Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/09/21/firefox_home/

Firefox wraps its gums around the iPhone

Spreading the experience, if not the tech

By Bill Ray

Posted in Networks, 21st September 2010 11:17 GMT

Mozilla has skinned the iPhone's safari browser with a Firefox-compatible wrapper that synchronises bookmarks and history, and integrates search.

Once Firefox Home has been installed, searches can be typed directly into the address bar, with previous URLs and searches being offered as options just like on the desktop version of Firefox. But Firefox Home is no replacement browser, as it stays within Apple's latest rules.

Those rules don't dance around the subject with talk of locally-interpreted code and such. The latest update explicitly states that "Apps that browse the web must use the iOS WebKit framework", so Firefox Home is not a web browser but a wrapper around the existing application.

Safari is a perfectly acceptable mobile browser, so adding synchronisation features makes a lot of sense, and integrating search is only sensible for a company that makes a proportion of its income by recommending a search partner.

Mozilla has provided a video running through the new features, and a link to the iTunes application store for those who want to download the free enhancement. ®