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Mobile Phone with PC running Linux 2.6
A8 writes "There is a new toy (aka the S101) around the corner from a German company called Road GmbH. Looks like the Nokia Communicator, but is a little PC with GSM, GPRS, IrDA, Bluetooth, WLAN -- you name it, running Linux 2.6/Qtopia! Sorry seems like the page is in German only." There are also versions based on the same hardware but running Windows CE and Symbian.
Ah, the Psion 5 ... that was a really decent bit of hardware for the time. Quite a usable keyboard too, even on the minimal Revo model.
Here is the Goggle translation
-=test-sig_0.1.5(NoWhitespaceVersion)=-
Take a look at the keyboard - finally a keyboard at a PDA-size device that includes keys for international characters. It takes germans to understand that some alphabets are longer than a-z!
who speak english.
Looks to me like vapourware. Hardly any info, pictures tooled up with Photoshop (or whatever). No address or phone number, just a one address email. Is it a 'skam' (as we might say auf Deutsch)?
Did he inhale?
What use is linux for handhelds, considering there are currently no good open source mini browsers (eventually, there will be minimoz) or handwriting recognition programs.
For less than this, you could get palm or windows devices that are fully functional. Until there is a free handheld environment, we can't just say "stick linux on it".
--
Dogs are annoying. Go ECFA. Buy a K9Zap today.
S101/S101K
Technical features
Software
- standard applications
- GSM telephone with SMS/MMS
- PIM also
* Directory
* Appointment calendar
* Tasks
- pocket calculators
- dictating machine
- indication program
- MP3 Player
- PC synchronisation Ms Outlook
- remote ACCESS
- InterNet Browser
- email client (POP and IMAP), repeated accounts
- Office Viewer (Ms Word, Ms Excel, Adobe pdf)
[Customized applications]
- cryptology (only S101K)
- Business applications for direct access to firm servers
- Providerspezifi on-line services
[Operating system]
- LINUX Kernel 2.6.x
- Qtopia Graphic user interface
[Hardware]
- GSM telephone
* Display: LCD mono chrome 102x65 pixel
* Keyboard: 20 keys standard layout
* Acoustic output over earphones or free speech mechanism
- PC
* Display: Color TFT 640x240 pixel with Touchscreen
* Keyboard: 63 keys PC-compatible layout
- Diktiergeraet/Audioplayer
* 4 separate keys for control
* Rendition over loudspeakers/earphones
- camera (optional)
* 2 megapixels
Actual working time
- GSM telephone: actively 4h, standby 240h
- PC: actively 5h, standby 30 days (GSM telephone switched off)
Konnektivitaet
- wireless: GSM quadband (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz) with EDGE
* WLAN
* Bluetooth
* IRDA infrared modules
- wire-bound
* USB 2,0, mini USB socket
* SD Card base
* Power supply unit 5V DC, RK 1A
* Telephone Headset or stereo earphone
[Interior life]
- CCU Intel Xscale PXA 263 with 400 MHz
- memory 64MB RAM, 64MB Flash
- Akku lithium polymer 1500mAh, load time 3h
- vibration alarm
[General data]
- weight 210g inclusive Akku
- dimensions 128x60x25m
Does anyone else remember the simpler days, when phones where just phones? When you didn't have to bother with your friends sending you pictures over their $400 internet phone camera thingies? When you didn't have to interupt a kernel compile just to check your voice mail?
I do. Good times.
What if the entire Universe were a chrooted environment with everything symlinked from the host?
In the English version of the page, if you look at the larger picture of the device, the keyboard has a Windows key next to the Alt button. I understand we can remap that key to do whatever we want, but can't we use another image? I'd like to be reminded less of the pervasive MS Windows monopoly.
Linux at home
I'll probably get modded troll for this :(
If you don't already understand the whole "Linux" appeal, I doubt you'd find anything particularly appealing about a Linux-powered phone.
For the most part, I think the appeal is the ability to tinker with it, add software that wouldn't be intended, and various other 'geeky' things that most consumers wouldn't give a damn about. It would give the sysadmin type a great deal of mobile administration ability. If you don't grok grep and pine for sed, there's not a perl of wisdom I can give you which would likely make you see the significance.
