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By Cara Garretson
On the heels of its release of Firefox 3.6 for PCs last week, Mozilla on Friday made available a mobile version of its open-source browser that runs on Nokia's Maemo operating system for mobile devices.
This version of Firefox is optimized for mobile users, requiring minimal typing and offering synchronization with desktop versions of the browser, according to a blog post on Mozilla's Web site. Nokia's Maemo is an operating system for mobile devices that contains open-source components, and currently runs on Nokia's N900 smartphone.
Specifically, users of the mobile version of Firefox can use the browser's Weave Sync capability to synchronize tabs, history, bookmarks, and passwords with versions of the browser running on desktop PCs. Like the desktop version, the mobile version also features an "Awesome Bar" of favorite Web sites, location-aware browsing that offers maps and directions relevant to a user's current location, and tabbed browsing that lets users view open tabs as thumbnails, according to Mozilla.
For security, this version of Firefox offers Instant Web Site IDs and lets users easily access and edit the browser's security settings, the group says. A password manager automatically saves site passwords so mobile users don't need to repeatedly type them in. There's also a `clear history' feature for private data or browsing activities.
Like its desktop counterpart, the mobile version of Firefox works with add-ons, including a YouTube Enabler, ad blocker and Twitter Bar, as well as games and news readers, to extend and customize the functionality of the browser. More than 40 add-ons for the mobile version of the browser can be found and installed directly from the Nokia N900 device. Mozilla says Firefox is the first mobile browser that works with add-ons.
Firefox for mobile lets developers customize and extend the browser with technologies including HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS.
Just days before releasing the official version, Mozilla distributed the third release candidate of Firefox for Maemo. In that release, Mozilla chose to disable the plug-in capability so that technologies such as Adobe Flash won't run in the browser. This decision was made for performance reasons.
"The Adobe Flash plug-in used on many sites degraded the performance of the browser to the point where it didn't meet our standards," said Mozilla in a Jan. 27 blog. The post says that users can enable the experimental plug-in support, but they must do so at their own risk.
The mobile version of Firefox for Nokia's Maemo is available in 30 languages. Mozilla is also working on a version of Firefox for Microsoft's Windows Mobile (currently in Alpha 3 stage), and a version of the browser for Google's Android is in early development, according to the Mozilla Web site. The group says it has no current plans to develop versions of Firefox for Apple's iPhone, RIM's Blackberry, or Symbian devices.
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