Firefox 9.0 For Android Now Available In The Android Market [Firefox 9.0 For Android Arrives In The Market; Brings A New Tablet User Interface, Faster Start-Up Times & More]

Posted on TFTS by Robert Nelson on Wednesday, 21. December 2011 under: Computers & Computing, Mobile/Cell Phones, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

It looks like the folks at Mozilla have released the latest in terms of Firefox for Android. This release comes as version 9.0 and brings goodies that should benefit those using Firefox on either an Android smartphone or a tablet.

In terms of the app itself, Firefox for Android is available by way of the Android Market and it measures in at a 15M file download and maintains the requirement of Android 2.0 or later for use.

“The Mozilla Firefox Web browser brings the best of desktop browsing to Android. Best of all, it puts the Firefox you know and love at your fingertips. It’s fast, easy to use and customizable, with the latest security and privacy features to help you stay safe online.”

That being said, this release is certainly not the first release of Firefox for Android. Basically, the features that many have come to love and expect such as using your add-ons, tabbed-browsing, the ability to sync your browser history, bookmarks, passcodes and open tabs, location-aware browsing and more remain intact. As for what is new in this latest version, those goodies come as follows;

New Look for Tablets : Firefox has a new experience for tablets that leverages the large screen size and makes mobile Web browsing more intuitive. Popular Firefox features like tabs and the Awesome Screen are optimized for tablets.

Full-Screen Portrait Browsing: Firefox takes advantage of large tablet screens so you can use the full screen to browse the Web, even in portrait mode. Tabs are listed in a top left menu and easily hide when you don’t need them
Tab Optimization: Tabs are shown as thumbnails in the left panel of Firefox, allowing you to easily switch between tabs while still viewing full websites on the right. You can swipe to the left to hide tabs for a full screen view
New Action Bar with Quick Access Buttons: You can access Firefox Preferences, Add-ons, downloads and more in the new Action Bar menu (next to the Awesome Bar). The Action Bar adds back, forward and bookmark buttons for easy access

HTML5 Input Tag for Camera Access: Developers can build mobile websites and Web apps that allow you to use the camera on an Android phone or tablet to take pictures, scan bar codes and more without leaving Firefox
HTML5 Form Validation: Firefox supports the HTML5 Form Validation API which automatically validates website form fields like numbers, emails and URLs without developers needing to write a custom code or use a third-party library