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386 Based Linux Powered Telephone
nizo writes "A touchphone that sits on your desk running Linux! Has a builtin
touchscreen for dialing a number, makeing notes, etc. Wonder if
these are for sale in the U.S. ? " The website isn't english, but it looks pretty cool. Very nice design. Features an 8 inch touchscreen, and does email and faxing just for good measure. Runs what is described as a stripped down Red Hat 4.2 (there does seem to be some issue about them releasing the code as required by the GPL, but I'm sure they'll make good on their obligation in that dept should they ship the product). Good to see Linux running small appliance devices like this. I'm sure we'll see a lot more in the coming months.
Hey, don't you dare go bringing up anything like facts when it's obvious that this story is must be told. the story must be told because it has linux -- and damn all the "facts" that you're so concerned about. /. guys responsible for posting without researching.
i mean, come on, you can't hold the
Much like the back door in certain Dreamcast CD's, I imagine this would be complete with something allowing "proper authorities" to very easily know everything you are doing and did.
Technology is the dictators secret weapon, because no dictator has effectively used todays technology to that end. I'm scared of when the first try will come.
The appliance makes sense but only with the answering machine and, if the ability to make phone calls (both local and long distance) costs far less than pots. Since you can call this an internet ready device which enables you to do messaging including fax and email, I can't see why it can't make use of the internet for phone calls. Does any one know if this is the case?
Would I go out and buy one? No, because, with all these internet appliances coming out, what's the cost to the ISP going to look like? These ISP guys are going to get pretty rich. Say, if I had a dozen internet appliances in my home, how much is the connect time going to cost me for all those appliances?
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty conservative. I only have one telephone with an answering machine. I'd like to get a cellular phone to use in my car but I'd like the price to drop significantly. BTW, I hardly make long distance calls.
Yeah I can say TIVO...Can you say WebTV? Tell me about those cheap, capable Linux based set-tops again?
if it isn't in english, wtf are you doing posting it here. This is an american site, isn't it, unless you've gone pinko commie on you.
If it is really based on Linux, I would love to buy one!
(-1, offtopic)?! what the hell are you talking about, moderator?! this "news" item is about fucking linux running a goddamned telephone isn't it?!
*NO LINUX*...if you don't believe this, PLEASE POST ANY URL, ANY DOCUMENT, ANYTHING AT ALL THAT SUPPORTS YOUR POSITION!!
with all due respect, moderator, this is completely ontopic relative to its parent post.
Actually, he's comments aren't as flaming as they used to be. Ever since karma's been hidden, he's spoken his mind a lot more. He's not in any danger of losing the +1 anytime soon.
What a waste! They could have easily used an HC11 for this purpose! Running linux doesn't mean it is automaticly a good idea. Why don't you people wake up?
read with mozilla m12!
Heres a pic http://www.touchphone.com/max_big.html. Needs color screen. :-)
now the kiddies can r00t my phone and snoop in on my phone sex!
Give it up dude... leave the trolling to the real trolls. Jesus. *yawn*
Here is the explanation: http://www.prisma-eng.it/html_eng/linux.html
Touchphone is a smart company - they're using WinCE and are developping their own interface (which will have some proprietary closed source code) by building on top of a non-proprietary kernel (Linux) and tools. I wouldn't doubt if they've got a whack of BSD and QNX code lying around for good measure.
Going to market now sure they might use WinCE (which make me wince!). MS gives money and tech support for companies using Win CE in embedded systems. Since really big iron server space is not in MS's game plan and with 90% of the desktop market there's no where to go but down (relatively speaking), the embedded market is a huge opportunity so they're throwing $ around.
Plan: chum up to MS and get exposure, get toe-hold in a brand new market, and then gradually move new versions of the product over to embedded Linux running Mozilla with an IE "skin".
So there!
probably added sync to fstab, you can try it too, slower fs though.
2MB disk-on-chip from m-systems: About $15 USD ISA card to support such chip: About $20 USD So.. $35 USD for 2MB disk-on-chip, about $50 for double that.
Uhh yeah it runs WinCE and a lot of PC's can run Windows98 and maybe like most PC's that ship with Windows this phone will ship with WinCE. Who knows what the pre-market prototypes run in their engineering labs?
The main part of the story is that the thing runs linux *not* that the product is shipping now with Linux installed. So the company is not beholden forever to MS for the OS.
