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Trolltech Woos Developers with 'Open' Linux Phone
An anonymous reader writes "Trolltech, best known for its Qt graphics framework and toolkit that form the basis of KDE, will ship the Greenphone, an open Linux-based phone in September. The working GSM/GPRS mobile phone features a user-modifiable Linux OS, and is meant to jumpstart a third-party native application ecosystem for Linux-based mobile phones. Users will be able to re-flash the phone with modified Linux-based firmware, via a mini-USB port. The device is based on an unspecified Linux kernel along with Trolltech's Qtopia Phone Edition (QPE) application framework and mobile phone stack. Gosh, this has gotta be the perfect phone for KDE lovers!"
It seems like there's a phone for everyone now...
Support the Chagossians
Of course, there's no information about where in the world this will be available (although suggestions of both Aisa and the US) or how much it's going to cost you.
I'd like to get hold of one, but it looks like vapourware to me.
So if this will be available in US, what service I wonder. Be very cool if it cost about as much as the rest of linux does ;)
Cool! Can it run Skype?
-- Cheers!
Sounds like a nifty gadget. I want one, really. I'll take a dozen if they'll work with my provider. I break phones on a regular basis :(
Problem is, I just don't see these taking off. The big boys (Cingular/Verizon/Sprint) aren't going to want something like this on their lineup. What they'll see when they look at it is a massive increase in support calls as people flash their phones with something they downloaded of the interweb only to find out it's essentially spyware for a phone. The ability to flash a cell phone is downright frightening when I think about the sheer number of users I support who aren't capable of selecting the correct printer 30% of the time.
If these phones make it to market, expect to see the package offerings somehow disable their flash ability, or at least make it difficult to flash the phone and risk rendering it useless. That would be entirely too much of a headache for the providers.
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Funnypics
If only it had GPS hardware built in.
Kphone is the name that KDE users will mostprobably call it, not Greenphone. Greenphone is GNOMEish.
Yeah sure, a nix phone, with KDE, great idea. But what's this "user modifiable" stuff? That pretty much guarantees carriers won't sell it. Can you imagine trying to support it when little Johnny can't make a call out?
Keep adding to this.
Automatic encryption of calls.
Powerful scripting: at [date], call [number], playback [message1], record [message2]...
Lots of games.
It does run Linux!
blow your mind already
It's not like the phone is environmentally friendly, but I guess they're trying to insinuate that it's good for the [software] environment.
The irony would be if this phone were released in the US bound to a single carrier.
-- n
...master of none.
This phone looks like it trys to do everything. WiFi, GPRS, and make phone calls too. The battery life on it will be HORRIBLE, or it will be huge, quite possibly both. I had two Sharp Zauruses, (Zauri?) and I tried using the Qtopia desktop on both. No, I have not tried a recent version of it, but the version I used was NOT ready for a generic user, much less in a semi-mission critical application like a cellphone.
I see this crashing and burning. No consumer (read "average 20 something") will want this. It just doesn't look good, and the OS doesn't inspire confidence.
--sig fault--
There may be a phone for everyone, but we don't yet have a phone for everything.
From TFA: The Greenphone appears to be a working GSM/GPRS mobile phone
However, the important (and missing) bit of information here is, which carriers will let you use it? Around here (Arizona, USA) its all but impossible to get a carrier to take a phone you didn't purchase from them, even when it is locked up and in essence still 'owned' by them.
Who's going to let me use a phone they not only aren't making a profit from, but don't control and can't use as a lock-in tool to increase the hassle factor of changing providers? No one, and this device, for as cool as it is, will be useless as a result.
By all means though, if you can find evidence anywhere that any US carrier will accept this phone without 6 months of battle against staff trained to say it is "not compatable with our network"; I'd really love to be wrong.
~Rebecca
If only it had a keyboard. I have been looking for a non-vaporware phone that I can develop my own applications for for quite some time now. There are many possibilities.. But lacking a keyboard(thumbpad style is fine), I don't see this particular model as being very useful.
"Gosh, this has gotta be the perfect phone for KDE lovers!" All 6 of them? Karma--;
All the comments about carriers not supporting it, or not feeling like they will start selling seems to be missing the point. The phone's primary purpose is to be sold as a development environment, along with Qtopia a license to spur development of 3rdbased party applications to run on Linux mobile devices. Trolltech does not appear to have any desire to partner wtih Verizon, or Sprint or anyone to sell this to consumers. Maybe I am wrong, but this is how I read it. It is called the Greenphone because that fits nice wtih Trolltech's marketed image they have been building over recent years.
