Firefox 4 beta for Android and Maemo now available
Are you shocked that a Firefox 4 is available for Mobiles? Wasn’t it supposed to be Firefox Mobile 2?
Until recently, Firefox for mobiles was called Firefox Mobile and was Mozilla was working on version 2. However recently Mozilla decided to synchronize their desktop and mobile offerings with the same name and version number, since they are based on the same technology. Now Mozilla has made the first beta version of this upcoming browser available.
[RELATED_ARTICLE]Like its desktop counterpart, Firefox 4 for mobile will feature Firefox Sync in built. While Firefox 4 for mobile will support extension just as before, the Sync feature is now baked in instead of being separately available as an addon. If you also use Firefox on the desktop, and have tons of bookmarks, and saved passwords this will come in very handy as those will automatically sync with your mobile. Not only that Firefox Sync also synchronizes open tabs, so as you leave your computer and go out with your mobile, you will be able to open the same tabs on your mobile. This feature is made even more useful with the new AwesomeScreen, a screen visible when you tap on the AwesomeBar in the browser. This is similar to what Opera offers with its Link service.
Fierfox 4 also comes with multi-touch goodness, with support for gestures such as pinch-to-zoom.
Firefox 4 beta for mobile also includes some architecture changes for the mobile browser. It now works even more closely to the desktop version. A new feature called electrolysis is now available which makes for a much more responsive browser by running the browser chrome and the content in different threads. Layers, another new feature in Firefox 4, will improve the graphics performance of the browser.
Firefox 4 beta for mobile certainly sounds amazing, however apparently it is currently too slow to be a usable browser. The browser is very much in its beta stage right now, so performance should get better with time.