Nokia Opens the S60 Browser Source Code 103
segphault writes "Nokia has released the source code of it's S60 WebKit browser for mobile devices. Based on the HTML rendering components used in Konqueror and Safari, the S60 WebKit has a multitude of advanced features designed specifically for web navigation on devices with small screens. Nokia decided to release the source code under the permissive BSD license in order to promote adoption by other mobile device companies. From the article: 'the power and scalability of WebKit-based browsers and the highly permissive license under which the S60 WebKit source code is available make it a good choice for companies that want to add mobile web browsing to their devices. I think it will be particularly interesting to see how this affects Opera, whose revenue primarily comes from distribution of its own virtually ubiquitous embedded browser.'"
Are they not required to release it? (Score:2, Interesting)
Windows Admin Tricks and Tips [intelliadmin.com]
www.intelliadmin.com
Re:Are they not required to release it? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Are they not required to release it? (Score:1)
WebKit / KHTML is the HTML rendering layer, not a web browser. I'm not sure how KHTML is licensed, but as it's a KDE library, it's probably LGPL.
Re:Are they not required to release it? (Score:1)
Oh, and a random chunk of plugin stuff in NPL. I'm amazed Nokia wants that mess of code...
Re:Are they not required to release it? (Score:1)
Exactly, they would not have been able to release it under a BSD license if the original code was under a 'restrictive' GNU license. And you can be sure they ran it through their lawyers. Keep in mind that Safari is based on KHTML as well, and they don't release the source code at all. -- Thus your initial guess was wrong -- the license is not GPL
Re:Are they not required to release it? (Score:4, Informative)
"The MemoryManager, WebKit and Reindeer components are covered by the Nokia BSD license. The WebCore and JavaScriptCore components are covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL). The Netscape Plug-in API is a ported version of the open source plug-in interface from Netscape Communications Corporation, which is covered by the Netscape Public License v1.1."
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
And now nokia is marketing "multimedia computers," which to me means a computer whose marketing department is trapped in 1992. Could they be any more out of touch with the market? Is this why they put the cartridge slot under the battery in the NGage?
Openign their browser... very cool. No
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's why there are carriers like Verizon that make tons of money crippling their phones and selling phones that are pretty much useless, like the LG Mio [lge.com], for a premium. You just never hear about them because geeks want "just a phone" as much as Batman wants "just a belt." In other words, you are reading the wrong website if you are looking for news about just-a-cell-phone. That probably would have had heavy coverage in 1973 [about.com] (or the early '80s when they were available to the public), but not any more.
As far as Nokia's nomenclature, I agree they don't "get it." But as far as their product goes, it's exactly what a different group of "lots of people" want. For me, the fewer things I carry around in my pocket, the better... especially if it is a Nokia N80.
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
Secondly, these all-in-ones have the disadvantage that corporate environments don't really like them, which seems to be the reason that samsung doesn't want it's own new super-phone be used within their [gizmodo.com]
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
Apart from anything else, how long has it been since voice quality from a mobile was an issue? It's generally at least as good as a landline.
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:1)
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:3, Insightful)
For the same reason that [insert disliked pop star here] does so well: It's what sells.
Not just the phones (the phones in the US are hugely subsidized to avoid sticker-shock); it's the add-on services that make the $$$. A simple cell plan makes diddly on return, but internet access, ringt
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
http://mini.opera.com/ [opera.com]
now has "download support". Thanks to it and my laziness to turn on computer to check something like Slashdot costed me 50 euros for a month!
The GPRS price of course. I don't blame my cell network or Opera. I blame my laziness
If I was a network operator, I would donate millions to Opera ASA to improve their browser so I can make billions
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
No, not really. There are plenty of small, light "just phones" around.
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:2)
No, no, I don't. I hear this on Slashdot all the time, but in real life I see people taking pictures with their phones all the time, clambering for higher-resolutions cameras, making calls on the railway platform with bluetooth headsets, listening to music etc. etc.
