We definitely need another really viable Mobile OS

even though it is late entrant to market.. I am sure it will perform great.. Pie is big enough and there will be tons of enthusiasts who would like to use Firefox phones..

Looking forward to this new Firefox OS as good alternative to iOS and Android.. I hope they will be able to package it in the middle taking ease of use from iOS and openness and flexibility from Android OS.

After really bad performance from MS and other mobile phone developers, I hope that this will emerge as really nice alternative to Android and iOS.

Mozilla to release Firefox phones

By Peter Svensson

Associated Press

BARCELONA, Spain — Mozilla, the nonprofit foundation behind the Firefox Web browser, is getting into phones. But it’s not stopping at Web browsers — it’s launching an entire phone operating system.

The Mountain View foundation said Sunday that phones running Firefox OS will appear this summer, starting in Brazil, Colombia, Hungary, Mexico, Montenegro, Poland, Serbia, Spain and Venezuela. The Firefox OS will land in a crowded environment, where many small operating systems are trying to become the “third ecosystem,” alongside Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android. Together, those two account for 91 percent of smartphone sales, according to research firm IDC.Mozilla Foundation has an ally in phone companies, who are interested in seeing an alternative to Apple and Google, particularly one coming from a nonprofit foundation. Eighteen phone companies around the world have committed to supporting Firefox phones, Mozilla said. They include Sprint Nextel in the U.S., Telecom Italia, America Movil of Mexico and Deutsche Telekom of Germany. DT is the parent of T-Mobile USA, but plans to sell Firefox phones first in Poland. Sprint didn’t say when it would release a Firefox phone in the U.S.

Phone makers that plan to make Firefox phones include Huawei and ZTE of China and LG of Korea. All the phones will run on chips supplied by San Diegobased Qualcomm.

Is it really a Triumphant Return or Forced Return?

Before I begin on my main topic.. I am really happy that Google map is back. I hope Apple will update iOS so that we can use Google map as default map on iPhone. I was/am totally fine with Apple maps in US. However, during my India trip, I did felt pain. As most of you know, I still enjoy and love driving in India (it is just much more thrilling to drive in India..).. So during my last trip I borrowed my Sister-in-law's car and was on my own. As I was in Delhi / Noida after a while, I did needed navigation system. Asking "paan wala" was beneath my reputation.. I had my International roaming data plan and was confident with iPhone.. However, Apple maps royally screwed me over there.. It simply didn't worked. I could only get some overview out of it but no navigation or real good help.. Chrome/Google maps on safari were mostly non functional.. So bottom line.. I am really happy to have it back..

Having said that.. I still feel that it was Apple map which forced Google to update their mapping feature.. otherwise there was no way they were going to add turn-by-turn navigation. It was literally competing with their Android's base feature. Whatever we say about Apple maps.. it did forced them to update and helped us all by making Google Maps on iOS much better then what it used to be. Moreover, in US, I really like Apple maps.. it is totally fine with me while driving... I tested it and liked much better..

It will be good lift for Google. still I feel that we will see its usage on iPhone much less than before. While you are browsing or searching in safari and you get some address.. if you click on that address it is going to open native Apple maps only.. unless you copy that address or go back to Google maps application and search it again there.. you are not going to get Google maps.. same is true with address book.. if you click on saved address it will still open Apple maps.. Unless.. Apple makes some setting updates and integrates with Google maps as it has integrated with Facebook and Twitter.. Let us see..

Bottom line.. if Google had played nicely.. we would still have them as native mapping service in iPhone. At least I think so..

TRIUMPHANT RETURN

Google Maps app back on iPhone

Service provides lift for Apple, big gain for search giant

By Brandon Bailey

bbailey@mercurynews.com 

Eager iPhone owners rushed to download Google’s new Maps app, driving it to the top of the most-popular list in the iTunes store Thursday and marking a triumphant return for one of Apple’s biggest rivals. The new app, which became available in the iTunes store Wednesday night, may be a short-term boon for Apple if its release helps soothe the many complaints that Apple has heard from iPhone users over the last six months — ever since Apple replaced an earlier Google Maps application with Apple’s own flawed mapping service on the most recent version of its signature smartphone.

