Firefox OS

[Jorge-Vieira]

Firefox OS could make its way on to wearables

It seems that Mozilla could be planning to bring Firefox OS to smartwatches and other wearable devices in order to compete with Android Wear devices and Apple’s own upcoming line of watches, which are currently expected to launch in March.
According to Joe Cheng, Manager of Products and Projects at Mozilla’s mobile division, the creators of Firefox OS want to bring the software to a wider range of devices. The operating system is already in the process of making its way on to newer devices at CES, with Firefox OS being announced for Panasonic’s new range of smart TV’s.

Mozilla apparently wants to ensure that Firefox OS wearables will be compatible with any brand of smartphone, helping out customers who don’t want to be completely tied in to one ecosystem of devices. As it stands, Android Wear is only compatible with Android smartphones and Apple’s upcoming smartwatches will only work with iPhones.

Noticia:
http://www.kitguru.net/gaming/operat...-to-wearables/

[Jorge-Vieira]

Panasonic announces 2015 smart TV range powered by Firefox OS

Panasonic has unveiled its entire 2015 TV line-up, and announced its collaboration with Mozilla to introduce a new Firefox-powered TV UI, reports Liliputing. The company's new curved TV models and its 4K UHD VIERA range will be the first Smart TVs to be equipped with software based upon Mozilla's Firefox OS.

The new Firefox OS-driven Home Screen 2.0 UI will launch with the company’s upcoming CR850, CR730, CX800, CX750, CX700 and CX680 series TVs. The UI will allow viewers to personalise the home screen to suit their preferences, and is divided into "decks" for easy navigation and access to content. Three decks will come as default with the platform- 'The Live TV Deck' which will give you access to live TV broadcasts and a list of most-watched channels, 'The Apps Deck' which will take you to all your apps and games and 'The Devices Deck' which will open up both wired and wireless devices connected up to your TV.
In addition the new UI will include a search tool that will allow users to find and access from all available source options, local and internet-based. Since Firefox OS is built on open standards, users will be able to share content from any smartphone, tablet or PC with a Firefox browser or compatible application as long as it is connected to the same Wi-Fi network as the TV.

The Japanese electronics manufacturer has also unveiled its newly developed '4K Pro' picture engine which it believes will deliver cinema-quality visuals in its top-of-the-line models. The system aims to deliver professional levels of colour accuracy as it makes use of advanced colour management tech like 3D Lookup Tables, used in the film industry to map colour spaces. It will also convey greater shadow detail and more accurate tones when reproducing dark scenes. This means that viewers should experience graphics that are much closer to what the directors would see in an editing suite.
The curved 4K Ultra HDs revealed cover the CR850, CR730 and CR430 ranges, with screen sizes ranging from 55 to 65-inches. The series will feature edge-lit Local Dimming Pro, Super Bright Panel technology and twin HD tuners. The flat 4K sets range from the premium CX800 series (available in 65, 55, 50 and 40-inch) to the CX400 (available in 65, 55, 48 and 40-inch). There will also be three new ranges of Full HD TV sets for 2015, the CS600, CS500 and C300, with screen sizes covering from 48 to 65-inches.

The Firefox-OS powered Panasonic TVs will start shipping this spring and will be showcased at Mozilla's stand at the Mobile World Congress 2015 in Barcelona. Unfortunately, model pricing and official launch dates have yet to be announced.

Noticia:
http://hexus.net/ce/news/audio-visua...ed-firefox-os/

[Jorge-Vieira]

Experimental Firefox OS Build Can Run On MIPS Hardware

Imagination Technology's Alexandru Voica recently said in a blog that an experimental version of the Firefox OS platform is now running on MIPS-based hardware.
Voica said that Mozilla's Gecko-based operating system is currently running on a MIPS-based 9.7-inch reference tablet that can play host to Mozilla's platform or Android 4.4 "KitKat." The device consists of a dual-core Ingenic JZ4780 processor and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU, as well as Wireless N and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, a camera on the front and back, two physical buttons, a mini-HDMI port and more.
Voica said that the reference tablet and the company's Creator CI20 board use the same Ingenic processor and are ideal for application development. However, these devices can also be used on a daily basis as computing solutions.
"Since Imagination designs the essential hardware IP that powers a wide range of platforms from premium smartphones to ultra-affordable tablets, we can help our partners better understand and anticipate consumer trends and thus strike the perfect balance between performance, features and price," Voica said.
So how long did it take to bring Firefox OS over to MIPS-based hardware? Voica told Tom's Hardware that porting the operating system was a straightforward task, and that the development time only took a few months. He said that they were already very familiar with the underlying technologies.
"Firefox OS is a neat operating system that we could easily show running on a MIPS CPU. A lot of the work on the graphics side was completed already since there are other PowerVR-based devices running Firefox OS in China," he told us. "There is nothing preventing us or our customers from porting any other Linux-based OS to the MIPS architecture."
He also said that the porting of Firefox OS is a "proof point" for how operating systems are getting more and more ISA-agnostic.
"This is a platform that developers can use to test out WebGL performance on mobile devices," he said. "Since this tablet shares the same chip with our Creator CI20 dev board, we encourage developers to try and port Firefox OS to our microcomputer when the source code will be available. It might turn into a really fun project."
However, don't expect a Firefox OS MIPS-based tablet in the near future. Voica said that the company's Creator program will remain as the primary sales channel for MIPS and PowerVR devices.
In addition to the announcement, Voica said that the company is giving away 15 reference tablets running Firefox OS to open source developers. The company has also uploaded a free WebGL SDK and a number of samples to its GitHub site, which can be used on MIPS-based processors or PowerVR GPUs. He also said that developers will have access to the Firefox Marketplace.

