Last week was a great week for users who have Android-powered devices. It was a great week because several developers rolled out applications for the Google-developed operating system. Skype rolled out Skype for Android (there are still a few drawbacks, but hey, it’s Skype for Android), Wolfram Alpha rolled out Wolfram Alpha for Android (giving you access to the powerful Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine) and Yahoo! rolled out the Yahoo! Finance for Android app. Almost forgot – fring added fringOut to its Android app.
One other Android app was released last week and I am sad to say that its release somehow managed to get past us. Mozilla released the first Firefox 4 Beta app for Android and Maemo – Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Mobile. As a little side note, on the desktop front, the latest Firefox 4 release is Beta 6.
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Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Mobile is based on the same technology platform as the desktop version, but it is optimized to run on mobile phones. Firefox Sync, add-ons, the Awesome Bar and other Firefox desktop features are all present in the mobile version.
“A major focus of this release is to increase performance and responsiveness. Two of the big architecture changes are Electrolysis and Layers. Our alpha contained Electrolysis which allowed the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering Web content, resulting in a much more responsive browser. This beta brings the Layers pieces which improve overall performance and in graphics areas such as scrolling, zooming and animations,” explained Mozilla’s Stuart Parmenter.
Here are features you can expect to get from Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Mobile:
Firefox Sync
Add-ons
Personalized Start page
Awesome Screen that launches when you press the Awesome Bar
Touch friendly interface
Speed and responsiveness
Tabbed browsing in thumbnail view
Location-Aware Browsing
Find in Page in the Site Menu
Share Page in the Site Menu
Forget Password in the Site Menu
Add Search Engine in the Site Menu
Context Menu lets you Open in New Tab and Share
Smart Tapping
Password Manager
Firefox 4 Beta 1 for Mobile is available for download here. You can check out the release notes here.
Last week was a great week for users who have Android-powered devices. It was a great week because several developers rolled out applications for the Google-developed operating system. Skype rolled out