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Linux-Based Phone, Snatched From Inferno
elemur writes: "For your linux loving friends with everything, why not get a TuxScreen? This phone is based on the Compaq Linux distribution, normally used on the iPaq. When is the last time you needed to upgrade the packages or distribution on your phone?" A phone with a 640x480 touchscreen and a lot more smarts than "redial" would be an upgrade to most people anyhow -- being able to play games even more.
Although some may snicker at the kicthen aspect of the phone, this really does provide a nice platform for Linux telephony.
Strides are being made in the telephony arena using linux. Bayonne is making great progress:
http://www.gnu.org/software/bayonne/news.html
One of the interesting things that people forget is that while VOIP is cool, you can't forget about the phone/automated system interaction for transacation based systems. Lots of market there.
Go to Japan, come to Europe. This really isn't news. The nokia communicator http://www.nokia.com/phones/9210/index.html or for you guys next year http://www.nokia.com/phones/9290/index.html does all of that, runs on the rock solid EPOC operating system and is very nice as it runs full Java and a proper rather than cWAP browser (although it does that as well).
Java's CLDC and CDC profiles address these sort of issues in a device independent mechanism which is critical given the differences in OSes, memory configurations and facilities.
An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
Since a lot of posts here seem to show a misunderstanding about what this phone is all about, let me explain:
This is actually a phone that was developed and produced about three years ago. It was really ahead of its time when it was made, but never reached the market before the project was cut.
Tim got his hands on a big pile of them, and is reselling these dirt-cheap as Linux developer boxes because they've got a 206MHz StrongARM, 640x480 color LCD screen, have 2 PCMCIA slots, are expandable up to 72MB (come with 16MB), have telephony circuitry (caller ID, etc), so they make a great development box. They come with an
IR keyboard too. (I saw some comments about having to use the keypad to play games which
isn't true)
You can find out some more details about them by going here.
Thought I'd post here briefly to clear up some of the comments.
As andersen mentioned these are a discontinued product which I got a hold of for below the manufacturing cost.
They are a true hackers appliance. Probably don't serve any useful purpose yet. Once we have VoIP and a digital answering machine working then I'll call them useful.
At any rate the components should run you around $300 (usd) so if you want a project to hack on, this has been a fun one for those involved.
There is no x-10 interface. As the paragraph quoted below mentions this could be connected to the existing serial port if you like.
Linux will run on the device. Inferno is on them now. Play with both. Subscribe to Inferno source for $500 and hack on it if you like.
It looks like MicroWindows and perhaps others as well running on uClibc will fit in the 4M of onboard flash and get about the same functionality that the existing Inferno offers. I prefer a complete open source solution, but will not force those views on others.
Thanx for the interest! Still around 1000 units left at the time of this writing (for the may that keep asking).
Tim Riker - http://rikers.org/