Mobile Linux

Engineers from Google and High Tech Computer (HTC) spent three years developing Android software and handsets before the launch of the G1 by T-Mobile on Tuesday, an executive from HTC said.

The Android handset unveiled by T-Mobile, Google and High Tech Computer (HTC) in New York on Tuesday is only available in English, but will be available in most other languages within the next six months, an indication of how long it will take to reach new markets.

The first Android phone looks a lot like the fuzzy pictures that have surfaced online for months, with a touch screen similar to the iPhone and a full slide-out keyboard.

The new T-Mobile G1 wireless phone, announced Tuesday by T-Mobile USA, Google and HTC, generated attention for its use of the open Android platform, but it will be locked to the T-Mobile USA network and it doesn't appear to be heavily focused on business users.

Even though three companies hosted the launch event and the software is backed by a consortium, the introduction of the first Android phone made it very clear that Android is about one company: Google.

For some users, the new generation of ultraportable notebooks comes close to embodying the Holy Grail for road warriors. Their laptop-like keyboards make them more usable for typing tasks than smart phones, but they are lighter and cheaper than traditional laptops. The original Asus Eee PC, for instance, cost about US$400 and weighed about two pounds when it was introduced last October.

A new generation of mobile Web browsers is finally making the Web a reality on handheld devices.

Compact, powerful, innovative, new browsers give you more choices than ever before.

One day after the resignation of the One Laptop Per Child's president was publicly revealed, the educational project's founder and chairman says the group's XO laptop may evolve to use only Windows XP as the operating system, with open-source educational apps such as its home-built Sugar running on top.

When the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program was first announced in 2005, media attention centered on two aspects: the US$100 price tag and the humanitarian nature of the project. Three years later, the environmental genius of these award-winning laptops still not only burns bright but even inspires copycats. Vendors such as Asustek and Via are working to bring their own low-cost, low-power computing devices to emerging markets and education.

The LiMo Foundation was formed on January 2007 as a consortium of mobile industry companies joining together to create for handsets an open and standardized software platform based on Linux. Their goal is to deliver an open handset format that will become more widely accepted and used over closed, proprietary platforms. The foundation's major founders include Motorola, NEC, NTT DoCoMo, Panasonic Mobile Communications, Samsung Electronics and Vodafone. These companies and other members share leadership and decision making.

As the world gets smaller, security threats and spam seem only to grow. PhpBB is the open source Internet Forum package that underlies a majority of the online forums on the Internet and its creators take their motto "creating communities" very seriously. All communities need to interact freely and safely, and although a long time coming, the latest release, phpBB3, has several increased security measures, as well as enhanced collaboration features and mobile optimisation.

Computerworld catches up with the man behind Linux, Linus Torvalds, at Linux.conf.au

Google seeks to build a "vibrant third-party developer community" for its Android mobile platform, Google co-founder Rich Miner says.

With over 3 million estimated users, Pidgin is an open source instant messaging program for Windows, Linux, BSD, and other Unix platforms. It works with AIM, ICQ, Jabber/XMPP, MSN Messenger, Yahoo, Bonjour, Gadu-Gadu, IRC, Novell GroupWise Messenger, QQ, Lotus Sametime, SILC, SIMPLE, MySpaceIM, and Zephyr.

The global battle to control the smarts in your smartphone escalated this week when some of the combatants redeployed their forces in two big moves.

Android is Google's foray into the handheld OS realm. It follows a path trodden by -- among others -- Symbian's Quartz, the SavaJe operating system, and J2ME. In fact, one of Android's stated goals is to overcome some of J2ME's shortcomings. Whether or not Android succeeds, either at that specific goal, or in general, remains to be seen.

The notebook computer is doomed. OK, that's a little strong. And as one of the people who worked on the first laptop PC, the GRiD Systems Compass Computer Model 1101, there will always be a soft spot in my heart for mobile PCs. But as we move into the era of infocentricity, defined by Web 2.0 network services, the "everyone gets a CPU" model needs to be replaced by "everyone has access to an interface to the Web."