Firefox has released an update for its iOS browser that offers interface improvements and a faster browsing experience.
Firefox v5.0 promises faster web page loading times combined with significant battery savings, according to the browser's development team. Mozilla claims up to a 40 percent reduction in CPU usage and up to a 30 percent reduction in memory usage, although it notes results may vary between users.
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Aside from speed improvements and power savings, the main interface has seen a number of new additions. Top of the list is a new menu on the toolbar that allows for easier navigation and quick access to frequently used features – from adding a bookmark to finding text in page.
Mozilla has also tried to make tab management a less frustrating experience on smaller screens, with the introduction of a 'Close All Tabs' option and an 'Undo' option to easily recover them, as well as a simpler method of navigating open tabs.
Users can also now set their favorite site as their homepage, which can be accessed at any time via the Home button in the new main menu.
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In addition, users can now search sites with a search box (Amazon, for example) using a new magnifying glass button above the keyboard.
To add a website to the list of search engines accessed from the new tool, users simply need to go to the site in question and tap on the magnifying glass.
Firefox web browser is a free download for iPhone and iPad available on the App Store. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
If Firefox can demonstrably compete with Safari on the desktop and on mobile in terms of speed and battery life, I would be willing to make the switch. Until then, however, the convenience of Safari on both OS X and iOS with iCloud integration and the addition of not having to create a separate user account for shared tabs, etc. - plus the battery life issue - means that Safari wins out in my books.
True for Mac-only users. However, for those of us who want or need to use other operating systems as well, Firefox continues to be a great browser. Its ability to sync across platforms with a Firefox account, huge extension ecosystem, and focus on privacy still make it my browser of choice.In addition, users can now search sites with a search box (Amazon, for example) using a new magnifying glass button above the keyboard.
That's freaking amazing.To add a website to the list of search engines accessed from the new tool, users simply need to go to the site in question and tap on the magnifying glass.
That's precisely the technology you need to enable a feature I came up with the other day...
I'd love to have a search box to specifically search a couple of bookmarked websites I frequently use as research databases.
I know you can set up a custom Google search, but then you still get the Google search results page and that's often much less efficient than a website's search function.
I may find the name of a game mentioned somewhere for the domain xyz.com, but it's not an article about it.
So Google may yield results that aren't relevant when the website search is optimized for what people expect to get returned.
tl;dr:
I want a combined results page for a bunch of sites using site searches.
Someone make it happen!
Glassed Silver:mac
True for Mac-only users. However, for those of us who want or need to use other operating systems as well, Firefox continues to be a great browser. Its ability to sync across platforms with a Firefox account, huge extension ecosystem, and focus on privacy still make it my browser of choice.
I agree. Firefox is my go-to browser when I'm working on Windows (but I don't usually have to take advantage of cross-platform features when I'm on Windows so they don't affect me in the same way that they might affect others.)