Open mobile software

taolono There has been some talk about various Linux based standards and frameworks, and there are a few open software based phones that include applications and frameworks. Here we collect an overall summary of these, so we can figure out what we can leverage from elsewhere, what we need to build from scratch, and any dependencies. Please correct and extend the info on this wiki page.

For information on how to compile/build software for phones, see Building Software.


 * Base OS : Linux sourced from Gumstix, includes cross compiler and has Java support Gumstix Software. (I went through some hassle getting my G4 Mac talking to a GumStix device. But it seems to be pretty straightforward now. I documented my issues on this page: GumStix Software Development with MacOS - User:Msh).


 * GSM device driver and libraries : libgsmc A fully GPL'd library supporting the ETSI GSM 07.07 Standard (E.g. Telit, and other GSM modem interfaces).A sample GUI interface for a CLI is being finalized; and GUI support for Qtopia and GTK+ will follow and will include sample applications. libgsmc is hosted at sourceforge.net
 * EDGE device driver : basic slow IP over GSM


 * Wifi/Bluetooth/LCD/Touchscreen etc. device drivers : hopefully basic Linux support exists


 * Accelerometer, power management : More advanced things we may need to develop ourselves


 * Application frameworks : (see GUI Frameworks for details) GTK+ or Qtopia open source release which does not include all the phone apps provided with the greenphone.


 * OpenMoko homepage : Since Feb 14th 2007, the OpenMoko project opened up all its info, design data, source code, Wiki etc. They seem to be building an active community, but their software is a long way from being finished, and their initial hardware is planned for late March.


 * Phone calling application : Basic call management stuff, GUI to dial a number


 * Web browser : Qt has Opera support, Not sure how viable Firefox might be on Gumstix, however there is the Minimo project, which uses the mozilla code base. Opera-mini requires java. Links is a simple graphical/text browser, requires keyboard input.


 * Flash for Linux : Adobe has x86 version only, not sure about others. Gnash GNU flash in development.


 * Address book application :


 * Calendar application :

HNB - simple text-mode app.
 * Notes taking :


 * Mobile oriented email client :


 * MP3 player : Gumstix includes some audio player support.


 * GPS mapping : perhaps google maps mobile java version? Not sure how to feed it GPS coordinates, the Windows Mobile version of gmm does interface to GPS, but the generic Java version doesn't. There is some discussion of GPS on the OpenMoko Software page


 * Jowles : Jowles is a very simple web app that emulates a mobile phone interface. More of an experiment than a real mobile app, it uses a JPEG image, a HTML imagemap and javascript to provide base level functionality.