Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 14th Feb 2010 20:51 UTC
PDAs, Cellphones, Wireless While the world outside of OSNews is wondering whether we really need yet another mobile operating system, we here are of course happy with another contender - the more, the merrier, as it equals to competition, which keeps everybody on their toes. A day before the Mobile World Congress kicks off in Barcelona (finally a tech event in my time zone!), Samsung unveiled its Wave handset, the first sporting Samsung's new Bada operating system.
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Ugly font
by roar on Sun 14th Feb 2010 23:52 UTC
roar
Member since:
2009-12-26

Is it using the same font as S60? That font has got to be banned, seriously...

Reply Score: 1

What Samsung should have done:
by kragil on Mon 15th Feb 2010 00:02 UTC
kragil
Member since:
2006-01-04

They should have kept their Android handset (Galaxy) uptodate and not just release it with Andriod 1.5 and never update the thing.

Such moves destroy any trust you have in the brand.

And anyways: Is having total control over yet another platform really that important when you get Android for free, you can use the Google brand and you even get money from Google ads and the Android market?

NIN is strong with some Koreans.

Reply Score: 6

neticspace Member since:
2009-06-09

And anyways: Is having total control over yet another platform really that important when you get Android for free, you can use the Google brand and you even get money from Google ads and the Android market?


Not many Koreans use gmail and the Google search engine. And Google is quite unnoticed in the South Korean market.

Plus, Samsung already sponsored Enlightenment.

Reply Score: 5

kragil Member since:
2006-01-04

Yeah, Korea is the country where you have to have Windows + IE because every bank website and a lot of other websites use ActiveX. Mac and Linux are mostly nonexistant.

Not using Google has really helped I guess ;) Total MS domination works so smoothly.

Sarcasm aside, even if noone uses Gmail or Google you can still use Android. The Google account is optional and you can replace everything you have to. The wonders of FOSS...

Reply Score: 3

bousozoku Member since:
2006-01-23

Yeah, Korea is the country where you have to have Windows + IE because every bank website and a lot of other websites use ActiveX. Mac and Linux are mostly nonexistant.

Not using Google has really helped I guess ;) Total MS domination works so smoothly.

Sarcasm aside, even if noone uses Gmail or Google you can still use Android. The Google account is optional and you can replace everything you have to. The wonders of FOSS...


That explains why most Korean web sites I visit look as though they're created by someone a desire for crossed eyes. A good number of the sites have overlapping elements which keep their relative position despite window re-sizing. Yeesh.

My experience with Samsung phones is so far down that I'd not accept one, even if I was paid to use it. Their hardware seems fine, but the software is always broken. This seems to be another example of the develop once and leave it alone mentality that serves them so well.

Reply Score: 2

neticspace Member since:
2009-06-09

Yeah, Korea is the country where you have to have Windows + IE because every bank website and a lot of other websites use ActiveX. Mac and Linux are mostly nonexistant.


But it's slowly changing thanks to this global recession.

http://openweb.or.kr/

But I'm not surprised. Both Japan and South Korea suffer from the "Galapagos Effect".

Reply Score: 2

RE: What Samsung should have done:
by FunkyELF on Mon 15th Feb 2010 06:49 UTC in reply to "What Samsung should have done:"
FunkyELF Member since:
2006-07-26

They should have kept their Android handset (Galaxy) uptodate and not just release it with Andriod 1.5 and never update the thing.

Such moves destroy any trust you have in the brand.


Android, the idea, is great. In practice, Android is slow. Perhaps this new Myriad VM will speed things up 3x like they say but I doubt it.

iPhone is fast, possibly because it will only run one app at a time, but it is fast. My old crappy LG Verizon phone running its own proprietary OS could didn't do much but when you hit a button things happened. Android is LAGGY. I get a phone call and I want to turn it on speaker... I answer it and hit the menu button, it takes like 3 to 5 seconds for the menu to show up.

I love the idea of Android, thats probably why I own one, but the implementation is bad. Don't know if this is the fault of Linux not scaling down that well, or the fault of the Java VM, or what. It just seems very very laggy.

Reply Score: 2

Silent_Seer Member since:
2007-04-06

It's the fault of the Dalvik (Google's bytecode) interpreter. According to Google, JIT (just in time) compilation is 'not important'. They are just arrogant and are probably happy with the battery life wastage and laggy performance as long as they get the hype going.

Linux scales down quite well, thank you. As is demonstrated by the N900 running Maemo and the various LiMo phones (such as the Vodaphone 360).

Reply Score: 3

Nice hardware, but...
by cb_osn on Mon 15th Feb 2010 00:10 UTC
cb_osn
Member since:
2006-02-26

Building another "new" operating system is a mistake, particularly for a company like Samsung. What the iPhone and Android have done is introduce the idea that consumer phones are mobile computing devices with a focus on software.

I trust both Apple and Google to ensure their platforms survive and to encourage development of their respective ecosystems. This means that, as both a developer and a user, I can count on any investment, time-wise or financial, to retain its value into the future.

The old guard handset manufacturers like Samsung have pushed the idea that phones are one-off throwaway devices for so long that I have no reason to believe BadaOS will be around in a few years time or that any phone purchased now will receive the latest updates as they become available.

Until companies like Samsung can prove that they care as much about maintaining a platform as they do about selling hardware, I consider these things to be nothing more than nifty feature phones and not in the same league as iPhone or Android.

