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Ericsson And Red Hat In Home Communications
Inforum writes: "From the Ericsson Web site: 'Ericsson and Red Hat announced a strategic initiative to develop a new range of consumer products and services for home communications.
They will develop consumer products combining existing industry standards, such as Java, and the latest open source technologies, such as Embedded Red Hat Linux. The products will also support existing and evolving standards such as broadband networking and Bluetooth ...'
Then I wonder: what will happen to Symbian?"
Sure there is demand. One really good example i can think of is home cinema products.
:)
I don't know if you've ever tried to integrate multple home cinema products from multiple manufacturers, but it's a royal pain in the ass. I have a TV, VCR, Cable Decoder, DVD player, Surround Stereo, and of course the computer.
Most of these devices use slightly diferent standards (For example, my cable box & DVD can output a clean RGB signal, my VCR only does composite - Meaning i have to manually adjust the colour & brightness each time), and a multitude of connectors and cables. I also have a total of six remotes controls (Two just for the stereo/AMP) The only way the computer is connected to the whole setup is via. a line from the soundcard to the stereo.
What if all of these products worked to a singal standard. Physically, i'd love to have just one (Or perhaps two) types of connector, that can connect all of my hardware together. Then stick something like Jini on top of the standard hardware, and now my hardware can all talk to each other. No need for those six remotes any more, my DVD player will tell the Amp to switch it's inputs automatically. My computer can now become a much more integral component. Hell, i can even connect my stereo directly to the internet, and recieve Netcast radio, or download MP3's on demand. Or connect my TV/VCR to the internet, and download streaming video. Do away with the VCR completly, and i can record from the Cable Box onto the computer.
Phew Anyway, if you managed to follow any of that, you'll get my point. Integration can only be a Good Thing. I can't wait
Syllable : It's an Operating System
Having visited Ericsson's show-home recently, I was actually pretty impressed with the direction they are taking. Although they have one of the (in)famous Internet Fridges installed, this is actually one of the least important bits of kit they have.
:-)
The majority of their focus at the moment seems to be on intelligent home automation systems - such things that might be found in a care home for instance, to help improve quality of life for the elderly or infirm. Such things as intelligent alarm systems, devices to control that electrical appliances are switched off when they should be, lighting systems with usage patterns and simple IR-based on-off routines. The emphasis is on using existing technology and making it simple and easy to use.
I think that Linux would be a good step forward in this, inasmuch as it is freely and easily customisable for new applications. Who needs Windows for embedded systems?
On the more nerdy side, I look forward to these technologies filtering out of the lab and into MY home
"Give the anarchist a cigarette"
A little planning goes a long way...
I _hate_ to be a karma whore, but I saw this post just as I was checking out Ericssons stock (ERICY) on yahoo quotes.
:(
/nutt
CBS MarketWatch
C|net News.com
This doesnt make me a karma whore, does it?
After all, there are _no_ links to media coverage in the article. o well..
Enjoy the links...
While I'm sure some Java programmers will be thrilled to see the inclusion of that language in the list, it's equally important to notice what they aren't using, namely Jini. The idea behind Jini is that any device on a network will be able to discover and talk to any other device, through the use of Java programs running on an embedded JVM. While an interesting concept, it has failed completely.
OTOH, I think that that method is clearly the way of the future. Plug 'n play has vastly simplified the installation of new hardware: systems like Red Hat's kudzu can autodetect and install stuff automatically. Imagine if your network could do the same. Wirelessly. Bring your laptop in a room, and you can instantly communicate with other computers and peripherals, such as printers or scanners. Apple has something very much like that, and I think that Open Source is seriously lagging behind.
Jini would be a good idea, but I think we can discard the JVM and replace it with an embedded Linux version. Remove the dependency on Java, and a whole new world opens up. Sun can only lock new technology into it's languages and platforms for so long.
-- Floyd
-- Floyd
... is something we've been hearing about for a long time - remember those old 50s shows that portrayed everyone in silver suits sitting around in uncomfortable looking chairs whilst unlikely-looking robots catered for our every need :) And yet the average house of today is little different from what it was 30 years ago - there are more gadgets but its still the same idea.
Now we have several companies offering us amazing new products which will turn our houses into networks constantly linked to the outside world through broadband connections. But the thing I wonder is - is the demand there yet?
For sure there'll be those of us who like gadgets - most of /. for instance - for whom a setup like this will be almost irresitable. But for the average homeowner having all of this is still somewhat redundant - they just don't need an entire house connected via wireless links. As of now there isn't any real need for having your fridge/cooker/whatever connected to the rest of the house. Sure, there are advantages, but not enough for anyone to lay out the kind of money this will take.
So apart from a few of us who like flashy new equipment, the take-up of this kind of technology will most likely to be pretty slow. Still, if it gets built into new houses then it'll gradually become the norm, but I don't think it'll become the next "must have" thing.
What happens when an appliance running Embedded Red Hat Linux has a security hole? Let's say it is a refrigerator...for the sake of privacy you wouldn't really want anyone in the world to see what you eat on a daily basis......
So how would you be able to upgrade the refrigerator's OS? Flash BIOS would be inconvenient, even if they were automatically updated, because it leaves a big margin for errors on Red Hat's side...if they rush out a security fix or are lazy writing one and it is buggy, how would someone like my mother be able to fix it?
Remember....Most people that buy these once they become mainstream will be computer literate in the worst way......
-Omar
Hmm, I wonder what will happen to Ericssons co-op with Microsoft?a ct/Microsoft_alliance.html
htt p://www.ericsson.com/infocenter/publications/cont
English is not my first language, so cut me some slack -: Om du kan lasa det har sa kan du Svenska
* their own phone OS .. )
* Epoc (the Symbian platform you know
* Windows CE (until they switched to Epoc)
* and now Linux
Ericsson has announced two products using Epoc, the R380 smartphone (soon to be released) and their new Communicator platform (commonly known in the press as "the Palm killer") ... now they announced _one_ product using Linux - and Slashdot authors wonder what happens with Symbian? (Owned by Nokia, Panasonic, Motorola, Ericsson and Psion)
Come on .. please .. reality check? :)
it's in my head