Choice in browsers has been an integral part in the history of computing. Mozilla has been at the heart of the push for choice in browsers from its inception out of Netscape to the introduction of Firefox in 2004. Since 2004, Mozilla has been dedicated to giving users a choice in browsers not only on the desktop, but on mobile.

The latest version of Firefox for Android, available in Google Play today, comes in the midst of heavy competition in browsers for Android with Dolphin HD, Opera Mobile, Opera Mini, and Firefox each having been downloaded more than ten million times. Perhaps even more dauntingly, Google is in the process of making Chrome the default browser in Android. Chrome made headlines in the last six weeks as it surpassed Internet Explorer to become the most used browser internationally on desktops. Mozilla is keenly aware that by developing Firefox for Android they are competing with Google in a way that is much less obvious on the desktop.

Every time Mozilla announces that a new Firefox beta has been released (this time to the Play Store), a part of me hopes that it is nothing short of awesome. And not that I’m all that willing to give up on Chrome, but competition is good and having used Firefox on a PC for so long before Chrome became such a powerhouse, it would be nice to see it carve out a niche on mobile as well. Then I install it and always immediately say, “Ugh.” Such is the case again today with the latest beta that introduces a new UI and Flash support.

The changelog got me excited, especially with the “user interface has been completely re-designed.” Unfortunately, the good news seems to stop there. It’s still buggy, clunky, and freezes up during the simplest of tasks. Once you get it rollin’, it can open pages fairly fast, but the way multi-touch and scrolling work are odd enough to give you a headache. The Flash support is welcomed though. I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next release.

Play Link

Via:  Mozilla

It looks like Mozilla is ready to ditch this odd Fennec name and start to align everything with the release of Firefox beta for mobile.

If you’ve been using the Fennec alpha that keeps auto-updating itself, you’ve actually been on “beta” for a couple of days now.  In fact, if you keep your current Fennec and allow it to update, you’ll be on version 4.0b2pre which appears to be newer than this official Firefox beta.  If you want the sweet Firefox logo though, you will need to uninstall Fennec and then go with this official version.

Visit the link below to download the first version of Firefox beta (4.0b1):

http://firefox.com/m/beta

No word yet if this version will prompt you for updates as Fennec did, but we’ll assume that it will.

Release notes here.  List of supported devices here.

On Friday, the Director of Firefox tweeted about the newest build of Fennec, said that it “just got way awesome” and wasn’t joking.  Not only is this latest build substantially faster than previous versions, it also prompts you for updates when they are released.  Instead of having to try and keep up with the latest nightlies, simply install the version below and it’ll prompt you to update going forward.  Can’t beat that right?  Now if only Flash 10.1 would work with it.

Download:  Fennec.apk

Install as you would any other .apk file.

Via:  Mike Beltzner Twitter

Firefox Mobile or Fennec, hit official “alpha” today for all Android phones running at least version 2.0.  While this is still a very early build, the Fennec team has decided that it is worthy of an announcement and some video action.  I’ll also say that after just a few minutes of time with it, you can see that it has come a long way.  What a great browser this is going to be.

Download it now by visiting this link from your phone’s browser.

Video:

We’ll probably never get over this browser kick that we’re on, especially when the guys working on Firefox mobile (Fennec) keep releaseing new builds and teasing us with future release dates.  How does an official “alpha” sound? A “beta”?  Neither are ready just yet, but the alpha should be within the the next “few weeks” and the beta should drop “this fall” according to one of their lead developers.

Some of the features already being ironed out…

• Firefox Sync is now built in – sync tabs, bookmarks, and history from your computer to your phone, no add-on required!
• The new Find In Page command is available through the site menu (or by pressing Control+F on a hardware keyboard).
• You can now share links through Twitter, Facebook, Google Reader, or email. (The final version of this feature will also let you send links using native Android or Maemo apps.)
• Fennec 2 can use your phone’s address book to make it easy to enter phone numbers and email adresses into web forms. (This works on Maemo now; support for Android will be added later.)
• We’re adding multi-touch gestures. Pinch zoom has landed for alpha; later releases will also include multi-touch swipe gestures to go to the top or bottom of the current page, or navigate between pages.

Read more on the first alpha Fennec release at Matt Brubek’s blog.

Future builds and downloads including a pre-alpha of Fennec 2 can be found here.

Cheers BAoxymoron!

While Firefox was in the middle of showing off version 4 of their new web browser which features a fancy little feature called “Tab Candy” our readers were digging into their FTP site and finding new builds of Fennec for Android.  As of July 24th, a new build is available and as you’ll see after installing it, is much more polished than the one we wrote about back in May.

Download:  Fennec.apk

Cheers Allen!

It has been a couple of weeks since the first pre-alpha Firefox Mobile (Fennec) was released and only about 10 days since we were promised nightly builds to start rolling out.  Well folks, nightly builds have arrived!

Download: Fennec.apk

This latest version might be 1000x more polished than the previous pre-alpha.  While it still has miles to cover before it becomes official, you can really start to see this thing shaping up into quite the browser.

It should be noted that these nightly builds will not auto-update or prompt you to update; you will need to just continue to check back and download the newest version.

Source: Pavlov.net