10th day of december, and 2014 is also 10th years of Firefox. Therefor this post will tell you a bit about Firefox OS, the mobile phone O/S from Mozilla.
I’m thinking of using FFx OS phone as my primary daily phone.
Am i nuts? FFx OS is entry level ‘smartphone’ that wont be match with my level now.
No, I’m serious. I mean if i want to know the true power of Firefox OS phone, i should start using it in daily basis. Sure, spec-wise it’s far beyond my iPhone 5 and LG G2 (and I’m planning to sell both of them) in many ways. But in basic daily need, I think it could serve me enough.
Mine is a Firefox OS Flame phone.
Phone + Contacts + SMS
It’s out of the box basic features of a cellphone. Plus i can import my Google account contacts easily. Bad news, it can’t do sync back with my Google account. So i have to set up manually email and calendar. That’s all
Internet browsing
We have Firefox browser in a Firefox OS phone, what do you need more?
Calendar
Setting up Google calendar is easy. Setting up my company exchange calendar is painful. Haven’t success so far, but i’ll try to figure out later.
I can connect to my company email service using ActiveSync and for now it’s more than enough to support my work :) Samething with my gmail account.
Instant Messaging
This is very challenging, not to mention typing in this phone is kind of suck for me. And thank God all my contacts that i’ve been in touch with inside and outside office are having Line and WhatsApp account, not only stuck in BBM. Line is by default pre-installed in my Flame phone. So no problem.
What about WhatsApp?
There is an application in Firefox OS Marketplace called Connect2A. ConnectA2 is a third-party app and is not affiliated with WhatsApp. It is still in its early stages so having some bugs in the app is expected. I tried to register, put the code from the SMS sent by whatsapp but no luck.
Telegram is working fine.
You can also try Loqui IM, it’s a messaging client for multiple services. You can connect to WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.
Too bad this app is not so responsive at first, so kind of frustrating also. I’m using WiFi connection, i cannot imaging if i have to use 2/3G network to use this app. But after a few close-open app, i can manage to use the facebook messenger services. No luck with whatsapp, same sms validation issue like Connect2A. Yah i think there are some issue with WhatsApp API.
Cloud Service
Hmm, no Google Drive/Dropbox client, no Evernote. I think i still need to bring my iPad to do the advance task.
Now let’s talk about “[button url=”http://” style=”green”]entertainment[/button]”
Camera
For me? forget it. For you who just need a snapshot photo, this phone is doing enough. Just to force your self to use Flame in low light condition :) So no instagram, snapseed, vsco and any image editing app suit my need. I’ll use them in my iPad. There is Aviary for simple casual image editing
Music
Haven’t try it yet. I need to buy memory card and put some of my songs inside.
Radio
It has very simple interface but works like a charm, just put your headset and tune to your fave radio channel :)
Video
I wont play any video using this phone. It wont meet my viewing standard :P But again, this phone is doing enough for you. Dont expect more. You can enjoy YouTube using their native app for Firefox OS
Social Media
You have Twitter + Facebook app but couldn’t find Path app available at the moment :) Pinterest app is optimized for Firefox OS and has additional features implemented, such as sharing pins via the Firefox share button
I need to make sure WhatsApp and Microsoft Exchange Calendar to be fully working before making full switch to this phone.
One more thing, it hurst my wrist when using the keyboard interface. Somehow iPhone’s keyboard and Swiftkey are the best one for me.