Slashdot Mirror

sample of Commercial Appliances based on FreeBSD -
Nokia Firewall/VPN Appliances
Internet Devices, Inc. - Products Overview

router/dialup/etc ... - FreeBSD on a Floppy...
PicoBSD

Commercial Embedded BSD from BSDI

I've got a Nokia 3210, which, for whatever reason, isn't available in the US, which is a shame, because IMHO, it's the sexiest phone available. It has an internal antenna and beautiful curves. It's fairly small, and lies nicely in your hand. The internals are the same as many other Nokia phones. It's very popular here in Europe. Check out the Nokia 3210

Cheers,

Costyn.

No, I am not working for Nokia. Sorta.

I was looking for a service a while ago, local service area was fine with me. So I picked Omnipoint. They had what I wanted, which was a good prepay plan.

Anyway before I get too far ahead of myself, when I was looking for a cellphone I did find it hard to find one. Then I reliezed why when I went to Nokia's website: www.nokia.com They have virtually the same phone listed as 4-5 different model numbers. This is so the're resellers can sell them and claim they are the only ones to have XXXX phone. Besides companies like Sprint PCS, I believe all cellphone manufacturers do this. I could be wrong but thats how it looked to me. A friend of mine got a Nokia 51XX? and it was virtually the same as my Nokia 5190. Except I think his had 50 less places in his address book. But he got his at Cellular one and mine was purchased at Omnipoint. Mine was actually cheaper than his go figure..

Runestar

What CNet said about cell phones in japan isnt really new. Email/Short Message Service is available worldwide, so is voicemail (though not locally on the phone), and voice recognition/dialing, and special ringtones etc etc can all be found in most GSM cell phones made by Nokia and Ericsson. Whats new are the i-mode phones by NTT DoCoMo. These have 256 color vdeo capable displays and other neat features.

I'd imagine most people's complaints about the current cumbersome wireless web interfaces would be solved if more handsets like the Nokia 9110 Communicator were available. This thing is a phone and palm-top rolled into one, and is just about the same size as the Touchpoint. Now if we could get someone to manufacture handsets in this form-factor running something with the application support of the Palm OS, I could toss my Touchpoint and Palm V into the trash, or at least onto EBay. Remember that wireless web access on the phone is in its infancy, much better options will be available down the road. I do find fault with Sprint, however, for pushing this service as something for the general public. It's not even close to being ready for that, and what we'll end up with is a bunch of consumers in a couple of years that want nothing to do with wireless web because they remember how awful it was to use it on their tiny StarTAC display.

The other day, I was going to post an "Ask Slashdot" to see if anyone had tried to use Nokia Wireless LAN products, if anyone knew if they were planning to explicitly support Linux, and how best to pressure them to do so. Sounds like it will be easier given the fact that we can point to Lucent support for Linux.

If anyone has any answers to the questions I asked above, let me know.
--

Dave Aiello

The other day, I was going to post an "Ask Slashdot" to see if anyone had tried to use Nokia Wireless LAN products, if anyone knew if they were planning to explicitly support Linux, and how best to pressure them to do so. Sounds like it will be easier given the fact that we can point to Lucent support for Linux.

If anyone has any answers to the questions I asked above, let me know.
--

Dave Aiello

It seems to me that Slashdot is heavy on Palm/Transmeta/Linux news but very short on information from the Symbian group (Nokia, Ericsson, Psion et al). They've been developing WAP enabled devices based on the highly succesful and robust EPOC operating system for quite some time now.

Its interesting news to see Linux moving into a new area but in this sort of arena the current leaders live on the other side of the Atlantic, check out Symbian or Psion and A release from Nokia for an overview on the reasons for Symbian and the Bluetooth initative.

But there's much new stuff. This Intel page explains a lot of the history behind Bluetooth.

Basically, (the Intel page doesn't say this) some engineers at Ericsson thought about designing a new protocol for communication between their (Ericsson's) devices in 1994, and started developing it. The project wasn't initially called Bluetooth, but "MC link" (MC = Multi-Communicator). But somewhere during the development, they started to realize that the chips needed for this would be much cheaper if it was a widely adopted standard, so they started talking with their arch rival Nokia about sharing the technology and making it a common standard. They formed a Special Interest Group (SIG) in 1998, together with some other well-known companies (amongst others IBM, Intel, Motorola, 3Com, Casio, Cirrus Logic, TDK, Compaq, Dell, Xircom, Lucent, Toshiba, Psion, Qualcomm and Axis).
Last year they released the specification for version 1.0 of the standard. And experimental Bluetooth devices have been built using the standard and shown on various expos last year, and real devices are under development now. I think we'll see many of these devices released this year. That's the brief history of Bluetooth.

Here is also Ericsson's Bluetooth site. Here's the specs.

In case you're still wondering why they took his cell phone, check out some info on his phone, the Nokia 9110. That is one helluva phone.

Nokia, Ericcson, and Symbian and Palm all penned agreements to unequivocally ally themselves against Microsoft and Britsh Telecom.

I think Microsoft is shaking in their boots when they see a product like the Qualcomm PDQ and they contemplate what it would be like for their US smartphone marketshare to be similar to their PDA marketshare. EPOC32 has been available for some time in the US and it hasn't caught on nearly as rapidly as the Palm. I think Nokia's plan to wed the PalmOS to the EPOC32 kernel is genius.

I hope it will be enough to put the kibosh on Microsofts plans to ram yet another inferior product standard down the world's throat.

Do you know where an English description of the Nokia 9110 might be?

Is it available in the US?

Embedded AMD 486 processor
GEOS operating system
Data speed up to 14,400 bps ready
Memory Card slot [I think it's SmartMedia]
Network: GSM 900
Connectivity: IrDA, Ir-TranP, RS-232
Dimensions: 158 x 56 x 27 mm (218 cc)
Weight: 253 g

You'll find more information on Nokia 9110 from http://www.nokia.com/phones/9110/.

Nokia 9110 Communicator is a nifty little thing, has both advantages and disadvantages to the Psion S5/Ericsson SH888 combo I use.

Having the phone integrated with the PDA is nice because you don't have to worry about IR eyes being messy, and you can type more easily while walking, etc. Of course Bluetooth will make that possible also with separated units.

/Bergie

--

I've got my Nokia Communicator 9110 (Mobile +PDA), all the functionality of the above, plus it's an AMD 486 with 4Mb of NVRAM, with limited handsfree. Running GeOS (?), complete with mail, web browser (no images), a very basic text editor, calendar, and most importantly telnet (so any ap from a UNIX box). You can even create new programmes for it, (hmmm must program games...).

I use it so that I can do my job and support Networks with it. It's a damn sight lighter than the previous solution (Mobile + Laptop). It fits on my belt, and although it's heavy, it's not much heavier than my old phone!

(This is about the Nokia DVB@Air and not about how superior US standards are ;-)

You can check it out on the Nokia website. They have pictures of it at the bottom of the page. They presented it at the IBC99 (I think). They had a page where they said almost nothing about it alos, but I lost the URL..

They call it a MediaScreen, so it is more a TV with a builtin mobilephone than a mobilephone/PDA with a builtin TV so you need really large pockets to make it fit... Might be good for the bussrides as somebody sugested.

Its base OS is Linux, it uses Mozilla as its browser...

Linux + Moz sounds pretty cool to me. :-)

--Z.

Zontar The Mindless,

The new Nokia 7110 has a browser in it. Check it out at : http://www.nokia.com/phones/7110/

I'm getting mine in the next few weeks. :-)

They are available in Europe and Asia only, for now. The phone is made by Nokia, model 7110