
Firefox OS phones now available from Geeksphone - pepsi
http://shop.geeksphone.com/en/
======
terhechte
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.

~~~
fstephany
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

~~~
Argorak
Same thing occured to me as well.

------
CrazedGeek
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. :/

~~~
lucb1e
That's what most websites do, even Apple. Especially Apple actually. Buying
something from America in Dollars is often much cheaper.

~~~
daviddoran
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.

~~~
lucb1e
Apple mixes up euros and dollars as well. Last time I checked anyway, a $999
device would be €999 in europe.

~~~
daviddoran
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.

------
soapdog
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.

~~~
shared4you
Will I be able to upgrade the OS/firmware when FxOS is "ready"? Do I need to
"root" the phone to upgrade?

~~~
soapdog
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.

------
santaragolabs
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 :)

~~~
daviddoran
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!

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

------
jwoah12
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._

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

------
navs
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.

~~~
padenot
We tend to abbreviate Firefox OS "FxOS".

~~~
hkmurakami
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

~~~
navs
Don't forget how close it is to FOSS.

------
kencausey
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>

~~~
CrazedGeek
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...](http://www.phonedog.com/2013/03/15/t-mobile-says-1900mhz-
hspa+-service-now-in-49-cities-one-user-finds-small-patch-of-lte-in-nyc/)

~~~
kencausey
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.

------
Su-Shee
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.. ;)

------
jasonngpt
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!

------
shared4you
Well, now BOTH models are out-of-stock!

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

~~~
javis
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>

~~~
shared4you
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>

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

~~~
MrUnderhill
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.

~~~
fabrice_d
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.

------
snogglethorpe
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.

~~~
ckannan90
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.

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

------
turshija
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."

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

~~~
icebraining
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.

~~~
mobiplayer
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.

------
alexeston
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?

------
Nux
This is absolutely great news!

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

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

~~~
lawl
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.

~~~
smspence
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.

~~~
lawl
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.

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

~~~
Jacqued
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).

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

~~~
lucb1e
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...](https://plus.google.com/100221912051999668442/posts/dDkEuUzLriJ)

------
josteink
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 :)

~~~
shared4you
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!

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

Oh well.

------
Ygg2
Is it me or did the prices of these two phones jumped? I remember peak being
like ~173$ (or was that euro).

~~~
shared4you
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

~~~
Ygg2
I don't think that's it. I think they are increasing prices due to high
demand. I mean why increase the prices twice?

------
ShaneOG
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.

------
gilesbutler
Awesome, just got a Peak!

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

------
rikacomet
Does not ships to India... Fuck!

~~~
winsonlei
Actually, i can find India in the country list.

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

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

Also, KEONS ARE NOW SOLD OUT!

~~~
shared4you
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!

------
chankey_pathak
Ordered, waiting to play with it :)

------
rikacomet
error ridden.. oh the pain :(

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

