In this guest column, David Wood, co-founder and executive vice president of research at Symbian, explains why increasingly powerful and useful smartphones are beginning to proliferate. Noting the different categories of devices that smartphones are likely to supersede — such as music players, games consoles,… (more…)

Current and former OpenEmbedded users are invited to complete a 23-question online survey conducted by the project. The first OpenEmbedded user survey aims to help the project understand its user-base and their needs, in order to improve the tool. The OpenEmbedded project maintains open-source embedded development tools primarily targeting Linux. (more…)

The first draft 802.11n standard failed to win a simple majority, let alone the 75 percent needed to finalize it, in voting among IEEE 802.11 working group members this week. Several products claiming 802.11n draft compliance have already reached market, but the standard may not be ratified prior to mid-2007, suggests a brief report at WirelessNet Design Line (WDL). (more…)

Foreword: In this guest column, David Wood, co-founder and executive vice president of research at Symbian, explains why increasingly powerful and useful smartphones are beginning to proliferate. Noting the different categories of devices that smartphones are likely to supersede — such as music players, games consoles, messaging terminals, and digital cameras — Wood suggests that “all this… (more…)

Eighteen months after shipping, AMD's Personal Internet Communicator (PIC), aimed at lowering the cost of computing so half the world could enjoy Internet access by 2015, apparently still doesn't run Linux. (more…)

Chip-maker Atmel has selected the TimeSys LinuxLink service as the “primary Linux distribution mechanism” for its new ARM-based processors, TimeSys says. Atmel customers will receive a free one-month subscription to LinuxLink, providing them with a starting point, including the newest kernel optimizations and validated binaries, according to the companies. (more…)

Opera has enhanced its free mini browser for Java phones, adding multimedia downloads, a unique “browser-to-SMS” commerce feature, and more customizability. Opera Mini 2.0 can add smartphone-like features to even the most basic Java-enabled mobile phones, Opera says. (more…)

Coverity Inc., which makes source code analysis software, announced May 2 that the biggest X Window System security vulnerability of the last six years has been identified and fixed, thanks to developers working with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Thankfully, the hole was plugged within a week, according to the company. (more…)

A high-tech product vendor in Sofia, Bulgaria will ship a triangle-shaped set-top box (STB) that runs Linux to service providers in Q4, 2006, it says. The Media Systems iSetBox-Home is powered by a Pixelworks processor, and lets users watch TV and DVD movies, listen to music, record CDs/DVDs, and access the… (more…)

Userful has revised its Linux-based managed kiosk software aimed at enabling a single PC to support multiple touchscreen-based interfaces. DiscoverStation 4.0 supports up to 10 concurrent users, and targets ticketing, voting, HR, surveys, and Internet access kiosks, according to the company. (more…)

IBM has published the following new technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . ! (more…)

Devicescape has partnered with wireless and wireline switch and router specialist LVL7 on Linux-based “wireless LAN switch” software expected to ship this quarter. LVL7's FastPath Wireless LAN stack leverages Devicescape's Wireless Infrastructure Platform (WIP) to support a variety of intelligent wireless network capabilities useful in enterprise environments, the companies say. (more…)

Freescale has launched a program aimed at letting embedded developers optimize its NPUs (network processing units) for specific interfaces and protocols. The Open QUICC Engine developer program includes training, documentation, and tools for writing custom, portable microcode for the QUICC Engine network accelerators found in newer PowerQUICC chips. (more…)

[Updated May 3] — Wireless networking specialist Devicescape has added standards-based self-configuration capabilities to its WiFi stacks for consumer electronic devices and wireless infrastructure products, including those based on Linux. The “Easy Access” capabilities are based on Wi-Fi Alliance standards, and make setting up secure, WPA2-encrypted wireless networking trivial, the company… (more…)

The day when WiFi cards “just work” under Linux may be fast approaching. WiFi software stack specialist Devicescape has released its “Advanced Datapath” 802.11 driver stack to the open source community under the GPL, and the Linux kernel developer community appears to be working to adapt it for mainline inclusion. (more…)