Motorola A768 Phone Loaded With Open Source

Supp0rtLinux writes "According to this article over at Linux Devices and noted on here at NewsForge.com, Motorola has released a newer version of its A76x line of cellular phones. This newest release, the A768, boasts of open source softwares from Monta Vista Linux, Trolltech, and Sleepycat. The only downside is that it appears to only be available in China right now. And the older A760 released last August is still only available in Europe and Asia. Why are we in the U.S. always the last to get new cellular toys? The good news, though, is that with a Linux base and an integrated PDA and MS Office file compatibility, at least syncing this to either a Linux system or a Windows one should be fairly seamless. (A760 Review)"

Not open however...

[JohnGrahamCumming]

Although this device might be using "Open Source" software the actual software in the device isn't open. No doubt they obtained commercial licenses from Sleepycat and others so that they could get around having to release their software. Which is a pity because it makes customizing the thing so much harder.

John.

Re:US cell phones

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, many European countries have a FAR more modern POTS system than the US. Technically, that is. So, don't get me started on how persons are charged in the US for RECEIVING phone calls.

Re:Why not in the US

[RoyalCheese]

Ooooh.. its linux.. oooh its not linux.. So fucking what? Is it any better as a mobile phone than its competitors or not? If you buy a phone purely because its operating system is open source, then you are focusing on something immaterial to the function (and styling) of the phone. You could have bought something that suited your needs better if you weren't so hung up on your "open source is best" or "MS is best" dogma!

Re:Deprivation of these toys

[radish]

I'm not really sure what you're talking about. When I lived in London my phone worked fine all the time (which is all I expect a POTS line to do), and was cheaper than my line here in NYC, which didn't work when I first got it and has failed again in the 4 months I've had it. So what exactly makes a landline "crappy"?

Re:I'm not buying it.

[simon_hzero]

And loads of other Motorolas - v500/525, v600, a830, a835, a920, a925, amongst others...

Re:Marketability

[frostman]

Yeah, right.

In San Francisco, a wealthy tech-savvy city, my Sprint PCS phone drops network randomly as I walk through the financial district. In Noe Valley I have four antennas on one side of the $tarbucks and zero on the other side of it.

In Budapest, an up-and-coming (and much larger) yet by no means wealthy Central European city, the only time I ever lose connectivity above ground is for 20 minutes after midnight on New Year's.

Face it, the US cellphone infrastructure is many, many years behind Europe's in terms of reliability and signal quality (and IMHO revenue concept).

As for the reliability of the handsets themselves, you may have a point - or you may not, since your point contradicts US behavior in other tech markets (PDAs spring to mind).

Re:Why not in the US

[RevAaron]

Actually, not really. There isn't any SyncML for the Zaurus, which does Linux+Qtopia just like this phone. Whereas a lot of other phones running every other OS does support SyncML. You'd probably have a better chance of your computer talking to a SyncML-enabled phone rather than whatever PIM API Trolltech/Sharp/Mot is using this week.

Re:A Few Reasons it isn't in the USA

[otis wildflower]

The USA isn't big on advanced cells. Not like Europe or Asia.

None of the advanced features US providers are dreaming about will happen until we see a whole lot more flat-rate action. Americans simply will not pay what Asians and Europeans are willing to for stuff like GPRS, SMS/MMS, etc. LTIC most European plans are still per-minute with per-message charges in SMS and per-KB data transfer charges. No all-you-can-eat plans.

I can guarantee you that 'cellular data' will go nowhere until it's available flat-rate all-you-can-eat. Same goes for MMS, location-based services, etc. Americans just want flat-rate and are willing to wait for it. This may be happening with Sprint and ATT, but I believe all-you-can-eat data, sms/mms and local voice needs to be $50/mo for it to take off.

Ergo, those phones which enable those services will not be as appealing: why pay extra for something that is not affordable to use?

And it seems to be something the wireless companies need to learn over and over and over again.

Re:US cell phones

[dslbrian]

Once you have the silicon designed it is just a "library" you plug into...

...GSM will not be the only standard for long, 3g systems are coming out, and they are closer to the US systems than GSM. Nobody in their right mind knowing that would design a cell phone that they couldn't move to a different protocol.

Actually as someone who designed the Motorola front-end chip I can tell you that the same front-end IC used should work in the US for GSM. The problem isn't the technology, I guessing its the carriers (ATT, Cingular, TMobile) who either don't think people will buy it, or they can't figure out how to squeeze more cash out of the people who do buy it.

The Mot chipset used has both dual-band and quad-band front-end ICs, and actually was designed for GSM (the VCO is capable of hitting the 4 main GSM bands - 850/900/1800/1900). However transferring to a different protocol isn't quite as trivial as you make it sound. The 3G and CDMA specs are harder than GSM, so to do a multi-protocol capable part you need to design to the most extreme/hardest specs of all the protocols combined (this is not a new concept, but it typically fails because the resultant part is not competitive with the protocol-specific parts on either cost, current drain - aka battery life, or any number of other factors).