Firefox OS devices officially released

https://hacks.mozilla.org/2013/07/firefox-os-devices-officially-released/

by mokkol • 13 years ago

327 140 13 years ago

hacks.mozilla.org

indeyets• 13 years ago

I wonder why ZTE chose to sell this device thru operators. Just push them to retailers or sell online with worldwide delivery!

mogrim2• 13 years ago

Presumably lowers the risk: try the devices out on a smaller market, iron out the inevitable bugs, and then release worldwide?

Lower costs, too: Telefónica will be paying for most of the marketing, the sales channels, they might also be providing engineering help...

shacharz• 13 years ago

Do they support WebRTC?

diggan4• 13 years ago

Well, not right now but they are working on it. You can follow the progress here: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=750011

ndesaulniers6• 13 years ago

The principal architect showed me a build running on geeksphone. [1] Still bugs but it pretty much works. We'll probably make an announcement about it.

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Media/WebRTC/Peak

mariusmg• 13 years ago

I'm very curios to see how FirefoxOS compares to WP7 on low power devices. If the UI is as smooth as WP7 i'm looking forward to getting one.

mogrim2• 13 years ago

And here it is in on sale: http://www.movistar.es/particulares/movil/moviles-tarjeta/fi...

AndrewDucker3• 13 years ago

I'll be very interested to see how well these take off in the countries they're launched in.

I don't see them as much of a competitor in the UK/US/etc.- the people there that want a smartphone have one that's much more higher powered.

But in countries where most people can't currently afford smartphones, this offers them the chance of having one. And if they can then start to cannibalise sales from beneath, they have a chance of being a real global competitor.

fauigerzigerk• 13 years ago

I don't believe people anywhere in the world will keep buying phones for $800. I believe this has been a fad and it's starting to fade.

Yoric24• 13 years ago

I wonder about that.

I see around me a few people replacing their work computer with a cellphone. That cellphone is more useful for them, cheaper, easier to carry and, with respect to what they manage to use it for, more powerful.

Of course, that's just a few samples, so I have no idea about general trends.

seabrookmx2• 13 years ago

Why pay $800?

I can buy a brand new unlocked Nexus 4 for $305 CDN. This is a top tier smartphone.

frankblizzard• 13 years ago

make them available already for developers world wide! geeksphone is always sold out

Yoric24• 13 years ago

Well, it's easier to make software available for developers world wide than to make hardware available for developers world wide.

Anybody interested in porting FirefoxOS to every single Android device on Earth? :)

diggan4• 13 years ago

You can always do it yourself!

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...

AndrewDucker3• 13 years ago

I'm curious - does it automatically get the latest version of FF when it's released for desktop/Android? And does it support all of the functionality that comes with it?

i.e. will it now have the asm.js optimisations and similar?

diggan4• 13 years ago

It's not running Firefox per se, it's running a OS called Boot 2 Gecko[0] and will probably not be updated simultaneously as desktop/mobile Firefox. Yeah, it supports almost the same functionality with some additional things (like WebAPI[1], APIs for hardware access)

[0] https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/WebAPI

AndrewDucker3• 13 years ago

Yes, but Gecko is the engine of Firefox, so I was curious whether the version of Gecko (and of the JS engines) are kept in sync.

Yoric24• 13 years ago

I'm not sure about asm.js/OdinMonkey. I believe that FirefoxOS 1.0 does not have it, but that FirefoxOS 1.1 (which should be available as a free over-the-air update) has it.

More generally, FirefoxOS does not automatically get the latest version of Gecko, because the process for mobile operating systems is more complex. The operating system must first pass certification by (if I recall) both the constructors and the operators. This operation is both long and costly, so it is probably impossible to follow the Firefox desktop/Android 6 week release cycle for the time being.

However, if I had to guess, I would assume that FirefoxOS will receive about one big update every few months, with all the new features and optimizations of Gecko. I know, for instance, that some of the optimizations I have added recently to Gecko have missed the release train for the next version of FirefoxOS (I believe that's still 1.1) but should be part of the release after that.

mcintyre1994• 13 years ago

Can you give an idea of how you expect that to work compared with Android? Given that Firefox OS devices seem to be cheap and low end, how likely are constructors and operators to perform a "long and costly" process to upgrade them regularly? Cheap and low end Android devices have terrible support from both, even for upgrades without new hardware requirements, is there any indication that they will better support similar Firefox OS devices?

fzzzy• 13 years ago

1.1 is still the b2g18 branch, so no asm.js. 1.2 will be the version that pulls from master (gecko 26 I think?) and will have asm.js.

ndesaulniers6• 13 years ago

does it automatically get the latest version of FF when it's released for desktop/Android?

