In case you missed it: Firefox Mobile early demo

While you were off last week gnashing your teeth over whether to desert Windows Mobile for that other soon-to-be released device, Mozilla released an early demo of what could ultimately become the Firefox Mobile browser.

Aza Raskin, head of User Experience at Mozilla Labs, warns us that the demo features an extremely experimental UI and is likely to change significantly before the Firefox Mobile browser is released. And more change seems likely, if you compare this latest demo to a previous peek. Also, this latest demo only focuses on touchscreen devices, meaning Windows Mobile Standard need not apply, though it does appear in the earlier demo.

Here are a few highlights:

• "Tabbed" browsing exists as separate browser windows floating in space.
• Pages feature kinetic scrolling, "Just like on the iPhone," Razkin says.
• The UI is based on touchscreen, but is not multitouch.
• Tabs can be dragged throughout the canvas and arranged however you like
• Forward, back, address bar/search bar and bookmark controls are hidden in the side of the browser window and appear when you drag and pan a page horizontally.
• At the bottom of each page is a row of extensible buttons that could be used to "digg this page," "send e-mail link," etc.

At this point, just about anything is better than Microsoft's Pocket Internet Explorer. And with the expected release of Opera 9.5 and Skyfire still a popular beta Firefox Mobile could prove to be another strong option when it's finally released.

Check in after the jump to watch Raskin's demo video of Firefox Mobile.