Enterprise Software

First look at Firefox Mobile

By // December 27, 2009, 7:42 AM PST

Image 1 of 29

  • Welcome to Firefox

    This is the first screen you'll see in Firefox Mobile. The application has a skin on top of the existing user interface which I suspect slows it down a bit. Still, it looks like a typical Maemo application with the "switch apps" icon in the top left and the "close" in the top right.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Preparing installation

    The installation process takes only a minute or so, depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Enable the wireless network to ensure a speedy download.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    The download is around 12MB which will take you maybe 3 minutes on an EDGE/3G network, around 12-15 on a GPRS network and a matter of seconds on a wireless network.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    This current version is beta 5 of the browser and is available through the Mozilla Catalog.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    The description of the application makes it sound like it's a full version of Firefox for the mobile browser, yet when you get to use the actual browser itself, it feels like a cheap knock-off in comparison to the in-built browser.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    'Fennec', the codename for the Firefox Mobile brower, will take up nearly 33MB of disk space, but this is very little in comparison to the 32GB device memory the Nokia N900 has.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    A quick screenshot of the installation. Note the almost Aero Glass quality about the foreground application which gives focus to the forefront application.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Installation

    Once the application is done installing, it'll notify you and give you the option to add a shortcut to the desktop space.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Firefox on desktop

    Once installed, the Firefox logo in all its glory lands itself on the desktop as a shortcut. Note the application icon follows the same icon type as Firefox 3.5 and not earlier designs.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Start screen

    (This screenshot has been altered slightly to show the full screen.)

    This will be the first screen you see in Firefox Mobile. The first thing it'll do is give you the option to download and install Weave (see later on) as well as other add-ons to ensure that your desktop browsing experience is synchronised with your mobile browsing experience. The animation at the top also gives the user an idea of how to use the touch screen and to access the other menus and options.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Search add-ons

    Some add-ons are already included, such as search services. The bog standard are included such as Google, Amazon, Yahoo! and Twitter; but these can be easily enabled and disabled, even removed, and other search engines can be added with a couple of flicks of the finger.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Application preferences

    (This screenshot has been altered slightly to show the full screen.)

    The preferences are not as wide ranging as desktop Firefox yet still optimise the mobile experience as much as possible. Plugins can be turned on and off to restrict video and Flash on low bandwidth connections, but includes privacy settings such as the ability to remember passwords and clearing of your history.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • 'Awesome' bar

    The 'Awesome' bar is similar to Chrome's address and everything bar. You can search using your default and other search engines by entering in key terms here, but also access your bookmarks, previously accessed web pages and new web pages. Those who have Weave installed (see later on) can also access their desktop bookmarks.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Multiple tabs

    Firefox Mobile also allows you to have multiple tabs open. Simply drag the entire screen to the right to display the tab on the left hand side (as though you are dragging it onto the screen) and you can create new tabs and visit previous ones.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Vector text zooming and field selection

    As you would expect, Firefox Mobile uses vector graphics to recreate the text when zoomed in. No matter how far you zoom in, the text will still remain fine and crisp around the edges, while the images may not be. Anything written in CSS (such as buttons and boxes) will remain crisp and refined also.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Password management

    You can save your passwords in Firefox Mobile just as easily as you would do on your desktop. As soon as you enter in your username and password and submit them, a small bar will appear on the top of the screen asking if it should remember them for later on. This saves you time later, but is also a feature of the in-built browser.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Favourites and navigation bar

    You can easily access your bookmarks and favourites, as well as the navigation buttons associated with your browsing. Simply drag the entire screen to the left to display the tab on the right hand side (as though you are dragging it onto the screen) and it'll display the bar for you.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Saving favourites

    Again, the similarities between desktop and mobile Firefox are evident with the adding of bookmarks and the very similar interface. The first two fields are automatically filled and the last is for additional tags which you can define if you so choose.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Site information

    When a site is encrypted or provides additional information, you can access it through the favicon which is available. If the service you are accessing also provides a search engine, such as Facebook or other major sites like the BBC or eBay, you can add them as search engine providers with a touch of a button.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Mobile Add-ons for Firefox

    As Firefox Mobile is still in beta and not quite at release candidate (at the time of publishing this gallery), so are the add-ons for Firefox and are still in very much experimental stages. Some have been published, around fifty or so, and none of them are of massive quality, but offer useful additions to the browser.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Add-on installation

    Installing add-ons are incredibly easy; just like desktop versions of Firefox, you select the add-on...

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Add-on installation

    ...and then they install in the background as you browse to other websites. Once they are done, the browser will ask you to restart your browser of which then, in typical fashion, the add-ons list will open up asking you for further configurations if that add-on provides them.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Graphics screw-up

    The rendering isn't exactly perfect when accessing some websites, such as Facebook which depending on certain arbitrary and unknown values, seems to load up perfectly on some occasions and not so well on others. On the other hand, the vast majority of desktop websites load up perfectly fine, including complicated Flash elements and sites which normally only load up specific mobile sites for mobile browsers.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Firefox Mobile: Acid3 test

    When running the Acid3 test on the Facebook Mobile browser, all the boxes load up except the second to last one which displays no colour, rating at 94/100 - which is pretty good and beats the in-built Nokia browser by two marks.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Nokia's browser: Acid3 test

    When running the Acid3 test on the Nokia in-built browser, all the boxes load up except the second to last one and the second one in which display no colour, rating at 92/100 - which is still not bad and doesn't quite beat the Firefox Mobile browser but nonetheless is seamlessly integrated into the operating system, and some would argue (me!) that the browser is better suited for the vast majority of tasks.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Weave: Installation

    Installing Weave is relatively easy (provided you have the right version installed) and requires a desktop installation of an add-on as well as a mobile one, and an active Internet connection of both, while the desktop Firefox application is still running.

  • Weave: Configuration

    Once you have created an account on your desktop, enter in your details on the add-on configuration and the two will meet in the middle. All information is encrypted to a very high standard to ensure that your data is only sent between the desktop and the mobile device and not stored anywhere in between.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Weave: Synchronising

    Once the two are synchronised, within your bookmarks menu will allow you to see your desktop bookmarks which are downloaded to your mobile device. You can access your synchronising settings through sliding your finder to the right on the screen opening up the tabs menu.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

  • Weave: Desktop to mobile comparison

    Also, when accessing the tabs on your computer, within seconds of the synchronising completing, you will see a list of the open tabs on your mobile device which allows you to continue working relatively seamlessly. However, if you are working from within a web application, expect to see a login screen as you won't necessarily be able to continue as seamlessly as you would hope. It's close enough though, and not bad for what it is.

    For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

Related Topics:

Enterprise Software CXO Microsoft Google Open Source Software Tech Industry

Welcome to Firefox

This is the first screen you'll see in Firefox Mobile. The application has a skin on top of the existing user interface which I suspect slows it down a bit. Still, it looks like a typical Maemo application with the "switch apps" icon in the top left and the "close" in the top right.

For more on Nokia's touchy-feely new phones for 2010 onwards, head on over to the iGeneration blog.

Free Newsletters, In your Inbox