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And it has a Linux 2.4.20 kernel on it, or at least the one I have has.

A Motorola page about it, which may not even be the most complete or detailed page:

http://direct.motorola.com/ENG/Web_full_specs.asp? Country=GBR&language=ENG&productid=29784&strPrimar yOption=FS&lSecondaryOption=-1

One that isn't true anymore on that page is that the flashcard maxes out at 512MB, because I have a 1GB micro-SD card and it works fine (it is sort of slow to index it when filled up, but it works).

And in 2005 it even got the Silver Medal for Products of the Year 2005, PDAs and smartphones:

http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/produc tsOfTheYearCategory/0,294802,sid40_tax302454_ayr20 05,00.html

I am very happy with it because it is so full of functionality, but I only wish that Motorola would continue developing and fixing the software, because it has some annoying things to it when using it a lot, eg. the calendar and phonebook should be more flexible in configuartion, and they should equip it with more RAM so it could run the USB connection and/or GPS functions at the same time as other applications.

All in all it is a great piece, but I only wish Motorola would finish it, as it so far SW wise only seems 95% complete. It is the only mobile phone with Bluetooth that I know of, that will connect to any other mobile I have tested it against, whereas other Motorola/Nokia/SonyEricsson seems to get into trouble some time or another.

The only thing it misses to be real modern even today (except for a little more RAM) is A2DP (Hi-Fi Stereo Bluetooth), and if that could be put into it, it would really kick ass, and I wouldn't be so worried about missing WiFi, or about Nokias N95 with its 5mpix autofocus camera (A780 only has 1.3mpix fixed focus), because the A780 has a real PC/PDA feel to it whereas N95 with its Symbion60 probably is more like a regular mobile. And then I would choose the A780's Linux/Qt UI anyday!

The cable modem and VoIP eMTA's are integrated, take a look at the Motorola SBV5220 for an example.

Just an update for these phones: http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/itunes/

but this is what I'm waiting for. That should be out at by the end of this year, I believe.

Check this out. http://direct.motorola.com/ENS/web_producthome.asp ?Country=USA&language=ENS&productid=30549

Does this thing use the same tech? Looks a lot smaller though, and doesn't have an ugly antenna...

Yeah, uh, cool. My phone does that and cost a whole lot less, weighs less, and looks really sweet.

http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.js p?globalObjectId=6906_6860_23

Looks like these chaps are keen on Linux suceeding and working with the Open Source community

I don't get it. Why does everyone go on about there not being a simple phone available?

The Nokia 1100

The Motorola C139

The Samsung
SGH-N625

Happy now?

It seems that even the basic phones are starting to get all the fancy features now. Basic, meaning the low end phones that are usually "free" when you sign up for a 2 year contract with your wireless provider. Fancy, meaning a camera and/or color display and/or multimedia messaging.

So far, I've only seen three recent/upcoming cell phones that are essentially phones..

• Motorola W220. It has a similar form factor as the Motorola V3 RAZR, but it lacks the multi-functionality and hip styling of the V3. The only bells and whistles you get on the W220 is an FM radio. It's supposed to be released at the end of the year.
  
  
• FireFly. This is as simple as you get. But it's way too simple, and it's marketed towards kids. Only 20 numbers can be stored in the phonebook, a few built-in ringtones, and some parental control features. That's it. Even if you want a phone that is stripped down like this, I don't think you would want this particular phone, since it looks like a toy.
  
  
• Emporia EmporiaLife. This phone is marketed towards senior citizens. It has a large LCD display, large buttons, a simple phonebook, speakerphone, and it runs on AAA batteries too. This could be a good choice for people, other than seniors, who are looking for a simple phone. Not sure if this phone will hit markets outside of Europe. But the tech specs show quad-band operating frequencies, so it's possible.

I certainly hope mobile phone companies will continue to offer simple phones. Other than being overwhelmed by features, some people need a phone without a camera or data storage capabilities. Particularly those people who work at companies that forbid such devices for security reasons.