But analysts said the upgraded Maps app is also a powerful tool for Google, as the Mountain View Internet giant seeks to cultivate a profitable relationship with millions of smartphone owners who have chosen Apple’s iPhone over competing devices that run on Google’s Android operating software. “Thank you, Google!” read the first of more than 12,000 mostly favorable reviews that iPhone users posted after downloading the new app Thursday. 

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ASSOCIATED PRESS

The new Google Maps app, which became available as a download Wednesday, is shown on an iPad.

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Even so, Cupertino-based Apple will undoubtedly keep working to improve its own mapping technology as it battles Google for supremacy in the mobile computing market. More than half of all smartphones used in the United States are Android devices, while slightly more than a third are iPhones, according to the research firm comScore. 

Analysts say location based services are increasingly important for both tech giants, as more people access the Internet on mobile devices. But Apple’s homegrown maps service was widely criticized for offering buggy responses and inaccurate information, in contrast with the mapping technology that Google has developed and refined over more than a decade. 

“If anything, this puts more pressure on Apple to sort out their own maps,” said Carolina Milanesi, a consumer technology analyst with Gartner. “Maps are a key part of the future of mobility. They can’t just throw in the towel now.” 

Google doesn’t charge consumers to use its Maps app. But Milanesi said data from the app provides Google with valuable insights into its users’ interests and travels. It also could help Google introduce them to other services and ultimately show them paid advertising. 

Unlike Google’s old Maps app for iPhones, the new version invites users to log in with their Google Gmail account, which would help Google exchange more information with them. While the login is optional, Milanesi said she expects many people will use it. 

Google also announced it will release a software development kit that independent app builders can use to incorporate Google’s mapping technology into other mobile services. 

Google’s old mapping service was extremely popular with independent developers who build apps for the iPhone and iPad, said Nolan Wright, co-founder of Appcelerator, a Mountain View firm that makes software used by app builders. The IDC research firm reported over the summer that 80 percent of all mobile software applications have features that are keyed to the user’s location. 

Wright cautioned that “it remains to be seen” whether developers will embrace the new Google app for Apple’s IS platform. Apple’s own maps are still the default service on iPhones and iPads, which means users must take the extra step of downloading Google Maps if they want to use it. Wright said some developers may be cautious about using Google’s maps until they see how many people use it. 

Apple also has an advantage over Google because Apple’s maps are embedded into Apple’s operating system, which means other Apple services such as Siri will use Apple maps by default, said Charles Golvin, a mobile-technology expert at Forrester. 

Golvin said that means Google’s new app still won’t provide “as fluid an experience” when compared with the Apple service, or even the old Google app, which was the default service on iPhones until it was replaced. On the other hand, Google’s new app includes popular features, such as turn-by-turn directions, that Google has long offered on Android phones but were not part of Google’s old app for iPhones. 

Apple has apologized for the flaws in its maps and replaced an executive who oversaw the project. But Golvin said “the maps problem continues to be a black eye for Apple. It remains to be seen whether Apple’s customers will return to using Apple’s maps once they address all the problems there.” 

Investors seemed to agree with Golvin’s assessment that the new iPhone app is “a win for Google.” Google’s stock rose $5.14, or 0.7 percent, to close at $702.70 Thursday. Apple’s stock fell $9.31, or 1.7 percent, to close at $529.69. 

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/ BrandonBailey. 

Facebook Phone with fOS or Fboid?

Seems that we might have new competitor for iPhone and our beloved Samsung and other Android phones.. There could be fOS or FABoid or  something like that coming soon. or Blackberries or blueberries could be become Face-berries or book-berries :-)  or even Nokia could be Fokia.. Just kidding..