Reply Score: 6

RE: Nice hardware, but...
by spiderman on Mon 15th Feb 2010 09:51 UTC in reply to "Nice hardware, but..."
spiderman Member since:
2008-10-23


I trust both Apple and Google to ensure their platforms survive and to encourage development of their respective ecosystems. This means that, as both a developer and a user, I can count on any investment, time-wise or financial, to retain its value into the future.

Hardware-wise, my old Apple II didn't retain much value. Software-wise, if you still want to use your farting app that was written 10 years ago in J2ME, you can. Just use any phone that does J2ME (about all phones except the iPhone)
I don't trust Apple nor Google to secure any of my investment. I can trust the Apache license of Android, but certainly not the Apple license. If you do trust them, I can only wish good luck to you and that they don't betray you.

Reply Score: 3

RE[2]: Nice hardware, but...
by cb_osn on Mon 15th Feb 2010 16:52 UTC in reply to "RE: Nice hardware, but..."
cb_osn Member since:
2006-02-26

Hardware-wise, my old Apple II didn't retain much value.

Over a decade after production, these devices were still in use (and useful) in elementary and middle schools across the US. I'd say that's reasonable value.

Software-wise, if you still want to use your farting app

I really must have been asleep for the portion of time in which this joke was funny.

Just use any phone that does J2ME

I'm not keen on self-inflicted pain.

I don't trust Apple nor Google to secure any of my investment. I can trust the Apache license of Android, but certainly not the Apple license. If you do trust them, I can only wish good luck to you and that they don't betray you.

It is in the best interest of both Apple and Google to improve and expand their respective platforms so that they remain viable and competitive. An open license is a benefit, but it doesn't ensure developer attention and it doesn't provide relevance. Both of which are needed to maintain a successful platform and both of which have been attained by Apple and Google.

Reply Score: 3

RE[3]: Nice hardware, but...
by spiderman on Mon 15th Feb 2010 21:21 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Nice hardware, but..."
spiderman Member since:
2008-10-23


It is in the best interest of both Apple and Google to improve and expand their respective platforms so that they remain viable and competitive.

Until they need to sell a shiny new platform...

Reply Score: 2

RE: Nice hardware, but...
by fatjoe on Mon 15th Feb 2010 13:22 UTC in reply to "Nice hardware, but..."
fatjoe Member since:
2010-01-12

Building another "new" operating system is a mistake, particularly for a company like Samsung.


Allow me to disagree.
First of all, Samsung is the second larger phone maker in the world. They are also (if I am not mistaken) the largest electronic manufacture in the world.

For a company of this size, it is strategically important to have more control on the operative system that Android gives. And I assume that the engineers at Samsung are proud of what they have achieved so far and would not just throw away what they have build after years just because a new and shiny OS is in town.

Also, Samsung is by no way building a "new" operative system. They are trying to create a unified programming environment for their handsets. This is just like Nokia using Qt for development in Symbian and Maemo (MeeGo). There are no additional cost, only benefits in having a unified development environment.

Reply Score: 4

RE[2]: Nice hardware, but...
by Bill Shooter of Bul on Mon 15th Feb 2010 16:47 UTC in reply to "RE: Nice hardware, but..."
Bill Shooter of Bul Member since:
2006-07-14

In the corporate world corporate strategics aren't noted for their longevity.

Frankly, every engineer is proud of their work, but they aren't the ones who decide what direction the company will go.

If Bada is only a unified programming environment rather than an OS ... Well then what operating system is it running? What makes it interesting?

Reply Score: 2

RE[3]: Nice hardware, but...
by pepa on Tue 16th Feb 2010 05:13 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Nice hardware, but..."
pepa Member since:
2005-07-08

It's supposed to be an open platform able to run on Linux for sure, and I would guess also on Samsung's own featurephone OS.

Reply Score: 2

Everything old ...
by HappyGod on Mon 15th Feb 2010 01:17 UTC
HappyGod
Member since:
2005-10-19

That is one amazing iPhone. ;-)

Reply Score: 4

A Match made in Heaven (or Hell)
by JonathanBThompson on Mon 15th Feb 2010 05:44 UTC
JonathanBThompson
Member since:
2006-05-26

Samsung's Bada OS with Microsoft's Bing search: Bada Bing!

Nice ring to it, dontcha think? :p

Reply Score: 6

Tried the SDK?
by Malakim on Mon 15th Feb 2010 07:23 UTC
Malakim
Member since:
2007-04-03

Has anyone tried the SDK? Is it any good?

Reply Score: 1

RE: Tried the SDK?
by fatjoe on Mon 15th Feb 2010 13:12 UTC in reply to "Tried the SDK?"
fatjoe Member since:
2010-01-12

I browsed the API when it was announced and my first reflection was that it was very simple and clean.

There are few things that I just dont understand (for example their "social" API) but in general things look good

Reply Score: 1

RE[2]: Tried the SDK?
by Malakim on Mon 15th Feb 2010 13:55 UTC in reply to "RE: Tried the SDK?"
Malakim Member since:
2007-04-03

Guess I'll take a look. After all, they are the second-largest handset maker in the world so it can't hurt to know what they're up to.

Reply Score: 1

Trademarks?
by The1stImmortal on Mon 15th Feb 2010 07:30 UTC
The1stImmortal
Member since:
2005-10-20

Hmm... I wonder if there's going to be a trademark issue with Google over the name of the handset - they're both in communications, and internet-related, though they're technically different product types, there could be an argument it's confusing. Especially with Google entering the handset market itself now...

Reply Score: 1