I picked a Motorola V180 for the following features: ... It seems to be as good a flip phone as you can get without having a camera.

Meh. I'm still happy with my 5 year old Motorola V60i. Monochrome screen, great battery life, small screen on the outside (shows me who's calling, or the current time), so cheap you'll probably not even be able to get it from your provider, no camera. It's also a tri-band GSM phone, which means you'll be able to use it just about anywhere in the world.

I could go even more basic, as the v60i does have some games and internet stuff (which I don't use, and you won't even know it's there if you don't scroll most of the way down the menu), but then you're into non-flip phone territory. My battery's going to give out soon (5 years on the same battery is pretty damned good), but I'm going to just replace the battery and not the phone. In fact, the only way I will ever upgrade to a different phone is if this one physically stops working and I can no longer get another v60i (unlikely, given ebay), or all wireless providers switch to some new technology that prevents a tri-band GSM phone from working.

Seems Microsoft is pushing REALLY hard these days to gain dominance in the mobile phone and small devices market. Well, I'm not going to help them. You know what will start to happen if they get to dictate the standards.

Me, I'll go with JavaME. There are over 300 million Java enabled phones in the world, and 60% of new phones sold come with it preinstalled. There were a lot of prizes to be won at the this years Java One. Sony Ericsson and Motorola among others encourages people to use JavaME.

I tried developing for it a couple of years ago, and it was not pleasurable back then, mainly because of incompatibilities between devices. It looks much better these days, and if you use Netbeans you can build applications just with drag and drop. Remember than Carmack got started with developing for mobile phones because the wide availability of free tutorials and tools for J2ME.

Although you can't get it there yet, check http://opensource.motorola.com/ where it appears the discussion on this is suppossed to take place, at least from Motorola's point of view..

D.

Comcast is upgrading the basic channels to come in digitally. If you get basic digital service (no HD, no DVR) Comcast gives you a Moto DCT700 http://broadband.motorola.com/catalog/productdetai l.asp?ProductID=385 which has no analog tuner, everything is digital. It is a great improvement over the fuzzy basic cable you are talking about.

I decided to give the Cox free for 3 months DVR trial a go and liked what I saw. That isn't to say it was without problems, which I'll detail below.

The unit in my market (OK) was a Motorola DCT6412. It has dual tuners, a 120GB HDD and HDTV support.

The first unit lasted only a month or so before the output would lock up. Initially it could be fixed by to a different channel and then back again but eventually it got too annoying. It would also reboot itself randomly. It got rather warm even with plenty of ventilation.

The second unit has been much better. It gets warm still, and the fan inside lets out a high pitched whine which although sometimes annoying isn't a show stopper. If you power off and on again it won't do it again for a couple of days. The analogue, digital and digital HD station playback have been perfectly acceptable.

The unit is loaded with ports, including 10/100 Ethernet, firewire and USB. I've never actually checked for output, mainly because the nearest PC with enough umph to deal with the signal is at the other end of the house. However I have read on various forums that the firewire port outputs raw data that you can capture with a couple of apps.

There are various engineer only menus you can get to which detail the specs, temperature, signal strength, etc even down to HDD brand, model and serial (mine's a Seagate).

Sometimes it'll forget to record a programme but this is rare, and easily fixable.

All in all, since the 2nd unit, I've been fairly happy with the Motorola.

Just buy the C155, it is almost identical - with a colour screen, that is all.

C155 on motorola's site

Not as cheap as the C115/C116/C117, but not much different. They were selling them here in UK for £10 after christmas. (not on contract)

It says you need to buy the hardware developer's kit(HDK).

I couldn't be bothered to click any further as I didn't want to over exert myself searching for it. I'll leave that to you.

That link I posted doesn't lead to a 100-page file. Maybe he wants more than a data sheet.

