First alpha of Firefox Mobile released

 

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Posted on 20 Oct 2008 at 08:55

Mozilla has made the first alpha of Firefox Mobile available for download.

The only mobile device the "Fennec" browser currently works with is Nokia's N810 internet tablet.

However, the software can also be installed on Windows, Mac or Linux to help developers get a taste for how the browser will work and to start developing extensions.

Fennec is clearly designed with touchscreen handsets in mind. The traditional browser controls (back, forward etc) are accessed by "swiping" the screen to the right, whilst thumbnails of open tabs are revealed with a swipe to the left.

Elements of Firefox 3 are retained, such as the Awesome Bar, which allows you to visit sites simply by typing their name (i.e. "PC Pro") into the address bar, rather than having to enter the full URL or hunt through bookmarks.

In a nod to Google Chrome, the Awesome Bar also doubles up as a search bar. Curiously, however, search terms are looked up on Wikipedia, before resorting to Google if the online encyclopaedia hasn't got a relevant entry.

Mozilla says more of Firefox 3's power will be added to the mobile browser over time. "We plan to do further alpha releases which focus on performance, including projects like [the JavaScript engine] TraceMonkey, speculative parsing, and many Fennec and Gecko optimisations," the release notes claim.

"But in the meantime, we feel it is important to make this early release available to continue to grow the community and gather feedback as early as possible in the development process."

You can download the Firefox Mobile alpha here.

Author: Barry Collins