March 30, 2011

Mozilla Releases Firefox 4 for Android, Maemo

One week after the launch of Firefox 4, Mozilla on Tuesday released the mobile version for Android devices. Firefox for Android and Maemo includes many of the features available in the desktop version of Firefox 4, and is available in 13 languages.

Those features include synchronization across the desktop and mobile devices for things like history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords, and form data. For the security conscious, executives insisted earlier this month that the process is secure; the data is encrypted via a 26-character key.

"Firefox for mobile allows users to take the Firefox experience they love everywhere and minimizes typing with features like tabbed browsing, bookmarks, add-ons and Firefox Sync," Mozilla said in a blog post. "With a sleek new look that hides browser controls when not in use, Firefox allows users to focus on the websites they visit."

Mozilla said Firefox is up to three times faster than the stock Android browser. "Major enhancements to the JavaScript engine make everything from page load speed to graphics to overall performance snappy in Firefox," the company said. The mobile Firefox 4 also has the option to save to PDF for offline viewing, the ability to share via social-networking sites, and a customizable search engine list.

For developers, Mozilla promised an improvement to existing tools like CSS, Canvas, and SVG, as well as location-aware browsing, device orientation, accelerometer, and desktop notifications for HTML5. The JavaScript engine also incorporates the JägerMonkey JIT compiler for faster page load speeds and performances of apps and games.

Firefox 4 for Android is available now via the Android Market and for download on Mozilla's site for Maemo devices.

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