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New York, 9:43 AM
Tue Dec 8
87 posts in the last 24 hours

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of Jack_Burton Jack_Burton
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    WebOS, iPhone OS, and Android are all *NIX with HTML and Javascript on top. Except for Windows Mobile, most of the smartphone market has some form of *NIX / Java blend.

    VMware would really shake things up if it blurred the barriers of hardware. I don't think the carriers will go for it, though. Handset vendors won't care as much, except Apple, whose whole game is "the total user experience" anyway.
     Reply
    Jack_Burton was starred Jack_Burton was unstarred
    Image of something_unique_and_descriptive something_unique_and_descriptive
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    As long as the devices are dependent on carrier distribution it's not going to happen. As it is right now if you want WinMo and Android, you buy two phones, they subsidize one (which locks you into a contract) and then sell you the second for additional profit.

    There are so many things f**ked the hell up with the wireless industry the ability to load your own OS barely even registers on the radar. How about we start by getting the carriers to discount service for those of us whose devices they aren't subsidizing. Once that happens buying unlocked becomes a much better value proposition, then with the carriers, and their desire for artificial market segmentation, out of the way a multi-boot smartphone might be possible.

    People from the FCC / congress, if you're reading this, make it happen.
     Reply
    something_unique_and_descriptive was starred something_unique_and_descriptive was unstarred
    Image of Navin R Johnson Navin R Johnson
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    I had AT&T for two years. I'll tell you right now, it would save time to mark the spots that DO get reception, at least around my area.
     Reply
    Navin R Johnson was starred Navin R Johnson was unstarred
    Image of Mikestan Mikestan
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    I think the Corporate Gods learned their lesson from computers and there is no way in hell they are going to give you "freedom" with their mobile phones
     Reply
    Mikestan was starred Mikestan was unstarred
    Image of blash blash
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    Honestly I just don't know why no one has hacked the Android OS to run on the iPhone. Would seem like a no-brainer, right? Android is open-source, geek-oriented, and the iPhone is ubiquitous enough to merit serious 3rd party free-unlocking and pirate app support (and by pirate here I don't mean piracy, I mean not sanctioned by Apple).
     Reply
    blash was starred blash was unstarred
    Image of microlithx microlithx
    12/07/09

    @blash:
    The iPhone's hardware precludes the loading of other OSes. One of the core means of doing this is via booting from a microSD card which the iPhone famously lacks.
     Reply
    blash promoted this comment Kaila Hale-Stern approved this comment microlithx was starred microlithx was unstarred
    Image of blash blash
    12/07/09

    @microlithx: Yeah but hackers have been able to access everything from root to the baseband. If they can do all that, why can't they boot something that lets them write new firmware to allow them to boot a new OS off the included storage? Is there some part of the iPhone that still hasn't been torn apart in software in some way?
     Reply
    blash was starred blash was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    Having handsets that actually work well with their respective OS's is more important, in my opinion, than the choices available of the OS+hardware combo. Far too many phones I've tried out did not work all that well to begin with, and having more options per phone won't exactly cure that.
     Reply
    Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
    Image of Software_Goddess Software_Goddess
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    *Claps, nods head* Speechless.
     Reply
    Software_Goddess was starred Software_Goddess was unstarred
    Image of redman042 redman042
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    I'm actually very impressed with this app. What they DO with the data remains to be seen, but the impression I get from the app is that they are serious about collecting good data. It's well designed with several reporting options, and the ability to pick a location on the map is top notch. I just submitted two reports for areas I know are poor (but overall I'm happy with AT&T coverage in the Sacramento Metro area, and it has recently gotten a LOT better in the SF Bay Area, where I frequent).

    On a side note, this is also a handy tool for quickly picking the coordinates or street address from a location on Google Maps.

