Mozilla has released the first beta of Firefox 4 for Android and Maemo. Also known as Fennec, the mobile version of the browser is built on the same platform as the desktop version and includes features like Firefox Sync, Add-ons, and the Awesome bar.
According to a blog post announcing the beta release, Mozilla says it has made two big changes from the alpha version, namely with Electrolysis and Layers. The former splits the browser into two processes: one for the user interface and one to render the web content. The Layers architecture helps in performance and in graphic areas such as scrolling, zooming, and animations.
Features of Firefox 4 Beta include Firefox Sync, so that browsing history, bookmarks, tabs, and passwords are synced across your mobile and desktop devices. The Awesome Screen also gives you access to recent history, bookmarks and tabs.
And while these features will give the browser much appeal, Firefox 4 will also have to shine in terms of speed and performance for folks to make it their designated mobile browser.