It has a touchscreen. You could write your own keyboard app, assuming it doesn't already have one.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
Answer: This phone isn't intended for commercial use. It sales will be limited. It is intended to allow developers to create content so that when real phone manufacturers consider QPE there is a suite of software to make it competitive.
Comment: Carriers won't allow this phone on their network.
Answer: It is a GSM phone. If it is certified, it will work on GSM networks.
Comment: Users will screw up their phone reflashing it.
Answer: It isn't intended for the average Joe cell phone user, it is intended for developers.
Comment: "Jack of all trades"
Answer: For a development platform having all the functionality you may need to test against is critical. Actual real world usefulness, not so much. This phone could be considered as a piece of test equipment, the fact that it looks like a phone is probably just to spur innovation.
Look at the homepage of trolltech. Look at the choice of color. ;-)
So...ask again...why green?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I couldn't find any specs which say this phone will actually have wifi built in. Only GSM/GPRS.
Other colors to choose from are doodoo brown, pinkeye, dead marmot jelly red, and sweatstain white!
Anyone in the states who buys the phone just needs to make sure that the phone is either quad band or, if it is a tri-band only, make sure that the area you are in has the 1900MHz coverage and pop your SIM in. Once that's done, there may be an issue configuring voicemail, WAP configs and the like but that's a 2 minute job. Course this requires one of the GSM based carriers (Stingular or T-Mobile).
My only beef with the linux based phones is the lack of useful apps (yeah, like spell-check). I own the Motorola e680i which is a good phone to listen to radio or mp3s but as far as business apps go, the choices are non existent.
Or are you one of those "backwards" users stuck using CDMA and thus (in North America and most other CDMA-using places (except Korea)) locked by phone and provider?
One of GSM's major features (and less so in Korea) is that your subscriber info is stored in a tiny chip. That chip came on a credit card sized piece of plastic a la a "smart card" (if you've used GSM phones in the 90's, you'd know that there were phones that accepted the entire card as is). That chip enables you to take it out of your current GSM phone, buy a new phone (unlocked or same carrier), stick the chip in the new phone, and voila, you have a new phone, with your existing subscription info!
And look, you can get those 10 phones for $1 contract deals and use those chips in different phones than what was provided (depending on the provider, this route may be more economical than just buying the activation kit).
This is one reason why I went GSM looking for a new phone - so I can use it with my phone, but then stick it in a PC card modem when I wanted to use it with my computer. One subscription. Two devices. Only one can be used at a time, of course, but I have the freedom to change phones willy-nilly, or in this case, surf the web using the modem's faster GPRS modem. (The provider can tell, since the IMEI number changes, but there's little they can do).
Korea is special for CDMA because they force CDMA providers to do the same thing ("RUIM" cards) but in North America, most CDMA phones are locked and activated by carrier. But from what I can tell, Cingular and T-Mobile both provide GSM service, and thus would work just fine.
All you have to do is make sure the phone supports the frequencies of your local area. "Quadband" phones (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz) work pretty much anywhere. Triband phones are often 900, 1800 and 1900 and work in most places in North America (850 being the old AMPS frequency, and isn't in widespread use where a Triband phone will leave you stuck vs. a quadband phone).
Corporate phones with customized features that suit the corporation, things of that nature.
I think if you're considering it for "Your average Joe", you're missing the point. Its for both Linux/mobile buzz and IMHO, where it will shine is for large corporations.
More importantly, the service providers (especially Verizon) wouldn't want to allow people to mess with the phone because it would give them a chance to load software, ringtones, etc. themselves instead of paying exhorbitant prices to buy them from the provider.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Can you GNU me now?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Using Skype over the cell network would be kinda pointless, even if it were possible, wouldn't it? But the point seems to be that the device supports Wifi, which is fast enough for Skype. So if the 312MHz CPU is fast enough, you could have one phone device which can use the regular cell network, but can also use Skype to avoid cellphone charges whenever you're somewhere that has decent Wifi - offices, college campuses, coffee shops, bookstores, wifi'd buildings, wifi'd neighborhoods...
it's for development.
De-VE-LOP-MENT...
Get it?
SHeesh. Besides what to you care? I'm sure there is a phone in the kithen.
Buda-bing.
Who cares? It's got SIP!
Trolltech I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
All the new cellphones coming out trying to be Video Game Centre/PCs/iPods/Cameras.
The fact is- they don't do any of the above tasks as well as the real thing.
I wish phone companies would work on improving reliability and lowering the cost of the phone rather than adding a bunch of mediocre "add-ons".
