Mobile Archive
Posh, GNOME’s mobile shell, published a look back on the project’s 2025. The Phosh developers focus from day one was to make devices running Phosh daily drivable without having to resort to any proprietary OSes as a fallback. This year showed improvements in some important areas people rely on like cell broadcasts and emergency calls, further improving usability and starting some ground work we’ll need for some upcoming features. ↫ Phosh developers In 2025, Posh gained support for cell broadcasts – like the emergency messages regarding storms, or alerts about missing persons, that sort of stuff – which is a pretty important feature in this day and age. Posh also improved its support for per-source audio volumes and one source of audio muting another, its on-screen keyboard, its compositor, and much more. Of course, the main problem for shells like Phosh is hardware support, which is handled by the underlying operating system, like PostmarketOS. These Linux mobile operating systems are fighting an uphill battle when it comes to hardware support, and while Android application support can fill some of the application shortcomings, you’re going to be making pretty significant concessions by switching to mobile Linux at the moment. When even Android ROMs not sanctioned by Google are having issues with banking applications or government ID stuff, using mobile Linux will be even more of a problem. None of this is the fault of any of the people dedicating their free time to things like Phosh or PostmarketOS, of course – it’s just a sad reality of a market we once again just gave up to a few megacorporations, with our governments too cowardly to stand up and fix this issue.
Any computing device will inevitably get a custom operating system – whether based on an existing operating system or something entirely custom – and of course, Kobo e-readers are no exception. QuillOS is an Alpine Linux-based distribution specifically developed for the unique challenges of e-readers, and comes with a custom Qt-based user interface, support for a whole slew of e-book formats, NetSurf as a web browser, encrypted storage, a VNC viewer, and a ton more. Basic hardware capabilities like Wi-Fi and power management are also supported, and it has online update support, too. The current release is already two years old, sadly, so I’m not sure how active the project is at this point. I wanted to highlight it here since something like this is a great way to liberate your Kobo device if, for some reason, Kobo ever started making their devices worse through updates, or the company shutters its services. You know, something that seems rather relevant today. Sadly, my own Kobo does not seem to be supported.
Mobile operating systems entered 2026 with sandboxing no longer treated as an internal security detail but as a visible trust mechanism. Android and iOS now rely on layered isolation, strict permission gates, and curated distribution pipelines to define how risky an app feels before it even launches. For developers and administrators, these changes quietly influence architecture decisions, support policies, and even incident response planning. The shift has been gradual rather than dramatic. Early mobile platforms leaned heavily on coarse permission prompts and user judgement, while modern systems increasingly default to denial and isolation. That evolution has redefined trust from something users grant manually to something platforms enforce by design. Nowhere is this more obvious than in industries where reputational damage from compromise is severe. App categories dealing with payments, identity, or regulated services are judged less on brand and more on how tightly the operating system constrains them. The result is a trust model that blends kernel controls, hardware features, and store-level signals. From permissions to capabilities The first major change is how permissions are interpreted. Early Android versions treated permissions as static declarations, leaving users to decide at install time whether an app deserved broad access. Over time, the platform moved toward a capability model where permissions are granted contextually and backed by kernel enforcement. Users comparing native apps to mobile websites often assume store-delivered software is safer because it runs inside hardened containers, an assumption reinforced when browsing curated lists like best casino apps that emphasise official app availability and platform security guarantees. That perception, accurate or not, shows how sandboxing has escaped technical circles and entered mainstream risk assessment. Android’s current design assigns each app a unique Linux UID and layers mandatory access controls on top, ensuring that even compromised apps struggle to cross boundaries. The official Android sandbox documentation outlines how UID separation, SELinux policies, and seccomp filters combine to restrict system calls and file access. For developers, this has shifted trust assumptions away from “don’t misuse APIs” toward “assume compromise and contain it.” iOS followed a different path. Instead of Unix-style identities, Apple built an entitlement-driven container model where apps can only touch resources explicitly granted at signing time. According to Apple’s own sandbox overview, runtime