The fact that it *does* run Linux means a lot more bargaining power with MS for development and maybe even marketing support etc. Right now MS needs deployment space for WinCE and are willing to pay for it.
Please pay attention: THE UNIT CAN RUN LINUX.
I didn't see anything about linux either, this guy just beat me to the post. Don't understand where all the slashdoters, and cmdtaco are getting there linux news from.
The Navitel TouchPhone is an example of an Internet appliance running Microsoft Windows CE, including a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Please tell me we are not stupid enough to think that this device runs linux
it means "Discover the new Windows CE".
The Navitel TouchPhone is an example of an Internet appliance running Microsoft Windows CE , including a version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.
What happen to researching something before it was posted for everyone to see? Evidently things have changed since the june 30th artical. Even Microsoft has the information about the port of CE to I386. Microsoft seems to endorse the Navitel version of the phone, Navitel however is in the process of being bought. Who knows when their site will be back up. I have being trying to download the manual for more reference but have had no luck. There is some confusion, with what this product is. Is anyone from slashdot going to make an effort to confirm posts before they go up or what?
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsCE/WebTelephone/de fault.asp
Why is anyone even bothering to still develop land-based phones? Wireless is the future!
Just as an FYI, if you click on the british flag in the top left corner of the page, you get the English Version of their web site.
1.4 million Lires, that`s 700 Dollar. That`s a lot for a phone. And in the press releases they also say the fucking thing runs Windowns CE. No thanks, not me, I prefer to buy a phone for $ 20 that doesn`t crash.
..is "can I add crypto to this thing?" We need programable phones (Cell/Land Line) if they are enough software controlled to let us add crypto, vioce masqarading, misc. cool features.
I'd say the same, just imagine the possibilities.... /N
The phone touted on their website is a 486, running "Windows CE, a new and revolutionary operating system from Microsoft"
Le sigh.
In case you missed the whole 'big deal' about
mp3, recording quality sound is disk intensive.
Obviously this thing runs Wince, but whoever wrote the article seems to have talked to somebody who implemented Linux on the thing. So...
1. Linux was implemented first and now they' re switching to Wince, or
2. Wince was implemented first and now they're switching to Linux, or
3. They have two versions, one Linux and one Wince.
Choice three seems unlikely - why would you support two operating systems for an embedded device? Sadly, choice 1 seems the most likely based on the flashing "New Windows CE" text on their web site.
Can somebody who actually speaks Italian or is associated with the company clear this up?
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
With all the Linux hype lately, they might find that the Microsoft marketing hype isn't as useful as it was a year ago.
A prominant Tux logo might actually do more for sales than a 'Windows Powered' logo.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
Actually, on one boring afternoon I tried the while(1) fork bit. Running as a user, it certainly didn't bring down my box. I think users are limited to two hundred open threads or some such.
That said, when I did it as root, it certainly slowed things down incredibly. Can't remember if it crashed it though.
Pax -- Ob
Just because a system uses an open kernel doesn't mean it's an 'open-sourced' system. Not all the software that runs on my Linux box is open-source.
.plan today, about people starting in with, "Now that the Quake source is GPL'd, that means that Quake mods have to be GPL'd as well!" It's not true, and I don't think companies will start selling 'open-source PDAs'. People might start developing them on their own, but selling a phone requires a certain amount of propriatarianism.
John Carmack had an interesting take on that in his
Now even a phone has more power then my webserver/router :)
I have to return some videotapes...
Anyone know where I might find a small LCD touchscreen or even just a normal screen that runs off a normal VGA card?
I have to return some videotapes...
The site is in Italian, as many have surmised.
The sad thing is that the next version of the TouchPhone is evidently going to be based on Windows CE instead. One of the developers from Prisma (who did the TouchPhone code) tells me the change is due to "Microsoft's extreme marketing power." He also points out that the CE-based phone has been nothing but talk for a long time, while the Linux-based system has been out there and working for even longer.
I plan to talk to the people at Sorgenti and do a followup once I figure out what's really going on.
jon
Jonathan Corbet, LWN.net
> Why do people assume Windows CE is unstable and uncustomizable?
Well, I dunno. Ask the editors at Pen Computing magazine who note, in this month's editorial, that while the Palm platform is rocketing (another source quotes something like a 25% surge in 4Q99 sales above predictions), the CE platform appears to be tanking.
> Many people don't realize that an operating system is only as stable as its applications.
