Mobile browser update: new version of Fennec for Windows Mobile

The latest version of Fennec was released for Windows Mobile today. From Mozilla, the people who brought you Firefox, the Windows Mobile Alpha Two update is geared towards engaging both professional and community developers.

What’s new?

There have been some performance and theme tweaks, and numerous bug fixes. However, the main thrust of the release seems to be in activating a community of developers and testers. Fennec is looking to get the same rich set of community-developed plug-ins and add ons that has made Firefox such a powerful on-line browser. Existing APIs for things like location-based services means that people can build useful mobile apps straight into the browser.

Excellent hands-on review here http://mobilitysite.com/2009/06/fennec-mobile-browser-down-the-fox-hole/

From the release:

” The initial focus of Fennec development was on building a new user experience that reflects Firefox’s design principles, adding touch screen support and other interactions appropriate for mobile phones and other handheld devices. Fennec preserves leading features like the Smart URL Bar (”awesome bar”) and support for add-ons.”

What we think?

I use Firefox as my everyday browser, mainly because there’s a tested add-on for pretty much anything I might try to do. If those add-ons can be smoothly ported across to Fennec, then it could be a ridiculously popular mobile browser.