Linux Solutions

Googles Android platform for mobile phones has been successfully ported to OpenMoko’s open-source handset.

OpenMoko’s hardware is an open source handset that users are free to modify till their hearts are content so long as they stick to the open source license. The handset comes with a Linux-based OS and interface, but sticking Android was an obvious, yet useful development.

The OS and user interface are both running on Freerunner – according to the screen shots from iMAndroid.org’s website. As licensing restrictions prevent the handset from using 3G technologies, its probably prudent to use wi-fi when running the network heavy applications that come with Android.

The Freerunner has been available for quite some time, and it would be a shock if OpenMoko sold a version of the handset with a pre-installed version of the Android operating system as they are fully behind user choice, and the whole point of OpenMoko is that customers can install whatever they like.

Mobile is booming rapidly, and we now have move mobile operating systems available that we do for desktop computers so for OpenMoko to demonstrate its hardware using different options is a good move for the company.

In other related news, Smartphone maker Palm have been giving an extra special Xmas card this year - $100 million from private equity firm Elevation Partners.

The financial boost should see the company survive the harsh economic climate we have found ourselves in, helping to release its 2009 product line, including the Linux-based Nova for mobiles next month.

The money from the firm is a top-up on it’s already $940 million investment from June 2007, which also saw former Apple Executive Jon Rubinstein put in place as Palms chairman of the board.

This latest cash boost gives the equity firm a 39 percent stake in Palm, who are buying shares at $3.24 per share. Elevation also has warrants to acquire 7 million additional shares of Palm stock at the same price. Palm says that it can make Elevation sell up to $49 million if the new investment to other shareholders at the same or even better price by March 31st.

Roger McNamee, co-founder of Elevation Partners, said in a statement:

“We believe that Palm is in a position to transform the cell phone industry, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to make this additional investment in the company.”

“Palm has an industry-leading team and an exciting, differentiated product roadmap. We are proud to be associated with the company and look forward to great things from Palm in 2009 and beyond.”

With Palms new Nova OS, the company hopes to take two percent of the competitive smartphone market currently dominated by iPhone.

Google’s new open source mobile phone platform is to hit shelves next week, and a few lucky so and so’s have got their grubby little mitts on to the G1 handset from T-Mobile. So far the reaction from these insiders has been positive and the G1 shows a lot of potential, but there are reportedly a few flaws to.

The biggest bugbear to come from testers is the existence of a “kill-switch” – which allows Google to remotely disable any Android application on a phone at will. The discovery of a similar feature back in August drew comparable backlash from testers so have Google slipped up again?

Regardless, the G1 is receiving praise for its customisation options, full QWERTY keypad, and overall ease of use. The lack of a standard headphone socket, video camera, and Exchange synchronisation are among the biggest complaints so far, however, Google say the exchange issue will become available as a third-party app shortly.

“If you look at the iPhone, obviously the user interface is what really captivated people, coupled with the very strong industrial design,” Dan Hays, director of PRTM Management Consultants, said.

“In the case of Android, Google doesn’t have control over the industrial design of the devices — so it really needs to be focused on the quality of the user interface, the innovation that it can execute in that, and driving the ecosystem of applications that will ride on the operating system,” he said.

The Android’s TOS state that if Google finds a product that “violates the developer distribution agreement,” then “it retains the right to remotely remove it…at its sole discretion”.

Hays thinks Google will handle this fine.

“I think it’s less an issue of the existence and more an issue of how it might be used,” he pointed out. “To me, the question is, ‘Is it going to be used to shut down a rogue application that may be doing something on the network that’s inappropriate?’ If so, that’s probably a good thing.”

A report by ABI Research claims that Android’s success has “little to do with user acceptance”, adding more pressure on Google’s open source OS for the release of T-Mobiles G1 phone.

Kevin Burden, ABI’s director, wrote that Android can help sell a lot of smartphones only if carriers and manufacturers “recognise the value to their own business models of using standard platforms.”

At present HTC is the only original equipment manufacturer with a commitment to Android, with T-Mobile acting as the lone carrier.

“Let’s take away all the marketing hype and take a deep breath and let it all out,” Ramon Llamas, IDC senior research analyst said. “It’s the next iPhone, the next BlackBerry - it’s one phone on one carrier right now, does that sound familiar to you? It may carry the brand and everything, but for most people in the universe, they haven’t even touched this darn thing yet.”

“It’s way too early to tell,” said independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan, who has had an opportunity to check out the G1. “It’s cool, it’s great, it’s definitely good software and definitely worth looking at, but it’s not that different from the iPhone. They both basically do the same thing.”

