Since the era of iPhone and Android, you’ll rarely heard cases about “losing contacts” because your phone was lost or just stop working. There’ll be no worry because you just need to get a new device, log in to your (gmail/apple id) account and voila! your contacts is restored. It’s so easy compare to Nokia/Blackberry era when you have to hook up your device to computer and do the manual backup as often as you can.
In this post, I will share about importing contacts from your Google account to your Firefox OS device.
1. Open your contacts app
2. Click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen. I have only 1 entry in my contacts.
3. You can choose how your contacts will be displayed in order. Based on last name or first name. You can also sync with Facebook. Click on Import Contacts to start import.
4. There are various sources of contact you can import from. SIM Card, Memory Card, Gmail and Outlook. I’ll use import from Gmail for this article.
5. You need to log in to your Google account
6. You need to confirm to start importing contacts from your Google Account
7. Firefox OS is starting to look up your Google contact
8. Firefox OS will display all of contacts in your Google account. You can select which one you want to import. Of you can just simply select them all. You have to click on Import button at the top right corner yo start importing.
9. Firefox OS is starting to import contact from your Google account
10. Voila! You have your contacts populated in your Firefox OS device :)
Exporting your contacts is a bit old school because you can only export your contacts to memory card of other devices via Bluetooth. I wish at least it can be export/copied to my Google / Mozilla account.
I’m still using the stock version of the o/s shipped with Flame which is 1.3.0.0-prerelease
I haven’t hook the device up to my Mac and do something with either AppManager, AppMaker or anything else
Following my previous post about unboxing Firefox OS Flame, it’s now time write a little review about the device. I was using the phone for the past week, not doing much actually. Mostly i used it for making couple of calls (voice and ussd), browsing, trying some apps, taking screenshots and photos.
So here it is.
For a very young O/S, Firefox OS has done pretty well to serve the basic, as a phone O/S. The screen is bright and nice. I hate the vibrate-when-you-press-buttons so i’ve disabled it (did it too on my G2 and Mi3). It’s somewhat different than I am used to, but seem to work fine after playing for a while. The battery is so good IMO. It can be a day phone compare to … my iPhone 5 :) You can leave the Flame unplugged overnight after some playing around with it and it just cost you about 25% of the juice. I was using it in 3G GSM mode most of the time, not yet trying to use it for tethering.
Notification take too long to disappear >5 secs
WiFi OK
Mail is one of my must-have app. And Firefox OS mail app is doing fine. Setting up account, fetching the mail and reading and compose. Right now, you can only attach video, music or photos from your gallery or taking picture with the camera.
setting up mail account (gmail)
setting up mail account
mail list
search email
view an email
delete confirmation
fetching attachment
delete multiple mails
As photographer and heavy Instagram user, I use camera a lot. Flame’s camera is decent enough to take pictures but not by my standard. It might be unfair because I’m using iPhone’s and G2’s camera so far. Well leave the metering filter and all the fancy things, it’s nice if you can at least pick your own focus instead of the “auto focus” offered by the camera app. You’ll now what I mean when you try it.
These are some picture i took. Indoor in CGK airport. The light was enough to take pictures without adding flash. And I was surprised that online exif viewer I used said the photos were taken at f/2.6 :) My Mac’s Preview app said it’s f/2.8.
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame w/ flash
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
taken with Firefox OS Flame
Sample of EXIF reading
using FxIF 0.4.7.1 extension
Mac’s Preview.app
These are photos taken with my iPhone 5 for comparison:
taken with iPhone5
taken with iPhone5
taken with iPhone5
taken with iPhone5
taken with iPhone5
Good thing is in Firefox OS 2.0 the camera app seems to have an upgrade. Rara showed me her Flame (which’s been upgraded to 2.0 nightly) camera app can do manual focus selection. You’ll see that green square box showed up when you touch a focus area in your screen. But still. the JPEG output still need a lot of work.
Apps.
Well like i said, i used the Flame for browsing. So i have nothing more to say about the browser. It’s Firefox anyway :D
I’m still using the stock apps. Camera, Messages, Facebook, Twitter and Market Place. Annoying part is when you run an ‘app’ there’s a time when you need to go back to the previous stage/screen of the app. There’s no Back button in place. Instead, there’s a tiny face down white arrow in the bottom right corner of the screen. You have to gently slide/touch it up to bring up the set of back-forward-refresh button.
if you have big fingers than it may cause trouble :)
android style?
I haven’t test the FM Radio yet.
The voice call is also crisp and clear. But the first major problem i’ve encountered was from the dialler app. I was filing a bug for not being able to make USSD calls using ZTE Open C with Firefox OS 1.1. Now in 1.3, the USSD feature is still buggy.
In Indonesia, USSD is the main course for operators to help their customer accessing their services. Because its menu driven view. My case was:
1. making USSD call to *888# (Telkomsel) to check my balance. OK, hung up.
2. after top up, make call to *888# again and hung up.
3. call to *363# to view the data related services offered by Telkomsel. browse along the menu, and found 1 menu taking too long to get the response. hung up
4. retry #3 and try different menu, found 1 menu too long to response. hung up.
