On Tuesday, Mozilla released the latest version of Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo smartphones. Firefox 4 now includes support for Firefox Sync, which allows you to sync open tabs, history, bookmarks, passwords, and other data, between your computer and your smartphone. The new Firefox allows for tabbed browsing, add-on installation, and features a new, streamlined look. Mozilla says it will also automatically hide the browser controls when they aren’t in use, which should allow users to view more of the website you’re parked on. There’s also options to save PDFs, share pages, and customize the default search engine. Mozilla says that Firefox 4 is up to 3x faster than the stock Android browser. Firefox 4 for Android is available in the Market now, and the Maemo version can be downloaded here.

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Ah yes, pulled from the deep, cold fjords of Norway comes a fresh release of Opera for Android. The latest code out of Oslo – Opera 5.1 for Android — brings with it a slew of improvements, including: the ability to be set as the default browser, better kinetic scrolling, improved pinch-to-zoom functionality, and better overall rendering speed. The app is sitting in the Android Market as we speak. Why don’t you go check out what your friends from Norway have come up with for you! Hit the bounce for the full press release.

Opera Mini 5.1 for Android released
Oslo, Norway — July 14, 2010

Opera spreads the love to Android mobile phone users. Opera Mini 5.1 is now available for phones built on the Android platform, offering better browsing performance and improved user experience.

With over 61 million users worldwide, Opera Mini is the world’s most popular browser for mobile phones, allowing much faster browsing speeds, while keeping the costs to a minimum. Browse at lightning speed today by downloading the free Opera Mini browser from the Android Market or at m.opera.com.

Opera Mini is a favorite not just on feature phones, but also on smartphones, scoring an impressive 1 million downloads on the iPhone during the first 24 hours of availability. Opera Mini is highly optimized for almost any handset, delivering the best Internet experience on more than 3000 mobile phone models.

Opera Mini raises the game on Android phones. Since its Opera Mini 5 beta release, Opera Mini can now be set as the default browser for more convenient Internet access. Opera Mini 5.1 also offers improved page layout on high-end Android handsets with large screens.

What we say

“Opera Mini 5.1 for the Android platform is the next step in bringing the world’s most popular mobile web browser to all major platforms, offering improved performance and great web experience to almost any handset,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO, Opera Software. “Opera Mini is used by over 61 million people on more than 3000 handset models and with today’s release Opera continues its mission to provide the best web experience on any device and on any platform.”

About Opera Mini

Opera Mini brings the Web to almost any handset by compressing data by up to 90 percent before sending content to the phone. This results in significantly improved page loading speed and reduced data costs for the user. For example, with webpages such as BBC.com, a normal mobile web browser will display a BBC News page roughly 1 time, as compared to 9 times with Opera Mini for the same cost.

In addition to providing speed and cost savings, Opera Mini 5.1 comes with useful features, such as tabbed browsing, password manager, bookmarks and Speed Dial, built into the browser to deliver easy web access while on-the-go. With Opera Mini optimized for Android phones, more people are able to get a PC-like browsing experience on their handsets.

Download

Download Opera Mini directly to your Android phone for free from the Android Market, or at m.opera.com. For more information, visit http://www.opera.com/mobile/.

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Listen: It took six months of the App Store’s existence for Apple to approve the first batch of third-party browsers for the iPhone and iPod touch. It was a pretty damn exciting event because it was the sort of app everyone was used to being rejected because it replicates native features of the iPhone OS. Well, since then Apple rejected some pretty prolific apps for the same asinine reason to the point that even the flippin’ government took notice and started asking questions. And now, today, we have a new potential app disaster on our hands because Opera, the third-party mobile browser powerhouse, announced it will be previewing Opera Mini for iPhone next week at Mobile World Congress. Opera seems to think its app will be able to slide through the approval processes without issue, but we’re not going to get our hopes up just yet.

Totally random thought we’re just going to throw out there: Anyone think AT&T might be keen on seeing Opera Mini approved? Just think of the Draino of a job Opera’s data compression technology might do to unclog the long, hippie hair stuck in AT&T’s data pipes.

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The mobile browser wars are on. The competition is between Opera, Mobile IE, Safari, Chrome, and the Blackberry Browser. So far, even iPhone haters would agree, Safari has yet to be touched. It only makes sense that one of the most popular browsers out there, Firefox, and their creator, Mozilla, would want to jump in on the mobile browser battle. A few weeks ago, Fennec, Mozilla’s upcoming mobile browser, was released to some beta testers but was only available for the Nokia N810 Internet tablet. While the programmers testing it out found a lot of bugs, they also felt there is a lot of promise for Mozilla’s latest browser offering. Jay Sullivan, vice president of the mobile division at Mozilla, says the reports from testers were positive and that JavaScript performance was on par with the browsers on Android and the iPhone’s Safari.

If anyone knows how to make a browser powerful, but user-friendly, it’s Mozilla. Fennec is going to be no different in terms of their end goal for the mobile browser. First, they intend to use every last bit of screen real-estate to the browser, removing all controls, tabs, and buttons that would take away from the body of the page. Sullivan says they want to “give over the entire screen of the device to the Web content, removing all user-interface controls entirely.” How will a user navigate, you ask? Certain screen controls and finger swipes (for touchscreens) will activate the UI controls in a snap. If that isn’t cool enough for you, future versions may also include support for haptic feedback. While this is all cool and snazzy, Fennec has its work cut out because the others (Safari, Opera, Blackberry, Symbian) have established themselves and are still making progress. For more info on Fennec and what its future holds, hit the link!

Thanks, Chris!

[Via UnwiredView]

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