Certainly. But James Bond doesn't give a crap. If his Jornada crashes while he's trying to save the world, he's not concerned whether it's because the OS is flaky, or it's that special program Christmas Jones gave him for calculating radiation density... or even just that she's got nice boobs.
It broke. End of report.
I have a Pilot Pro with about a dozen aftermarket apps on it; I use it hourly.
It has locked up _twice_ in 8 months, requiring no more than a soft reset either time. Never lost a byte of data, even though it's developed that "LCD panel cable pulls out of the connector" problem that requires pulling off the back and plugging it back in tight. I can live with that for $129.
Try _that_ on a CE device. Go ahead.
One of these days, the Microsoft apologists will take note that Hotmail _still_ isn't running on NT/IIS... and ask themselves why.
Cheers,
But did you see the bit about Windows CE on this page? What does it mean in english?
Scorpi il nuovo !Windows CE! --?!
--
Anyway, this ought to reinvigorate the phone phreaks... now they have an "intelligent" phone to hack into and make it do the free phonecall bit. Wonder how vulnerable they are to EMR...
It will be nice to see people learing about how open source can benifit them. Reading their website, they already have a phone which can run Windows CE. With the chances of Microsoft giving out source code being between slim and none, linux gives them a chance to rework the OS around the specific add-on hardware, and add whatever sort of a GUI they see fit. With as cheap and as small as old 386 hardware can be done these days, along with other processor types that linux has been ported to, this is probably just one of the first of many.
It'll also be interesting to see if any of the hand-held vendors go a similar direction, due to the lack of source, stability, and customization available with Windows CE, combined with the high expense of writing an operating system from scratch.
Would you do it for some scoobie crack?
Stupid arrogant merk. Do you think "News for Nerds" are in english only? Go and educate yourself..
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
..it does not take a degree in Italian literature to understand what "Profilo Technico" , "Processore 486 "Intel" "LCD 10,4", monocromatico, retroilluminato" mean...
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
Linux ?
Grazie alla versatilità della sua tecnologia e al sistema operativo Microsoft Windows CE, il Touchphone rende disponibili insieme a partners di primario rilievo , nuove funzioni e nuovi servizi per i suoi utenti. (from the website...)
check your sources...
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
The web site states it is a 486 based, with a 10 inch BW display, not 386 with 8"...
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
or they might sue you for using your first name!
(refer to Leonardo story if you don't get the joke)
when compared to the fact that, ummmm, well... this thing doesn't even run Linux! It runs Windows CE.
Comedy, thy name is Slashdot.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
If you've seen one Signal_11 post, you've seen 'em all. You know the truth no matter how low you moderate this post.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
Uhm... I am a native.
:-)
"fonte" means more of a (smallish) fountain, but it's a somewhat archaic word (the commonly-used is "fontana").
"sorgenti" can be many things: it can be what you say, but it can also be a particular for of the "sorgere" verb, whose meaning would be "those which are rising".
But it could also mean mean sources as in "programming code".
The word has many meanings, but (IMO) is not a very good marketing word: it has a bad "sound" to it, too many consonants, and is too ambiguous (the basic meaning is common, and implies something changing state or rising).
But in the end, it's just probably the last name of the company's founder
"sirio" is a very common telephone model here in Italy. Just your basic phone, nothing fancy. It's common because it's supplied by the (soon to be ex-) phone monopolist company.
Now about the press releases:
First one:
SMAU '99
Communicate touch after touch
TOUCHPHONE is the new easy-to-use telephone which makes using comunications systems easier: thanks to a big touchscreen, all functions can be activated by simply touching a display.
(skip, they talk about where it will be introduced to the public).
The TOUCHPHONE is an intelligent telephone, an instantaneous Internet access, a PDA, an answer machine, an e-mail manager; a synthesis of the higher electronic technology, expressed as an intelligent product allowing simple and fast communications. Thanks to its versatile technology, and to the OS WindowsCE, the Touchphone allows new functions and services for its users. (skip, it talks of dedicated services from some commercial partners, including banks and phone companies).
With a modern and elegnant design, TOUCHPHONE adapts to different settings in an essential and beautiful manner.
produced by:
Sorgenti s.r.l.
Via Borgomanero 13
28040 Paruzzaro (NO)
Tel. +39-0322-230071
Fax. +39-0322-538400
Notice: SMAU is Italy's biggest IT showcase (If I remember correctly, we're talking about 1 million visitors in 5 days). It's held at the beginning of November.
