reality of today than what you wrote.

          • nvm

            What you wrote is irrelevant, and doesn’t change the fact that Bloatfox is bloated, and that their attempts at mobile browsers have been pathetic at best. Google made the best mobile browser out there in a fraction of the time it took Mozilla to get a buggy, unstable, bloated “mobile” browser into alpha.

          • Foo

            Google “created” it by, pretty much, creating a GUI for WebKit, an engine which have been used and tested on mobile and even less capable platforms for many years.

            Fennec on the other hand has been out for around 1½years and has already been majorly improved. Most of the improvements being very recent.

          • nvm

            Google’s WebKit is customized, and not just a raw copy of the WebKit repository. Fennec fails because Gecko is bloated.

  • Ichan

    Took em fken long enough
     
    Mozilla are a close second to MS in regards of development.

    • Foo

      I see you’re full of fucking shit as usual. How exactly is taking your time getting things working comparable to Microsofts abandoning of a whole platform.

      • Ichann

        I am full of shit?
         
        And what platform would that be?
        I never made the connection between MS abandoning a project and Mozilla taking a long time (like MS to bring something to the light of day)
         
        What I just said was the truth. What is there to dispute. Fool

        • Foo

          And what other part of Microsoft’s development efforts is there that you would try to draw analogies to? You really should stop coming up with such bad excuses.

          • nvm

            Foo, stop being such a Firefox fanboy. It’s annoying.

          • Foo

            Oh, so you really can’t come up with any reasoning then? In the end you just start with personal attacks instead, as you usually do.

            Guess it’s too much of a mental challenge for you. I just sank down to your low level with this paragraph you say? Well, yes, probably. =P

          • nvm

            Your Firefox fanboyism is getting in the way of the fact that Chrome is killing Firefox, and Mozilla’s complete failure to create a decent mobile browser while Google did it with no problems whatsoever.

          • Foo

            By the by, how come you suddenly started talking about “Chrome” instead of Opera?

  • Paulius

    I prefer Opera… Firefox is lame at the moment… IMO…

    • nvm

      The Android browser is better than either of them.

  • Scorpion3003

     
    What the hell does that have to do with the article? Your IMO Browser preference and calling Firefox lame has nothing to do with the mobile beta topic.

  • Somebody

    Ok, Opera has just announced Opera Mobile for Android beta, which is coming in a month. It will have Hardware acceleration and Pinch to Zoom.
    Also, they have announced Opera 11 with extensions. Seems like nobody now has only Dragonfly left to criticize Opera :).

    • Foo
      • nvm

        At least Opera’s preferences aren’t as crappy as Firefox.

        • Foo

          Well, it’s hard to be “as crappy” when Firefox (and SeaMonkey) preferences are vastly superior.

          Even disregarding the aspect of preferences: simply the fact that the developers completely ignored the QA section, when developing the browser, is a clear sign that something is rotten with the company.

          • nvm

            The only rotten thing here is your Firefox fanboyism. You are really grasping at straws, and trying to make up any sort of nonsense you can to make Firefox look less pathetic compared to Chrome in particular.

          • Foo

            So now you’re bringing up Chrome instead when you can’t come up with any defence for Opera?

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