Firefox OS phones now available from Geeksphone | Hacker News Reader

Firefox OS phones now available from Geeksphone

shop.geeksphone.com

162 pointspepsi89 comments

CAUTION: After I had entered my payment details for my credit card (in Safari) the site forwarded to a white page and nothing happened. I checked the console, and realized that a javascript error caused it to not work properly in Safari. I could finish the process by manually doing a document.forms[1].submit() in the console. That placed my order, and forwarded me back to their homepage.

HOWEVER: On the homepage, I got the "User db59706 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections" error. I reloaded, and my order history is empty. So I'm afraid that the payment-cleared transaction from their payment processor was lost because their database is overloaded. Thus, I think I just paid for the phone but they have no track record of my order. I'll contact them now.

Word of caution to everybody reading this, their site, store, and payment processing seem to be overwhelmed.

Same for me (see my other comment). I contacted them too.

I've just send them a mail regarding these two matters:

- paid but got a db max connections massage, my order was NOT saved

- they charge VAT while it's not allowed when doing intera-european purchases

I really hope they get back to us!

>- they charge VAT while it's not allowed when doing intera-european purchases

What do you mean it's not allowed?

I quote: "Dispatches within the European Union (EU) between VAT-registered businesses are not subject to VAT.

However, when you dispatch goods to someone in another EU country, who is not registered for VAT in that country, you should normally charge VAT."

[1] https://www.gov.uk/dispatching-your-goods-within-the-eu

Same here.

Another problem: They charge VAT even if you have a valid non-spanish VAT number.

I guess it's a pretty wild day for a small company :p

Same thing occured to me as well.

Sigh. My order came to $155, and the site's trying to charge me 155 EUR. That's not really good, given that 155 EUR is about $200.

EDIT: It will charge the correct price if you switch the prices on the site to EUR. Second problem: one of my cards gave an unspecified error, the other was was denied by the bank for whatever reason. :/

Getting the same. One fails with denied by bank, and the other fails with "wrong authentication". Their credit card processing website seems to kinda suck..

I'm having the same issue. I switched to COD. I am hopeful they will fix the issue beforehand.

Either way, paying an extra 30 dollars to have a Firefox phone is worth it to me. I'm sick of my iPhone.

This is just a taste of what it's like to be a european buying electronics from US firms - i.e. the US price=1000 USD, UK price=1000 GBP (1526 USD). I'd count yourself lucky the discrepancy is only 45 dollars :)

edit: not to detract from what is indeed an annoying problem, which you appear to have solved anyway

That's what most websites do, even Apple. Especially Apple actually. Buying something from America in Dollars is often much cheaper.

This is a completely different issue. The site is mixing up dollars and euro so it's overcharging. It's not a conscious price decision they've made.

Apple mixes up euros and dollars as well. Last time I checked anyway, a $999 device would be €999 in europe.

Yes, but in this case the buyer sees $230 in their shopping cart but actually gets charged €230. Which is nearly $300. It's fine if Geeksphone decide to charge the same in dollars and euro, but they're displaying in one currency and charging in another (without conversion) which is obviously wrong. It seems to have been an honest mistake and they've indicated on their forums that they're fixing it.

That's largely due to taxes though.

Apple USD prices are excluding VAT while EUR prices include that.

guys,

congratulations for those who succeeded on buying. Remember: this is a developer preview phone. Firefox OS is not ready yet. Expect updates and bugs at this stage. I have two keons and they are pretty good but the system still in flux and not all APIs are implemented yet.

ps: I am a Mozilla Rep working with Firefox OS awareness.

Will I be able to upgrade the OS/firmware when FxOS is "ready"? Do I need to "root" the phone to upgrade?

The geeksphones are unlocked and open. You can reflash them at your leisure. It is as easy as:

    sudo adb reboot bootloader  

    sudo fastboot flash boot boot.img 

    sudo fastboot flash splash splash.img 

    sudo fastboot flash system system.img 

    sudo fastboot flash userdata userdata.img 

    sudo fastboot reboot

This will reflash the phone and reboot, provided you have the right images which can be built from source or downloaded from geeksphone (once they release it). The most important part is Gaia and Gaia can be built and installed from source.

These are open devices and the promise of an open web app ecosystem is far too fun for hacker like us to let it pass.

The site seems to be a bit overloaded; I got through to the entire process including verifying the Mastercard transaction but the order doesn't show up in my account's order history.

I just emailed them and now we'll wait and see. Could very well be just the mad dash of a lot of geeks trying to get these phones right now causing it to topple over some systems; I'll be patient :)

Exact same experience for me. Hit some database errors along the way but I managed to pay and verify the MasterCard transaction. Then nothing on the "My Orders". No email confirmation. Emailed them and fingers crossed a peak will be on its way soon!

better check with them.. I received payment accepted and order confirmation emails from them..

