New Firefox OS Screenshots: Gallery

Mozilla’s mobile operating system project used to be called Boot To Gecko, but a series of images have revealed a platform, now called Firefox OS, which promises to deliver speed and portability through the use of HTML5.

Firefox OS is a mobile ecosystem built entirely to Open Web standards. It will enable a revolutionary approach to smartphone software development, where every application can be written in HTML5. Mozilla’s European president Trsitan Nitot told TechWeekEurope that he expects to see hundreds of thousands of developers building apps for the new platform.

Following from our previous three picture stories, we are happy to present six new, beautiful, up-to-date screenshots of the Firefox OS, together with a video showing it in action.

My fox is on fire

Firefox OS was announced in April, and the first phones are expected to be launched in Latin America in late 2012 or early 2013.

The system will allow HTML5 apps to access the underlying capabilities of a device, previously only available to native apps. This will improve mobile Web performance via a lighter OS and faster browser, to provide the best mobile Web content and app experience.

“In terms of architecture, it is an operating system based on Linux, just as Android is. But we rely on Gecko, the Firefox web browser layout engine, to run applications written entirely in HTML5,” explained Nitot in July.

“Even native applications, such as the dialer or address book, are written in HTML5, and users will be able to examine the source code to check it,” he added.

So what will all this glorious software written in  HTML5 (Hypertext Markup Language 5) look like? You can see it in the screenshots.

Telefonica is one of the mobile operators really excited about the new operating system. In July, it presented a working prototype of a “Firephone” in London, saying that the Firefox OS will help it balance out its “strategic dependence on Android” and allow for the creation of cheaper devices that offer the same user experience.

Other operators interested in adopting the fledgling OS include Deutsche Telekom, Etisalat, Smart, Sprint, Telecom Italia and Telenor.

Earlier this year, Mozilla confirmed that first devices running Firefox will be manufactured by Chinese companies TCL and ZTE.

And here is the video of the system in action. In it, you can see the user testing the dialler, Firefox Marketplace and Galactians, an HTML5 remake of NAMCO’s iconic Galaxians.

If you want to see more Firefox OS, check out this video from a Nokia researcher running the Mozilla software on everybody’s favourite miniature computer – Raspberry Pi.

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