Mozilla's Firefox OS isn't slated to debut until later this year, but the Firefox-maker introduced a Firefox OS developer preview phone Tuesday that will soon be available for purchase. The developer handset isn?t a consumer phone; it is meant as a tool for people who intend to make apps for the new Firefox smartphone platform. The device does, however, provide a general idea of what to expect when Firefox OS handsets debut in the coming months.
Unlike Android, BlackBerry, iOS, or Windows Phone, Firefox OS is based entirely on Web technologies such as HTML 5 and JavaScript. This includes basic functions such as the dialer, address book, calendar, and third-party apps designed for the platform. Mozilla claims that using more lightweight Web programming tools instead of a more traditional programming language such as Objective-C (iOS) or Java (Android) means you can offer a full-featured smartphone with lower-powered specs at a cheaper price.
The first round of Firefox OS phones are expected to appear in Brazil in 2013. It's not clear when Firefox OS would show up in the U.S., but Sprint has pledged to support the new smartphone platform.
The official Firefox OS developer preview phone, dubbed the Keon, certainly qualifies as a low-powered device. The Keon more closely resembles smartphones from 2010 like the Nexus One than the current crop of quad-core, 4- and 5-inch display behemoths with LTE connectivity. The Keon features a 3.5-inch HVGA display, 1GHz Snapdragon S1 processor, a 3 megapixel camera, 4GB onboard storage, 512MB RAM, a microSD slot, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 3G and Edge cellular connectivity, light and proximity sensors, an accelerometer, GPS and a microUSB port. The device also has a 1580mAh battery, comes unlocked, and will receive over-the-air software updates.
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