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Nokia And Apple Collaborate On Open Source Browser
Michael writes "Nokia's ambitious bid to make the mobile phone as important a client device for business and leisure as the notebook PC took another important turn last week with news that it has created a browser in collaboration with Apple, which will be managed under the open source process. This starts to address awkward web browsing, a key weakness of the phone's bid to be the 'new notebook', and it raises interesting questions about how much further Nokia and Apple could go in cooperating on the anti- Microsoft ecosystem, and how far Nokia is committing its future to Linux."
Just for once, I'd like to see a phone manufacturer make a product that's really good at one thing, and one thing only: Being a PHONE!
Keep the peace(es).
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
THIS should be perfect for mobile web browsing.
Most definitely works for me, at least.
Like it or not, Apple is a stylsitic trend-setter. Nokia has the market share for the affluent techno-yuppies, which is where Apple's been. Sounds like a natural relationship.
- nightcrawler "Reality is an illusion, albeit a ver persistent one..." -A.Einstein
Isn't the real issue the current bloatedness of web pages such as this for example? Most current phones could probably handle an RSS feed pretty well, sans graphics. It just seems silly to try to build a web-phone until bandwidth, latency and window size issues have been resolved.
An RSS enabled phone would be cool though.
Actually just a basic phone number sync would be a pleasant surprise.
Note that nokia are key backers of european software patent legislation that would close the door on open source software in europe until there's some sort of EPO-office-nuking revolution or something. Nokia deserves condemnation, not praise.
If Apple and Nokia are going to put together something that fills a niche, and does it well/better than anything else out there, why must that be considered part of some "anti-Microsoft ecosystem?" How about it's just "better," and people will use it or not?
This morning, I found a new, better way to butter my toast. It's so revolutionary that it may be part of the anti-margerine ecosystem.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
http://press.nokia.com/PR/200502/980519_5.html
These are corporations, not blood enemies. Tech holy wars like Apple/MS, Sun/MS and Intel/Apple are so last-century.
Go somewhere random
Naah. It's not because Apple is failing. It's because desktops themselves are failing. Already, laptops are outselling desktop computers. Other mobile computing devices are becoming increasingly popular as well.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
It is a smart move, but it's not like Apple are "moving to mobile". They're just aware that Microsoft have a presence in the mobile market, they don't, and they're trying to keep their bases covered.
As the blurb says, it does raise questions about Nokia's connections to linux.
How committed they are to Linux? They will use Linux if it benefits them. They won't otherwise.
If they start using OSX instead of Linux, would it really matter? Should users care about what OS they are using?
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
When I saw this horribly outdated dupe article, I knew it had to be from either "Zonk" or "samzenpus". It feels so nice to be right.
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This sounds like very bad news for Opera. As I understand it, Opera's business was mainly to sell a browser to manufacturers of Internet enabled devices, of which the most important one seems phones, of which the most important manufacturer is probably Nokia.
Sure, they also sell the browser to regular users (and I have happily paid for it 2 or 3 times), and they also have an advertisement-supported version, but I guess the main revenue was expected to come from companies like Nokia.
Even though I now mostly use Firefox, I would be very sad if Opera eventually disappeared.
> Longer term, the browser development shows an increasing tendency for Nokia to include Linux technologies in its thinking...
...the open source version of Safari is part of the KDE user interface environment for Linux, which could conceivably be melded with elements of Series 60 to create a mobilized version.
True.
>
Not true, unfortunately.
Apple took KHTML, and restructured the code into layers, in order to remove the Qt-interface code, and replace it an OS/X Aqua interface layer.
Nokia then took Apple's version of KHTML, now called Webcore, and added a GTK interface layer.
So, while Nokia apparently has no problem with KDE itself, in that they are using KHTML-based code, it looks like Nokia will probably not be using the rest of KDE, due to KDE's dependence on Qt.
As most readers already know, Qt uses a GPL+proprietary licensing strategy, which forces commercial Qt developers to use the proprietary license, thus locking themselves in to a single vendor for Qt, namely, Trolltech. It has been speculated that this is the reason why some other companies, such as Sun, have chosen to go with Gnome instead of KDE.
This is an unfortunate situation, because KDE has a lot of potential, which is being held back by the license of its underlying Qt platform.
I would love to see the KDE developers restructure the rest of the KDE code in a manner similar to what Apple did to KHTML, such that KDE could be easily ported to multiple platforms (GTK, XUL, Windows, etc.), rather than just Qt.
That is unlikely to happen, however, since so many of the KDE developers are funded by Trolltech.
But, I guess there's no reason to worry, because the right things are probably going to happen anyway...
KDE will continue to succeed, supported by KDE-centered distributions, such as Mandriva.
And Trolltech's plan to make Qt the de facto standard for commercial Linux development, is probably going to meet with limited success. They'll make some money, but they won't achieve lock-in, as they and their financial backers are hoping.
People in these threads always complain about wanting "just a phone that works, please". I challenge anyone to prove that phones' modern bells and whistles detract in any way from their
:)
ability to provide phone service.
Your phone's inclusion of Tetris, a camera, and polyphonic ringtones is NOT a trade-off against reception, battery life, or purchase price. I promise your $30 basic phone would not be any cheaper if it were "just a phone". Your reception and battery life, likewise, would not increase if it were "just a phone".
In short, if you don't want the features, IGNORE THEM. It's really easy.
Are you also going to complain about your Ford Escort's included radio?
There's always the one-button "911 only" phones, which operate without a service plan at all, if you really don't want *any* features.
The biggest problem for light-weight browsers intended for lo-res devices is the many sites that don't comply with standards (need much more complicated rendering engine (XHTML intended to be simply to interpret than HTLML)), require images (esp large colour ones), and worse still flash.
Now check http://www.nokia.com/
That's never going to display on one of their phones!
I don't want to carry all that every day. I just want it all with me.
Sometimes I want to take a picture, but most days I don't, so I never have a camera nearby. It would be nice if my phone had a useful camera. (It doesn't. I'd be happy with a single focus lens like the old 110 I had as a kid, but the resolution is too poor to take useful snapshots)
I don't want a separate game machine, I just want something I can waste 5 minutes on when I'm unexpectedly told to wait.
I don't want a separate PDA, I just want something that will remind me of my appointments, and allows me to easily enter more. (My current phone does the former, but not the latter)
I don't want an ebook, I just want a few (changeable) books around that I can read when I have a few minutes to kill. (see games above)
I never remember everything, and my pockets don't have room for it all either. Find a convergence that works I'd I'll use it. Sadly the implementation of convergence as it exists today is lacking. However it isn't the fault of convergence, it is the implementers' fault. I wish Apple would get into the cell phone market, and show everyone how to do it.
It seems that both apple and nokia are strongly in favor of having software patents in the EU. I think one the given reasons for why this is necessary is that without software patents, they'll get eaten alive by open source developers.
However, neither company seems to have a problem using open source software to futher their business objectives. So, it seems like they're simulanteously using and try to hobble open source so it can't compete with their proprioritary offerings. So wouldn't the best characterization of their behavior be selfish exploitation rather than 'support' of OSS.
If you think you can deliver consumer products at high volume using the techniques that you prefer, go for it.
What if the techniques I prefer involve using an algorithm or approach that is covered by an overly broad and not exactly innovative patent held by either Nokia/Apple/somebody else?