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Communications Software Handhelds Linux Hardware

The Rise of the Linux-Based Cellphone 151

Posted by Zonk from the doobie-doobie-dooo dept.
mrscotty99 writes with a link to a Linux.com article about the rising star that is the Linux-based cellphone. Author Murry Shohat argues that the transformation of the cell into a mini-PC this summer is a landmark opportunity for Linux. Apple's offering and Motorola's US launch of the RAZR2 V8 (a linux-based device) may be heralds of great things to come for a new OS frontier: "In the cell phone market, consumers will pay for content, and corporations need to deliver secure content to applications in the palm of employees' hands. These trends suggest products that are simultaneously more functional and less expensive than a Treo or BlackBerry and more secure than an iPhone. MontaVista Software claims to have deployed Mobilinux on more than 35 million mobile devices worldwide. CEO Tom Kelley says, 'Linux is growing rapidly on mobile devices because of its solid reliability, its great flexibility, and because it accelerates the development cycle.' Vendors using or contemplating the use of Linux for mobile devices unanimously point to the operating system's footprint, memory usage, and fast growing ecosystem of developers producing software for graphics, multimedia, connectivity, and security." Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by SourceForge.
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The Rise of the Linux-Based Cellphone More

The Rise of the Linux-Based Cellphone

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  • The Neo 1973 is freer than anything motorola has. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Alphager ( 957739 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @05:29AM (#20649119) Homepage Journal
    http://openmoko.com/ [openmoko.com]
    - Touchscreen
    - WLAN
    - completely open
    - A-GPS
    • And maybe this will not all be obsolete once it comes out. There has been great advance in openmoko development recently, but it is still far from being a finished product.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )
        There's little chance of the product being obsolete when it comes out because most components are upgradeable relatively easily. It's adding in new functionality that is challenging. For example, to get wifi in for the official release, they had to remove one of the speakers (it still supports stereo, but you'll have to use a headset for that). Space is at a premium in tiny devices like this. But there's nothing inherently problematic about substituting, say, a processor with a faster one.

        Anyways, as so
      • Obsolete? Obsolete? My current phone is a Nokia that's at least 5 years old. It's been dropped many times and thrown in a pool. It still makes calls and does very little else (that I know of, although I never cared to look). I have never owned any other phone, and I have never used wifi or gps on a phone.

        That's what I like about living in the Stone Age - it makes the Bronze Age look nice and gilded.

    • Re:The Neo 1973 is freer than anything motorola ha (Score:4, Informative)

      by KiloByte ( 825081 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @06:12AM (#20649281)
      Now imagine this:
      1. use VoIP from the cellphone (duh!)
      2. GPG-encrypt the data stream, without relying on AT&T's proprietary "encryption" which goes directly to whichever government asks for it
      3. use the existing GPG web of trust for keys; generate a new key for the phone and sign it with your main key so if the phone is stolen you lose only the phone's secret key

      The above makes you imprevious to plain main-in-the-middle snooping. What is left is information whom you talk to.

      4. get an account at a company/group of volunteers who provide a number of servers; the more such independent group of this kind the better
      5. have the phone connect only to the nearest server of your group; this is all the phone company can find out about you
      6. once there, the server will peel the outer onion layer, connecting to the next hop
      7. these servers will be usually already connected as conversations can be aggregated into a single connection; if not, random data can be sent through idle links to thwart traffic analysis
      8. unless you're paranoid, the next hop will be your interlocutor's privacy company/group. 2 hops should be enough for most cases, but if you value privacy more than latency, toss in full onion routing.

      While Tor is WAAAY too slow to allow for usable VoIP, having a network of servers connected with opaque noise-filled pipes should give you decent enough privacy with just two geographically close hops.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @06:27AM (#20649349)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by jrumney ( 197329 )
          The downfall of PGP/GPG was when someone masquerading as Mickey Mouse got their key signed by one of the Linux kernel developers. This put Mickey 2 degrees of separation away from Linus, and a lot of other trusted members of the community (Zimmerman himself was not far removed), and cast doubt on the whole web of trust model vs the centralised certification authority of S/MIME and SSL. Perhaps if PGP had a way to revoke key signatures, it could have kept its reputation, but now it is mostly only useful with
        • I wanted to use GPG for signing everything, including Slashdot posts (my GPG key is in my journal), but I can't because the formatting will screw with the signature. In other words, my GPG signature would be for a certain line length, and if my text is reformatted with different spacing and line breaks, then the signature would be invalid.

