Fennec, the mobile version of Firefox, has released an Alpha version for Android phones running Android 2+. You can download it by hitting this page from your device. There are some cool new features like pinch to zoom, contextual menus, desktop Firefox integration, personalized start pages, and awesome screen.
It’s still in Alpha of course, so you might have to battle with it a little to get it to function, or it might just flat-out not work. Still, we can’t wait to see this thing in action when it finally comes out in a complete version.
If you get it up and running, let us know in the comments!
Full list of changes after the jump:
Fennec is the codename of Mozilla’s mobile project, however, the official product name is Firefox. For pre-beta releases of Firefox, we refer to it by the project’s name, Fennec. This is an alpha release of Fennec.
Built on the same technology platform as Firefox 4 for desktop computers, Fennec is designed and optimized for browsing on a mobile device, yet ships with many of your favorite Firefox desktop features like Firefox Sync, Add-ons and the Awesome Bar. This alpha release brings Fennec to the Android platform, the fastest growing smartphone platform in the world.
The foundation of this release is based on enhanced responsiveness and increased stability, in conjunction with new and improved features that focus on customizing the browser to fit the individual exactly:
Get Up and Go
Shipping with the Firefox Sync feature built-in, Fennec synchronizes your Firefox history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data between your desktop and mobile. Just login with your Firefox Sync account info and Fennec gets to know you right away, taking you to your favorite parts of the Web with barely any typing. Don’t worry about switching to a new phone, or having to type long URLs or passwords again. You can even leave your desktop in a moment’s notice and pick up right where you left off on your mobile phone.
Add-ons
Fennec is the world’s first mobile Web browser to support add-ons; pieces of software that let you change or add features, functionality and the look of your Fennec to fit your browsing lifestyle. You can search for and install add-ons directly to your Android phone or Nokia N900 from the Add-ons Manager located in your browser tools.
Personalized Start Page
The Start Page gives you a snapshot of your online life while you’ve been away. Pick up where you left off with instant access to your Firefox desktop data, the tabs you had open last time you were browsing on your phone, and get suggestions for useful add-ons. Comign soon: See alerts of recent activity from your email
accounts and your favorite social media sites!
accounts and your favorite social media sites!
Awesome Screen
The Awesome Screen pops up just by tapping on the Awesome Bar (location bar). It gets to know you and instantly brings up a smart list of your favourite history items and bookmarks and lets you easily select a search engine for your desired search. You can also customize your search engine list for maximum efficiency.
Touch Friendly UI
Swipe to the left or right of your screen to access your tabs, browser controls and tools, which are stowed out of the way while you browse the Web. Typing on a phone is hard, that’s why you can bookmark a site with one tap, view tabs as thumbnails to easily see and open the page you want, and use the Awesome Screen to get to where you want to go in just a few a keystrokes.
Responsiveness
Responsiveness is one of the major focuses for this release. We’ve redesigned Gecko to allow us to run the UI in a separate process from the web content which enables us to react much faster to user actions like scrolling and zooming.
More personalized than ever before, Fennec is packed with your favorite features and great improvements. Other highlights include:
Pinch-to-zoom (Android), double-tap, or use the volume rocker (Nokia N900) to zoom in and out
Tabbed browsing in thumbnail view lets you easily see and open the site you want
Location-Aware Browsing gives you content and info relevant to your location
Save to PDF in the Site Menu lets you capture important content, like driving directions or a boarding pass, to view offline
Find in Page in the Site Menu lets you quickly find text on the webpage
Share Page in the Site Menu lets you send content to email, Facebook, Twitter and Google Reader
Forget Password in the Site Menu tells a website you no longer trust to forget your private data
Add Search Engine in the Site Menu lets you quickly add a new search engine to your Awesome Screen
Context Menu lets you Open in New Tab and Share by long tapping and holding a link
Smart Tapping lets you tap on links, widgets and other Web content with accuracy
Password Manager lets you choose to remember site password to avoid typing
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