Microsoft today announced it will indemnify customers of its embedded operating system products more fully against legal threats involving intellectual property (IP). The move is seen by top embedded analysts as evidence that Microsoft views Linux and open source as its main competition in the embedded arena. (more…)

Canadian board design and fabrication house Techsol is shipping an ARM9-based version of its Medallion CPU module. The roughly two-square-inch SA2410 can be clocked from 12MHz to 266MHz, and comes with a Linux 2.6 kernel, drivers, and filesystem. (more…)

TimeSys is offering no-cost 14-day evaluation subscriptions to the Pentium version of its LinuxLink service package for embedded Linux developers. Embedded developers can use the subscription to guage whether LinuxLink could help them create and maintain their own “commercial-grade” custom Linux platforms, for any target processor, the company says. (more…)

By 2010, Linux and Windows will both overtake Symbian in the market for advanced mobile phone OSes, says a report from The Diffusion Group (TDG). Linux currently claims 23 percent of the market, while Symbian has 51 percent and Microsoft 17 percent, the research firm reports. (more…)

An event showcasing cutting-edge applications will take place this weekend in San Francisco. The fifth annual CodeCon event features presentations from developers of interesting, innovative real-world applications, and is set to run from Friday, Feb. 10 through Sunday, Feb. 12. (more…)

MooBella has put Linux to work making ice cream, in a vending machine that Wallace and Gromit would be proud of. The MooBella vending machine uses Linux 2.4 and a Red Hat filesystem to make 96 varieties of ice cream, on demand, in about 45 seconds. (more…)

German networking equipment integrator Saxonia is shipping an x86-based outdoor WiFi router that runs Debian Sarge. The Meshnode router boots a 2.6.15 Linux kernel from CompactFlash, and offers lots of room to install most any normal x86 Debian package, the company says. (more…)

The two billionth mobile phone subscriber worldwide signed up at the end of September, 2005, says ABI Research. The market data firm expects the three billionth mobile phone subscriber to sign up sometime before the end of 2008. (more…)

Trolltech has partnered with mobile phone application vendor Teleca. The two companies will jointly create and market a mobile phone software reference design based on Trolltech's Qtopia graphics framework and Teleca's Obigo applications suite, which includes products for browsing, messaging, content management, media playback, and DRM (digital rights management). (more…)

This interview with Opera Software CEO and co-founder Jon S. von Tetzchner covers the Norwegian browser company's history, products, and roadmap. It sheds light on the growing importance of Linux in the embedded market, and the growing importance of the embedded market to Opera. (more…)

MooBella has put Linux to work making ice cream, in a vending machine that Wallace and Gromit would be proud of. The MooBella vending machine uses Linux 2.4 and a Red Hat filesystem to make 96 varieties of ice cream, on demand, in about 45 seconds per precisely-measured serving. (more…)

Funambol has released what it claims to be the first open source push email software for carriers and enterprises. The dual-licensed Funambol v3 server supports a wide range of mobile handhelds, including embedded Linux devices that support OMA DM/DS (formerly known as SyncML). (more…)

Digi International is shipping a component-like embedded computer module that integrates an XScale PXA270 processor along with an extensive set of peripheral interfaces. The ConnectCore XP supports Linux and Windows CE, and targets both fixed and mobile applications that require display, networking, security, and audio/video… (more…)

SDA-Asia has published a gentle introduction to the concepts and history of real-time embedded Linux and its use in mobile phone handsets. The story, entitled “The Rise of Real-time Linux,” was written by Sven-Thorsten Dietrich, a leader of MontaVista's efforts to improve Linux real-time performance. (more…)

A mobile phone and telecom software testing and development services company with offices in Finland and China is seeking partners to help it create a versatile mobile phone reference design based on MontaVista Linux CEE (consumer electronics edition), Trolltech's Qtopia interface software, and Texas Instruments's (TI's) OMAP2420 SoC (system-on-chip). (more…)