Firefox OS/DogfoodingTips

Some notes from Dietrich. Please add your own!

Get a 2nd SIM Card

Seriously. Ask your manager for one, or buy a prepaid account or something. It's not possible to properly dogfood if you're only using the device as a wifi-only device, and not using as your primary phone.

Using a prepaid SIM card

There are some issues with using and activating prepaid SIM cards on certain carriers. If you discover an issue or workaround, please add it to this list:

• T-Mobile: In the network settings, you will manually need to enter 'epc.tmobile.com' as the APN in order to use data.
• Virgin (Canada): I had to register using desktop Firefox and wait an hour or so before it was registered. Then the APN settings Just Worked.

Safe Dogfooding with Google Voice

Hardcore dogfooding means you throw the old phone away and live entirely on your Firefox OS phone. That's reasonable for some people, but not for others (like the ones with children who need to be available for emergencies). YET.

So for a while I've been using Google Voice as my primary number, and having it forward to my other devices. This means I can dogfood with a scenario like this:

• my normal number, on my trusted device
• my testing number, on my Firefox phone
• my Google Voice number, which forwards all calls and text messages to *both* of the other numbers

This allows me to do real-life dogfooding of the Firefox phone, but with a backup in case of bugs or missing functionality.

Importing Google Contacts

First, you must export your contacts in your old phone to the SIM card. Some phones do this by default.

• Android: To export Google contacts onto a SIM card (which Android does not do by default), install the free app Contact2Sim. Open the app, select the phone, and in the options menu choose "Copy missing to SIM".

• iPhone: No solution yet. Confirmed that iPhone doesn't write contacts to SIM card. Someone said you can export VCF on the desktop from iTunes, so maybe could mashup something to read those off the sdcard and import into Contacts?

Then you can put the SIM card in your Firefox phone, open the Contacts app and click the "Import SIM contacts" button.

Dogfooding on the Go

The best types of testing is when you're using the phone with everyday use cases. Here's a few of my own User stories:

• While connected to wifi, surf the browser. Walk out of the building to your car, and watch your signal switch to the data carrier network. Continue surfing the browser without interruption.
• Have a set of your favorite music playing in the background. Put on some headphones and go for a run. Stop and answer a phone call, talk to your mother, and hang up to resume where your music left off.
• Pull out your camera app, and take a few pictures of your kids. open them up in the gallery, and make a few contrast and crop edits. Share them via email to your spouse.
• Make a phone call to your friend. when the call is done, save the phone number as a new contact. From the contact app, launch the SMS app and sent him or her a text on how cool your phone is.
• Go to the marketplace, log in and install a few games. Launch and play. Pause the game, open the browser, and search for tips on how to beat that level.
• Set up bluetooth and transfer a mp3 to another phone or computer

Copying Music and Videos

• Connect the device via USB
• Go to Settings -> Media Storage
• Check "USB Mass Storage Enabled"
• Wait for the device to show up on your computer

You can now transfer media over.

FAQ

• Where should I put my files? The device scans the entire SD card for all media types, so anywhere will do.
• What music file formats are supported? MP3, OGG, M4A (i.e iTunes AAC files) OGG files won't display album art. (File a bug if you have a problem with that.)
• What video file formats are supported?

Biggest Dogfooding Complaints

• Can't import SIM contacts yet. (bug 788377) - FIXED as of 9/14
• Can't play more than one song in a row in the Music app. Not usable as my iPod replacement because of this. (bug 783512) - FIXED as of 9/24
• No Gmail support. - FIXED as of 9/14
• Google calendar import is broken. (issue 4708)
• Twitter app has major problems.
• Can't get 3G data connectivity for some networks. specifically, Canadian networks. (bug 787295)
• 3G data for AT&T and T-Mobile in the US is broken. (bug 795415) - WORKAROUND: open Settings/Cellular & Data/APN Settings. Choose "Media Net" option and hit OK button. Sometimes need to exit and re-enter the APN settings screen once or twice before hitting OK actually closes the pane and the change takes effect.
• Camera doesn't support auto focus (not happening for V1)
• Cannot rotate photos (not happening for V1)
• Video recording is not working yet (bug 776062)
• Music doesn't automatically stop when you answer a phone call. Issue 4609
• When a call goes unanswered the dialer doesn't hang up even after pressing the hang up button or even entering airplane mode...Solution adopted currently is restarting phone. - was a temporary regression over the weekend. FIXED as of 9/17.
• System does not pick up the time from the network yet (bug 789973)

Wishlist Apps/Features

• Image sync to Dropbox/Flickr
• Image post to Dropbox/Flickr/Twitter/App.net/Facebook/Tumblr
• Music scrobbling to Last.fm