Mozilla has just made a double announcement revolving around the Android version if its popular Firefox web browser. Not only does a new update bring in an improved Home Screen experience but the browser itself has been made available on Android devices powered by Intel chips.
Firefox for Android has had a fancy Home Screen for a long time now, but its implementation has been rather basic and clunky. That interface has now been improved especially to take advantage of touch-based gestures. The Home Screen appears whenever Firefox for Android is started or a new tab is opened. Users can now customize the thumbnails that get displayed on the screen using a tap and hold gesture. They can also swipe sideways to easily access popular sites, history, and bookmarks without having to separately tap the tabs.
Starting today, Firefox for Android will also be available on smartphones and tablets that run on Intel’s x86 processors. Android devices that use Intel instead of more popular ARM solutions are still quite rare but are growing in popularity with affordable devices such as the ASUS FonePad or the Lenovo K900 smartphone. Naturally, Mozilla also wants to target this growing market segment and so it has worked into bringing Firefox for Android to this hardware platform and making sure that it runs just as smoothly as it does on most Android devices.
The Firefox for Android update that brings in the new Home Screen should be rolling out to users of the app’s stable version. Those on Intel hardware might want to check if the app is now available for their device.
Download: Firefox for Android on Google Play Store
SOURCE: Mozilla (1), (2)
