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Firefox Mobile Reaches 1.0
Majix writes "Firefox Mobile, the mobile browser developed by Mozilla based on the same engine as in the recently released Firefox 3.6, has finally hit version 1.0. The first device to be officially supported is the Nokia N900. With a long list of features, Firefox Mobile looks to be the most complete mobile browser to date. Highlights include the familiar Awesome Bar, Weave Sync for sharing your browser state between your PC and mobile, and of course tabbed browsing and Firefox add-ons. With the Nokia 900 and Firefox Mobile 1.0, even Flash content including the normal YouTube site is working, showing that a mobile browser does not have to equal a compromised Internet experience."
They released version 1.0 and that's all they support? A whole one device?
More development needed methinks.
"We do not have plans to build an iPhone browser due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution. "
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Mobile/Platforms
It is a Turing complete program. Of course it can't be approved for the iBad.
"Firefox Mobile looks to be the most complete mobile browser to date."
Perhaps if you ignore Opera, Safari and Netfront.. Otherwise, from what I have seen, it mostly sucks pretty bad...
...the N900 is an amazing platform. I know it from a computational photography class at my university: http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs448a-10/ It runs a full Linux distro, has a 5MP camera, and now with FF 1.0 I consider it the first phone with a real browser. (IPhone/ITouch/IPad doesn't count because there's no flash and they don't support any browser extensions. Once I can run Flash, Firebug, and Adblock, then it's real.)
I think it deserves a shoutout especially because
*) Nokia is truly awful at promoting their products
*) a certain company that's great at marketing is making all sorts of splash with the antithesis of this phone. it's called the iPad; it runs a Unix derivative, but is an affront to the Unix philosophy. it somehow manages to be three times the size of an N900 with a tenth the functionality.
I think that N900 + FF Mobile is a real tool in an ocean of toys.
Why select a minority platform with no devices? Surely someone sane would develop for S60 and perhaps iPhone first (perhaps because Safari probably quite entrenched with iPhone users).
And he answered the GGP's question.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
Not so much the OS as the app store. Apple won't allow apps that can run code, or apps that duplicate existing functionality. A browser does both. Porting it to run on the iPhone wouldn't be too hard, but then only people using jailbroken phones could use it.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Um, you're confusing Opera Mini with Opera Mobile, which is a full browser.
Runs really slow on the N810. And randomly crashes after a minute or so. Its quite a shame.
The problem is that web developers work for the marketing arm, and nothing says success like shiny. All the demos and development, I'm certain, are run on large monitors with a local connection to the server. hey really ought to require all web developers to run on a 100kb connection with 150ms ping times, with a P-III-350 machine. Only then will you get a set of web pages which will be tolerable on smaller devices.
Take a look at Rainforest Cafe's website. If you don't have flash, they don't want you - period. No way to get restaurant locations or information (heaven forbid you should want to check that on your mobile) at all without flash. Look at any major website - NYT, eBay, /. - you're loading hundreds of kilobytes of css definitions before you even get to page contents.
I have the same rule today with my companies website I had 7 years ago when I started: Every page should load in 10 seconds or less on a 56k dialup connection. It won't be great on a mobile device, but its very viewable - and usable. People still complement me on my site, despite it being out of date, and I suspect it's because (1) it's pretty (2) everything is easy to find and (3) it loads almost instantly on just about any connection.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
The UI felt a bit unusual at the start, but I actually ended up liking it, felt unique and effective. The application start time is a few seconds slower than the Micro browser that ships with the N900, but page load and rendering speed seems toughly equal. The straightforwardness of installing and configuring AdBlocker felt more integrated and polished in the new Firefox 1.0. However, the Firefox has a major deal-breaker for me, it's broken ZOOM function. You're only limited to a "maximum zoom in" or "maximum zoom out" by doubletapping the screen, you can't pick your desired level of zoom by doing a clockwise/counterclockwise drag movement like in Micro. Ctrl-UP and Ctrl-DOWN were supposed keyboard shortcuts for zooming in and out, but these didn't even work at all, the key combinations did nothing (while other shortcuts like Ctrl-L worked normally). This definately feels like a good start, but it's more of a 0.98 version than a 1.0, it just has a few rough edges and needs some polish.
I never even considered actually "buying" a cellphone. I basically only carried one for emergencies and was satisfied with whatever came with the service. That was until I heard about the N900. I've had mine for over a month now and I got to say, the thing just rocks and was worth every penny.
Not only does it all the features you would expect from a smartphone such as web browsing, playing media, shooting pictures and video etc., but it also can receive and transmit FM radio and has TV out.
As far as software goes, besides what's available in the standard, extras, and testing repos, after installing an "EasyDebian" chroot you can run just about anything on it. I haven't carried my laptop since I bought the thing.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
With the Nokia 900 and Firefox Mobile 1.0, even Flash content including the normal YouTube site is working
Given that the browser that comes out of the box in N900 is already Mozilla-based (in fact, the extension install screen looks conspicuously like Firefox), and can already play Flash, and use ABP, what advantage does this thing have over it?
Firefox for iPhone
We do not have plans to build an iPhone browser due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution.
Firefox for Blackberry
Sorry, no plans. Due to its Java-based operating system and the inability to build native components, Firefox is not compatible on the Blackberry OS.
Firefox for Symbian
We currently have no plans to develop Firefox for the Symbian platform.
I’m sorry. That’s just silly. Those are the 3 biggest platforms out there.
They are basically saying “Everyone can get Firefox. As long as he’s not using 99% of the platforms/phones out there!”.
I’ll stay with Opera, which already runs very nicely.
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
The awesome bar is not awesome. It's shit.
But those who like it will never agree with those who don't. The biggest problem was that such a major change to the browser was forced on all users - support for FF2 was dropped when 3 came out (or shortly afterwards). There are some workarounds and an extension that tries to bring back the sensible functionality, but it's still not the same.
The awful bar should have been an extension. Even if Mozilla felt it had to be with the browser, if it were an extension it could be removed properly.
I think NoScript is pretty awesome (well, I don't - I am just using the same stupid word you did. NS is a good idea, and massively increases security, and reduces annoyances). Should NoScript type functionality should be built into the browser? How would you like it if there was a major change in functionality when you already know how to use a tool, a tool that worked fine in the first place?
I really wish there were a fork of FF that trimmed it back down to being close to its original aim: to be a sleek, fast, browser with an extension system to add functionality.....
The awesome bar is so bad that I still haven't upgraded any installs of FF to v3 (and distros that come with FF3 have had it replaced with 2). I have even been using Seamonkey, as that hasn't been ruined to chase the clueless IE users. Yes, that is why FF is being dumbed down, to pander to fuckwits who don't know (and are so anti-intellectual that they refuse to read documentation) that the browser already had searchable bookmarks, and searchable history.
It is funny how people justify the awful bar being good for everyone, because of their specific need. I'm sure all users need the awful bar in case they need to access the same server, but on a different port. It saves them a few key strokes, and for the hunter-peckers this is good.