By Look what the fox dragged in…
I just got an e-mail from Mozilla announcing the launch of Firefox 4 for Android Beta 1 is now available for download. In the browser wars, everyone has their preference and the desktop is no longer the only battleground. While IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and others fight for marketshare on desktops and laptops, there are many different breeds of mobile browsers. Where will the almighty Mozilla Firefox fit in?
You can download the beta here and check out there just post press release here.
Firefox for Android is built using the same technology as the desktop version, just optimized for mobile. Some key things to look out for include:
- Firefox Sync
- Add-ons
- Awesome Bar
- Awesome Screen
- Pinch-to-zoom
I think one of the most powerful features will be the ability for developers to build 3rd party add-ons to the mobile browser. Apps serve one purpose, but I can see mobile browser add-ons serving significant alternate purposes as well, and Firefox enables devs to HTML5, CSS, and Javascript to create their add-ons.
Head on over to the Mozilla Blog and download the Android Beta of Firefox 4 for Mobile now!
PS: we covered the name change from Fennec to Firefox for Mobile previously- just want to remind you the new branding is permanent.
God, I wish Opera would spend a bit of time developing a real Opera Android browser. They’re really going to get left behind if they don’t keep up, and considering how good they are that’d be a real shame.
Okay, I loathe Firefox on desktops so I may be biased; but if the beta’s even a slight reflection of the alpha then it’s not worth it in any way. It doesn’t even appear to have a menu, rendering is terrible, zoom is terrible, acceleration is terrible, the panels are intrusive, even the address bar looks bad. No haptics. I think Dolphin have cornered this market.
“Alpha” there should have been “final”. I’m well aware of the problems Fennec had.
Downloaded it to my Samsung Captivate – Galaxy S, via a QR code reader, but I got “Application blocked” after downloading. Anyone else have this issue?
Won’t open on my mytouch slide
Finally! I’ve played with it for the last hour and it’s pretty amazing. Still beta but I’m going to make this my default browser. Very smooth, very fast and intuitive. Only issue I have with it is the file size is a whopping 43 mb. I installed it to SD and hopefully beta 2 will be leaner.
Not working in my htc desire. I manage to install (after uninstalling some application because Firefox is HUGE!), but it won’t open, it simply thinks, and closes.
It doesn’t even open after you install it. This is a fail.
“Awesome Bar, Awesome Screen,” but no Awesome Sauce? :-(
Dolphin absolutely is king currently. Firefox has strong potential, but they have to work on the menu, add many options to define how the app works for each users preference, and come up with a way for desktop addons to automagically translate to mobile. Simple scripts and such should be easy to do and may catapult firefox into the top position. For the moment? Dolphin.
Working fine on Dell Streak 2.1
I can’t believe Firefox put some crap out like this. It doesn’t work right on moto droid 1. Completely broken.
@mwl1119
only works on devices with 1ghz. if you go look at their full list of devices that support it you won’t find your device on there
only runs on arm7 processors. not compatible with arm6 processors. if mozilla wants part of the android browser market they need to make it run on all android devices.
@UniqueNate Wrong. The original Droid/Milestone is supported and it only runs at 550MHz stock.
Downloading now into my X10 as I read it thanks!
I downloaded this and installed on my Moto Droid and it is really slow..it takes waaaay to long to load pages and when you zoom it doesn’t focus. Stock browser is a lot faster..needs work…but I love the idea and it looks awesome.
Next time a little bit of warning that it takes 40+ MB. Still almost 29MB after I moved it to SD. I don’t care how well it works if it’s going to that bloated.
@UniqueNate
It opens up and works on my unrooted Moto Droid 1, although it is incredibly slow.
It works really well on my nexus one, however the file size is a big large but thats just because its using the NDK and current c code of firefox. I wouldn’t recommend using it on any current low-end or mid-range phones including the Droid 1. Hats off to Dolphin HD, currently the best android browser out.
Wont open on my Hero either
GSM, 2.1
In a way its not completely fair to compare it to the work they have done with browsers such as dolphin as they all use the standard Android renderer (with exception of opera). They are more of a new interface, not browser.
Having said that I am still using dolphin, but Ill be keeping an eye on the development.
Love firefox. Was hoping for the best, but it takes too much space and locked up several times in the first few minutes of me using it.
Will wait till the fix the kinks.
Works on my HTC Desire.
Samsung Fascinate, installed fine, runs fine, i also noticed it using 50 megabytes of ram….Dolphin HD for instance uses 30 megabytes to do the same thing……not impressed, uninstalling until its more matured…
I’m a huge Firefox fan on the PC — the browser and its extensions save me immeasurable time in my work. But this beta is not worthy of a public release. The lag on page changes or pinch-and-zoom is surprising. On my Moto Droid text is rendered (no pun) illegible when I zoom in even slightly until the rendering engine comes through… 30, 40 seconds later.
was surprised on how slow it performs. but definitely has lot of potential especially with their sync option
Not enough space on my G1. Can’t judge it yet.
Why would i possibly want firefox when my android already runs a version of chrome?
Successfully installed, but wont run on my HTC Legend.
people tend to forget that this is a beta, incase you dont what beta means in world of programmers, means its not yet for public release and that there are still many issues need to be ironed out and they’re still working it.
However, its definitely getting a lot better than the last time i tried it but they need to work on the text, double tapping doesn’t zoom enough and the text remains a bit unreadable, and im sure that they will improve loading speeds in the future. Great job FireFox dev team.
