By 
Mozilla has mentioned that their browser for Android – Firefox, of course – will be getting some key features in the next update. The biggest “want” any of us have is flash support, something missing from Firefox that has kept people away from it.
We’ll supposedly be getting that alongside a native version of the application for Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets. With that, it will surely win back a lot of fans who would otherwise seek elsewhere for their browsing needs.
Add-ons make the FireFox browser extremely attractive and these changes will only strengthen their offering. We’re looking forward to the day it will be released (though no timeline has been given). [via WebMonkey]
This is relevant to my interests. Of course, Google might be bringing full-fledged Chrome to Android soon too.
Says who?
It’s rumored that a full fledged chrome browser will be coming to android 4.0. Hope so.
Woot! For Firefox enthusiasts who just can’t stand Chrome (way too minimalist and less usable for my liking) this is a great win.
Flash + Firefox add-ons + native tablet support = win. Assuming it performs well.
My biggest complaint with Firefox mobile is the loading screen I have to stare at every time I open it. Get rid of that and it will make a huge difference.
That loading screen is gone in the nightly builds.
I am a big fan of Firefox, but somebody should tell them to focus on performance instead. Firefox for Android is much slower not only when compared to the stock browser but to competition like Dolphin and Opera. I can only imagine how bloated it will be with Flash…
This is the point of going native, improving performance.
Flash sucks. Flash on Android sucks more. We need to stop encouraging lazy web designers to use a 300K Flash app for what 3K of DHTML would accomplish by catering to the desire to Flash-enable everything.
@sremick,
–
Let’s see, you’re comparing what you labeled as a Flash app to DHTML… :)
–
Your ridiculous comments certainly makes a compelling case for stupid.
–
The only thing that really sucks here is your obvious ignorance. Have you considered encouraging yourself to get a clue? Or are you too lazy?
–
Anyways, since your comment isn’t inline with reality. I’ve decided to leave the option that is Flash enabled on my ASUS Transformer and Nexus One. Flash compliments my browsing experience, weather it’s on my Mac, PC, or any of my Android devices, or other Flash enabled devices. The worst that it offers is really no different than comments like yours and I’m not going to stop visiting comment sections just because I don’t agree with FUD.
You tube some comparisons, quite often flash runs more effecently then HTML 5. Now, I’m an HTML 5 developer at times and never work with flash… but at the same time you need to be realistic too. Legacy is also a major major issue.
They need to just scrap the code and totally rebuild it from the ground up. Firefox for Android sucks! Our stock browser is meh and it rolls it over in terms of speed but more importantly it has ability to access the flash plug in. They should just copy Opera’s code and slap the fire fox colors and logo on it :-D
That’s kindof what they’re doing, scrapping the XUL interface and going native.
This is incorrect, Flash isn’t coming until Firefox 10, which is roughly schedule for the end of January.
I prefer the stock browser.
It’s all about choice. I hate flash, I think HTML5 and DHTML, anything for that matter will be superior to flash, it is a dying technology. I am looking forward to the point where it becomes obsolete. But if there is a webpage that uses flash, and I want to see it then I should have the right to do so. Apple tried to tell me what my user experience should be like, and for the most part it was a good one, but I had no choice, so I sold my iphone and bought a nexus one. Google and the dolphin browser let me choose whether or not I want to run outdated, buggy, and obsolete apps like flash on my phone. Usually I choose not to, and I disable flash, but I like the fact that I have the FREEDOM to re-enable it if I want to. I find it odd that Mozilla, an organization devoted to the open source mission would try and pull an Apple on me, and that is why I have yet to download Firefox for android.
They were having issues getting add one working. I don’t know the details as it wasn’t made public… still doesn’t look good on them as dolphin had it working for so long.
Lame still no flas… wait, what?