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Dual-core Smartphone Runs Android and Ubuntu

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the two-is-better-than-one dept.

nk497 writes "ARM is showing off a test handset at Mobile World Congress, which runs Android 2.3 and Ubuntu 10.04 at the same time on a Texas Instruments OMAP 4 chip. ARM envisages a time when the only computer you'll ever need is your smartphone and with Nvidia announcing it will be putting quad-core mobile processors into tablets by autumn and smartphones by Christmas, that prospect looks to be approaching faster than anyone expected." Video is attached if you're curious.

5 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. Battery life must be bad by EricTheRed · · Score: 4, Interesting

    but that will improve.

    Saying that this sort of thing will happen eventually, with Meego being mothballed after Nokia defected to Windows we need a good Linux based OS other than Android

    --
    Java gaming nut - http://www.retep.org/ or for the rail http://uktra.in/
    1. Re:Battery life must be bad by CRCulver · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Intel has announced that it is going ahead with Meego development. Meego was never just about mobile phones, but extends to netbooks and in-vehicle devices as well, so the loss of Nokia was no crushing blow. Nokia was the only major handset manufacturer committed to the Meego edition for mobile phones, there are also several smaller firms who planned to release Meego smartphones by the summer (Aava was preparing Meego cores for multiple firms). Meego has in no way been "mothballed".

  2. What's interesting? My phone runs Debian already. by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh, Nokia fucked it up. Drat.

    (Yay for N900 comunity release!)

    --
    Watch this Heartland Institute video
  3. Been trying to do this for a while... by rwa2 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    People have been running ARM Debian / Ubuntu on their Android devices for some time:
    http://www.android-devs.com/?p=152 (albeit you'd only be booting one or the other OS at a time)

    A simpler way is by using the chroot method such as the one described at: http://www.misfit.co.zw/?p=144 , that way you can still run the Android OS with all the drivers and everything, but be able to SSH or VNC into a full Debian ARM install running on a chroot on a partition in your SD card.

    I haven't had too much luck with it yet (TnT-Lite on my GTablet didn't let me use the loopback device to mount an img file... will try again using a straight ext2 partition on my SD card). Looking forward to being able to apt-get stuff onto my phone/tablet, though :-P

  4. Re:What's interesting? My phone runs Debian alread by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The N900 sucks compared to modern phones anyway. You'd do better with a normal Android phone running Debian.

    N900 wasn't even that great when it was new (eg. crappy touch screen) but nowadays it's outdated as hell.