OP, if you're around, perhaps you would care to give us more keywords, some that might only appear on page 50-100 of a 100-page document. Your Google skills are probably better than I implied in my last post, but still some of the slashdotters might have some good Google tricks.

Here's another too-short PDF on a different mesh networking product:

http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/co ntentdir/en_us/product/productdescription/mesh/dat asheets/MWR6300_Data_Sheet.pdf

You're kidding, right? It took five seconds to find it on Google:

search for MN2064a site:motorola.com filetype:pdf

If you want to just use wget, here's the direct link:

http://www.motorola.com/governmentandenterprise/co ntentdir/en_us/product/productdescription/mesh/dat asheets/WMC6300_Data_Sheet.pdf

Posting anon to avoid karma whoring

As far as I know Apple hasnt even licensed FairPlay to anyone in fear of good old fashioned competition from other mp3 players....

Motorola ROKR with iTunes. They have licensed it to Motorola. It just didn't work out that well.

Another thing these projects do is teach the science and engineering community how to federate their technologies. This federative engineering requires both advanced technical skills and federative social and political skills (the latter being what America increasing lacks).

Pop Quiz Question:: which is longer:

I could hardly believe it, but the two manuals are of comparable length.

PS: the Saturn V manual is 15 MBytes, so I hope NASA doesn't get too slashdotted.

why all the talk of apple and motorola not working together. the razr v3i is going to have itunes built in. now that does look like a design to rival the ipods

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,130,00.html

is the Motorola A780. Avaliable in Europe (while most of the other Linux phones are available only in Asia). There's a community evolving, that's trying to port a completly open source kernel to the A780. Check it out under open-ezx. Another good site to get infos and hacks for the Moto Linux phones (E680(i), A780, etc.) is Motorolafans.com. Especially the forums are worth a visit. Despite these phones being based on Linux, Motorola doesn't support application development for Linux; their documentation (and support) focusses on Java only. So close, but yet so far ... But hey, telnetting into your phone has some geek appeal ...

Bye egghat.

you mean RIM Competitor Announced? Anyways, a neat Blackberry competitor http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,113,00.html

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,46,00.html

Motorola already offers a Linux phone.

I think they got confused by the commercials for these. Or maybe these.

I wonder if Skype is still proxying all that video data through relays on publicly-accessible machines. If video gets used much, this could really hurt overall Skype network performance and add strain/overhead/etc to the users who are on open connections.

The reason the ROKR is limited to 100 songs, as I understand it, is that it's memory card (or perhaps it's the SMS card?) can only hold that much. Add more memory, add more songs, or switch out songs with the card. The ROKR does have a TransFlash memory card, according to the Motorola web site:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,117,00.html

Someone points out elsewhere on this thread that their iPod Shuffle only hold about 150 songs. Seems about right, no conspiracy theory or attention grabbing headline needed. The ROKR is equivalent to the flash-based Shuffle or Nano, not the hard-drive based main iPod line. Take off your tinfoil hats, folks.

I also see that Motorola has announced (yesterday) the RAZR V3i (among several other new RAZR models) that ALSO supports iTunes like the ROKR does. It has a memory card slot too, unlike the older RAZR:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,130,00.html

I think the upcoming Motorola SLVR and possibly PEBL models may do the iTunes thing too. The SLVR is basically a flat "candy bar" style RAZR, and the PEBL is basically a low-end el-cheapo RAZR See the :

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/archive

site for details on these models.

Most of the Motorola phones support MP3 playing too, and have for some time. It's just the iTunes interface/software, AAC and Fairplay-protected-AAC file format support that's new in the ROKR and RAZR V3i. (They might've supported AAC before, since it's an open standard, part of MPEG4; I haven't checked.)

