New Beta Version of Firefox for Android - Improved Speed and Size

Mozilla released Firefox 4 browser for Android-based smartphones, promised to be a faster, smaller beta with an improved user interface, according to a Thursday’s blog post. This new beta version takes much less space than the previous 43MB, it is greatly fixed in a total of around 17 MB only. However, Mozilla still sees room for further improvement though. This is not exactly an update or upgrade, it’s rather a newer version of the app, as the users of the previous beta version will have to uninstall it and then install the new one in order to reclaim the storage space.

Mozilla has been working hard to speed up panning and zooming operations as well as reducing page load times, according to the blog post. Further it claimed, On Android 2.2, Firefox 4 is now around 25 percent faster than the stock browser.

The interface has been repaired to make it look more Android-like, although not too much as it had to maintaining a connection to Firefox for desktop platforms, according to Mozilla. Although Mozilla also reported that: “Before the final version is released, Mozilla will do some further fine tuning,” which means these changes might not be the only changes. Users are now also able share links from the site menu and undo the closing of a tab as well.

The Firefox 4 beta version runs on Android 2.0 or higher, and has been successfully tested on smartphones such as the HTC EVO 4G, Motorola Droid 2 and Samsung Galaxy S, and the U.S. versions of that phone.

Mozilla is still not announcing about the release of a final version, whereas, the first beta version was released about a month ago. Now, new beta version is also available for the Maemo operating system used on Nokia's N900 smartphone.

Mozilla is not working on a browser for Google's smartphone operating system alone.  Its competitor, Opera Software, which is a Norwegian browser, promised on Oct. 14 that it would release a beta version of Opera Mobile for Android within the month, which means the company, needs to deliver before the end of next week to keep its promise.