During the Firefox OS Hackathon the Mozilla Reps gave us the opportunity to play with phones running Firefox OS. I must say these were developer preview phones so I’ll go easy on the bugs.
The first thing you notice in Firefox OS is the lock screen; it shows a background image with time/clock. If you are an android user you definitely notice the resemblance. The User Interface on the lock screen is plain, and lucks the noise and distractions. A swipe left then you notice the rather clean UI.
Most of the icons are circular starting with the call, messaging and Firefox browser app that give the OS a difference from iOS and android. Navigation through the icons is done by swiping left or right and the menu seems merged with the lock screen in the sense that when you swipe to the end of the menu ‘app drawer’ you return to the lock screen.
The navigation was smooth when we just unlocked the device but I got a bit slow when we powered up many ups. The OS need a high end smart phone where we shall feel the full potential of this OS.
Feel Free to check Out our Video Review on firefox OS
Yeah, no operating system today, doesn’t support multi-tasking, this can be achieved by long pressing the home button which looked like a small circle embedded right onto, the screen, you then see previews of windows for the applications you have been running, you can push the window up or down to close it and you can navigate through the windows by swiping left or right. Well this interface resembled the multi-tasking option from apple, and when we opened so many windows the previews didn’t show clearly a thing you will see in my video review. Let’s excuse them for since it was a developer preview phone.
Android users will notice that Firefox OS usually supports one hardware key and you might often touch besides the button to go back a thing you will have to get used to. To exit an app you press the middle hardware button in the middle twice to exit an app.
You also notice Firefox OS has a notification bar which you drag down to show your notifications and gain access to some toggles, like Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data, and a key to open up your ‘Settings’ Menu. Just like Android you drag the notification tray up to close it.
Talking about apps, we were able to find several applications from Facebook, Instagram, & more we must remember apps on Firefox OS are powered by HTML5; the Marketplace can be accessed on top of the Firefox browser core, so you can also run Firefox OS apps in your browser on your computer. I was told uploading to the Mozilla marketplace is free, so you should expect many apps soon. Developers are definitely required.
Yeah, the Camera was plain and simple with a shoot button and another to show the menu.
Looking at what the ladies love, we found too much orange, the same orange from the ‘fire fox’ we found the orange in the messaging app, The OS is fond of curves and when you look at the keyboard you will notice, the curved keys. This OS ‘Operating System’ will give you a different feel however you will keep a lot in common with Android and a bit from iOS.
You would murder me if I didn’t tell you about the browser, obviously its Mozilla Firefox, The browser handles really well and is update in terms of web standard so you will get your HTML 5 websites running smoothly and the text is readable, the tabs UI look amazing when you are changing or closing the tabs.
Firefox OS is like having good looking websites or apps that are stored offline and work in a very smooth way. It’s definitely gives us a good reason to switch.
There you have it, just in case you want to experience the feel of Firefox OS, you can view our video on the OS and or head to Amazon or eBay to get yourself a device
