Esato

Linux smartphone ready for US launch

2 August 2004 by axxxr
A new Linux smartphone will soon be available to US market,the original e2800 launched in China in August, 2003, and did very well in several Asian markets, including Hong Kong,and the phone won several media awards.

Shanghai-based E28's e2800+ has been available in China since July, and builds upon E28's previous e2800 model, which was the world's first commercially available Linux smartphone, E28 says. The device, which targets business uers, currently features dual-band 900/1800MHz communications, a GPRS/CSD modem, and a 300K pixel camera. A model that supports US communications standards is set to be launched shortly.

According to E28, the original e2800 launched in China in August, 2003, and did very well in several Asian markets, including Hong Kong, where it rolled out on December 15, 2003. The phone won several media awards, including:
Named "Coolest Business Phone" in 2003 Mobile Phone Media Awards, a reader survey with 40,000 respondents presented by Nanfang Daily and The Beijing News"Smartphone of the Year" in PCOnline's 2003 Editor's Choice awards.

"Top 10 Mobile Phone" according to Younet and 21CN.com
The updated e2800+, too, is proving to be a magnet for media awards; the phone has been named a finalist in this year's "Product Excellence Awards" at LinuxWorld.

CEO Roger I. Kung said, "We believe Linux is the OS of choice for the consumer smart-phone market because of its flexibility and low cost. It is also an open architecture that allows us to optimize the phone's user interface. E28 is the major mover for Linux Mobile Alliance with the intent to boost embedded Linux [as a] major smart-phone operating system for mobile phone markets."

About the e2800+

The e2800+ measures 3.9 x 2.3 x 1 inch (98 x 59 x 26 mm) and includes a 2.4-inch, quarter-VGA (240x320) thin-film transistor (TFT) LCD, supporting 65K colors via dithering technology (the previous e2800 supported only 4K colors). The display also functions as a touchscreen that supports handwriting recognition. I/O ports include USB 1.1 and IrDA.

The device includes a built-in speaker, 32 polyphonic ringtones, and 7-color LED indicators that display phone status. It also includes hard keys for cursor/menu control, and camera and mp3 player operation.

The e2800+ is based on a 300MHz ARM9 processor (the previous e2800 was clocked at 200MHz). It boots from 32MB of Flash, and runs in 64MB of system RAM. An SD/MMC card reader offers up to 1GB of storage expansion through removable memory cards.

The device is powered by a 1030mAH Li-Polymer battery, yielding a claimed 75-130 hours of standby and 120-300 minutes of talk time.

Software side

The Linux OS used in the e2800+ supports English, Simplified Chinese, and Complex Chinese, according to E28. Additional features listed by E28 include:

  • JAVA MIDP 1.0 with manufacturer extension
  • supports OTAP (over the air provisioning)
  • WWW browser supports HTTP1.1, HTML3.2, JavaScript
  • WAP Browser supports WAP 2.0
  • eMail: POP3, SMTP, MIME, four accounts
  • eBook reader supports PRC, PDB, and OEB formats
  • Audio player supports MP3, MIDI, and AMR formats
  • Photo viewer/editor supports JPG, GIF, GIFa, PNG, BMP, and wBMP formats
  • Video player/recorder supports MPEG4, H.263, 3GP, and MP4 formats
  • Direct print
  • Built-in games
  • Personalization software
  • Contact manager with voice and photo dialing
  • Calendar
  • Memo (Text, Writing, Drawing)
  • World clock
  • Alarm clock (effective under power off)
  • SMS/EMS/MMS messaging client
  • STK
  • Voice recorder
  • Calculator
  • PC synchronization
  • Auto power off
  • Support vCard and vCalendar via IrDA/SMS
  • Privacy protection
  • Usage mode
  • Mobile disk
  • GPRS/CSD Modem
  • Auto Configuration Profile
  • Voice messaging software
  • One touch dialing and mute


 

Via: linuxdevices.com

 





Comments
On 10 Mar 15:03 mike wrote
hi

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