          What I'd love is a standard that strips all but alphanumeric characters (including no line breaks or whitespace) and then does a GPG signature on that. The signature wou
      • "While Tor is WAAAY too slow to allow for usable VoIP, having a network of servers connected with opaque noise-filled pipes should give you decent enough privacy with just two geographically close hops."

        Especially if some of those hops are routed via bluetooth or WiFi rather than GPRS... (the call might just disappear into a mesh network, well away from telephone wiretaps)
    • or did I miss something on there website?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by st0nes ( 1120305 )
      Very nice, but no camera, 2.5G. Surely they should launch with a 3G version since 3G has been standard for so long? Also price: $300 is a bit steep.
      • Freedom isn't always free... I'm considering getting one of these puppies. I just don't have a lot of time to devote to seriously developing for it, I'd just want to tinker with it more than anything.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )
        In my opinion, the One True Phone has two versions: one with a camera and one without. Cell phone cameras are usually pretty much garbage, but they can come in useful at times. On the other hand, they also prevent you from bringing your phone into some places.

        The reason the Neo1973 doesn't have a camera is space constraints. You have to pick and choose what you put in when your space is that limited.

        $450 is the mass-market version. I'd say that feature-for-feature, the Neo1973 is about on par with the I

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Sancho ( 17056 )
          You're behind the times. The iPhone's price was dropped to $399 for the 8 gig version, and they're no longer selling the 4 gig version.

          I doubt they did it because of the Neo 1973, but it certainly makes the latter less interesting. If GRPS wasn't enough to kill it for me, the fact that a fantastic UI is available for cheaper will.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Rei ( 128717 )
            Better tell the people on Ebay. They're paying over $500 for 8gb, and over $300 for 4gb.

            Either way, it still has the ridiculously overpriced contract, no? Where most of the money is made anyways? In May, Technojunkie reported that the no-contract versions were $900-$1000.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Sancho ( 17056 )
              I don't particularly care what people pay for the phones, but if we're going to be comparing features (which includes price) then we'd better get the numbers right.

              As for the plan, featurewise, it's much better than most plans that you get from AT&T when you sign a contract. The biggest advantage you'll get with the Neo is that you aren't locked into a contract, however you'll still probably want phone service, which means you'll still be paying the rates.

              At AT&T, this is the cheapest plan I can fi

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aladrin ( 926209 )
      I've been watching this for a while, and I almost bought a dev phone. But the extra features on the full retail one are much more interesting to me. I thought the target for the retail phone was October, but I see things like:

      "We're almost for sure going to use their AR6K
      chipset in our next product."

      I hope that just means they haven't updated that portion of the site in a while, and not that they still have no clue what the hardware design is.

      I see elsewhere that Oct and Nov are set for testing, and late

      • Re:The Neo 1973 is freer than anything motorola ha (Score:4, Informative)

        by Gizmhail ( 821391 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @08:42AM (#20650213)
        You might find useful information (concerning the first OpenMoko compatible phone) on this page : http://wiki.openmoko.org/index.php?title=Neo1973 [openmoko.org]
        The end user version is the one named "Phase 2" (GTA02, "Mass Market").
        Allong with hardware specs, you'll find there an estimated timeline :
                * Sep 20 - GTA02v3 design finalised.
                * Oct 20 - GTA02v3 design produced, and shipped to qualified developers.
                * Nov 20 - GTA02v3 design verified through testing by developers.
                * Dec 10 - GTA02v3 produced in moderate volume
                * Dec 20 - GTA02v3 goes on sale
                * Dec 25 - GTA02v3 arrives

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Aladrin ( 926209 )
          Yeah, I condensed that to "I see elsewhere that Oct and Nov are set for testing, and late December for shipping the final product."
    • The Neo 1973 is GSM-only. OpenMoko doesn't have a phone that supports CDMA network providers, like Sprint. Nor do they have plans to in the foreseeable future.

