Not surprising as Mozilla developers prototyped on (Samsung?) off the shelf handsets.
The bonus being for us regular folk that we can, theoretically, reflash or dual boot Firefox OS on existing handsets - such is the beauty of open source.
Telefonica has deep pockets and sponsoring Firefox OS to the tune of, say, $10m/annum is a small investment compared to the 200 million person Brazilian market that they hope to tap into with these handsets. They only have to sell a phone to one in every 100 people annually and skim $5 per handset off to Mozilla to recoup their investment. By comparison, doesn't M$ patent troll the major Android vendors to the tune of $10 per handset?:)
From personal experience, consumer electronics tend to be more expensive in Sth America than, say, the US or Europe. Carrier subsidised and endorsed phones can fill a niche where the per capita GDP is a quarter of America's.
Depends on the hardware. On any "modern" desktop, firefox is fast enough.
Try the latest Firefox on a single core 3.0Ghz P4. Firefox chokes the CPU to death with several tabs open. Chrome runs as smoothly as one would expect for a souped-up 8-9 year old computer - i.e. acceptably fast.
It's NOT a RAM issue (the desktop in question has plenty) but the threading model. Chrome's separate process per tab really shines on lower end hardware. With the switch to low powered ARM devices, Mozilla has some optimisation ahead.
The tablet is my RSS and webpage reader, although not all websites are well-adapted to a 1024x800 screen these days (irony).
I have an Android phone, I look at the RSS feed for Slashdot in Google Reader but wish there was a URL handler to push the web page to my desktop screen when connected via wifi!
The authorities may toe the line that terrorists and criminals may still your bandwidth. The reality is the telecommunications companies want to bundle you home phone, adsl and mobile phone all for a low low price of $100+/month
You know that Android vendor you bought Google? Motorola Mobility.
Certain phones are still stuck on 2.x because *your company* won't update them. Less than 2 year old (24 month contract) phones are stuck on froyo - e.g Defy.
Providing an unlocked bootloader so the community (e.g. cyanogenmod) can update them to Jellybean would be a good sign.
Efforts to hybridize Android and traditional linux include (a) Ubuntu mobile (b) Porting wayland to android (c) hardware virtualization in the Cortex A15
So it has traditionally been the Google way via the 'Play' store, or the GNU way via X11 and a package manager but one day Android apps will run seamlessly alongside desktop apps.
BB10 has been delayed again.:( I'm optimistic about the platform, if it ever arrives. Qt, HTML5, Android player, QNX. Woo developers from 4 platforms webos (HTML 5), Symbian & meego (Qt), Android (app player).
The Torch looks quite nice with its slide out keyboard - HP Pre 3 heir?
Nevertheless, their website shows a hardware keyboard in portrait Torch 9810, substituted for a software keyboard in landscape Torch 9800 - the software keyboard doesn't seem sufficiently wider due to the wasted space around the screen.
Know your markets. Provide 3 models with BB10 (plus a classic BB7 for bread and butter customers).
(1) Touch-screen only - Galaxy S3 competitor. (2) Portrait slider - Pre 3 successor. (3) Landscape slider - HTC Arrive & Nokia E7/N900 successor (well minus the N900's openness - it is a proprietary OS after all).
Swing had subtle tweaks to things such as focus. Code that worked on a 1.4.2 and 1.5 VM did not on 1.6 - such as trapping mouse events.
This is probably an example of a 3rd party look and feel not doing the correct thing but frustrating nevertheless. I wish managers would just use the system look and feel instead of wanting a custom skin for their application.
Sometimes there are dependencies on old 3rd party libraries that have been superseded.
Other times, it's self inflicted. Custom Swing look and feels are a no-no - Java 6 changed a lot of stuff.
And you hear stories where enterprise servers run on Java 1.3 on a pre-historic version of Websphere because there's not the inclination to migrate old code nor upgrade licensing.
Slashdot Mirror
Not surprising as Mozilla developers prototyped on (Samsung?) off the shelf handsets.
The bonus being for us regular folk that we can, theoretically, reflash or dual boot Firefox OS on existing handsets - such is the beauty of open source.
Telefonica has deep pockets and sponsoring Firefox OS to the tune of, say, $10m/annum is a small investment compared to the 200 million person Brazilian market that they hope to tap into with these handsets. They only have to sell a phone to one in every 100 people annually and skim $5 per handset off to Mozilla to recoup their investment. By comparison, doesn't M$ patent troll the major Android vendors to the tune of $10 per handset? :)
From personal experience, consumer electronics tend to be more expensive in Sth America than, say, the US or Europe. Carrier subsidised and endorsed phones can fill a niche where the per capita GDP is a quarter of America's.
Depends on the hardware. On any "modern" desktop, firefox is fast enough.
