Firefox Home App Available Now

It was almost two months ago when we first heard that Mozilla would bring a Firefox app to the iPhone. Even though early comments and impressions would indicate otherwise, we knew all along that it wouldn’t be a fully-functioning browser, as that would never get the green light from Apple. What we do get with Firefox Home, as it’s called, is the ability to sync history, bookmarks, and open tabs from a computer to our phones. The app stores these things as lists, and each item can be tapped and launched at your will.

Setting things up is very simple: Just install the add-on called Firefox Sync, follow the prompts to create an account, and then get the app from the App Store . . . From there, you’ll find that the organization of the app couldn’t be more intuitive. Four tabs along the bottom give you links to search, tabs, bookmarks, and settings, with the rest of the screen space devoted to displaying your personal Firefox info synced from the computer.

Okay, in theory, there could be situations where this app might be useful. The ability to get up and go while keeping your desktop/laptop internet session in your pocket might be beneficial (though not necessary, seeing as we’ve done without it for years, and without any uproar) . . . The problem, though, is that things don’t seem to be flowing smoothly on launch day. I’ve experienced a total failure when trying to get the app to update what’s going on with my laptop. The refresh button seems inactive, and none of the app’s displayed content has changed since I first launched it. And I’m not alone, one user commented that Firefox sync is “completely borked,” making the app useless.

Clearly, Mozilla will need to give this some attention. But I for one will stick around for the update that might make for smoother sailing. The app keeps things painfully simply, and if it gets to functioning properly, could find a place among our commonly-used utilities.

About the Author

Devin Wieland

 

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