5. retry #3 and after press call suddenly FFOS gave me session expired confirmation.
6. trying different USSD short codes, same behaviour appeared. Session expired message right after you press that green call button.
So i have to do the Blackberry way, take out the battery, wait for couple of seconds, put it back and turn the phone on. USSD back to normal. (????) :P
Once, i left the phone powered off for a whole night. When i turn it on in the morning everything looks normal. I saw the red Thundersoft splash screen followed by the blue firefox os boot up screen. But after that blank. Only a screen with that green grass background, no icons, no text, nothing. I’ve press all the buttons, slide up down left right still no changes. It went back to normal after i turned the phone off and wait for couple of seconds and turn it back on.
tadaaaa, icons are gone
and then goes white
had to power off + power on
back to normal
I also have a case when my SIM card suddenly not recognised. Back to normal after i set the airplane mode on, wait for couple of seconds and turn the airplane mode off.
Last update, when i’m writing this post, I call to *363#, choose menu #8 and then #1 to check my status, got Radio not Available. Then i enter 9, it should return incorrect keyword but i got stuck in “sending….” status instead. And it went like that for minutes until i took off the battery.
Stuck in this state for minutes until remove the battery
*yawn* That’s all i can write this time. I think FFOS 1.3 still has many issues, specially the USSD and the O/S stability. I’ll try to play it around a little longer before decide to try the FFOS 2.0 nightly.
Anyone know how to import my Google/iCloud contacts to the Firefox OS contact?
At MozSummit 2013, me and a fellow developer from France asked (or maybe complaint :P) at Chris Heilmann class about the difficulties on getting Firefox OS device. Sometimes simulator is not enough. You need to test your functions, your app in a real device to get the feel and to get to know that it will actually work.
At that time, only Geeksphone selling Keon and Peak to open market. But they seemed to be unable to fulfil the developers’s enthusiasm to get the device. They’re just small company anyway (we’re talking about Samsung, Huawei class of manufacture :P).
Meanwhile, device makers like ZTE/Alcatel only sell the device as part of operator’s bundling program. You need to have contract with the operator (other friends said you must be a citizen of the country where the carrier operates). Even at last MWC Barcelona where Mozilla has a big booth there we couldn’t buy any devices. They were for display and testing only :P
it’s basically an Alcatel OneTouch manufacture by T2Mobile
Firefox OS :)
Let’s unboxing it
So, Firefox OS Flame is the reference phone and considered as the flagship of Firefox OS powered device. It’s not a super high end phone, but it is higher end than any of the previous devices such as Geeksphone Keon, ZTE Open C for example. It’s got dual sim cards, front and rear cameras, adjustable memory, etc.
#MozBelajar is series of events held by Mozilla Reps and Mozillians in Indonesia to introduce The Mozilla Projects to the community as well as conduct knowledge sharing workshops with them.
In the last 2 series, we had workshop about WebMaker, a Mozilla project dedicated to helping you create something amazing on the web. For example, we can learn about how to create a webpage from scratch or remix it from the existing one. We can also make videos in simple and easy way using images we have or again remix it from other web contents. The tools (X-Ray Googles, Thimble, Popcorn Maker), events and teaching guides allow webmakers to not only create the content that makes the web great, but — perhaps more importantly — understand how the web works.
You dont need to be that nerdy geek to make a webpage. Just go with the flow (a lil bit concentration will be helpful) and feel the fun :)
These are some pictures i took from #MozBelajar 2 which was held last July 19th, 2014 in Jakarta. Many thanks to @rendy and qwords.com for providing us the place and bandwidth :)
#MozBelajar Part 2 Photo Gallery
This is a video from #MozBelajar 1 & 2 compiled by Yofie Setiawan
Ada yang tahu Chromecast?
Buat yang belum, Chromecast ini adalah perangkat keluaran Google untuk video streaming yang bentuknya ga lebih gede dari USB stick yang kamu punya. Harganya hanya $35, bisa diorder di Amazon atau coba tanya ke toko-toko komputer/elektronik terdekat. Lihat video dibawah ini deh.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKG5HDyTW8o
Sudah selesai menyimak video iklannya? Nanti bisa nyambung ke video paling bawah untuk gambaran lebih detil mengenai perangkat ini yah :)
Nah, sekarang beritanya.
Mozilla dikabarkan sedang membuat perangkat sejenis tapi tentu saja dengan Firefox OS sebagai sistem operasinya.
Eh yang beneran nih?
Ummm, proyek ini sih sebenarnya masih misterius dan belum dikonfirmasi. Cuman tweet dari Chris Heilmann 2 hari lalu sepertinya semakin menegaskan keberadaannya :) Perangkatnya sendiri belum ada namanya.
tweet dari Chris Heilmann, Mozilla Developer Evangelist
Wah, jadi tambah semangat nih buat ngoprek Firefox OS. Pertama Firefox OS phone, kemudian tablet dan PC, sekarang dongle ala Chromecast.
Berikut ini adalah video lebih jauh mengenai Chromecast.
2. Click on the Gear icon on the top right corner of the screen. I have only 1 entry in my contacts.