processes are confined to app-specific directories and mediated services. The trade-off is less flexibility, but a simpler mental model for risk. Sandbox escape myths vs realities Public discussion still treats sandbox escapes as rare, almost mythical events. The data suggests otherwise. Attackers increasingly focus on chaining logic bugs with privilege escalation flaws to bypass isolation without needing a single catastrophic vulnerability. That pressure is visible in threat metrics. Kaspersky detected a 29% year-on-year increase in attacks targeting Android smartphones in the first half of 2025, as reported in a mobile malware analysis. The rise matters because it stresses the sandbox, revealing which assumptions hold and which collapse under sustained probing. Distribution models and trust signals App stores now function as extensions of the sandbox. Review processes, code signing, and update pipelines act as pre-runtime filters that complement isolation at execution time. For users, the presence of an app in an official store has become a shorthand for safety, regardless of the app’s actual behaviour. Developers feel this acutely. Distribution choices influence how much trust the platform lends by default, which in turn affects user adoption. A sideloaded app may be technically identical to its store counterpart, yet it is treated as riskier because it bypasses the platform’s vetting layer. This has reshaped cross-industry norms. Regulated sectors increasingly align their delivery models with platform expectations, not because sandboxing demands it, but because trust signals do. What developers misjudge about isolation The most common misjudgement is overestimating what isolation guarantees. Sandboxing limits blast radius, but it does not absolve developers from securing their own code paths, update mechanisms, or inter-process communication. Another blind spot is performance trade-offs. Android’s flexible, kernel-centric sandbox allows more experimentation but can expose subtle side channels if misused. iOS’s stricter model reduces that surface but constrains debugging and extensibility, sometimes pushing developers toward risky workarounds. Hardware features complicate the picture further. Address space layout randomisation, non-executable memory, and emerging support for ARM Memory Tagging Extension raise the bar for exploitation, yet they also create a false sense of finality. Isolation is strongest when paired with runtime integrity checks and conservative privilege use. Why trust is now systemic The real takeaway is that app trust is no longer a single decision point. It is a system of reinforcements spanning kernel design, hardware protections, and distribution policy. Users may not articulate these layers, but they respond to them intuitively. For OSNews readers, the implication is practical. Designing software for mobile platforms in 2026 means assuming the sandbox will be tested, not respected. Trust emerges from how well your app survives that reality, not from how confidently you declare it safe.
Some of you may be aware of rePalm, a project by Dmitry Grinberg to port the PalmOS to various devices it was never supposed to run on. We covered rePalm back in 2019 and again in 2023. His latest project involved porting PalmOS to a set of digital toys that were never intended to run PalmOS in any way. Fisher-Price (owned by Mattel) produced some toys in the early 2000 under the Pixter brand. They were touchscreen-based drawing toys, with cartridge-based extra games one could plug in. Pixter devices of the first three generations (“classic”, “plus”, and “2.0”) featured 80×80 black-and-white screens, which makes them of no interest for rePalm. The last two generations of Pixter (“color” and “multimedia”) featured 160×160 color displays. Now, this was more like it! Pixter was quite popular, as far as kids’ toys go, in USA in the early 2000s. A friend brought it to my attention a year ago as a potential rePalm target. The screen resolution was right and looking inside a “Pixter Color” showed an ARM SoC – a Sharp LH75411. The device had sound (games made noises), and touch panel was resistive. In theory – a viable rePalm target indeed. ↫ Dmitry Grinberg Considering the immensely limited ARMv7 implementation he had to deal with – no cache, no memory management unit, no memory protection unit – it’s a miracle Grinberg managed to succeed. To make matters even harder, the first revision boards of the “color” model only had 1MB of flash, which is incredibly small even for PalmOS 5, so he had to rewrite parts of it to make it fit. Implementing communication over infrared was also a major difficulty, but that, too he managed to get working – on a device that doesn’t have IrDA SIR modulation. Wild. Grinberg went above and beyond, making sure the buttons on the devices work, developing and building a way to put PalmOS on a “game” cartridge, reverse-engineering the display controller to make sure things like brightness adjustment works, adding screen type detection for that one small run of Pixter Color devices that came with a TFT instead of an STN screen, and so, so much more. Until you read the article, you have no idea how much work Grinberg put into this project. I continue to be in awe of Grinberg’s work every time I come across it.
