FireFox 4 out, brings improvements for tablets
FireFox 4 was released this week for a variety of “full” OSes, including Windows. The new version is a lot nicer to look at and (IMHO) easier to use, especially on Windows tablets.
Among other features it has a new design that almost has an iOS/Android/etc look to it; more streamlined, less text based buttons (they’re still there, just hidden). This also means that the default toolbars take up less vertical space, which should come as a relief to anyone with a 1024×600 resolution device- like most UMPCs and netbooks(/netbook-tablets). The new look should also be easier to use with a (capacitive) touchscreen which we see more and more of in Windows tablets. You could do a lot of this with plugins and hacks already, but this is more streamlined and nicer looking.
Another nice update is “app tabs”, which basically acts like the new task bar in Windows 7 by letting you “pin” sites to the tab bar, removing the text to show only the favicon and automatically opening those when you start the browser. This is useful for things like Gmail, social sites etc that you normally have open all the time, letting them stay in one easy-to-find place and not using a lot of space on the tab bar.
Some of these features (actually, most of them in some form) has been available on other browser (Chrome) for ages now, but if you like me stick with Firefox for some specific reasons (like specific add-ons) it might be irrelevant what Chrome can do. Either way, if you have a Windows tablet (or any Windows device) you might want to check out what this version has in store. Now, Mozilla, make me an iPad version! Please…?
