Slashdot Mirror
Trolltech Qtopia Greenphone and SDK Review
An anonymous reader writes "The Greenphone comes at a time when there are countless mobile Linux platforms, but not many of them are open for easy development. This little device aims to fill a niche for a community-oriented mobile development platform. How does it perform? Linuxlookup.com has the Trolltech Qtopia Greenphone and SDK review."
Yes, it IS open source. But from DULA (Device User License Agreement) "...This device may only be used with Trolltech's Qtopia Software. You may not use this device in any other hardware/software combination other than in the combination of hardware and software that was delivered to you...". So no, it's not going to run (any) linux.
Extreme Programming - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Developers
At that price you reaally regret that Greenphones do not yet grow on trees.
For more information on licensing, which is a real PITA for open-source developers, see here: Greenphone SDK.
On the bright side, with projects like OpenMoko and OLPC I think the world will start to realize the power and potential of these little Internet-enabled devices when combined with open-source software.
That's great, but can it run the OpenMoko software? From the license:
Oh, I suppose not. Sorry, but if I spent USD695 on a phone I'd want the freedom to do what I liked with it! That is a stupid restriction Trolltech cannot hope to enforce (although this does make me think of Trusted Computing).
Also, someone should tell this chap to get hold of an OpenMoko to review. They hold far more promise, in my opinion, and seem much more 'community driven'.
I'm going to transform myself into a mighty hawk. Either that or I'll just go and work at Dixons, haven't decided yet.
What I want to see is a phone which has a baseband processor that does all the stuff like talking to the cell towers. Such processor would present a fully documented and open interface (GPIO lines, AT commands, data ports, whatever) which the applications processor can talk to. Everything on the AP side would be 100% open source (GPL or whatever) from the phone dial app down to the daemon that actually sends AT commands to the baseband side.
So far the closest we have to that is the OpenEZX project for motorola EZX linux phones although a lot more work is needed in reverse engineering the proprietary AT commands sent by the proprietary tapisrv app before it can do everything the motorola software stack can do.
Why is it called the green phone? I thought it would be environmentally friendly.
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
What really makes me mad is there's no big buttun "BUY" with a price next to it. I spent 5 minutes clicking everywhere on OpenMoko trying to find a way to buy it, simple and easy (I remember they used to say somewhere about how/when I can buy it but it's buried in their wiki with no hit on the word "buy"). If it can't be bought now it should be marked on the first page as "coming soon/preorder" or something. Same goes for Green phone thing, that doesn't even have a mentioning in the list of the devices. :)
I think if more linux phones are to appea[l|r] to general public, there should be easy ways to get them
Hyperom.com
Trolltech screwed up BIGTIME by going with the cheap controller that supports only GPRS instead of using the chip's big brother that supports EDGE (and possibly 3G) as well. Let's be real -- this phone's only real market consists of developers who want a cool phone they can play with and write extensions to show off to their friends. NOBODY, and I mean *NOBODY* in that market is going to buy a phone that only does GPRS. ISDN-like EDGE isn't really fast... but it's fast enough to be useful and generally tolerable. 19-38kbit GPRS is cruel and unusual punishment.
p ?products_id=7917) with completely open UI (display, input buttons, joystick, GPS, bluetooth, etc that worked similarly to the original Handspring GSM module, it would likely make the phone's purchasers happier. And let's be honest -- this is an expensive niche product. Another $50 really isn't going to matter much to the buy/no-buy decision. Plus, by abstracting out the phone module, it might even be possible to get Sprint to tolerate a CDMA model (Verizon would be hopeless since they still cripple bluetooth and WiFi, but Sprint seems to have slowly realized that with unlimited data plans and nearly-unlimited voice plans as the norm, use of WiFi by customers is a GOOD thing... even if they ARE complete Nazis when it comes to allowing non-Sprint hardware to be used on their network).
