A company selling Qtopia-based applications for Sharp's Zaurus PDA is porting its wares to the Linux-based Archos PMA400 media player. TheKompany describes the player as “a very full-featured PDA,” and has so far completed ports of a secure email client, file manager, and Tetris game. (more…)

O'Reilly has published a book on the classic Unix art of shell scripting. “Classic Shell Scripting” describes common Linux tools and shows how to use bash to combine them into scripts that can automate simple and complex tasks. (more…)

VeriFone has used embedded Linux to build a secure PIN pad that doubles as an in-store advertising kiosk. The MX870 supports RFID, smart cards, biometric identification, and various touch technologies, and is designed to deliver multimedia presentations while customers complete their checkout process. (more…)

Gumstix has added extended memory and on-board Bluetooth options to its line of tiny gumstick-shaped XScale SBCs (single-board computers). It has also launched a new low-cost model priced at $99. The company now offers nine “Connex” and “Basix” SBCs priced from $99 to $189. (more…)

WIN Enterprises is shipping a rack-mountable 1U high embedded development platform optimized for network appliance applications. The PL-01025 incorporates a security coprocessor capable of offloading packet processing for its ten Gigabit and four 10/100 Ethernet ports, according to the company. (more…)

A project to optimize X for mobile platforms got a boost from Nokia, which funded improvements to the Matchbox window manager used in the Linux-based webpad it announced today. OpenedHand, which maintains Matchbox, says it worked with Nokia for more than two years on the device. (more…)

Jaluna has announced that its platform virtualization software supports Wind River Platforms that began shipping earlier this week. Jaluna OSware, Linux Edition, enables VxWorks and Linux-based applications to run side-by-side on a single processor, without additional hardware, according to Jaluna. (more…)

In this entertaining yet edifying essay, Hieu Tran sets out on a quest to debug a bug-report filed against his company's source-level debugger. The case leads Tran and his trusty Pomeranian toward a surprising, Sherlock Holmes-like epiphany illuminating the semantic assumptions made by compilers, debuggers, and, (more…)

[Updated Nov. 7, 2005] — Nokia demonstrated a compact, handheld tablet powered by Linux at LinuxWorld in New York. The Nokia 770 Internet Tablet is intended to offer convenient Internet browsing and email through built-in WiFi, or via a Bluetooth connection to a compatible mobile phone. (more…)

In this entertaining yet edifying essay, Viosoft Founder/CEO Hieu Tran sets out on a quest to debug a bug-report filed against his company's source-level debugger. The case leads Tran and his trusty Pomeranian toward a surprising, Sherlock Holmes-like epiphany illuminating the semantic assumptions made by compilers, debuggers, and, especially, users. (more…)

[Updated 9:30am PDT] — Metrowerks returns to its 68K roots today — and to parent company Freescale's side — as it begins bundling a size-limited version of its embedded development tools with two new 32-bit Freescale chips aimed at the microcontroller market. (more…)

Empower Technologies is shipping a Linux-based development package supporting the Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP5910 dual-core processor. The LDK5910 includes a hardware development board based on the TI OMAP5910 along with Empower's “LEOs” Linux OS and toolchain, and enables developers to begin writing OMAP-based applications within one hour of setup, according (more…)

“Linux is our platform for the future,” affirmed Dr. Dave Nagel, delivering a keynote talk to an audience of 1,000 attendees at PalmSource's annual developer event, renamed from “devcon” to “Mobile Summit” this year. Nagel talked little about Linux, however, focusing instead on wireless opportunities, 3G consumer and enterprise data (more…)

AMD is sampling a low-power, low-cost, small-footprint embedded processor chipset aimed at extending the x86 architecture to a broad range of resource-constrained consumer and industrial applications, including moderately-sized mobile devices. The [email protected] and its CS5536 companion chip are available with an evaluation board and Linux development kit, (more…)

Wind River has unleashed a slew of embedded software news at its annual developer's conference this week in Orlando, Fla. It has released several vertical market “Platform” OS and middleware stacks targeting Linux, updated its Workbench tools, and started a top-level “device software development” project at Eclipse.org, among other announcements. (more…)