Even the app is wondering why you aren't using Safari.

Every once in a while I run into a website, or a function within a website, that doesn’t work right in Safari. Yes, I’m a Mac user that doesn’t use Safari. Because of this, it occurred to me that having Firefox on my phone might be a great idea, and maybe I would enjoy the web experience a bit more. I’ve never had any real issues with iOS Safari, but it never hurts to try something new.

So I downloaded Firefox Home and found that I had to also download the Firefox extension, Firefox Sync, which was a simple task. After setting up my Firefox “server”, I was brought to the “browser” screen (I put quotes around browser, because it is definitely not a full browser). Instead of giving you great internet tools, like a place to type a URL, it actively syncs your Firefox desktops tabs, bookmarks, and history to your phone… and that’s it.

Fortunately from that point you can view the website, albeit with slower than Safari load times, but again, you can’t type in another site to view, it must either be viewed as a link from the site you are on or from your history, tabs, or bookmarks. Using the internet in this fashion is really a pain, especially when a perfectly good browser is built right into the phone. Even if you were a mega Firefox power user you could sync your bookmarks to Safari fairly quickly for iOS use, preventing the need to go back and forth from Firefox Home to Safari to browse the internet.

This strange app makes me beg the question, just because a company can make an app, should they? Is anyone really going to use Firefox Home? Is Firefox Home the most difficult web browsing experience since Noby Noby Boy?

FREE!
Firefox Home
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2010-07-15 :: Category: Productivity

[Source: TUAW]

Posted in: Blog, First Looks

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