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Firefox For iOS Gets Tracking Protection, Firefox Focus For Android Gets Tabs
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Mozilla today released Firefox 9.0 for iOS and updated Firefox Focus for Android. The iOS browser is getting tracking protection, improved sync, and iOS 11 compatibility. The Android privacy browser is getting tabs. You can download the former from Apple's App Store and the latter from Google Play. This is the first time Firefox has offered tracking protection on iOS, and Nick Nguyen, vice president of product at Mozilla, notes that it's finally possible "thanks to changes by Apple to enable the option for 3rd party browsers." This essentially means iPhone and iPad users with Firefox and iOS 11 will have automatic ad and content blocking in Private Browsing mode, and the option to turn it on in regular browsing. This is the same feature that's available in Firefox for Android, Windows, Mac, and Linux, as well as the same ad blocking technology used in Firefox Focus for Android and iOS.
Ublock Origin and Ad-Block Plus are both available as add-ons for Firefox for Android. That to me is FFA's killer feature: add-ons. The mobile versions of Chrome and Safari don't have them because FU that's why. They don't even try to compete in that area, as they know most people will just use the browser that came with the phone. Makes one wonder if Chrome would even have add-ons on its desktop browser had it not had to compete with a then-already established Firefox, which did.
I recommend Firefox for Android for anyone who doesn't want to accept whatever Google serves them. Would you use a desktop browser without ad-block and other add-ons available for it? No? Then why do you accept it on your mobile device.
I'm not in the tank for Firefox. I don't even have it installed on my PC. To me its the only browser that makes sense to use on Android right now, though. Its not perfect, but it doesn't deliberately deprive you of add-ons (including ad-blockers) to make money off of you the way Chrome does. Chrome is taking you for granted on the Android platform.
Techies really should be pushing Firefox for Android, at least until such a point as another viable regularly updated contender offers add-ons as well on that platform.