T-Mobile recently announced that it would triple its original order for G1 handsets, and early estimates have put T-Mobile selling around 1.5 million phones in the first few weeks.

However, with the world in financial breakdown, people may be less likely to part with their hard earned cash, and the same could be said for original equipment manufacturers – even though the advantage of open source maintenance and developer improvements could help lower costs in the long run.

“It takes a lot of cost in supporting multi-platforms,” Llamas said. “That’s going to be on a lot of people’s radars. T-Mobile would like to make money off of this, but they’re staring at this ‘gift horse’ and saying how much cost can we weather and how much do customers want this? Knowing that the holiday season is coming but the economy is down, do we stay at this price or do we move it?”

But in a difficult market, where iPhone reigns supreme, Blackberry shuffling awkwardly at the back, and Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 on the horizon, Google could find it a hard sell.

“Google’s got a name, but it’s just a name,” Kagan said. “Google is great at what they do online and with search, but all these other businesses they get into, they’re just not as successful as search. The smartphone category is the fastest-growing category in cell phones right now, that’s why everybody is focused like a laser beam on this right now, why everybody wants in and why everybody would love to be the favourite.”

Beta testers are being sought by Information Appliance Associates (IAA) - a developer of Mac-based sync utilities - for what it calls “the first Linux-to-BlackBerry sync solution.”

IAA is testing its free “PocketMac for Blackberry, Linux Edition” software on Xandros Linux running the KDE PIM suite.

The application synchronises PIM (personal information manager) information such as contacts and calendar entries, between a Linux desktop and a Blackberry phone. The free Linux edition is based on PocketMac for Blackberry, and has had over 18 months worth of development and testing, say IAA.

At present PocketMac for Blackberry, Linux Edition (PMBB) is being tested on the Xandros distro. Currently it is designed to sync with the KDE PIM suite. The IAA say that other Linux distros will be supported in the near future but they didn’t add anything else about Linux application support.

IAA began as a company launching PocketMac Pro, which it billed as the original Mac-to-pocket-PC sync solution. It then moved on to develop connectivity software for “Microsoft Smartphones”, iPods, and the Blackberry. RIM recently licensed PocketMac for Blackberry, says the company.

Terence Goggin, CTO of IAA said, “Linux users are treated as second-class citizens just like Mac users. That’s why we’re the perfect team to bring this solution to the Linux market. With the growth of the Linux consumer market, the prominence of the Eee PC, and new Linux portables being released every day, this is an exciting market that needs professional sync software.”

Beta sign up is available to a limited number of people at pocketmaclabs’s website.

A telecoms security expert has unveiled a tool that shows just how easy it is to hack in to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls.

UCSniff has grouped a selection of open source applications into a single software package that allows penetration testers to assess the security of VoIP calls over a client’s network. The software also introduces several new features that make eavesdropping on specific targets extremely simple.

UCSniff runs on a laptop that can be connected in to the Ethernet port of the network you want to probe. From that point, a VLAN hopper automatically traverses the virtual local area network until it accesses the part that carries VoIP calls.

Once the tool ha gained access, UCSniff automatically injects spoofed Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) packets into the network, allowing all voice traffic to be routed to the laptop.

The package allows users to home in on a conversation from a particular user. Targets can be selected by extension number or dial-by-name features, making it easy to listen to all calls made by a specific individual – for example, your boss, and even filtering calls made from the boss to the finance department only, for example.

UCSniff creator Jason Ostrom said, “It’s silently intercepting all the traffic and forwarding it to the phone, so a regular phone user would not be able to tell the difference.

“They think they’re talking directly to the other phone when in fact the tool is actually intercepting all the traffic.”

UCSniff makes it easy to catch bi-directional conversations in a single audio file. It automatically records calls that use the G.711 and G.722 codecs. Remote use isn’t possible, as you need to be directly wired to the network, but an insider could easily tap-in from somewhere in the building. Ostrom claims the software can be connected to a hotel VoIP system as well.

The program is to be made free for download in the coming weeks from Sipera Systems. Ostrom claims that up to 90 percent of businesses do not have adequate VoIP security, so quite why he’s releasing this is strange.

He tries to shed some light on his motivations, “I’d like to think that I’m creating this tool to create education awareness,” he said. “It’s a tool that every security and VoIP owner should have in their bag and that’s why we’re giving it away for free.”

Android made its first appearance last week in the form of the new G1, causing the geeky portion of the general public to get excited, and the developers to get their panties in a twist. Blogs all over the web have been talking about how cool the new platform is, but for a basic user, its just a fancy new phone, however, if you are a developer then you want to know what you can, and perhaps more appropriately, can’t do with this new toy.

