Mozilla has announced it’s working on a new simplified and streamlined browser specifically designed for Apple’s iPad tablet and known as ‘Junior’. 

The company revealed its new project on its ‘Air Mozilla’ product design page, where it described Junior as ‘an iPad browser that makes browsing more fun, more ergonomic and re-thinks browser user experience from the ground up.’

In a presentation video, Mozilla design lead Alex Limi said that Safari on iPad is a ‘miserable experience’ which seemed as if it had simply been brought across from the desktop program wholesale. ‘We don’t think that’s the way to do the browser of the future,’ he said.

With Junior, simplicity is the watchword, there isn’t an address bar or any interface clutter at the top of the screen, instead there’s simply a back control and a plus icon for everything else.

Tapping on the plus divides the screen into three equally sized horizontal sections – a recently visited pages bar at the top, a bookmarks bar in the middle and a search/address bar at the bottom.

Junior has been designed to make full use of the touchscreen real estate and it looks very clean, but there are a few daring changes too. Most notably, Mozilla has done away with tabs.

One interesting feature is the ability to switch between different user accounts, meaning if your iPad gets shared among many users, Junior has been made in such a way that your own browsing session will remain secure and closed off from others.

Junior is in its early prototype stage and Mozilla hasn’t announced when the browser will be available.

Do you think Mobile Safari browsing is miserable and would you use Mozilla’s iPad browser solution?

 

[The Verge]

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