Mozilla touts enhanced speeds with Firefox 4 Beta for Android update

Open-source software development initiative Mozilla unveiled the latest iteration of its Firefox 4 Beta browser for Android and Maemo smartphones, promising performance enhancements including accelerated start-up, improved page load times and better responsiveness to panning and zooming. According to Mozilla, recent tests on Javascript benchmarks indicate Firefox 4 Beta is now faster than the stock Android browser--in addition, the new release touts increased stability, reduced installation memory usage and improved readability with zooming, and also solves some keyboard issues. Firefox 4 Beta for mobile additionally offers close to 100 Firefox Add-ons enabling users to personalize their web experience.

Mozilla first launched the Firefox 4 beta mobile web browser in October 2010. Writing on the Mozilla Blog, mobile team technical lead Stuart Parmenter stated the biggest architecture changes emphasize Electrolysis and Layers: "Our alpha contained Electrolysis which allowed the browser interface to run in a separate process from the one rendering web content, resulting in a much more responsive browser," he explained. "This beta brings the Layers pieces which improve overall performance and in graphics areas such as scrolling, zooming and animations." Firebox 4 beta for mobile also incorporates desktop features like Firefox Sync (touting a seamless browsing experience between the desktop and smartphone) and the Awesome Bar (offering access to recent browsing history, bookmarks and tabs).

For more:
- read this Mozilla Blog entry

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