In reality, any phone targeted to this market MUST support EDGE *and* 3G. EDGE for the American market (where 1900/2100 UMTS will likely never exist, and 1700/2100 UMTS is still years away from widespread availability), and 3G for the European market (where apparently EDGE was NOT deployed in parallel in places where 3G was deployed early, like Scandinavia).
As for the onerous EULA, I suspect it's because -- like wireless LAN cards -- many of the phone's parameters are software-defined, and it was mainly a regulatory issue. The last time I checked, the phone "officially" supports only 900, 1800, and 1900Mhz. "Officially", as in, "Trolltech paid the relevant regulatory bodies to get it certified for those frequencies". HOWEVER, the chipset inside the phone happens to support 850MHz, and I suspect hacking it to enable 850MHz operation is likely to be fairly easy. A thoroughly illegal act in FCC-land, but not a particularly hard one to pull off that will make life a lot easier for users in the 2/3 or so of America where 1900MHz GSM coverage is still sparse or nonexistent (a coworker of mine has a 1900-only phone that generally works fine in Miami and other big cities, but is largely useless when he travels, with HUGE coverage gaps in between big cities).
I do agree, though, that it's a design mistake for a phone like this to have a unified phone + UI architecture. Even if it cost more to use a blackbox-type GSM phone module like the GSM 862 phone module w/GPS sold by Sparkfun.com (http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.ph
So, that's why the FIC Neo 1973 is so expensive, and doesn't allow installation of non-OpenMoko software.
Oh, that's right. It isn't expensive, and they *do* allow you to install whatever software you want.
No matter what their reasons for releasing the hardware early, it is hardly "capitalism" to restrict what you can do with the hardware you purchase.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
That would be the question I'd like to ask. Does it work well as a phone, have good reception, etc?
If it is a great phone, I'd be more likely to buy it. . . and tinker with it. All these years, I've just wanted phone I could customize in a real way, and I'd pay money for that.
Anyone out there know if these things work well?
If anyone is interested, I recently wrote an alternate review of the phone: http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/03/08/review-tr olltech-greenphone-developers-sdk/
They said they made a mistake with the wording, and re-released the license with better wording.l
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4872069549.htm
"As far as pricing is concerned the phone itself costs $695 USD"
Like most Linux mobile devices, these are priced completely out of the market. Is there a conspiracy to keep Linux out of the mobile market? Could all of these efforts actually be funded by the big mobile makers? Okay, I know its not possible but you begin to wonder. I remember when the Zaurus came out. Let's see, a Palm or (shudder) WinCE device for $299 or a Zaurus for $599. Wow! How's a consumer to choose!?
The Greenphone comes at a time when there are countless mobile Linux platforms"
yet not a single one (at least here in the Netherlands) is available on phones you can get with your new contract, or renewal. There are hundreds of sites with hundreds of phones... and still... not 1.
Come on people. I kind of sense some disappointment, but this is NOT a phone intended for mainstream use (which I feel is too bad, it'd be incredibly cool to be able to show off uptime on cellphone devices).
They've produced far too few of these to be able to push the price per unit way down, and they've also not bothered to optimize the power-savings options in the kernel all the way (which is kinda useless if it's going to be used seriously as a phone).
All that crap aside, it's a really nifty developer platform for those interested in checking out the Qtopia framework. I've been seeing a real-life demo of this, and can say that if they get a consumer-grade phone out, i'll be considering switching myself.
analog < infinite binary (Heisenberg is with me on this one)
I'm curious - are there any other Linux phones that are actually available to buy in Europe (or can be shipped to Europe), and support:
1. Open architecture, ability to at least install apps and build your own apps on another host
2. UMTS 3G support - I don't want to buy yet another GPRS phone, my first one was over 5 years ago!
3. WiFi support
I know about OpenMoko and the Neo1973 - the software sounds fantastic but no UMTS, and WiFi would be nice too.
Doesn't say anything about the system software, which is probably the most interesting thing.
Does it come with J2ME? Are there APIs that allow you write telephony applications?