 I am in lighter mood today so all this crap.. But there is some reality to this news and it does make sense from one angle...

FB is getting hit hard by their mobile strategy where they are felling little lonely.. lot or most of the users access their FB account thru their smart phones which are currently being controlled by apples, oranges, berries and goggles of the world.. Poor FB is left with free service on them without any revenue gain.. They can hardly show anything to users on these fruit ninja phones..

So here they come back.. armed with 16 Billion dollars in their bank account.. they go for investment cum shopping spree.. Off course, their senior leadership has to take bigger risks and make better futuristic strategies.. You never know.. they may hit jackpot or just blow off all the IPO money and relegate FB to Yahoo status.. problem is, that if they don't act now and act totally differently, they will be Yahoo in next 5-7 years any how (or may be faster)..

Some how I don't buy into all this crap of mobile issue.. I would rather work on making it more easy to use on mobile and even on tablets so users can more easily access and enjoy their tool. Also, they need to come up with something like Google's ad-sense platform where even user benefits if user creates content and they try to sell users targeted adds based on the content users have created.

But for now, If I could, I would be short on FB stock.. I may be wrong (many times I have been wrong, otherwise, I would have been writing blogs full time instead working for someone else)..

Enjoy the news or I should say rumor..  you never know it may change the face of the world again....

http://www.siliconvalley.com/news/ci_20728939/facebook-hoping-release-smartphone-by-next-year

HIGH-TECH CROSSOVER

Facebook may revive smartphone

Social network has hired former iPhone engineers as it explores future in hardware, sources say

By Nick Bilton

New York Times

Can a software company build its own smartphone? We may well find out soon.

In the past week, Google completed its acquisition of the hardware maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, which could lead to the search giant making its own smartphone. And another software titan might be getting into the hardware game as well: Facebook.

Employees of Facebook and several engineers who have been sought out by recruiters there, as well as people briefed on Facebook’s plans, say the company hopes to release its own smartphone by next year. These people spoke only on condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing their employment or relationships with Facebook.

The company has already hired more than half a dozen former Apple software and hardware engineers who worked on the iPhone, and one who worked on the iPad, the employees and those briefed on the plans said.

This would be Facebook’s third effort at building a smartphone, said one person briefed on the plans and one who was recruited. In 2010, the blog TechCrunch reported that Facebook was working on a smartphone. The project crumbled after the company realized the difficulties involved, according to people who had worked on it. The website AllThingsD reported last year that Facebook and HTC had entered a partnership to create a smartphone, code-named “Buffy,” which is still in the works. 

Now the company has been going deeper into the process, by expanding the group working on “Buffy,” and exploring other smartphone projects, too, creating a team of seasoned hardware engineers who have built the devices before. 

Meeting with chief 

One engineer who formerly worked at Apple and worked on the iPhone said he met with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and chief executive, who then peppered him with questions about the inner workings of smartphones. It did not sound like idle intellectual curiosity, the engineer said; Zuckerberg asked about intricate details, including the types of chips used, he said. Another former Apple hardware engineer was recruited by a Facebook executive and was told about the company’s hardware explorations. When asked Friday, Facebook did not deny or confirm that a project to build a smartphone existed, but pointed to a previous statement it gave to AllThingsD last year that said in part, “We’re working across the entire mobile industry; with operators, hardware manufacturers, OS providers and application developers.” 

For Facebook, the motivation is clear: As a newly public company, it must find new sources of revenue, and it fears being left behind in mobile, one of the most promising areas for growth. “Mark is worried that if he doesn’t create a mobile phone in the near future that Facebook will simply become an app on other mobile platforms,” a Facebook employee said. 

Facebook is going to great lengths to keep the phone project a secret, specifically not posting job listings on the company’s job website, but instead going door-to-door to find the right talent for the project. 