      By contrast, I am confident that Motorola WILL release a variant of their phone that works on Sprint's network.

      Open source ideals are great and all, but if it doesn't meet my requirements (I'm not going to buy it.

      And for the foreseeable future, "Does it work on Sprint's network?" is one of my requirements.


    • Will it blend ?
    • Amen, brother. I will be purchasing that phone as soon as the consumer version is available. Openness is worth much more than discounted down payments.

  • 4 choices (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BadAnalogyGuy ( 945258 ) <BadAnalogyGuy@gmail.com> on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @05:31AM (#20649123)
    You don't have that many OS choices when developing a cellphone.

    Obviously, you can go with a market leader like Symbian and Nokia's S60 software stack to get something out the door in a hurry.

    Alternatively, you can pay a bunch up front to get the hardware working with Linux, but the benefits are a royalty-free OS license.

    You could always ask Microsoft for some help, but your fast time to market and full-featureset come at the price of outrageously powerful hardware requirements.

    Finally, you can go with BREW, Qualcomm's stripped-down, barebones OS.

    Each OS has its benefits and tradeoffs. Linux's benefits are code "ownership" and full source access, not to mention a well-known API and a large pool of developers. The major tradeoff that I've seen is the enormous latency in normal usage. A keypress takes a significantly longer time to process on a Linux phone than on, say, a BREW phone or an MS Smartphone.

    There's a lot of growth to come in the cellphone market, so Symbian has a long fight against these up and comers. And there really isn't anywhere for anyone (excluding Symbian) to go but up.

    • You don't have that many OS choices when developing a cellphone.
      Does it really matter what OS a phone runs when, for the majority of people, they're going to be stuck using the shitty, feature stripped firmware the phone ships with?

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by BadAnalogyGuy ( 945258 )
        It matters if you're the one developing the phone.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by rtyall ( 960518 )

        Does it really matter what OS a phone runs when, for the majority of people, they're going to be stuck using the shitty, feature stripped firmware the phone ships with?

        I'd say it does, I specifically bought my Motorola Rokr E6 [wikipedia.org] on the basis that it runs Linux. My naivety made me think that the homebrew scene would be rife with apps, but I was very wrong though. Thanks to Motorola's lack of documentation and slow uptake of the phone, mine remains pretty much standard.
        Think I may go back to windows mobile after this phone, unless something decent, tried and tested comes out.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by LarsG ( 31008 )
        for the majority of people /. is at least one sigma away from the majority. For many people here - programmers, tinkerers, general gadget geeks - the OS does matter because it determines to a large degree the openness and tinkerability of the device.

        As for feature stripped firmware, that's mostly a problem with the carriers (and especially US carriers at that) acting like they have the right to decide how devices connecting to their network should behave. One way to stop that abuse is to make the phone OS m

        • One way to stop that abuse is to make the phone OS modifiable.

          And then none of the network operators will carry the phone because they consider a modifiable OS itself to come close to abuse. This means that you'll have to buy the phone and SIM separately. Only two U.S. nationwide networks allow this (AT&T and T-Mobile) because they use GSM; the other major networks (Verizon and Sprint) use IS-95 and IS-2000, commonly called "CDMA" after their modulation method [wikipedia.org]. Unfortunately, U.S. GSM coverage pales in comparison to "CDMA" coverage, even for voice.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by LarsG ( 31008 )
            Yeah, well screw the US.

            The FCC should have enacted Carterphone-style regulations on the carriers long ago. If you want that to change, start complaining to the FCC, write your congresscritter, get an exposé on 60 Minutes, vote with your wallet...

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )

              Yeah, well screw the US.

              That would mean screw Slashdot, because Slashdot's servers, Slashdot's administrators, and Slashdot's parent company are all on US soil.

              write your congresscritter

              It appears someone has already done something like this, proposing a mobile phone bill of rights [mndaily.com].

              get an exposé on 60 Minutes

              Isn't that show published by CBS, which would support an oligopoly only because it allows CBS to sell copies of its work within mobile operators' walled gardens?

              vote with your wallet

              This can mean "switch carriers" or "give up mobile phone service entirely". Which did you mean?

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by LarsG ( 31008 )
                Which did you mean?

