Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux Powers Motorola's Smart Phone

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the still-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-pond dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Motorola unveiled the A760 at CeBIT and claims the handset is the first in the world to blend the open source operating system with Java software. As well as Linux, the A760 has onboard a camera, diary, e-mail program, MP3 player, speakerphone and colour touchscreen."

4 of 88 comments (clear)

  1. Not really good news yet by happynut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sadly, even if it runs linux on the
    inside, there is no reason to believe
    that developers get any access to it
    (although that would be very nice if
    they did).

    I've worked on the A720 and the A830
    Motorola phones, and none of the underlying
    system was exposed.

    The Symbian Quartz platforms are even
    worse. Even as owner of the phone you
    can't put anything on them; everything
    must be signed by either Motorola or
    the mobile operator. This is because
    there is no security model in the OS,
    so any code on the phone has to be completely
    trusted (like active-x), and they didn't
    want worms to be a problem.

    Hopefully the design on a linux phone
    could be more nuanced...

  2. Oh...and it's a phone, too by Dolphy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I worry sometimes that companies are adding gadgets for the sake of adding gadgets. Is a diary really doable on a mobile phone? Does anyone having experience with the toolbox-in-a-phone market? I'd love to hear some examples of actually using some of the odd toys in the field enough to justify the added cost.

    Now I'm just waiting for my PDA to come with a cup rest.

  3. Hoorah another smart phone... by rf0 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't want to sound miserable but let me explain my recent story. I had/have a Nokida 7650. A new smartphone that has camera/pda/java/internet gprs/colour screen and all great stuff. Its a cool gadget which was admitally a bit bulky. Now I lost it a few weeks ago and fell back on my trusty old Siemens SL45. Its old, mono, slimline and can play MP3's. So which phone is better? Well the SL45 and this is why

    The 7650 is a big phone (and I'm not sure A760 so this might not count) so I found that instead of keeping it in my pocket I took it out as it was uncomfortable so I kept forgetting to pick it up. No such problem with the little SL45. Also its battery lasted 2 days if I was lucky. The SL45 has gone 7 days and still has 1/2 battery less.

    What I've decided I want is a small phone. Colour would be nice, with a camera but something which is stable, works well and doesn't need charging every couple of days. Well hopefully the A760 will be stable, and that includes apps but I will reserve judgment until I can play with it

    Rus

    --
    Cheap UK and US VPS
  4. Linux is the standard by RoLi · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Advantages of Linux in embedding:

    • You control the full source code that runs on your device
    • No licensing costs
    • Thousands of applications are only a compile away
    • Linux is well understood and well supported, it's easy to find employees
    • In the non-graphical embedded market, Linux is already the de-facto standard for new projects. It is a proven technology.

    It's pretty obvious, really. I don't know why so many clueless people always keep asking "why Linux, why Linux?" everytime it is used on an embedded device when it's already not only a proven technology, but *the* de-facto standard.

    In 4 years I promise you that there will be only few CPU-using appliances which are not using Linux. There will be a lot of non-Linux PDAs because of backwards application compatibility, but other than that finding a non-Linux system will be the exception.