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I also got an Open, planning on using it as my everyday phone, at least for a while. My requirements for this role weren't too stringent, since it's a new platform. So the only two things it needed to do was perform and receive calls, and allow me to manage contacts.

It fails miserably on the second one. The only options to import contacts are through Facebook, which I don't use, and from a SIM card, which is what I ended up using. Pretty limited, to say the least, but the real kicker is that it has no option to actually export contacts. So if you use it for a while and decide either to wipe the device, or to stop using it, you have no option to retrieve contacts you've since added. I've investigated if it was possible to at least back them up using an ADB shell (it is, supposedly it's an sqlite DB), but apparently you need root on the device to do this, which isn't possible on the default install. I didn't investigate any further when I realized I was actually using Android debug tools at 3 am to get my contacts out of a supposedly consumer ready device.

Needless to say any software updates probably aren't forthcoming from ZTE, since even the upgrade routine fails with an error on these devices (https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/967817).

Another thing that bugs me is that while Mozilla are distancing themselves, and their branding, from the likes of the Geeksphone Peak+ (http://techcrunch.com/2013/07/25/peak-plus), which as far as I can tell receives timely updates and has a vibrant community, saying it's not a Firefox OS phone, they're also busy directing people to the manufacturers (ZTE in this case) whenever there is a problem with the officially blessed Firefox OS version running on the first consumer grade FFOS phone.

Next time I waste more time trying to get basic functionality working, I'll just build my own updated images of FFOS (https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS/...) and see if things have improved by then.



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