Sunday, June 2, 2013

Getting started with Firefox OS and Geekphone keon

Firefox OS:

Firefox OS looks promising and now we have the first standard hardware that runs it from Geeksphone. Creating a new app for the Keon is easy, getting it run is also easy, once you know how. In this first of a series of articles on Firefox OS app development,
Here the link:
https://marketplace.firefox.com/developers/

Keon: Firefox OS
Firefox OS is a really interesting mobile operating system. Its biggest advantage is that you can create native apps using nothing but HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This is good because it means you can create one app, that with small variation should run under a browser, on a tablet or on a mobile phone. It is also attractive because, at the moment at least, there are no commercial interests trying to capture your data or control your apps. The Firefox OS based phone has  feeling for comparative freedom about it.
First a quick look at the structure of Firefox OS.Firefox OS is a Linux based system. Starting at the bottom of the technology stack there is:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/apps/

The Simulator:

Mozilla have made available a simulator (at version 3.0 at the time of writing) and you can use this to get started and test your apps. The simulator works very much like the real phone but it does have some missing facilities at the moment. You cant test vibration, proximity, ambient light and so on. The APIs that depend on the real hardware and interaction with the real hardware tend to be ignored by the simulator.
you can download from here:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/firefox-os-simulator/


Firefox OS Simulator

Firefox Simulator: in first look
It’s important to remember that the Keon is a tool. The specs of this single core 1Ghz processor, 512MB RAM handset with 4GB of flash storage memory are nothing when placed next to the iPhone 5 or the Samsung Galaxy S4, but that’s the point. This isn’t a design aimed at the top end of the western market, but in emerging markets around the world.
The Keon is not a consumer release device (that happens later in 2013), it is an affordable test unit for developers to do their final checks and debugging on something other than a simulator.

Komal Gandhi
Mozilla re presentative
Bhopal

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