
Speedy Upgrade to Firefox for Android - joshsharp
http://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/06/26/mozilla-launches-a-speedy-and-powerful-upgrade-to-mobile-browsing-with-firefox-for-android/
======
rogerbinns
For some reason Mozilla blocks it for Android 3 devices but allows it on
Android 2 and Android 4. I copied the apk over and it works fine.

If anyone on the team is reading this, I also happen to have a page that
renders correctly on the desktop Firefox and Chrome, plus mobile Chrome and
the native Android browser, but messes up on Android Firefox (style
information looks like it is getting ignored). The page however has some very
personal information on it hence not using regular bug reporting.

~~~
vibrunazo
Worse part is that the older Firefox is the best browser for Android 3. Now it
cannot be found in the market anymore because the new version made it
incompatible.

If they wanted to make it incompatible with 3.0, they should've released a new
apk, so the tablet users could still install the old one. Android allows you
to have multiple apks for different costumers [1], so no need to make the app
unavailable after an upgrade.

[1] [http://android-
developers.blogspot.com.br/2011/07/multiple-a...](http://android-
developers.blogspot.com.br/2011/07/multiple-apk-support-in-android-
market.html)

~~~
rogerbinns
It isn't incompatible. I copied the apk over from another device and it works
fine. It is something they configured in the app store.

~~~
bergie
Yep, seems they messed something up. Both the older Firefox, and the Aurora
have been running just fine on my ICR Transformer Prime, but now Firefox
refuses to update.

~~~
AaronMT
It is not a mistake. We currently don't support tablets in this release as
development did not finish in time for this '1.0' style release.

Fortunately, you can test out Nightly (our developer oriented release channel)
which has some tablet-optimized changes available for download at
<http://nightly.mozilla.org>

[I'm a Mozilla QA Engineer]

~~~
rogerbinns
I couldn't care less about UI changes. My tablet and my phone have virtually
identical screen resolutions. The important bit is the web page itself. Anyway
I worked around it by copying the apk to my tablet.

------
ck2
My biggest problem with using Firefox on android devices is not really it's
fault - most content providers streamline and send a mobile version of a
webpage when using the android browser - but virtually none of them properly
detect mobile Firefox.

I suppose on a tablet it's fine but not on a 3-4 inch screen with slower
connection.

Over time, hopefully this will be fixed and useragent added to the appropriate
databases/triggers on more websites.

~~~
huggyface
_I suppose on a tablet it's fine but not on a 3-4 inch screen with slower
connection._

Just to offer a counter opinion, I never, ever enjoy being delegated to a
mobile site, and detest the gimped experience sites try to force on my very
capable little high resolution handset.

~~~
ck2
I guess it depends on your hardware and connection speed.

I'd rather opt-in than opt-out to the full experience on a mobile device if
the main pages are full of images or bloated with many external objects.

Look at these mobile examples which I find much more suitable for tiny screens
with underpowered cpus: [http://www.640pixels.com/design-
showcase/15-beautiful-exampl...](http://www.640pixels.com/design-
showcase/15-beautiful-examples-of-mobile-website-design-done-right.aspx)

But most of those sites will not detect Firefox mobile (yet). Again, this is
not Firefox's fault.

------
angersock
I wouldn't suppose WebGL is supported also?

~~~
bzbarsky
Firefox for Android has supported WebGL for a while, yes.

~~~
angersock
Ah wonderful! Thanks!

------
mdwelsh
This looks awesome. Does anyone know if SPDY support is in this release?

~~~
cpeterso
Yes. Firefox 11 added SPDY support (but defaulting to off), but Firefox 13
enabled SPDY by default. Firefox for Android is based on Firefox 14.

SPDY Indicator is a Firefox add-on that displays a SPDY icon in your address
bar (but it doesn't support Firefox for Android yet).

[https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spdy-
indicato...](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/spdy-indicator/)

------
madrona
It's fast and smooth, but the font sizes are all over the map. Especially in
these HN comment threads. Some of the posts are readable, and some of them use
microscopic type.

