It was in May the last time I blogged about Ultra Mobile PC's (UMPC). In that blog I spoke about how we at Betavine were planning on supporting the installation of the Linux driver for the tiny ASUS Eee UMPC to enable the USB Connect cards to work properly. In that time we have managed to take live a debian based repository with a be-spoke ASUS Linux driver. Hence our users can now easily install the driver for their tiny machines. I've watched closely how successful this has been. To our surprise at Betavine the uptake in the first 3 months is higher than when the original Linux Drivers went live last year!

In this area of the market ASUS has been king for almost a year. Now other manufacturers are hot on their heels trying to get a cut of the business. ACER have now brought out the ACER ONE laptop . A UMPC that competes directly with the ASUS 700, and ASUS 900. However looking at sites like DABS the lead time on the device is still about 4 weeks. On this particular site they have 10 flavours, 6 of which are Linux based and 4 Windows based. It looks like Linux has finally made it into the hands of what I class 'Joe Blog' users. People who want to use a computer for a particular task, not care too much what is the underlying operating system and more about it's ease of use.

What has really astonished me is that we (Betavine) are already fielding questions on a forum thread started by users trying to get the USB data cards working on this particular make of machine! The words 'HOT' and 'CAKES' spring to mind! What I believe we are starting to see is a real paradigm shift in the PC market. A disruptive technology! It looks like there are a lot of people who like the idea of having a computer the size of a small pad, robust enough to drop in a bag, light enough to carry anywhere and can easily be connected to the WEB. The pinch point of the device will also bring it into the hands of children and teenagers, a market segment you would not normally expect to own such a machine. I also believe this is going to affect the bigger well known brands in what they can charge for their expensive range of machines which typically have the much smaller form factor. It's also going to tie this type of computer users more closely with their 'Mobile Network Provider' (Maybe Betavine can coin a new acronym.... MNP!). After all, there is no point in having an Ultra Mobile PC, that's not 'Ultra Connected'.

This past month has seen allot of activity in the area of Open Source Software. Specifically Nokia's idea to Open Source the Symbian OS. Speculation at the minute is that they are trying to counter the multiple threats of LiMo and Android. I've even read blogs speculating that they are trying to entice developer talent away from LiMo and Android.

My honest view is that I don't see LiMo currently as being much of a threat as they do not have an integrated set of API's and IDE's or a single place for someone to go to start developing for that platform. However, I feel this will change by the end of the year.

As for Android. Yes I do agree that there is a massive carrot for many a talented developer to get dirty with the platform. Google have played their hand perfectly, and I have to admire them for that. However they are in a very dangerous position. Expectations are very high for the Google platform and their first realisation of this platform on a device! The NET is rife with news on the new HTC device which will apparently run Google Android. But that's only half the battle, I wonder how they plan to go to market with the device? To my knowledge Google do not have a good distribution channel! They also have to be careful how they do position this. I'd become very suspicious if my Google searches on 'best mobile phone' kept coming up with 'Android'! I'd like to here others thoughts on this, how do Google plan to take their new 'device' to market?

And within this there is consolidation going on between LiMo and Lips which I think is good news. LiMo are now on track I believe. When there are API's and IDE's ready there will be real pieces of hardware for it to run on, not to mention a distribution channel. My first blog last year was on fragmentation, and I think we are finally seeing a 'fanning in' on the Mobile Linux world.

So to cap off:

Nokia's strategy is unclear. They have purchased Troltech to give the an advantage on the Mobile Linux front. They have still to capitalize on this. They are now pursuing a path to Open Source Symbian. Is this a strategy, or is it panic?

Google are now going through the horrible learning curve and pain that most mobile operators have gone through already of how to deliver and manage a mobile device to market. Seems it's not quite as simple as they first thought then!

LiMo is slow and steady! And with respect to this I hope to be bringing you more news on developer API's in the near future!


Best regards, Nicholas Herriot

This post is for developers using the Qtopia green phone.

Ever wanted to quickly and easily get your new image booted and running on your green phone without going through all the hassle with the GUI? Well here is how:


Ensure your mobile is switched on and the USB connection is connected between phone and your PC.
Move to the directory that contains the Qtopia green phone tool chain:

>cd /usr/local/qtopia/4.3.11/

run the usbflash application as supper user:

>sudo ./usbflash qutopia-greenphone-flash-ful-4.3.1 -no -sxe

On your phone do the following:

1. Switch phone off.
2. Hold '#' key to install

Job done! Now is that not much more simple! :-)....

Last week I had a summer vacation. Which I spent on a walking holiday in the North of Scotland. I'm not one for sitting on a hot beach, so myself wife and two children walked the Great Glen which amounted to about 80 miles of hiking over 6 days.

So what's this got to do with Linux and Mobile! Well when we got to the planning stage there was an itemized list of 'must have' accessories that we took. But my central piece of equipment that allowed me to gather information on the holiday was a cheap Ultra Mobile Device from Asus. The EeePC 700 series costing about 250 pounds. It runs a customized version of Linux from Xandros. Our total must have 'gadget' list for this 8 day hiking holiday for an 8 year old girl, 11 year old boy, and two adult parents were:

4 mobile phones one with GPS! ... :-) Getting lost in the highlands of Scotland can be scary!
2 Nintendo's for kids to play with in the evenings
1 i-pod nano for the wife to listen to when I start talking about Linux.
1 D-SLR Olympus 510 camera to hopefully take nice pictures.