The announcement of the RAZR V3i yesterday was PERFECTLY timed for me -- I was JUST about to go switch to Cingular (maybe last night) and get a RAZR to finally replace my ancient decrepit Motorola StarTAC or get the CDMA version of the RAZR from Verizon later this month (see the RAZR V3c, also recently announced) Probably Cingular, though, as they don't restrict the BlueTooth OBEX profile and Verizon limits you to headset-only Bluetooth. Then I saw the V3i announcement. I'd have been SOOOOO pissed; the one major thing I didn't like about the older RAZR was that it didn't have a memory card slot. The V3i does have one.

The reason the ROKR is limited to 100 songs, as I understand it, is that it's memory card (or perhaps it's the SMS card?) can only hold that much. Add more memory, add more songs, or switch out songs with the card. The ROKR does have a TransFlash memory card, according to the Motorola web site:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,117,00.html

Someone points out elsewhere on this thread that their iPod Shuffle only hold about 150 songs. Seems about right, no conspiracy theory or attention grabbing headline needed. The ROKR is equivalent to the flash-based Shuffle or Nano, not the hard-drive based main iPod line. Take off your tinfoil hats, folks.

I also see that Motorola has announced (yesterday) the RAZR V3i (among several other new RAZR models) that ALSO supports iTunes like the ROKR does. It has a memory card slot too, unlike the older RAZR:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,130,00.html

I think the upcoming Motorola SLVR and possibly PEBL models may do the iTunes thing too. The SLVR is basically a flat "candy bar" style RAZR, and the PEBL is basically a low-end el-cheapo RAZR See the :

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/archive

site for details on these models.

Most of the Motorola phones support MP3 playing too, and have for some time. It's just the iTunes interface/software, AAC and Fairplay-protected-AAC file format support that's new in the ROKR and RAZR V3i. (They might've supported AAC before, since it's an open standard, part of MPEG4; I haven't checked.)

The announcement of the RAZR V3i yesterday was PERFECTLY timed for me -- I was JUST about to go switch to Cingular (maybe last night) and get a RAZR to finally replace my ancient decrepit Motorola StarTAC or get the CDMA version of the RAZR from Verizon later this month (see the RAZR V3c, also recently announced) Probably Cingular, though, as they don't restrict the BlueTooth OBEX profile and Verizon limits you to headset-only Bluetooth. Then I saw the V3i announcement. I'd have been SOOOOO pissed; the one major thing I didn't like about the older RAZR was that it didn't have a memory card slot. The V3i does have one.

The reason the ROKR is limited to 100 songs, as I understand it, is that it's memory card (or perhaps it's the SMS card?) can only hold that much. Add more memory, add more songs, or switch out songs with the card. The ROKR does have a TransFlash memory card, according to the Motorola web site:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,117,00.html

Someone points out elsewhere on this thread that their iPod Shuffle only hold about 150 songs. Seems about right, no conspiracy theory or attention grabbing headline needed. The ROKR is equivalent to the flash-based Shuffle or Nano, not the hard-drive based main iPod line. Take off your tinfoil hats, folks.

I also see that Motorola has announced (yesterday) the RAZR V3i (among several other new RAZR models) that ALSO supports iTunes like the ROKR does. It has a memory card slot too, unlike the older RAZR:

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,130,00.html

I think the upcoming Motorola SLVR and possibly PEBL models may do the iTunes thing too. The SLVR is basically a flat "candy bar" style RAZR, and the PEBL is basically a low-end el-cheapo RAZR See the :

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/archive

site for details on these models.

Most of the Motorola phones support MP3 playing too, and have for some time. It's just the iTunes interface/software, AAC and Fairplay-protected-AAC file format support that's new in the ROKR and RAZR V3i. (They might've supported AAC before, since it's an open standard, part of MPEG4; I haven't checked.)

