Open source meets mobile

analysis
Mar 24, 20092 mins

Just in time for this week's Open Source Business Conference, Mozilla and the Open Handset Alliance preview their latest wares

Mozilla released some details (and video) about its mobile version of Firefox, Fennec, which has officially graduated to beta 1. Granted, for the time being, the mobile installation of Fennec beta runs only on a Nokia N98 tablet PC, but download emulators are available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux users.

Mozilla is looking for feedback from developers and users, who increasingly expect their mobile browsers to deliver a near-desktop experience. For example, Fennec features add-on support, as well as the ability to edit bookmark folders. Fennec will be using the TraceMonkey JavaScript compiler to produce quicker startup times on applications as well as faster panning and zooming. Mozilla is apparently shooting for a release by the end of this year; we can’t wait to see this fox in action.

Meanwhile, Android’s latest Cupcake build was captured on video by developer Joey Sochacki. Since the last build, the new developments are the desktop folders and some minor UI tweaks. He also demos the soft keyboard, which is still a touch buggy. A more recent video that demos Android’s circular zoom capabilities on an HTC Magic also popped up, which makes me think this Cupcake is almost ready to serve. This could be just in time as HTC has announced it will be releasing at least three Android smartphones this year, one of which should be the highly anticipated G2. With anticipated handsets from Samsung and LG (where are you, Agora?), the Android invasion hasn’t quite begun yet, but it’s definitely on the way.