Last week Apple began applying nondisclosure agreements to rejection letters sent to those developing for the App store. This means that developers are not allowed to reveal why they were rejected.

Techie bloggers have been condemning the iPhone to a gradual death. One blogger, Thomas Teisberg from Linux Loop, said:

“As of today’s news, it appears that the iPhone development process is like this.”

“Ask Apple for permission to make an application. Sign a non-disclosure agreement. Invest time and money into an iPhone application. Ask Apple for permission to sell or give away your application. If Apple says YES: start making money and hope Apple does not change their minds. If Apple says NO: shut up and deal with it. If you say anything, Apple can sue you, further raising the wasted investment money.”

As a result, “the iPhone is now doomed,” Teisberg claims.

“Apple has not shot itself in the foot — they shot themselves in the leg or heart,” Teisberg added. “If Apple does not loosen up on their NDA policies soon, developers may leave the iPhone for the much more open Android platform or another more open platform.”

If that happens, “Apple has suddenly doomed a potentially promising and incredibly successful platform,” he said. “The only question that remains to be seen is how far iPhone developers are willing to be pushed? My guess: not much more.”

Slashdot editor Timothy Lord shed some light on the debacle.

“I’m optimistic about Android, and the ham-fisted way that Apple’s been handling developers for the iPhone has made me even more optimistic,” he said. “Apple’s not done anything I consider evil by restricting the apps that iPhone users can download, but it shows they’re giving the iPhone the same treatment that makes me unhappy with OS X - deciding that their way is the way a certain thing will be done.”

Others feel that Android’s openness will struggle, in such a closed environment.

“The cell phone market is one of the most closed markets I’ve ever come across - telcos often demand that cell phone makers allow them to disable features to protect their own profit margins,” Montreal consultant and Slashdot blogger Gerhard Mack said. “I’m honestly not sure what a more open platform can change in the face of such blatantly anti-consumer behaviour.”

Android does have the least the potential to bring new openness to a market known for the reverse.

“I’m not a big fan of cell phones generally, but Android-style openness - if it remains as open as people hope it to be - may change my mind on that,” Lord said. “I certainly hope that it puts an end to the foolishness of people paying dollars for ringtones, or [getting] funneled into awkward and expensive picture-sending systems just to get photos off their phone. Shouldn’t every phone already allow users to drag and drop files?”

T-Mobile needs to “crow about how open the platform is,” Lord added. “It’s 2008, and I still hear people asking the questions that seemed to dog anything ‘open’ 10 or more years ago, like whether something so transparent can be safe from malicious hackers.”

Symbian’s VP, the guy whose company who was recently absorbed by Nokia, has told a conference of industry insiders in San Francisco, that Linux is not fit for use in mobile phones.

This morning at the GigaOM:Mobilize conference Jerry Panagrossi, vice president of Symbian’s North American operations said that, “There’s been a lot of misleading information over the years…about the fitness of Linux for the mobile space,

“There has been wonderful work, fantastic work in the Linux community in the workstation and PC space, but when you drag that over into the mobile space, there is an entirely different domain with a different set of challenges that handset managers must overcome.

“This is particularly true with the resource constraints that we deal with on mobile devices - constraints in computation capability, resource and memory management, and power management. When you drill down and look at Linux…you realize it’s just a kernel.”

Panagrossi believes that in adopting Linux, mobile phone makers are pushing the industry in the wrong direction. He argues that they are creating more fragmentation, not less.

When you build a Linux phone, he says, manufacturers can’t help but move beyond the core OS.

“You quickly gravitate towards a proprietary implementation, as you add an underlying device driver model [and] you add an application execution environment.

“When you ask the Linux solution providers what percentage of software runs across all of their platforms, the answer is near zero per cent. There’s such a degree of high fragmentation in that space, and I think it’s high time we set the record straight.”

Unsurprisingly Panagrossi’s speech didn’t go down well with Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMO Foundation.

“On the question of whether Linux is suitable for mobile phones: I think that is a question that was answered four or five years ago,” Gillis said, who was sitting just to Panagrossi’s left. “We’ve introduced 23 LiMO mobile phones since we launched last year…all of the issues have been answered now.

“The real question is about access to developers. Linux is a very prevalent technology. There are something like 5 million active developers, and the other technologies rely on communities that are much, much smaller. And in Symbian’s case, nearly all of the developers will be owned by Nokia. It’s a very different situation.”

