Wind River has announced that it has acquired privately-held S.C. Comsys S.R.L., an embedded software professional services organization based in Romania. Founded in 2000, Comsys currently has 52 employees and a unique depth of knowledge and expertise in device software services. With this acquisition, Wind River gains access to top talent with hands-on device software experience in telecom, mobile, and aerospace and defense.

Under the terms of the agreement, Wind River will pay up to US$1.4 million to acquire all outstanding shares of Comsys. Wind River expects that the acquisition will not have a significant effect on earnings per share in FY08.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jataayu Software today announced that it has integrated its popular mobile browser, wap stack and messaging technologies on Trolltech’s Qtopia platform. Qtopia is a comprehensive application platform and user interface for Linux-based mobile devices. Jataayu is a leading provider of mobile browsing and messaging products and solutions. The announcement was made during the 2007 Linux Mobile Communications Conference organized in Beijing by the China Academy of Telecommunications Research from China Ministry of Information Industry and Trolltech.

Jataayu will be showcasing its popular mobile HTML browser – jB5 and Multimedia messaging client – jMMS on the Qtopia platform. Jataayu also announced that it will be making available its successful Mobile Instant Messaging client to be part of its Qtopia Mobile Linux Application suite.

Read the rest of this entry »

Singapore Airlines will be rolling out the A380 superjumbo on October 26th, and a surprise awaits in the seat of every passenger: their personal Linux PC, running Red Hat. In addition to running the in-flight entertainment, passengers can also use a full copy of StarOffice, and there’s a USB slot for importing/exporting documents or plugging in your own keyboard/mouse.
Read

Read via Slashdot: Linux

With voting underway, critics contend there is already an ISO/IEC standard intended for documents — the Open Document Format.

Microsoft Office’s Open XML or OOXML is the default file format for documents built and used by Office applications. The Linux Foundation says the format “is specific to Windows and other Microsoft products,” it relies on references to “many Microsoft proprietary specifications” that are not publicly available and it is uncertain whether Open XML “can be used with other operating systems, like Linux.”

Read

Via’s first motherboard in the tiny, 3.8 x 2.8-inch pico-ITX format appears to be available, and priced to appeal to device-builders with limited budgets. The PX10000G supports Linux and other x86 OSes, and ships with a reasonable complement of pin-header I/O cabling.

Pico-ITX succeeds Via’s nano-ITX form-factor, which in turn succeeded mini-ITX, arguably the first motherboard sized specifically for small form-factor personal computing. Each roughly halved total board footprint.

Read

ABI Research has released a new report that claims over the next 5 years, Linux is expected to be the fastest growing Smartphone OS with a compound annual growth rate in excess of 75%. By 2012, a recent study from ABI Research forecasts the Linux-based OS to account for nearly 31% of all smart devices in the market — representing more than 331 million cumulative shipments over the same period.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark “Rizzn” Hopkins has uncovered some details about the long-rumored (and apparently all but confirmed) Google Phone. According to Rizzn’s source at Google, the device runs a modified version of the Linux kernel and has GPS built in. The positioning system will be used to power a Google Maps application, and the phone will also have tight integration with other Google apps like Gmail, Calendar and Docs. The source for Rizzn’s post notes that the company will announce the device in two weeks, and that a North American version will be available soon, possibly by the end of the year.

Read

A major new version of the OpenMoko Software has just been released. The OM 2007.2 version announced here, includes a large number of user interface changes and application redesigns.

First up much has been done to make the phone software much more finger friendly and easier to use. It also includes a reworked UI, a lighter theme, removes the awkward “scroll wheel” function and it introduces a new Today application (a la Windows Mobile) which shows events from calendar, missed calls, tasks and allows apps to hook into it.

You can read more of the finer details over at Thomas Wood’s blog.

Sean Moss-Pultz says… “the new interface is still, very much, a work in progress. This is the earliest possible stage than we can release something with enough of a framework for you all to start exploring. It’s a huge advancement in balancing simplicity with it’s digital antagonist — complexity.”

Maemo developer Tim Samoff has posted a beta of his “Unofficial Guide to creating a most excellent Maemo User Interface.” For those still in the dark, Maemo is the open-source development platform for the Linux powered Nokia Internet Tablets. The guide has turned out to be around 25-pages and is quite useful with case studies, tips and graphical examples.

Palm is indirectly denying the latest rumor report that the Foleo’s release date has been delayed. A Palm spokesperson has told PalmInfocenter that the company is still standing by its original timeframe originally announced back in May, saying “U.S. availability for the Palm Foleo mobile companion will begin this summer.”

If indeed correct, this would technically give Palm until September 23rd to make the device available. It will debut for $499, after a $100 mail-in rebate. As noted in our previous post, select developers have already received working Foleo models in retail packaging under NDA.

Read via PalmInfocenter.com