                Switch to a GSM carrier, obviously. While it is possible for GSM carriers to play some tricks and control-games, it is very limited compared to the kind of control the CDMA carriers exert.

                mobile phone bill of rights ..while including some good points, it is missing the most important one - the right to use any compatible handset as long as one has a contract. That is, the wireless equivalent of the ruling that forced AT&T to allow any equipment to be connected to the phone lines. http [wikipedia.org]

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by smilindog2000 ( 907665 )
      The real benefit of open-systems on a cell phone are far beyond the typically quoted "time-to-market" and "cost-of-ownership" stuff. My Motorola Razr is a fine phone, but nothing more. For anything other than making phone calls, it completely sucks. I can't even take and share pictures freely, and the charge for simple text messages is just stupid. I personally never intend to own another stupid Symbian based phone again.

      In comparison, now that hackers have dissected it, the iPhone is a tiny laptop in m

      • Re:4 choices (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Propaganda13 ( 312548 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @06:47AM (#20649451)
        You do know that Apple is entirely against everything you just said. Apple is part of the problem. Your post is like thanking Microsoft because the XBox was hacked to run Linux.

        Now, the FIC NEO1973 will hopefully show the industry how it's done.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Molt ( 116343 )

        I've been doing all of those things, with the exception of the P2P voice development, on my HTC Universal (Orange M5000) [engadget.com] for nearly two years now- and that was by no means the first device which offered this kind of functionality.

        Please, if you're going to credit anyone with opening up the true power of Smartphones don't make it Apple.. any openness of their device is purely accidental, not unlike the Sony PSP, and is likely to be reduced more and more as they patch. With regards to actually promoting e

        • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Andy Dodd ( 701 )
          It's sad to say, but with respect to "openness" to developers, Windows Mobile is actually in the lead right now. (Except for possibly Symbian which I have ZERO experience with, but other posts indicate it is less free.)

          iPhone - well, that is clearly a closed system. Any "openness" is a lucky hack.

          BREW - ugh...

          Linux-on-phone - You would expect it to be free, but with the exception of OpenMoko, it seems like Linux-on-phone tends to be "Tivoized". The quotes in the article summary imply that manufacturers l

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by david.given ( 6740 )

      Or there's Nucleus, VxWorks, QNX, one of the several proprietary phone OSs (you'll probably only pick one of these if you're part of the same group that owns the OS)... there are lots of RTOSs out there that are suitable for phones, especially the low-end phones that you wouldn't want to run a heavyweight OS on.

      The thing I'm surprised about is that nobody (we hear about) seems to be using BSD. The BSDs are traditionally easier to port than Linux, and have a much friendlier license to commercial use; so wh

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jonwil ( 467024 )
        Can you get BSD drivers for or or whatever other hardware the phone has? Most likely its simply the case that linux has better support right now for the hardware todays phones actually have.
        And it has commercial support from several vendors (MontaVista for example) for running on various ARM based CPUs and platforms including those used by the cellphone companies.
    • Are people excited about a Linux Cell phone or a Unix cell phone. If the latter why not a BSD based cell phone. Like say the Iphone.
      • "Are people excited about a Linux Cell phone or a Unix cell phone. If the latter why not a BSD based cell phone. Like say the Iphone."

        MacOS X is the best example of why BSD licensing doesn't work.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GooberToo ( 74388 )
      Each OS has its benefits and tradeoffs. Linux's benefits are code "ownership" and full source access, not to mention a well-known API and a large pool of developers.

      I'm not sure if you're including this in your ,"large pool of developers", comment but, these days making the phone developer accessible after sale is starting to garner a fair bit of interest. In this regard, Linux can't be touched.

      The major tradeoff that I've seen is the enormous latency in normal usage. A keypress takes a sigificantly longer

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by GooberToo ( 74388 )
      A keypress takes a significantly longer time to process on a Linux phone than on, say, a BREW phone or an MS Smartphone.

      Sorry, I forgot to add this to my previous post. My Razor has one of the slowest interfaces I've ever seen on a phone, including phones I had five plus years ago. Button presses are often dropped. The user interface is horrible, kludgie, and beyond snail-slow. IIRC, my Razor is running Symbian. My point being, crappy user interfaces which create high latency key presses (or worst of a
  • I find the hardware extremly expensive today, however this will hopefully change in a few years.

