Mozilla Fennec Logo
Mozilla recently launched the first release of its mobile browser, Fennec. Touted to be the mobile Firefox, Fennec is currently in rough beta and understandably, it has a lot of bugs and things that need to be worked out.
At first look, however, Fennec is quite impressive, very easy to use even with the smaller screen space of a Smartphone. I particularly liked the integration of touch screen features. It allows you to zoom, scroll and pan using your fingers or stylus. You can also “flick” the page you are on to transfer to another tab.
What I found particularly interesting is that it gives you the option to download add-ons, which is the benchmark and the advantage of Firefox over all other browsers. Add-ons, I think, makes the Firefox browser your own, making it easy for you to do the things you need and want to do, without having to go through a lot of installations to your desktop. Just give me my add-ons and I am happy! And the fun part is, installing add-ons of Fennec is as easy as it is on Firefox!
Mozilla, however, does not stop there. Fennec has the features we have all come to love with Firefox: easy bookmarking features, that all-in-one navigational bar, and customization features via about:config. If you have used the latest Firefox 3.1, you would be amazed that Fennec also has TraceMonkey, a JavaScript engine that made Firefox 3.1 faster!
I do have one beef though. Fennec has put its menu on the left part of the screen, where you would have to move any page you are on to the left to see it. It is a small hindrance, however, considering that Smartphones have really smaller screens. And with that out of the way, you can find the familiar buttons: back, forward, advanced preferences and favorites. You can access a lot of functions from thereon, including add-ons management, themes, plugins, and privacy settings.
Fennec is great at optimizing your screen space. When you scroll down, the address bar disappears, giving you more space for the Web page you are viewing. That and the "hidden" side bar menu, gives you your whole screen to read on.
We had to borrow a Nokia N810 just to see how it runs for ourselves. I do hope Mozilla gets Fennec out for the iPhone soon. Unfortunately, I heard that the iPhone is not one of those platforms that Mozilla is targeting, along with Palm and Blackberry. It will soon have Fennec versions for every other phone though.
Useful links:
1. Download Page
2. Mozilla Wiki Page (for mobile phones)
3. Firefox 4 Beta on your Android Phone
