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Linux Cell Phones Coming Q1 2007
Posted by
kdawson
on Wed Oct 04, 2006 01:05 AM
from the penguin-in-your-pocket dept.
from the penguin-in-your-pocket dept.
eldavojohn writes, "Prepare to salivate. D-Link has announced plans to put an unlocked Linux phone on the market in early 2007. Some features: Dual-mode WiFi and GSM/GPRS. Up to 24 MB of memory for user file storage, such as music and videos. 2-inch, 176 x 220-pixel color display. Opera browser. Email client. 3.4 ounces (95 grams). Tri-band (900/1800/1900) GSM radio — meaning it should work with any GSM-GPRS SIM card, including pre-paid SIM cards as well as those from traditional GSM service providers. Will it really be this easy to wean myself from the Microsoft mobile teat?" The phone is expected to list for $600.
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Wow! (Score:4, Funny)
Agreed.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Dual-mode WiFi - what is that? B/G? cool, but nothing new.
GSM/GPRS - where's EDGE? Where's UMTS? Where's HSDPA?
24 MB of memory - okay
- for storage - not okay. 24 MB? That's expandable by SD/MiniSD/MicroSD, right? And how much working memory is there? Or is this the same memory and do you lose everything when you power down? (a la pre Windows Mobile 5)
2" screen - not too bad on that
176 x 220-pixel - wtf is that? Where's 240x320 or even 480x640?
color display - 4096? 16k?
Opera browser - pre-installed, they mean, I hope. Can you replace it? (not that I can think of a reason to)
3.4 ounces (95 grams) - that *is* nice, however.
Tri-band - quad band, please?
Now to RTFA because the summary was silly in listing features without detail. Be better if it had been a more generic blurb.
Parent
Press Release from d-link has more info. (Score:5, Informative)
But a bit more info is in the actual Press Release from D-Link;
http://www.dlink.com/press/pr/?prid=299 [dlink.com]
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Talk time - up to 5 hours GSM, 2 hours 802.11 wireless mode
Messages - up to 30 messages can be stored at 459 characters each
--
Can't say I'm impressed with that - but it explains why it's a bit lighter, smaller battery. The number of messages stored however is just pathetic.
Had to still google for Dual-Mode; it actually just means it has a phone radio and another form of wireless communications. Lame terminology comes to mind; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-Mode_Mobile_Pho
As for the rest of the info - not in the PR either.
But for those of you who have been whining about "I don't want a camera in my phone!" - there you go.. Linux, WiFi, no camera.
Parent
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
SELECT * FROM users WHERE money > bains;
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You act like it's more expensive... (Score:5, Informative)
Don't think that this $600 phone is any more expensive than equivalent piece of hardware from T-mobile or Verizon. Considering that I'll be able to install whatever the hell I want on it I'd say it's a steal.
This phone is the last thing service providers want on the market -- the only thing they'd have left to differentiate themselves from the competition is rates and service (the horror!!). I predict they'll try to kill it.
Parent
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Uh, no. A BlackBerry 8100, brand new, retails for about $400, maybe a little less. Subsidized upwards of 50 percent (like mine was, because I signed the contract), it goes for $200. No contract, it's list price.
$600 is expensive for a phone.
Re: (Score:2)
$600 is definitely pricey, and those features don't seem to match up favorably with the other high end units out there...
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
To my knowledge, you can install whatever you want on the pda/smartphones from the bignames. The only difference here is you won't have anything to install because its running Linux. Linux is nice and all, but unless you feel like writing your own software don't expect this phone to be very useful. The
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not on a Sidekick, that's for damn sure. And the phone's software is always crippleware -- crippled Bluetooth, no wifi, no provisions for wifi. Extra software is always absurdly expensive.
But this is Linux, which gives you control of the phone's hardware and the ability to run anything you damn well please on it.
I kind of can't believe someone has actually done this. If D-Link actually gets this thing out the door
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Yeah, that's the problem with Linux and open source embedded systems; nobody ever writes software for that stuff.....
Re:You act like it's more expensive... (Score:4, Interesting)
Assume you will get lower costs because this stuff is all being manufactured in China. And then add a 100% markup for stuff sold through American retail outlets. But your average phone should still not cost over $150 USD retail. So I highly doubt that anyone is subsidizing your phone. You are simply being ripped off because of a lack of competition in regional US cellular markets.