Additionally, since it uses Opie, there's a lot of available software out there for the device already. Much of it is 'geeky' software, but as a for instance: you'd be able to emulate PalmOS without any problems, provided you had the ROMs. I don't know if this is possible with WinCE, though, so it might not be all that 'special'.
This particular device looks fairly useful to me, and that's saying a lot, as I tend to thing such things are just trendy toys. The existence of the SD slot is definately nice, as it'd allow you to use this device for quite a few things, including a portable MP3 player. It's got a built-in keyboard which - while not full-size, is a hell of a lot bigger than those on other chick-key keyboards.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
To the user it probably has no advantages at all. You won't even notice it's Linux.
To the manufacturer it's just the usual freedom/free beer thing.
This is your sig. There are thousands more, but this one is yours.
...as soon as I've ordered my Treo 650, they introduce the phone that will mother my children.
I'm determined to reclaim my karma. Now, if I can only find a groundbreaking article and something witty to say....
I don't know wbout Symbian, but getting licenses for Windows CE is not a problem for any size developer. I used to work for a very small company (less than 10 people) in 1999 and we developed an embedded device with Windows CE (2.1 I think). Getting the licenses was not a problem at all. The environment (to build custom CE images) wasn't expensive either (I don't remember exactly, but less than $1K).
A CE license in our miniscule volumes was about $50 (again, I don't remember exactly), which might be considered prohibitive for devices in the $200-300 range. I don't know.
OTOH, Linux in a phone is mighty cool. I doubt it will be available in the US, though.
Hey, let's get this out in the open, shall we. The product was "announced" at the 3GSM World Congress, it don't exist, you can't buy it. Yet...
:-(
But the specs have been announced, you can email the company about pre-ordering, and it's getting some decent coverage. Plus the fact it looks pretty cool (the screen may have been photoshopped, but the model looks like a prototype).
Usually I like to give a product more than 72 hours before denouncing it as "Vapourware".
Now, about the 1400 Euro pricetag
"Any similarity between the hooting of a million eager monkeys and Slashdot is purely coincidental." -THEFLASHMAN
like the XDA-2 and the XDA-3, it will contain not one but TWO ARM processors:
- GSM-Telefon: aktiv 4h, standby 240h
- PC: aktiv 5h, standby 30 Tage (GSM-Telefon ausgeschaltet)
that translates into "one ARM to run the GSM, one ARM to run the PDA". thank god there isn't one ARM to rule them all and one to get them and little toto too, is all i can say.
anyway.
the first is as shown, the Intel PXA 263 running at 400 Mhz.
these devices are approx $30 in volume quantities, and after your 400% to 1000% markup, minus the expected subsidies, would result in a price tag of oh around £70 in stores (_if_ it was running the GSM phone bit on its own, but nobody would buy it because...)
this processor it will be possible to place into "suspend/sleep" mode, to conserve battery life, which would otherwise be drained in a ridiculously short period of time.
the second processor will be an ARM 7, 8 or 9 processor, running at an _absolute_ maximum of 100mhz, consuming sufficiently little power to provide the talk-times and standby-times we expect.
these processors are oh around $20 in volume, and after your 400% to 1000% markup minus subsidies, you're looking at a price tag on the phone of "free" or £10-£20 (_if_ you didn't have the second processor)
put TWO of these processors into one device, and your subsidies mysteriously disappear or become insignificant.
result: a price tag of £200 if you get one of these types of phones [XDA-2, MDA-3, one of these german phones, doesn't matter] with a hefty per-month guaranteed usage contract, or £400 if you buy it without any subsidies.
those 400 to 1000% markups are a _real_ kicker when you get these two-processor PDA+phone jobs.
i'd _love_ to see a linux phone running on just one of these 100Mhz ARM processors, not this oh-we-must-put-two-processors-in-it crap.
This is why you should never buy any electronic device, no matter how useful. The very moment you click on "place order", something twice as good and half as expensive will appear on the market, and make you hate yourself!
It denotes the business structure, which is similar to that of an american LLC or Ltd.