Firefox OS is its own Operating System, so it won't be "released for desktop/Android." The initial versions was forked from gecko 18 so it's missing many SpiderMonkey optimizations such as the Baseline Compiler, Type Inference, Odin Monkey, and Ion Monkey. Luckily, updates (or building from source) have these and add quite an improvement! Whenever I updated my iphone, I felt every update left it slower. Now imaging upgrading your phone it it getting faster!

jdmitch• 13 years ago

It seems to be the same hardware as the ZTE V790 but with half the memory : http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=5134&idPhone2=...

pja• 13 years ago

Huge kudos to Mozilla for branching out and trying something different. I hope it works out for them: we could really do with an open competitor to the Google/Apple duopoly.

PommeDeTerre• 13 years ago

Firefox OS will need to successfully compete against BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, bada and the other quite obscure mobile OSes long before it'll have a chance to even begin competing against Android or iOS. Many of these alternative systems have actually shipped on numerous devices, and have actual users.

And how exactly is it "different"? Firefox OS is really just a limited subset of what we already have available (and have had for years, in some cases) under these various existing systems. We can already quite successfully run HTML5/CSS/JavaScript-based apps on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry OS for instance. And this is ignoring Firefox OS's inflexibility when it comes to using languages other than JavaScript (sorry, Asm.js and Emscripten are hacks, at best), or writing native applications.

It's hard to see how it'll compete on vague notions of "openness" that most consumers really could not care any less about, while failing to compete on things that consumers do care about, like functionality and experience. It can't even really compete on price, given the existence of Android.

glogla8• 13 years ago

If I understand it correctly, Firefox OS is different in how it is not bound to one particular corporation. Mozilla's objective here is "build mobile OS" and not "sell more devices" like Apple or "get info on people so we can sell advertising" like Google.

This makes me wonder about privacy and Firefox OS. Does it require arbitrary account with credit card paired like iOS or Windows Phone? Does it require account to get most of the functionality like Android? Does it require you to agree that Google will get your location data for network location service to function like Android? Does it not allow you to use it without sending (paid) sms to Nokia with your location, like new Nokia phones?

If it doesn't do any of those things, it is different.

pjmlp10• 13 years ago

Fully agree.

It is great that Mozilla is fighting for openness, but in terms of what street joe and street jane want, I think it will join WebOS in a few months.

Given my experience in telecommunications I don't see how sales are going to push these devices out of the shop when users come asking for other OSs.

garysweaver• 13 years ago

And how exactly is it "different"?

Robert Nyman of Mozilla pointed me at this:

https://blog.mozilla.org/ligong/2013/06/03/foxconn-joins-the...

"Foxconn stated that they intend to have FFOS running on all categories of the “8 screen” devices, from smartphone to tablets to laptops to TVs and outdoor signage."

Name me another mobile OS that will be running on laptops or outdoor signage. :) This, I think, is the bigger vision of FF OS that is the reason people should get interested and involved.

scribu• 13 years ago

We can already quite successfully run HTML5/CSS/JavaScript-based apps on Android, iOS, and BlackBerry OS for instance.

Right, but in Firefox you also have "native" HTML5 apps, which give access to more hardware functionality than a regular web app.

And this is ignoring Firefox OS's inflexibility when it comes to using languages other than JavaScript

I don't see how Firefox OS is less flexible than other systems. In Android, you're forced to use Java; in iOS you're forced to use Objective C (everything else, like RubyMotion are hacks, at best).

Yoric24• 13 years ago

Oh, hello PommeDeTerre. Haven't we had roughly the same conversation last week on another thread?

Firefox OS will need to successfully compete against BlackBerry OS, Windows Mobile, [...]

Yes, a new product needs to compete with existing products. That goes without saying.

And how exactly is it "different"?

Frankly? Try it, you'll see. For me, it's different insofar as I can write a small game and self-publish it in a few hours. I don't have to pay anyone, I don't have to wait for anybody's permission (compare with iOS), I don't have to download a SDK, and my users will be able to run/install the self-published app immediately (compare with Android). Oh, and of course, my students can do the same, which is a big deal to me.

It's different insofar as an application written for FirefoxOS will also work on Android (and hopefully on iOS) and, in many cases, on your Desktop/Laptop. By opposition to what you seem to believe, this is not a design flaw. This is called not locking in your users. It's the kind of thing that Mozilla does.