Seems phone companies have lost touch with the people that want to use their phone to talk to people.
Ok, I want one. I don't care if its meant for the "masses" or not.
:)
Trolltech is making a smart move here. Once these phones are sold out, and nerds everywhere are hacking on it, they'll have a ton of good software to choose from when they start pushing their stack onto the major carriers.
Here's what I want:
1. Apt. I want to fire up a telephone version of synaptic (on my phone and/or my computer) and have debian style repositories to pick and choose from for software.
2. Real calendar/todo/whatever syncing with Evolution/Kontact. My current Sony/Ericsson Z520a can do this pretty well over bluetooth with multisync, but its not perfect, and the native PIM software on the phone blows goats.
3. Nethack. Had to say it
4. SSH - no nerd is complete with a ssh terminal in front of them at any time. Sadly, that includes me.
5. A stable API for companies like Opera, Yahoo, AOL, etc. to port their software to.
6. Push style email would be nice, but then Trolltech would get sued, a la RIM.
I work with the latest Xscale stuff, and I've never heard of a dual-core Xscale. Either Marvell have done major work in the last few months to make a PXA chip dual core, or there is some sort of marketing goof here.
ARM does design some multi-core chips for their very cutting edge stuff, but PXA chips are not doing that.
I'd love to get some links to this "dual-core Xscale" if I am wrong though!
Cheers
Damnit - I wanted my nick to be "WouldIPutMYRealNameOnSlashdot"
Sorry, I was going by what I read in Linux Devices yesterday. Looks like there is not builtin WiFi in the Greenphone. Too bad.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The specs are more similar to PDA devices with GSM support (like those by Qtec). Yet, it will be Linux-powered and flashable. That's a nice toy for geeks. It may even give rise to some kind of subculture.
Just one question. It is announced as GSM/GPRS+WiFi device, but it seems that for this price today it should be GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS + WiFi device. This is a must for a smartphone/GSM-PDA.
it is trilateration, using time of flight which is distance rather than angle.
(And it might use more than three, but since 3 is the minimum, tri seems reasonable).
"Ecosystems" have ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with a phone.
According to Trolltech's site, this phone uses the BCM2121 chip, which doesn't seem to support EDGE, limiting its users to significantly slower plain GPRS.
Software
- Qtopia Phone Edition 4.1.4
- Linux kernel 2.4.19
Hardware- Touch-screen and keypad UI
- QVGA® LCD color screen
- Intel® XScale® 312 mHz PXA270
- 64MB RAM & 128MB Flash
- Mini-SD(TM) card slot
- Broadcom® BCM2121 GSM/GPRS baseband processor
- Bluetooth® equipped
- Mini-USB port
And as Lorn Potter points out in the QDevBlog http://blogs.qtdeveloper.net/, he's got one already, so it must be close to production.Hmmm... a phone with a freely modifiable OS. Let me use my psychic powers:
I am seeing millions more posting "wft dude how i clone a celfone?".
I also see the uncountable numbers of tech support calls from grandma who downloaded the "daily bible quote" program only to find that it dials a 900 number every 2 minutes.
I am seeing Stephen Carter, CEO of Cingular, actually falling off of his chair made of solid gold when he hears this news.
I am seeing an emergency RIAA meeting when they figure out that it COULD, POTENTIALLY be made to RECORD and DISTRIBUTE ILLEGAL MUSIC!
I also see a mac user unable to get his mac to talk to his cell phone; but no one really cares.
Nice try, thank you for playing.
If you had bothered to RTFA, you'd see that the phone supports 802.11, and is designed to be SIP enabled.
A quick search on google suggests "Results 1 - 10 of about 9,000,000 for unlocking mobile phone". Every corner shop round here (in the UK) seems to be happy do it for you. Can't be that hard surely?
From Reuters:
Trolltech offers fully reprogrammable mobile phone
By Eric Auchard
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 14 (Reuters) - Norway's Trolltech AS (TROLL.OL: Quote, Profile, Research) has demonstrated the first fully reprogrammable mobile handset to help phone designers innovate as fast as their counterparts in the personal computer industry have done.
A major divide that separates PCs from mobile telephones is that while designers can freely reprogram a computer's software, most of a phone's functions are fixed at the factory.
"(Independent) developers are having a hard time figuring out how to participate in the mobile phone market," Benoit Schillings, Trolltech's chief technology officer, said in an interview after a news conference to unveil the phone on Monday.
Trolltech, the world's top supplier of Linux software for mobile phones, said it will offer a mobile cameraphone running on the international GSM/GPRS standard it calls Greenphone.