  • Apple's Offering? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by flydpnkrtn ( 114575 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @05:50AM (#20649181)
    Apple's offering AFAIK is a mobile version of OSX... what does that have to do with Linux?

    By my accounts, Apple has been hostile to the open source community. They take and don't give back. Look at their track record with OSX and not setting up a source repository.

    Making iPods intentionally not work with anything but iTunes (which was cracked only days later)? Creating iWork instead of helping the OS X version OpenOffice.org?

    Apple would BE Microsoft, and Charman Jobs would be Gates, if they had the option.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by smilindog2000 ( 907665 )
      Jobs may be an a-hole, but he's damned smart. OS-X (on Macs and iPhones) is just open enough to allow hackers freedom to innovate, while just closed enough for Jobs to charge whatever he wants for the OS, while controlling the QA for average users ("It just works - TM" to quote another /.-er). Jobs absolutely wants to be Gates, and he's using open-source as leverage against Microsoft, for his own benefit rather than for open-source developers. It's never been said that Jobs is just trying to make the wor

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by 0100010001010011 ( 652467 )
      It was a hash not encryption. Get over it. It's more than likely for data integrity than "ZOMG WE R GONIN TO BREAK LINUX".
      • From Apple Cuts Off Linux iPod Users [slashdot.org]: "This appears to be protection against 3rd party applications writing out their own databases."

        Why wasn't the hash used on the old iPods sufficient? And if it was just to ensure integrity of files stored on the iPod, why not just go ahead and publish how the hash is computed, instead of the community having to reverse engineer it?
      • "It was a hash not encryption. Get over it. It's more than likely for data integrity than "ZOMG WE R GONIN TO BREAK LINUX"."

        So why doesn't iTunes run on Linux? (they ported it to Windows, and [as Apple tells anyone who'll listen] their OS is really unix-like)
        • YOU ARE NOT APPLES DEMOGRAPHIC.

          Because 'you' people complain about the iPod not having OGG or a million other features that 'other' companies have. Apple sells to the masses, they make their money from the masses. If they added in every single feature a linux fanboy wanted it wouldn't be an iPod anymore. As bad as widows is, it's at least a baseline 'standard'. So Apple releases iTunes for Windows. Is it Gnome? KDE? X.org? XFree86? Command line? Will it work on SUSE like it works on Debian like it works on
    • Hmm well you are right about wanting to be successful, and not wanting others to mess up what you have done. That part is true. But to say

      By my accounts, Apple has been hostile to the open source community.

      Is a way overblown assumption of Apple's view on the open source community.
      Apple's Open Source Page [apple.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by aliquis ( 678370 )
      Yeah because iWork and OpenOffice are more or less the same thing, or not.

      OpenOffice tries to be Office, and word suck.

      iWork is similair applications but in a new fresh way, how dare you compare Pages with OO writer?

      Just stay with your openoffice in whatever os ..
    • By my accounts, Apple has been hostile to the open source community. They take and don't give back. Look at their track record with OSX and not setting up a source repository.

      Darwin is Open Source. WebKit has been a great contribution. But they never give back. Get your facts straight first, then think, then post.

      • Darwin was an open source project, that never gained traction or support from Apple. From Wikipedia: "OpenDarwin was a community-led operating system based on the Darwin platform, founded in April 2002 by the Internet Software Consortium and Apple. In July 2006, the OpenDarwin Core Team and Administrators announced that all development on OpenDarwin would cease, citing concerns over lack of interest from the community."

        See also Open-source Darwin? Not yet [macnn.com]. My favorite part: "Apple is stonewalling open-sourc
    • Darwin is open source. And you are a troll.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by KZigurs ( 638781 )
      aheeeeeemmmm...?

      Ever seen Darwin? small hint: http://developer.apple.com/opensource/index.html [apple.com]

      Yes, you may feel pissed off that they are not releasing their GUI code - after all how could they dare build something that they have worked hard to get working, done it themselves, polished and maintained and not release it for everyone. But as far as whatever they have taken from the community I certainly do not see any case where they would have not given back. At least source code.

