Tag: Firefox Home »

Mozilla, developers of the popular desktop web browser Firefox, have updated their application Firefox Home to offer worldwide availability in fifteen different languages, as well as providing a number of new features. The latest update, 1.0.2, includes a smarter search bar, meaning users only have to remember part of a URL rather than the beginning of it, and "instant access to open tabs, just the way you left them on your PC" (Mozilla). The application is built to compliment Firefox for desktop, allowing users to sync "browsing history, bookmarks and open tabs to your iPod or iPod Touch" (Mozilla). It's free to download both the application from the App Store and the sync add-on that's required for desktop users.

In addition, the team have outlined a future development roadmap that aims to "provide more access to Firefox data on your phone" as well as adding "social functionality" like Twitter and Facebook. Tools like password synchronization, YouTube integration and Firefox Panorama settings are all to be expected in future updates, but for now remain merely an idea. Interestingly, the team also noted that it is "difficult, if not impossible, to build the full Firefox browser for the iPhone" - suggesting that the developers are perhaps not working on a Safari substitute. Instead, they "are focused on building Firefox Home as a rich, cloud-based application and making it a valuable product that people will continue to love and use" (Mozilla).

For full details, and also a video of Firefox Home in action, see here. For more information on the development roadmap, here is where you'll want to be.

[Image courtesy of Mozilla]

[caption id="attachment_42272" align="alignright" width="200" caption="Even the app is wondering why you aren\'t using Safari."]

[/caption]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?

[Source: TUAW]