Firefox Home 1.0 for iPhone Release Notes
v.1.0, released June 30, 2010
Get up and go and have everything waiting for you on your iPhone: Your Firefox history, bookmarks and open tabs, just as you had left them on your desktop. Learn how we're bringing parts of the Firefox experience to mobile devices. Check out the features, known issues and frequently asked questions about Firefox Home 1.0 for the iPhone and iPod Touch. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, ask a question, or file a bug in Bugzilla.
What’s in Firefox Home 1.0 Application
For devices or platforms where we’re unable to provide the 'full' Firefox browser (either technically or due to policy), Firefox Home aims to provide users part of the Firefox experience with 'on the go' instant access to their personal Firefox history, bookmarks and open tabs on their iPhone or iPod Touch.
Firefox Home is built upon open, simple and powerful REST APIs that you can use for your own applications! The User API enables account creation, authentication and other account-related actions. The Sync API handles data storage and retrieval. These APIs work hand-in-hand to provide a complete end-to-end synchronization service. All of our code is open source, including that for the server, which means you can even run your own servers if you want.
For more information about Firefox Home, check out our progress, updates and FAQ here.
Highlights include:
- One-way refresh of your Firefox desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs to your iPhone or iPod Touch
- Instant access to your open tabs, just the way you left them on your PC
- Awesome Bar Search to get you to your recently and frequently visited sites with minimal typing
- Instant access to your bookmarks to get you to important sites by tapping instead of typing
- End-to-end encryption so only you have access to your Firefox data
- Access to your Settings to see what data has been ported, as well as the option to Refresh at any time
System Requirements
Download Firefox: Private, Safe Browser and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. When it comes to your life online, you have a choice: accept the factory settings or put your privacy first. Firefox recently released Firefox Lockbox, which is a built-in password manager for the popular browser. The app is available on Android and iOS too. It’s a pretty basic one and gets the job done.
You must have a Firefox Sync account to set up and use Firefox Home on your iPhone. You must have an Apple iPhone or Apple iPod Touch to use Firefox Home. Firefox Home requires OS 3.1 or higher.
Downloading
Download Firefox Home directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch, or by visiting the iTunes Store. You can also go to Firefox Home webpage to download, get Setup instructions and learn more about the features and benefits of Firefox Home for the iPhone.
Known Issues
- Firefox Home does not sync activity back from the iPhone to the cloud. It currently does a one-way sync of your data from the cloud to the iPhone.
- Firefox Home provides you with your Firefox desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs. It does not provide you with passwords that you might have stored on your desktop.
- Firefox Home does not support using Unicode characters in your Secret Phrase.
- Firefox Home works on older devices, but the experience won't be as awesome as it would on a 3G or 3GS
- Those who use Firefox Home on an iPhone 3G, 1st or 2nd generation iPod Touch device that have more than 2000 bookmarks may cause the app to run out of memory
Frequently Asked Questions
About Firefox Home
What is Firefox Home?
Firefox Home is a free application that lets you have access to your Firefox desktop history, bookmarks and open tabs on your iPhone.
Does this mean Firefox will be available on the iPhone?
No. We do not have plans to ship the Firefox browser for the iPhone. Due to constraints with the OS environment and distribution, we cannot provide users Firefox for the iPhone.
What happened to Weave Sync?
The 'Weave Sync' project from Mozilla Labs has been renamed to Firefox Sync and is now being incorporated into the Firefox roadmap. See this blog post for more details.
What is the difference between Firefox Sync and Firefox Home?
Firefox Home is a native iPhone application that does a one-way data refresh of your Firefox history, bookmarks and open tabs to your iPhone, whereas Firefox Sync is an add-on for Firefox that does a two-way sync of a user’s Firefoxhistory, bookmarks, open tabs and saved passwords between their desktop and Firefox mobile-enabled devices. Learn more about their functions, similarities and differences here.
How does the viewer in Firefox Home work?
The integrated Web viewer uses the native iPhone webview capability. Alternatively, you can also open any link in Safari.
Is all of my Firefox history synced to the iPhone? If not, how much of it?
We sync the 2000 most frequently or recently visited history items every 24 hours. In the interim, we tack on any history changes within that period.
How often is the data synced to my iPhone?
Data is synced to the phone every time you launch the app. We currently do not auto-sync as the most common use case is a launch-use-quit scenario, especially in the predominantly single-tasking world of apps on the iPhone. Users always have the option of forcing a refresh from the Settings tab.
Does it sync efficiently? I donct have an unlimited data plan for my iPhone.Should I be concerned?
We only sync changes since the last update for bookmarks and open tabs. And history is limited to about 2000 items. And there is no auto-sync. The median disk space used by Sync users is about 2-3 MB total for all of their Sync data and Home only has a subset of that.
How is Firefox Home licensed?
Firefox Home is licensed under the MPL.
I am having issues with Firefox Home. How do I troubleshoot?
Please visit the the Firefox Home Support page.
Security
How is my data protected?
Your information is encrypted and stored in the Mozilla servers. Only you can access data with your Secret Phrase. Firefox puts security as a top priority and syncing is no exception. Learn more about this and see a diagram here.
What is the secret phrase for?