At this stage we had no requirement for a laptop. However, we now had chargers for 8 devices that we had to carry with us and hopefully use at our B&B stops to charge up our devices. We also may want to store pictures onto 'something'. Shooting in RAW format for a 10 mega-pixel camera creates very large files. My wife wanted to take a large music selection. The children wanted to watch movies in the evening if possible, and finally I thought it might be handy to get internet access to read mails, blog, upload photos, read tech news etc...
Hence we ended up taking the ASUS EeePC as our 'commissioner'.

Out of the box the machine recognized USB drives, hence connecting the Olympus 510 D-SLR camera directly allowed me to upload pictures from the device. Removing the Micro Drive from the camera and placing in a USB card reader onto the ASUS also allowed access to pictures.
Connecting the I-Pod Nano to the ASUS immediately spawned Amarok Music Manager allowing my wife to access the I-Pod, play songs from it, and add new ones. This also allowed my wife to use the ASUS as a mini music player for the I-Pod to play in the Log cabin we stayed at for two nights.
We no longer needed chargers for the HTC Mobile, I-Pod, and Nokia's as they charged up from the USB connection to the ASUS.
With the added help of my Vodafone USB Data card I also had internet access to read mails, tech blogs, upload photos, etc...
We also had some DIV-X encoded movies on the ASUS which we thought the children may want to watch while we stayed on the bunk-house boat. So no need for a mini DVD player and DVD's then!

All in all the Ultra Mobile Linux Device turned out to be an extremely versatile machine. The things that surprised me the most is that I did not have to purchase software to:
1) give me word processors, spread sheets, or power point apps this was pre-installed as part of Open Office;
2) allow me to listen to my I-Pod or use it on my computer;
3) to allow me to view my photos an manipulate then in a photo-album format. This was done by gwenview photo manager, again installed out of the box; and
4) DIV-X moves played out the box with no extra installation and setup required.

After reflecting back on this fantastic trip what things did I really learn? Well my list follows:
1) GPS is a great tool when you have an 8 year old girl asking 'are we there yet?' on an 18 mile hike.
2) A picture viewer is a fantastic device to discus over a relaxing meal in the evening of all the interesting things you may have seen.
3) You are more likely to enjoy playing your I-Pod through a music player in the evening over a glass of wine than you are to have it plugged in to your ears during a 12 mile hike.
4) 3G is hard to find on top of mountains! :-)
5) Great views can be found at every turn, make sure you take a good camera!
6) You are always to tired to watch movies in the evening. Don't bother wasting Flash Drive space on DIV-X movies on your Ultra Mobile!

So would I bother taking an ultra mobile running Linux again on a walking holiday where weight and space in a ruck sack is a premium! For trips longer than 2-3 days most definitely yes.

A very bold title for what is a blog about a Linux driver for a 3G/HSDPA Network card. But I think if you read on you may start to understand that the telco giant 'Vodafone' whom I depict as a 600lb gorilla is now looking rather favourably at the Linux penguin. Let me explain...

It's been a year since Betavine put the Linux data card drivers on the site. During this time the forum has had 9 threads, many thousands of views and more than 80,000 downloads. This could mean that your average Linux user is technically more adapt than your Windows users, or that the software is quite easy to use. Personally I'd go for the latter! However, from a Vodafone perspective it's been a remarkably cost effective product to produce and bring to market. Even the development costs are hidden behind 'R&D' costs what a win-win situation....
The software is as robust and responsive as it's Windows counterpart, although installation for the many different distributions of Linux is proving to be challenging!!!

So are Vodafone coming out of the closet and saying 'Yes we support Linux Drivers now', well support is a very strong word! :-) ... What I can say is that Vodafone and Betavine are now very active in our support of the Open Source software project relating to the Linux Drivers!

While you dwell on all this, think how you would build software that goes on a MAC and/or Windows PC and reports metrics back to a Vodafone controlled server on how well your hardware and network are performing. Think of the hurdles you would have to jump when talking to Microsoft and/or Apple about the software running on their OS! Think of the development costs in maintaining this.

Now think of the reaction you would get if you say to the Linux community:

"Hey we're building an open source driver for our data cards, we want to make sure we can improve our radio coverage, network quality, handover and reliability. Mind if we collect the metrics when you use the card?"

I'm guessing there would be a cheer from the community about the very fact a major Telecom's vendor recognising Linux.

So what could we expect in the coming months from Vodafone and Betavine? Presently the talks are still at a preliminary stage. But it looks like there is a strategy developing on how Vodafone can move forward in helping to support this product, and take a more active role. This could be:

1) Dedicated support on forums, and email enquiries;
2) Sponsored development of languages for the software;
3) A better portal for an easier deployment;
4) Engagement of major Linux distributions to get the software into their repositories for automatic download via package management such as synaptic and adaptic managers;
5) Improvements in the UI; and
6) Support of metrics gathering for product improvement as is done in the Mac and Windows version designed to help Vodafone to justify increased support for the Linux activity!
7) Expansion in support for UMPC's.

When will this all happen? You will just have to wait for the next blog to find out!
But it has to be said, the 600 pound gorilla has woken up to Open Source technology, and the growth in Linux computing both in the mobile and PC space!