@edhe
Android’s browser is not chrome, google engineers have already denied that earlier
Firefox at its “best” – extremely slow, non-native and overbloated more then Vista. 100% bullshit. Totally unusable.
#2, lmfao. dolphin is “okay” at best.
Firefox’s browser needs some work, but it’ll get there.
Hero is not supported…so, I’m good.
What makes the dolphin browser so great? I think the stock browser is the best browser on my rooted droid with froyo. By the way my droid is overclocked to 1ghz and firefox is still clunky and slow and locks up my phone. It dosent matter if a product is beta it still should be usable with bugs yes but not just broken. I should know, I am a software tester.
this isn’t even a beta, more like alpha. no menu and look horrible with the web page.
Hmmm, having a hard time figuring it out on DX.
Where’s the “awesome bar” and “awesome screen”. How do you bookmark?
Not very user friendly.
First app to bring my Epic 4G to its needs. Uninstalled.
Ok, figured it out…and LOVE it!
Once sync is installed and run on your desktop, syncing can occur with your mobile. So far, very cool.
I’m not sure what all the rocket scientists are complaining about a bloated app for. Please tell me that you 16GB SD cards, why would anyone have a smart phone and not have memory. That’s like a desktop computer with no hard drive and you store everything in RAM (LMAO). I have music, software.exe’s for PC installs when needed, pictures, all sorts of data… its a smart phone, mine has a high IQ as well.
Using this beta on the EVO wasn’t bad overall. I like how it has a feature right out of Acrobat, a left side panel with a thumb of each window open that can be closed.
I got the “download flash” prompt when visiting my website and the download page claims no support for my OS or something. That I’m sure theyll resolve. It loaded very fast, large images, etc. The resolution issue is apparent, it takes at the most 1 second for it to adjust its resolution for the proper screen size that I stretch it to, so it appears “out of focus” or in my opinion, somewhat pixelated, momentarily.
I remember when Beta was something you signed up for and understood there may be issues. Google changed that practice and warped it’s definition. This is a true beta and not really something that’s ready for public consumption although it will work great if you can accept it’s issues.
Ok first off if you all haven’t noticed… this is a beta… its going to have bugs the whole point of a beta is to work out the kinks. If you expect a beta to work correctly and work on every device you,re a fdamn moron. Second, I have found that, if you already have the fennec alpha installed, you need to uninstall it BEFORE uillinstalling this beta or else firefox will not work correctly, if at all…
lastly, all in all it is an ok browser–granted its beta form. It’s already much faster than dolphin so that’s a good sign. The only real gripes I have regarding the design are:
-the menu is hard to find and somewhat… lacking… to access the menu, you have to make a left-bound swiping gesture todisplay the right-hand side-bar, which also reveals a button for the settings (which also includes addons) if they implemented a function for the menu key (which is a design requirement for all devices that run and will run the Android OS) would be nice for quick and easy access… the options in the settings menu should also be increase as, at the moment, there are hardly any.
-the biggest gripe I have is that you cannot directly enter an addred–at least not that I have found. If you click on the addreds bar (and no long-click doesn’t do anything) you are taken to a search bar. If you try to enter an address into this bar and click the search icon, you are presented with a pop-up to choose a search engine. Whichever you choose, you are taken to the search results of talhat particular engine… this isn’t a major problem but damn is it annoying…
-lastly, as stated above, there is no long-press functionality on the “address” bar (I did no check for any other long press functionality anywhere else, so it may or may not exist). This is a hinderance as it means that you can neither copy nor paste an address or search phrase.
These are really the only 3 problems I have been able to find in this beta. As far as bugs go, I wasn’t able to find any. For a first version in the beta phase, I say it’s a very solid release. Although I am not the biggest fan of the computer variant of the Firefox browsee, I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the final, stable, release of this browser.
DOES NOT WORK FOR HERO, Hopefully it does cuz it goes into a black screen and exits, such BS
Are they serious? 44 MB with no move to SD??
44 MB??? On Android?
Not to mention, it is slow and miserable (probably because its taking up most of my N1’s storage space) . It actually has a loading dialog on a fresh run. Doesn’t even seem to support flash. Double-tap does not make text readable. I can go on…
I’m embarrassed for Mozilla. Why would they waste there time on this.
their* (its 2 am)
Okay – im really tired and there IS move to SD. My other comments stand.
I know its beta….and I’ve been using FF for years…..but this is atrocious. Clearly does not function on DROID!
Sheesh some of you guys write books on here lol…but I’m sure some of those…these books on here have good info once you read all 1 hundred and 98 pages of them….lol anyhey I’m not even going to try this app until its out of beta
Does not work on rooted Droid I. Completely freezes up the phone when opened.
Horrible performance on my DX w/ 2.2! Sites load at least 2x as slow as the stock browser, random lock-ups, if you zoom in it doesn’t re-focus, etc. I absolutely love FF on my desktop and have been using it since the FireBird days, but this was unusable. Let’s hope they get all the bugs worked out soon!
Installed on my Galaxy S, but it runs far too slowly and intermittently. Uninstalled, but will re-install if they make another release.
I understand that it is a BETA but I wanted to post my comments anyways, I have installed it on my ACER LIQUID E and it does not work properly.
It installed fine, shows up in the menu but when it is directed to open it just closes quickly without even displaying anything.
I will wait for you dear firefox, favorite browser cannot wait to sync everything with my android phone…
xoxox