Parent
Re:Agreed.. (Score:5, Informative)
It was neither. In Europe, it was chosen by the operators who were mandated to meet and settle on a common standard for the 900MHz band. For the 1800MHz band, it was initially chosen by operators who weren't mandated to settle on a common standard, but after 1800MHz GSM become widespread, was mandated in the remaining countries who hadn't implemented it yet. Regardless of which, it's a great standard. The "GSM was imposed by governments on unwilling, tortured, operators" is a common meme from Qualcomm's IS-95 shilling operation.
By "CDMA" I assume you mean IS-95 (the most recent version of GSM, UMTS, uses a CDMA air interface.) In the US, the two standards are currently neck and neck. Cingular, the US's largest operator, uses GSM. T-Mobile and a number of regional operators also use GSM. GSM is available in the vast majority of locations in the US where cellular service of any type is available.
This is the one point you've made so far that has any remotely true validity. 800MHz support would help in the US. That's not to say it's 100% necessary, with a number of operators 1900MHz is the only frequency available. 1900MHz isn't awful, it's just there's more coverage when you combine the two, and in certain locations 1900MHz can be difficult to get. Cingular gets a poor (800MHz) signal in my home, T-Mobile's (1900MHz) is relatively good.
One hopes that the phone's support for 802.11 means that it also supports UMA [wikipedia.org], which will in the long term counter many of the disadvantages of higher frequencies.
Not really.
First, you presume IS-95 users would want a PDA phone. That's not my experience, and I was a Sprint PCS customer for three years who before that was on GSM networks in the UK and used a PDA phone for a long time while there, so I've been on both sides of the fence.
The last thing I want to be is stuck with an oversized phone all the time. On IS-95, the only way to have two phones is to have two accounts, complete with seperate phone numbers. On GSM, for those occasions where a smaller phone would be more useful, it's just a matter of slipping the SIM out of one and into the other. The market for PDA phones is thus tiny, if not non-existant, on IS-95. On GSM, Blackberrys, Sidekicks, and others are relatively popular. Sidekicks, FWIW, are also, in practice, subject to the 1900MHz frequency limitation.
Limiting PDA phones to GSM isn't a bad idea, it's a good one. It's a waste of development time to try and develop such a thing for IS-95 users. When Verizon and Sprint PCS and Alltel stop treating their customers like crap and finally implement RUIM cards, we might see that change. But right now, none of the operators are using a version of IS-95 that is PDA friendly. That's a shame, but that's the way it is.
Second, as I mentioned above, there are plenty of existing PDA phones in the US that sell fairly well that are limited to the one band (1900MHz). I think it would be a good idea for them to improve that, but it's hardly a "this will make or break whether we can
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Cingular is 850mhz. This phone actually doesn't support the larg
Re:Agreed.. (Score:5, Insightful)
A COMMON STANDARD is the requirement by Europe, and then only on the 900MHz, and after it became defacto on 1800MHz, on 1800MHz too. GSM was the standard that was picked by the operators. GSM was not pushed by any governmental organization, it's a flat out lie to imply that it was.
Any state government in Europe can also make available other frequencies for mobile phone service running whatever services operators want. Indeed, that's how 1800MHz came about - because Britain opened up that frequency for operators to use. Both operators chose, off their free will, without even having to pick a common standard, GSM. Had they, and the dozens of operators that followed, picked something else, that'd have resulted in a different environment.
You can gloss over this as much as you like. You can say that because governments told operators they had to choose a common standard, that it's some kind of terrible crime against the holy goal of free marketism. What you can't say is that GSM specifically received government support.
Quite the reverse. The only standard I see being given mandated government support is IS-95, which the US government has done - often to the detriment of US interests. When IS-95 was pushed on the Chinese by the Clinton administration, the fall-out was immense, with the Chinese Government deliberately using it as a weapon against the US's attempts to deal with human rights violations. Qualcomm's lobbying, and the US government's incompetent caving in to such lobbying, has probably actually ensured many human rights abuses couldn't be prevented.
Yet, despite this well documented support of IS-95 by governments, for some reason it's the Europeans who get it in the neck. Because the European community had the audicity to want to replace the situation where the entire community had half a dozen or so incompatible analog standards with no roaming with a situation where someone could at least buy a phone that was guaranteed coverage anywhere in the area.
Oh the humanity!
BTW Vodafone experimented with a version of GSM that used the same air interface as IS-95 in the mid-nineties and ended up rejecting it, not because of politics or legal reasons, but because Qualcomm wasn't able to come up with a system that worked well for them. Nothing stopped them from running it, any more than anything stops European operators from implementing GPRS, EDGE, or UMTS.
