Motorola bets on Linux.WHEN MOTOROLA ANNOUNCED plans to launch a Linux phone, it raised some eyebrows in the industry. Until that point, Motorola had been a strong supporter of the Symbian OS An open standard operating system for data-enabled mobile phones (smartphones) from Symbian Ltd., London (www.symbian.com). It supports Java, PC synchronization, Bluetooth local wireless access and GPRS packet-switched data. ; in fact, along with Nokia and Psion, it helped found Symbian PLC, maker of the OS. Since its Linux announcement in early 2003, Motorola has announced plans to sell its shares in Symbian. Motorola will continue to license Symbian and support the Symbian mobile handset operating system operating system (OS) Software that controls the operation of a computer, directs the input and output of data, keeps track of files, and controls the processing of computer programs. for specific customer and business applications. However, Motorola plans to eventually use Linux in most of its handsets, including the less expensive models. Both the Linux and Symbian OSs run Java applications A Java program that is run stand alone. The Java Virtual Machine in the client or server is interpreting the instructions. Contrast with Java applet. See servlet. . Motorola's first Linux phone, the A760, is a high-end smartphone A cellular telephone with information access. It provides digital voice service as well as any combination of e-mail, text messaging, pager, Web access, voice recognition, still and/or video camera, MP3, TV or video player and organizer (see PDA). that combines a personal information management suite, video player, music player, and instant-messaging tool. To start, it will only be available in the Asia Pacific region. No word on U.S. or European release dates. |
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