Just weeks after the first Firefox OS phones hit the market, an update is being made available adding new features, support for a number of new languages and significant performance improvements. There have been hundreds of improvements added to Firefox OS, but we wanted to give you a brief overview of some of the highlights from this release:

MMS support: you can send and receive pictures, audio and video files via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service).

you can send and receive pictures, audio and video files via MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). Push Notifications API: developers can make use of push to deliver timely notifications to apps and reduce overall battery consumption.

developers can make use of push to deliver timely notifications to apps and reduce overall battery consumption. Adaptive app search is now front and center on the home screen, making it easier and faster to find the content you want.

is now front and center on the home screen, making it easier and faster to find the content you want. Contact Management enhancements: Gmail and Hotmail contact import: it’s now even easier to get your contacts onto a Firefox OS phone. We’ve now added the ability to import your existing contacts from either Gmail or Hotmail, in addition to the existing Facebook or SIM card import options. Add to contacts: You can easily add any phone number or e-mail address to your contacts that is listed in your call log, SMS messages or e-mail. Simply long tap the relevant information to directly create a new contact or add information to existing contacts. Dialer suggestions: Start entering phone numbers or names into the Dialer to quickly find a specific contact.

Performance improvements: Experience faster application load times and smoother scrolling

Experience faster application load times and smoother scrolling Firefox browser downloads: Save images, audio and video from the browser with ease

Save images, audio and video from the browser with ease Keyboard improvements: Auto correction fixes words that you accidentally misspell.

Auto correction fixes words that you accidentally misspell. E-Mail enhancements: Draft Mode: Automatically save in-progress e-mails offline so you can finish and send them later. Download audio and video attachments: Save audio and video e-mail attachments in addition to image files to your gallery. Sending image attachments: Attach and send Gallery images directly within the e-mail application.

Music Search: Finding a favorite song is easy with the new music search functionality, simply swipe down from the top of the Music app to reveal a search bar and find music by artist, album or song title.

Finding a favorite song is easy with the new music search functionality, simply swipe down from the top of the Music app to reveal a search bar and find music by artist, album or song title. Calendar enhancements: Direct event creation: Just tap on the desired time slot to create a new calendar event. Calendar event reminders: Set reminders to be notified of calendar events.

Fourteen languages supported.

This Firefox OS update will be available for current users and on developer phones soon. For more details on how to purchase developer devices, visit MDN.

– Chris Lee, Director of Product for Firefox OS