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Linux Cellphone for Kids

Posted by timothy on from the handedness-matters dept.

Dan Shapiro writes "Wildseed has shipped the Identity cellphone, manfuactured by Curitel. It runs a Linux 2.4.19 kernel, has serial and USB 1.1 connectors, and includes busybox--although there's no way of getting to a terminal prompt, yet. The phone doesn't show its Linux roots; it's actually designed for teens. It has unusual features like Airtext and SmartSkins, which look like a cross between a faceplate, a Nintendo cartridge, and a Winamp skin. Cellular One and Tiger Direct got them first."

2 of 11 comments (clear)

  1. I like it by tsa · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The design is nice, and I also like this 'AirText' feature. The only problems with it I have are:
    - I couldn't find the microphone anywhere
    - You have to hold the keyboard to your ear. Does it lock the keyboard while you make a call? O well, I guess they have thought about that. Anyways I think it's a great design!

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  2. GSM/GPRS - SprintPCS woes by numbski · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I must enjoy abuse. I keep renewing my account with SprintPCS. I've been with them since 98, and overall they've treated me pretty well, but make the smallest change to my account and they require me to renew my contract for 2 years. It's been about six months, but that means another 18 months with my current billing plan before I can port my number to another provider and take advantage of a phone like this.

    If it has a reasonable ssh client, then I'm all over it. :) mobile IM's never been so good.

    Not that I need IM. Just being able to log into my iMac and reaad e-mail would make me happy. Or a decent Java imap client that supports either subscriptions or a base mail directory. None out there seem to do this yet. :(

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