As someone who cut their teeth on Maemo (the N800/N900 still live in my basement) and carried the first Jolla dev device, I like to pull out my SailfishOS phones every few months to see how things are progressing. Here’s where I’m at in September 2025. ↫ Nick Schmidt I was one of the very first people to review the original Jolla Phone way back in 2014, and I also happen to own the quite rare Jolla Tablet, so I was definitely a serious backer and believer in the platform back when it first entered the market. Sadly, the pace of improvements was slow, and failed adventures and mismanagement eventually led to the platform almost dying out. It’s only in recent years that they’ve been back on track and Sailfish OS is a more serious option again, but reading through Nick Schmidt’s findings, it seems the same problems still haunt the platform. And we all know what the main problem will be: application availability. In your day-to-day use, you’re going to be spending a lot of time using the Android compatibility layer, because native Sailfish applications simply don’t pull their weight. This leads to the age-old problem of any operating system that loses focus on native applications and opts to go all-in on compatibility layers or ports instead, and int he case of Sailfish that means: why run Sailfish to run Android applications poorly, when you can also just run Android? And why develop native applications, when your Android build can run using the compatibility layer? OS/2 (with Windows applications) and Haiku (with Qt/GTK applications) suffer from the same problem. Apparently, the Jolla C2 phone is not exactly great either, and doesn’t showcase Sailfish properly, and Sailfish’s keyboard is still unpleasant to use, a problem I also had in my original review so many years ago. There are some bright spots, too; the swipe-based navigation is still great, and apparently Wi-Fi connectivity is much more stable now. Still, it seems like Sailfish is suffering from more or less exactly the kind of problems you’d expect a small platform to suffer from, and whether or not you can deal with those problems is a more a question of dedication than just altering some use patterns. Android and iOS, though illegal practices, have sucked all the air out of the room, and I doubt we’re ever going to get any of it back.
Celebrate classic Psion machines with us, from the original Organiser, through the Series 3 and Series 5, all the way to the netBook. Get help with your classic palmtop computer, or help to develop software and hardware that will bring these devices into the 21st Century. ↫ Psion Community website A brand new one-stop shop for everything related to keeping Psion machines going. A library of all the software, lists of all the ROM images, tons of development resources, and much more.
Introduction It is very important to update your iPhone or iPad if you want to improve performance and security and get new features. However, it is also typical that the iOS update fails. Poor network, little storage, or various bugs are usually the reasons that the update gets interrupted. Most problems can be prevented with some proper preparation. In this guide, we’ll cover why iPhone software update failed error appears, how to prevent them, the best installation methods, and what to do if errors occur — including how Dr.Fone iOS System Repair can quickly fix failed updates without data loss. Why iOS updates fail iOS updates can fail due to numerous reasons. These failures are, in most cases, linked to device or network issues. A few of the most common causes are: Pre-update checklist to avoid failures A few simple preparations can go a long way to prevent an iOS update failure. Before you start, keep in mind that you should have already checked each of these: Recommended installation methods In essence, there are two dependable means to carry out iOS updates, and leveraging the right one would be as simple as a walk in the park: What to do if an iOS update fails Sometimes, even a well-anticipated iOS update can fail without obvious reasons. The cause might be hidden bugs or