Review Of Linux-based Motorola A768i

Eugenia writes "MobileBurn published a review of Motorola's A768i, the Linux-based smartphone that employs a PDA-style form factor. It may not have much in the way of photo-taking abilities, but the A768i might be the thing for business users as it excels in the phone/messaging category."

Comments

No pad?

[HotshotXV]

So I tried to RTFA, and I got a 500 error past the first page - so my question is without a numeric keypad, how the heck do you dial the phone? Do you use the stylus - cause that would just be annoying.

Re:No pad?

[muftak]

Most people only dial numbers that are already in the phonebook, so you only need to enter numbers once, or sync it with your pc. So it's not that annoying.

Re:No pad?

[LinuxHam]

I find it faster to dial someone's number if they're located somewhere in the middle of my phonebook

Have you tried hitting the first letter of their entry while looking at your phonebook? That jumps right to their area on most phones. Also, if the second letter is pretty far down in the alphabet, try hitting the next letter that comes AFTER the first letter of your desired entry. For instance, to look up Stuart, hit T (8) to get to the T's and then go up from there instead of scrolling down through all the S's. Try it out sometime. It really is better than dialing the whole number, especially if you're driving.

Messaging?

[Anne Thwacks]

So long as internet use over a mobile phone is more expensive than buying your own internet cafe, there's little future in this.

The phone operators should realise that they could make a lot of money if they were not so damn greedy with their download rates.

Why a 2G phone?

[millwall]

I find it quite strange that innovative phones like this one is still being made for the 2G networks.

Since the market for this phone is business users, and the network coverage for the 3G networks is more than adequate almost everwhere where you will find a concentration of businesses.

In many areas you will find that there are even more than one 3G network provider. With this in mind I find it odd that you will still see so much development on the 2G phones, especially with data intensive devices as this one.

Re:Why a 2G phone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hmm, primarily because the backbone is not entirely 3G yet.

Besides, 2G definitely has more of a coverage than 3G does.

Hence a lot of continuing investment in 2G networks.

I think.

*the* thing for business?

[melonman]

the A768i might be the thing for business users as it excels in the phone/messaging category

Because no other equipment competes for this niche? Or is it because obviously the only acceptable solution is a Linux solution, and if this is the only Linux option in the niche it's therefore what everyone should be using? I like Linux, use it almost exclusively, but I can't say I'd go for a Linux PDA or phone if, say, a Symbian alternative had better features.

Business

[StevenHenderson]

It may not have much in the way of photo-taking abilities, but the A768i might be the thing for business users as it excels in the phone/messaging category.

Not necessarily. The fact that it has a camera at all makes it unuseable for me at work (security). Give me an option if I want a camera or not, and adjust the price accordingly. Then we will talk.

By the way, does this look just like a Palm m100 to anyone else?

Linux on a telling-bone

[ajs318]

It's all very well that the phone itself runs Linux underneath. What's more important from where I'm sitting is, can I use it with my Linux {single-booting and proud of it} notebook? For instance, does it use standard {or at least, well-documented and free for the asking} APIs so I can write my own perl scripts to do cool things with it? Can I use it to get on the Internet? Do Motorola provide the drivers as source .tar.gz files which I'll be able to compile on any system, not just the "commercially viable" ones? Does the phone have a scripting language {I mean, more sophisticated than ash} on-board?

My wishlist would be for something that looked to the host PC as though it was a USB network adapter plugged into some sort of network. You would assign it an IP address in a subnet of your choosing, from the phone's "console". There would be standard servers on standard ports {21 for FTP, 22 for SSH, 80 for web, 3306 for database, &c.; maybe even an Asterisk proxy for hardcore VoIP users} so as to keep the interface clean and simple {I'm implying that they would just be using regular files and databases for storing ringing tones and contact info; there's no reason to assume otherwise}. While you were on the Internet, the phone would do NAT, just like one of those little ADSL gismos.

Re:Linux on a telling-bone

[ajs318]

the way it syncs data with a PC seems to be proprietory (it doesnt use the qtopia desktop) and the PC-side software is Windows-only.

Bloody typical.

I am seriously thinking of writing to my MP to try to get it made law that manufacturers must provide full disclosure of driver specs if they want to sell their goods in this country. Placing the driver source code under BSD licence or GPL would of course satisfy the requirements. {I know BSD can be poison; but it isn't actually too bad for situations like drivers, where there is no danger of proprietary extensions taking over from the main code base. The manufacturer can't add proprietary extensions themself, since that would break the requirement for full disclosure.}

Meanwhile, has anyone got any success stories re. getting a Linux laptop on the internet with a mobile phone? Any mobile at all? If I use my own dial-up server, will it just be counted as any old mobile-to-landline call {and therefore covered in the monthly allowance on my current tariff}? I don't need a feature-packed phone with a colour display, camera and integrated self-rolling ashtray, just something that lets me send and receive text messages and answer voice calls. Oh, and go on the internet, obviously :)