Double up on your home screen with the new Firefox OS 2.5 Android app

By Jon Martindale Published November 12, 2015

Firefox OS 2.5 is now available all over the world for those who like dabbling with a platform that is a little alternative. However, for developers, Mozilla also has a special treat: an Android application of the OS. It has all of the features of the new operating system, but should work on any Android smartphone.

This is quite a landmark moment for Mozilla as, to date, it has only made the Firefox OS available on specific hardware, but this increased support is part of the foundation’s interest in spreading the availability of the alternative operating system to other devices.

Recommended Videos

In practice, the application operates like a secondary home screen, allowing android users to boot up the other OS without the need to re-flash their device or replace the Android installation. You can of course flash your device with it if you prefer, making it a Firefox OS-only piece of kit, but that will be for the more dedicated Firefox fans and developers among you.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

It also risks bricking your device, so if you consider it, make sure you do so carefully.

That’s the whole point of the non-flashing preview anyway, to give you that functionality without requiring you to risk anything. Indeed if you don’t like what you find, you can simply uninstall the app and continue using your device as normal.

However there are a few features of the new OS that may be worth exploring. For starters, Firefox OS 2.5 comes with add-ons, much like a desktop browser. This will allow developers to create extensions for individual applications, or many of them all at once, with a simple system for applying them.

Mozilla has also been quite studious with its privacy protections in the new Firefox OS, allowing for more in-depth privacy-enhancing features, including Tracking Protection that helps reduce the amount of information different websites can track about you as you browse them. 2.5 also breaks down the barrier between web-apps and applications, letting you pin different websites to your home screen as if they were applications themselves.

What do you think of Mozilla’s attempts to offer an alternative mobile computing operating system? Could it ever compete with some of the big boys?

Topics

Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…

Mobile

iOS 14 hands-on: Finally, you can truly customize your iPhone’s home screen

iOS 14 widgets

From home screen widgets to App Clips, Apple’s iOS 14 is the most exciting version of the iPhone’s software we’ve seen in a while, mostly because of how it can be used to change the way your phone looks. It’ll be officially installed on the iPhone 12 when it comes out later this year, but you can try it out on your iPhone now thanks to the release of a public beta.

It’s a great opportunity to see how development is coming along, and see exactly how we can customize the look of the iPhone. I’ve spent a short time with the software, and this is what it’s like so far.
New-look home screen
This is perhaps the largest alteration to iOS we’ve seen in years -- the ability to add widgets to your home screen. The beta offers only a small selection of widgets, however, all of which are related to Apple’s own software and features. There’s no Twitter or Instagram widget, for example. You can swipe right on the home screen to see your existing widgets, just like in iOS 13, then tap and hold to start adding more. Widgets exist for your photos, notes, calendars, maps, music, news, reminders, and more.

Computing

Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell sets a new standard for workstation GPUs

Nvidia RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPU

Nvidia announced a host of new GPUs at its GTC 2025 conference on Tuesday, including the RTX Pro Blackwell series. The highlight component of the series is the RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPU, developed for workstations. The RTX Pro 6000 Blackwell GPU is also available in variants to support desktops, laptops, and data centers. The component is intended to aid professional designers, developers, data scientists, and creatives, the Verge noted.

The RTX Pro naming sequence allows the Blackwell-based GPU to stand out against previous architectures, including Ada Lovelace, Ampere, and Turing, as well as the standard consumer product GPUs, Tech Radar Pro noted.

Computing

Chromebooks are about to get a lot smarter, and more accessible

Acer Chromebook Spin 513 top down view showing display and keyboard deck.

Google recently announced that Gemini will soon replace Google Assistant everywhere, from your phone and smartwatches to smart home speakers. ChromeOS has now joined the transition bandwagon, starting today.
The company has kicked off the stable rollout of Chrome OS M134, and it marks the silent exit of Google Assistant. “When triggering Assistant, you will automatically be directed to the Gemini app on your Chromebook,” Google says in a community update note.
Google says the feature update will be rolling out in a phased manner, so you might not be able to access the Gemini interface immediately after installing the latest software. Just to clear any confusion here, Gemini has been accessible on Chrome OS, but with the new build, it replaces the Google Assistant.

Once the transition takes effect, users will see the sparkly Gemini icon in the top-right corner of the launcher window. For now, support for the “Hey Google” hotword for summoning Gemini is absent, even though it works fine on mobile platforms where Google Assistant is in the phase-out process.
Another noteworthy aspect is that Chrome OS will offer Gemini as a Progressive Web App (PWA), instead of a native application experience. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, considering you get access to a whole new world of capabilities with Gemini.