First mobile version of Firefox 'days' away from launch
The first mobile version of Firefox is “days away” from launch on the Nokia N900 phone, according to reports.
The popular browser, which accounts for 24.7 per cent of the global browser market – according to Net Applications’ December figures - is almost ready to make its debut on mobile.
Jay Sullivan, who is heading up the project – codenamed Fennec - that it is currently going through testing and could be released before the end of the year.
"At the end of the working day you can walk away from your computer and keep on going on your phone," Mr Sullivan told the BBC.
"It encrypts all of the information and sends it back through the cloud between your desktop and mobile."
If all goes to plan, before the end of the year he hopes N900 users will be able to download Firefox in Nokia’s Ovi store.
Mozilla, the parent company of Firefox, is also working on versions for Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows respective operating systems.
However, iPhone owners who like using Firefox on their desktop, will have to keep waiting to be able to sync their desktop and mobile browser experiences as Mr Sullivan told the BBC that Apple was a “pretty closed platform” so he didn’t see it happening soon.
Opera is the most popular mobile browser at the moment – as it is well optimised for the platform and comes pre-programmed into many mobile handsets.
Google Chrome OS to challenge Microsoft Windows
The internet search company said the new software, based on its Chrome internet browser, will be available on small, cheap laptops known as netbooks, in the second half of next year.
Google, which has expanded its operations to cover just about every service imaginable on the internet, hopes later versions of the Chrome operating system will be powerful enough to run applications on desktop computers.
The move will heighten the increasingly fractious relationship between Google and Microsoft, whose Windows operating system runs about 90pc of the world's computers.
Google has already launched a series of web-based software programmes which directly compete with Microsof's Office applications, such as Word and Excel.
It is also offering to host large companies' email systems as an alternative to Microsoft's popular Outlook email service.
"It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be," Sundar Pichai, Google's vice president of product management, said on the company's official blog.
"We hear a lot from our users, and their message is clear: computers need to get better,"
"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS."
Mr Pichai said the new operating system would be "fast" and "lightweight" so that users can get online in seconds and remove lengthy boot-up times and security checks for viruses.
Microsoft is set to release an updated version of its own operating system, called Windows 7, in October.
As part of its plan to diversify away from internet search, Google has also launched a new "open source" operating system for mobile phones. The software, called Android, runs several new smartphones designed to challenge Apple's iPhone and Micorsoft's mobile phones.
In return Microsoft has attempted to increase its presence in the internet search by launching a new search engine called Bing!
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