While that never really addressed Panagrossi’s point, you could argue that Symbian’s opinions are pretty irrelevant now that they will disappear in to Nokia’s vast expanse

According to an article in the New York Times, T-Mobile is to partner with mobile phone manufacturer HTC to deliver the first smartphone running Google’s Android Platform.

The unnamed source said the carrier could announce the phone as early as September, but realistically October.

An unofficial T-Mobile blog claims the new phone, to be called the “G1,” would launch Sept. 17 to T-Mobile customers only at a price of US$150. The following week it would rise in price to $250 to $400 and be available to new T-Mobile customers.

HTC is widely expected to be the manufacturer, as the company has expressed interest and support of Android and is also a member of the Google-run Open Handset Alliance.

“As to the T-Mobile rumour, I really can’t comment - but Android has been due for sometime now,” Sean Ryan, a research analyst for IDC’s Mobile and Wireless Group, said

“Q4 delivery of an Android product would make sense, and HTC does seem to be the most likely device manufacturer to deliver a first Android device,” he added.

Chris Hazelton, a research director of mobile and wireless for The 451 Group, said that, “I think it’s likely.”

“HTC is good at developing UIs (user interfaces) and touch screen interfaces - and also at working with a complex operating system like Windows Mobile. I have pretty strong faith in HTC’s ability to work with Linux and Android and roll out a device that … T-Mobile, HTC, Google and the Open Handset Alliance will be happy with,” he added.

Google has not confirmed or denied the rumours about T-Mobile and HTC but it did note that the first Android-based handsets are on track for delivery in the second half of 2008.

Once a closed-door, mobile development, it would seem, is out in the open. In the last couple of years mobile software developers have been turning to the open source community for inspiration.

Google has toyed with us over its Android platform, with Andy Rubin, director of mobile platforms claiming: “[Android is] the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices”. Google leads the Open Handset Alliance, and has drawn together dozens of companies to work on the OS. The LiMo Foundation, formed last year and have already successfully pushed the Linux open source OS on to phones.

Most recently, Nokia announced that it had bought up the rest of the Symbian software effort that they didn’t own previously, and opened it up to device makers.

Now with so much competition, many in the wireless industry are questioning just how much we need all these separate software efforts and whether they can/want to work together. “We are all doing the right thing,” Rubin says. “I don’t think there’s anything that would preclude us from working together. How we cooperate - that’s the question.” Rubin also says he’s willing to host a meeting among “everybody that’s interested.”

Open source efforts might be able to accomplish a lot more together than they can apart, analysts say. “Concerns over the reliability and lack of focus for any one initiative sends some handset makers into the arms of proprietary software makers Microsoft Research In Motion and Apple,” says Kevin Burden, an analyst at ABI Research. “The concern is that open-source initiatives are a rattly ship, [where] there’s no control over where these platforms are going,” Burden says.

Google’s Rubin is not alone in wanting to work with other organisations. At a recent Tokyo conference, Symbian CEEO Nigel Clifford hinted that he’d be open to a collaboration with Google in some way. LiMo’s executive director, Morgan Gillis, says he wouldn’t mid working with Android either. “There’s plenty of scope for cooperation,” he says.

Is it likely that we could ever see a merger between any of these firms?

Jack Gold, president of consulting firm J. Gold Associates, has speculated that LiMo or Symbian may consider merging with Android. “The problem right now is there are too many [open source] players,” Gold says. “It doesn’t make sense in a marketplace to have multiple vendors doing the same thing. If you combine all that effort into one, you should have a lot more effect.”

However, the notion of a merger between Symbian and Android is widely dismissed within Symbian circles. “It might be more feasible for Android to merge with LiMo than with Symbian, because the technology underpinnings are the same,” Gillis says. He also says the two haven’t discussed closer collaboration, much less a merger.

But in the interest of healthy competition, a merger is unlikely.

“It is like suggesting that Coke and Pepsi merge,” says Ben Wood, an analyst at the British mobile consulting firm CCS Insight. “There are clear competitive reasons why Nokia, which owns all the intellectual property and will be the biggest contributor to the [open source] Symbian Foundation, has no commercial incentive at all to work with Google.”

For its part, Google is pressing ahead with stand-alone Android efforts. “We will continue building and innovating on Android,” says Rubin, who declined to comment on whether Android may merge with another open source effort.

For now, Microsoft says it’s not worried. “This is really nothing new, we’ve seen Linux consortiums come and go,” says Scott Rockfeld, group product manager of Windows Mobile. But even a little cooperation could make these recent open efforts more than just some passing fad.

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