It's different insofar as much of the development is done by the community of users. Not a privately-held company that decides what is best for us in terms of features or performance or privacy.

Oh, I almost forgot: it's different insofar as said company does not own all my private data by default.

It's hard to see how it'll compete on vague notions of "openness" that most consumers really could not care any less about [...]

In the US, maybe. In India or Africa (or parts of China or Russia or Turkey ...), for instance? Not so. People care a lot about having a phone that they can use, which means first and foremost a phone that works in their language, even if that language is not a big commercial target. That's what openness is about, not about people like us squabbling on some high tech news aggregator.

It can't even really compete on price, given the existence of Android.

Of course it can. On low-powered phones, FirefoxOS tends to outperform Android by a large margin. This means that you can have the same experience with cheaper phones.

Caveat: I'm a Mozillian.

soapdog4• 13 years ago

Hey PommeDeTerre,

Allow me to give a different perspective here. While in many other mobile operating systems you can build apps with HTML (saying HTML from now on but meaning HTML/CSS/JS, ok?), the API the vendors make available don't cover the same features as what is native on that platform. We can say that Firefox OS is important because of the following things:

MAKING THE WEB A FIRST CLASS CITIZEN

Makes the web a first class citizen. Its not like "you can build apps with web technology", its more like you don't need native because all you need is available thru the web apis. While in other platforms, there is a barrier on what can be accomplished with HTML alone, on Firefox OS HTML is the way. Let me give you a silly but practical example:

Suppose you have an intranet on your small company built by IT in PHP or something. This intranet has an address book for everyone in the company. Using the Web API, you can detect the contacts API and offer the user the ability to import contacts from the web directly to the phones contact book. This is done in a secure way, with permissions granted by the user, its not like "hey, open this page and flood the contact database". The security model is good. This is a silly example but it is useful for many people. Its the tiny APIs that make your life easier and your experience better.

GIVING YOU THE FREEDOM OF THE WEB

In platforms such as iOS, your only venue to distribute your apps is the iTunes App Store. All money passes thru Apple. On Android, you can have third party stores but the default setting is to allow apps from Google Play only (unless you're a kindle or nook). Most of the other platforms are about controlling the ecosystem to make money for the vendor.

On Firefox OS you have the Firefox Marketplace that is a mixture of Chrome Webstore and Google Play. It allows distribution of apps for desktop, android and firefox os (all using gecko runtime). You are not tied to Firefox Marketplace though. You have an install API that you can use on your app or your site to install apps on the users phone (Again, it asks permissions, security is good). You can even fork the Firefox Marketplace code and build your own.

Talking about payment, you have the usual credit card charging on the marketplace but you also have carrier billing (if the carrier implement it) allowing users to buy apps and have it charged to their prepaid cards or monthly bill. Remember that in many markets, people don't have credit cards. If you're not happy with both solutions you can roll your own payment solution using the payments API and receipt protocol. You are free to distribute and monetize your app as you see fit, just like on the web.

ITS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR YOUR IPHONE OR GALAXY S3

If you have an Android device, you can just install Firefox Mobile and be happy since we'll eventually have feature parity between Firefox Mobile and Firefox OS. These Firefox OS phones are being created for emergent markets. People from U.S. and richer parts of Europe don't really realize how things are in south america and asia. An Samsung Galaxy S3 will cost USD 1000 in Rio right now while the minimum wage is about USD 350. Buying such expensive phones require a plan and saving for a long time. 78% of the Brazilian market is on feature phones.

By offering an inexpensive handset that has a full smartphone experience with a price that is affordable is key in these markets. It is about bringing the next million people online on the mobile web for the first time. Firefox OS is here to be the first smartphone for people that are still on Symbian or S40. In some markets you can buy a cheap android with decent performance, in others you can't.

Firefox OS offers the best cost-benefit ratio once you think about how much performance you have against your hardware specs. If you pick the same low-end hardware with Android or Firefox OS, Android will have a worse experience, not because Android is broken in any way, Android is great but because there are more things going on on Android than on Firefox OS. Firefox OS is just a tiny hal, gecko and gaia, while Android has a VM and lots of other things going on.

As I said before, this is not about fighting Android, its about offering a new choice for those that can't afford a good Android or iPhone. Here in Brazil, we have some very cheap Android devices since we have Samsung, LG and others building them locally. Most of these devices are pretty crap to use. The same hardware with Firefox OS would be a much better experience.

