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If you’re hungry for Firefox on your Android-powered mobile phone, you can satisfy your craving right now. An early version of Firefox Mobile, also known by its codename Fennec, is now free to download.
Don’t get too excited, because this is a pre-alpha release — that means it’s too buggy to even be called an alpha. The developers say it probably won’t “eat your phone, but bugs might cause your phone to stop responding, requiring a reboot”.
You’ll need a phone that’s running version 2.0 or later of Android, and it’s only been tested on the Motorola Milestone and the Google Nexus One, two of the most pumped-up Android phones. It also has some memory-usage problems, so you could struggle if you’re trying it on a less powerful phone such as the HTC Legend — but HTC Desire owners should be fine.
We took the pre-alpha Fennec for a jaunt on our Nexus One and we were pleasantly surprised — although it’s sluggish at times, most of the features seem to be up and running well. We had a couple of crashes, and it’s really too buggy to use as our main browser, but it gives a glimpse into a mobile browser that’s packed full of fun stuff. That includes add-ons, which are like apps for the browser that give it more features.
You can check out photos and a run-down of Firefox Mobile’s main features in our hands-on of the beta version on the Nokia N900.
Download the pre-alpha from the developer’s blog to install it on your phone.
