Firefox OS Simulator 4.0 released | Hacker News Reader

Firefox OS Simulator 4.0 released

hacks.mozilla.org

74 pointsrnyman7 comments

Leave us some feedback or report any issues in our bug tracker! [1]

[1] https://github.com/mozilla/r2d2b2g/issues

The left most search pane is completely unintuitive.

Are these apps installed on my phone? Are these even apps? WTF is this?

It's a service called everything.me - it provides search for the apps on the phone itself and also indexes a bunch of web pages already wrapped as lightweight "apps" that work on the phone with no install needed, see http://everything.me/ and https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2012/11/28/mozilla-invests-in-...

Firefox OS has an "add to home screen" feature in the browser that creates very similar app icons (there's a very similar iPhone feature - this was the original supported way to provide apps on that platform in fact, before people started demanding an SDK to make apps more like Apple's). It is very similar to a bookmark, in fact it's right under "Bookmark" when the press the star in the browser.

Both of the above types of "apps" just launch a lightweight chromeless browser (there's a little arrow on the bottom of the screen you can hit to get a little toolbar with back/forward/reload buttons).

However they don't have the same access to APIs that a packaged Open Web App (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Apps and https://wiki.mozilla.org/WebAPI) that you'd install from e.g. the Firefox Marketplace could have, since they need to be reviewed and versioned (they are actually downloaded and installed on the phone - https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...)

thanks.. I still think it's far too confusing for the average user. At least have an indicator if the "app" is already installed. Or, don't call the shortcuts apps, but only the ones using the SDK.

it's basically this thing https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=me.everything....

embedded into the OS.

What left pane? (I see nothing of the sort in the link or screenshots.)

The "Clear AppCache, localStorage, sessionStorage, and IndexedDB while refreshing the app" feature sounds nice. I don't know if you should call it "hidden feature" though. The other stuff is good as well. Good job everyone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com