Doing for phones what the Empeg did for audio?

The "Greenphone" features a user-modifiable Linux OS,

Gaaahh!

I guess I am just some sort of telephobic Luddite or something... I would pay extra for a cell phone that had the following features:

If it rang, I could push a button and talk to someone.
If it didn't ring, I could push a button and then dial and talk to someone.

And N . O . T . H . I . N .G else.

I currently have what is supposed to be one of the simplest, bare-bones cell phones available. It has games on it. It has voice mail. It will connect to the internet. It has a camera. It has dozens of user-selectable ringtones, and ways of downloading even more of them. It has a message center. And a memory meter, and apparently can do something with faxes. In addition to the 10-key pad, it has ten more buttons on it, plus a four-way keypad thingy for navigating through a completely incomprehensible menu structure of dozens of features that I don't want and will never, ever use. It came with a 132 page instruction manual.

Every time the damn thing rings and I don't answer it, it starts beeping at me every three minutes to tell me I have a missed call, and I have to give the phone to SWMBO to make it stop because I sure as hell can't figure out how to do it.

Yeah, that's what I need, all right -- a phone with its own operating system so I can add even more useless things to it.

Sigh.... there. I feel much better now. Sorry for the rant.

tanstaafl.

Just out of curiosity, what brand and model is your phone? If it's not Sony Ericsson or Nokia, I'd seriously doubt whatever advice you got when buying it.

As you probably know, the reason phones have all the "useless" features is not because you want them, but because the cellular provider (who is the customer of the companies that make phones) wants features that you will pay money for on a per use basis. Their entire bussiness plan these days is "give the phone away, pretty much give the monthly service away, and gouge them on the nickle&dime features".

Personally, I'm completely different from you, and enjoy many of the features on my current phone. I can type in the name of a bussiness and it'll tell me how far away it is, the address, and phone number. I can be anywhere I get phone service and open up my laptop andconnect to the internet, which means I can work anywhere. When I get in my car, the audio automatically goes through my empeg, and I don't have to fumble for the phone, and can make calls safely while shifting gears.

On the other hand, I've never bought a ring tone, I generally pick the ring that sounds the most like a plain old telephone. I send a text message every other month, because 10c to sent 2kb of data is outrageous. A friend of mine changed the wallpaper on my phone to a picture from the camera, but I've never messed with it, and I certainly wouldn't pay money for a wallpaper. However, all these features are what Sprint was counting on when I bought the phone. I suspect I'm a huge disappointment as a customer.

Matthew

Or how about no buttons at all - "http://nokia.co.uk/nokia/0,,63592,00.html"

hmmm - it doesn't like the commas... ah well, cut'n'paste into browser

Edit: URL added -wfaulk

The UI on that Nokia must have been designed for masochists. A single rotating dial and a couple of buttons for composing text messages and typing phone numbers. Daft.

What is next ? A phone with no buttons that you bash on a hard service to tap out your texts and numbers in Morse ?

Or maybe you could use the built in camera to dial in ASL.

A friend of mine has one, it's the biggest pile of crap on this planet, possibly the worst gadget I've ever seen.

Get a Nokia 1100 - cheap (about $50, no contract or anything, for the 850/1900 model), B&W screen, wipe-clean keypad, small, light, long battery life, no camera or anything. Basically it's the old nokia stuff in a newer, smaller box.

I suspect it still has Snake on it, but you can't get a lot simpler than an 1100. The only other feature is a torch (ie, a white LED).

Hugo

D'oh, you beat be to it. Expansys sell it for £35 inc VAT though, £15 less than these guys. A US model does exist, froogle tells me.

Hugo

Uh. Whats going on with the Wireless Image Headset? Wouldn't dangling your actual phone on a cord around your neck be more useful...

Maybe your phone is too ugly to be seen?

Hugo

I got to play with one of these at linuxworld today, and it was pretty high quality. I'd seen the article linked here, but hadn't read anything about it in depth, so this may not be news to anyone. The software they had running seemed fine, but wasn't anything special, but I guess that's why it's a dev kit. The bluetooth module didn't seem to be present on the one that had on the show floor, as it was on the menu but complained if you tried to use the bluetooth function. The camera was the same way, though it was physically there and labled 1.3mp or something.

The one thing that surprised me for a phone of the size was the touch screen. It might be useful, but I'm not really sure what for in my daily phone use. I assume as a dev kit they threw everything in, and expect the final product to be a stripped down version without all the bells and wistles.

It was a reasonable size, but larger than my current samsung A900. It seemed to be GSM/GPRS, which means I'd never buy one as I can't imagine life without 3g data speeds any more. It also seemed to have USB Master capabilities, but I was just infering that from the menu. I can't imagine what I'd do with a phone with USB master capabilities, but it seems like it might come in useful.

A neat idea, and I'd love a phone with real user created apps and OS. Is it "legal" to have an open GSM phone that allows anyone to mess with the cool bits of the OS?

Matthew

The buttons were small but reasonable. They were harder to dial with than my current samsung, but they weren't impossible.

Matthew

Almost certainly (this is the case with all WM smartphones, of which this one looks like a close relative) the phone side will be just attached to the applications processor by a UART and get sent AT commands. Audio is generally done as a separate I2S bus.

This way the call side can remain closed - changes to this code probably require re-approvals, for starters - but you can faff all you want with the interesting bits.

Hugo

Just updating this thread...

Slashdot reports today on the end of Trolltech's development of the Qtopia Greenphone.

Fear not, linux-phone lovers, their efforts are now focused on the Neo 1973.

Meanwhile, I'm waiting on the Motorola RIZR Z6c...

That looks like a silly phone, like the Trekstor music player it has a daft form factor. Why would I want those rounded ends ? They just aren't an efficient use of pocket space