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Nokia And Apple Collaborate On Open Source Browser

Posted by Zonk on Tue Jun 21, 2005 02:25 PM
from the phone-browsing dept.
Businesses Software Wireless Networking Apple Linux Hardware
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."
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  • How about... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by KC7GR (473279) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:26PM (#12875085) Homepage Journal
    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).

    • Re:How about... (Score:5, Informative)

      by ShadeEagle (153172) * <[tehshingen] [at] [gmail.com]> on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:28PM (#12875102) Journal
      Problem is, things like "market research" gets in the way of things like that.

      "People" want a phone that checks their e-mail, checks their websites, checks their blood pressure and checks their oil, all at a touch of a button.

      Oh, and full polyphonic and mp3 ringtones.

      • Re:How about... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ZephyrXero (750822) <zephyrxero@yahPARISoo.com minus city> on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:36PM (#12875187) Homepage Journal
        The problem is however that we want such a device that does all these things well, and so far...all these devices that try to do everything just do a mediocre job at most of these tasks. I'd love a PDA/Cell Phone/Ogg & Mp3 player/Game System/camera/etc....but I doubt I'll ever see one that does them all very well on the same machine :/

        • Re:How about... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by dchamp (89216)
          I've been using a Treo 600 for about a month now, I like it a lot. It does a fair job at everything you mention, except the camera on the Treo 600 isn't very good (640x480).

          I had a Handspring Visor & Visorphone, but only used it for a couple months before switching back to my Nokia phone, because it was too big, and the sound quality sucked. I pretty much quit using the Visor all together after that.

          The Treo 600 (or 650) is a pretty good device. When you throw in the huge catalog of PalmOS software it
      • Market research would correctly assess that I would like the possibility of an mp3 ringtone, but they seem to also think that I would A) want to buy the ringtone from them and B) want it to be blasted so heavily distorted from the tiny speaker that although it can be heard in neighboring states, no one can tell what it actually is playing.
        • Amen to that. Anybody know of any phones for T-Mobile / Cingular that you can force your own mp3 ringtones on?

          • Re:How about... (Score:3, Informative)

            by CyberDave (79582)
            My Motorola V400 and V551 (Cingular) support this.

            Using Bluetooth on my V551, I can even upload ringtones and wallpaper directly from Windows XP and Mac OS X, without having to use the USB cable and Motorola Mobile Phone Tools software like I did with my V400. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

            Just be sure to use a low bit rate and mono sound for best results (the speaker isn't exactly hi-fi, so 48 Kbps/mono sound works great without taking up a lot of space for me, leaving more room for more ringtone

      • Re:How about... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Alef (605149) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:42PM (#12875254)
        What I would like to have is a modularized system, where the phone/PDA/MP3-player etc is replaced by several independent units that connect using for instance bluetooth.

        It could be, for example, an uplink-unit, screen, earpiece and memory-unit. When the technology used to communicate changes, I'll just replace my uplink-unit and so on.

        But needless to say, this will never happen, since all those gadget manufacturers (Nokia, Apple or whatever) benefit from me having to buy a new phone+screen+camera+memory+earpiece+mp3-decoder every time I like/have to upgrade one of these technologies.

        • Re:How about... (Score:3, Interesting)

          by mrchaotica (681592)
          Ah ha! So I'm not the only one who wants that!

          The way I see it, it should be divided into the following modules: storage (hard drive/flash), tranceiver (cellular/wifi), CPU, input, and display. It could use either a Twiddler and head-mounted display, or a touchscreen slate (like a Star Trek PADD, or unusually large-but-thin PDA) interchangably. It would connect with wires instead of Bluetooth (except for the PADD), though, because everything should use the same battery anyway. It would turn out somethin
            • First of all, that phone doesn't even come close to doing what I would want. This device would be designed to completely replace your desktop, pda, and cellphone, and have new unique functions (context awareness, augmented reality, etc.) also. Second, the idea is that you'd have a vest or something designed to hold it, so that it would be comfortable to wear and non-obvious (except, optionally, for the head-mounted display).

              In other words, it wouldn't be like a cellphone or PDA, it would be closer to the

        • I don't want to carry all that (Score:4, Insightful)

          by bluGill (862) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @04:14PM (#12876065)

          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.

    • You seem to be in the minority.

      If they made money selling a phone-only, they would make it.

      Meanwhile, here you go. [sparkfun.com]

      m-
    • Buy a Nokia 3310. It's cheap, you can take and receive calls with it, it has a phone book. And a vibrating alert. Or is there something else that you'd want a phone to do?
    • Fine, go get a Nokia 1100 or similar. I'll stick with my 6670, someone else can go for something in the 9xxx range if that suits them.

      Or didn't you realise Nokia makes more than one type of phone?
    • 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!

      But that would prevent Apple's entry into the cell phone market. Portable music players will only get smaller. This means that they need to find another ubiquitous device into which they can incorporate them.
    • There are plenty of good phones for just talking. And in Europe (and elsewhere outside the US) there are plenty of good networks that let those good phones work. The US telcos are so lazy, so well protected from competition on basic call quality, that they haven't made their networks adequate - instead, they sink money into making bad connections seem cute, like the "Can you hear me now?" campaign.

      None of that has anything to do with smartphones. Smartphone development doesn't interfere with continuing to

  • Oh for the love of (Score:3, Insightful)

    by FireballX301 (766274) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:27PM (#12875093) Journal
    THIS [opera.com] should be perfect for mobile web browsing.