But can a company that is wired as a social network learn how to build hardware? Mixing the cultures of hardware and software designers is akin to mixing oil and water. With the rare exception of Apple, other phone makers aren’t very good at this. 

The biggest names in consumer electronics have struggled with phone hardware. Hewlett-Packard tried and failed. So did Dell. Sony has never done very well making phones. 

“Building isn’t something you can just jump into,” explained Hugo Fiennes, a former Apple hardware manager for the first four iPhones who has since left Apple and is starting a new hardware company, Electric Imp. “You change the smallest thing on a smartphone and you can completely change how all the antennas work. You don’t learn this unless you’ve been doing it for a while.” 

He added, “Going into the phone business is incredibly complex.” 

Facebook also faces hurdles, often of its own making, on mobile. Twitter, for example, is fully integrated into the Apple iPhone and allows people to seamlessly send Twitter messages with photos or article links. Facebook, which has had a contentious relationship with Apple, is still not integrated into iOS. 

One Facebook employee said the phone project had been rebooted several times because Facebook originally thought it could figure out hardware on its own. The company has since learned that it needed to bring in people with previous phonemaking experience, several people said. So it is hiring hardware engineers to work with a phone manufacturer and design the shape, style and inner workings of a Facebook phone. 

Easy market entry? 

Despite the difficulties, Facebook seems well positioned in certain ways to enter the smartphone market. It already has an entire operating system complete with messaging, calendar, contacts and video, and an immense app store is on its way, with thousands of highly popular apps. There’s also that billion-dollar camera app, in the form of Instagram. If Facebook fails with its own team of engineers, it could buy a smartphone maker. The company took in $16 billion from its bumpy IPO. It could easily scoop up an infirm company like Research In Motion, which is valued at less than $6 billion, and drop a beautifully designed Facebook operating system on top of RIM’s phones. HTC is upset with Google for buying Motorola, which is worth about $11.8 billion and becoming cheaper by the day. Facebook would not necessarily challenge Apple if it enters the smartphone marketplace. Instead, it could be Facebook vs. Google, which makes the Android operating system, with both companies going after a huge number of buyers of lowerpriced smartphones. 

For Facebook, the motivation is clear: It must find new sources of revenue, and it fears being left behind in mobi le . 

Can Samsung takeover Apple in Smartphone Segment as well?

Samsung is already number one in overall cellphone market share. First time they overtook Nokia in World's largest Cell phone manufacturer. Nokia is trying a comeback and it would be interesting to see in next couple of quarters, how this will shape overall cellphone market. Along with Nokia & Samsung, it is Microsoft as well, whose future is at stake. Cell phones are already accounting for close to 50% of revenues of companies like Samsung and Apple.

As of now, Samsung is clear winner in overall Cellphone market. However, they face uphill battle with Apple's flagship iPhone. It will be difficult to compete with iPhone in terms of overall value and satisfaction. Unless, Apple goof's up big time in coming years, which they can as Steve Job's is not around and I am already feeling that new management is more focussed directly on share prices instead of customer satisfaction, usability and attention to details. We have to accept that nothing is permanent and current iPhone's dominance will go down sooner or later.

At the same time, Samsung is coming up with really great phones with really cool and great features and trying to compete hard with iPhone. However, in my view they need to focus more on some really great selected features and make them really easy and standardize across the board. They also need highlight and focus where Apple restrict's iPhone... and moreover, build some really cool and easy to use ecosystem. Bring some standardization across the devices so accessories can be useful. One feature which I really envy from Android phones is simplicity to play HD videos (1080p) directly to HDTV using HDMI cable.. But still, it has clumsy UI, especially as compared to iPhone. They need to work on reduction in number of clicks needed to accomplish things..

