Mozilla releases Firefox OS 1.1, adds a slew of new features



Mozilla has just announced the release of the Firefox OS 1.1. The latest version of the open source OS brings a lot of new features and improvements that were missing on the initial release.

The most notable new feature is the new adaptive app search. It’s placed prominently at the front and center of the Firefox OS 1.1 and returns a list of web apps and sites based on the search query.

After installing the update, Firefox OS users can now send MMS messages, while the developers can use the new push notification APIs, which allow for timely notifications and reduction in battery consumption. Furthermore, Mozilla has enhanced the contact manager, which now supports Gmail and Hotmail contact import, adding a number to a contact when it’s listed in the call log, SMS message or email.

Another big addition is the smart dial feature, which works just as expected. Naturally, there are a ton of bug fixes, performance tweaks, stability and overall smoother app loading and scrolling across the entire OS.

Mozilla has baked more than 15 new languages into Firefox OS and has polished the calendar, email app and keyboard. Users and developers will have access to the latest Firefox OS release soon, according to Mozilla.

A strange environment, it does not seem to run C like you mentioned earlier or Perl, everything is implemented in HTML -- in the marketplace they are even planning to mark their html5 apps as to whether they are hosted or useable offline. The clarify of presentation of privacy and protocol features is nice.

Feels wonderful to finally have working ringtone, alarm, loud-speaker, GPS after having used Nemo on N950 for about half a year without being able to hack it properly as it was the only daily phone and I was just sticking to an April release of their OS and flashing that repeatedly after it randomly stopped making sounds so I couldn't take or make phone calls.

Hope to play with the Nemo things a bit more in the future as they migrate to Wayland and change things, mobile Linux is evolving as a lot of useful Linux apps exist and are not in HTML5 (htop, ncdu, ack, a huge set of Qt apps such as Quassel, and I am sort-of looking forward to Perl being used on mobile platforms more).

The new HTML5 OS such as FirefoxOS and Tizen get to package apps in a way that makes them easily portable and I would expect things to become more universal at some point hopefully. Hopefully within mobile Linux world too so users get to play with different programming languages and systems which are already enriched with a variety of existing applications.

So I would be looking forward to a world of mobile Linux where a user can write an app (eg alarm clock) or a graphical interface (such as xfce on desktop) and it would be immediately available on all phones that run mer (or whatever else can play such role) by means of drivers in its kernel and a readily accessible repository.

LG unveils the Fireweb, its first Firefox OS smartphone



So far, Firefox OS has been limited to ultra-basic smartphones like the ZTE Open. LG is expanding the platform's reach today by releasing its inaugural Mozilla-powered handset, the Fireweb. The 4-inch device is still designed for newcomers between its 480 x 320 display, 1GHz Qualcomm processor and 4GB of expandable storage. However, its 5-megapixel camera is a big improvement over shooters in preceding phones -- this is the first Firefox OS phone with both autofocusing and an LED flash. Appropriately, LG is pricing the Fireweb above its simpler counterparts. Vivo Brazil is selling the Fireweb today for $449 BRL ($207 US) to pay-as-you-go customers, or $129 BRL ($59 US) to regular subscribers. It's now more expensive than LG's cheapest Android device, the $399 BRL ($184) Optimus L3 II. Hop past the break for both a video demo of the Fireweb and details of a Firefox OS market expansion that now includes Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay.

EverNav - The First Turn By Turn Navigation App in the Firefox Marketplace

AtlasCT announced the official release of EverNav in the Firefox Marketplace. EverNav is the first turn-by-turn navigation application available in the Firefox Marketplace.

"We are getting great feedback from our users. Nowadays, having a turn-by-turn application on your smartphone is as important as having a dialer app, and I believe that's what will make Firefox OS users extremely excited about this release," stated Shlomo Emanuel, AtlasCT's CEO. He added "We believe that the Firefox OS devices are going to be extremely successful and we aim to be the leading turn-by-turn navigation solution for Firefox OS".

EverNav advanced technology is based on HTML5 and it includes many great features, like one line search, personalized history, favorites and social network integration. EverNav supports global maps (based on Nokia HERE maps data) and it offers localized audio and text for over 9 different languages (English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hungarian, Serbian, Montenegrin, German, Polish, Greek and Russian).

According to Ziv Avni, AtlasCT's Marketing director, "We are distributing the app in the Firefox Marketplace and we are proud to be a part of Firefox developer community. I do believe that EverNav demonstrates a lot of the amazing things that can be done in HTML5, and we have big plans for more new and exciting features coming soon"

Bertrand Neveux, Director of Firefox Marketplace, Mozilla added: "We're delighted that AtlasCT has delivered a full-featured and user friendly turn-by-turn navigation application to the Firefox Marketplace, adding to our vibrant ecosystem of HTML5 apps. We look forward to delighting Firefox OS customers with this great experience and to expanding our offering of amazing Web apps."

EverNav is available in the Firefox Marketplace for all Firefox OS devices.

Is Anyone here using it on nokia devices ?

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http://rzr.online.fr/q/firefoxos

I've got it on my N9, but I cannot really say I have "used it" a lot.
It's more like I use it just for demoing to people like; "see, all this you can do on this device that Nokia stopped making"

I've got it on zte blade and I don't think it's such a low end OS. Quite a capable

Didn't found a way to use it on n9.

The same here.

Aaand same here!

How does one install Firefox OS on the N9?