    In a way, this almost seems like a tool for network techs, not the average dumb consumer. It's nice that AT&T is giving its customers the credit to use the tool properly.
     Reply
    redman042 was starred redman042 was unstarred
    Image of jhuang jhuang
    12/07/09

    @redman042: Agreed -- I saw this app coincidentally this morning and downloaded it immediately for when I get back to San Jose in a week. I used to have such great service and AT&T was the only thing that worked in my house (and I live in a pretty populated part of town) but now it has all gone to shit. What happened?
     Reply
    jhuang was starred jhuang was unstarred
    Image of phor11 phor11
    12/07/09

    @jhuang: 3g happened. Switch back to 2g and you'll probably be fine. It's just their 3g service that is a giant piece of dump.
     Reply
    redman042 promoted this comment phor11 was starred phor11 was unstarred
    Image of redman042 redman042
    12/07/09

    @phor11: Or you have a 2g phone and they swapped 2g 850 mhz service for 3g 850 service, putting you on the lousy frequency. If that is the case, get a 3g phone.

    Or they are just adjusting the network. Sometimes it does more harm than good for certain people, at least for a while. Let them know about it.
     Reply
    redman042 was starred redman042 was unstarred
    Image of OCEntertainment OCEntertainment
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    I don't necessarily think I'm with you on this one, John, but I do think that I will be in a couple of years.

    Thing is, as fast as we can get some of our phones to move, they are all slow. I mean, compared to desktop space, where you can fly through the internet, download videos in a flash (pun totally intended). I am not in the least bit interested in seeing how Android would run on the specs of a current phone if it had to include a bunch of software to support the myriad of hardware that's out there now. Maybe it won't be too much longer before hardware gets crazy fast, but as long as we're still measuring CPU speeds in "OMG! 1GHZ?!", I'd rather wait it out.

    I think you're dead on in a lot of what it's going to take to get there....but when I think back to what the software world was like when my desktop ran on a 600 Mhz processor and 256 MB of RAM, I'm less than inclines to think I want anything but a specialized, heavily tweaked, custom-built piece of software running on my phone. Some of the improvements have come from faster software, sure, but I think we owe a good deal of faster desktops now to faster hardware.

    In the long run, I am right there with you. And I think it deserves the call to action now that it will take to get there someday. But I don't think I'd want to see what that would look like in 2010.
     Reply
    OCEntertainment was starred OCEntertainment was unstarred
    Image of Die Fledermaus Die Fledermaus
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    While the idea has some merit, most mobile OS are hardware centric. Much of the reason of that is to keep them small and running the best they can. While Android shows the most possibility for cross platform adaptability, it is still tweaked for the hardware it is on. I believe that smart portable technology is still in its infancy and the power to take that sort of step is several generations away as was stated in the blog. What I would like to see is a very customizable OS again Android shows promise. An OS where the icons the layout the whole look could be adapted for the needs of the user. a very amorphous interface.
     Reply
    Edited by Die Fledermaus at 12/07/09 1:28 PM Die Fledermaus was starred Die Fledermaus was unstarred
    Image of Coolmodo Coolmodo
    12/07/09

    In reply to It's Time To Make Phone OSes Work On Any Phone
    Well, the Neo Freerunner (sp?) was supposed to be one of the first phones where you had full control over the hard and software.

    Unfortunately that project seems to have died.
     Reply
    Coolmodo was starred Coolmodo was unstarred
    Image of FooSchnickens - BPH Free FooSchnickens - BPH Free
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    Oh hey, I was just at Town Center yesterday swapping out a last-minute Christmas gift.
     Reply
    FooSchnickens - BPH Free was starred FooSchnickens - BPH Free was unstarred
    Image of Geisrud Geisrud
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    I'm still waiting for them to fix a dead spot in Minneapolis that I've reported and they have acknowledged they know about.

    The wife's call will be dropped if she's on the phone when going through that particular intersection.

    (26th and Nicollet, btw.)
     Reply
    Geisrud was starred Geisrud was unstarred
    Image of BeyondtheTech BeyondtheTech
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    We should be getting a $5 credit for reporting each of their failures. I'd likely end up with a $2,000 credit on my next month's bill, along with my 8,000 remaining rollover minutes.
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech was starred BeyondtheTech was unstarred
    Image of Alfisted Alfisted
    12/07/09

    In reply to Mark the Spot iPhone App Tells AT&T Where They Suck
    Problems with our network? Use our data network to report it!
     Reply
    Alfisted was starred Alfisted was unstarred
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