Is anyone else getting this?

In order to perform site maintenance, our online shop has shut down temporarily.

We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you please try again later.

I haven't seen anything other than this message. Whether it was last week, yesterday, or right now.

Darn, Keon is sold out. I wanted a small smartphone. OS aside, I'm hoping Firefox OS (is there an official abbreviation we can use) will rejuvenate the small screen smartphone market.

We tend to abbreviate Firefox OS "FxOS".

The marketing guy in me wants to suggest FFOS since it immediately evokes "fast forward" in my mind.

(though to be honest, gamers will come back with the expected, "WHAT!? Final Fantasy OS???" :P

Don't forget how close it is to FOSS.

Weird.. I just checked and Keons are still available (i saw the out of stock just now too..).. Try again?

And it's back! Though I'd be hesitant to make any purchases, considering how fickle the site's performance is at the moment.

Unfortunately, if I understand correctly these phones will not work with TMobile 3G in the US which only operates in the 1700-Mhz band.

http://prepaid-phones.t-mobile.com/phone-sim-card

You're half-right. T-Mobile's actually been adding service in the 1900MHz band, but it's limited at the moment. http://www.phonedog.com/2013/03/15/t-mobile-says-1900mhz-hsp...

Thanks, I wish the carriers in the US were more forthcoming with technical details.

For anyone else who initially overlooked here is the PC Mag article with the list of relevant cities:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2416666,00.asp

Unfortunately, I'm in none of them.

Looks like "killed by success". ;)

Couldn't get through with Firefox (haha) and my german VISA, too.

Also note that 55 Euros shipping is NOT the only option.. ;)

Trying to buy but the website seems overwhelmed. Good to know that it ships worldwide!

Edit: Sign up for an account first at "My Account" at the top. Seems to have less problems compared to signing up at the Checkout page.

Edit2: Bought a Peak!

Well, now BOTH models are out-of-stock!

Yep. I was seriously considering buying it. Didn't do it immediately because I was hesitant. Now I just can't :(

I wanted to order the Keon, but was late. When it first went out-of-stock, I realized that Peak might be running out soon. Got lots of db errors, hit F5 several times, payment stalled, but bought the Peak finally!

Their Twitter feed hints it isn't out of stock and they recommend trying again in a few minutes.

https://twitter.com/geeksphone/status/326661079826563072

Just in: "Wow initial previsions were largely surpassed! Devices will be back on stock in a few hours, thanks for your support!" https://twitter.com/geeksphone/status/326665566758793216

yup, but in Spain, a few minutes usually means a couple of hours

Same for me. I was very surprised by the low price (usually a smartphone is over €400, this one €91) and might actually have bought it depending on the payment options (credit card is an instant no-go)... but both out of stock. Couldn't they anticipate that a decent number of hackers were gonna want one?

How open is the hardware? Are the drivers open source?

Apologies for replying without an answer, but I'd love to know this as well. Additionally, how/where is the hardware produced? I'd gladly pay twice this and more for full openness software/hardware/ethics-wise.

It is "Engineered in SPain, Made in P.R.C" It's as open source as it can, you can rebuilt from scratch and rebuilt a boot images with a new kernel if you wish (just clone https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/B2G and run ./config.sh keon). I just did that last week to add something we need for Firefox OS.

Hmm, since the website is pretty much hosed, I can't see what it says, but...

Even if it ships worldwide, as somebody mentioned, how can one tell whether it actually works with <random carrier in country X>?

There's no doubt a lot of coarse-grained commonality between different carriers in different countries, but there also seem to be many differences when you get down to the details, and a lot of incentive to add gratuitous minor incompatibilities for the purpose of locking in your customers... I'd be pretty nervous about importing a random phone.

I'm not familiar with the situation in Europe/USA, but I've never had trouble using a GSM phone with any GSM SIM card from any carrier in Asia. I'm not sure about the situation for CDMA or LTE.

If you're in the US, this phone will only get 3G/HSPA service on T-Mobile, and it's MVNOs.

It's the same in Europe, unlocked (GMS) phones work everywhere.

I believe the main thing with GSM phones is what frequency it expects to transmit and receive GSM data on. This varies from country to country depending on what frequencies the various telcos could purchase at the time, but these phones support "GSM 850/900/1800/1900" and "UMTS 2100/1900/900" which I believe cover the majority of countries.

No Serbia on the list even though official statements said it will be one of the first countries where phones will be available, so I sent them an email regarding that. I was amazed when less than 1 hour later, I got an email reply !!! "Dear Boris, We took some countries out because of maintenance, but we'll put Serbia back on the list, don't worry, thanks for the remark and sorry for the inconveniences."

Link to database cannot be established: SQLSTATE[42000] [1203] User db59706 already has more than 'max_user_connections' active connections

Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the user id makes it sound like they're on shared hosting. I surely hope not.

