Mozilla works on Firefox for tablets

With the market for tablet computers booming, Mozilla is now working on a new version of its popular open-source Firefox Web browser for tablets. Mozilla said its Firefox for tablets is an “evolution" from its phone-based predecessor, with enhancements that seek to take advantage of a tablet’s larger screen size. “Firefox looks right at home on Android 3.0, drawing its overall theme from Honeycomb’s minimalist design language. Of course, this is still Firefox, so we’ve made sure to keep familiar visual elements in place, like our signature big back button and a distinctive tab shape," Mozilla user interface (UI) designer Ian Barlow said in a blog post. Barlow said Firefox for Tablets will retain the “Awesomebar," a combination address- and search bar; as well as the tabbed menu to allow access to bookmarks, history, and desktop activity. However, Firefox phone version users may have to look for the tabs at the left. He said this makes them easier to reach and increases the number of results that can be displayed above the keyboard. Also, he said the Firefox for tablets will take advantage of the bigger screen space to display more UI elements compared to the phone version. In landscape mode, the tabs exist in a persistent left bar, allowing for quicker browsing. “You can switch through tabs with your left thumb, and scroll through web content with your right. In portrait mode, this tab bar gets rolled up into a menu item at the top of the screen, to free up browsing space below," he said. This will allow a user to keep many tabs open yet quickly switch back and forth between them, or just open a page and see nothing else on the screen, he added. — TJD, GMA News