15000 Intex Cloud FX Firefox OS phones get sold in 3 days

The Intex Cloud FX sells at a dirt cheap price of Rs 1999, something which has obviously worked in its favor seeing as 15000 units of the phone were sold by Snapdeal within the first three days of its launch in India. This is undeniably a good thing if you’re Mozilla and want to spread the word about your Firefox OS far and wide.



The HTML5-based mobile OS pairs with a Spreadtrum processor and a reference design which lets manufacturers build ultra low-cost devices for the masses. India’s the fastest growing handset market in the world, but many are yet to migrate from basic handsets to smartphones. The Intex Cloud FX comes at the right time, never mind that its components are so 2007.

Mozilla had to partner with Indian brands which have a reputation for offering inexpensive products in order to be a success in the country and hence announced Spice as well as Intex as its OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners. The price point and marketing strategy for the Cloud FX clearly worked for it considering that 15000 units flew off shelves.

Most of the buyers were apparently from South India, says The Economic Times who has referred to PTI for this story. Almost 70% of the demand came from tier II and III markets, with the maximum purchases having been made by people in the 18 to 25 years age bracket. Sales of the Firefox phone appears to have buoyed up the mood at Intex.

The company thinks it will be able to sell a total of 1 lakh Cloud FX devices by the end of September and even expects to ship out 5 lakhs of the same before we roll in to 2015. IDC notes that the Indian smartphone segment grew by a massive 84% year-on-year in Q2 2014. Products in this category priced below Rs 12000 claimed 81% of the market share in the said period.

Intex Cloud FX key specs:

- Mozilla Firefox OS platform
- 1GHz Spreadtrum SC6821 processor
- 3.5-inch 320 x 480p touchscreen
- 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM
- 4GB memory expandability
- Dual SIM, 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
- 2MP main camera
- 1250mAh battery, 4 hours of talk time
- 115.9 x 62 x 11.8 millimeters
- 104 grams

You can buy the Intex Cloud FX from Snapdeal by hitting this link.

8 things you must know before buying Intex or Spice Firefox smartphones

With the launch of two low cost Firefox smartphones- Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 in India, smartphone buyers have got a lot queries. From a layman perspective, here’s what you get and what you don’t get in these two Firefox smartphones. Also, to clear the doubts of confused masses, Firefox has nothing to do with Android. Both are completely different operating systems.

The Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 are 2G enabled smartphones and doesn’t support 3G. On the connectivity front, both the devices features WiFi, Bluetooth and USB tethering. Also, both the handsets are very basic in nature with the only mission to connect users to the Internet and social networking platforms. So, multimedia experience with both the handsets are pretty basic.

Here’s what you need to know:

1) You don’t need an email ID to operate Firefox OS. In Android, you need to have a Gmail account to access most features of the operating system along with Google Play. In Firefox, users are not required to enter an email ID to access the operating system. This makes sense given the fact that Firefox wants to connect the masses to Internet without any form of barrier.

2) Using Firefox smartphones are relatively easy when compared to Android. First time smartphone users will not encounter much difficulties in operating the OS. The call, messaging, contacts and Firefox browser icons are always present in plain sight and the experience is more like using the home screen of Android and you just have to swipe left or right to access apps.

 

On the home screen, there’s a bar showing “I’m thinking of…” through which users are directed to Google search. Accessing Internet on the Firefox OS is very simple and user-friendly.

 

3) Firefox OS supports all major social networking apps like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr, Quora, Pinterest.

 

4) Very low internal memory. You will need a microSD card to start your multimedia experience with the device. So, if you don’t have one, add the price of a microSD card to the cost. Both handsets support up to 4 GB of external memory.

5) WhatsApp is not available directly. Yes, you got that right. The official WhatsApp instant messaging application is currently not there in Firefox Marketplace . “Users can connect to WhatsApp via third party app called ConnectA2,” said James Ho, senior director, Firefox Mobile Devices Group.

  

We tried to connect to WhatsApp on the Intex Cloud FX smartphone using the ConnectA2 third party app and we failed. ConnectA2 asked for nick name, country and mobile number to register. Then it asked to enter a six-digit code which the app sent via SMS. The SMS never arrived! We also tried the voice call feature to get the code but failed again.

The ConnectA2 app should have worked but we have no clue as to why it failed us on the Intex Cloud FX.

6) Popular games and apps missing. There’s no Angry Birds or Temple Run or Candy Crush or other other popular games. However, you can play Flappy Birds. The Firefox Marketplace is in a pretty nascent stage but soon you can expect more apps on the platform as apps can be easily ported.

 

7) Consumes less mobile data. Firefox OS uses web compression techniques which reduces mobile data consumption. Also, as both the devices are 2G only, the data consumption is low when compared to 3G enabled smartphone. So, users can expect 1 GB of data to last the entire month with average usage.

8) More battery life. You can expect both the Firefox handsets to have a greater battery life when compared to other low cost Android handsets.

Stay tuned to this space to read the exclusive in-depth review of both Intex Cloud FX and Spice Fire One Mi-FX 1 soon.

