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Motorola+Qtopia=Linux Smart Phone
lems1 writes "Start compiling the excuses you will tell your boss to upgrade your cell phone now. Motorola has opted to use Trolltech's Qtopia to power up the next generation of SmartPhones. Get the scoop/specs from here and a nice high-res picture from this other link.
The phone will have 'digital camera, video player, MP3 player, speakerphone, advanced messaging, instant Internet access and Bluetooth wireless technology' capabilities. On top of being Linux-based of course." Update: 11/12 00:44 GMT by T : Yep, this is the same phone mentioned a few weeks ago.
MP3 player? Video player? These things are awesome, but are we sure we can still call them 'phones.' Somehow I think being a phone is no longer their primary feature.
i'm not sure about you guys, but i think bernard is a girl, and i must say, she's pretty happy to be speaking to noone
I write code.
Hey, this is awesome. Time to throw away those MP3 players, digital camera and others, and just get a cellphone.
Seriously thou, isn't having that much options on a cellphone make it slightly more confusing to use? Especially for those who drive and talk?
In US, you can easily buy enough major firearms to wipe out your neighbourhood but a few little fireworks are banned.
Since this runs Linux, and companies that you've done business with are allowed to call your cell phone, can we expect a call from SCO if we buy one of these?
It had to be said...
I feel sorry for the person hosting the picture. His bandwidth bill is going to be a bit larger than previous months
How about a solid, reliable phone that just makes really, really, really good, clear calls? To many of the current generation have that "disposable" feel to them.
--- Ban humanity.
Seems Motorola is showing the way, along with HP and IBM - All of these big companies that I had some antipathy against before are now showing some courage... Guess they are large enough to ignore Microsoft or try alternatives, while the smaller ones are ending up in either the Symbian or Microsoft camps.
Anyone? I can't find it on the site. CDMA, GPRS, string? what?
that's kind of important to those of us with a choice.
looks nice though. I never liked the clamshell design but now it's growing on me... much better than having to lock the keypad all the time
I am a leaf on the wind
Phones, PDAs, set-top boxes, computer games, medical equipment, industrial controllers, and other systems need graphical user interface software that is smaller, smarter, faster: and that runs on multiple platforms: including desktop and server platforms.
What worries me about this wonderful Swiss-Army phone is the software. If it ran Palm OS, I could easily continue to use all my current favorite software.
Where do I find software for this beast?
If it runs pure linux stuff, yeah! But if it runs some hybrid, I'll wait a couple of versions down the line until the software is commonplace.
...is that this picture is actual size.
I don't think I'll be giving them any money soon.
It's a $1399 fee, you dumbass, not a 1499 fee. Now please shut the fuck up and go away. plzdiekthx
Now all we need is the GPhone
And, the model A760 is ideal for execs on the move with secure and instant access to corporate e-mail and database applications. Everyone loves a multi-tasker.
Cell phones are the battleground where Linux will defeat Microsoft for world domination in the OS war. When executives who buy Linux-based phones note how reliable the OS is on their phone, it's a short mental leap to see it's reliability on the internet, servers, phone systems, and eventually the growing server and desktop.
Many techs think this is naive, but just ask a suit. You'll be surprised to hear the phrase "I thought Linux was dead". Executives are like salespeople; they only believe what they see, and what they see is the end product.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
Anyone know (or have reason to guess) if this thing will play Ogg Vorbis or FLAC audio files? Despite my decided lack of money I would buy an iPod if it had Vorbis support, and while I don't need a walkman, I do need a cell phone.
This message is encrypted with Quad ROT-13 to protect the author's copyright under the DMCA.
Trolltech(R), a leader in multiplatform development frameworks, today introduced Qtopia(R) Phone Edition (Qtopia Phone), a Linux(R)-based application platform for phones.
The combination of Qtopia Phone and embedded Linux creates a robust operating environment with the flexibility to support phones with limited capacity, feature phones and high-end enterprise smartphones. Qtopia Phone provides all the base Qtopia applications, plus a user interface designed specifically for mobile phones.
The Trolltech Qtopia Phone Edition comes with two types of user interaction; either by a phone's keypad or touch screen. Qtopia Phone will include all the standard Qtopia applications, customized to fit into a phone user interface, plus a 'Home' launcher that presents time critical data such as missed calls, messages received, and calendar events.
