Mobile Linux Info is on temporary hiatus.

While we regroup behind the scenes please enjoy these other MobileInfocenter sites:

• Tech News Tube
• PhoneFavs
• PalmInfocenter
• MobilityBeat
• Mac Hash

[ "sleeping tux" image c/o =zachriel ]

The OpenMoko Neo Freerunner will make its debut to the general public this week. OpenMoko’s online store will accept orders for the open source powered smartphone beginning July 4th. The Neo comes in both 850Mhz and 900Mhz Tri-band GSM flavors depending on your locale. It sports a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, AGPS, 2.5G Data, 3axis Motion Sensors, 128MB WSDRAM, and 256MB NAND flash. It has dimensions of 4.75 x 2.44 x 0.73 inches and weighs in at 6.5 ounces (185 grams).

TamsPalm has published an overview of the new developers preview of included applications and a look at the included web browser.

To support and to unify the growing momentum of Linux platforms in the global mobile market, the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum announced that its activities and membership will be folded into LiMo Foundation as of July, 2008. This pooling of efforts and resources reflects the industry-wide trend towards unification of Linux-based mobile telephony platforms and will serve to accelerate the emergence of common mobile Linux specifications and implementations. It will also bolster the emerging mobile Linux developer community and support the creation of a range of new applications, services and end-user experiences.

The move will encompass LiPS Forum members from across the mobile ecosystem, including chipset suppliers, Linux OS and mobile stack vendors, handset designers and OEMs and regional and global wireless operators. It follows announcements by other LiPS members who have joined LiMo Foundation: ACCESS, ARM Limited, Azingo, France Telecom / Orange, Huawei Technology, MontaVista Software, Inc., NXP Semiconductors, Open-Plug, Purple Labs and Texas Instruments.

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Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition v8.04 has achieved its first public release today. Canonical is calling this version a “developers release.” There are two installable images, and one runnable KVM image.

From Canonical’s blog post:

We are delighted to be able to welcome Ubuntu Mobile Internet Device (MID) Edition 8.04 to the world as a full developers’ release. It is based on the Ubuntu Desktop Edition, and it is now available for download. The Ubuntu MID Edition 8.04 has been built by the Ubuntu Mobile and Embedded community that is sponsored by Canonical and in co-operation with Intel Moblin.org community to take advantage of the Intel(R) Atom Processor, the chipset that is underpinning the Mobile Internet Device (MID) category. Ubuntu MID Edition will always be an Open Source distribution and is freely available.

Nokia has released a new OS2008 Feature Upgrade for the N810 and N800 Internet Tablets. This release is based on Maemo 4.1 (codename Diablo).

This release beings a new Seamless Software Update feature which will allow for future device updates without the need to reflash the whole OS. his release brings a new open source email application based on Modest and the tinymail framework. Users will find a simplified account setup and presets for various service providers. Another major improvement is the introduction to Chinese character rendering support in Email, Browser and RSS feed reader. There are numerous issues fixed all over the operating system including updated openssl. Smaller improvements have also been introduced to several areas such improved browser panning performance.

The European Commission has announced that it has unconditionally approved Nokia’s acquisition of Trolltech. The move will enable Nokia to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business.

With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia’s device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia’s software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C.

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Access has released an update to its Palm OS Garnet VM for Nokia Internet Tablets. New features in the Garnet VM Beta 2 (v1.01b) include full screen support, three hot-swappable display modes (portrait full screen, portrait windowed and portrait landscape), improved performance and various compatibility and app specific updates. Notable new apps that are now listed as compatible include: Google Maps, Snappermail, Pocket Tunes, Kinoma Player 4 EX and CorePlayer.

The Garnet VM is a “virtual machine” essentially acts as an emulator allowing you to run Palm OS applications on a Nokia N770, N800 and N810 Internet Tablet. it supports over 30,000 native software applications written for the Palm OS, including some of the most popular mobile applications on the market, such as Google Maps, Snappermail, DateBk5 and perennially favorite games like Bejeweled, PacMan and Sudoku.

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The original XO OLPC laptop basically just began mass production, yet Negroponte & Co just unvieled the next generation XO laptop today at OLPC’s Global Country Workshop. OLPC founder Nicholas Negroponte announced the futuristic looking new model sporting dual touchscreen displays in a smaller tablet folding book-style design.

As you can see from the video and the pictures on Laptopmag.com, the XO 2.0 will be much smaller than the original machine (half the size, according to the press release) and will have a foldable e-book form factor. “The next generation laptop should be a book,” Negroponte said.

According to Negroponte, the second generation of the XO is scheduled to be released in 2010. One of the reasons he is announcing it so early this time around is that he hopes that other manufacturers will actually copy his idea. (via Gizmodo)

After years of conflict and strife, Microsoft and the computing and education project One Laptop Per Child, have worked out a deal that will see Windows XP on the OLPC.

According to the NYTimes,

Microsoft long resisted joining the ambitious project because its laptops used the Linux operating system, a freely distributed alternative to Windows.

“The people who buy the machines are not the children who use them, but government officials in most cases,” said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the nonprofit group. “And those people are much more comfortable with Windows.”

The alliance between Microsoft and O.L.P.C. comes after long stretches of antagonism, punctuated by occasional talks, between the two sides. Mr. Negroponte, a former computer researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a new media pioneer, said he first talked to Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chairman, three years ago.

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