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Linux Powers Motorola's Smart Phone
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."
...someone turns one of these bad boys into a web server? :)
It seems cool I suppose, I just hope that they are using linux on the phone because it has a genuine advantage over the alternatives, not just to say they run linux on their phones, to appeal to the geek crowd or whatnot.
I would expect such blatant racism on Fark, but on Slashdot? Mods please ban this asshole.
As long as it works nicely, looks decent and doesn't run Windows.
where's all that Karma?
check out the new filwalker from invair
:-)
well this little thing looks like a really nifty tool. it does not have java plastered all over it, but it will probably run java if you want as well as the sources are open. it also does not have a color screen which has limited use in a pda imho, atleast as long as the pda does not have a camera build in. but this thing has everything else you could wish for in a pda/phone and i dont even use sms so i doubt i will use mms
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...
In all the excitement of releasing this new modern wonder to the world the motorola engineers have announced that there is no "phone call making capability".
A motorola spokeperson was quoted as saying "Well we were so happy to see useless features in a phone, we forgot to add the basic features of the phone, jokingly we're going to change our slogan from 'Hello Moto' to 'HELLO?? MOTO?? CAN YOU HEAR ME AT ALL??'. Seeing as Verizon Wireless is one of our largest purchasers we feel they'll get the joke too."
When asked whether or not the phone would be able to make and receive telephone calls the spokesperson replied, "What, you have email and linux, what more do you need in a phone, this is the phone of tommorrow, today."
In similiar news: Nokia has announced that they will be making the "Microwave Phone" that will combine cellphone technology with burrito cooking power. Sure to be a hit for everyone who thinks their cellphone should do more than just be a phone.
And in not so similiar news: 1337 h4x0r5 from around the world have announced that they are happy to see that they'll be able to run their scripts from a cell phone and be able to '0wn j00' when they're out on a date. One 1337 dud3 was quoted as follows; "Like if I ever get out of the house and like see a girl and like go on a date with her and like she doesn't hit me or nothing I can like 0wn a box tellin the world how I loves her and stuff it will be like the best thing in the world for getting me like laid because like I don't think like I will ever get laid."
So Everyone seems to love this new modern 'Swiss Army Knife' of the telecommunication tool belt!
FYI: The phone does make calls, that was meant to be a joke ...
Ignore the "p2p is theft" trolls, they're just uninformed
"There is no one operating system that is perfect, you have to be involved with all of them,"
Motorola spokesman
I can see the support calls now.
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.
It won't be long (I'm assuming within 10 years) before you come to work, put your phone into your docking station, and use it as your desktop. The UI on the phone itself will be just a special-purpose program running on a general-purpose computer.
I personally can't wait.
Non-US customers can ignore this post and might actually enjoy all the next generation gadgets. How is life in the 24th century?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
From this tutorial
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
All that stuff is nice and dandy, but if I have to retype it all in via keypad, it'll never get used. Why don't all cell phones sync with a PC?
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.
It's also an inside joke in Finland. Mr Proper is (was?) a household cleanser just like Vim :)
have to have java smeared all over it? Sure its nice, and (hopefully) has the advantage of being easy to port games to from other mobiles, but unless you compiled it somehow, you would end up with a lot slower phone (my biggest gripe with my t68i is that its slow). I also happen to think that java is a horrible language, but that doesnt have much bearing on its inclusion, except to say that I am biased on this subject.
What I really like about the idea of running linux on a phone though would be the ability to completely change the way it works - install a scripting language, and start writing all manner of hacks. Some ideas I can come up with off the top of my head:
- an sms spam filter
- general sms filter to say have a different ringtone for family members, or simply forward to a seperate inbox without notifying you when your gf annoyingly messages you during lectures (okay thats wishful thinking about the having a gf part).
- (assuming it has bluetooth / GPS) different profiles depending on where you are - say turn off the ringer automatically when in a lecture theatre/meeting room (GPS), or turning up the ring volume when leaving your room (bluetooth going out of range).
- Making your own games (nethack anyone). Sorry, just had to put that one in.
- SMS auto responder
- SMS compressor/expander - converts your text in2 sms spk tht nobdy cn undrstnd 2 fit more on a line, and more importantly, translate back what little it can understand of anyone elses sms speak. On a similar note.. proper compression (gzip?) and encryption - a bit less useful re phone compatbility.
- IM client (again on the better SMS theme) - using GPRS/bluetooth/3g/whatever connection it can get.
- A console app... no linux box/brick is complete without this one, although typing in 5557777 to get a listing would be far to much hassle.
Oh yeah.. phones have voice capability as well dont they?
- encrypted voice phones (James bond anyone)
- Voice changer - phones already have a dsp in there.. if they made it easy to access....
- Client side voice mail - a lot more configurable - different messages for different callers, call fielding like traditional answering machines (listen to their message then pick up).
- Okay, completely off the wall... access the radio transceiver and use the phone as a broadcast receiver, ham/cb handheld, gps receiver, weather station etc.. etc.. not feasable atm, but with the advent of software radios, and being able to access the internals of the phone (heres where the linux on phone bit comes in), it may not always be this way.
A lot of these would require subsantial hacks, but if someone implemented linux properly on the phone and made it easy to access properly, I doubt it would be that hard to do at least some of those ideas. The big advantage however, is that everyone can have the phone customised their own way (those who dont know how to program could say just download a spam filter/voice mail system).
That is the sort of phone I would like to see.
I think a lot of folks aren't quite up on what a phone has in terms of resources that one can utilize well, especially for cool hacks and whatnot. Running linux on a phone is a good first step, but there's a lot more that needs to exist first.
First off, there's memory issues. Having replaceable flash memory is useful, but more often than not the cellphone stores it's programs in read-only high-speed (and thus expensive) flash that's either on the chip itself or very much part of the built-in phone. Phones are usually quite tight in terms of memory usage, especially smart phones like this; writing any permanent programs that run on the phone constantly must keep that in mind.
Another issue is single vs. multithreaded apps. Most cells are optimized to be single threaded, as it's faster, uses less CPU overhead and usually easier to program/debug. That removes a lot of the ability to do things like, say, add a global filter to the mix. It's not impossible, but you should keep it in mind.
Third, most cellphones require a fair amount of specialized hardware to reprogram the phone itself. Or reboot it in the case of problems. Not to mention images needed to reflash it if something goes wrong, the software required to interact with the hardware on whatever platform, etc. All of these things are possible, but they are hard to easily get around.