ITS ABOUT THE WEB API

The objective here is not to sell phones or be dominant. Firefox OS is about preventing vendor lock-in. Right now, each platform is an island. iOS has Objective-C/Cocoa Touch, Android has Java, Windows Phone has something that I can't recall. If you want to build cross platform apps, you're in for a world of hurt. You can use phonegap but this is not something offered by the platform vendor, this something that was built to bridge the web and native.

The Web API is the next step in this direction. Each of the APIs in the collection known as Web API is being standardized with the W3C and other interested parties. The idea is that other vendors adopt these APIs and that open web apps work anywhere equally. Firefox OS is not about an exclusive experience, it is about openness and freedom. Even if Firefox OS fail but the Web API succeeds, it will be a huge victory for the open web.

ITS ALSO ABOUT BEING CREATIVE

Right now there is a steep learning curve regarding developing native apps for most platforms. Objective-C and Java are easy languages for CS people but for the layman they are pretty hard. It requires a lot of effort to be good with them.

Why is the web a success? If the web required such effort, we'd still be using gopher and news. One of the reasons the web was a success was that it required less effort to produce something useful. I am not saying good, I am saying useful. Anyone could host a server, anyone with a text editor could build pages. Firefox OS is about bringing this to mobile. It requires less effort and your open web apps can be deployed on other platforms such as iOS and Android (with phonegap or other runtimes). Yes, these days it requires a lot of effort to build good web apps but not much to build useful ones. Firefox OS has the potential and openness to bring all web developers to mobile with ease. Open Web Apps are king of local content. Niche apps that are only useful for those in a neighborhood or profession are a web editor away from being born and available. The web is king for local content and Firefox OS is nothing but an mobile extension of the web.

WHY I THINK FIREFOX OS WILL SUCCEED?

As I said above, Firefox OS is nothing but the web and the web can't fail because it already succeeded. Right now the only technology that bridges smart tvs, video games, smartphones, desktop and laptop computers together is HTML/CSS/JS.

Remember how much progress we had in JS runtimes the last year, try to imagine where we're going to be next year. Javascript is already reaching 1.5x native speed in some cases, two years from now, this won't matter because it will as fast as it needs to be. One could argue that for most mobile app needs, it is already fast enough.

Apps built for Firefox OS can be deployed as web pages and made available on a server. They can be sold on Chrome webstore and Firefox Marketplace. They can be wrapped with phonegap and deployed to iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BB10, Bada, Tizen and webOS. They can be wrapped in other runtimes and be used on Smart TVs and video games. The web is the king of cross platform, of vendor neutrality and without lock-ins.

I think that the future belong to HTML based solutions and all platforms that embrace it.

PS: I am a Mozilla Rep and a Firefox OS Launch Team member in Brazil.

diggan4• 13 years ago

This is my lucky day to be in Spain! Have been following the project from the B2G[0] days and will order a phone ASAP. If you are in Spain, you can order the phone from Telefonica[1] and if you are like me and want to talk with other Firefox OS nerds, there is a Google Plus community for that[2]

Also, don't forget that if you want to develop for Firefox OS but don't yet have a device for it, you can run the superfast Firefox OS Simulator[3], super simple and currently the best emulator for a mobile OS.

[0] https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G

[1] http://www.movistar.es/particulares/movil/moviles-tarjeta/fi...

[2] https://plus.google.com/communities/100988731864612801878

[3] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Tools/Firefox_OS_Si...

kimlelly• 13 years ago

This is currently the most open mobile OS. Count me in!

drdaeman2• 13 years ago

Opennes's nice but is it single-person hackable or huge monolithic blob that nobody except the most skilled teams would dare to bite?

My problem with Android is that I miserably failed to hack it alone (I wanted to mess with app permission system and make it work my way). The Behemoth seem to have quite a steep learning curve, so I quickly lost my way in its innards.

