LiMo's Linux phone platform nears launch
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InfoWorld - 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.
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Company unveils 'WidSets' for Java-enabled phones.
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Palm OS 6.0 (Palm OS Cobalt) hasn&#39;t even seen the light of day on any device yet, nor is there any sign it will soon. All the same, PalmSource is steering its unused OS 6.0 onto the Linux platform.
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Plans call for a Linux-based platform that will be usable in multiple environments, including on PCs, servers and PDAs.
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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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InfoWorld - Google's Android software platform for mobile phonesÂ is coming to life in Barcelona with a number of chip manufacturers showing it running on prototype or proof-of-concept phones at the Mobile World Congress on Monday.
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PDA phone with slide-out keyboard and GPS, anyone?
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Samsung and LG Electronics unveiled mobile phones running on LiMo, the new mobile Linux.
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A new mobile Linux platform from Azingo joins an increasingly crowded market of Linux phone software.
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Forget Windows Mobile 6 -- these open-source handsets might succeed while Linux-on-the-desktop flounders. In Gadget Lab.
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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.
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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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(InfoWorld) - Despite consumers' cool reaction to ultramobile PCs, Palm will launch a handheld computer called Foleo with a full keyboard and 10-inch screen. The product, announced Wednesday, seems to fly against Palm's own strategy of migrating away from PDAsÂ built around data entry to smartphones centered on voice operation. Hardware vendors can earn larger profits selling the more expensive smartphones, such as Palm's Treo, which have grown in popularity thanks to features like mobile e-mail. Now Palm hopes to ride the coattails of smartphone popularity by pitching the Foleo as a "smartphone companion product." Users would carry both devices in their pockets, synchronizing data between the platforms just as PDA users swap data with their PCs. "Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet, ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do," but at times users need a bigger screen and full-size keyboard, said Palm founder Jeff Hawkins in a statement. The 2.5-pound (1.13 kilogram) Foleo stays connected to its companion smartphone through a Bluetooth wireless link and supports Internet browsing with either its own Wi-Fi card or the smartphone's radio, Palm said. Together, the wireless networks will allow users to read their e-mail and office documents, such as Word and Excel, files on a large screen instead of a cramped phone display. The Foleo PC uses the Linux OS and is designed to synchronize with both the Palm OS and the Windows Mobile version of the Treo smartphone. However, Palm hopes to sell the Foleo to users of all types of smartphones, saying it can easily link to most smartphones based on Windows Mobile and requires a modest development effort to link to smartphones using operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple, or Symbian. By choosing the Linux OS, Palm is also encouraging software developers to create new applications for the platform. That decision could be a successful strategy, one analyst said. "Using the analogy of the OS as plumbing for the device, with Linux, all the plumbing is already developed, so it's easy to layer your own application on top of it," said Todd Kort, an analyst with Gartner. One drawback might be the proliferation of 10 or 20 different types of Linux flavors in the market, but several consortiums are tackling that problem by trying to define software standards, Kort said. Palm will also win some marketing buzz by being one of the first vendors to bring a Linux-based handheld PC to the U.S. Motorola and other vendors sell some comparable products in China and Japan but have not yet brought them to the U.S., Kort said. Palm will sell the Foleo in the U.S. this summer for $499 after an introductory $100 rebate.
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From Wintel to Symtel, horizontal integration coming to handsets
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InfoWorld - The LiMo Foundation plans to announce 18 phones based on its platform, including some that are already on the market, on Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
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InfoWorld - MontaVista Software planned to announce on Wednesday the latest version of its Linux-based mobile phone operating system, expected to be available in November.
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The LiMo Foundation's mobile Linux platform will be released next month, but the API is available to developers immediately.