The opening screen of Firefox OS running on a Geeksphone Keon.

A small Spanish company called Geeksphone will begin selling two smartphones on Tuesday that are geared for developers who want to build apps for Firefox OS -- or for that matter, to build Mozilla's open-source browser-based operating system itself.

As previewed earlier this year, Geeksphone has two models, the Keon at 110 euros including VAT ($143) and the Peak at 179 euros ($234) including VAT.

That's a notch cheaper than high-end unlocked smartphones you'll find, like the $574.99 HTC One, an Android phone that just went on sale. But the low price is part of the point of Firefox OS: Mozilla and a sizeable group of Firefox OS allies argue that their browser-based approach will let them get away with lower-end, cheaper hardware to make the phones affordable in developing markets such as Brazil. <... [Read more]

This shows the same image in JPEG and WebP, with WebP on the right. At this resolution, you're unlikely to see any differences. (Click to enlarge.)

Facebook has begun using a Google image format called WebP that could lower its network costs and speed up its Web site. But the move has angered some members.

When people upload JPEG photos, the social-networking juggernaut converts them into the WebP format. And now it also apparently has begun delivering those images to people with browsers that can handle them, which today means Chrome and Opera.

Even if it's just a limited test, Facebook's scale and influence means that's a major endorsement of Google's image format.

But problems arise when it's time for people to do something with those images beside gaze upon them in the browser. Google has positioned WebP as an image format for the Web, at least to start, but when people save them to their hard drives, edit them, or reshare them, problems arise. Windows, OS X, Photoshop, and most other software can't handle WebP.

One Facebook user complained on the WebP mailing list... [Read more]