Noticia:
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/fir...ips,28805.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

How To Download And Install Firefox OS On Any Android Phone

Here’s how you can download and install Firefox OS on any Android smartphone without going through much hassle.

Firefox OS didn’t manage to get much traction as one would normally like, but given the fact that the OS is made for extremely budget handsets in mind, hence it’s hard for Mozilla to penetrate into a market which is already taken over by Android. But that doesn’t absolutely mean that Mozilla is slowing down or seizing the development of Firefox OS in any case. In fact, the company has released Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview a while back, and getting it up and running on any Android smartphone is as easy as installing an APK, literally.
Simply head over to this link, and then download and install the APK file onto your device by tapping on the ‘Grab the Android App’ button. Make sure that you uncheck the ‘Unknown sources’ box on your Android device by navigating to Settings > Security ahead of installation. Once that’s out of the way, installing apps from third-party sources will become a breeze. But be sure to turn the option off once you’re done tinkering with the OS since the option leaves your device open to potential attacks from outside sources.





The Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview weighs in at nearly 100MB so be sure to perform the download over a WiFi connection, provided that you don’t have an unlimited cellular data plan. If you do, then you can take any route you like to perform the download.
Keep in mind that Firefox OS 2.5 is an ‘experimental app’ for your Android device and users should expect some rough corners during usage. Also, this app won’t replace the entire Android OS with Firefox, as it only lets you try out the new build in an app-like environment. Speaking of app-like environment, the Firefox OS 2.5 Developer Preview is aimed at those who are testing out their software for Mozilla mobile OS, but since it’s free, anyone can try it out on their Android device.
If you have never ever tried out Firefox OS in your life, then now’s the great chance to take the software for a spin. Furthermore, you also get the option of flashing Firefox OS completely onto your smartphone, provided that you have a supported handset in your pocket. The details for that are also linked in the URL which we have added above.
Do share your experience regarding Firefox OS with us if you do take it for a spin.

Noticia:
http://wccftech.com/download-and-ins...#ixzz3rHmLDiXC

[Jorge-Vieira]

Mozilla admits Firefox smartphone failed

Gives up and puts it to sleep

Open saucy browser outfit Mozilla has admitted that its Firefox OS smartphone experiment didn’t have legs and it will stop developing and selling the beasts.

The company said that it will continue to experiment on how it might work on other connected devices and Internet of Things networks.

The announcement was made earlier today at Mozilla’s developer event in Orlando, Mozlando. Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla’s SVP of Connected Devices said that he was proud of the benefits Firefox OS added to the Web platform and will continue to experiment with the user experience across connected devices.

“We will build everything we do as a genuine open source project, focused on user experience first and build tools to enable the ecosystem to grow,” he said.

Firefox OS proved the flexibility of the Web, scaling from low-end smartphones all the way up to HD TVs. However, Mozilla could not offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels.
Firefox OS was first unveiled in 2013, with the aim of targeting the developing world and late adopters with low-cost handsets.
Mozilla and its carrier partners focused on a web-first platform, with no native and only web apps. Sales were pretty pants and the devices were greeted by a loud sounding yawn from the market.
Mozilla has been dumping projects which are not doing so well. Last week it announced that it would be looking for alternative homes for its Thunderbird email and chat client.

Noticia:
http://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/...eriment-failed

[Jorge-Vieira]

Firefox OS may be installed on HDMI sticks, routers, tablets etc

Earlier this December Mozilla appeared to throw in the towel with regard to its Firefox OS. Following the Mozilla developer event 'Mozlando', Ari Jaaksi, Mozilla's SVP of Connected Devices explained to TechCrunch "...we weren't able to offer the best user experience possible and so we will stop offering Firefox OS smartphones through carrier channels". Jaaksi didn't put a metaphorical full stop there but added "We'll share more on our [Firefox OS] work and new experiments across connected devices soon". Now it looks like the Firefox OS team have significantly shifted focus to other devices such as; HDMI sticks, routers, tablets and even a 'Firefox Pi' keyboard computer.

VentureBeat reports on a leaked document exposed by Spanish site Hipertextual, which provides information about four proposed Firefox OS connected devices, their USPs and target markets. Mozilla's chief legal and business officer, Denelle Dixon-Thayer, explained the leaked document to VentureBeat as follows: "we are still at the early stages of exploring and prototyping new use cases for Firefox OS in the world of connected devices as an open source project with a clear focus on the user benefit and experience". So its concept work, not firm plans. Nevertheless there's some interesting concepts...
The Firefox Pad is pretty self explanatory, it's just a tablet with Firefox OS and "no telephony stack to worry about". It would focus on safety, privacy and simply providing a browser experience with automatic updates. The Firefox Stick would add smarts to your HDMI TV screen. With it you could cast content from the web and mobiles "with no gatekeepers". However DRM and content partnerships must be in place for it to succeed.

More interesting is the Firefox Hub, "a smart router you can trust". Again this plays to Mozilla's strengths of privacy, use friendliness and auto updates. I particularly like the Firefox Pi, as it reminds me of the old keyboard computers I grew up using. As you might guess the Firefox Pi is built with a Raspberry Pi at its heart. It uses the keyboard computer form factor which integrates a touchpad and mouse buttons to the right. Mozilla thinks this could be paired with "millions of obsolete analogue TVs in India", and would be useful not just for consumption but creation.

Unfortunately we probably won't see the more interesting Firefox device proposals very soon but will probably still see tablets and smart TVs featuring the OS released in the meantime.

Noticia:
http://hexus.net/tech/news/software/...s-tablets-etc/