Mozilla Launches “Firefox For Windows 8 Touch” Beta

Part of the reason why Windows 8(.1) adoption has been quite slow, in my opinion, is because there has been a lack of adoption from software and hardware developers within the Windows ecosystem. Mozilla is the latest software giant to finally warm to Windows 8 as it launches its beta version of Firefox, designed specifically for touch enabled Windows 8 devices. Mozilla made the announcement late on Friday evening and the newly designed browser is optimised for Windows 8 touch devices with a bunch of new features including a tile-based Firefox start screen, pinch to zoom, one-touch swipe transitions and one-tap access to top sites, bookmarks and history. Mozilla’s listed features are as follows:

• Full, Snapped and Fill views: These options let you chose if you want to view an app full-screen, or ‘snapped’ to a narrow region of the screen (typically to the left of the screen like a sidebar), or if you’d like your app to ‘fill’ the remaining screen area not already occupied by an app in ‘snapped’ state.

• Visual Navigation: The big tiles on the start screen make browsing a more visually-rich experience and are easy to recognize and tap. The tile-based interface simplifies auto-complete and makes searching quick and easy.

• Windows Share integration: Share a Web page or a piece of content from any Web page to any of your installed social networks.

PCWorld.com have already taken a look at the new touch browser from Mozilla and came to the conclusion that:

“There just aren’t many good reasons to check out Metro Firefox in its current state. The (very) basics are all in place, but here’s hoping the Metro Firefox beta gets some serious spit-shining before launching in its final form.” 

You can download the Firefox for Windows 8 Touch Beta and try it for yourself right here.

Image courtesy of Mozilla