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What's Firefox Mobile got up its sleeve?
Nokia smart phones get a taster

By Jessica Dolcourt

Published: Monday 20 October 2008

Mozilla's release of the Firefox for Mobile alpha code, codenamed Fennec, will be available to users of the Nokia N810 and N800 internet tablet.

Some of the features include, a full-screen display with navigation set to the side; a version of the Firefox 3 Awesome Bar that combines history, bookmarks, and search; and plenty of capability for add-ons.

Starting with navigation, Fennec has a full-screen mode that relinquishes the entirety of the screen for browsing pleasure. This is consistent with one of the early designs, and with some functionality of the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta browser for touchscreen phones.

The Awesome Bar isn't a complete replica of Firefox 3's Awesome Bar but it's something close enough to save typing time. An official demo video reveals a bookmarking button to the right of the URL that lets users quickly grab favourites from a drop-down list.

The search bar along the bottom edge of the screen is less convincing however. It seems convenient enough to type in your term, than to click the engine you prefer to search with - either Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, or Answers.com. It turns out this search bar is a bit redundant, which some may see as a convenience and others as unnecessary. Search, in fact, is bundled into the URL bar and is duplicated below to focus the query on one specific engine.

Tabs and controls will receive a new mobile-specific treatment as well. Instead of hovering above in buttons, controls live in the right-hand margin of the web page, and tabs are on the left.

One of Fennec's goals is to carry over as much functionality from Firefox 3 as possible. Already, this early version contains a password manager that offers to save and auto-fill logins. Anyone who has spent more time than necessary pressing Alt or some other key to switch among letters, symbols, and characters on a smart phone will appreciate the time-saving qualities of having a secure password manager onboard.

Fennec's alpha build also debuts with pop-up blocking and the familiar logo to the left of the search bar that serves up the identity of the website owner.

Most importantly, Fennec supports add-ons. A few have already been created but this build is going out now in part to engage the thousands of independent add-on developers in the conversation of building, porting and deploying mobile extensions.

One difference here will be exactly where in the interface your add-ons will sit. This wouldn't be much of an issue if most users employed one or two extensions, but the average could be in the range of a dozen or more. Since a phone's screen is much tinier, icons will likely inhabit a context menu or pop-up control bar.

Firefox add-ons bring the browser its character. It seems obvious that making the mobile version of Firefox extensible and customisable will likewise herald its instant popularity, and will threaten the dominance of Opera Mini and Opera Mobile.

There's been a lot of talk about when Mozilla will release the next alpha version of Fennec. According to Jay Sullivan, Mozilla's Mobile director, that won't be for a few more months. Fennec must first undergo some changes to be readied for that introduction. First, it must be able to run on standard non-touchscreen phones as well as touchscreen formats. Second, it must be stable in portrait mode as well as in landscape mode. Third, there may be necessary tweaks to make it legible on a smaller screen.