h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yup. I finally have a smartphone. It was a confluence of three events. I was excited by the idea Firefox OS. My existing phone decided it was going to stop charging. My boss wanted me to have a smartphone so I could check how well our websites rendered on one.

For that last reason, the phone was purchased with the company credit card, and has arrived here to the office. My existing phone, and the SIM card, is at home, so I've not actually turned on the ZTE yet. When I do, I'll let you know what I think of it.

TRiG.

Did you buy it for the specs or the value?

Actually, I didn't buy it. We build websites and want to know they're compatible with phones. Various people in the office already have an iPhone and an Android device, so when I remarked that I wanted a Firefox phone my boss said he'd buy it for me.

And it was purchased largely for the principles, rather than the specs. I like Free Software, so obviously I'd never go near an iPhone. Meanwhile, Android is Free in theory, but not so much in practice. (Have you noticed that so many apps these days are available "from Google Play" rather than "in the Android App Store"? These apps work only on Google-approved Android, and use Google-specific APIs, which are non-Free.) Firefox OS comes from Mozilla, which is a non-profit, and is entirely Free, meaning someone else could legally clone it and rename it with all functionality intact. (I'm using Free in the Free Software sense of freedom, not money: Libre rather than gratis: think Free Speech, not free beer.)

In terms of how user-friendly it is, erm. I'll talk about software and hardware.

I didn't like the setup process. The first question was which language I wanted to use. I had a choice of English (US). A choice with one option isn't exactly a choice, and presenting it as such is just confusing. Then I was asked whether I wanted to enable data. I had a choice of not doing so. (This time there actually was a choice, with a toggle switch, but I couldn't get it to do anything. I have since been able to enable and disable data in the settings menu. It had the same style of toggle switch, but this time it reacted to me.) After that, things went smoothly. Other than problems with setup, the software seems to be well written and user-friendly. It can be a bit confusing to browse through your apps, tap one, and find that you've actually opened a browser tab, but you soon get used to it. (The vast majority of Firefox OS apps actually run in-browser, by design, it seems. Some are better designed than others. The weather app gives you a choice of sources for weather data. If you pick Google, you get ... a Google search results page for the query "weather". This is not what I was expecting, especially after being asked whether I would supply the app with my location data and saying Yes.)

In terms of hardware, I can't deny that the ZTE Open is a good-looking device. It comes in bright Mozilla orange, with two simple logos in white on the back ("ZTE" and "Firefox OS"). There's a black strip on the meridian line, on which are situated the USB input (which doubles as a charger), the on/wakeup button, and the volume control. The only other button is a little home button below the screen. This seems sensible. It is, of course, dramatically cheaper than other smartphones, and this does show in the quality. I found the touchscreen not as sensitive as it should be. Sometimes in webbrowsing, tapping a link won't do anything: you have to press and hold, which pulls up an options menu where you can select to open the link (in a new tab, but nevermind: I like tabs). I also found I tended to mistype on the keyboard (this is especially annoying when you make a mistake while entering a long password, try to hit delete, and hit enter instead), but I've since started to use a pointer device instead of my fingers, and it has helped. (The pointer device is a beautifully carved Irish oak pen, with a little rubber tip on the top. I bought it from a local crafts popup shop, where I was told that is was made by a fifteen-year-old schoolboy. The ink is refillable: I asked.) The audio is very good (YouTube songs sound better on the phone than on the laptop).

Overall, I like it.

TRiG.

Here's one test you never thought of:

Did you try phoning someone?

As a phone, it works, yes. I've made one call (not as a test!), received one call, and sent and received a few text messages. The audio for phone calls is reasonable (though not as good as it is when playing music).

TRiG.

So what does the 'Guide' look like on it? The smartphone (or any other such portable device) is what the edited guide was/is created for-right? There was even a WAP version from the word go, when not many people even had portable/mobile phone?

I only got a proper internet enabled phone a little while back and Brunel looks great on it! (y) plain skin ain't bad either. :P

Reasonable, though posts seem to vary in font size for no apparent reason. In a conversation, each post has a consistent font size, but it will dramatically vary between them. Dunno why.

I probably won't be using it much for typing on the Guide, but I might well start using it for more reading. At the moment, I haven't got a plan which gives me cheep data, so browsing the net is pricey except where I've got wifi (in the office, in one cafe so far, and on trains). In the office I've got a full size computer, so I'm more likely to use that for hootoo (though it doesn't have audio, so the ZTE is handy if I want YouTube or Grooveshark: Vimeo seems not to like it). In cafes I'm more likely to read books than the Internet.

TRiG.

Actually, it has a h2g2 app. I just found it. All this really means is that it opens the website in fullscreen mode, but it does mean it's a "one-tap" operation.

TRiG.

Other things.

It doesn't appear to have a dictionary. It doesn't support copy and paste.

If you try to take photos, you get a warning that this won't work without a memory card. I left it in a shop for an hour while I went to lunch, and when I came back he told me he'd tried a few memory cards from different brands and the phone hadn't recognised any of them. That sounds like a specific problem with my device, though, not a general one, which is why I didn't mention it earlier. (This was in Galway, on the same day I first turned on the ZTE Open.)



And now I want to rant about the name. The project was originally called "Boot to Geko", but was renamed "Firefox OS" before release. What happens if you search for "Firefox OS"? You get loads of results for people looking for support with the Firefox browser on Mac OS X, of course. And, on the phone, the operating system is called Firefox OS, and the browser is called Firefox. Now, the Firefox browser on Firefox OS does not offer to remember passwords for me when I sign into a site. I imagine this feature can somehow be enabled, but if you can come up with a search term which will gather the information I want you have a better imagination than I have.

TRiG.