      Even webkit - the stuff behin

  • Don't forget about Qtopia (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rumith ( 983060 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @05:58AM (#20649213)
    Personally I find this [trolltech.com] announcement much more interesting and relevant to the goal of getting Linux on the mobiles. In short: Trolltech has made available the telephony service, DRM and SaX available under GPLv2, thus making Qtopia Phone edition completely free. Besides, they have ported Qtopia to Neo 1973. This is most certainly very good news!

  • Other Linux Mobile Phone Manufacturers (Score:4, Informative)

    by wehe ( 135130 ) <<gro.libomxut> <ta> <ehew>> on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @05:58AM (#20649217) Homepage Journal
    Motorola is no the only manufacturer offering mobile phones with Linux operating system. Here is an overview of mobile phones with Linux pre-installed [tuxmobil.org]. The entries marked with an asterisk *) show around twenty manufacturers which offer Linux on mobile cellular phones.
  • Subject says it all.

    I wonder how long it will take until Amiga Inc. revives the never released Amiga DE and decide that it's the shit for 2008s mobile phones! ..
    • I actually would, just to have a no-frills phone with Bluetooth connectivity, but it'd a) take bloody ages to read up on the subject matter to know what I'm actually doing there and b) be much more expensive than the "cheapest" Nokia with BT.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DrSkwid ( 118965 )
        I think you'd be pleasantly surprised how easy the electronics would go together.
        I consider the greatest hurdle to be that by the time I made it, it would be bits of wood and gaffer tape (as US duct tape is known here).
  • I stopped reading the article when I got to the words 'perfect storm'.
  • > In the cell phone market, consumers will pay for content

    Yeah, where's my Linux Phone, I got spare $ to burn on ringtones and wallpapers.

  • I have a NEO1973 (OpenMoko) .. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by torpor ( 458 ) * <ibisum AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @06:27AM (#20649347) Homepage Journal
    .. and its a really, really great device even though the developer version is missing a few things (accelerometers, WLAN) .. there is really nothing quite so fun as being able to write software for your own cell phone, and do things that just wouldn't be possible elsewhere.

    I'm looking forward, for example, to having my own answering service onboard with a user-selectable set of recordings to playback (IVR-style application), and some music-making apps are on the horizon as well ..

    Lovely bit of gear; I will definitely upgrade to GTA02 when its available, too.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by MichaelSmith ( 789609 )

      I will definitely upgrade to GTA02 when its available, too.

      Yes that is the phone I want to get. But because I can't try it in the shop I have a question which you may be able to answer: can you carry the OpenMoko around in your pocket, or is it a belt pouch phone? I have seen the dimensions on the web site but it is not the same as holding one in your hand.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by torpor ( 458 ) *

        Yes that is the phone I want to get. But because I can't try it in the shop I have a question which you may be able to answer: can you carry the OpenMoko around in your pocket, or is it a belt pouch phone? I have seen the dimensions on the web site but it is not the same as holding one in your hand.

        Admittedly it is a bit bulky and quite a bit like a large bar of oversized soap .. with not so much to endear you to the plastic form, to be honest, until you turn it on and start using it - the most immediate design appeal comes from the high resolution screen, which is a lot denser and brighter than you might imagine from the screenshots.

        I carry it around in its pouch (provided) with a lanyard attached through the loop on the case .. so its not really so much 'pocketable' as it is luggable. Its akin to

  • ...who arguably invented the smartphone, and announced they were moving to a Linux-based OS in 2005 (from memory) are now saying they won't get there for another 12-18 months - http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/sep/13/guardianweeklytechnologysection.it [guardian.co.uk]. A bit sad really. I blame Foleo.
  • I hope linux makes significant inroads, but I fear it will make as big of an impact in the cellular arena as it did in the PDA market.

    Dan East
  • It's surely the year of Linux on the Cellphone!!!
  • ..a txtspk version for the CLI?

  • *SMACKS FOREHEAD* (Score:3, Funny)

    by sharkey ( 16670 ) on Tuesday September 18, 2007 @09:05AM (#20650437)

    Motorola's US launch of the RAZR2 V8

    I could have had a V8!

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