OpenMoko preps Linux phone prototype
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Wi-Fi, GPS on board CEs on Video OpenMoko's open source phone software is on its way, and now there's a handset to go with it, ready for budding coders to begin creating apps for the platform.â¦
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InfoWorld - The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum planned to release its first mobile phone specifications on Monday, in hopes of encouraging more applications for Linux phones.
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FIC's fully hackable Neo1973 handset officially launched for developers; "mass market" launch of its OpenMoko OS to follow.
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The Japanese carrier will be standardizing on Symbian for their 3G mobile phone platform, and they will ship 3G phones based on Linux.
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After years of speculation, there are many who believe that Linux is about to become a major platform for advanced mobile devices. And, not surprisingly given Linux's history, there are those who strongly disagree.
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Turbolinux, Inc., a global leader of Linux-based solutions, announced  last week in Japan that they will release the new product "wizpy,"  which is a Linux-embedded, portable USB bootable device with digital  audio capability.
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Linux programmer Rusty Russell offers software that could unify some virtualization programming chores.
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The LiMo Foundation plans to release the first version of its Linux software platform for mobile phones in March, with handsets running the software due soon.LiMo&#39;s goal is to offer handset manufacturers an open, hardware-independent software platform that offers a secure environment for downloadable applications.Publishing the code on time is one thing, but &quot;putting handsets into consumers&#39; hands is the most important proof point,&quot; said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation. That will happen very soon, he said.On Monday, the Foundation will publish a beta version of the software&#39;s APIs (application programming interfaces) so that developers can begin writing applications to run on it.The APIs are still beta versions because the underlying software is not yet complete and minor details may change ahead of its release in March, Gillis said.The LiMo Foundation is focusing on phones&#39; middleware, leaving handset manufacturers and operators to choose their own user interface and content applications.That freedom is important, Gillis said, because &quot;the cost of developing the first phone on a platform can be as high as half a billion dollars.&quot;Phone manufacturers may be unwilling to make that kind of commitment to a new operating system if it will also leave them tied to another company&#39;s user interface or content applications, he said.&quot;That&#39;s why Windows Mobile and Series 60 didn&#39;t gain broad traction; suppliers didn&#39;t feel comfortable,&quot; he said.LiMo faces competition from another open platform,&#160;Android, supported by Google&#160;and the Open Handset Alliance.For Gillis, the connection between Android and Google&#39;s content make that another example of a tied operating system.Although the LiMo Foundation&#39;s code is not quite finished, most of it has already been proven in handsets sold or distributed by founder members Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic, Samsung Electronics, and Vodafone, Gillis said.Nevertheless, there are some new elements, notably the security model, Gillis said. &quot;Security in handsets is an area that tends to evolve quite quickly,&quot; he said.Since development of the platform began, &quot;there are no major new threats, but it&#39;s about evolving approaches and algorithms that address the security situation.&quot;Although the underlying platform is open, the handsets based on it may not be. The LiMo code includes support for application signing, allowing handset designers or operators to block the execution of unsigned downloads.&quot;The precise rules used for application signing are usually determined by the operator,&quot; Gillis said.However, he said, there are signs that operators are moving away from the &quot;walled garden&quot; they favored in the past to a more open approach.
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FRANKFURT, GERMANY -- After launching two of the world's first Linux smart phones, China's E28 Ltd. is now offering handset manufacturers the opportunity to license its software and hardware designs based on the increasingly popular open-source operating system.
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A Q&amp;A with OpenMoko on its upcoming Neo 1973, called a hacker&#39;s answer to the iPhone.
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The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum planned to release its first mobile phone specifications on Monday, in hopes of encouraging more applications for Linux phones.
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What is happening with carrier grade Linux and kernel contributions in this area?
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The recipe for a mobile Linux-based application ecosystem Comment Why should an operating system be important for a mobile phone? It shouldn't, but of course mobile phones are no longer simple voice communicators, they are smart devices capable of many methods of communication and other sophisticated applications. Capable and complex, with a high degree of variety required to meet different market and user needs.â¦
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Self assembly Open source is moving beyond the real worlds of business and consumer systems into the more experimental sphere of personal gadgetry.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - The Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum planned to release its first mobile phone specifications on Monday, in hopes of encouraging more applications for Linux phones. The specifications, which include a reference model, address book, voice call enabler, text input method application programming interfaces (APIs) and user interface services such as widget sets, were expected to be posted on the LiPS Web site on Monday. The forum, launched in late 2005, is working to standardize a layer of software in Linux phones that will make it easier for developers to create a mobile application once that can operate across many phones. "The reality of the market is it's coincidental that different phones run Linux because an application developer wouldn't be in the position to write something... to work on all of them," said Bill Weinberg, general manager for business development at the LiPS Forum. "The LiPS standard is designed to solve that." The LiPS Forum chose to base the user interface framework on Gnome's GTK user interface toolkit, dealing a blow to Trolltech and showing that the efforts to standardize the mobile Linux industry offer opportunities to some companies while having the potential to shut others out.Â Trolltech offersÂ an application platform and user interface for Linux mobile phones. Weinberg said more companies are using Gnome, however. "Trolltech has done well in the mobile space but we're seeing a trend toward Gnome," he said. Companies that are part of the LiPS Forum including Purple Labs, Access Co., and Open-Plug are all Gnome-based, he said. The forum defined APIs on top of Gnome's GTK, optimizing it for the mobile usage model, he said. The next set of specifications for the forum will deal with functions like instant messaging and allowing users or operators the ability to change the phone's user interface. The third wave of specifications, expected to come out next year, will have more to do with how applications use different phone resources, he said. "These are all things for which there are existing processes but there are too many different ways to do it, so having a set of specifications is important," he said. While a host of global initiatives like the LiPS Forum continue to strive to bring focus to the mobile Linux environment, the U.S. continues to lag behind other regions of the globe in adoption of mobile Linux. China and Japan are the biggest users of Linux phones while the U.S. has a reputation for being "cautious," in part due to the tight control the U.S. operators like to keep on the market, Weinberg said.ADVERTISEMENTIBM Information On Demand 2006Industrial Industry Leaders, please join us at IBM's premier information management global event, IBM Information On Demand 2006, October 15-20, Anaheim, CA. More IBM business and technical solutions content in one place than ever before! Select from  over 800 sessions. Register today!
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One of the under-appreciated events at this year's 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona was the demonstration by graphics component manufacturer nVidia of a theoretical user interface programmed using a 3D library evolved from OpenGL. The Khronos Group industry consortium - of which nVidia is a member - used the company's demonstration to highlight the public release of version 1.0 of the OpenKODE specification for embedded systems.
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Open-source Linux is coming of age for mobile phones. While Google's Android platform has attracted attention at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, so has LiMo, another Linux-based platform.