Mozilla releases Firefox 4 for Android 2.0 and above

OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE OUTFIT Mozilla has released a version of its Firefox 4 web browser designed for smartphones that run Google's Android 2.0 or later.

Firefox 4 for Android is built with the same technology as the desktop version and so comes with tabbed browsing, bookmarks, add-ons and Firefox Sync. Firefox Sync allows a user's history, bookmarks, open tabs, passwords and form data to be used by and shared among multiple devices.

But before Mozilla followers out there get too excited, Firefox 4 for Android requires an ARMv7 processor, Android 2.0 or higher, 512MB of RAM minimum and around 14MB of storage. Users of Android 2.2 can use an SD card for some of this storage requirement. Assuming you have all that, Mozilla claims that Firefox 4 is three times faster than the browser that normally comes with Android.

As well as speed Mozzarella sees customisation as a major selling point. It says, "Firefox also offers thousands of ways to customize the features, functionality and look of mobile Web browsing with Firefox Add-ons."

Firefox 4 also has location-aware browsing, device orientation, accelerometer awareness and desktop notifications. What achieves all of this and allegedly at high speed is the web browser's Javascript engine. It incorporates the new JägerMonkey JIT compiler, along with enhancements to the existing Tracemonkey JIT. µ