Firefox Mobile-type app for the iPhone released, Firefox Home

I’m pretty content with Mobile Safari, I don’t need a full-fledged browser for my smartphone and I highly doubt Apple will allow something to go above and beyond the current native offering. We’ve seen Fennec (FireFox Mobile) get released for Android, and Windows devices, so naturally Apple iOS should be next.

Playing by the rules Mozilla released a “browser extension” for your FireFox desktop software, FireFox Home. It’s free of course, and on iTunes for your iPhone to sync bookmarks, history and tabs with your desktop.

A Firefox Sync account will be required, and the browser extension installed on your home machine’s browser. You won’t be able to surf as you would expect, this is not a complete web browser. But hey, since we can’t get a full-fledged Firefox on the iPhone (right now atleast), this is the next best thing, right?

[Mozilla, iTunes Download]

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Fennec browser for Android

As great as your smartphone hardware may be, it’s the software that can make or break your user experience. If you’re looking for an alternative on your Android phone, Mozilla wants you to try Fennec for Android, which is available for download now.

It should be noted that the current build of Fennec (previously known as Firefox Mobile) is nowhere near what a complete project should look like. It’s not even in beta testing mode. They’re saying that this build is “pre-alpha,” so I wouldn’t have the highest expectations for reliability.

Marin Perez of Intomobile tried loading it onto his Motorola Droid and Fennec wouldn’t even launch. A colleague tried it on the Droid Incredible by HTC and it seemed to look really sharp. HTML renders great, but there’s no Flash and there are some “hiccups” in performance. You can “swipe” between tabs though.

According to the Mozilla team, memory usage isn’t very good and it’s quite possible that your phone will crash during its use. You also can’t open links from external apps in Fennec, though Mozilla is changing this for future builds. And you will need to install it directly on device memory; it won’t work from an SD card.

Do you have an Android phone? Go ahead and give Fennec a try.

The post Android gets early build of Fennec (Firefox Mobile) today appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Fennec Mobile (FireFox Mobile) Beta for Android devices

As you may recall, the first version of “Firefox Mobile” (Fennec) was made available for Nokia Internet tablets, but not too many people are rocking those just yet. Then, they shifted their attention to Windows Mobile, but few people are using those smartphones too. Android is on the rise, so it seems that Mozilla has it right this time.

It’s not exactly bug-free and they still need to iron out some of the kinks, but it’s good to see the development team trucking along with improvements. According to Gizmodo, Android Fennec would be a “pain to use as your day-to-day browser,” but that should change with future releases.

One of the more interesting developments will see the inclusion and creation of add-ons, just like the extra plug-ins that you can install with your desktop Firefox browser.

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