According to Jay Sullivan of Mozilla, mobile Firefox, dubbed Fennec will be available “within days” for the Nokia N900 and later for a wider variety of handsets.
The browser is currently in final testing and should be available by the end of the year.
Most interestingly, Sullivan says the mobile browser will synchronize with its desktop counterpart and any pages open on a user’s desktop will open in the mobile version as well.
“At the end of the working day you can walk away from your computer and keep on going on your phone,” says Sullivan. “It encrypts all of the information and sends it back through the cloud between your desktop and mobile.”
Sullivan says the group is working on a WinMo and Android version as well but that iPhone users will likely never get the browser. “Apple is very restrictive,” he added. “As it’s a pretty closed platform we don’t see that happening soon.”
Result for: fennec
The first official beta for Mozilla’s mobile Firefox browser, Fenec, is now available and although it will only work on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, anybody can download and run the beta on their computers.
The team behind Fennec says the browser should minimize typing while maximizing use of the limited screen space of a mobile phone.
Just like its brother, Fennec will use the “awesome bar” which auto-suggests web sites when you begin typing in a URL, using your past history as a basis. The browser will also remember your passwords, and supports full Flash.
Developer Pavlov says “the user interface takes some zooming and panning concepts which were previously previewed by Mozilla Labs. Each Web page expands to fill the entire screen, but moving the page to the side reveals different controls, including bookmarks, back and forward buttons, tabs, and different tools.”
Result for: fennec
The new Mozilla Fennec browser for mobile devices has been updated to a second alpha, announced the developers of the browser today.
“While we focused much of the previous alpha on getting the user experience how we wanted,” added Stuart Parmenter, manager of engineering. “We’ve spent much of the time since focused on improving performance.”
The update should improve “performance while panning, zooming, loading pages or starting the program. Touchscreen support has been added and the team has progressed compatibility with Windows Mobile and Symbian.”
So far the alpha is available only on one phone, the Nokia N810 tablet running OS2008 but curious users can download the browser to test on their Windows, Mac, or Linux computer.
