5 ms·

I was kind of hoping the cover would slide to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, it was one of the main reasons I got the N900 which I use to this day. Its getting prett

by dreen 13y ago

I was kind of hoping the cover would slide to reveal a QWERTY keyboard, it was one of the main reasons I got the N900 which I use to this day. Its getting pretty dated so it will probably be either Jolla or a FFOS phone, which is looking pretty good too. In fact, if there is anything low-endish on FFOS with a QWERTY ill probably just get that. Edit: I should probably say I'm also using a low-end Samsung with Android, and its a pretty shitty experience, although only half of that is due to Android OS (signing me out in weird moments, things unremovable from notifications, poor task management etc), granted Im probably stuck on some old version.

ido 13y ago
I've used firefox-os (the developer release phone) & I honestly don't see any significant improvement over ios or android. It mostly felt like a much slower version of android tbh. I would wager that your shitty experience is due to under-powered phone with old 2.x os. A high end device with up do date 4.x would be much more pleasurable to use.
- phillc73 13y ago
  I have a Samsung GT-S5830i. I don't have a lot of additional apps installed - maybe two games and a Twitter profile manager. It, generally, feels sluggish when switching between applications, such as messaging to web browsing. My new Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS feels much more responsive than the Samsung with Android. And the Firefox browser works much better on the Keon! Unfortunately, a couple of functionality things with the Keon prevent me from migrating across - as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card. Also email only supports some webmail options (e.g. Gmail) and IMAP, no POP3 or Exchange server support. I'm not complaining though, as I know it's a developer release. I'm just hopeful someone with better skills than me will enhance the relevant applications. With respect to this Jolla article, I'm unimpressed the phone is priced so high. My initially gut feel when I saw the article was "damn, I just got this FirefoxOS phone." After reading that the price point for Jolla is EUR399, I'm pretty happy with my EUR125 Keon purchase.
  - shared4you 13y ago
    > as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card Did you update FxOS after you bought the phone? There is a new "Importer" app which sync'ed contacts from Google/Gmail. Works well.
    - phillc73 13y ago
      Thanks, and I haven't looked at contacts again since the update. I appreciate you pointing this out to me. I will have another look at contacts this evening.
  - CJefferson 13y ago
    You are comparing a phone with 256MB RAM (The samsung) to a phone with 512MB RAM (the Geeksphone). It is unsuprising the Keon is faster and snappier!
  - onli 13y ago
    I have a Samsung Android-phone of the same era. Very slow with the stock rom, but quite good to use with a custom one (and profits a lot from using opera mini). The androidcentral-community around your phone seems quite active, if you aren't already using a custom rom, have a look: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1730 http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1730 Though the Keon propbably is the better choice anyway.
  - kaoD 13y ago
    Try installing CyanogenMod 7.2. I have the same phone and it did MAGIC with mine.
- dreen 13y ago
  I agree with your wager, although given the choice I would rather have a physical keyboard than a polished OS. But maybe that's just me.
- stfu 13y ago
  I will be getting firefox-os just out of principle. I have a hard time trusting Apple or Google with my data. A (relatively) independent foundation just gives me a little bit more peace-of-mind that they are not trying to track, mine and predict the latest byte out of my phone.
  - blub 13y ago
    Won't most FFOS apps talk by definition to a server? I wonder how "local" the native apps will be or whether developers will bother with working in offline mode even when connected to the internet.
  - aram 13y ago
    Isn't Google behind Mozilla as well?
    - jmilkbal 13y ago
      Mozilla receive ad revenue from Google. AFAIK Google has no control over Mozilla except obviously enabling Google to preemptively place a cookie on users' machines using the default, Googley homepage. Google integration, by definition, defies Mozilla's mission, but it's not because Google controls them. I'm okay with the integration knowing that I can fix it, though I wish there were a start-up option for novices, though.
      - aram 13y ago
        Thanks for the answer.
    - ben336 13y ago
      No they are not.
- fabrice_d 13y ago
  On similar hardware, Firefox OS is not slower than Android, and rather a bit faster. Remember that developer phones are relatively low end ones (1GHz single core cpu, 512M of ram)
npsimons 13y ago
I just restored my nightly N900 rsync backup to my spare because the USB port on my original 2010 vintage won't reliably charge anymore; the replacement micro USB ports are on order. That's how much I love the N900. Of course, now I have even more reason to play with different software on the broken one (I have an external charger for the batteries). All that being said, I've been looking for a replacement phone with decent QWERTY for a long time (I hate that when you select "QWERTY" as a feature, some people think that it's okay to include "on screen keyboard (QWERTY)" in that category), but the selection is limited. It's a deal breaker for me, though, as I really don't want to give up org-mode in Emacs. I've heard of the Android org-mode app, and emacs for Android; either of those might be okay, but I really am dreading giving up a "real" Linux for something like Android, especially when I can get the source to 90+% of the software I run now, but I'm pretty sure that won't be the case on Android. And don't even talk to me about giving up the FM transmitter that only the N900 seems to have. Another piece of hardware I really don't want to have to replace is my 4Runner (which currently lacks bluetooth stereo input). I'm hopeful for the future though; more and more it seems like options to make your own hardware are becoming available, and the fact that there are multiple open source options for mobile is also a very good sign.