unexpected issues. When you encounter problems, keep calm and try these solutions: Fixing Update Failures with Dr.Fone iOS System Repair Why Use Dr.Fone iOS System Repair If simple troubleshooting has failed to resolve your iOS update issues, an iOS system repair tool specially made for the purpose can come to your aid. Dr.Fone – iOS System Repair by Wondershare is a product that can resolve over 150 iOS issues, such as failure of updates, continuous restarting, black screen, or a stuck device in Recovery Mode. Why use Dr.Fone iOS System Repair How to fix iOS update failures with Dr.Fone iOS System Repair By using Dr.Fone, here are the steps you should take to fix failed updates and to repair your iPhone or iPad: Step 1: Launch Dr.Fone and connect your device Get Wondershare Dr.Fone opened on your computer after downloading it. In the main dashboard, move to the Toolbox, and select System Repair. Step 2: Select iOS repair mode Pick your device kind (iPhone/iPad) and go along to iOS Repair. You may want to consider Standard/Advanced Repair to solve almost all issues without data loss. Step 3: Activate Recovery Mode By following the directions on the screen, you will turn your iPhone or iPad into Recovery Mode (or DFU Mode if it is necessary). Step 4: Obtain iOS firmware The software will find the right firmware automatically for your device. By clicking on Download, you will take the latest iOS package. After the download is done, Dr.Fone will double-check the firmware to ensure it’s safe and compatible. Step 5: Fix and device reboot Click on Repair Now, so the process of trouble-shooting your device starts. A progress bar will present the installation’s time. Tips to avoid future update failures Conclusion In fact, iOS updates are a must in order to keep the device running smoothly, be safe, and enjoy the new features, but a malfunction can still happen and be quite irritating. Most problems can be prevented if you ‘prepare’ by properly verifying your internet, storage, and battery. If the update is still stuck, some simple methods such as rebooting and switching the network, usually give results and more complex tools like Dr.Fone iOS System Repair are very effective in solving the hard ones without losing the data.
This is it, the one that adds systemd to postmarketOS! We have talked about the decision at length on this blog, make sure to read the initial announcement if this is the first time you are hearing about this. ↫ postmarketOS v25.06 release announcement While adding systemd to postmarketOS is certainly the tentpole feature of this release, it also updates the various user interfaces – GNOME’s and KDE’s mobile shells and applications – and moves to Alpine Linux 3.22 as its base. The mobile user interfaces for both Firefox and Thunderbird have been updated as well, there’s a ton of improvements and additions for individual devices, and a lot more. PostmarketOS, in case you are unaware, is a Linux distribution optimised for smartphones, focused on running mobile shells and applications. It’s not ready for prime-time quite yet, and device support will probably be the biggest hurdle for anyone wanting to try it out.
Welcome news coming out of Jolla, the company that develops Sailfish OS. Up until now, if you bought their Jolla C2 smartphone, you had to pay a yearly subscription fee in order to get updates (with the first year included in the purchase price). Today they’ve announced their dropping this construction, and they now guarantee five years of free updates. We’re happy to announce that from now onwards long-term Sailfish OS updates are included free-of-charge to all Jolla C2 devices for a minimum of 5 years. This applies also to everybody who have already purchased the Jolla C2. ↫ Announcement at the Jolla forums People don’t like subscriptions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Jolla was simply running into a lot of resistance to this subscription model from potential customers. Nobody likes subscriptions, and I think that counts doubly so for the kinds of people interested in buying a phone like the C2 with Sailfish OS.