Got questions? Feel free to ask at the comment section below.

Intex's first Firefox smartphone coming today; to be priced under Rs 2,000

While Spice has already announced its Firefox smartphone, it's time for Intex to lift the veil of its first Firefox device. With the aim to take on Spice, the company will announce the launch of its Firefox phone in India on August 25.



Intex claims that the phone it is going to announce on Monday will be "India's lowest priced smartphone". It will be priced under Rs 2000.

The Firefox phone from Intex is expected to come with a 3.5-inch display, 2 megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.

The Firefox phone from Intex is expected to come with a 3.5-inch display, 2 megapixel camera and a 1GHz processor.

Priced at Rs 2,299, Spice's Firefox phone - the Fire One Mi-FX 1 - will go on sale starting August 29. Spice's dual-SIM 2G handset features a 3.5-inch touchscreen, 1 GHz processor and 1.3 megapixel rear and 0.3 megapixel front cameras.

Earlier this year, Mozilla (developer of Firefox web browser) had tied up with Intex and Spice to bring smartphones priced at about $25 (about Rs 1,500) to India.

The Firefox devices will compete with phones using Google's Android and Microsoft's Windows platforms.
Low-cost handsets prices less than Rs 5,000 and smartphones priced below Rs 7,000 from Asian handset makers including Huawei, ZTE, Micromax and Karbonn have been driving growth in the emerging markets of Asia and Africa.

Technology giant Google, under its Android One initiative, has also partnered Spice, Micromax and Karbonn from India to deliver a smartphone under USD 100 (about Rs 6,000) to tap the market.

Smartphone sales in the country grew almost three-fold to over 44 million in 2013, buoyed by affordable devices made by local firms such as Micromax and Karbonn, according to research firm IDC.

In the second quarter of 2014, smartphone sales grew 84 per cent to 18.42 million units from 10.02 million units (in April-June 2013 quarter, as per IDC data.

Samsung is the category leader with 29 per cent market share, Micromax (18 pc), Karbonn (8 pc) and Lava (6 pc).

"With the ultra-low cost Spice Fire One, we aim to convert the feature phone users into smartphone users. Our intentions are clearly to synthesise technology and style in our products and make them available at affordable prices," Spice Mobility Chief Executive Officer Prashant Bindal said.
The new handset also supports several Indian languages like Hindi, Tamil and Bengali.

"Just one year after the first Firefox OS device launched, Firefox OS smartphone is now available in 17 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America. We are
confident that Firefox OS devices will realise a whole new category of smartphones with affordable price," Mozilla President Li Gong said.

Mozilla had showcased a smartphone prototype costing as little as USD 25 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, targeting developing countries including India and China.
Various reports suggest that the next billion population accessing the Internet for the first time will do so on their phones instead of personal computers.

Also, the next 100 million connected users are expected to demand mobile content and services in local languages across a range of smart devices at an affordable cost.

Companies like Microsoft, which acquired Nokia's handset division, are also targeting the affordable smartphone category aggressively, estimating it to be a $50 billion annual opportunity.
Other devices with Firefox OS to be available globally include the ZTE Open II and the Alcatel OneTouch Fire E.

Spice announces India’s 2nd Firefox OS phone at Rs 2299

The Fire One Mi – FX 1 by Spice is the second device to be announced for India at Rs 2299 with Firefox OS inside, Mozilla’s very own mobile OS that’s expected to kick Android in the teeth. So we may be exaggerating, but when it comes to letting manufacturers build cheap smartphones, Firefox OS is the only other rival to Google’s offering for now.



Before the Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 emerged, some details about the Intex Cloud FX running on the aforementioned OS were unveiled in June and the release date was supposed to fall in early August. But we’re almost at the end of the month and the said device is yet to be made available for sale. On the other hand, the Spice phone has been given a definite launch day of August 29.

The specifications sported by the Fire One smartphone are pretty basic and it’s mostly the Firefox OS which is the showstopper here. The OS is built around the emerging HTML5 web standard and there’s heavy focus on the internet. You see the problem here, don’t you? Consider the fact that you’ll be limping along on slow data speeds since the handset in question only supports 2G.

Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 specs at a glance:

- 3.5-inch 320 x 480p capacitive display
- Firefox OS
- Dual SIM slots
- 1GHz processor
- 2MP rear camera, 1.3MP webcam
- 2G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth connectivity

The Spice Fire One Mi – FX 1 will hit online retailer Snapdeal for the price we’ve mentioned above on August 29. Saholic, retail outlets as well as Spice HotSpot stores will start selling the smartphone at a later date. We’re still awaiting information on its RAM, storage, battery power and so on.

The top music add-ons for your favourite browsers

Gone are the days when the browser was used only for browsing. With hordes of such software clambering over each other to get the netizen's attention, it's only natural that various add-ons should start sprouting by the dozen to make browsing an inclusive experience.

Today, there are multitudes of add-ons of various kinds - especially for browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome - that deal with utilities as diverse as gaming, news and entertainment. Once you get the hang of these utilities, you will find little reason to ever exit your browser to change the playlist on your music player, or download that mp3 file.