by dreen 13y ago

ido 13y ago

I've used firefox-os (the developer release phone) & I honestly don't see any significant improvement over ios or android. It mostly felt like a much slower version of android tbh. I would wager that your shitty experience is due to under-powered phone with old 2.x os. A high end device with up do date 4.x would be much more pleasurable to use.

phillc73 13y ago
I have a Samsung GT-S5830i. I don't have a lot of additional apps installed - maybe two games and a Twitter profile manager. It, generally, feels sluggish when switching between applications, such as messaging to web browsing. My new Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS feels much more responsive than the Samsung with Android. And the Firefox browser works much better on the Keon! Unfortunately, a couple of functionality things with the Keon prevent me from migrating across - as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card. Also email only supports some webmail options (e.g. Gmail) and IMAP, no POP3 or Exchange server support. I'm not complaining though, as I know it's a developer release. I'm just hopeful someone with better skills than me will enhance the relevant applications. With respect to this Jolla article, I'm unimpressed the phone is priced so high. My initially gut feel when I saw the article was "damn, I just got this FirefoxOS phone." After reading that the price point for Jolla is EUR399, I'm pretty happy with my EUR125 Keon purchase.
- shared4you 13y ago
  > as far as I can see contacts can only be imported from Facebook or a SIM card Did you update FxOS after you bought the phone? There is a new "Importer" app which sync'ed contacts from Google/Gmail. Works well.
  - phillc73 13y ago
    Thanks, and I haven't looked at contacts again since the update. I appreciate you pointing this out to me. I will have another look at contacts this evening.
- CJefferson 13y ago
  You are comparing a phone with 256MB RAM (The samsung) to a phone with 512MB RAM (the Geeksphone). It is unsuprising the Keon is faster and snappier!
- onli 13y ago
  I have a Samsung Android-phone of the same era. Very slow with the stock rom, but quite good to use with a custom one (and profits a lot from using opera mini). The androidcentral-community around your phone seems quite active, if you aren't already using a custom rom, have a look: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1730 http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1730 Though the Keon propbably is the better choice anyway.
- kaoD 13y ago
  Try installing CyanogenMod 7.2. I have the same phone and it did MAGIC with mine.
dreen 13y ago
I agree with your wager, although given the choice I would rather have a physical keyboard than a polished OS. But maybe that's just me.
stfu 13y ago
I will be getting firefox-os just out of principle. I have a hard time trusting Apple or Google with my data. A (relatively) independent foundation just gives me a little bit more peace-of-mind that they are not trying to track, mine and predict the latest byte out of my phone.
- blub 13y ago
  Won't most FFOS apps talk by definition to a server? I wonder how "local" the native apps will be or whether developers will bother with working in offline mode even when connected to the internet.
- aram 13y ago
  Isn't Google behind Mozilla as well?
  - jmilkbal 13y ago
    Mozilla receive ad revenue from Google. AFAIK Google has no control over Mozilla except obviously enabling Google to preemptively place a cookie on users' machines using the default, Googley homepage. Google integration, by definition, defies Mozilla's mission, but it's not because Google controls them. I'm okay with the integration knowing that I can fix it, though I wish there were a start-up option for novices, though.
    - aram 13y ago
      Thanks for the answer.
  - ben336 13y ago
    No they are not.
fabrice_d 13y ago
On similar hardware, Firefox OS is not slower than Android, and rather a bit faster. Remember that developer phones are relatively low end ones (1GHz single core cpu, 512M of ram)

npsimons 13y ago

I just restored my nightly N900 rsync backup to my spare because the USB port on my original 2010 vintage won't reliably charge anymore; the replacement micro USB ports are on order. That's how much I love the N900. Of course, now I have even more reason to play with different software on the broken one (I have an external charger for the batteries). All that being said, I've been looking for a replacement phone with decent QWERTY for a long time (I hate that when you select "QWERTY" as a feature, some people think that it's okay to include "on screen keyboard (QWERTY)" in that category), but the selection is limited. It's a deal breaker for me, though, as I really don't want to give up org-mode in Emacs. I've heard of the Android org-mode app, and emacs for Android; either of those might be okay, but I really am dreading giving up a "real" Linux for something like Android, especially when I can get the source to 90+% of the software I run now, but I'm pretty sure that won't be the case on Android. And don't even talk to me about giving up the FM transmitter that only the N900 seems to have. Another piece of hardware I really don't want to have to replace is my 4Runner (which currently lacks bluetooth stereo input). I'm hopeful for the future though; more and more it seems like options to make your own hardware are becoming available, and the fact that there are multiple open source options for mobile is also a very good sign.