With the possibility that Google is going to make some big changes to the open source status of Android, the importance of smartphones that don’t run either iOS or (some form of) Android is definitely increasing. Linux on smartphones is not as complete as iOS or Android, and I personally think one of the primary reasons for that is a lack of easy access to devices that don’t require manual installation or other forms of hackery, only to then end up with a partially supported device because the device in question was never originally designed to run regular Linux. A few companies are trying to change this, developing Linux-first smartphones instead. One of the newcomers here is Liberux, a Spanish company who just unveiled the crowdfunding campaign for their Liberux Nexx, a Debian-powered smartphone with excellent specifications and some unique additions you won’t find on any other smartphone. It’s powered by an octa-core Rockchip RK3588S (four Cortex-A76 cores and four Cortex-A55 cores up to 2.4 GHz), 32 GB LPDDR4x RAM, tons of expendable storage, and a 6.34″ 2400×1080 OLED display. At the top of the device sit something you won’t find on many other smartphones: dedicated hardware switches to physically cut power to the modem, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip, and the microhone/camera array. When all three switches are disabled, a number of other features, like GPS and sensors, are also turned off. On top of all this, various internal components are designed to be replaceable and possibly even upgradeable, with manufacturing of the device taking place in Europe – which probably refers to assembly, but still. The device is supposed to become open source, too. It will run Debian 13 with a customised version of the mobile GNOME Shell using a standard Linux kernel. Android applications will also be supported using Waydroid, which you’ll most likely have to rely on for things like banking and other application categories exclusive to iOS and Android. Liberux promises that any development done on both the Linux distribution and other related applications will be done openly, which is something we can hold them to quite easily. I’m always weary of crowdfunding campaigns, and all the usual caveats, warnings, and concerns still apply here. I’m highlighting this campaign because I feel like many of the kinds of people who read OSNews are longing for a modern, capable smartphone that runs not iOS or Android, but proper Linux, even if Linux on smartphones isn’t quite there yet to go toe-to-toe with the two duopolists. For more information on the device and the people involved, be sure to read LINMOB.net’s excellent interview with Liberux. Liberux has told me they want to send over a review device once development has reached a point where that’s possible. So, assuming the crowdfunding campaign is successful, you can look forward to a review of the Liberux Nexx on OSNews somewhere between now and mid-2026.
Starting 20 June 2025, new rules and regulations in the European Union covering, among other thins, smartphones and tablets, will have some far-reaching consequences for device makers – consequences that, coincidentally, will work out pretty great for consumers within the European Union. The following “ecodesign requirements” will come into force on 20 June: Especially the requirements around repairability and the long-term availability of operating system updates will affect us consumers quite positively. While Android OEMs have improved their update policies somewhat, they’re still lagging behind Apple considerably, especially if you opt for lower-end devices or devices from smaller manufacturers. These new requirements will make getting Android updates a consumer right, not an optional service if the OEM happens to feel like it. Which they usually don’t. I’m sure countless OEMs will try to weasel their way through supposed cracks and gaps in the exact wording of the rules, but the EU has shown not to take too kindly to corporations, big and small, trying to comply maliciously.
I recently learned something that blew my mind; you can run a full desktop Linux environment on your phone. That’s a graphical environment via X11 with real window management and compositing, Firefox comfortably playing YouTube (including working audio), and a status bar with system stats. It launches in less than a second and feels snappy. ↫ Hold the Robot In and of itself, this is a neat trick most of us are probably aware of. Running a full Linux distribution on an Android phone using chroot is an awesome party trick, but I doubt many people take this concept to its logical conclusion by connecting it up to a display, keyboard, and mouse, and use it as their mobile workstation. Well, the author of this article did, and he took it even one step further by replacing the display part of the logical conclusion with AR glasses. The AR glasses in question were a pair of Xreal Air 2 Pro, which put a 120Hz 1080p display in front of your eyes using Sony micro-OLED panels. This will create the illusion of a 130″ screen with a 46° field of view, from a pair of glasses that honestly do not feel that much more massive than regular sunglasses or some of the thicker glasses frames some people like. I’m honestly kind of impressed this is possible these days. Add in a keyboard and mouse, and you’ve got a mobile workstation that takes up very little space, especially since you’re carrying your phone with you at all times anyway. Of course, you have to be comfortable with using Linux – no Windows or macOS here – and the software side of the equation requires more setup and fiddling than I thought it would, but the end result is exactly like using a regular Linux desktop, but on your phone and a pair of AR glasses instead of on a laptop or desktop. If I had the cash to throw around on fun side projects like this (you can help with that, actually, through Ko-Fi donations), I would totally order a pair of these Xreal glasses to try this out.
