Android smartphone users finally have a chance to run a mobile version of the Firefox browser. It's the first time the smartphone version has been released on a widely used mobile OS.

Mozilla, the non-profit group behind Firefox, says Firefox for Android (originally code-named Fennec) is three times faster, in page load times and performance of Web apps and games, than the Web browser that Google packages with the mobile OS. The speedup was the result of big improvements to components of the browser's JavaScript engine.

The UI is optimized for small touch-screens, so browser controls are hidden when not in use, for example. But the browser is based on the same technology foundation as its desktop cousin, including extensive support for HTML 5. So mobile users will have the same familiar tabbed browsing, bookmarks, and add-ons, along with Firefox Sync, which lets users work with browser features - such as bookmarks, data from forms and passwords - across different computers and devices.

More: http://www.pcworld.com/article/223798/