Key features of the Trolltech Qtopia Phone Edition include: Phone User Interface: Designed specifically with a mobile phone user in mind, Qtopia Phone's user interface is designed to work on a variety of screen resolutions, such as 176 x 208 and 240 x 320 pixels, and can be used with either a touch screen or the phone's keypad. It can be personalized by end users and customized by manufacturers and network operators. Applications: Qtopia Phone includes a powerful suite of phone applications, including PIM, productivity, email, telephony (dialer, messaging client and others) games, and media player (MP3, MPEG, and others). Synchronization: Users can synchronize their phone with either Qtopia Desktop, a multiplatform desktop PIM suite from Trolltech, or with Microsoft(R) Outlook. Qtopia Phone can synchronize contacts, calendar events, to do items, as well as multimedia files and documents. 3rd party applications: Because Qtopia Phone Edition is based on the same development platform as Qtopia PDA Edition, the existing Qtopia applications (over 1000 thus far) can easily be ported. Java integration: Several Java Virtual Machines (JVM?) are already running on Qtopia Phone, including Esmertec's Jeode? and IBM(R) VisualAge(TM) Micro Edition. Java applications integrate seamlessly into Qtopia phone, providing phone manufacturers Java content with a native look and feel. Development Environment: Trolltech provides a suite of tools that developers can use to customize and extend Qtopia Phone Edition. The powerful development environment makes it easy to develop on a desktop system, then cross-compile onto a target device.
Qtopia Phone Edition is the first solution in the market to offer a completely extendable platform for Linux-based mobile computing devices, said Haavard Nord, Trolltech CEO. Qtopia Phone provides unprecedented functionality as an out-of-box solution and can be easily extended and customized. This advancement in the feature and smart phone arena keeps us on the leading edge of innovation to provide our customers with the best-of-breed tools.
In a related press release, Trolltech today announced that Motorola, a premiere mobile phone manufacturer, has chosen Trolltech's Qt/Embedded for the A760. Qt/Embedded is the software development framework used to develop Qtopia Phone.
Find out more on our Qtopia pages.
Availability:
Qtopia Phone Edition will be released in Q1, 2004.
About Qtopia(R) Phone edition:
Trolltech's embedded Linux phone edition is a customized version of Qtopia designed to work in a memory-constrained mobile phone. With a modifiable user interface and low memory usage, phone manufacturers can create a stunning GUI that enables them to stand out from the crowd. Qtopia Phone is available in two versions: Keypad-driven and Stylus-driven.
About Trolltech:
Trolltech(R) is a software company with two flags
So, is Motorola betting on Linux (this phone, A760) or MS Smartphone (MPx200)? Or are they just playing with both to see which one wins?
Hot air: Since "SCO is pleased with the way the licensing program is moving along" they do not have to send the bills to the companies using Linux.
My guess: They are afraid to do so, since the first time someone refuses to pay up and claims this is fraud, or at the very least not valid, those who have paid would join up in a class act. There are also some US federal laws that make it illegal to send bills that are a fraud. SCO has probably judged they would 1: lose, 2: get bad press, stopping the rise in their share prices. Besides, they are probably rather happy with the money they are getting from Sun and Microsoft - the two companies that are benefitting the most from the SCO FUD program.
Qt/Embedded is the low-level widget library - essentially Qt ported to embedded Linux. Qtopia is a suite of PDA/SmartPhone applications that build on top of Qt/Embedded. I belive that Motorola is using Qt/Embedded and its own suite of applications on top, not Qtopia.
Their license sucks and they're owned by SCO. THEY MUST DIE !
To save some time, go here for the specs without the HTML junk.
I have the forefather, one of those old VisorPhones that you put in springboard of a Visor. It's about 2 years old now I think, and quite big in my pocket, if you compare with these new models. Still, I wouldn't trade for any of those other "smart phones" out there, except for this new Treo 600 of course. Why buy a phone that also tries to act as a pda, when you can get a really good pda, that can also act as a phone? I mean, the gadgets of a cellphone are more important than the phone itself, right. :)
Looks like a bunch of Average Joe contestants to me!
Just because this phone runs Linux does not necessarily make it better than the other phones out there. Sure, if they had used GTK+ it would look like arse, but if this phone doesn't have the hardware to back up the software, it's simply not going to perform as it needs to. It's great to support projects that support Linux, but if those projects suck, your support is wasted. There are plenty other worthy cell phones out there that perform as advertised, such as those from Microsoft and Handspring/Palm. Don't let Linux be the one and only reason for choosing a phone. You may get burned.
Well.. Thought I might write this in here. I saw the coolest phone ever so far. My friend's colleague has this Motorola that is still not in production yet. It has a cool form factor running Linux. It doesn't have any apps in it yet. All it had was a nice looking blue screen and nothing else. The cool thing is it was running telnet server. He telnets into it and nfs mounts his Linux desktop and uses the real player that is built into the phone. Is that cool or what?