However, I was able hack Maemo (except for proprietary parts) on N900 somehow. Stack was loosely coupled, everything's deb-packaged separately, many components are not in-home inventions but are well-known software (Debian base, X11, OpenSSL, DBus, etc.). Sad thing Maemo's practically dead.

thelukester• 13 years ago

Count you in on the openness alone? Who are you, RMS? There's already an extremely open OS out there. In fact Firefox OS is based off of it. You can download the source code, build it yourself, and submit patches. You can even change the default app store. It comes with a rich app ecosystem and a beautifully designed and responsive UI. The latter two are what people in the real world care about when choosing a smartphone.

gebe• 13 years ago

I can't say that I have used the Firefox OS simulator extensively but I have been fiddling around with it a little bit and a lot of stuff didn't seem to work for me at least (like landscape mode, buttons in the notification menu, scroll seem to behave very weird in lists and/or gets stuck quite often resulting in me accidentally clicking on stuff, strange text formatting so that text gets printed outside of the screen, it crashes when I turn on WIFI, can't seem to change screen resolution, etc.). So "the best" might be pushing it, especially compared to the Windows Phone emulator and tools which are really, really great (but sadly won't be used by most mobile developers for obvious reasons :) ).

However I am excited to see where Firefox OS might be heading even though I think they will have a though time fighting it out with other potential "third spot" platforms for starters.

soapdog4• 13 years ago

What version of the emulator you are running? The most recent one 3.0.1 is pretty solid. Landscape mode and buttons works correctly.

ndesaulniers6• 13 years ago

File bugs and we'll take a look! [1]

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/r2d2b2g/issues

digitarald• 13 years ago

July 11 will be release of 4.0. A lot of Web API fixes to make things consistent and much more fine-grained control over orientation, location and other device APIs. Follow the hacks blog for updates.

at-fates-hands• 13 years ago

This is awesome. Can you give some more specs on the phone and possible price point in Spain?

angry-hacker• 13 years ago

€69 with €30 in prepaid credit, no contract

ippisl• 13 years ago

I fail to see the value of such devices to the consumer. With android devices available at $100 with 1gb, android 4, a large screen, and huge market of highly optimised apps, what can Firefox is offer, except from marketing by carriers which are usually hated by consumers?

liliputing.com/2013/06/android-gets-cheaper-meet-the-100-quad-core-phone-59-dual-core-tablet.html

netcan• 13 years ago

I think you need to compare these to whatever low end android you are likely to find in a local retailer: galaxy mini, Xperia tipo, etc.

My guess is that Mozilla see the low end as the most vulnerable angle. Apple aren't going low end. Android aren't excluding it, but <$100 phones are an afterthought.

There is always demand at the lower end. Handset makers are happy to fill it. Android might be the best current option, but Google aren't focused on this segment specifically and I think most app developers are developing for high or midrange phones first. A lot of stuff doesn't work well on a cheap android. By focusing on less power and smaller screens, they will encourage developers to make simpler apps that run well on this hardware.

It's still early to tell if they have an advantage over android in this market, but it makes sense in theory.

dan1234• 13 years ago

Although it's not generally their style, I wouldn't rule Apple out of a grab for the budget sector. Rumours concerning a low end, plastic iPhone have been gaining momentum for some time now and they already practically give away the previous generation spec'd phones.

rodolphoarruda• 13 years ago

I think we are "almost there" in terms of freedom of choice and usage of our mobile device. We are still dependent on the carrier - e.g. Telefonica - to have our phone running our OS of choice. Of course, we have unlocked phones, but that's another thing, another price too.

I wish my experience with mobile phones were the same as with laptops: every two years or so I step into a shop and buy a low-end machine on sale, go home and install the latest Ubuntu LTS version.

When I first read about Firefox OS I thought I would have the experience as described above. I would buy ANY phone, donwload the Firefox OS, install it and enjoy mobile life from a different perspective. As I said, I think we are "almost there". Maybe that's where Ubuntu Mobile is aiming to.

sergiosgc• 13 years ago

I used to do that with laptops. Then, I switched to the opposite end of the spectrum. I spend inordinate amounts of time in front of my laptop. If I'm going to outspend myself, it is on the laptop. The personal concession is that laptops must now last at least four years.

Now, whenever I need a laptop, I buy the best Lenovo I can find (well, not the absolute best, I aim for best-ish; price curves on laptops are stupid at the very high-end).

So far, it has worked better than the expendable machine style.

glogla8• 13 years ago

Now if only they put 14" fullHD IPS display into T430 so I can do that as well.

voltagex_• 13 years ago

I managed to limit my laptop's lifespan to ~1 year by ignoring this advice. I bought the X1 Carbon with 4GB of RAM, instead of waiting for the 8GB (with a significant processor bump too).

Oh for a laptop trade-in program.

