Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Firefox for Android brings older smartphones into the fold

Firefox for Android brings older smartphones into the fold:





Firefox for Android on the newer Optimus G.




If you're still holding on to an older Android phone, Mozilla has an announcement for you: the mobile version of Firefox now officially supports a number of phones using processors based on the older ARMv6 instruction set. This includes models like the HTC Status, HTC ChaCha, Samsung Galaxy Ace, Motorola Fire XT, LG Optimus Q, and others. ARMv7 processors have superseded these older chips in almost all new phones today, but this is a welcome move for people who are still waiting out their contract before upgrading to something new.
According to a Mozilla blog post on the subject, about 55 percent of the 133 million Android phones in active use are still using ARMv6-based processors. The new version sets a minimum hardware requirement of an 800MHz processor and 512MB of RAM, but Mozilla wants to continue to reduce these requirements. On the software side, Firefox for Android still requires version 2.2 ("Froyo") or better in order to run, but according to Google's own numbers this should cover over 96 percent of Android's installed base.
Google's own Chrome browser requires version 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich") or newer to run, which covers less than 30 percent of the installed base. This makes Firefox the best option for an actively maintained browser on these phones, which are likely to be older or cheaper models without much hope of manufacturer support. Without manufacturer support, the built-in browser won't get updates, leaving users stuck with security holes and rendering problems that become more apparent as the Web moves forward.
Read on Ars Technica | Comments





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