Firefox for tablets is an evolution of its phone based predecessor, with some added UI enhancements and changes that will take full advantage of the larger screens added real estate. With awesome tabbed browsing features that work great in both portrait, or landscape mode this will truly be a great browser for mobile devices. Themed nicely along with Android 3.0 Honeycomb it has the same drop down menu’s up top for easy access to configure settings and change themes.

Shown in the photo above in portrait mode multiple tabs no longer take up that precious space on the top of the browser, instead the tabs are singled into one group and accessed via a drop down menu. When in landscape mode they are nicely available on the left side and you can even scroll through multiple tabs. I’m really liking what I’ve seen thus far but sadly we have no official release date or beta at the moment. This is more of a tease for now. Adding features from both the mobile version and the web based experience into one truly optimized for tablets browser this should be exciting when we get more details.

Mozilla also kept the “awesome bar” for quick access to everything. Mozilla is only showcasing the new browser today we don’t have a beta for you to download at the moment but will be sure to report back and get some hands-on time as soon as possible. More details below.

[via Mozilla Blog]

So just how fast is the latest beta 5. FAST! We here have been testing it ourselves and I used it for most of the night. Things seem to be steadily improving in all those area’s they mentioned. Above we have a graph for you that is showing Firefox 4 Beta 5 on multiple devices all showing significant speed improvements. Tested on the Galaxy S, the Nexus S and One, as well as the Galaxy Tab for a wide variety of models and Android versions. Seems to be pretty stable and fast across the board. Take into consideration this is just one test out of many. They also had a graph of the Javascript V8 Engine with similar performance improvements.

Whether you plan to change browsers or not, it’s always fun to try new things and I recommend giving it a little test drive. For those using Firefox as a daily driver, check out this Add-On called Quit Fennec that will close the browser completely to conserve battery rather than use a task killer.

[via AndroidCentral]

These huge improvements are making Firefox a great alternative browser for Android. Firefox 4 Beta is faster and easier to use. You’ll experience better responsiveness to panning and zooming, faster start up time and with enhanced JavaScript performance you’ll see faster page load times. They also mention working overtime to make major stability improvements in this release. As always with Firefox, they have Firefox-sync to PC, tabbed browsing, & add-ons to make for a more personalized and efficient browsing experience. If you have yet to try Firefox 4 on Android, I recommend giving it a try. You can download it in the Android Market, or over the air right to your device at market.android.com

[via Mozilla Firefox]

Matt Brubeck, a engineer at Mozilla, stated that an upcoming beta release of the web browser should be arriving in the Market by the end of this month.

The journey up until this point has been a long one for the browser formally known as “Fennec,” but its entrance into the Android Market means it will become a mainstream competitor for the other Android browsers out there.

[Via DroidLife]

This build’s major focus is to increase and fine tune the application’s performance and responsiveness. Changes to the app include Electrolysis and Layers, Electrolysis allows the browser interface to run in a separate process from the rendering web content which, in turn, creates an overall faster browsing experience. Layers brings improvements to performance in graphics such as scrolling, zooming, and animations.

The beta is available now for free from Firefox and they are currently looking to the masses to test their much anticipated browser.

QR to Firefox Download:

[Download Link]

[Via Firefox Blog]

Upon release, Fennec will be named “Firefox 4 for Android and Nokia N900.” The simple name change will prevent the potential confusion Mozilla marketing will face when people may be confused why the mobile version is only 2.x, but the desktop version is 4.x.

[Via Mark Finkle's Blog]

There are a couple of issues to bear in mind – this is an pre-alpha release, after all – with the biggest limitation being that the browser currently requires Android 2.0 or above.  You’ll also probably need to have an OpenGL ES 2.0 capable device, you can’t open links from other apps in Fennec as yet, and there are bugs that will chomp through your available memory and likely end up forcing you to reboot the phone altogether.

Still, if you want to give it a try then head into your Android phone’s settings, check the option that allows you to install non-Android Market apps, and then head here for the package.  Initial feedback seems to be that the UI needs some work, especially when trying to scroll without triggering the browser’s controls.

[Thanks Stalker!]

http://www.schirrmacher.eu/fennec/index.php/download

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5te3LPHk8M&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GTHYf5nZoE&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Fennec is said to be showing competitive JavaScript performance with Android and mobile Safari JavaScript, which also means in speed. There are also rumors that Fennec will eventually have voice control.  Finally the question we have all been asking for a while now, will Fennec ever be on the Android platform?

Mozilla’s Jay Sullivan said it will not be on Android, at least not until Google accepts programs that are not written in Java for Android. Android does not support applications that run directly on the operating system itself without the need to be written in Java.  Sullivan says that Android is “interesting for us. We’ll have to see which direction Google goes with that.” We are a bit upset that there will be no Mobile version of Firefox on Android, at least in the foreseeable future. We want to know how you guys feel about it. Is Fennec that important to you?

[Via ABCNews]