Myself I've just order
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:1)
Yes, I also just got a new phone which isn't "just a phone". It's the LG VX9800, and it plays MP3's, videos, and has a full keyboard for text messaging, e-mail and web browsing. The best thing is there's a way of putting your own MP3's on the phone as a ringtone, so I can have any ringtone I want without paying for it. I've got the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album as well as four episodes from the new Doctor Who series on it.
In addition to all the goodies, the sound quality on calls is good and it has
Re:Notice one thing. (Score:1)
* Results 1 - 10 of about 980,000 from nokia.com for phone
I would have to strongly disagree with that.
perfict for an Apple iPhone? (Score:1, Offtopic)
why wouldn't they?
Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:2)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:1, Informative)
Earlier versions of symbian didn't have this restriction. Because Symbian allows you to access all parts of the phone software, including call data and sms's. It is possible to write applications that do useful things like monitor your call costs and block spam SMSs.
The operators did not like their customers to have these f
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:1)
Re:Symbian 91. is a closed platform (Score:1)
C++ and Java suck royally, python will have to do =)
What is Opera to do? (Score:4, Interesting)
Opera got its start as a phone company spin off [opera.com]. It's still a reasonably small company, and might be nimble enough to navigate the changes from open source software and adapt their business model accordingly.
Re:What is Opera to do? (Score:1)
Opera Mini! (Score:1)
Re:What is Opera to do? (Score:1)
It's fast, and not only that, it pre-prepares the content via a server, so that if you visit a page, you aren't getting all sorts of stuff that the browser can't render, speeding up the operation.
Re:What is Opera to do? (Score:2)
Re:What is Opera to do? (Score:2)
http://www.opera.com/products/mobile/products/s60/ [opera.com]
As I don't have a S60 handset now, I didn't see the Nokia product. I had 7650 (s60) handset with ~3MB of RAM and it was running Opera fine. That made me say "wow". As reports coming that the open source product can't run on such devices, my "wow" continues.
Opera S60 passes Acid2 test (Score:3, Insightful)
Latest build of Opera for S60 passes the Acid2 test [operawatch.com] and it does support AJAX, so Opera Software certainly won't let be beaten easily.
Is it really that good? (Score:5, Interesting)
The quality of the built in browser isn't exactly a deal-breaker for most phone consumers, so it's probably not worth the money that Nokia invests in it. By opening it, they will get more development for their money and possibly a browser to rival opera.
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:3, Interesting)
Which Nokia handset do you have? You've almost certainly got something that isn't running S60 3rd ed. Even if you do you might be using the WAP browser not the WebKit based one.
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:1)
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:1, Informative)
Yup. It renders pages just like Safari does. If you think that Opera's Java based browser is better than the Nokia browser then you are not using the one they've just open sourced.
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:2)
On closer inspection it seems that my phone can't run the latest browser, that's a little disapointing.
It is! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It is! (Score:2)
Where can I download this from? It seems like an opensourced S60 browser should run on my 6600, but I can't find the sis files anywhere on the site.
No, it won't (Score:1)
On E60 it's a very pleasant experience, beats Opera on my old N90 hands down.
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:2, Insightful)
I got my Nokia N80 last week, here you can see a sample screenshot [friendlyhamster.com] I took of the BBC website using the phone's khtml browser. It's running at a fairly decent resolution, although it appears much smaller in real life as it's on a 2.1" screen.
I mentioned it indepth with more photos here [gamesasylum.com] and here [blogspot.com].
Basically, it's a very good browser that renders web pages pretty much perfectly, and has functions
Re:Is it really that good? (Score:1)
KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2, Insightful)
It will be very interesting to see what happens when KDE 4.0 is released. KDE 4.0 should theoretically include support for Windows, due to the availability of a free Windows port of Qt and an emphasis on portability during the development of 4.0. We might even see Konqueror rival Firefox and Opera as the main competitor to Int
Re:KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2)
Re:KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2)
As Nokia is in Helix board recently https://helixcommunity.org/ [helixcommunity.org] , this thing will be ported into Helix player too. It is just a guess.
