So I just installed Fennec (beta) for Android on my Samsung Galaxy S. For those who don’t know Fennec is the Mobile version of Firefox.

The concept is based on “horses for courses”. You couldn’t run Firefox (the Linux version) on Android – it just doesn’t work that way. But there are probably many parts of Firefox that are replicated throughout the different builds. Be it the Windows, Linux or Fennec versions.

First impressions

Quick. Multi-touch zoom. Integrated Google search in address bar. Strange placement of settings controls – you don’t access them via the normal menu button that Google demands on Android phones, instead on any webpage use a swipe gesture from right to left. This brings up a hidden side-panel that includes the bookmarking button, back and forward buttons and the settings button. I am guessing a lot of people will struggle find this unless told.

Also the Sync plugin is ready to go from the install. This is a wise idea as many people who are likely to want Firefox on their phone (over the default browser) want it because they already use Firefox on the desktop. Sync brings across your saved passwords, bookmarks, history and settings. That’s the main reason I want Fennec on my phone. Seamless syncing between my laptop and phone.

Unfortunately, I got lots of errors when trying to sync with Firefox 3.6 or 4 beta on my laptop running Jolicloud. After research and a little wasted effort I have found this to be a tough nut to crack. I am sure the experience will be different across operating systems, network connections and Firefox versions. I hope to update this post with information of how and why these problems occured for those in the same boat.

Footnote

If you don’t complete the sync set-up when Fennec first installs and want to enable a sync account afterwards it is in the settings at the bottom of the page.
And just in case you missed it the;
User, Password & Sync Key
is the same as desktop Firefox Sync’s;
User, Password and Secret Phrase.

I Googled “Sync Key Fennec” when I couldn’t figure this out but seems no-one else was confused by the alternative naming of the Secret Phrase.

The Danes tend to know what they’re doing from my experience but unfortunately this is one of those examples where theory is all that’s being exhibited.

Bonnier and BERG teamed up to publish a concept video surrounding the requirements of publishing for tablet format devices – entitled MAG+

According to the Bonnier website this video was primarily a launch spot for discussion as to what exactly  issuing magazines to tablet format devices would entail and how best to fit in refined gesture tech along side natural, intuitive human computer interaction.

Once you’ve seen the video I presume there will be questions, of which these are mine:

• The hardware is designed to do the job of a colour ebook reader with multi-touch, video playback, connectivity etc, so how will this formatting distinguish itself from online magazines (usually free) using good web design. Ie. Any android based tablet would be able to find a site designed along these guidelines and read with similar interaction. With the publishing industry working on this sort of platform/system looking for revenue comparable with paper magazines – this will have to weave in to a web-based revenue model to work across all access points and not soley focused on ebook/tablet formats.
• Have I got it all wrong? Could this style of “browsing” with touch and gesture translate into web 2.5 – the start of sites being designed around touch specific controls?

Video and official blog entry can be found here.

I have been using various flavours of Linux on a variety of platforms for a couple of years and have most recently been using Fedora 10 on an Acer Aspire One.

I can only say that the out-of-box usage after installing from a Live USB image was 100% and beat the 8.10 Ubuntu distro hands down.  The install was fast and simple, although ext3 file system was installed by default and the indexing used is known to slow performance. However with SELinux disabled for added speed and some fedoraproject.org tips on speeding up the SSD usage and converting the filesystem things started to look snappy.

Where Ubuntu had struggled with WiFi simplicity Fedora did not and networking on my LAN with other PCs was as easily achievable.

Now though, after a few months of toying, upgrading the RAM by 1gb and so on, I want more speed if possible and just an upgrade to the stable, new releases of Linux OS building blocks – Gnome, Ext FS, nautilus, pidgin etc that really make a difference to everyday usage.

This evening I downloaded Fedora 11 and this time I’m going for the xfce desktop varient that should perform a shade faster than gnome or KDE on the netbook.  I’ll be uploading a post as soon as I’ve tested out the Live version and am comfortable installing to give a mroe thorough review.