Mozilla unfurls first mobile Firefox Mozilla has officially released the first mobile Firefox, a condensed version of the popular open-source browser that runs on Nokia's Maemo platform. Codenamed 'Fennec,' Firefox 1.0 for Maemo was previously available only as a beta. Mozilla calls this the first mobile web browser to accomodate add-ons - long a staple of the …
'Mozilla removed support for an Adobe plug-in, saying it had "degraded the performance of the browser to the point where it didn't meet our standards."'
So, if you're frugal with platform's CPU you don't want something hogging the cycles.
Why doesn't Steve just tell us that's why the iP....s won't do it either?? Heck even my Atom N270 powered netbook stutters at flash.
Well, it's obvious really: omnipotents don't see the need to explain.
The N900 already has a browser based on Mozilla code, and it supports flash just fine. It even runs adblock, jand it has for far longer than the N900 has been around. Granted adblock made my N810 so slow that I couldn't use it at all, but it would run. Now I just use a proxy that filters based on the adblock rulesets, and I've got the best of both worlds.
Basically none of the other browsers I've tried on my N900 or N810 have been able to compare to MicroB, either on speed or touch interface usability, and Firefox is no exception/
Ive had an n900 for about a month now and the first thing I did was install the firefox beta. After using that for a while I wasn't impressed with the overall speed and initially blamed the hardware. Then after trying the built in browser (microB) I realised the it was just FF that was slow...fair enough it was beta. I was delighted to see the update a few days ago and it is definitely faster but microB still has the edge and seem to handle flash remarkably well. Bring on chrome mobile!
I also have a N900 and the embedded microB browser (IMO) shows that Fennec still has a way to go. The usefulness of the native browser really puts the n900 into netbook-replacement territory in my book.
Also, you can install Adblock Plus onto microB. The process is not trivial (don't use the application manager), but the n900 really flies once it doesn't have to render flash banners all over the place.
I was delighted to find to-day that I could install Fennec on my N810. Firefox has been my only desktop browser since its inception and seems to do everything well. What a shock it was to find Fennec so disappointing! It is a 6.5MB installation and takes forever to boot up, sometimes it does not even start at all. Then of course there is the lack of Flash support which is completely ridiculous. Whatever you think of Adobe's products, the fact is that Flash has become a standard tool on websites and any browser needs to support it. Another problem I found was zooming. It is useful to be able to start with a full-width page view, but tap-twice to zoom in and immediately it is in tight close-up with only a few words visible. There needs to be a way to select intermediate zoom levels.
So the end result was that having looked forward to being able to have this on my tablet, instead, after a couple of frustrating hours I removed it. Let us hope that further development will turn a good idea into a useable application.
a couple of years at least?
I tried a build on my windows mobile about 6 months ago and it still failed to start. Doesn't sound like they've made any progress at all, when the only platform they've managed to complete it for is 2 Nokia handsets I think the should give up and focus on what they do best... the desktop.
Not the "N990" as typo'd in the article.
It's a wonderful device, with full multi-tasking, a high res screen, and much more(http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/). There's a good wiki of detailed information at http://wiki.maemo.org, and a very active community at http://talk.maemo.org. In the community there is a lot of impatience, as the software doesn't *currently* use the hardware to full advantage.
Having said that, my N900 has displaced my Nokia E71 and the iPlayer use on my iPod Touch, leaving only the Kindle and Read it Later apps and DRM media on the iPhone as significant reasons why I need to keep the iPod/iPhone device...
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