Firefox OS Official Guide

Reviewer’s Guide
press@mozilla.com
Firefox OS
Features
Guide
press@mozilla.com

About Mozilla 1
About Firefox OS 2
Getting Started with Firefox OS 3
Web Apps and Adaptive App Search 17
Privacy and Security 20
The Web is the Platform 21
Contents

organization, Mozilla has been a pioneer and advocate for the Web for more than 15 years and is focused on
creating open standards that enable innovation and advance the Web as a platform for all. We are committed
to delivering choice and control in products that people love and can take across multiple platforms and
devices. For more information, visit blog.mozilla.org/press
About Mozilla
1

performance, personalization and price you want in a smartphone packaged in a beautiful, clean, intuitive,
and easy-to-use experience.
Firefox OS introduces a brand new concept for smartphones. Adaptive app search literally transforms the
phone to meet your needs at any moment, without the need to download anything. Search for your favorite
music artist and get app results to buy songs, listen instantly, buy concert tickets and more. Adaptive app
search makes it possible for you to access one-time use or downloadable apps and gives you a completely
customized experience with the exact content you want, when you want it.
Firefox OS also includes all the things people expect from a smartphone — calls, messaging, email, camera
— and those that they want, such as built-in social integration with Facebook and Twitter, location-based
the Firefox Web browser, the Firefox Marketplace and much more.
Our vision is to create a more powerful, open Web, so as more browsers adopt the open Web technologies
that power Firefox, Firefox OS and Firefox for Android, you will be able to take the apps you purchase with you
across other platforms and devices. Firefox OS also delivers the exceptional security, privacy, customization
and user control that you have come to expect from the Firefox Web browser.
About Firefox OS
2

Getting Started with Firefox OS
We think Firefox OS is a great new smartphone experience for people who
want to upgrade from basic feature phones and who will be experiencing
Because Firefox OS is built entirely using HTML5 and open Web
technologies, it is free from the rules and restrictions of existing
proprietary platforms, allowing developers, handset manufacturers and
operators to innovate without boundaries, to provide people with the
best smartphone experience possible.
Firefox OS is packed full of features and apps, but we included the
highlights in this guide. It’s also worth pointing out that despite being
Web-based, Firefox OS always provides you with access to all the core
3

4
Setup Guide
a simple Setup Guide. This guide walks you through the steps of setting up
the language, WiFi, data, location, correct time zone and date. It’s important
to ensure all these details are up to date for the optimal performance of
your phone.
Towards the end of the Setup Guide, you will be asked if you would like
to help improve Firefox OS by sharing certain data about performance,
improving the operating system (see Privacy & Security section for more
the Mozilla community and be alerted to new products or Mozilla events.
Facebook Social Integration
If you select the Facebook contact import option in the Setup Guide, you
simply insert your Facebook credentials and then select which contacts
you wish to import. When you go to your phone contacts, you will see each
person’s associated Facebook photo, phone number and email address,
home location and the ability to quickly message them either via SMS or
automatically pushes their entry to the top of your contacts list).

5
Phone Tour
The phone tour appears after you set up your device. It is designed to provide a simple overview of how to
navigate, change your phone’s settings and use Firefox OS, including how to browse, delete or move apps
The Lock Screen and Setting a PIN
Once you are through the Phone Tour, you are presented with the lock screen. By swiping up, you can
set a PIN to protect the content on your device by going to ‘Settings / Phone Lock / Passcode lock’ and
entering a PIN.
provides an easy way to see missed calls, voicemail, SMS text messages and any other activities on your
phone. It also allows for quick access to: phone settings , data usage, WiFi , operator data ,
Bluetooth or Airplane mode .

6
Setting up Email
A number of email services are supported by the email setup wizard
your email credentials to get started. For more advanced email users, there
is a manual mail setup option which includes support for Exchange, SMTP
or IMAP email providers, and can help you use multiple accounts. Email
also supports viewing photos and adding them as attachments from within
the Gallery app . Before composing an email, we recommend you turn
on ‘Word Suggestion’ by going to ‘Settings / Keyboard / Word suggestion,’
which will bring up word suggestions as you type an email or text message.

