Leaked document shows Firefox OS on router and keyboard computer
Hipertextual, a Spanish-language blog, has secured documents that may show future devices running Firefox OS. This includes ‘Firefox Pi’, ‘Firefox Pad’ and ‘Firefox Hub’ in addition to existing devices such as TVs, smartphones and sticks.
This is an internal document in which the organization behind the OS investigates possible future products. Venture Beat then contacted Mozilla and received the answer that it indeed concerns product concepts that were devised by one of the developers. Chief legal and business officer Denelle Dixon-Thayer also confirmed that several devices are being developed as prototypes. Whether these products will ever actually be built has not been confirmed by Dixon-Thayer.
Firefox Pi is intended for the Raspberry Pi and is combined in the document with a fully integrated keyboard with trackpad. The keyboard computer would be intended for emerging markets and should even be able to connect to an analog TV. As an example, the millions of disused TVs in India are mentioned. Firefox Hub is a router that aims to become the real center in the ‘digital home’. The focus is mainly on parental controls and privacy. Its operation should be easy and clear. At the same time, the device acts as a web server for its own applications and its own data. The Firefox Pad is emphatically not intended for the demanding tablet user but for the elderly and late adopters who only want to use the web. In other words, it’s just a browser with no apps.
The Firefox Stick is an HDMI stick that functions like a Chromecast or other similar product. This means that Firefox OS already baked into some Panasonic televisions should also be accessible to others. An attempt by a Kickstarter project to put Firefox OS on an HDMI stick failed.
In any case, it seems to indicate that Mozilla had and still has plenty of ideas with Firefox OS. That image was recently dented by the alleged announcement that Mozilla would be discontinuing Firefox OS for phones. This later turned out not to be entirely true: it was about stopping cooperation with providers. Probably the goal will be to flash Android phones with Firefox OS.
Firefox Pi, Firefox Hub, Firefox Pad, Firefox Stick