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New York, 12:40 AM
Wed Dec 9
79 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 QuarterToTomorrow QuarterToTomorrow
    12/08/09

    @Jack_Burton: While webOS and Android run on top of the Linux kernel and iPhone OS is Darwin (way waaay down), this doesn't mean they're compatible. As far as I'm aware, none of them are Posix compliant, they all run completely different toolchains and userlands, and apps are written in JavaScript on webOS, Java on Android and Objective-C on iPhone.

    (nb Java != JavaScript)
     Reply
    Jack_Burton promoted this comment QuarterToTomorrow was starred QuarterToTomorrow was unstarred
    Image of Jack_Burton Jack_Burton
    12/08/09

    @QuarterToTomorrow: I never said they were compatible, just that they had similar components in their underlying architecture. Have you ever used VMWare? It's a hardware abstraction layer that goes between the device and the host OS.

    My point is that VMWare would have less work to do as far as supporting basic I/O since it would be piping in a manner similar in all 3 OSes. They are more similar than dissimilar.
     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 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 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 BeyondtheTech BeyondtheTech
    12/03/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    Speaking from a neutral standpoint, I totally get it when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone in 2007. He was doing that 'business chart' that showed how complicated dumbphones were and how even more asinine some smartphone developers, ending up with even more inconsistent and convoluted interfaces.

    Some manufacturers really (and I mean REALLY) need to go back to the paper napkins to draw and map out user interfaces that are simple, effective, contagious, and universal.
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech was starred BeyondtheTech was unstarred
    Image of Sandeep Murali Sandeep Murali
    12/02/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    Can't say I disagree with anything in this review. Samsung needs to take a good look at their phones and realize that nobody with a functional cerebral cortex considers their UIs as intuitive.

    It's a shame because their hardware is top notch. The other day, I bought a Sammy F400 B&O edition as a backup phone. Brilliant sound output, but I can't for the love of god; figure out how their menu system worked.

    ...and It's a dumbphone.

    Sufficed to say, I sold it within a day.
     Reply
    Sandeep Murali was starred Sandeep Murali was unstarred
    Image of Gundem Gundem
    12/02/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    Main Problem:

    Windows Mobile is shit. I worked with it for 3 years. Over at XDA chefs do all they can to make it better but at the end of the day, it's shit.

    Most of the disguises that phone makers use to cover this shit known as WM with turn out just as bad.

    I seriously don't understand how people still stick to WM. Freaking symbian functions/looks better, crashes/freezes less.
     Reply
    Gundem was starred Gundem was unstarred
    Image of PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: PurpleMonkeyDishwasher:
    12/02/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    "It gives you a headache to use, like reading tiny text in the dark, or reciting the alphabet backwards when drunk"

    Whenever I see Cops where they make drunk people recite the alphabet backwards, it scares me. I don't think I could do that sober without having to think a lot.

    With respect to the review, for some reason I couldn't stop laughing as I was reading it. The tone of your writing just seems like you are genuinely frustrated and it's quite funny. The first two lines summarized how the review was going to go and everything after that was just a bonus.
     Reply
    Edited by PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: at 12/02/09 6:55 PM PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: was starred PurpleMonkeyDishwasher: was unstarred
    Image of Jamez Jamez
    12/02/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    You guys can tell that a phone is going to suck. Why do you review phones that look like crap? I mean, you couldn't smell the sweet scent of [insert disgusting smell] from a mile away? I know I could.
     Reply
    Jamez was starred Jamez was unstarred
    Image of Kaiser-Machead Kaiser-Machead
    12/02/09

    In reply to Samsung Omnia II Review
    It's sort of sad when the hardware is begging to have the standard issue Windows Mobile setup.
     Reply
    Edited by Kaiser-Machead at 12/02/09 6:41 PM Kaiser-Machead was starred Kaiser-Machead was unstarred
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