The idea of a Linux-based phone is nice, but Qtopia just isn't a very good environment. It was far too clumsy and 'desktop'-like on the Zaurus, and will likely be even worse on such a cramped device as a telephone.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
So it has bluetooth and can be a phone. Nice. Great.
Does it support 802.11 and a web browser?
And the syncing software/toolset (like jpilot)...where is this?
How about an external keyboard (like the Targus folding keybords for Palms?)
Qt/C++ is faster and uses less memory than Java (think: better games with Qt).
I wonder if the other mobile phone makers will follow Motorola's lead.
Why does Slashdot go nuts over anything that runs Linux? Ok, it's a phone that runs Linux. Hooray. I say big deal. It already runs on PDAs, GameBoys, and other handheld devices, it's not like a phone is a huge leap.
Shameless plug:
Blogzine
Wonder if they are making this phone hearing aid compatible? For those of you who may not know (probably most of you), a hearing aid has a telecoil that picks up EMF frequencies. Most modern phones broadcast in EMF but cell phones are more spotty. My Samsong A460 does broadcast EMF but also provides lots of static and weird noises..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
I think it's more AT&T than the phone. I have a T720 with Verizon and it almost always gets a good signal; the only time it doesn't always is when I'm inside a large building and far from a window.
the way the phone handled it was totally motorolas fault though.
however, learning yet why operator tie in sucks and how phones aren't 'free'? when you can change the operator if they suck without hassle(or big fees) the operators are far more likely to make the network actually usable(than just concentrating on locking the poor sobs in).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
I think Motorola made a mistake by choosing Qt/Embedded, and one that may cost Linux the phone market.
Choosing Qt/Embedded means that Motorola is now tied to the fortunes of Troll Tech. The GPL option of Troll Tech's license may be acceptable for open source developers, but it wouldn't be an option for Motorola should Troll Tech decide to take a wrong turn somewhere with where they take Qt/Embedded (some would argue that they already have). Furthermore, commercial developers for these phones have a much higher cost of entry into the market than if Motorola had chosen one of the LGPL'ed toolkits.
Altogether, Motorola is in roughly the same situation with respect to Troll Tech as they would be with respect to Microsoft if they had chosen Windows CE. But Microsoft at least is guaranteed to stay around a little longer.
What is particularly sad is that Qt/Embedded really has technically no advantages over any of the alternatives. Even compared to X11 and Gtk+, Qt/Embedded is slow and memory hungry; it's less featureful and without open implementations.
Congratulations on a good marketing and sales job to Troll Tech. But this is a pretty sad day for Linux and open source.
Nice one. I hate the GPL too.
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Since the Zaurus runs Qtopia, you would hope that a fair quantity of the Zaurus software would run on this phone. Whether the insanity runs as deep as I've seen for the Zaurus (i.e., running apache and sshd) is yet to be seen.
Also, wouldn't it have support for J2ME as well?
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Actually, according to this article at LinuxDevices, Mot did NOT select Qtopia for the A760. Quoting from the LinuxDevices article: 'Trolltech has announced that Motorola's much anticipated A760 smartphone will be based on Trolltech's Qt/Embedded application development framework. However, the device will not make use of Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition, which Trolltech has pre-released to select customers but not yet formally shipped.'
heh, does anybody actually like to use these "dial pads"... seriously whos gonna take out a stylus everytime they want to make a call?
I want the new pocketPC T-Mobile phone (I don't think one has come out yet...)
.net portable framework. I've already written a few simple ones using the simulator in visual studio and it's incredibly easy. I predict that as Visual Studio 2003 catches on and pocketPC 2003 catches on the number of pocketPC apps will spike and at least catch up with the number of palm apps.
.net framework.
Why?
Because you can use Visual Studio 2003 to easily write apps for the
Just about any app you can think of that would be useful could be written straightforwardly using the portable
Does anyone know anything about the development kit for the qtopia phone?
Amazing magic tricks
Isn't Linux supposed to make stuff cheaper?
$800 for a Phone!?
Nokia wants to sell phones, not software, hence it's in their best interest to provide free development tools. Thanks to this enlightened policy, there's a TON of software out there for Nokia phones.
[Insert stupid comment regarding wireless beowolf cluster of these here]
TIAEAE!
Although I do not blame you for mistaking Ragnhild's gender.
I admittedly didn't research every fscking handset on that anouncement site. The general fine print I did read on the BT handsets pretty much pointed to the Bluetooth phones, once again, being only for GSM/GPRS.
