The Alpha release of the next major version of Fennec (Firefox Mobile) is now available for Android and Nokia N900 users to download and test. It is expected to be faster when pages load and when javascript is running. Fennec offers mobile web browsing with one-touch bookmarking and syncing of histor,passwords and form-fill info with Firefox browsers on a computer. A demo video follows.
Fennec (codename for Firefox mobile) is the first mobile browser to
offer add-ons and is built on the same technology that powers desktop
Firefox. The latest version of Fennec builds on features
from the previous release. The Awesome Bar, shows frequently visited websites. Options Search terms in page, save it as PDF and share it Facebook, email, and Twitter. It has pinch to zoom. Long hold on a link, saves and shares.
Fennec Alpha now creates one fluid Web experience between desktop and mobile devices by providing Firefox Sync built-in into the browser, which provides access to browsing history, bookmarks, passwords, form-fill data and open tabs.
The main focus of this release is to increase performance and responsiveness to user actions. This is being implemented using two major technologies, "Electrolysis" and "Layers."
lectrolysis, allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content. By doing this, Fennec is able to react much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive JavaScript is running.
The upcoming beta release will start taking advantage of Layers to greatly improve performance in graphic intensive actions like scrolling, zooming, animations and video. They are also working to optimize these actions using the hardware-accelerated graphics rendering capabilities in mobile devices.
This first Alpha release of Fennec for Android let's,
developers have the power to use the latest Web technologies like HTML5,
CSS and JavaScript to to build fast, powerful and beautiful mobile apps and add-ons that can reach many millions of devices.
See the release notes for a full list of features with this release.