Motorola A768 Phone Loaded With Open Source

Supp0rtLinux writes "According to this article over at Linux Devices and noted on here at NewsForge.com, Motorola has released a newer version of its A76x line of cellular phones. This newest release, the A768, boasts of open source softwares from Monta Vista Linux, Trolltech, and Sleepycat. The only downside is that it appears to only be available in China right now. And the older A760 released last August is still only available in Europe and Asia. Why are we in the U.S. always the last to get new cellular toys? The good news, though, is that with a Linux base and an integrated PDA and MS Office file compatibility, at least syncing this to either a Linux system or a Windows one should be fairly seamless. (A760 Review)"

Comments

OMG

[Supp0rtLinux]

300+ submissions and one was finally accepted. Time to tell the wife and kiddies... :) I've finally made it to the ranks for geekdom. Now, if only someone would sell me their extremely low /. number... something under 5000 perhaps?

Re:OMG

[dasmegabyte]

I'm thinking about selling my Slashdot account on ebay. I'm a level 56 Star Wars nerd / level 52 Apple zealot.

Re:OMG

[CompressedAir]

It seems the trick was to pack in as many links as possible.

Re:OMG

[Anonymous Coward]

300+ submissions??? Damn, that's persistance.
Was there a wife and kiddies before the first submission? Perhaps you could post a timeline.

Not an option

[Doesn't_Comment_Code]

The only downside is that it appear to only be available in China right now.

Well I suppose you could learn Chinese, but paying for around-the-world roaming fees will probably screw you.

centericq, vnc, and gkrellm too!?!

[planckscale]

That's all I need is an always on centericq text message center with gkrellm running to let me know when I have new emails, my cpu usage and maybe a virtual desktop into any IP address while on speakerphone with live video with gps location and news and weather alerts vibrating color ringtones bash shell mp3 playing miniDVDdiskburner ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh *splat* head explodes

great

[Triumph The Insult C]

now, not only do i have to deal with people talking on cell phones while driving, i potentially have to deal with people compiling kernels on their cell phones while driving

Re:great

[RevAaron]

Judging from the Zaurus [1], we'll probably find out that this handset can kinda sorta make phone calls. But check this out! You can run MySQL on it! And PHP! And X11! See how cute my phone is at a LUG meeting, although during the rest of the week it goes unused...

[1] Enter Zaurus cheerleader, who says: "It's not supposed to be a good PDA! It's a PMT, not a PDA! *frothing at mouth*"

Re:Handys in Germany

[Anonymous Coward]

A a fellow German, let me tell you that the term "handy" means nothing to non-Germans. At least nothing cellphone-related. ;-)

Please deposit $699 to make a call

[AtariAmarok]

Full of open source?

"Please deposit $699 for the next 3 minutes. Thank you for using Cingudarl."

Re:US cell phones

[Anonymous Coward]

look into CDMA, biiiiatch. superior by design and a product of the US of A.

Re:Handys in Germany

[stratjakt]

As I can speak for Europe

Exactly when were you appointed official spokesperson for all of Europe?

here's some. want more?

[Anonymous Coward]

ching chong(pang ding, eggroll **dong)
{
galing ping[gang(dong[0] ? chopsuey[0] : "") + sezchuan(FRIEDRICE)];
eggroll *;

yung (!chopsuey[0])
ching = chong;
}

Office file compatibility?

[www.sorehands.com]

Does that mean that the phone will run all of the word/excel macro virii/viruses?

Re:What next ....

[RLW]

no kidding. not only did I have a toaster running in 2001, I now have a fridge with a PS2 compatibility mode: which as turns out was a big mistake as now the eggs are always trash talking the frozen waffles about who's best at GTA. It's a bad confluence to have over teched appliances filled with sapient GM foods. Where will it end?

Re:Why not in the US

[Supp0rtLinux]

UM, the A760 (which has Linux OS base just like the A768) has been released in all of Europe and Asia. Its that neither are available in the US. And considering that there are so few Windows-based phones available in the U.S., Microsoft is probably happy to just have them. Sure... they won't like Motorola doing Linux phones anymore than they like Dell selling Linux instead of Windows, but they're not in a position to be dominant in the cell phone market right now. Studies have proven that embedded Linux is better than embedded Windows and nobody wants their cell phone to blue screen on them. The best cell phones are Java and Linux based. MS will have to fight hard to dominate that market. Of course, knowing them, they're probably about to release a MS Cell Phone that needs a 200 character license key to activate.