Foxy mobile os
Mozilla has launched its next version of Fennec (a big-eared fox and also the mobile version of its Firefox browser) for Android users.
The alpha release is available for Android and Nokia N900 users to download and test, and Mozilla said it builds on the previous version, which was only accessible to high-end Nokia phones running Maemo.
According to Mozilla's blog, the new alpha version, "creates one fluid web experience between desktop and mobile devices by providing Firefox Sync built-in into the browser, which provides seamless access to Awesome Bar browsing history, bookmarks, passwords, form-fill data and open tabs."
The company said the main focus of the updated operating system is to boost performance and responsiveness to users' actions by using electrolysis and layers.
Mozilla said: "This alpha release includes electrolysis, which allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content. By doing this, Fennec is able to react much faster to user input while pages are loading or CPU intensive JavaScript is running."
The upcoming beta release will start to use layers to improve performance in graphic intensive actions such as scrolling, zooming, animations and video, according to the blog.
Mozilla has heralded the alpha launch as a ‘first step' in customizing mobile browsers. It also said developers now have the power to use HTML5, CSS and JavaScript to build apps and add-ons to reach a wider Fennec audience.
While Mozilla said Fennec is available for Android 2.0 phones and above, it has been designed to work particularly well on the Nexus One.
