You are viewing information archived from Mozilla.org on 2013-08-16.

This is an early developer release of the mobile version of Firefox, for testing purposes only, intended to:

  • get wider community feedback on our approach to the user experience
  • engage Mozilla community teams, including localizers, add-on developers, and testers
  • get feedback from Web developers

The focus of development so far has been on building a new user interface that reflects Firefox's design principles, and adds touch screen support and other features that are appropriate for mobile phones and other handheld devices. We plan to do further alpha releases which focus on performance, including projects like TraceMonkey, speculative parsing, and many Fennec and Gecko optimizations. But in the meantime, we feel it is important to make this early release available to continue to grow the community and gather feedback as early as possible in the development process.

To help out, visit the Mozilla mobile page to learn about our public weekly meetings, how to find our community on IRC, and more.

These Release Notes provide a "quick start" for the impatient, some highlights of what's included in this version, download and installation instructions, known issues, and frequently asked questions. Please read these notes and the bug filing instructions before reporting bugs to Bugzilla.

Quick start

This first alpha release is available for the OS2008 ("Maemo") software platforms that runs on the Nokia N810 Internet Tablets. If you're viewing this on an N810, install Fennec.

Don't have an N810? Don't worry, you can still experiment with Fennec, provide feedback, write add-ons, and get involved by installing a version of Fennec for your desktop PC:

The idea behind releasing the package for PCs is to give people who don't have a Nokia Internet Tablet the ability to localize, experiment and build add-ons. Note: The desktop version of Fennec is not a supported product.

What's in this version?

Easy navigation to Web content:

  • Bookmarks, including tags
  • Smart URL bar ("awesome bar")
  • Tabbed browsing with thumbnail images
  • Integrated Web search - built into the URL bar
  • Easy access to multiple search engines

Web content:

  • Maximize content by auto-hiding controls and URL bar
  • Zoom in and out

Security:

  • Instant Web site ID ("Larry")
  • Password manager
  • Popup blocker
  • Clear private data

Devices services integration:

  • Click on a phone number to initiate a call
  • JavaScript API to get device location
  • Popup blocker
  • Clear private data

Also:

  • Searchable download manager
  • Preferences pane

Installing Fennec

System requirements:

  • Nokia N810 Internet Tablet running OS2008 ("chinook" or "diablo")

Installation:

Install a version of Fennec for your desktop PC:

Tips and tricks

  • to use the full screen for browsing, click the button on the left hand side on top of the device (to the left of the -/+ buttons)
  • swipe left to expose back/forward/bookmark buttons and the URL bar; swipe right to dismiss them
  • swipe right to expose tabs; swipe left to dismiss them

Known issues

  • user interface intermittently unresponsive during page load
  • page loading takes a long time to complete for many sites
  • plug-ins are disabled
  • bookmark folders are not implemented yet

Give us feedback