Categories: General

A quick update on Firefox for Android Tablets

We’re rapidly approaching the end of our blocker list on the all-new Firefox on Android Phones. Up next is a slew of enhancements to Firefox on Android Tablets, including:

  • Improved performance with a full rewrite of the browser, moving from the current XUL-based UI to the same Java-based UI that our upcoming phone browser uses.
  • An all-new theme that matches that of the new Firefox on phones, and builds on our goal of unifying the look and feel of Firefox across all our supported platforms. You can read more about this in Madhava’s recent blog post on the state of Firefox UX, and Patryk’s post on Firefox Visual Design.
  • A number of new features, including Search Suggest in the Awesomebar, a Reader Mode, and an improved Start Page.

Related Flickr Sets: http://bit.ly/IJg6Cs and http://bit.ly/IyogBc

Below is a list of features in progress, and their associated bugs. Many of these are based on designs for 10” tablets, but parallel work will be happening to update the UI on phones and 7” tablets, where appropriate.


Title Bar
[Bug 739355]

  • URL Bar with Title
  • Back button
  • Progress indicator (spinner + bar)
  • Conditional forward button
  • SSL / EV indicators
  • Addons indicators
  • Bookmark
  • Refresh
  • Stop
  • Overflow Menu


Awesomebar


Tabs Menu
[Bug 739407]

Remote Tabs [Bug 739411]

Overflow menu [Bug 739412]

Site ID Menu  [Bug 739356]

Bookmark management  [Bug 739359]

Doorhanger Notifications

In-content UI

Reader Mode [Bug 696921]

Reading List

Share

Site Settings

Settings (Native Settings UI)

Error Pages

Addons Manager

Access to Add-ons in browser UI

  • Menu
  • Widgets in menu or header on large tablets
  • Full page in-content UI

Gesture Support

  • one-fingered dragging to scroll pages
  • double tap to zoom / unzoom
  • pinch to zoom
  • long press links for context menu (open in new tab, etc)
  • long press text to activate text selection mode
  • swipe from left edge of screen to open tabs menu
  • two-fingered side to side dragging for back / forward controls
  • Explore pulling down on header to reveal tabs tray (on phones)
  • Explore pulling down on content to reveal home screen / awesomebar

One comment on “A quick update on Firefox for Android Tablets”

  1. Paul [sabret00the] wrote on

    I love what you’ve planned for Fennec for Tablets. It’s beautiful.