The secret phrase is used to encrypt/decrypt all of your data on your clients. This ensures that your data is only ever accessible to you and all that the server stores is an encrypted block of data.
What encryption algorithm do Firefox Home and Firefox Sync use? Is it proven to be secure?
Firefox Home and Firefox Sync use the AES encryption algorithm with a 256 bit key in a mode that requires an initialization vector for every decryption. Additionally, all client server communications are over SSL. The cryptography we use is in compliance with NIST requirements.
Downloading & Devices
How do I setup the Firefox Home app?
Follow these simple steps located on the Firefox Home Support page.
Why do I need a Firefox Sync account to install Firefox Home?
Firefox Home uses the sync capabilities from the Firefox Sync add-on to access your Firefox browser information and sends it to the cloud, where it is accessed from your iPhone.
What platforms and devices will it be available for?
Firefox Home has currently been developed for all generations of Apple iPhone and Apple iPod Touch. Although it works on older devices, the experience won’t be as awesome as it is on 3G or 3GS.
What about an iPad version?
Firefox Home 1.0 for the iPhone will work on the iPad, but it is not optimized for the iPad.
How does it work with iPhone 4.0 / iOS 4.0? Does it take advantage ofmulti-taksing? Will it sync in the background?
Home works on both iPhone 4.0 and iOS 4.0. However, as with any new technology (in this case both h/w and s/w), we should expect to learn more about the platform quirks with more adoption. Home currently does not take advantage of multi-tasking. It currently does not sync in the background either.
Firefox Iphone Extensions
Using Firefox Home
How do I know what data is available on my iPhone?
Go to your Settings tab to see your bookmarks, tabs and history entries that have been brought over to your iPhone. You can refresh your data by tapping the Refresh button.
Firefox Iphone Save Pdf
Features
What are the main features of Firefox Home?
Get up and go and have exactly what you’re looking for waiting on your iPhone: Your Firefox history, bookmarks, open tabs, Awesome Bar -- just the way you left it on your desktop. With Firefox Home, you’ll never have to retype long and painful URLs or spend time searching for your favorite websites. You can even send these links to friends via email. All of your data is encrypted. Your Secret Phrase ensures that only you have access to your data.
Developer Questions
What is the technology platform that powers Firefox Home?
Like Firefox Sync, Firefox Home is built on an open, simple and powerful set of REST APIs that you can use for your own applications. The User API enables account creation, authentication and other account-related actions. The Sync API handles data storage and retrieval. These APIs work hand-in-hand to provide a complete end-to-end synchronization service. All of our code is open source, including that for the server, which means you can even run your own servers if you want.
With iOS 14, Apple users will finally have the power to choose any default browser on iPhones and iPads. And now that there’s a choice, make it count with Firefox! It’s been a long time coming. Here’s how to set Firefox as your default browser on iOS:
- Download Firefox for iOS browser app*. If you already have it, make sure you are upgraded to the latest version. Look for a Firefox update to version 28.2 this week, which will let you set your default on iOS.
- Go to device Settings and find the Firefox app
- Tap on Default Browser App
- Select Firefox for your default
- High five!
Note: You’ll need to have both the latest Firefox for iOS (28.2 and above) and the newest version of iOS (14 and above) on your device to control your default browser.
From a company that puts people before profit
Firefox is an independent browser, backed by Mozilla, the not-for-profit organization. We believe you should be able to decide who sees your personal info, not just among your friends, but with advertisers and companies on the internet — including us. In contrast to other major tech companies, Firefox products don’t harvest, sell or monetize your personal data. So you do you online. We’re here for it.
Here are a few things you can do with the Firefox for iOS version 29 update (coming soon!) for iOS 14.
Make a Firefox Widget
The new iOS Widget feature is perfect for setting up shortcuts to all your favorite quick actions in Firefox — searching the web, private browsing, private web searches and opening a link from your clipboard for example. You can even turn the top news and entertainment sites you cycle through daily into a widget for fast access from your home screen.
We’ll also have our Pocket iOS app and widget available by the end of this week.
Shields up for privacy
Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention offers solid privacy protection for the full device that you can make even stronger in Firefox. By setting Firefox to Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection, you’ll be shielded from known tracking content embedded in videos, ads and other content through tracking codes, as well as invasive cryptomining and fingerprinting trackers. Pages load faster but this setting can also block some website functionality. If this happens, tap the shield to switch Enhanced Tracking Protection off for a specific site.
One tap to private mode
Private browsing mode is good for all kinds of things, like looking up random stuff that you just don’t need to be reminded about again. Private browsing tells Firefox not to save any of your browsing history or cache after you end the session, which keeps that information from being discovered or retrieved at a later date by other users. Switching to private browsing mode on your iPhone or iPad is as easy as tapping the mask icon. The mask background turns purple when you’re in private browsing mode.
Get in sync
Add Firefox across all your devices for the best of secure, seamless browsing. Sync your devices to take your favorite bookmarks, saved logins and open tabs wherever you go. Send open tabs between mobile and desktop. And Firefox makes password management easy by remembering your passwords across devices. Just tap the three bars in your Firefox browser to start taking your internet life everywhere, knowing that your data is safe, never sold.