Firefox demos dev tools and mobile OS
Showcases future of creating and utilising HTML5
Mozilla has been setting out the future of Firefox, which it hopes will heavily impact on end-users, openness advocates and developers. On mobile, Firefox OS is described by Mozilla as a “new mobile ecosystem built entirely to open web standards” that will “enable the development of smartphones where every feature can be developed as an HTML5 application”.
In a new video of the in-development operating system, Mozilla showed off various features, including a page-based app icon grid, dialling, a camera, an image gallery, app installation, app switching and, naturally, its web browser. In the video, the OS appeared a little laggy, but when it’s complete Mozilla noted it will “for the first time allow HTML5 apps to access the underlying capabilities of a device, previously only available to native apps”, which it argued will improve mobile web performance through a lighter OS and faster browser, thereby providing “the best mobile web content and app experience”.
For those people developing the apps, further improvements have been outlined for the Firefox desktop browser's developer tools. The new ‘Markup panel’ enables you to manipulate on-page styles and the DOM, the refreshed Web Console improves auto-complete and boosts clarity, and the Page Inspector no longer places a ‘dark veil’ over everything but the selected element, instead highlighting a selection with a dashed line.
The changes are available on the Aurora channel and scheduled for release later in 2012.
Get top Black Friday deals sent straight to your inbox: Sign up now!
We curate the best offers on creative kit and give our expert recommendations to save you time this Black Friday. Upgrade your setup for less with Creative Bloq.
Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access
Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription
Join now for unlimited access
Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1
The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.