Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Firefox OS 1.3 Adds New Technologies For Mobile Developers
Mozilla Updates Firefox OS for Better Gaming, Dual SIM

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

who wants to buy my Geeksphone Peak, first batch :)

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Mozilla lights up preorders for Firefox OS-driven Flame
Firefox OS fans across the globe can now preorder Flame, the Web-based mobile operating system's first official reference phone.

http://r.phonedog.com/shared/images/...-flamefull.jpg

When you're building a mobile operating system, it can be helpful to have some signposts along the way for developers to follow. Google's got its Nexus line for just that purpose, and Mozilla's Firefox OS takes a step closer to putting a reference device into developers' hands on Tuesday with preorders for the Firefox OS Flame.

Originally announced earlier this year at Mobile World Congress, the Flame is the first globally-available reference device for the mobile operating system. For $170, you can now preorder Flame at e-commerce site everybuying.com from today until June 10, except in Japan. The phones are expected to ship before June 30, and take around four weeks to arrive after ordered.

The Flame "was designed for our developer and contributor community, so we worked with the manufacturer, T2Mobile to keep the price as low as possible," Mozilla Chief Technology Officer Asa Dotzler wrote in a blog post announcing the preorders.

He said the phone's hardware specifications represent the mid-tier Firefox OS devices coming later this year. Interestingly, the phones will have a software-configurable RAM state so that the Flame can emulate less-powerful devices.

After a generally well-received launch in a dozen or so countries last year, Mozilla is continuing to back the Firefox OS platform as a necessary project to ensure that the Web stays open as it goes mobile. That's a hard road to hew to when up against mobile giants like Apple, Google, and Samsung, but Mozilla hopes that promoting a globally-available reference phone like the Flame will give developers a taste of what's possible.

The Flame comes powered by a Qualcomm MSM8210 Snapdragon chip with a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor; a 4.5-inch FWVGA screen; a rear-facing 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and flash and a front-facing 2 megapixel camera; 8 GB of storage; RAM that can be customized between 256 MB and 1 GB; near-field chip (NFC) support; dual-SIM card slots; 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 3.0; and an 1,800 mAh battery charged via micro-USB. It will run on GSM four bands: 850, 900, 1800, and 1900 MHz.

In ramping up production of the Flame phone, Mozilla has been forced to delay shipping 500 Firefox OS tablets to its Tablet Contribution Program participants, the first tablets powered by Firefox OS. The company's entire shipping operation is run by one person, according to Dotzler.

"We're about 25 percent of the way through shipping the tablets and will strive to get the remainder out in the coming week or two," he said.

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Nearly 3 weeks on and I'm still using the ZTE Open C as my primary device. I continue to find Firefox OS charmingly simple and surprisingly smooth. So far I've only had one minor hiccup when my early morning alarm call went off at lunch time o_0. A reboot seemed to fix that and I haven't had a problem since.

At the risk of sounding a little paranoid I feel quite liberated that there's no Google crapware preinstalled to monitor, track and profile me.

I think Firefox OS is plenty good enough to grace better hardware than it's currently getting.

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

how is app support?

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Is Firefox really Open?
I've always been interested in ffOS, but never had a chance to try it, and now I'm sailing on Jolla. But it could be a real alternative (given the nice price tag).
Thanks

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

The only apps I had on Android were Kivy launcher, SL4A, AndroidScript, Bit Web Server and Tasker. Truth is I like to write scripts if there's some functionality I require that isn't already built in (my paranoia again) so I'm not really very qualified to comment on apps.

Firefox OS doesn't seem to have a developer mode and I believe if you want to write JavaScript that accesses device capabilities you have to get it signed so I'm sure that will bug me at some point.

I hope Mozilla will add a developer mode in a future iteration of Firefox OS, smartphones are pocketable computers and they have uses beyond what the manufacturers might have planned for them.

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

I think it's as close to open as you can currently get.