FWIW, CDMA is not a standard anywhere. It's an air interface technology. You might just as well argue that "Packet switching" or "Plastic buttons" is a standard.
IS-95, which is what you meant, is not the de-facto standard in the US. The biggest operator in the US is Cingular. Cingular operates a GSM network. GSM has many other operators, including T-Mobile, some of Alltel (in the old Western Wireless regions), and various regional operators. And before adding up customer figures, remember that only half of Sprint's customers use its IS-95 network.
It is a flat out lie to argue that 90% of US users use IS-95. I would be surprised if IS-95 is used by more than 45% of US cellphone subscribers.
Secondly, the fa
Parent
The high cost of FREEDOM? (Score:2, Interesting)
If so, I will gladly pay $600 for one.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
24 MB of memory? (Score:4, Funny)
Low memory? (Score:5, Funny)
After all, "Why would anyone need more than 640KB?"
Parent
24MB of Memory? (Score:5, Insightful)
24MB of memory? That's about 4 songs or a 1/3 of a music video.
That doesn't sound too appealing.
Aero
Depends on what they mean (Score:2)
However if it's limited to 24MB than ya, that makes it kinda worthless for storage o
Re: (Score:2)
The linked "article" mentions no expansion slots.
mmm (Score:5, Funny)
Preparing to salivate...
Salivating commencing...
Salivating complete.
Umm... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Umm... (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Some things missing (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Bluetooth - extremely important for connectivity.
2. Connector. The Qt Greenphone's solution to this is simple and elegant: its only connection is a mini-USB socket.
On the other hand, D-link does not claim their phone to be an open platform - but if it isn't, think if you will be able to install your own VOIP app? And if not, what's the point?
Lame! (Score:3, Funny)
Lame.
Re: (Score:2)
old tech done worse (Score:2)
that's a tough question. lets go to the videotape (Score:3)
Gee, I dunno. Lets check the next sentence: The phone is expected to list for $600.
There's your answer! "no."
That's what many of the MS based phones cost (Score:2)
Re:that's a tough question. lets go to the videota (Score:2)
D-Link Plan (Score:2, Funny)
Say linux
Profit!!!
Rediculously crappy. (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Linux cellphones came long back... (Score:5, Informative)
I have a Motorola A780 - which is based on Linux too, and it is triband and it's unlocked too (Most of the GSM phones you buy in India are unlocked). IIRC, the whole A-series of Motorola is based on Linux. Yes, my phone does not have Wi-fi, but the plug talks as if it's the first Linux based cellphone.
Ahem... (Score:5, Informative)
Of course, living in Asia makes this a bit easier, but hey, anything beats having MS on a phone.
Needs UMA+GSM (Score:2)
It's nice and cool to have a single handset, address book and UI, but if you were dealing with 2 phone numbers and 2 voicemails it's not going to be as convenient. I think the options a carrier can provide to make it all look like a single phone
D-link vs Qt Greenphone (Score:2)
24 fucking megs?? (Score:2)
ANY Sim card? (Score:2)
Isn't most of Cingular's network 850mhz? This is why there are many separate "U.S." and "European" versions of GSM phones. T-Mobile (last time I looked at new phones) generally offers the "European" version (900/1800/1900) which even when unlocked aren't as useful on Cingular's network (unless you're on a patch of the old AT&T Wirel
What a ripoff (Score:3, Interesting)
For that price I would expect it to have 128mb ram, bluetooth (how can it not have bluetooth?!?), miniSD or sd, voiceconnect, speakerphone, and a better screen. And that is what I would expect with a MS phone. One would think a linux phone would be $100 cheaper.
And of course linux fans just *love* d-link (Score:2, Insightful)
I also recall D-link being in the press recently for configuring their hardware to synchronise to someone's private timeserver, costing the individual running it several thousand in bandwidth fees.
At one point I'd have said D-link were a quality brand. Now I'm not so sure...
Re: (Score:2)
"Regardless of the repeatedly-quoted judgement of the district court of Munich
I, we do not consider the GPL as legally binding."
So who is going to buy this phone?
Microsoft phone?! Never seen one (Score:4, Interesting)
Microsoft phone is a rarity. It's the Symbian-OS which is the majority.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbian_OS [wikipedia.org]
Microsoft lists ten models with Windows Mobile (in Americas)
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/devices/sm
get a Nokia 770 and a cheep cell phone instead (Score:2)
$350 direct from Nokia
I love the form factor and with a cheep bluetooth phone then for less than $500 you have all this and more.
And a design to go with my lifestyle (Score:2, Funny)
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Re: They need to make it cheap (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)