The second press review is very short, and only deals with the thing's price: Lit. 1.400.000, or 723 Euros (or USD).
The word "Sorgenti" that's all over the place is the producer's name: it translates to "Sources".
So, as long as we only run Freecell, Solitaire, WordPad and Word, we need never worry that Windez will crash? :)
Come on, even if this were true, it would be pretty pathetic.
And would invite more monopoly attitudes.
And I don't consider ANY part of Office to be well-written. OK, maybe I can give it a "miracle" award for the amount of crap that's completely unnecessary to running a word processor grafted onto it, and it manages to run at all.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Any one out there catch the price on this one? This is like the ultimate in POS devices!
As for do we need it, think about everytime you dial up someplace and get the typical "Please listen carefully to the following options..." I know I personally would like to just be able to read them as opposed to sitting through all of them as they "may have changed". Another one would be getting bank info. Most banks are still not convinced they should put services on the Web due to security and use the direct dial method.
This is actually just what I've been looking for.
If they had a corrupted filesystem, why couldn't it be possible to store a small charge in a battery? Then, when you pull the plug (as it were) linux would realize this and use the charge in the battery to quickly and safely shut itself down?
Seems like a good way to handle things to me. I have no idea what the cost would be like, though.
--Bernie
The site is in Italian, for those who didn't realize it already.
By the way, pretty sweet looking phone. Sure like to have it to replace this crappy phone on my desk.
--Bernie
when will it be released ?
According to this page of the Prisma Engineering website (human translation follows):
Embedded Linux Solutions
Among the Linux-based projects developed by us there is Touchphone, a smart phone that allows to send and receive calls, fax and email, other than having the functionalities of an organizer/agenda. The user interface is aimed toward the maximum ease of use, and it's based on an LCD display with a touch screen. There isn't any keyboard other than the one displayed on the screen.
The phone is based on a relatively simple and cheap hardware platform. Linux presence is seen only at power-on and power-off; other than that, the specific graphical user interface hides the underlying complexity of the product.
Kernel robustness and the environment as a whole is proved by the hundreds of Touchphones in exercise among the final users, with an high satisfaction index. In addition, Touchphone does not require administration by the user, who is completely unaware of using a real Unix system in its phone.
It's not clear.
And, as a small point of contention, the manufacturer is not required to release any code GPL if it runs in user space. As I'm sure you realize, apps can be closed source in Linux and not violate the GPL nature of Linux itself.
That's a fact - noone will make any drives smaller than a gig for you anymore.
-- From Denmark
The Profilo Tecnico says this:
Cpu 486 " Intel " Ram Memory: 8 Mb Simm Hard Disk: 1.2 GB -- parallel for external connections 10.4" LCD DISPLAY, monochromatic, backlit VGA 640 x 480 Low emission
Hard Disk: 1.2 GB
9.4" TOUCH SCREEN High precision and fast Activation -- touch with finger or pen
MODEM/FAX 32 V. bis - 14.400 bps Group 3 fax reception and transmission: Protocol T.30 supported In agreement with standards V.33, V.17, V.29, V.27 ter and V.21 channel 2
Power loudspeaker: 200 mW microphone sensitivity: 44 dB
One of the press reviews (in italian as well) says this:
Napster-to-go says "Fill and refill your compatible MP3 player", which is a lie. It's not MP3. It's WMA with DRM.
Yes, this site is in Italian. But the lazyness of the webmaster is not what concerns me. There are NO references on licences, GPL or whatever. Only a cryptic reference like "Users that acquired touchphone in December are allowed a free update". I don't know what it means, but does not compute well. Any lawyer around? It's still cure, BTW, PIffy
Marcello Missiroli Vice-President of ERLUG
I don't see anything that specifies frenchness... only "It's not in english".
Restating the obvious since nineteen aught five.
posted with mozilla m12!
Wake up.
Looks like Italian to me. I found this site
nearly a year ago, IIRC, and they still have
not released the source code. The phone it's
self is pretty cool, as is what they've done
to the kernel. It's got a little hard drive
in it and they've tweeked the file system
so a fsck is not needed if tou kick the plug.
Still I'm wondering if they will ever release
the source.