Trolltech's phone is priced at around $690 and comes with all the software and source code necessary to develop a complete mobile phone model, including core Linux operating system controls, a phone dialler, address book and camera application.
The phone is not aimed at consumers, but would allow a wide audience of designers to create new features for future mobile phones.
While the Greenphone, which is due out in September, opens up the field of mobile phone development to small design firms and individuals, it gives large organizations a fully functioning test environment with which to develop new models.
"This industry is in a deadlock over how to make new services evolve on mobile handsets," Schillings said.
FROM GAMES TO INSTANT MESSAGING
Trolltech aims to encourage everything from games to business-level applications to teen instant message devices to be developed using the open design of the Greenphone kit.
A corporation could find it economical to develop a custom phone for say, 1,000 employees, then take the design to a contract manufacturer who would build the phone using standard hardware components according to the design, Schillings said.
Trolltech, which held its initial public offering early last month on the Oslo Stock Exchange, supplies Linux mobile phone software controls to companies such as Motorola Inc. (MOT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the biggest seller of Linux-based phones to date.
The company also supplies a variety of Chinese and Taiwanese electronics manufacturers including Wiston Group, Compal Electronics (2324.TW: Quote, Profile, Research), ZTE (0763.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), China Techfaith (CNTF.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Yuhua Teltech, which will build the Greenphone.
Linux is an open-source software system that has been gaining ground among electronics makers seeking common ground among the patchwork of hundreds of different phone designs that have fragmented the industry.
Phone makers have designed 40 models with Trolltech software, resulting in 4 million phones sold globally to date.
Yeah, I know, the baseband drivers/firmware/hardware won't let you so that, but it would be nice...
They are not gonna let any random idiots access the GSM network directly with any device. Period.
The networking devices of GSM network are not very fault resilient. New kind of crap which does not behave well and is installed to the network can cause serious problems to the network. So what, you say? Well what if someone dies because emergency calls won't reach the destination!
What you will have is the phone part separate from the actual part which runs the applications. This is also needed due to strict timing guarantees, GSM frames are quite short and so on, you need to be accurate. If the processor is busylooping in some application it's not very good for the quality of the phone call.
So you will be able to do funky stuff with it yes, but don't think you can access the network and write wild sniffer stuff for the air interfac.e
Summary: it's a good thing to offer this to developers. But don't think you'll be getting a "universal access" to GSM/GPRS/UMTS/EDGE/whatever network. Still more open than S60. It's good.
any thoughts how this may have an advantage over the www.savaje.com all java os?
pretty much able to build your own software to this device thats been available for a few months.
Cheers,
dean
Here are the links to the SavaJe GSPDA Jasper S20 developer phone.
Signatures are a waste of bandwi (buffering...)
There seemed to be more lime at Linuxworld.
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
But the round-trip shipping across the Atlantic and customs duties are a bitch.
Gosh, this has gotta be the perfect phone for KDE lovers!
OK. Now I understand that people generally consider apps written in GTK to be gnome apps, but pure Qt apps stand out like a sore thumb on a KDE desktop. Qt is merely the foundation that the multitude of KDE technologies is built on. In fact, about the only people that use KDE that care much about Qt are the developers. Even most of the default Qt widgets are extended in KDE. This phone does not use KDE. It does not use kparts, kio slaves, knotify, or any of the other technologies provided by KDE from the perspective of the end user or the developer.
To summarize, Qt != KDE. This is not a KDE lovers phone.
Well, at least the platform supports it, but the Greenphone doesn't have the chip? The article from 14 is outdated when states that "The device also includes WiFi, and comes with SIP middleware supporting VoIP calls"? My bad then. :)
Why get the green phone when for $350 next month you can get the Sony Mylo linux phone with Skype...and it has a QWERTY keyboard...
If you're primarily US, you'll have to have both 800 and 1900. We use 800 in rural areas for GSM. The bad thing about GSM in the US is coverage west of the Mississippi is spotty, and they don't include AMPS for fallback :(. Good news is Cingular/AT&T dropped the hammer on TDMA users, change by Jan2007. GSM is just TDMA with GPS location through the triangulating the towers. TDMA does include AMPS. That's why TDMA users hung on so long.
Unlocking phones is another matter. T-Mobile readily unlocks them for you European travellers. I know of no Cingular subscriber who can get the unlock code. Of course, Tracfone can barely provide activation codes, let alone unlock codes.
this is obviously not for the norwegian market since we have converted to UMTS long time ago ;)