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Mozilla to sell $25 Firefox OS phones in India this year: Report

Mozilla plans to further intensify the low-budget smartphone war in India with its smartphone. According to a report by WSJ (paywall), the company plans to launch the Firefox OS -based smartphone priced as low as $25 – translating to around Rs 1,500 – in the Indian market.

Firefox has earlier launched low-budget smartphones in Europe and Latin America with a price tag of $60 and realized to tap in to Indian and South East Asian markets with an aggressive pricing. High conversion rates are to be blamed in developing nations for a $60 smartphone to still feel expensive. The US-based company has collaborated with four handset makers which include ZTE, LG and five wireless carriers that include Telefonica, Deutsche Telekom, America Movil to name a few. This isn’t the first time, we have come across such a news. LG built Firefox OS running device was earlier rumoured to launch last year.

The population of India is over 1.3 billion and most of it could afford a $25 phone with Web apps, though the proliferation of cheap Android-based smartphones has spoilt the Indian consumer for choice. Setting itself apart from Android, would be the biggest challenge for Mozilla in India.

Secondly, there’s very little that is attractive about the Firefox OS from a consumer point of view, since it would be yet another smartphone OS which has to catch up in terms of apps. If Windows Phone was any indication, Firefox OS will have a tough time of it.

In India, smartphones or phones in general are bought off the shelf without a network provider subsidy, and while Firefox may not opt for the subsidy model, it could go with operator tie-ups for free data plans, or app-specific plans. It could also tie up with content providers to get free multimedia content for the new phone.

These are the value-additions that have helped Nokia’s Asha series in India. And Firefox also has to make sure that basic apps such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and perhaps other smartphone staples such as Instagram or Vine, are all on board from the word go. Firefox OS is coming to the market at a time when Android is king, and to dethrone it, Mozilla would need more than just a hot price tag.

Re: Firefox OS thread
 

Android users can now run Firefox OS apps (all six of them)

Mozilla’s Firefox OS is based on Gecko — the same core rendering engine that its desktop and mobile Firefox web browsers use. This unified framework goes to the essence of what Firefox and Mozilla are about. Mozilla sees the future of apps and browsing as two sides of the same coin. To push its vision for “Open Web Apps,” Mozilla has rolled out v29 of Firefox for Android, which enables you to download and install Firefox OS marketplace apps on your Android device with no additional configuration.

When developers create apps for Android or iOS, they need to build them using Java or objective C, respectively. This has traditionally allowed for a more robust set of APIs and vastly improved performance compared to web-only technologies, but things are slowly changing. Firefox OS apps are built using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. The upshot of this is that they can run on any platform with the proper rendering engine, in this case Gecko.

Mozilla isn’t the first company to push web apps on mobile devices as an alternative to native ones. That distinction goes to Palm, which used a similar approach to the app ecosystem on webOS. That didn’t go so well, but the capabilities of browsers have advanced considerably in the last four or five years. Mozilla’s WebAPI documentation provides methods for accessing hardware (camera, battery stats, sensors, etc.) as well as a variety of data management and communication features. The gap between native apps and web apps is more technologically narrow than it once was.

http://www.extremetech.com/wp-conten...-1-300x255.jpg

With the new support for Android, all you need to do is install the updated Firefox browser from Google Play — attempting to grab anything from the FF marketplace with Chrome results in an error. The apps will go through the standard Android installation dialog (packaged as an APK), and even show up in the app drawer. They open like normal apps, but all the rendering is done through Firefox’s Gecko engine. As for usability and performance, web-based apps like this have definitely come a long way over the years. They work, but the design language is much less refined.

Mozilla hopes that its Open Web App initiative will spur more development of apps based on web technologies. Developers could potentially save themselves a lot of headaches by building apps once with web languages instead of doing the same thing multiple ways for different mobile operating systems. However, cross-platform compatibility is currently limited to Android. Apple doesn’t allow third-party browser engines on iOS (even Chrome for iOS uses the stock WebKit engine), so there’s no way to render Open Web Apps.

http://www.extremetech.com/mobile/18...ion-of-firefox