Tuesday 22 September 2009

Build your own mobile phone?


Well not quite build, but at least load your own software. Open Source in mobile phones and devices are becoming increasingly attractive, but shunned by Microsoft it seems, as apart from Windows Mobile, all software stacks being used in Smartphones are open sources.

The IET magazine contains an interesting article about Open Source in Mobile phones. One big problem appears to be with getting open hardware to go with the open source. Or at least getting hardware/firmware that is not stitched up by IP agreements, and wonky APIs

According to Sean Moss-Pultz, CEO of Openmoko, the range of companies that want to use handsets built on open source principles is expanding. “There are many unexpected markets that we have come into contact with,” he claimed in his keynote at the OpenExpo conference in Switzerland earlier this year, pointing to the example of Oxford Archaeology, a private company that offers archaeological services, which is bringing handset technology to the world of site excavations.

There is more stuff on a Cicso blog, and at Openmoko.

One might want to add on anti spam for text messages, an RFID scanner, or enhanced Bluetooth and USB functions.



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