Hasta La Gadget!

The mobile market may still essentially be a two horse race, with Android and iOS enjoying a significant lead, but there are lots of upstarts trying to make inroads, too. One of those is Firefox OS, Mozilla’s attempt to bring a web-first focus to smartphones. Geeksphone has been an early Firefox OS hardware supporter, and now it has put the Revolution up for sale, a higher-end device than its earlier efforts, complete with the ability to dual-boot to both Android and Firefox OS out of the box.

If you’re used to working in a corporate environment but also being cool during evenings and weekends, then you might be familiar with dual-booting: I’ve been known to have my Macs run Windows on a Boot Camp partition for when I need to pierce the veil and travel to the Microsoft realm. It’s actually a pretty common scenario in desktop computing, and there are a number of products including virtualization software designed to facilitate it. But is there the same kind of utility in the mobile world?

Firefox OS is definitely still an outlier when it comes to the mobile platform landscape, and as such, there’s very little in terms of pressing reasons to have it as an option. That said, the eternally curious and those who sympathize with Mozilla’s approach to software, open source and the web will probably find plenty to love about Firefox OS on a device with decent mid-range specs (it appears mostly on lower-end hardware, in keeping with Mozilla’s target market for the OS).

Specs for the phone include a dual-core Intel Atom processor at 1.6GHz, as well as HSDPA cellular support, and an 8 megapixel rear camera with a 1.3 megapixel front shooter. The Revolution retails for €222, and is sold direct from the Geeksphone website. Shipments start going out March 4, so eager shoppers won’t have to wait long before they start acting like mobile chameleons.

Most people will immediately associate Mozilla with the popular Firefox web browser, but it does so much more than that. Firefox OS is the prime example, a new platform that’s already powering a few low cost smartphones. Mozilla has already said that Firefox OS smartphones aren’t going to be launched in the U.S. any time soon, that’s because it wants to focus on markets where saturation isn’t sky high. The buck doesn’t stop with low-end smartphones, Mozilla has created its very own Firefox OS tablet prototype and is conducting tests to see how its nascent platform performs on a different form factor.

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Firefox OS Tablet Prototypes Enter Test Phase original content from Ubergizmo.

[CES 2014] There is nothing quite like good, old fashioned collaboration between companies to churn out something useful for the masses. Both the folks over at Panasonic Corporation and Mozilla have announced that they will be working together to develop and promote the new Firefox OS, which happens to be an open platform that is based on HTML5 as well as other Web technologies, targeting next generation smart TVs as the platform of choice. This development of the new Firefox OS platform intends to deliver additional access into smart TVs through the leverage of both HTML5 and Web technologies that are already prevalent on PCs, smartphones and tablets.

In a nutshell, it will be able to open up the doors for consumers to enjoy a more personalized and optimized access to Web and broadcasting content as well as services over the Internet. This would mean that next generation smart TVs will be able to enjoy full compatibility with Web technologies and HTML5 standards that are more often than not used for cloud services and different kinds of future networked devices, including the enablement of data from Web services and devices which can be easily mashed up on a single application. The living room is starting to look like a very nice place to cozy up to at all times. [Press Release]

Panasonic And Mozilla Work On Firefox OS Open Platform For Next Generation Smart TVs original content from Ubergizmo.

It is safe to say that in the smartphone platform market at the moment, the main players are probably Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry. There are of course other platforms out there such as Sailfish OS, Tizen, and Firefox OS. While not to say that these smaller operating systems have no chance at beating out the big guys, doing it on their own could be a long and tough journey, which is why Samsung’s Chief Secretary, Wonsuk Lee, recently expressed interest in teaming up with the folks at Mozilla to bring Firefox OS and Tizen closer together. This is not necessarily a merger, but rather a combination of forces, especially since both platforms support the development of HTML5.

While Samsung continues to rely on Google’s Android operating system for its revenue, Tizen and Firefox OS have been designed to support low-end devices which could help them break into emerging markets. At the moment Microsoft’s Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices are doing relatively well in emerging markets such as India, so perhaps by combining forces, they will be able to gain some traction there. Samsung has also expressed their belief that one day both Tizen and Firefox OS could grow to the point where they might be able to give iOS and Android a run for their money, a little ironic given that Samsung is very reliant on Android at the moment. In any case what do you guys think of the idea of Mozilla and Samsung teaming up?

Tizen And Firefox OS Should Team Up, According To Samsung original content from Ubergizmo.

Last month, a handset running Firefox OS was launched in Brazil, the LG Fireweb. If you’ve been holding out hope that one would be hitting shelves in the US sometime soon, you’re out of luck — at least for the foreseeable future. Mozilla has a strong focus on emerging markets with its mobile development, and […]