The announcement of the RAZR V3i yesterday was PERFECTLY timed for me -- I was JUST about to go switch to Cingular (maybe last night) and get a RAZR to finally replace my ancient decrepit Motorola StarTAC or get the CDMA version of the RAZR from Verizon later this month (see the RAZR V3c, also recently announced) Probably Cingular, though, as they don't restrict the BlueTooth OBEX profile and Verizon limits you to headset-only Bluetooth. Then I saw the V3i announcement. I'd have been SOOOOO pissed; the one major thing I didn't like about the older RAZR was that it didn't have a memory card slot. The V3i does have one.

Here's a good link to the V3i.

http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details/0 ,,130,00.html/

Have you held a ROKR and RAZR at the same time? It's like Motorola can make a gadget pretty, or functional, but not both at the same time.

Funny you should say that. Just yesterday Motorola announced the new RAZR V3i that has built-in iTunes support, plus the now-obligatory megapixel camera. It's interesting to note, though, that they're not emphasizing the iTunes support at this time and don't even mention if the 100-song limit will remain in effect.

Interesting theory, but probably dead wrong.

So if you actually need a ruggedized phone, they're available.

Dual Tuner PVR? HD?

http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp/

Its not perfect, and there are some hiccups... but its easy to use. And you can record 2 shows while watching a previously recorded 3rd...

The HD thing is what kills mythtv for me. There aren't any cable/satellite capable HD=capture cards that I'm aware of. There's just the one OTA (over-the-air) card that may (will?) die when the FCC gets its broadcast flag. ... if anyone knows differently I'm all ears...

Commercial Products and Services:

ReplayTV: TiVo's ancient nemesis, it also 'just works'. I can't say whether it is more user friendly than TiVo, but it is far more customer friendly.

Windows XP Media Center Edition: Yes, them. Choose from multiple manufacturers but expect to face Microsoft Corp's version of the 'personal' computing experience.

Hardware vendors are now pushing DVD/HD Recording devices quite a bit. RCA, Motorola and Panasonic have products available.

Service Providers like Comcast and DishTV are now providing time shifting hardware and tv-on-demand solutions. Check with your choice of cable or satellite service provider.

Hobbyist Solutions:

MythTV: The Open Source, Do-It-Yourself DVR. Expect to build your own machine and play around a bit before it works the way you want. (Linux)

Freevo: MythTV, but not. (Linux)

MediaPortal: Who ever said Open Source was limited to Linux software? (Windows)

Meedio: It was a community based freeware product (myHTPC) that morphed into a commercial product without warning. Still a reasonable alternative to Microsoft for PVR function on the Windows platform. (Windows)

eyeTV: This Mac product has me seriously considering picking up a Mini-Mac to use as a media center. (Apple)

SnapStream (Windows)

SageTV (Windows)

Chris-TV (Windows)

ShowShifter (Windows)

On a personal note, I purchased the ReplayTV when it was first released and am entirely satisfied with it. Plus, by purchasing early I have never had to pay a subscription fee for data that is freely available elsewhere. If there had been a subscription fee I would not have purchased it.

Dan

Motorola has shown the possibilities of nano-emissive displays

There was a slashdot article that mentioned the ability to use "Y" shaped CNTs as transistors.

and of course this article's reminder of the tremendous (tensile?) strength these micro-structures offer. Don't limit yourself to "space elevators". All sorts of new engineering/architectural possibilities arise.

Humanity is at a flashpoint. What will it be?

Which means:

• Transflash card. It's really tiny, the size and thickness of my pinky nail
• Tri-band
• USB 2.0, and you get to choose between it exposing the flash card as a USB disk device, or a modem. Cable included
• Stereo speakers. It's really cool to hold it just about 20-30cm from your face and hear pretty good stereo sound
• Earphones
• Bluetooth, and yes, you can copy MP3's that way too
• Groovy multi-coloured lights on both sides of the phone
• Speakerphone
• Camera with a powerful led instead of a flash. Doubles as a flashlight