GOOGLE CHROME


>>Buddy FM

Creating a customised playlist can be quite a pain, and here's where Buddy FM comes into play. Buddy FM automatically creates a personalised radio station out of your favourite musicians - expanding your collection of niche artistes by finding those similar to the ones you like and scouring the Internet for album art.

>>ZazooM
Zazoo takes you beyond just listening to music, enabling you to make some of your own. It even lets you turn YouTube into a karaoke machine. Zazoo adds scrolling lyrics to thousands of official music videos on the site, allowing you to partner with Rob Halford in letting out that ear-splitting refrain as he sings 'Painkiller'.

>>PartyCloud

Want to try your hand at DJing? PartyCloud, which gives access to over 20 million house and trance tracks from Sound Cloud, allows you to mix music right from the convenience of your browser. Providing all the DJ tools you may need to remix music, it enables you to scratch, beatsync and mix tracks before recording and sharing them.

>>Flutter

Hate having to grope around for the mouse each time you want to pause a YouTube video? A browser add-on that acts as Kinect for your computer, Flutter uses your computer's built-in camera to identify gestures aimed at playing, pausing or skipping songs and videos on websites such as YouTube, Pandora and Grooveshark.

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FIREFOX


>>FindThatBand

With the FindThatBand add-on installed on your Firefox browser, all you have to do to research a band or artiste is select the name and right-click to have tonnes of information from websites like Grooveshark at your disposal. So, who was the lead singer of Rainbow? You would know if you got FindThatBand.

>>Grooveshredder

This Firefox add-on enables you to download mp3 files directly from online radio station Grooveshark. Once installed, it adds a download button to Grooveshark's 'Now Playing' section and a link to the preferences at the top of the page. However, the developers also mention that downloading music from the radio station is against its terms of use.

Spice may launch Android One & Firefox phones before Diwali

Earlier this year, Mozilla (developer of the Firefox web browser) tied up with Spice and Intex mobiles to bring Firefox OS powered phones to the market at about Rs. 1,500 price point. The company is eager to tap into the feature phone market and offer a smartphone at the price point of a feature phone.



As for the Android One initiative, which Android head Sundar Pichai introduced this year at Google I/O, and of which Spice is a partner, could be a game changer for the Indian market. Through the Android One initiative Spice and the other partners (Micromax and Karbonn) will be making phones with guidelines from Google. This would mean entry level Google Play Edition like phones coming to the Indian market.

Firefox Android beta puts Instagram feeds straight into your browser

Firefox has already shown off an Android launcher and is now trying some spiffy personalization features for its Android browser. The latest beta flaunts a new class of "panel" add-ons with home page feeds like Pocket, Wikipedia, Instagram and more. Firefox has also released a new set of APIs for those plug-ins, letting any app developer create a home screen page. I tried it out with Instagram and Pocket and found it gave me a quick way to view photo streams and articles without touching the apps. But I've got similar features with my launcher (Terrain), which seems a more logical place to put third party feeds. If you'd like to try it, it seemed stable enough during limited usage, but like any beta, the risk is all yours.

 

The 100 Best Android Apps of 2014

Browsers and Reference

Whether you're trying to win a bar bet or just surf the Web, these are the apps that connect you with all the information the Internet has to offer.

Firefox  Free  What's incredible about the Android version of Firefox is that it feels as mature, if not more so, than its desktop counterpart. It's lickity-split fast, and its clean design is a joy on mobile. Mozilla makes a big point about how they don't collect your data, and I was pleased to see that the app comes with a full compliment of security settings—including an option to protect your information from advertisers.

Opera browser for Android  Free Not to be confused with its Mini cousin, Opera is a full-fledged browser for Android. With a slick design, it aims to be your gateway to web content with features like a built-in news portal and the Opera mobile apps store. It also includes an "off-road" mode to quickly load webpages while taking it easy on your data plan.

Opera Mini browser for Android Free  Don't let its old-style appearance fool you: Opera Mini is a clever little browser designed to thrive where network conditions are not their best. And it doesn't skimp on features, giving you access to special Opera web apps; a handy homepage complete with news and social media updates; and a surprising array of powerful security settings.

Dolphin Browser Free  A clean, tabbed browser, Dolphin delivers a very nice user experience on Android almost making you forget that you're on a mobile device. Dolphin also supports tight integration with services like Evernote and LastPass, as well as robust settings. My favorite feature is gestures, which might not always be efficient but are definitely cool to use.

Weather Underground   Free  Weather Underground combines a slick design with a focus on really useful weather information. I particularly like the ability to report weather conditions in your area and the extremely useful comparative forecasts that deftly shows how conditions have changed since yesterday. With an accompanying set of useful widgets, it's the best weather app on Android.

Wikipedia Free  While its interface is in bad need of a refresh, the Wikipedia Android app brings one critical feature: offline viewing. Just two taps and any page on Wikipedia is stored in its entirety for whenever you need it. Plus the app gives you access to over 20 million articles in 280 languages and is basically a for-real Hitchhiker's Guide.—Next: Productivity and Finance »