I haven't played too much on Samsung phones except to my stone age Blackjack long time back. Which was really clumsy phone based on Windows CE (or whatever it was called) and voice quality was so bad that I took a vow to never use Samsung phone. Only feature which I used to like was tethering of it which used to give me great internet connectivity to my laptop. However, with iPhone, 99% of time you don't need tethering, you can literally do everything on it, despite its lower screen size. I hope my nephew who works in Samsung is reading this and will soon send me some great samsung phone to try so I can write better review ;-)

Hope to see real good competition in coming days.. which should result in really cool phones for all of us. I hope, Motorola/Google will also churn out great phones in coming days.. so will Nokia with their MS collaboration... future seems to be great!!!


Samsung cellphones beat out Nokia’s

By Andrea Chang

Los Angeles Times

Samsung in the first quarterbecametheworld’s largest cellphone brand for the first time, overtaking longtime market leader Nokia. In the smartphone segment, Samsung remained in second place behind Apple, according to market research firm IHS iSuppli.

The South Korean electronics giant shipped 92 million cellphones worldwide in the first quarter, compared with 83 million for Nokia. While Samsung’s shipments declined by 13 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011, Nokia’s dropped by 27 percent.

In the smartphone segment, Apple shipped 35 million units in the first quarter compared with 32 million for Samsung. Apple’s smartphone shipments declined 5 percent from the fourth quarter, compared with 11 percent for Samsung. First-quarter declines in the shipments of smartphones and cellphones reflect normal seasonal patterns, in which sales decrease after the peak holiday period in the fourthquarter. “With cellphones now accounting for more than 40 percent of Samsung’s overall revenue, it’s clear that the company’s continued investments in smartphone hardware and software R&D are paying off,” said Wayne Lam, senior analyst of wireless communications at IHS. Lam noted that Samsung’s performance was even more impressive because its latest Galaxy S III handset has yet to be launched, with shipments set to start in May. “This indicates Samsung is likely to make further progress in market share in 2012,” he said.

Will you buy Apple Clone Products?

A very interesting article on Apple clone product flooding market. Off-course, none of them run mac OSX or iOS but physically they are quite similar to their Apple counterparts.. Some of them are already there.. especially, copy of Mac Book Air aka MBA.. I haven't seen any real iPhone clone yet but in general Android is kind of inspired by iPhone.. at least Steve Jobs strongly thought that way..

How good they are? Look and feel wise, you might be fairly happy.. it is easy to copy that.. but core thing about Apple is their OS and its integration with its hardware. nobody could beat that.. When I didn't had Mac Book, I used to think that what a waste it is.. you can but two windows machines, each of them equally or more more powerful than comparable Mac..

Once you start using them, you realize that there is much more than just Processor, memory and HDD.. Coolest things which I liked were Graphics... oh.. it is awesome.. DVD may be compared to blu-ray rendering on TV.. almost.. then keyboard..  finally.. even after usage of almost three years.. speed of machine is still as if it is brand new.. battery life or energy management.. amazing.. speed of coming up.. I can bet.. it will be even faster than double powered windows machine.. off course.. you rarely have to shut down.. you just shut screen down and standby power consumption is so low that you rarely have to shut down..

there are thousands of features like this.. okay.. at least hundreds.. there is no comparison with that.. once you are with mac.. you can't imagine going back to windows.. you do have to give couple of months of learning curve if you were heavy windows user.. you will miss few keys.. but very soon you will start appreciating ease and simplicity of mac.. I can literally fill tens of pages like in support of mac.. but I think, need to stop.. enjoy great article by Larry Magid..


Next year could see rush of clone Apple products
While there are no other machines on the market that legally run iOS apps, there are plenty of phones and tablets that were inspired by Apple.

Could 2012 be the year of the Apple clones? It seems likely based on what I expect to be announced at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

I’m not talking about exact duplicates. Apple doesn’t license its operating systems, so unlike what happened to IBM in 1982, we’re not going to see products that run off-the-shelf Mac or iPad software. It was at that year’s now-defunct Comdex computer show where Compaq introduced its fully IBM-compatible PC that launched the multibillion-dollar industry that eventually lead to Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony and hundreds of other companies producing computers that were 100 percent compatible with the platform IBM built when it introduced its first PC only a year earlier.