They're hosted by MediaTemple and the IP doesn't look to be shared with other customers. Requesting the site without a host sends you to the main GeeksPhone site, so at least they're not on a shared hosting.

Maybe on a single VPS, but definitely not shared.

Peak seems to be good enough for most of us and Keon for our kids, most likely. I don't even care if it's out of stock or has errors buying it, what I care about is what does it _feel_ to use a Firefox OS. Can it compete with Android / iOS? Does it have potential to ever becoming a competing OS?

This is absolutely great news!

It's sad you can only pay with credit cards. I refuse to get a credit card.

You could buy a pre-paid card and just use it to buy the phone.

It's sad that your bank doesn't offer virtual CCs. They're awesome ;)

Yes that's exactly what I'd want to use. Log in to your bank, create a virtual one-use CC, buy something and the CC no longer exists. Well, not exactly, there's still vast room for improvment but it'd be better that how it is now. Sadly, I could not find any finance instutite here that offers that.

I paid with a debit card - transaction went through and I have an email confirming my order.

All payment cards are commonly called credit cards in Europe. This requirement may be a translation error.

Well I'm from europe, so that's what I ment too. I do not have any master, maestro or visa card. And i refuse to get one, because I think they're a horribly, horribly broken system.

So you've never purchased anything from the internet before, ever? Honest question, not trying to sound snarky. I'm just wondering how else you could pay for something online. Paying directly with a checking account, by entering your routing/account numbers, etc.? There are also pre-paid debit cards out there.... but it sounds like you're opposed to that too.

To be honest i usually use paypal, or similar services. I'm not a paypal fan, but you know i can send them a hundred bucks or so via bank transfer and have that on my account to spend. If paypal decides to disable my account (or I get hacked or something) I lost $100, sucks, but really not the end of the world.

I'd actually probably be fine with pre-paid debit cards, but there's really no difference from paypal. And now it's just a matter of beeing more used to paypal than to some random debit card company, and i don't want to maintain multiple prepaid services, i just want to have a couple hundred dollars prepaid for "internet payment stuff".

Paypal or something else should let me generate a one time token (or one time card number) to pay with.

If you buy a gift CC at a store you run into the problem of the problem that the product costs $101 but the card is only $100.

Well, all in all, internet payment is still horribly broken, but paypal is _in my opinion_ the best service to buy stuff, not necessarily to receive money, I've heard enough horror stories.

Just ordered a Peak, total impulse buy. Any word on when these will ship?

Did just the same, 197€ with VAT and shipping isn't too bad.

I guess the first lucky few will have them by the end of the week, the rest of us by next week (I'd imagine they staffed up for deliveries but will still be overwhelmed since all their stock went away in 2 hours).

I want one, I may be my first smartphone. BTW: Is it smart enough?

If you don't have a smartphone already, I'd definitely buy it. Right now. I'd get a credit card right now if that's what it took ;)

Unfortunately I already have a Galaxy Note II, which is top of the line and really a great phone, so now I don't know whether I should buy it... https://plus.google.com/100221912051999668442/posts/dDkEuUzL...

5 hours and now completely sold out. Ow.

I know there would be demand for these, but that much demand? Sounds promising for the platform :)

It's not really sold out. As per their tweets, it'll be back in stock in a few hours. It's just that their online store couldn't keep up with the page loads. Talk about software, man!

Got myself up to the payment page, but the page complained something about "tarjeta" even though my card number was absolutely correct.

Oh well.

Is it me or did the prices of these two phones jumped? I remember peak being like ~173$ (or was that euro).

Same with me, it showed 91 EUR but when I created account and login it was 110 EUR. The reason is the taxes (VAT), herein EU. Probably, it's the same reason in US

I don't think that's it. I think they are increasing prices due to high demand. I mean why increase the prices twice?

Site is being hammered.

I managed to get through and bought a Peak, but it's not showing up on the My Orders page, yet.

Awesome, just got a Peak!

I got the database error but just keep refreshing and it goes through eventually :)

Does not ships to India... Fuck!

and Malaysia. double fuck.

Actually, i can find India in the country list.

Firefox OS phone will come to India when they release Firefox OS 2 phone in other parts of world. So unfortunate! :(

Just ordered the Keon without using my creditcard. Payment: Cash on delivery with fee

If you're in the UK, leave the VAT field blank.

Also, KEONS ARE NOW SOLD OUT!

I got the same error earlier, that "VAT is empty". Now they've fixed it. VAT is automatically added. For EU customers, including VAT, it comes to 110 EUR (Keon) and 180 EUR (Peak). And yeah, I chose the 18-EUR shipping option. Successfully ordered the PEAK for 200 EUR. Yay!

seems like Keons are back in stock..

Ordered, waiting to play with it :)

error ridden.. oh the pain :(

Is this a parody to get more people to buy iPhones?

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