So we did flips for the open source Neo1973, now we’ve got a simplified software platform. Trolltech has introduced the Qtopia Phone Edition for the Neo1973.

The Qtopia Phone Edition is fully accessible under the open source GPL verison 2 license and supports the Greenphone reference platform for mobile development.

Up until now, Qtopia has been ported onto 90 different devices, including 25 phones. There are over 9 million Qtopia-based handsets in the market that also includes mobile devices from Motorola, ZTE and Cellon.

Source: TechGadgets photo via Flickr

Update: More info here

The other day (literally) a fellow blogger and I where talking about why cell phones are so damn proprietary and if someone could develop a phone with the same open-source mindset as say WordPress (this blogging platform) than our world would be much better off. Well apparently I’ve been living under a rock.

From OpenMoko comes the Neo 1973 open-source cell phone based off the Linux kernel.

We selected chips that have complete documentation publicly available, such as the ARM-based Samsung S3C2410 SOC. We added a debug port with complete access to JTAG and a serial console. This phone is designed for open-source development.

With a sporty 640×480 LCD that holds a beautiful 283 dpi the visual from the Neo 1973 should be amazing.

Unlike the first version of the iPhone the Neo 1973 will have 128MB RAM with 64MB NAND flash and an expandable microSD slot (bonus 512MB card ships with the phone).

So hackers, gadget hounds and side project guru’s I think this is worth a closer look. At just $300 - what a deal.

This first run of release units is more geared towards developers so don’t expect any retail phones to hit BestBuy just yet.

OpenMoko Neo 1973 home page

We tried to escape the iPhone buzz, but recent information came to light after some folks unscrewed the iPhone to see what’s inside. This is what flash memory they found.

The Apple iPhone flash memory is comprised of two technologies. NAND flash and NOR flash. Without knowing how Apple used these technologies we can easily conclude (without certainty) how the flash memory is being used.

Since NAND flash memory is best suited for re-write and allows an operating system to view the flash memory as a hard drive type storage space, the iPhone most likely uses NAND memory to store MP3 files, photo’s, video and other ‘come-n-go’ files.

The NOR flash memory is best suited for storing code where re-writes aren’t as frequent. NOR would be used for storing application information, such as web browser, OS, Viewer files and other ’stable’ code which wouldn’t change too often.

It was also reveled that Samsung is supplying Apple’s iPhone with the main microprocessor chip and NAND flash memory. Intel is supplying the NOR flash memory to the iPhone.

Currently the Nokia E61 SmartPhone has a flash memory capacity of 2GBs. The firmware of the E61 limits the use of anything over the 2GB memory capacity from external memory.

You can check for updates on the support page for Nokia E61.

In the event you have a mobile phone or PDA which uses a miniSD card, you might want to install a .exe file from flash. To do this, it’s fairly simple. Since .exe files must be installed from the PC, simply connect the device to the computer and run the executable file. During installation you should have the option on where to install the program, from there select the flash memory. (more…)

The Samsung skinny Ultra Edition II went on sale in France. The U600 went on display at the 3GSM show, but little was known about it. Well, other then it’s the skinniest phone around at just 10.9mm. Now, we’ve learned there is a Bang & Olufsen digital power amplifier along with an intelligent power system to make sure this little guy can supply the juice.

The Samsung U600 is available in beige, blue, red, silver, white, black and brown.

Today SanDisk announced their largest Memory Stick Micro card the M2. At convenient 4GBs it’s the largest flash memory card for any mobile phone. The M2 was designed, in partnership, with Sony and their line of Ericsson mobile phones.

Norm Frentz, director of marketing believes, “this is the threshold at which mobile phones provide enough capacity to become the user’s all-in-one portable music player, camcorder, photo album and video player.”

And I for one believe him. At 4GBs you can do just about anything and carry just about anything you could imagine.

Andrew from GearFuse updated us on the patent design from Nokia which gets us all hot and excited. The N99 slider phone, which is now evidently confirmed from this patent, is going to be one pretty looking cell. Along with the gorgeous QWERTY keyboard and widescreen display, the N99 will also house an outlandish 8Mp digital camera.

The closer is the sweet tablet style twisty number pad. The pad seems to be able to fold so that it can be used even in QWERTY mode. This thing is looking gorgeous. (more…)

Samsung is in collaboratin with Beyonce on their SGH-F300 Ultra Music phone where she will heavliy promot the product in spot TV commercials, ads and concert tours. Not a bad move for Samsung as teaming with Beyonce gains some serious followers. The deal also gives F300 owners an exclusive and embedded sound track, “Irreplaceable” pre-loaded on the cell.

The F300 is a unique device with two faces. A large display for viewing pics, videos and movies and on the back side, a smaller display for phone entry and dialing. With the ultra slim design and expandible microSD card, it’s a very attractive deal. Not available everywhere, but with Beyonce on-board it will be soon. (more…)

Here is a step-by-step on making your microSD card read as a mass storage device. This Blackberry hack will allow you to transfer files to and fro without using the Blackberry Desktop Manager software.

1. Go to the Options icon on your Blackberry 8800 and select the Advanced Options
2. Select Media Card
3. Choose the following options. (more…)