Sailfish OS 5.0, originally released late last year as part of the new Jolla C2 Community Phone, will now be pushed to all Sailfish OS devices. There have been several other minor releases since the original release, so if you’re running Sailfish OS on something other than the C2, you’re getting a release with some more bugfixes and improvements. The main improvement is an upgrade to Gecko ESR91, with work underway to move to ESR102 – this is far from the latest release, but sticking to ESR releases seems like a wise idea for a smaller team. This release also upgrades the Android application support to Android 13 (API level 33), and adds the microG 0.3.6 enablers. There’s Wireguard support now, call blocking, and new landscape view for a variety of applications. Incidentally, I was one of the first people to publish a review of the original Jolla Phone, exactly 11 years ago in 2014. Since I was such an early adopter, I have the The First One version, and it just so happens I’m also one of the very few people who actually received the Jolla Tablet, after being an extremely early backer of that device, too. I still have both of them, and especially the Jolla Phone I used as my main device for quite a while – half a year to a year, or so – before going back to Android. I’m glad Sailfish OS is still going, and I’m definitely interested in giving this new release a go. I would need to buy the Jolla C2 Community Phone, and if finances allow, I may actually do so. In case you want to help, feel free to become an OSNews Patreon or make a one-time donation through Ko-Fi.
An OPO (compiled OPL) interpreter written in Lua and Swift, based on the Psion Series 5 era format (ie ER5, prior to the Quartz 6.x changes). It lets you run Psion 5 programs written in OPL on any iOS device, subject to the limitations described below. ↫ OpoLua GitHub page If you’re pining for that Psion Series 5, but don’t want to deal with the hassle of owning and maintaining a real one – here’s a solution if you’re an iOS users. Incredibly neat, but with one limitation: only pure OPL programs work. Any program that also has native ARM code will not work.
HarmonyOS Next, the new version of Huawei’s mobile operating system, runs on a brand new microkernel, uses a new, homegrown programming language, and most notably in this duopolistic world, does not run Android applications. This won’t be much of an issue inside China, where Huawei can more easily make sure the most important Chinese applications are supported and ported over, but outside of China that might pose some problems, especially for Chinese tourists visiting other countries. It turns out there’s a solution for this, called 出境易 (as Android Authority notes, this seems to translate to something like “Easy Abroad”), which is basically a containerised Android runtime using microG. It comes with its own built-in application store filled with a number of popular Android applications, and runs them on HarmonyOS Next. The tool is called 出境易, which roughly translates to “Easy Abroad.” It’s apparently designed to aid Chinese tourists who travel abroad. The tool seems to create a container for Android apps to run in, which is not a new concept but is surprising to see pop up so quickly for the new operating system. When installed, the tool lets you install a number of Android apps from its self-contained app store, including Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Reddit, YouTube, Google Search, Google Maps, Uber, Chrome, Gmail, Spotify, Disney Plus, Netflix, Steam, and more. These Android apps show up in a folder in the home screen but they cannot be dragged out of the folder. An early hands-on of the tool from YouTuber LL Techview shows that it works surprisingly well. Android apps launch quickly, run pretty smoothly, and even appear in the recents menu. It’s even possible to sign into your Google Account to use apps like Google Search and Gmail. ↫ Mishaal Rahman at Android Authority There are limitations, of course, and they’re roughly the same as the ones found on any device running microG instead of Google Play Services – something I just wrote about in my review of /e/OS on a FairPhone 5: certain banking applications won’t work, anything that hooks too deeply into Play Services won’t run, that sort of stuff. On top of that, this tool also brings in some limitations of its own, like only whitelisted application being supported, notifications not working properly, and a few other issues. This all feels very similar to what Jolla and Sailfish tried to do way back in 2014. Running Android applications as a side hustle was jank back then and I feel like it’s probably going to be jank today. Even just running Play Services in a restrictive sandbox – like I do with GrapheneOS on my daily driver, a Pixel 8 Pro – presents some issues, and microG adds even more compatibility issues on top. Putting all of this in a container will surely add an additional layer of jank, like it did on Sailfish OS. Regardless, I’m 100% down with trying to get my hands on a HarmonyOS Next device if they ever become available in some form here in Sweden, as I feel like a review of what is the most serious attempt at breaking the Android-iOS duopoly in over a decade is something that belongs here on OSNews. If that time ever comes, I might set up another fundraiser to get it done.
