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Firefox Mozilla Software IT News

Firefox Mobile 1.1 Released 57

Posted by timothy from the don't-fennec-me-in dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Firefox Mobile 1.1 has been released for Maemo devices such as the Nokia N900. Madhava Enros has put together a field guide for Firefox Mobile 1.1 which highlights what's new and notable in this release."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Firefox Mobile 1.1 Released More

Firefox Mobile 1.1 Released

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  • Firefox for J2ME devices should be cool too... At least for trying. I'm currently using Opera Mini and it's great.

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by xOneca ( 1271886 )
      Huh! They won't do that [mozilla.org]...

    • Re:J2ME (Score:5, Informative)

      by segin ( 883667 ) <segin2005@gmail.com> on Saturday July 03, 2010 @06:42AM (#32784522) Homepage

      Except it wouldn't be Firefox. Opera Mini isn't Opera, although it uses Opera. Opera Mini is:

      • A client for an Internet-based service
      • A specialized, non-HTML markup render

      Opera Mini (and for that matter, BitStream BOLT) is a J2ME client for an Internet service. This service involves a server that runs a web browser. For Opera Mini, the server runs a customized copy of Presto. For BitStream BOLT, customized WebKit. The web browser on the server sends back specialized markup and data in a "partially rendered" format - doing a lot of the rendering on the service server, but yet returning rich data back to the client, as opposed to a big image file with a clickmap, Things like complex CSS rules might be render to the client as markup saying, "draw a blue box from 35,15 to 100,85". Text is sent to allow for reflowability.

      Firefox for J2ME would mean Mozilla would have to run a server containing a specialized Gecko renderer that outputs a simplified form of the page as simple markup, plus a J2ME client that would finish rendering from the simplified output. Great concept but too many problems.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by narooze ( 845310 )

        Firefox for J2ME would mean Mozilla would have to run a server containing a specialized Gecko renderer that outputs a simplified form of the page as simple markup, plus a J2ME client that would finish rendering from the simplified output. Great concept but too many problems.

        How do you figure that? There is nothing saying that you have to do it the way Opera Mini et al are doing it. Of course you can implement a complete web browser in J2ME (it might however not be practical depending on the specifications of the target devices).

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sznupi ( 719324 )

        But that, generally (especially when looking at huge delays in releasing "proper" Mozilla for mobile phones; essentially directly justified by "we'll just wait until the phones get faster"; while other, also "proper" browsers were doing it) seems somehow at odds with stated Mozilla goals, "to preserve choice and innovation on the Web" - suddenly it's "unless on a too slow device"?

        iWould running such servers really be that big of a problem with their financials? Mozilla isn't the only more or less independen

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hkmwbz ( 531650 )

          seems somehow at odds with stated Mozilla goals, "to preserve choice and innovation on the Web" - suddenly it's "unless on a too slow device"?

          It isn't at odds with that. It's just that they are being pragmatic about it. Firefox won't run on slow phones anyway.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sznupi ( 719324 )

            That's circular; "we are pragmatic about not fullfiling our mission on the fastest growing type of web access because we made our browser in a way which makes it impossible" (nvm the proxy approach; though how the codebase runs would probably influence proxy headaches, too)

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by hkmwbz ( 531650 )
              You are assuming that they cannot follow up on their mission, which is a fallacy.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by sznupi ( 719324 )

                So now only "proper" people can clarify what the specific goals of such mission are, I see...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hkmwbz ( 531650 )
        What makes Opera Mini "not Opera"? It's using Opera's engine, it's made by Opera, and it's called Opera. It might not work like your idea of "Opera" does, but it's still Opera in reality.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by segin ( 883667 )
          The actual J2ME client software running on the handset is not Opera the web browser because it is not actually a web browser (instead, it is more like a display renderer for a web browser running on a remote server), nor does it contain Presto (which is instead ran on a remote server.)

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday July 03, 2010 @07:12AM (#32784626)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by chill ( 34294 )

      This isn't even close to the experience I get.

      It takes 5 seconds from "click" to the first screen, and another 6-7 before I can type and start. Going to "www.youtube.com" took 5 seconds from hitting enter to the page fully loaded. Flash is enabled with the "YouTube enabler" plugin. I picked a video at random and played it twice. Once in the window, another time full screen. 5-6 seconds for the page to load and get the little spinner in the flash box. The video played with one small hiccup, about 20 se

    • The improvement over MicroB is that it works better for actually buying things on-line. The "save as PDF" option for receipts is a very useful feature. What's needed now is a print driver; discussions I've looked at suggest that this won't come before MeeGo, as there is little point in Nokia developing a CUPS-friendly print solution for an OS that it plans to obsolete.