Looks like Italian to me. I found this site
nearly a year ago, IIRC, And they still have
not released the source code. The phone it's
self is pretty cool, as is what they've done
to the kernel. It's got a little hard drive
in it and they've tweeked the file system
so a fsck is not needed if tou kick the plug.
Still I'm wondering if they will ever release
the source.
I understand that not many slashdot readers can read italian, but ARE YOU GETTING STUPID BY THE HOUR?
The phone runs on a 486 (not 386), has a 10.4" VGA display and the OS is...
Windows CE!
No mention of Linux is on the website. Absolutely. Now, either linuxnews is victim of a nice christmas hoax, or they made up the article without checking anything at all.
And of course, slashdot is here to report all the facts, yeah right.
Yeah, rewriting history is commonplace around here....
Ahahahahaah!
Well, I'm italian too.
:)
The babelfish thing was for the general population around here...
BTW, the phone has debuted at SMAU 99 (kinda like a little Comdex. Little...) in early october. They were hosted inside the Microsoft stand, along all the other Windows CE devices. Makes one doubt it would run linux at all, eh?
Now, running Babelfish on their press release:
TOUCHPHONE is the new telephone, simple to use that it facilitates the telecommunication services: thanks to a screen touchscreen, of great format and visibility, all the functions come activated touching the display simply. The new TOUCHPHONE will come introduced to Smau ' ' 99 (Milan, 30 September 4 October). Microsoft Stand (pad.22), Wind (pad.15/1 b 37), Ambrosian Bench Veneto / Cariplo (pad.14/1 b12 - c13), Sources (pad.15/1 b 36). The TOUCHPHONE is an intelligent telephone, an immediate access to Internet, an agenda electronic, one telephone secretariat, an electronic mail manager; the synthesis of worst electronic expressed in an intelligent product for one simple, fast communication and without limits. Thanks to the versatilità of its technology and to the operating system Microsoft Windows CE, the Touchphone makes available with partners of primary relief, new functions and new services for its customers.
Just went to Staples last night, saw a similar thing: "900MHz cordless phone that links to your PC to help you manage your calls and messages with greater control and flexibility."
:)
Instead of putting the computer in the phone, you connect your phone's base station to the computer. It logs Caller ID, does voice dialing, etc.
Just look for
Microsoft PC Phone System MP-900... hey, dont laugh, it just attaches to your PC via a serial port, it woulwnt be bad to reverse engineer it. Would it be great to make calls via your computer on a phone with the MS logo replaced with the penguin?
I'm italian, and I read all the website
without the need of babelfish. It seems
to me that they are using Windows CE,
and not Linux. Probably they have switched
to Windows, since in June they announced
that they were using Linux.
Is society that lazy that we need a computer to dial phone numbers for us.
No, our friends and relatives have a home phone, work phone, cell phone, second line for the FAX/modem and a pager. And they keep moving every few years just when we start to remember how to find them. And the ones that don't move live in area codes that are being split. This often involves changing from a 7 digit to 10 digit dialing plan.
I can punch the numbers, but I can't remember them.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Moderate this down (-1, Sleazy)
--
Industrial space for lease in Flatlandia.
this phone looks cool. but curiosity bites me, are there any existing linux multimedia kiosks?
jaguar / negative edge
It's a phone, for crying out loud. I know that the spread of Linux cannot possibly be bad (no flames please) but does a phone deserve that much power? All it creates is another device that requires synchornization. If you write a note on the telephone and you want to get it on the computer, what can you do? It gives you no advantage over a pad of paper next to the phone.
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
It actually sounds useful now :-)
/., but why don't I complain in the moderation section and not here
Of course, I still don't think it had to be moderated down for disagreeing with the rest of
Especially that blocking thing; that would be really cool
Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
From the linux page on Prisma Technologies web site, it describes using embedded linux as a solution for the Touchpone: (run through babelfish)
"Solutions Linux Embedded
Between the plans based on Linux and from developed we we can cite the Touchphone, an
intelligent telephone that allow to send and to receive telephone calls, fax and electronic mail,
beyond to having funzionalitá of agenda and organizer. The interface customer is imporontata to
the maximum semplicità of use and is based on display a LCD and a touch screen; keyboard does
not exist, if not designed to video.
The telephone is based on one platform relatively simple and economic hardware.
The presence of Linux in the Touchphone is only revealed to the ignition and the extinction; for
the rest, the interface graphical customer purposely designed completely hides the real one
complessitá of the machine.