• Sluggish user interface
• Blurry 640x480 camera. Taking into account the previous point, when you press "capture," you get to wait 2 seconds for the snapshot to be taken
• Buggy. Crashes on you, especially when the battery is low
• Really bad mpeg-4 playback. The user interface stops responding when it's playing. Sound may crap out. It will only do a bitrate so low that the picture has severe compression artifacts
• Limited functionality in BlueTooth. The only decent BlueTooth phone I've ever seen is a SonyEricsson
• No voice recording (duh), but I'm under the impression that that's a hidden feature that you can enable with a hack

The ROKR will be available in Canada exclusively from Rogers Wireless, according to this Motorola Canada site. Too bad there isn't more detailed information though. Rogers Wireless' site has no information on the phone or its pending availability unfortunately.

There is alot more details here:
http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/ROKR/

1. MIDI, MP3, WAV, and AAC (but they must be trasfered through the iTunes software)
2. Only 1.1. Pity, because it will take over an hour to fill with music.
3. About $100 for 512MB
4. $249.99 with two year contract

The design of the phone doesn't match any of Apples other products either. When I heard Motorolla was building it, I expected a white RAZR which would be more in keeping with the current iPods and the rest of the iSomething line of products.

This is just, well ... boring. The ROKR E1 design is definately not up to the "shit your pants" standard that Apple has worked hard to acheive.

Press releases here, for those interested in more detailed information..

Apple iPod nano
Apple iTunes phone
Motorola ROKR

I haven't read all the specs but it looks very similar to my Motorola E398 which also has mp3 player function.

It's really quite pointless compared to my iPod. It has an SD card which comes with 64 MB. I suppose you could upgrade that, but it's still not much space. The quality sounds really nice but I don't think they've really matured as of yet. One reason why I think so is that the processor that these cell phones use are too slow for the software. My user experience is that there's a significant wait time for the loading of mp3 player applications.

A more important question... When will GMail support WAP?

I just got a Motorola e815, and right out of the box it has bookmarks for Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and a few others, but no GMail. Browsing to GMail allows me to log in before giving me an error message.

The Motorola BPL system, the Powerline LV Solution, entirely avoids transmitting data over medium-voltage (MV) lines (the ones commonly seen along roads). It uses the Motorola Canopy wireless system for this link. The Powerline LV Solution only sends data over the neighborhood low-voltage (LV) lines, after the transformer, using HomePlug. This greatly reduces the potential for interference. Further, the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL), the organization of amateur radio operators in the U.S., was consulted during its development, had its interference issues addressed, and supports the Motorola Powerline LV Solution.

Hmm although this may make some technical sense, I think that you need to consider the companies....

Nokia's Overview shows it to be an old Finish company that moved from a Cable Works company into mobile phones as the market grew.

Cisco's Overview shows it to be a 20 year old company that was set up by a group of American university hackers.

And in 2003, a leap-second bug made GPS receivers from Motorola Inc. briefly show customers the time as half past 62 o'clock.

If I remember correctly, this was caused by the fact that a counter in the code that incremented each week there wasn't a leap second wrapped around. They knew about it in advance, and were able to warn people to reset their receivers.

Removing leap seconds altogether is silly, until we have the technology to rearrange the solar system to match our clocks. And when we can do that, we may as well go to decimal time...

Mark

PS What do you know, I did recall correctly :) You can also view Motorola's original PDF advisory which interestingly doesn't think the time will be wrong, just the date.

Comcast offers (in most areas) the Motorola 6412 STB, with dual HDTV tuners and PVR functionality. In a few areas, they offer a similar Scientific Atlanta box instead.

I beleive it requires a digital service tier, and costs $10/month on top (or if you already subscribe to HDTV through comcast, it's $5/month more)

http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp

Any linkage to back that claim up? Or is this perhaps another case where the power company did their homework first, and deployed BPL in an area with nobody around to complain?

I do have a few links that say otherwise though: here, here, and this one which actually looks like a company trying to do it right.