Motorola today sent out a mass email inviting recipients to “experience” its Linux-based RAZR2 V8 phone “at your nearest mobile phone store.” The phone will be offered by all major U.S. GSM/GPRS providers, including AT&T (formerly Cingular), Sprint, and T-Mobile, according to reports.

TimeSys has published the final installment in its podcast series devoted to real-time capabilities in the Linux 2.6 kernel. Probably the most informative and well-organized episode yet, the new podcast provides fascinating insight and perspective on seven new real-time capabilities added to Linux between the 2.6.0 and 2.6.22.2 releases. (more…)

SanDisk has expanded its solid-state drive (SSD) product line with a module a quarter the size of 1.8-inch hard drives. The flash-based uSSD 5000 is designed to be embedded on the motherboards of low-cost PCs, such as Intel's Classmate, or other consumer devices. (more…)

A company maintaining a dual-licensed Linux distribution for x86-based routers has achieved a new release. Vyatta Community Edition 2.2 (“Camarillo”) features security and flexibility enhancements to the BGP (border gateway protocol) stack, and usability enhancements related to NAT (network address translation) and DHCP (dynamic host configuration protocol). (more…)

Chipmaker Freescale today announced that its top-of-the-line system-on-chip (SoC) for telematics applications such as in-car infotainment and driver assist devices has attracted a broad range of support from embedded development tool and RTOS (real-time operating system) vendors. Five software partners have endorsed the MPC5121e SoC since its introduction in May, promising to deliver products tailored to… (more…)

In what promises to boost video quality in desktop, mobile, and embedded devices, Adobe announced that it has added H.264 support to its popular Flash Player software. “Flash Player 9, Update 3 beta,” available for download from Adobe's Labs website, supports Linux, OS X, and Windows. (more…)

A third of U.S. households will migrate to mobile-only phone services by 2011, resulting in an annual loss of $13 billion in fixed-line voice revenues to wireless substitutions, In-Stat forecasts. However, technologies are available to create next-generation “converged voice services” (CVS) that can breathe new life into fixed-line networks, the market research firm suggests. (more…)

The largest company involved in the market for embedded Linux operating systems, tools, and professional services has acquired a Romanian device software services provider for $1.4 million. Wind River said Comsys employs 52, and has domain expertise telecom, mobile, and aerospace and defense. (more…)

TapRoot Systems is demonstrating its telephony middleware for Linux/Qtopia-based mobile phones at the Linux Mobile Communications Conference this week in Beijing. The company says its TapRoot telephony middleware provides a “comprehensive” set of APIs (application programming interfaces) for communication with 2G-3G networks. (more…)

France's second-largest telecom service provider has released source code for a popular residential gateway device based on Linux. Several hacker communities have since sprung up around Neuf Cegetel's Neuf Box 4, an “integrated access device” (IAD) with Internet, phone, and streaming video capabilities. (more…)

Intel Developer Forum attendees can take Linux certification exams for half the usual price, the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) has announced. The LPI will administer its two most basic and general-purpose exams for $75 apiece to pre-registered candidates at the event, set for Sept. 18-20 in San Francisco. (more…)

Via's first motherboard in the tiny, 3.8 x 2.8-inch pico-ITX format appears to be available, and priced to appeal to device-builders with limited budgets. The PX10000G supports Linux and other x86 OSes, and ships with a reasonable complement of pin-header I/O cabling. (more…)

[Updated 4:30] — Zonbu has sweetened the pie for Linux enthusiasts wishing to purchase its low-cost, silent, eco-friendly, PC outright — without committing to an ongoing service contract. (more…)

Forget the device itself. Google will announce next week that it has entered the market for Linux-based mobile phone operating systems or operating system software components, suggests a rumor story posted at device blog Engadget. (more…)

The U.K.'s 13th annual Embedded Systems Show will take place Oct. 17 and 18 in Birmingham. According to the organizers, this is the country's largest event for system engineers and embedded software developers. (more…)