Try the latest Firefox on a single core 3.0Ghz P4. Firefox chokes the CPU to death with several tabs open. Chrome runs as smoothly as one would expect for a souped-up 8-9 year old computer - i.e. acceptably fast.
It's NOT a RAM issue (the desktop in question has plenty) but the threading model. Chrome's separate process per tab really shines on lower end hardware. With the switch to low powered ARM devices, Mozilla has some optimisation ahead.
I find the RSS feed on the phone more convenient. But scrolling through 100+comments on a 3.7" screen is a chore.
You said 'unlocked'.
Phone companies want to tie you to $1500+ over 2 years with a 'plan'.
I have an Android phone, I look at the RSS feed for Slashdot in Google Reader but wish there was a URL handler to push the web page to my desktop screen when connected via wifi!
Two words: open wifi.
The authorities may toe the line that terrorists and criminals may still your bandwidth. The reality is the telecommunications companies want to bundle you home phone, adsl and mobile phone all for a low low price of $100+/month
A web page has simplicity, granted.
But today's tech buzzphrase is all about syncing to the cloud. HTML widget profiles can theoretically be device and platform independent.
Cheers, I learnt a new word today - inveigle. :)
Widgets?
OS X, Windows 8, KDE, Android and others allow you to embed HTML snippets on the desktop.
Rather than load a web browser, one can "mashup" HTML widgets on your home screen directly.
RIM have a strategy, at least, with QNX, Qt and HTML5 plus android app player.
We should at least give them credit for trying where HP (pre 3) & Nokia (n9) abandoned their dreams.
Didn't Twitter originate as an SMS gateway, whose messages have a 140 byte limit?
Why would you require sudo to delete your personal bin directory under your $HOME ?
You know that Android vendor you bought Google? Motorola Mobility.
Certain phones are still stuck on 2.x because *your company* won't update them. Less than 2 year old (24 month contract) phones are stuck on froyo - e.g Defy.
Providing an unlocked bootloader so the community (e.g. cyanogenmod) can update them to Jellybean would be a good sign.
The summary mentions "MintChip brewing", so I assume it's a spearmint chocolate-chip flavoured beer.
No, silly, ElePHPants.
Different strokes for different folks.
Efforts to hybridize Android and traditional linux include
(a) Ubuntu mobile
(b) Porting wayland to android
(c) hardware virtualization in the Cortex A15
So it has traditionally been the Google way via the 'Play' store, or the GNU way via X11 and a package manager but one day Android apps will run seamlessly alongside desktop apps.
BB10 has been delayed again. :( I'm optimistic about the platform, if it ever arrives. Qt, HTML5, Android player, QNX. Woo developers from 4 platforms webos (HTML 5), Symbian & meego (Qt), Android (app player).
The Torch looks quite nice with its slide out keyboard - HP Pre 3 heir?
Nevertheless, their website shows a hardware keyboard in portrait Torch 9810, substituted for a software keyboard in landscape Torch 9800 - the software keyboard doesn't seem sufficiently wider due to the wasted space around the screen.
Know your markets. Provide 3 models with BB10 (plus a classic BB7 for bread and butter customers).
(1) Touch-screen only - Galaxy S3 competitor.
(2) Portrait slider - Pre 3 successor.
(3) Landscape slider - HTC Arrive & Nokia E7/N900 successor (well minus the N900's openness - it is a proprietary OS after all).
Swing had subtle tweaks to things such as focus. Code that worked on a 1.4.2 and 1.5 VM did not on 1.6 - such as trapping mouse events.
This is probably an example of a 3rd party look and feel not doing the correct thing but frustrating nevertheless. I wish managers would just use the system look and feel instead of wanting a custom skin for their application.
Sometimes there are dependencies on old 3rd party libraries that have been superseded.
Other times, it's self inflicted. Custom Swing look and feels are a no-no - Java 6 changed a lot of stuff.
And you hear stories where enterprise servers run on Java 1.3 on a pre-historic version of Websphere because there's not the inclination to migrate old code nor upgrade licensing.
1st world chauvinism. Have you ever visited Ecuador? Pacific beaches, colonial architecture, friendly people.
Sweden is cold and expensive, so I think his money would last longer.
Worse continents to be stranded in than South America.
I'd be asking for a separate cell in Gitmo.
Kim might eat him! What is it about billionaires that makes the majority of them obese?
Does it (a) cost substantially more (b) take up significantly more space (c) drain battery life to use notebook SO-DIMMs?
I'd be nice to have a touchscreen ARM laptop running desktop Linux that doubles as an Android tablet but 1GB for an ultra portable laptop is so 2004!
Not competing as such, this is a 'Nexus' device of which Google has produced several phone models.
RTFA, they're not - the thing is to be manufactured by Asus.