The Greenphone - User-modifiable Linux Phone

Trolltech has introduced the Qtopia Greenphone, a $700 Linux-based GSM/GPRS mobile phone that includes an SDK so that users can easily develop their own applications that run on the phone.

From the press release:
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Trolltech®, the company that makes software faster to build and easier to use, announced the pricing and availability of Qtopia® Greenphone™, the first open Linux mobile device for application developers.

Greenphone is offered as part of a complete software development kit (SDK) enabling application developers to utilize communication functions and features found in today’s sophisticated smartphones in developing their own innovative applications in addition to modifying those that Trolltech provides.

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Cool idea, but at that price point they will only attract serious gadget geeks (probably not their target market) and independent software vendors (ISVs) that desire a mobile phone platform that's easy to develop on (probably their target market). There could also be a market in the enterprise space--large companies that desire 100% control over the mobile phones that their employees use, all the way down to the OS.

Hopefully they come up with different colors--the Greenphone's puke green is not going to attract many people on wow factor! Of course, one might expect nasty things to come from a company called TrollTech...makes me wonder what it smells like! (?)

New Multimedia BlackBerry - The Pearl


RIM has announced its first consumer-targeted device, known as the BlackBerry Pearl. From the outside, it looks very much like the other "compact" BlackBerry devices, aka the 7100 series.

Inside, however, it sports two firsts for a BlackBerry: an MP3 player and an integrated 1.3 megapixel digital camera. It also has a new slot for a microXD memory card, which can be used for storing photos and music. Also very important: this unit supports both GPRS and EDGE data standards, the latter of which provides data rates up to three times faster than GPRS. As far as I know, this is the first BlackBerry in the "compact" form factor to support EDGE.

I haven't seen one of these units up close yet, but it looks like RIM could very well have a runaway hit on its hands. With a street price of $200-$300 (depending on plan and carrier discounts), weighing in at only 3.1 ounces and with a form factor that is as thin as a closed RAZR and as narrow as a normal "candy bar" phone, this unit sounds like a winner to me.

It does not appear to be available quite yet--T-Mobile, for example, it taking pre-orders at this time, but I'm sure we'll be seeing Pearls all over in a very short period of time.

RIM BlackBerry Pearl review by PC Magazine

Netgear WPN824 WiFi Router with MIMO

I acquired this unit for my office about two weeks ago from Office Depot for $89, and so far I am very pleased with it. This is an 802.11b/g WiFi router that features MIMO (Multi-In/Multi-Out) technology, which selects a combination of seven different internal antennas to provide the best coverage, depending on environmental factors such as the location of the wireless client devices. The router continuously monitors the environment, choosing the right channel and antennas to provide the best coverage.

Anecdotally, the new router does seem to provide better coverage in our office, with stronger signal in the furthest corners. An additional challenge of our office is the fact that we're in a highly dense area (downtown Denver), with many different APs from many different companies in the same area. Since this device automatically picks the best channel, it can dynamically change its configuration as the wireless dynamics in our building change.

So far, I am very pleased with the device and would recommend it to others. The price is a bit high, but it seems to be worth it for people that have coverage problems. My only complaint so far is the configuration of the unit, which required installation of a CD on the PC, along with a hard-wired connection to the router. While this wasn't a big deal for the initial configuration, I have been unable to manage the unit over the wireless, which is annoying--the last thing I want to do is to have to walk a laptop over to the unit to connect to the wired Ethernet just to be able to manage the device. Hopefully it will be very stable and I won't have to manage it!

Oh, and one more benefit--the unit has a very cool array of blue LEDs that shows which antennae are in use--a definite "thumbs up" on the geek factor!