The robustness of the kernel and all the atmosphere is testified from the migliaia of exemplary of
Touchphone near the final customers with highest degree of satisfaction. Between the other,
Touchphone does not demand administration from part of the customer, of all the unaware of one
of trovarsi to use a true Unix system to the inside of just the telephone.
Prisma Engineering has developed completely the software of the Touchphone, realizing from
zero the applicativi and adapting the software giá available for Linux. Particular attention has
been dedicated to the configuration of the kernel and the distribution of installation, choice
purposely for the funzionalitá of the Toucphone.
Analogous solutions to the Touchphone, in which the presence of an operating system standard
is hidden the customer and all the system is dedicated to the realization of a particular one
funzionalitá can be adopted in many other fields, from the consumer to the instrumentation.
The advantages can be reassumed in a null cost for the royalties of the operating system, joined
to one extreme affidabilitá, advanced to that one of many commercial systems. The disponibilitá
of sources of the kernel not standards and the realization of driver dedicated to peripheral new
concur hardware adaptations or however not standard. "
-----Transmission Complete----- If you want to email me...Don't
Hackers and Phreaks unite!
(JOKING!)
Flame Bait Follows.
Yeah... running a 386 telephone is a bit over the top if you ask me. Hell, there's already programs to auto-dial a modem out there.
...
Well, unless the thing does OCR, faxes take up quite a bit of disk space. And as has been mentioned, voice takes disk space too. Would you want to be going into the second half-hour of an important conference call and have it run out on you? I wouldn't.
I'd rather have flash RAM, but a fair amount of some kind of storage is needed.
The cost would certainly be less than using flash RAM .. and integrating upsd to this box should be pretty easy.
Looking for a great online backup: Green Backup
The website is not in French but in Italian.
...
:)
Reading the article on linux weekly news, I see that the only problem these guys had was related to a corrupt file system.
I never shut down gracefully my phone, and I know that I am not the only one.
My question is : how expensive would it be to use Flash Ram instead of a hard drive? Look at Cisco routers, they don't have HD
But I don't know anybody who unplug his router to make room for the coffee machine though
Looking for a great online backup: Green Backup
I studied their web site, and they are advertising the new model with WindowsCE.
Ciao
Stefano
I just love it. Just when MS is burning mountains of cash trying to force CE down people's throat in the embedded market, the little Penguin comes along and says, "Hey, got a spot in this embedded phone project?" -- "Yeah, but we have tight HW requirements..." -- "No prob, I can run on a 386 with minimal RAM!" Bye-bye MS bloatware, Linux rules!
Linux has been a lot of things since it came into being. One of the best things it still is (and hopefully continue to be), is that it does not come with idiotic system requirements. MS bloatware's requirements (need i80986 at 500MHz, 2.1GB of RAM, 4GB of spare HD space, at MINIMUM) is just ridiculous. OK, I'm exaggerating. But you get the idea. To me, it sounds like both a marketing strategy to milk the cash cow by not bothering about bugs in your software so that users need to continually upgrade, and making each upgrade require so much *minimum* hardware that the poor user has no choice but to dish out more cash and upgrade hardware as well as software. Then along comes Linux, minimum requirements? i386, couple of MBs of RAM, and away you go. OK, it's not quite that, if you want X and other big software like that, but at least Linux is adaptable enough to be able to run on minimal HW. Windows? It comes as a 500lb package. Take it or leave it. Either you show your $$$ or go sit in the corner and cry. (Until a nice Penguin comes your way :-)
mikre he sophia he tou Mikrosophou.
Is there a phone, with a high coolness level such as this phone- which is available now? Not one of those lame email phones but something truly cool/different...
This is what I've gotten outta the translator for what it does(please note that there are irregularities in the translation.):
Sources propose a system of communication absolutely innovative, easy to use and still more suit today.
Touchphone is an intelligent telephone, an agenda electronic, one telephone secretariat, a manager of mail electronic, the ideal vehicle in order to surf immediately in Internet. Touchphone is the synthesis of the highest technology electronic expressed in a studied product in order to facilitate one simple, personal, fast communication and without you limit.
Touchphone arranges of a intuitivo software of management and immediate that will guide you to the best one I use of the apparatus. Moreover, it is equipped of one screen touchscreen of large format and visibility, that it concurs to select, to activate and to manage all its functions, simply grazing the commandos who appear to video.