At the Snapdragon Summit today, Qualcomm is officially announcing the Snapdragon 8 Elite, its flagship SoC for smartphones. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a major upgrade from its predecessor, with improvements across the board. Qualcomm is also changing its naming scheme for its flagship SoCs from Snapdragon 8 Gen X to Snapdragon X Elite. ↫ Pradeep Viswanathan at Neowin It’s wild – but not entirely unexpected – how we always seem to end up in a situation in technology where crucial components, such as the operating system or processor, are made by one, or at most two, companies. While there are a few other smartphone system-on-a-chip vendors, they’re mostly relegated to low-end devices, and can’t compete on the high end, where the money is, at all. It’s sadness. Speaking of our mobile SoC overlords, they seem to be in a bit of a pickle when it comes to their core business of, well, selling SoCs. In short, Qualcomm bought Nuvia to use its technology to build the current crop of Snapdragon X Elite and Pro laptop chips. According to ARM, Qualcomm does not have an ARM license to do so, and as such, a flurry of lawsuits between the two companies followed. ARM is now cancelling certain Qualcomm ARM licenses, arguing specifically its laptop Snapdragon X chips should be destroyed. What we’re looking at here is two industry giants engaged in very public, and very expensive, contract negotiations, using the legal system as their arbiter. This will eventually fizzle out into a new agreement between the two companies with renewed terms and conditions – and flows of money – but until that dust has settled, be prepared for an endless flurry of doomerist news items about this story. As for us normal people? We don’t have to worry one bit about this legal nonsense. It’s not like we have any choice in smartphone chips anyway.
Earlier this year we talked about Huawei’s HarmonyOS NEXT, which is most likely the only serious competitor to Android and iOS in the world. HarmonyOS started out as a mere Android skin, but over time Huawei invested heavily into the platform to expand it into a full-blown, custom operating system with a custom programming language, and it seems the company is finally ready to take the plunge and release HarmonyOS NEXT into the wild. It’s indicated that HarmonyOS made up 17% of China’s smartphone market in Q1 of 2024. That’s a significant amount of potential devices breaking off from Android in a market dominated by either it or iOS. HarmonyOS NEXT is set to begin rolling out to Huawei devices next week. The OS will first come to the Mate 60, Mate X5, and MatePad Pro on October 15. ↫ Andrew Romero at 9To5Google Huawei has been hard at work making sure there’s no ‘application gap’ for people using HarmonyOS NEXT, claiming it has 10000 applications ready to go that cover “99.9%” of their users’ use case. That’s quite impressive, but of course, we’ll have to wait and see if the numbers line up with the reality on the ground for Chinese consumers. Here in the est HarmonyOS NEXT is unlikely to gain any serious traction, but that doesn’t mean I would mind taking a look at the platform if at all possible. It’s honestly not surprising the most serious attempt at creating a third mobile ecosystem is coming from China, because here in the west the market is so grossly rusted shut we’re going to be stuck with Android and iOS until the day I die.