Eventually, IBM pulled out of the PC business.

Those companies were able to clone the IBM PC because IBM made the mistake of allowing its partner, Microsoft, to license a virtually identical version of its PC-DOS operating system to any takers. Microsoft developed DOS for IBM, which shipped it with the new PC in August 1981.

Shortly after the IBM PC shipped, Microsoft started negotiating deals for the nearly identical and slightly renamed MS-DOS, which enabled other companies’ machines to run the same software and use the same peripherals as IBM’s PCs.

Apple did license its Mac operating system for a short time after Steve Jobs was fired, but Jobs ended those deals shortly after returning to Apple.

There was never even a hint of a licensing deal for the iPod, iPhone or iPad so — at this juncture — there is no such thing as a Mac or iOS clone.

Or is there?

Well, it depends on how you define clone. While there are no other machines on the market that legally run iOS apps or native Mac programs, there are plenty of phones and tablets that were clearly inspired by Apple.
I’m not suggesting that Apple should win its many pending lawsuits against the makers of Android phones and tablets, but at least some judges have found credibility in Apple’s claims that the devices violate its patents. I don’t know much about patent laws and I love that Apple has competition from Android makers.

But it’s hard not to notice that the look and feel of many Android devices are similar to those running iOS.

I own several iOS and Android devices and use them almost as interchangeably as when I switch between a Chevy and a Toyota. There are clear differences between the two operating systems but as far as general look is concerned, there are lot of similarities. So we’ll see plenty of Android phones and tablets next year, including some that are much cheaper than Apple’s products. We’ll also see devices with a physical look and feel inspired by Apple’s popular MacBook Air notebook PC.

As I’ve written, I bought a 2.4 pound, 11-inch MacBook Air to replace the slightly heavier and larger Lenovo ThinkPad X300 I used to carry around.

The Air is not only lighter and thinner, but is elegantly designed. There are some people who buy Macs because they prefer OS X to Windows, but I have no preference when it comes to operating systems. Despite Windows’ mixed reputation, I find Windows 7 to be fast, reliable and as easy to use as OS X. What I love about the MacBook Air is the design of the hardware.
No reputable company is going to try to clone the Mac’s OS X operating system, but we’re likely to see plenty of Windows machines that look a lot like the Air. Asus has already taken the wraps off a couple of models that have a similar size and weight, as well as that cool tapered look where the front of the machine is thinner than the back.

Other machines in this emerging “Ultrabook” category include the Lenovo IdeaPad U300s and the Toshiba Portege Z830. Comparable to the 13-inch MacBook Air, both weigh less than 3 pounds. These machines tend to start at just shy of $1,000 but unlike Macs, you’re more likely to see them at a discount. At next year’s CES, I expect to see plenty of new Ultrabooks, including some at lower prices. If Ultrabooks catch on, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some for under $500 by CES 2013.

The other thing we’ll see demonstrated at CES next year are notebooks and tablets running Microsoft’s as-yet-unreleased Windows 8, which is Microsoft’s answer to iOS and OS X wrapped up into a single operating system. They won’t be for sale until next fall, but some vendors plan to show them at their booths. Unlike Apple’s current strategy, Microsoft will have a single operating system for both tablets and PCs that’s optimized for touch screens and tablet-specific apps but also able to run traditional Windows programs. Users will launch apps by touching on-screen “tiles,” as is now the case with Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system.

When I walk around CES in January, my shoulder bag will be about six ounces lighter than last year thanks to my MacBook. Maybe the following January, I’ll be carrying an even lighter Windows machine.
Contact Larry Magid at larry@larrymagid.com. Listen for his technology chats on KCBS-AM (740) weekdays at 3:50 p.m.