;-P
Sprint and Verizon, what gives? What the hell do you guys have against BT??? I work in the industry and have even queried a few manufacturer reps and higher-ups at the carriers and the results have been disparaging, to say the least. Reps scurry away quickly with hands firmly clamped over their ears screaming "HEAR NO EVIL! HEAR NO EVIL! No wana go to house of pain!" and the carrier suits just cast glaring, angered looks my way.
Whatever happened to that Sony-Ericcson T68-like tri-band CDMA handset that Sprint nearly adopted the first part of this year? The same one that anyone who did have knowledge of it seems to have now been lobotomized. Well, at least Sprint recognized that Bluetooth exists. Um, Verizon, there's this nifty little wireless technology that many of your customers would like to see in their handsets... Your competitors all have it for the most part but their networks pale in comparison. Um, did I mention it was wireless?
Goddamnit you CDMA carriers! I want bluetooth! And not that stupid Motorola T270 strap-on bluetooth battery cover horseshit either! Ah, if only I could sync some sort of svelte little phone with my Palm or iSync on my Mac... SANS DATA CABLES! It's just plain frustrating. The good cables cost a kings randsome and the cheapies, sometimes they work and sometimes you piss away a weekend getting 'em to work.
Seriously though, if any of you fine folk out there in the industry know of any hope of a real BT/CDMA solution in the works then how about just a little tease, eh?
Yeh, yeh, go ahead and mark me as a troll but I honestly felt it needed to be said. Again. Really, all I want for Xmas is a CDMA/bluetooth phone. WAH! WAH! WAAAAAAH! Ahem.
Does it sync with Outlook? Sad but true.
Why do they allow normal phones?
If something is so sensitive that cannot be photographed, I would imagine they don't want any audio bugs there either.
Motopia!
You must be kidding. I bought one of their timeport phones and it was the total suckage. I asked a couple friends why that was, and they gave me that pittying look - "Look...that poor sod bought a motorola, how sad..."
A lot of stuff runs linux nowadays. But just because you can slap linux on a machine doesn't mean it's a good machine...
If a train station is a place where a train stops, what's a workstation?
None of the Motorola phones I had were particularly ergonomic. The tri-band P7389 was particularly annoying. You can't simply add a number that you just dialed to your phone book. Nope, you have to enter the whole number one more time. Disgusting. Why should this be better now? As far as usablity, Siemens and Nokia still lead the pack by far.
open (SIG, "</dev/zero"); $sig = <SIG>; close SIG;
Anyone knows where to buy the A760? Is there any reliable online shop already selling it?
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I had a Motorola Accompli 008 (I needed a calendar) which can be described as an older version of this phone I believe and it sounds like this phone have some of the same flaws according to a small "review" I found here.
Basically, the interface on the Accompli 008 sucked. It has got to be pretty easy to use or I'll simply not use it. I ended up only using it as a phone and it wasn't very hand in that regard. This smartphone sounds like it's become a bit better, but not that much. Today I have a SE P800 and I actually use its PDA features, mainly the calendar though.
This is great and all but at $800 I think I'll pass. Those of us in the USA are also left out of the loop as they currently only have networks available for this phone in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. It's apparently suppose to be released in the USA sometime later but who knows when.
I really wish they would stop putting these Camera's in phones. Because not only is it useless, at least for me, but I can't even bring the phone into work anymore because of my companies policy on camera's in the work place. It's almost like you have to buy a low-quality phone so I can use it everywhere, including my place of work.
Integrating photography and telephony can be much better than just adding a camera to a phone. In the US across the 20'th century, persons spent about 80 minutes on the phone for each photograph taken. This is roughly the same ratio as picture sending/voice telephony today in Japan with camera phones. See Table 7, p. 125 and p. 135 in "Sense in Communication," available at www.galbithink.org. Getting more value out of photography probably requires new practices of use. A good start might be for mobile phone manufactures to figure out an appealing device design that enables talking and sharing images at the same time.
While I applaud motorolla for choosing linux and qtopia, and would love to see it succeed in the marketplace, alongside symbian. Creating a mobile phone that looks like a toilet seat/lid is not going to do anyone any favours.
Choosing linux is a step in the right direction for motorolla, I found their older phones interfaces somewhat cumbersome, although I quite liked my little clamshell one with a red backlight!. Motorolla need to produce some nice looking phones as well as putting a nice OS on them. Phones are as much fashion accessories for most people, as they are techie toys to us geeks.
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
Because this says it's $799.95. $800 for a fucking phone? Are they insane?
Your mare doesn't use non-linux phones!
SCO was talking about $35 for every embedded license.
Engineering is the art of compromise.