Beta 5 is a very important step towards our final release, even though we did not add any major features in this release. Based on all the great user feedback we have received, have continued to focus on making the browser faster, more stable, and more usable with this version:
Add-ons
o There are now over 100 add-ons for Firefox for mobile, and counting. Check out the winners of our Mobile Add-on Cup and many other awesome extensions for your mobile browser.
* Performance and Memory Usage
o We improved startup speed even more (compared to Beta 3 and Beta 4). This was a top request from Beta 3 users.
o Improved page load speed
o Firefox will now move its profile data to the SD card when you move the application to the SD card on Android 2.2 or higher
o Scrolling and page rendering are faster and smoother
o JavaScript is faster - our benchmarks show additional performance improvement in Beta 5 compared to Beta 4.
o Reducing memory and optimizing CPU usage are ongoing themes. We have been working on improvements in this area to make the browser more responsive and stable. Overall responsiveness has improved. We have identified some additional options for improvement, especially when using Firefox Sync, which we will launch soon. You will see continuous improvement in our future releases
* User Interface
o No major changes in this release compared to Beta 4, as we focused mostly on stability, usability, and performance
o Many miscellaneous bug fixes, usability improvements, and optimizations for a better experience. Firefox for mobile Beta 4 is more stable than previous versions (we fixed a number of issues that could lead to crashes under certain circumstances - see below)
* For developers
o In Beta 4 we instroduced restartless add-ons
o Also in Beta 4 we started providing support for HTML5 online/offline events
Firefox for Mobile beta 5 promises more performance
Posted on Thursday, February 24 2011 @ 18:04 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck