Introducing Mozilla Firefox Boot to Gecko (B2G) OS

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description :

Bringing the Open Web to Mobile Devices

I saw this and couldn't resist having a little sneaky play around with it. 

* ATTENTION * 

This is NOT a daily driver and it's NOT stable, it's Pre-Alpha. If you want something to use as a phone, this isn't it. If you just want to use your phone as a phone, you need a custom Android ROM, so, be careful with your experiments.

Download the file here >>

So what is this? 

An Open Source project from Mozilla (the lovely people behind the Firefox Browser) that aims to support HTML5 apps written using "Open Web" technologies rather than platform-specific Native APIs. 

The idea is essentially to have all user-accessible software running on the phone be a Web app that uses advanced HTML5 techniques and device APIs, to access the phone's hardware directly via JavaScript. 

It initially targets Android-compatible smartphones. 

The company hopes to get onto smartphones and tablets to rival the likes of Android and iOS. B2G is based on the Linux kernel and includes drivers from Android, but on top of that is the same Gecko layout engine that powers the Firefox Browser. 

The main advantage of the OS being powered by Gecko is that developers can write apps using noting more than HTML, JavaScript and CSS.

Boot to Gecko (B2G) Simulator in Firefox

Want to see B2G in action? 

Well, fire up your copy of Firefox (preferably a Nightly Build) and head over to Mozilla engineer Paul Rouget's website where you will find the simulator.

Actually, the simulator is pretty nifty. Of course, it's quite limited in places and you can't do everything with it, but on the whole it's very neat. If nothing else, it gives you a feel for where the B2G project is headed.

It requires work in a number of areas, so I won't go into more details. I suggest you read a lot over at their wiki - start off at: https://wiki.mozilla.org/B2G and work your way through the pages.

You'll get suprised at how fast it boots. Can't wait to see the development for this, looks like it's going well already!

Overview:

Running on Galaxy S2:

We hope you enjoyed this article. Here are some resources / references for extra reading time.
Wikipedia, Mozilla Wiki
*by andreascy*

New Windows 8 Book : Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript

Posted by Andreas Christodoulou

Description : 

Hello friends!

Want to get your hands dirty in writing articles? The *Official AndreasCY* comes up with a new opportunity. Just drop us your area of interest and a bit about you and your background and someone from our team will follow up with you as quickly as possible.

Today we'd like to show you a brand new Windows 8 Book that is available for pre-order. It's called "Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript" and it's being written by Jaime Rodriguez. 

I hope you guys are already familiar with these coding languages (HTML5 & JS). Here's the promo about the book :

Building Windows 8 Metro Style Apps with HTML5 & JavaScript will help web developers quickly get up-to-speed with developing next-generation “Metro” apps for Windows 8 with HTML and CSS. Microsoft Windows 8 Principal Evangelist Jaime Rodriguez guides developers through constructing a real Windows 8 Metro app from start to finish, using expert techniques and Microsoft-recommended coding patterns and practices.

Along the way, Rodriguez shares unprecedented insider insights into Windows 8 and Metro, making this an outstanding introduction to the platform for any developer. Readers will start by taking a “lap” around a typical Windows 8 Metro-style application, understanding its elements, how they fit together, and how Metro development differs from what they’ve done before.

Rodgriguez introduces Microsoft’s development tools and resources for Windows 8 Metro development, including Visual Studio 11, Expression Blend, and Windows Library for JavaScript (WinJS). Readers learn how to integrate data with REST, JSON, and XmlHttpRequest, use Microsoft’s new Metro controls and Store API, manage views, provide notifications, provide multi-touch interface support, integrate with hardware, the shell, and the Windows 8 OS, and much more.

Useful reference appendices present HTML5 and CSS3 standards, Metro design principles for developers, and more. I hope to contact and do an interview with the author in the future.

You can order the book from Amazon.

*by andreascy*