Firefox OS Update Adds New Features, Performance Improvements

[conductor]

https://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2013/10/09/firefox-os-update-1-1-adds-new-features-performance-improvements-and-additional-language-support

[saidajigumi]

Ah, good. The end of this post provides a link to Mozilla's page on purchasing the ZTE OPEN unlocked developer/early adopter hardware[1].

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

[01Michael10 → saidajigumi]

I just impulse bought one so can mess around with some app development on Firefox OS.

[possibilistic]

It's times like this when I really wish I wasn't on Verizon and locked into their proprietary wireless protocols. I would love to buy this hardware and check out FFOS.

[untog → possibilistic]

You can buy one and just use it on Wi-Fi. To be honest, you wouldn't want it to be your daily phone yet. It's not there, but it's on the way.

[xenophonf]

I just finished building Boot2Gecko's emulator-x86 after reading about the ZTE Open on HN a few weeks ago. I'm really excited by Firefox OS - so much that I can't wait to ditch my iPhone for one of the B2G dev kits.

[soapdog → xenophonf]

Hi,

You don't need to build B2G on your own. The only thing you need to try things out is the Firefox OS Simulator extension available at: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-si... this works only on Firefox of course.

I wrote a free quick guide for developing apps for Firefox OS that walks you through this steps, you can fetch it in EPUB, PDF and MOBI from: https://leanpub.com/quickguidefirefoxosdevelopment/

Feel free to reach out for us if you need anything.

PS: I am a Mozilla Rep.

[xenophonf → soapdog]

That takes all of the fun out of it. BTW this weekend I will be updating the build docs for people wanting to compile B2G targets under Ubuntu Server 13.10-beta2.

[soapdog → xenophonf]

Thanks for updating those docs! :-D

[reidrac]

"Once your phone has fastboot enabled, you will then be able to build and install new Firefox OS/B2G builds on it [...]".

Please, make ZTE to push updates or at least provide a binary build to download and install.

[pbiggar]

Does anyone know if Firefox OS is being auto-updated to devices like desktop Firefox is? Auto-shipping a new release every 6 weeks would give them a real leg up against android and ios.

[uulbiy → pbiggar]

In theory it is being auto-updated every X weeks (not sure if it's 6). There is also a setting to update immediately when a new release is available which is on on the developer phones. In practice there is a bug[1] and this functionality is currently not working.

[1]: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/968919

[mrbill]

Now if they would just fix the "update/reboot/update/reboot" endless cycle on the software that came on the ZTE Open... It wants to repeatedly reapply the same update over and over.

[msujaws → mrbill]

Maybe https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/... will help you?

[dingdingdang]

So.. they sell these from UK ebay store, can they be used in UK/Europe?

[uulbiy → dingdingdang]

What exactly do you mean "it can be used"? Do you mean "can it be delivered"? The answer to both questions is yes, you can order from the UK store and it will be delivered and it will work.

[dingdingdang → uulbiy]

I mean: "does it work with local carriers here if I put a generic sim in it from o2.co.uk", I take your answer to mean yes? Which, if the case, is superb, I do not much care for the IOS or Android ecosystem (though much less for the former than the latter) so having Mozilla backed phone would suit me very well!

[mattl]

My ZTE Open arrives today

[d0ugie]

Sounds great, just as long as Mozilla doesn't jump the gun and brazingly decide to implement WebP support before having waited at least five or six years. Due diligence baby, the name of the game, also etiquette, over at bugzilla.