This summer, I embarked on a side project to create a brand-new Palm OS game, and after less than two months of intermittent coding, I’m excited to announce that it’s ready to be released to the public! ↫ Captain’s Quarters The game in question is a top-down minigolf game, and works on devices running Palm OS 3.5 and higher, in both monochrome and colour, and there’s high-resolution support for devices running Palm OS 5.0 and higher. Sadly, my own Palm OS devices were all drained of battery so I couldn’t quickly load it up and play it on real hardware in time for this post (rest assured, my T|X is currently charging), but you can play it in your browser if you want to. Like any other top-down minigolf game, it’s simple and fun to play. The game’s creator, whose real name I can’t find so I’ll just refer to them by their blog’s name Captain’s Quarters, also wrote a published a post about the process of developing a Palm OS game in 2024. Especially the section on what is needed to code for Palm OS today is important if you’re also interested in picking this up. The best news is that developing a Palm OS game can be done on modern hardware, that saves me a lot of time not having to deal with virtual machines or having to set up an old PC running Linux. For getting a working compiler, I used prc-tools-remix, which is the same old compiler as in the old days, but it’s updated to work on a modern day Linux or OS X system. ↫ Captain’s Quarters People in general are often oblivious to just how advanced and capable both Palm OS and Windows PocketPC PDAs really were – most people never had one – and even more people are oblivious to just how vibrant the gaming scene on Palm OS was. My Palm OS devices were some of the best gaming handhelds I’ve ever had, and my love for jewel-matching games still goes strong today on Android, but it all started on Palm OS, the original mobile home of the original Bejeweled. Palm OS games got me through quite a few boring lectures and classes in university.
That’s the 1983 Convergent WorkSlate, a one-of-a-kind handheld system from some misty alternate history where VisiCalc ruled the earth. Indeed, even the “software” packages Convergent shipped for it — on microcassette, which could store voice memos and data — were nothing more than cells and formulas in a worksheet. The built-in modem let you exchange data with other Workslates (or even speak over the phone to their users), and it came with a calculator desk accessory and a rudimentary terminal program, but apart from those creature comforts its built-in spreadsheet was the sole centre of your universe. And, unlike IAI and the Canon Cat, I’ve yet to find any backdoor (secret or otherwise) to enable anything else. That means anything you want to program has to be somehow encoded in a spreadsheet too. Unfortunately, when it comes to actually programming the device it turns out the worst thing a spreadsheet on an 8-bit CPU can be is Turing-complete (so it’s not), and it has several obnoxious bugs to boot. But that doesn’t mean we can’t make it do more than balance an expense account. Along the way we’ll examine the hardware, wire into its peripheral bus, figure out how to exchange data with today’s future, create a simple game, draw rudimentary graphics and (with some help) even put it on the Internet with its very own Gopher client — after we tell of the WorkSlate’s brief and sorrowful commercial existence, as this blog always must. ↫ Cameron Kaiser The amount of knowledge, skill, and sheer passion Cameron Kaiser displays in every one of these articles he writes is astonishing, and I’m incredibly grateful websites like OSNews can benefit from the work of people far, far smarter and more skillful than I’ll ever be. The code for the projects detailed in the article is available on GitHub, and more technical information can be found on Kaiser’s website.
Similar to less popular handheld of the era, the Gameboy, the Psion used a proprietary cartridge format for distributing commercial software. Psion sold blank cartridges, flashing hardware and duplicators to software houses, as well as releasing a number of titles under their own license. There’s a wide range of commercial software available for the Series 3 family, and only some of it was ported to the Series 5 (I really wish Scrabble had been released on Series 5). The range of software available was significant. Cartridges unlocked the Psion 3’s ability to play a large number of games, provide phrase book translation to a number of languages (Berliz Interpreter), route plan your car journeys (Microsoft Autoroute), look up the best wines for this year (Hugh Johnson’s Wine Guide) or build your organisation chart Purple Software’s OrgChart. ↫ Kian Ryan I have a Psion 3, but the only cartridges I have are empty ones you can use for personal storage. I’ve always wanted to buy a selection of cartridges on eBay, but sadly, my Psion 3 died due to me forgetting to remove the batteries when immigrating to Sweden, something I only discovered like five years later. I was smart enough to remove all batteries from every single device in my massive collection, but I guess the Psion 3 slipped through my fingers. Anyway, this article is a great look at some of the cartridges that existed for the Psion 3, and it’s really making me want to replace my broken Psion 3 and buy one that comes with a set of cartridges. There’s something really attractive about how the Psion 3’s EPOC operating system worked, and the third party programs look like so much fun to explore and use.