  • Too bad it's still slow (Score:5, Interesting)

    by J0nne ( 924579 ) on Saturday July 03, 2010 @07:13AM (#32784636)

    I've installed it on my n900, but it's unusably slow, especially compared to MicroB, which is the default browser on Maemo (which also uses the gecko engine). It takes ages to start up, uses up all the CPU, and it takes 5 minutes before you finally managed to load a page. Also, after you close the browser, there's a 'fennec' process still using all the CPU cycles and draining your battery.

    Too bad, because I do like its feature set: Firefox sync, addons, etc, but I'll stick to MicroB until they find a solution to the CPU use issue.

    • I'm posting this from Firefox 1.1 on an N800. It's slower than the competition, but nothing like 5 minutes to load, it's perfectly usable.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by longbot ( 789962 )

      It takes ages to start up, uses up all the CPU, and it takes 5 minutes before you finally managed to load a page.

      So, just like the full version of FireFox on the desktop, eh?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mbrubeck ( 73587 )

      Note: I am on the Mobile Firefox development team.

      Load time is definitely an issue on Maemo. The built-in MicroB browser uses "faststart" which means that it starts a process when the device starts up, and that process stays in memory even after you close the browser. Firefox 1.1 doesn't use faststart, but we and Nokia are working on it for version 2 [mozilla.org] which will be the default MeeGo browser.

      The "fennec" process running after you close the window is a bug, and one that I don't think we've seen before.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by J0nne ( 924579 )

        The fennec process lingering happens only sometimes, I think it has to do with whether I'm running other apps, and because i closed it because it appeared to be hanging. I'll try to find a way to reliably reproduce it and file a bug when I do.

        Luckily the phone gets pretty hot when fennec doesn't close properly, so I know something's up when it happens :p .

  • I can't believe they still haven't fixed zoom. There are only 2 options "zoomed in" and "zoomed out", there is no in-between. There is no clockwise/counter-clockwise gesture to adjust zoom level like in MicroB. Uninstalled.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by chill ( 34294 )

      No, that isn't true. Double-tap is "smart zoom". Use the hardware volume keys to zoom in and out in increments.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by J0nne ( 924579 )

        Use the hardware volume keys to zoom in and out in increments.

        Which pisses me off as I want to use those keys to change the volume (but this isn't just Firefox doing this, MicroB and the photo viewer use them as zoom buttons too).

        I wish Mozilla implemented the swirl thing for the n900, though, but maybe Nokia patented it or something.

  • Some good news (Score:2, Insightful)

    by AHuxley ( 892839 )
    A real browser on a real OS on a real phone, no need to beg for permission or risk removal :)
  • It is unfortunate but I think Mozilla is way too late jumping on this mobile browser bandwagon. People are already way too comfortable and probably aren't going to be switching browsers anytime soon unless new phones come preinstalled with Firefox mobile. And I don't see anybody doing that considering that Apple is sticking with Safari, and the Android is using their own Chrome blend. Frankly it's useless. I've never been an Apple fan, but damn that Safari for the iPod touch and iPhone is probably one of th

  • I got a new N900 yesterday. I like it.

    I didn't, however, like the browser. The inability to open new taps was the killer for me, for all its rendering speed.

    I used Opera Mini on my 5800, and was pleased that it did tabbed browsing, but it just wasn't that good for form filling. I get a lot of trains, and cannot always be sure of my connections before setting off, so a phone that allows me to search for onwards trains as I'm nearing a stop is what I need. Opera mini did not allow that. With all their stuff b

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by paulbiz ( 585489 )
      Considering Opera Mini is a J2ME app and the N900 has no J2ME runtime, and the only way to run it is with MicroEmulator, I'm not surprised that it looked bad. I'm surprised you managed to get it running at all after 1 day of owning the N900. There is, however, Opera Mobile for N900: http://labs.opera.com/news/2010/05/11/ [opera.com]

  • If you are getting nightly builds of Firefox mobile, there is nothing new here. I got excited about a new release, only to find out, I've been on this new release for months now.

  • I can't wait for a mobile browser (running in android) that uses addons... specifically adblock.

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