Firefox OS phones, of course, come with the Firefox Web browser, which is
used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide. As always with Firefox,
you can use the Awesome Bar (URL Bar) to get where you want to go
quickly. Just start typing your search term and the autocomplete function
includes possible matches from your browsing history and bookmarked
sites. Firefox learns as you use it — over time, it adapts to your preferences
The Firefox Web browser also allows you to easily add your favorite sites
to your bookmarks or add them as shortcuts on your home screen by
navigating to a website and then selecting the star icon and choosing to
either ‘Bookmark’ the site or ‘Add to home screen.’ The Firefox Start page
provides quick access to your Top sites, Bookmarks and History, while Tabs
let you multitask by simultaneously browsing more than one Web page.
Do Not Track feature, so you can tell
advertisers that you’d like to opt out of tracking used for advertising — this
is turned on in Firefox OS settings. More on this in the Privacy and Security
section.
7

Camera
The camera can be accessed in two ways, either directly from the
lock-screen for quick access to ensure you don’t miss those fast moving
starting the camera, you will be asked whether you want it to use your GPS
location to tag your photos — this embeds the GPS coordinates of where
you take your photos within the image (this data is not collected by Mozilla
or its partners, it is only embedded in your photos), to allow you to more
easily categorize your photos at a later date. The camera app also lets you
shoot video by selecting the video icon at the bottom right of the screen.
After taking photos, you can easily edit them in the Photo Gallery using
number of useful image editing features including:
your gallery and keep the original image.
8

Crop
Even great looking photos need to be cropped. With the Crop feature,
you’re presented with a number of popular crop ratios like 2:3, 3:2
photo to your gallery and keep the original image.
the look of an image, depending on what kind of mood you’re trying
you save will not overwrite your original.
9

to make them appear to stand out more prominently.
Once you’re done editing your images, they can be set as your wallpaper
or shared with friends using Twitter (if installed and signed in), email or
Bluetooth, by selecting the share icon.
10

phone. Files can be sorted by playlist , artist or album , and album
further categorized and searched for by the highest rated, recently added,
the playlist menu to play a mix of all your songs at random. DRM-free
songs can also be shared with friends using Bluetooth, by long-pressing
on the song and making sure you are connected with another Bluetooth
device.
11

How to use the Music App
Tap the Music app to get started.
looking for by searching your playlists , artists or albums .
song title, star rating and controls to pause, advance to the next song
more than one song in your playlist or album.
play in the background.
To get back to the music app, you can either tap it again from the home
screen or simply long-hold the home button and locate the music app
from the multitasking menu.
12

Here’s how to add this music to your Firefox OS phone:
1. In the Settings app , scroll down to the Device section and tap ‘Media storage.’
2. In the Media storage settings, enable ‘USB mass storage.’
3. Connect your Firefox OS phone to your computer using a USB cable.
4. On a PC, you will see the phone’s SD card appear on the desktop as an additional drive. On a Mac, click
the ‘Finder’ in the dock. A new Finder window will open and you should see your phone’s SD card listed
in the left sidebar under ‘Devices.’
5. Select your SD card in the left sidebar (on PC or Mac).
access your music in the Firefox OS Music app .
13

FM Radio
The FM Radio allows you to listen to live radio broadcasts by simply plugging
in your headphones (which act as an antenna). When opening the FM Radio
icon for quick access to the station later.
Video Player
the Video Player app using the same method for adding music. Videos can
be quickly reviewed using the play bar at the bottom of the screen.
14

Interest (POI), view local reviews or share and create your own POIs with
and access them from any connected computer, or your Firefox OS device.
Using the device’s GPS and location services, HERE Maps can pinpoint your
location (when you grant the app permission) and give you directions (car,
Incidents allows you to view Accidents, Construction, Congestion and other
an additional service fee depending on your carrier) by going to ‘Settings
/ Internet Sharing / WiFi hotspot.’ Here you can change the name of your
hotspot, add a security password and decide if you would prefer to tether
your phone to a USB-connected device, such as a laptop, instead of
using WiFi.
15

SMS
and writing a message to them. Threaded SMS view allows you to keep
track of your individual conversations.
By holding down the home key, you can quickly switch between running
apps by swiping the app windows to the left or right and can stop apps
running by pressing the ‘x,’ or swiping the apps window up.
16