    Most definitely works for me, at least.

  • dupe... (Score:3, Informative)

    by dominator (61418) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:28PM (#12875103) Homepage
    http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/13/ 1158208&tid=181&tid=3 [slashdot.org]

  • and that's surprising because... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by nightcrawler.36 (892551) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:29PM (#12875105)
    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.

  • Is the same browser.. (Score:4, Funny)

    by brainnolo (688900) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:29PM (#12875110) Homepage
    Is it the same browser of few days ago or they are starting a brand new one?

    Slashdot. Dupe for Nerds.

  • Phone with a mouse? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by sammyo (166904)
    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.

  • Thought I was "replying" to an article on MS Xbox...

  • Why should new/better be 'anti-microsoft'? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ScentCone (795499) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:37PM (#12875203)
    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.
    • 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?

      I wish i had mod points cause i'd mod you up. How is OSS anti-microsoft? It's just a different way of building software that microsoft currenly isn't involved much in. Also, how exactly does an OSS browser tie Nokia to Linux?
    • When it came time to upgrade my phone, the Nokia's looked tempting, they just weren't "smart enough." I also wanted a QWERTY keyboard, and none of theirs supporting them seemed to work with iSync. So I have a Treo650... I love the features, but would be happy to migrate to a more phone-oriented phone in two years, and Nokia seems to be getting there.

      Support for Blazer (Palm's Web Browser) is pretty spotty, but I would expect Nokia to do a better job there.
      • [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.]

        How?

        Exactly my point! The original article talks about Apple/Nokia participating in an "anti-microsoft ecosystem" as they work on this new phone project. That makes no more sense than my toast stupid-on-purpose-analogy.
  • http://press.nokia.com/PR/200502/980519_5.html [nokia.com]

    These are corporations, not blood enemies. Tech holy wars like Apple/MS, Sun/MS and Intel/Apple are so last-century.

  • 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?

  • Register: WTF (Score:5, Funny)

    by smitty_one_each (243267) * on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:46PM (#12875293) Homepage Journal
    TFA Headline:
    Nokia shifting to Linux as it joins with Apple to challenge Windows 2
    I recall 'Doze 3.0, back in the days of the square wheel, and I'm pretty sure that there wasn't much web browsing going on then.
    If MS has tricked Nokia and Apple into somehow competing against Windows 2, I'm calling that the IT Judo Throw of the Year.

  • Nokia's Slogan (Score:4, Funny)

    by Boss, Pointy Haired (537010) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:48PM (#12875307)
    For a long time, Nokia's slogan to accompany their mobile office features of advanced phones was:

    "Now you can get to work before you get to work."

    Bollocks to that.

  • You can't browse the web on a 2" screen! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Why don't they make something useful for mobile phones like an open source gopher client?

  • Please, please,please... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by spectrokid (660550) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @02:54PM (#12875363) Homepage
    Please make an iPhone, please! I promess I will be a good boy, swear to god! Serious, do you have any idea what a phone would be with an ipod wheel on it? Scrolling through those contacts?

  • Ah, the sweet comfort of familiarity... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by njfuzzy (734116) <ianNO@SPAMian-x.com> on Tuesday June 21 2005, @03:00PM (#12875425) Homepage
    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.

  • Bad news for Opera? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rduke15 (721841) <rduke15 AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday June 21 2005, @03:04PM (#12875465)
    This sounds like very bad news for Opera [opera.com]. 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.
  • this is a brilliant little phone, although it does have a couple of extra features like a (suprisingly useful and bright) flashlight, it does have a great battery life and good signal and sound quality:

    http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,,76207,00.html [nokia.com]

  • "Just a phone, please" response (Score:3, Insightful)

    by tedhiltonhead (654502) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @03:25PM (#12875630)
    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. :)
    • Having a backlit color screen absolutely cuts into battery life. Yes, battery technology has evolved to counter this, but newer batteries could power simpler phones for much longer.

      The buttons and menu options for all these features clutter the interface, and make for more scrolling when trying to perform essential functions.

      I personally paid US$150 to get an older model phone (V60i) as opposed to the color-screened cameraphones they were giving away for US$9.99. As a bonus, my phone is slightly smaller a

  • Series60/Symbian and 770/maemo (Score:3, Informative)

    by cies (318343) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @03:47PM (#12875801)
    Nokia is currently doing 2 WebKit (based on KHTML/KJS by the KDE project) related webbrowsers:

    1) for 770/maemo
    this will be shipped with an opera-browser, but WebKit was ported to GTK+ (the toolkit used by maemo) as part of the feasability study. This port can be found under the name gtk-webkit and is used for the atlantis browser.

    2) for the Series60 (Symbian based)
    For this series Nokia is porting WebKit to the Symbian OS and Symbian toolkit, and will thus create a new browser.

    links:
    http://khtml.info/ [khtml.info]
    http://kde.org/ [kde.org]
    http://gtk-webcore.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]
    http://www.akcaagac.com/index_atlantis.html [akcaagac.com]
    http://www.series60.com/ [series60.com]
    http://www.symbian.com/ [symbian.com]
    http://www.nokia.com/nokia/0,1522,,00.html?orig=/7 70 [nokia.com]
    http://www.maemo.org/ [maemo.org]

    g'luck...
    Cies Breijs

  • Exploiting, not supporting, open source software (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xiaomonkey (872442) on Tuesday June 21 2005, @05:04PM (#12876425)
    It seems that both apple [macworld.co.uk] and nokia [fsfeurope.org] 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.

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