mokoNinja posted a video a few hours ago on YouTube showing the newly created media player application for the OpenMoko. This is a pretty standard feature for all smart phones, and since I am looking to replace the need for a portable media player when I get a Neo1973, it is nice to see that it is coming along nicely with all the standard features one would expect raised when raised in an iPod generation.


While it seems to lack the polish of the iPhone interface right now, OpenMoko seems to be shaping up into a decent contender, and once all the basic functionality is covered, we will start seeing some real innovation that makes open source applications so exciting to use. I am really hoping for a portable version of the popular KDE app Amarok, which integrates Wikipedia, scripting, last.fm support, and even eye candy like coverflow (in upcoming versions) into a powerful and easy to use music player.

Obviously I had hoped that this would showcase video playback, but it has not been mentioned anywhere in this video, or in documents about the player, except for a planned feature. What we can expect however is a player that will support all the popular formats like avi and divx, making it a great way to watch videos on the go. It is absurd to think that the OpenMoko will not support all the popular video and audio codecs. It will be nice to put that collection of movies onto a mobile device without being forced to transcode them to a certain format.

now if we could just get a native lightweight BitTorrent client...

Some of you may have seen this post in the forums, but since they are not the most lively place right now I thought I might throw it up on the front page. I just thought it was interesting to see an apple employee taking so much interest in the site by spending 23 minutes here...researching the "competition"?

 

 

Wired recently their impressions of the Neo1973 GTA01 running OpenMoko. Since the phone is still a development unit it did not come with OpenMoko installed, and the author used the OpenMoko wiki to install the latest firmware. After getting it installed with no problems, he writes about the standard application features, and the flexibility of using the open software stack in the future to develop applications that interface with the many hardware features. The example he used was morse code caller ID that can tell him whose calling without reaching for his phone. ...not exactly my idea of useful, but open source software has been known to cater to all sorts of needs.

He did mention that the phone would not register with his T-Mobile network while he was running OpenMoko, so it appears we still have a little wait for a consumer ready version. December is a long way off, so hopefully all these issues will be resolved. He did install the more mature Qtopia operating system that has just been ported over to the Neo1973, and said that the phone worked flawlessly. Kind of a compromise since Qtopia, even though it's Linux based, is partially proprietary and goes against the idea of a completely open source phone.

Overall the article seemed really positive about the idea of an OpenSource phone and all the possibilities it will offer, despite the problems he had with the OpenMoko software. You can read the whole article here.

Over at OpenMoko Planet the developers have released new screen showcasing a clock, wallpaper utility, color custimization options...in case you don't like the default orange scheme. Aparently this modified GTK engine will function as a template for third party programmers hoping to make an application with a blended GUI, that fits in with the phones UI. The most exciting feature shown here is a graphical application installer that appears to function like Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu, meaning no terminal commands to install packages when a keyboard is not available. This is exciting since it will be very easy to install new programs. Nothing is final yet but have a look at the new screens, things appear to be shaping up nicely:

 

As reported here, Trolltech has announced that they will no longer be selling its Greenphone development unit. Instead they will adopt OpenMoko's Neo1973 as the primary development hardware. More information about Trolltech and its Linux-based Qtopia operating system can be read here

Linux's growth in the home PC market has been extremely healthy over the last few years, but mobile phones showcase the area where Linux might have it's greatest potential in growth. According to a study from Informa, 27% of smart phones will be running Linux by 2012. You can view a better synopsis of this study here.

This is very exciting, since I hope to use my experience with Linux to develop mobile software in the future. The OpenMoko could be used for many people as a springboard to showcase work for a job interview, a development platform for anyone trying to make phone software, among its many other usages. Here is a list of available mobile devices that use some form of Linux.Recently one of my professors had purchased a Trolltech Green Phone that was going to be used as a tool for demonstrating the applicable development platforms of the Computer Science department within our school. The faculty was disappointed it and returned it, purchasing an OpenMoko. I hope that with the spread of Linux as an operating system, and phones as a platform, more schools will teach students about developing in that kind of environment...as long as they do it after I get my foot in the door so I don't have to compete. haha...

Apparently the popular open source web browser Firefox has a mobile version in development. Mozilla Corporation , Firefox's non-profit developer, is focused on making sure that all plug-ins work, which has always been one of the strong points of Firefox. From the interview here it sounds like they are very serious in brining all the Internet's rich content to a mobile device without conceding many of the features that a PC user has access to. While a specific platform has not been announced, meaning OpenMoko support is still in the air, it is still exciting to see an open source browser being ported to the mobile environment. Since Firefox is pretty much the standard defualt browser for most popular linux distributions, maybe they will be attempting to storm the linux phone market as well.

Firefox has definitely changed the way that I use the internet, and I find myself frustrated everytime I am forced to boot up Internet Explorer. I know that most people reading this blog are familar with firefox, so the amount of praise I could lay on this product would be like preaching to the choir. If you are one of the 30 - 40 percent who visit this site on something else other than Firefox, feel free to download the PC version and give it a try...but never try to go back to IE7 after you have, because the internets will feel painful.