Web Apps and Adaptive App Search
Mozilla is unlocking the Web as the platform for apps because the Web enables limitless innovation and
allows every Web developer to easily create and distribute HTML5 apps. With Firefox OS, you can easily
frequently. Firefox OS gives you a completely customized experience and helps you get the exact content
you want, when you want it.
Developers can now build apps powered by open Web standards (like HTML5, JavaScript and CSS) and
new Mozilla pioneered WebAPIs that enable Web apps to access the underlying capabilities of the handset
Firefox OS is built on Web technologies doesn’t mean you have to be connected to the Web to use any of the
core phone features, like making a call.
Firefox OS reinvents app discovery by constantly adapting to your life and interests at any given moment,
providing you with a list of relevant, new and previously downloaded apps based on the topics or search
terms you enter. When you swipe to the right from the home screen, you are presented with a search bar
and list of apps by topic for the Adaptive App Search. If you enter the name of your favorite soccer team in
the search bar, your phone background image will change to represent your team and bring up multiple
app options — maybe for buying tickets or merchandise, getting the latest team news, or getting answers to
interested in at any moment.
bottom right of your screen to either refresh the page or save the app as a favorite by tapping the star
17

Firefox Marketplace
apps in categories like games, news and media, business and productivity.
These Web apps can be tied to you and your online identity using Persona,
Mozilla’s online identity system, which in the future will allow you to take
your apps across multiple devices and platforms. Leading mobile apps and
Web developers around the globe have leveraged the power of the Web
unlocked by Mozilla to release apps in the Firefox Marketplace.
To try it out, select the Firefox Marketplace icon from your home screen
Any app can be downloaded by simply tapping on the app and pressing
app to your home screen. There’s very little waiting during install or when
updating apps because most apps are Web-based.
19

Privacy and Security
over your personal browsing information.
Do Not Track lets you tell websites and apps that you would like to opt-out of tracking used for advertising.
the privacy feature. Firefox is leading the Web toward a universal standard with this feature. Do Not Track
Firefox OS Security
Mozilla is an industry leader and trusted advisor when it comes to Web security. In Firefox OS, Mozilla has
implemented a comprehensive, integrated and multi-layered security model that delivers best-of-breed
protection against security risks. This includes:
Employing implicit permission levels based on an app trust model
A sandboxed execution at runtime
API-only access to the underlying mobile phone hardware
A robust permissions model, and a secure installation and update process
For more information on Firefox OS Security visit:developer.mozilla.org/Firefox_OS/Security
20

The Web is the Platform
Firefox OS is built on an open platform, using a Linux kernel to boot into a Web runtime environment
using Mozilla’s “Gecko” Web engine, the same engine that powers the Firefox browser. Gecko exposes the
hardware capabilities of the phone to Web content through Mozilla pioneered WebAPIs. Firefox OS enables
the development of smartphones where every feature can be developed as a Web application (calling,
messaging, browsing, etc.), where access to the underlying capabilities of a smartphone (Bluetooth, battery
status, contacts) were previously only available to native apps.
The Streamlined Firefox OS Software Stack
Firefox OS delivers a beautiful, clean, intuitive and personalized user experience that is completely based on
as modifying the look and feel is as simple as editing a website.
Gecko: The Web Runtime
Firefox OS is built with Mozilla’s Web runtime, the same Gecko rendering engine that powers the Firefox
Web browser. The application layer is developed exclusively with open Web technologies, like HTML5, CSS,
and JavaScript without the need for a single-vendor native API layer between the Web engine and the kernel.
Why? Because we developed WebAPIs to access the underlying capabilities of the handset previously only
available to native apps. The smaller stack means Firefox OS can also target low to high-end hardware.
features such as Bluetooth to talk to apps accessing the Web Engine. Firefox OS phones use an open Linux
kernel which shares some of the same components used by many mobile device manufacturers today.
21

HOW FIREFOX OS CONNECTS
HTML5 TO HARDWARE
Gaia:
User interface with
HTML5-based Web content
Gecko:
Web runtime with
open WebAPIs
Gonk:
Open Linux kernel
and drivers
Removed:
Single-vendor native
API layer between
engine and kernel
22

Thank you for your interest in Firefox OS.
The vibrant Mozilla community and our dedicated partners have worked hard to
bring the best smartphone experience possible to get the next billion people online.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact
press@mozilla.com.

Visit https://blog.mozilla.org/press
for the latest news and media resources.

Firefox OS Official Guide

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