Mozilla Lures Devs to Firefox OS

Firefox OS With Shiny New Toys..

The Firefox OS, code-named "Boot to Gecko," or B2G, was designed to allow HTML5 apps to integrate with devices' hardware using JavaScript. 

  It hardly seems likely that an open source mobile OS upstart could make any waves in a market dominated by Android and iOS. 

Windows Phone and BlackBerry may find a following, but Firefox OS? Not likely -- at least, not in the developed world.

 Firefox may be able to sink its teeth into emerging markets, however, which are hungry for lower-cost devices.

 The Mozilla Foundation on Tuesday announced that smartphones running its Firefox OS will be available to developers in February.

 The preview phones are being produced in collaboration with Geeksphone and Telefonica.

 "These devices have not been designed for consumers," Mozilla spokesperson Diane Zuniga told LinuxInsider.

 

Dev Phone Specs

Two smartphones are lined up for the dev preview.

The Keon, which is touted as a light developer device, has a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 1-GHz CPU.

It sports a 3.5-inch half-size VGA (HVGA) multitouch screen and a 3 MP camera.

The Peak is the heavy hitter. IT has a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 dual-core 1.2 GHz CPU.

It features a 4.3-inch qHD screen. With a display resolution of 960 x 540 pixels, qHD screens offer one quarter of a full 1080p HD frame in a 16:9 aspect ratio. HTC's Sensation and Evo 3D, as well as Motorola's Droid Razr and PlayStation's Vita all use qHD screens.

Further, the Peak has an 8 MP camera with flash.

Both phones include a MicroSD slot, light and proximity sensors, GPS, and a MicroUSB slot. They support 802.11n WiFi. Both run High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) 3G communications and EDGE GSM for 2G communications.

Pricing will be announced in early February. 

 B2G has been demonstrated on various smartphones including the Samsung Nexus S and a ZTE smartphone, as well as on the Raspberry Pi.

"The challenge Mozilla faces is whether it is able to break through into the mass market with its platform."



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Unplugged: Apple-Samsung showdown?

Apple's testy patent war with Samsung about smartphone technology infringement won't amount to more than a fragrant pile of loaded diapers.

Unplugged: Apple-Samsung showdown has diaper whiff

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(Editor's Note: This is the debut tech column of Mark Veverka, which will run twice a month in the Money section.)

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple's testy patent war with Samsung about smartphone technology infringement won't amount to more than a fragrant pile of loaded diapers.

Despite the hype and sensational press coverage surrounding the U.S. litigation late last summer, the ramifications of the legal skirmish will ultimately fall flat.

It's likely to play out like another high-profile corporate intellectual property battle: Pampers vs. Huggies.

Procter & Gamble and Kimberly-Clark spent several years late last century slapping each other with series of lawsuits about technology (what, you don't consider elastic bands technology?) used in their popular lines of disposable diapers, Pampers and Huggies, respectively. They ultimately settled and are still going toe to toe, but more on them later.

First, why will Apple and Samsung continue to fuel their share of incendiary headlines in this new year? Any time a corporation is on the hook for more than $1 billion in court-awarded retribution, as is Samsung, people -- especially shareholders, customers and competitors -- are going to pay attention.

Fear-mongers foretell soaring smartphone prices and new limitations on cool innovations for non-Apple handset makers, which include Samsung, Nokia, Research In Motion's BlackBerry, HTC, Google's Motorola unit and others.....

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What does all this have to do with diapers?

Consumer products behemoth Procter & Gamble introduced its iconic Pampers line of disposable diapers in 1961. Pampers ruled the playpen for nearly two decades before rival Kimberly-Clark launched its innovative Huggies line in 1978, which featured an elastic waist band and elastic leg bands. (Genius, I know.) In just seven years, Kimberly-Clark's share of the disposable diaper market saw major growth, while P&G's market share took a hit.

That loss of market share prompted P&G to file a patent-infringement suit in 1985 against Kimberly-Clark, which countered with a lawsuit of its own the following year. The two consumer products giants slugged away in federal court for seven years before settling their cases in May 1992 on the eve of an antitrust case filed by Kimberly-Clark. More than 20 years later, neither company's diaper business has pooped out. Kimberly-Clark leads the $30 billion global segment, and Procter & Gamble is second.

U.K. carrier makes phone chargers

U.K. carrier O2 makes push for nixing phone chargers

The company argues that the end of bundling micro-USB chargers with every phone purchase would aid the environment.

O2 is by no means the only organization that has called for an end to unnecessary charger distribution

Earlier this week, O2 released a study that found that 82 percent of customers who bought the HTC One X+ over the last three months walked out of the store without buying a charger, despite the fact that a charger didn't come in the box. 

The company's test has led it to continue its mission of phasing out chargers in mobile phones it sells by 2015 and to urge its competitors to do the same. 

 

"The results of the trial demonstrate a clear willingness among consumers to consider and respond to the environmental argument for taking a phone charger-free," O2 CEO Ronan Dunne told Guardian in an interview published yesterday.

 "I now hope that as a result of this study the rest of the industry will now consider joining us in our campaign to take chargers out of the box for good." 

Many handsets today ship with a universal micro-USB port and charger to match it. 

As customers buy more products, those USB chargers start to pile up, despite a single charger being capable of connecting to any handset using the port.

 O2 argues that the U.K. is overrun with unused USB chargers -- as many as 100 million -- that could actually be used on other products. Why include a charger in a box, then, when folks might have a few already at home?

 Although several vendors, including Nokia, HTC, and RIM, support micro-USB ports in their products, Apple most notably does not. 

Since the iPhone's launch, Apple has used a proprietary charging Dock port that's incompatible with micro-USB.

 Last year, Apple launched a new Lightning port to replace its previous connector. 

That move came approximately three years after the company agreed to support a universal charger by January 2012. It appears that for now, that isn't happening.

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