Yoric24• 13 years ago

Would you be interested in contributing to port Firefox OS to new platforms? Firefox OS can use Android kernel and drivers, so the hard[est] part is done. Doesn't mean that it's necessarily easy, but if you want to run Firefox OS on your hardware of choice, it is at least theoretically possible.

ndesaulniers6• 13 years ago

When I first read about Firefox OS I thought I would have the experience as described above. I would buy ANY phone, donwload the Firefox OS, install it and enjoy mobile life from a different perspective.

Someone has to write the drivers AND have an incentive. [1]

[1] https://autonome.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/firefox-os-devices...

Yoric24• 13 years ago

The guide is here, if anybody's interested: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...

nakedrobot2• 13 years ago

I think Firefox OS has potentially huge geek (read: early adopter) appeal, which Blackberry and Windows Mobile do not have - they are dead. Tizen, Jolla, and others are just obscure specks.

I am rooting for Firefox OS to be a serious contender within a couple of years. I think it has a strong chance to be #3. Likewise I don't think it has any chance whatsoever of taking the #1 or #2 spots - those are going to stay as they are for many years to come.

Apocryphon2• 13 years ago

That's what I suspect so, too- its open nature will be embraced by the hacker mentality, as well as the rising anti-proprietary movement in the wake of the PRISM scandal.

The question is, how would it fare against other similar projects, such as Ubuntu Touch?

shmerl4• 13 years ago

Jolla has a better appeal I think. Firstly it's a full pledged Linux, not limited to JavaScript applications only. Secondly one will be able to run Firefox OS applications on Jolla as well, since the browser there is using Gecko.

bad_user3• 13 years ago

Jolla also inherits all the problems associated with desktop Linux and it would also have most of the same problems that Android does (fragmentation, upgrade cycle, etc...).

I like the Firefox OS concept because it has a better chance at being popular amongst non-technical folks and because, even if it had like 5% of the market share and no more, even so it would bring benefits to everybody, including developers, including end-users - because those Web APIs are also pushed by Mozilla for standardization.

Apocryphon2• 13 years ago

How does Jolla stack against Ubuntu Touch?

jb-• 13 years ago

So far, HN has directed me towards some considerable profits (see Bitcoin, TSLA). Where should I go this time? Telefonica Stock? Alcatel stock?

znowi• 13 years ago

I'm really excited about Firefox OS. It's a timely alternative to iPhone Garden and Android PRISM :)

shmerl4• 13 years ago

While I'm excited for Mozilla and for creation of wider choice in the mobile space, Firefox OS targeted devices aren't that interesting to me. I'd rather wait for Jolla's handsets to arrive. Not only they'll run glibc Linux proper (Mer based Sailfish OS), they'll also have a Gecko based browser which will be able to run Firefox OS applications as well.

arantius• 13 years ago

This release prodded me to look into Firefox OS again. I have a Nexus S lying around unused, and that's one of the supported "tier two" devices. So I installed it.

I really want to love it. I love Firefox, but Firefox OS is very much "not there" based on my experience. The browser is significantly worse than Firefox for Android. As far as I can tell, Sync is not available at all. Tapping the URL bar just/always puts your cursor where you tapped (does not select the text for easy replacement). Lots of smaller fit/polish things seemed much worse.

And the device experience is really strange. There's the "marketplace" but also the .. I don't know what it's called, two swipes to the left of the app launcher screen. The experience is very poor compared to Android/iOS; using familiar "apps" is really the mobile site for that service, and doesn't work as well as the Android apps I'm used to. (I.E.: Rating a movive in IMDB takes one tap to load another page, one tap to open the select box, another to pick the value, then another to submit that form. Versus one tap on Android.)

Lots of the "real apps" from the marketplace are also immediately greyed out if you lose data. Including simple games that totally should work offline. (Though I was recently surprised by how many games refused to run without an internet connection on my Android tablet recently, also.)

Yoric24• 13 years ago

And the device experience is really strange. There's the "marketplace" but also the .. I don't know what it's called, two swipes to the left of the app launcher screen. The experience is very poor compared to Android/iOS; using familiar "apps" is really the mobile site for that service, and doesn't work as well as the Android apps I'm used to. (I.E.: Rating a movive in IMDB takes one tap to load another page, one tap to open the select box, another to pick the value, then another to submit that form. Versus one tap on Android.) > Lots of the "real apps" from the marketplace are also immediately greyed out if you lose data. Including simple games that totally should work offline. (Though I was recently surprised by how many games refused to run without an internet connection on my Android tablet recently, also.)

You should complain with the app authors and get them to improve their mobile website and/or their manifest. This will be beneficial to everyone.

Firefox OS devices officially released

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