|
|
LiMo gets new members, handsets
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 5th August 2008
The Motorola MotoZine ZN5 is a five megapixel cameraphone running the Linux-based LiMo Platform.
According to news over on CNet, the Foundation – founded to “create an open, Linux-based software platform for use by the whole global industry” - has opened its doors to eleven new members, taking the total to over fifty companies. While many of the names involved – such as the Finland-based Movial Corporation – are unlikely to be recognisable to anybody not in the mobile 'phone industry, there are some very interesting names that jumped out of the list. Freescale Semiconductor is one of the big-names to have joined, famous more for its attempts to revive the ailing PowerVR graphics card technologies in notebooks than its range of microcontrollers and microprocessors. Perhaps modern LiMo handsets could feature powerful graphics chips thanks to this entry in the ranks?
Another big name to enter the mobile Linux consortium is PacketVideo, specialists in streaming rich media across networks – including to mobiles with its pvconnect range. Whether this will lead to better rich-media support on LiMo handsets – possibly even to rival the iPhone – remains to be seen.
Just in case you thought that the LiMo platform was for weird foreign companies producing clunky – yet surprisingly powerful – handsets, the Foundation also announced the commercial availability of a new series of handsets including the MotoZine ZN5 from Motorola. Running the LiMo Platform and featuring everything you'd expect from a modern handset – built-in WiFi, 5MP camera, 350MB memory, and a 2.4” 240x320 display – the new handset is a perfect example of how polished a properly-implemented and customised LiMo install can be.
Still, LiMo has a long way to go to beat Windows Mobile or MacOS X for popularity, and that's not even mentioning Nokia's newly open-sourced Symbian or Google's up-and-coming Android.
Would you be open to trying a Linux handset, or could you care less what operating system your mobile 'phone runs? Perhaps you just can't bring yourself to give up the marvel that is MacOS X on a mobile handset? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
Related
Comments (5)- Site Links:
- About
- Email Editor
- Newsletter
- Privacy
- RSS
- Score Guide
- Our Other Websites:
- Auto Express
- Channel Pro
- Computer Buyer
- Computer Shopper
- Den of Geek
All content © bit-tech.net 2000-2009
© Copyright Dennis Publishing Limited licensed by Felden
I'd love to have a LiMo handset right now..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyQ_NWt_sjA
http://www.ubuntu.com/products/mobile
Until then I couldn't care less, and I'll stick with my non-LED screen, non-3G, non-MMS, non-camera, non-everything I don't want in a ridiculous ARM device phone.
Moorestown looks amazing, i love the GPS live cam feature, so it over lays map data on to the live cam so you can see it in first person, first person view maps is something very cool, never seen it before.
it does look alot like the iphone, but bigger however i love it because its got the iphone style and its NOT a iphone, yes i am a apple hater.
Why do i think Moorestown is going to only be an american only product? just like the Amazon Kindle!
You see that's what's crucial, 'Moorestown' is a platform like Centrino, it's not a phone. Any electronics OEM could do a fancy shell for a Moorestown reference design. It's so far removed from the iPhone concept of a vendor-locked, overpriced hunk of junk it's not even funny..