14 DAY TRIAL // The team behind the popular desktop browser Firefox has just announced the availability of Firefox 4 for Android. The application made the jump from release candidate to final version in just one week.
According to Mozilla, Firefox 4 is up to three times faster than the WebKit stock browser that is delivered with all Android smartphones.
The JavaScript engine includes enhancements to the existing TraceMonkey JIT and SpiderMonkey’s interpreter that makes webpages load faster.
Furthermore, the mobile browser is built on the same technology platform as the desktop version. However, the application is known for not supporting Flash at launch.
“For us, HTML5 and the open Web video standards are most important right now,” Thomas Arend, Mozilla's principal product manager, said. “Flash is a reality, though - I'm aware that it's there and it's going to be around for a while - so we're definitely looking into it and will look into enabling Flash plugins in a future version.”
As expected, Firefox 4 supports multi-tab browsing, as well as add-ons. In addition, it improves existing technologies like CSS, Canvas and SVG, enabling developers to make rich-featured web pages.
The HTML5 support in Firefox for Android includes Location-Aware browsing, device orientation, accelerometer and desktop notifications.
Another interesting feature offered by Firefox 4 is the option to synchronize the Android phone with a desktop computer. With Firefox Sync, users will have access to browsing history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data across multiple computers and mobile devices with secure end-to-end encryption.
Other highlights of the mobile browser include: the ability to save any webpage to PDF, share any website via apps like email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader and more, as well as the possibility to customize your own search engine list.
Firefox 4 is available for download from Android Market and is compatible with all devices running Android 2.0 OS or later.
