Good news and bad news, Firefox fans. The good news: The browser is finally making its way to iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. The bad news: It's only available in New Zealand right now.
Mozilla on Thursday started rolling out its first public preview version of Firefox for iOS, but only for Kiwis. The company said it will use feedback gathered from this limited rollout to build new features and improve the app, which is slated to arrive in the App Store for the rest of the world later this year.
"Our goal is to create a great browsing experience for iOS with Firefox," Mozilla wrote in a blog post. "With this first public preview we will be collecting feedback in one country, before we extend availability to get feedback in a few more countries prior to a full public launch."
If you use Firefox on your desktop, you'll be able to transfer your browser history, passwords, and tabs over to your iOS devices via Firefox Accounts. The preview release for iOS also includes Visual Tabs to help you keep track of your open tabs and Intelligent Search, which offers up suggested results and a choice of search providers.
New Zealanders can share feedback about the new mobile browser right through the app. Just tap the numeric tab icon at the top right side of the app, tap Settings, and go to Support.
Mozilla in December first acknowledged that it was experimenting with a Firefox app for Apple's mobile platform. That came after the company's vice president of product, Jay Sullivan, told a SXSW crowd in March 2013 that, until Cupertino adjusts its attitude toward third-party browsers, Firefox would avoid iOS.