It means Symbian gets some amazing 3G stuff later. It also means this is news for Microsoft Win CE and Media Player divisions.
Opera will keep going, if I had a $1000 Symbian S60/S80 phone, I would pay that $29 for it.
Re:KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2)
Hell, if they support Safari, why can't do the same for Konqueror?
Re:KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2)
Re:KHTML is a rising star. (Score:2)
It will probably be pretty broken though (because WebCore is fitted to OSX capabilities and needs), but it will be first.
Could we have a copy-editor? (Score:1)
The difference between its, it's and such is taught from first grade to the 12th; is it not unreasonable, then, to expect such nerds of such intelligence that, undoubtably, fill the roles of the editorships of /. know such basic English?
Possible to port to other platforms? (Score:2)
Re:Possible to port to other platforms? (Score:2)
Opera admits Noika browser could be trouble (Score:2)
The open source Nokia browser could mean trouble admits Opera's marketing manager in a comment in this article [andwest.com].
Re:Opera admits Noika browser could be trouble (Score:1)
And competition isn't necessarily a bad thing :-P
Interesting, but.... (Score:1)
If you look at KWQString.h and KWQString.cpp, code just gets duplicated for who knows what reasons.... for example, just search on __OOM__
You'll find lots of places where OOM (Out Of Memory) handling is handled for two separate cases. Now, from what I can tell, at least in the circumstance of KWQStringData::initialize(), memory is allocated for the buffer within the s
Re:Interesting, but.... (Score:1)
Symbian... especially Series 60 development classically has been known as an #ifdef hell. Symbian developers add #ifdefs everywhere even if they're not necessary. In this case, Nokia had the opportunity to actually fix out of memory or constrained memory handling for all platforms but instead chose to write code that was specific to themselves and simply label it something else.
The reason Symbian code uses #ifdefs is because one bit of source code is often designed for many different devices and they'r
Re:Interesting, but.... (Score:2)
Re:Interesting, but.... (Score:1)
But while still u
Re:Interesting, but.... (Score:2)
I bet you it does check. MemoryManager::Alloc() no doubt leaves (SymbianOS exception) all the way back to the application event loop. Which will result in the application displaying an out of memory message, and not performing that particular user action, but still leave the application running in a consistent state. This is far better than the virtual memory system yo
LPGL to BSD? (Score:2)
Re:LPGL to BSD? (Score:2)
Besides, what we want is Linux to run on their phones, just like the 770. I think that might be their long-term plan. Someone mentioned the Treo/Palm. Verizon JUST released the Treo 700p, running PalmOS and Palm's plan *is* to convert PalmOS over to an emulation/UI on top of Linux. Should be quite interesting. I can't
Nokia promoting patents, not open source (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nokia promoting patents, not open source (Score:1)
Another point is how are they mixing BSD with LGPL? Is that leagal?
Re:Nokia promoting patents, not open source (Score:1)
Re:Nokia promoting patents, not open source (Score:1)
Re:Nokia promoting patents, not open source (Score:2)
S60 browser on Nokia 770 / Maemo ? (Score:1)
A browser was the main free and open source component lacking on Nokia 770.
If good enough, it could definitively take place of Opera, so the price of N770 could be cutted down a little bit, ironicaly, improving this Nokia product.
Anyway, for anybody: porting an app from Symbian platform to something like Qt/pe or Gnome over POSIX or win32 platform is a rather hard and lon
Actually, could it have the opposite effect? (Score:1)
Thing is, the average consumer (talking about the more average joe majority type rather than the techno savvy slashdotter) doesn't know one browser from another. ESPECIALLY when it comes to their mobile devices. Should something cause them to begin to actually learn what differentiates one browser from another, they will likely hear it
Hmm (Score:1)