For a long time it didn’t really seem possible that smart phones would ever seriously compete with actual computers. There would still be a need and a reason to sit with a pc or at least a laptop and get some real work done.
For instance it hasn’t always been seamless or quick to load an attachment into an email. Also, the web pages sometimes didn’t look right and selecting click areas could often prove to be a pain on certain sites.
These complaints, however, are rapidly being answered by ever faster and more capable phones. In fact, it’s not really fair to call them phones anymore. We have to call them smart phones.
Admittedly, the things are pretty bright. Where one used to sort of lurch around a web page on a phone, you can now skate through the content with a finger tip, zooming in and out with simple pinching motions.
And if the features announced in the new Firefox 4 for Android phones are anything like what we can come to expect, then the day of mobile productivity has truly arrived.
Willing participants in the beta, which can be found in the Android Market by searching for “Mozilla Firefox” will discover this new browser literally integrating with their phone.
For instance it will add notification icons in the system bar along the top of the phone’s screen. It will also allow you to use the physical menu button along the bottom of the screen to access menu features within the browser.
Two of the neatest innovations are the Android keyboards and the File Picker system for uploading. The former adapts to what you are trying to do with the browser at that time by changing the enter button from either ‘go’ for url locations, or an hourglass ‘search’ button. The latter makes uploading and attaching files simple and quick.
