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Old 18-07-2008, 07:42 PM   #5 (permalink)
chrestomanci
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Re: Articles - Question of the week: what constitutes a perfect smartphone?

I would think of a good smartphone as a general purpose computer that has been shrunk to pocket size, and includes a cellar interface. In some ways I think having a good computer & operating system is more important than some of the extra features Salazaar mentioned like high speed data, and a camera.

Part of the reason I think that way, is because a good smarphone is also a PDA, that help you organize yourself The linux familiar project is quite cleverly named with this idea because it compares a PDA with the idea of a magical animal (such as a cat) that a witch uses to help her express her powers. When you think of a smartphone as part PDA, and get away from attempting to create a phone that does everything, then features like a camera become less important, and it is much more important to think about what the computer can do, and how the user can program it to be more clever.

For that reason, I am following the openmoko project to create an entirely open Linux smartphone. In terms of features on Salazaar list, it does not get a camera or high speed data, but it does get all the rest. More importantly the OS is absolutely open from top to bottom, and you can program it do do anything you want, in more or less any language. To me it has the potential to be a killer smartphone, the only snag is, at present the software is in it's infancy, and it has trouble even being a phone, but in 6 months or so it should be great.

Last edited by chrestomanci; 19-07-2008 at 09:32 PM..
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