Slashdot Mirror
First Linux Phone Arrives in US
Mik3D writes "Looks like a Linux based phone has finally arrived in the US. It's called Identity and it features an interesting skin technology that allows users to purchase a faceplate with embedded ring tones, gui, etc... The phone is being offered by Dobson Cellular, an also-ran cell phone company that services those of us up here in the frozen north."
and wheres the review?
really, what's the speed for and do you get any access to the "linux" underneath so that it running linux matters at all?
kinda funky looking though, looks a bit too much of 'deliberately different' for my tastes.
(and other phonemakers have had changeable covers for years and years.. and the cover having some identification/content hardly matters)
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"We chose Linux for a number of reasons", explains Wildseed VP of Engineering Peter Zatloukal. "We are building a user interface that is leagues beyond what exists on current wireless phones, and Linux provides us with a rich environment with which to render our ideas."
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so unless you're an embedded developer and might re-use the code for your own product you're hardly having advantage of it running linux(as a customer)? doesn't really look like you could load your own native programs on it..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
No doubt every
(It's funny, not a troll you crackpot moderator you)
Bot Assisted Blogging
so unless you're an embedded developer and might re-use the code for your own product you're hardly having advantage of it running linux(as a customer)? doesn't really look like you could load your own native programs on it.
... its also a pretty darned good operating environment for embedded systems developers to use to make extraordinarily interesting devices for people who want to use those devices for specific tasks, not spend all day working out the switches for their USES= var ...
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look, would you rather it were a closed-source operating system with no support, destined for the graveyard in some bankrupcy court, or 'sold off like a cheap truck of pigs' to some other mega-corp who squish it after exercising their own propietary OS into the same marketspace?
the fact its running linux means that the device itself is based on open standards. regardless of whether you can './configure;make;make install' from the touchpad, the fact its using linux just means that its got a good head-start environment for creative developers - like the guys selling these phones - to do interesting things.
its a phone, not a rootkit. linux is not just a vast landscape of tarballs
good troll though, down on the linux tip. i won't bother mentioning that the existence of devices like this mean that the desktop wars are over, and new battlegrounds are upon us, though
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Why so old a kernel version? Seems odd to me...
It may run Linux at the bottom, but what of the GUI? Most likely it's some kind of memory mapped framebuffer, because you don't need anything more advanced than this for a mobile phone (although that may no longer be true with all the 3D games coming out, but I don't see a particularly rich interface on this phone in the marketing pictures).
Have the company released the api specification for the application that runs on top of the kernel and powers the phone's interface, so that developers can create new software that integrates with the phone? Without that, the phone is more proprietary in many ways than Symbian, Palm or PocketPC.
Remember that you can be quite clever here, since in general, most people seem to reckon that running a proprietary closed-source application on top of a GPL kernel isn't a violation of the license. So they can keep the source code for the GUI under wraps for as long as they want.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for using Linux in embedded devices, especially if there are Dollars or Euros or Yen going towards kernel.org to support this kind of work. But really, it's not a big deal from an end user's perspective, or indeed a Slashdot geek's perspective.
As a sidenote, haven't Nokia proved that freakish form factors don't actually sell? How am I supposed to look at the screen whilst typing a text message or e-mail on this phone?
How did this get modded "Troll" when it is "Funny"?
Considering its a fashion phone its a real shame it looks like its got Peyronie's Disease.
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Why could they not have made it a more "conventional" shape? It doesnt matter what OS is on the thing if it looks bad it aint going to sell.
Nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
This phone was interesting right up until I read this:
Identity(TM), featuring SmartSkins, is the first phone (GSM/GPRS) designed to communicate who you are and what you're all about.
Thank God, now I can stop talking to people and just show 'em my phone.
I suppose it has a ringtone that properly conveys the pre-middle-age angst of wondering if I've chosen the right career, uncertainty in my prospects for retirement (let alone *early* retirement) and that old-timey-style pinin' for the bygone era?
No?
Hmmm... maybe it's in one of the screensavers.
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
It looks like the phone is curved so that the earpiece and microphone fit for a right handed caller, but I guess lefties just have to hold it convex side facing front... unless there are actually speakers and microphones on both sides.
Here's a list of Linux phones.
A friend of mine has a Samsung (IIRC) that shows the OPIE boot screen when it's turned on. Nothing special - it was picked up at a local Verizon store or similar.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
what would you have to do to make the OS owner-accessible?
This article covers what the CPU can be used for and there are plans for a LinuxSkin that'll allow access to the busybox shell running on the phone. Doesn't say when, it just says the plan exists.
I know one of the developers of this phone up in the Seattle area. Great work, guys!