Windows Ce, new and the revolutionary arrange operating of Microsoft, still exalt more the performances than Touchphone, the point of arrival for the " network " of the communication and the information. Browser the Internet of Windows Ce will transport to you in the network with extreme praticità and it will allow you to know Whappy, new portale Intenet, in order to approach more the services and the news modernized on:
Economy
Sport
Technology
Events
Music
Travels
Culture
Equipped of a personalizzabile system, Touchphone autoaggiorna and adapted to the most varied requirements, as an example making to find you to mattino a complete picture of the news that to more interest you, of e.mail and the calendar of the main events of your city.
Characterized from an essential and elegant design, Touchphone very adapted to every type of atmosphere.
I'm not the engineer I'd have to be to actually build one myself, but it seems to me it shouldn't be hard. The bit I got stuck on was how it would interoperate with regular phones - it might have to be able to understand what kind of device was on the other end of the line, and I think Joe Consumer probably won't like a phone that starts off every conversation with a burst of static as the secure phone tries to figure out if there's a modem on the other end of the line. Nonetheless, I'm sure it's possible. A coworker just mentioned the possibility of building a switchable-mode phone - if you know the other person has a secure phone, you turn the "secure switch" on before calling. Comments?
Soon we will have open sourced PDA's, Smart House controllers, Lots of cool widgets for the car to link in GPS etc.
I wonder whats next??
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
"There is infinite hope, but not for man." -- Franz Kafka
Sure, its cool, but come on. Is society that lazy that we need a computer to dial phone numbers for us. *blech*
efnet #reconnect r0x0rs =]
Have you tried to buy a HDD smaller than 1.2 Gb recently? I'm surprised that they found one that small!
Overdue payments on your student loan. We've come to repossess your education.
I babelfished their press-release (at: http://www.touchphone.com/smau.html), and the 'fish was in its usual amusing form. Among the translation gems were: :)
"the synthesis of worst electronic expressed in an intelligent product for one simple, fast communication and without limits."
and
"All the services of fixed telephony of Wind and all the resources of the Web within the new Touchphone immediately available on the tip of the fingers."
Looks like babelfish has a sense of humour
## W.Finlay McWalter ## http://www.mcwalter.org ##
Hey I can think of some neat things that can be achieved with something like this. How about secure telephone conversations, without going out and spending a fortune for one specifically built for that purpose. Oh, and it will only be a matter of time before someone puts together a comprehensive database of all known telemarketers, charities, and other annoyances phone numbers' together so now one has to listen to them....ever....again... Or how about a answering machine/fax machine that accepts faxes, and then can read them back to you remotely when you punch in your four digit auth code. Yeah, these are mostly useless features, only slightly better than having a toy, but there are some interesting possibilities.
I visited PRISMA Engineering's website, the company who designed the phone, and this is what they had to say about the Touchphone:
One of the most interesting Linux based project developed at Prisma Engineering is the Touchphone , which is an intelligent phone, fax and email capable, integrated with and answer machine, with a touchscreen and LCD based user interface. The telephone is based on a simple and inexpensive hardware.
They go on to briefly explain what they did with Linux, etc. Though it seems they have beefed up the hardware of the phone, it is doubtful they would've made a complete 180 in such a short period of time. The mention of Windows CE in the press reviews and on the Touchphones own website is probably just disinformation.
My question is : how expensive would it be to use Flash Ram instead of a hard drive? Look at Cisco routers, they don't have HD ...
Cisco Routers use Flash to store the Operating System, but they use NVRAM to store the configuration and logged information.
Flash devices have a finite number of writes (usually 400-1000) before they start to fail, but a practically infinite number of reads.
It's not overly expensive to do (Since you don't need to have a full distribution loaded, just the essentials) but you need to run the system from ram and find another way of storing frequently changed data if you want it to last. See the Embedded-Linux-HOWTO for more information.
your call is being held in a queue whilst our voice systems support group resolves an intense debate to decide the correct device architecture for low cost appliance operating systems . . .
your call will be answered just as soon as one of our operators settles on a consistent user - interface paradigm,
you are caller number . . "
(yes i know not good use of "architecture" or any other technical bit - let me be, i should be asleep now)
Why would you put a 1.2 GB HDD in it? E-mail? No. Faxes? No. Linux Kernel/OS? No. Ok, thats all of my ideas, what are yours?
Anonymous Hay goes in and I come out...