Edelweiss the First ALP Powered Smartphone?
An Israeli firm has announced what could very well become the first shipping smartphone running the Access Linux Platform. Dubbed the Edelweiss, the GSM phone features an impressive list of features most notably a 3.5 inch 480 x 854 pixel touchscreen display.
If there are any ALP holdouts still out there, you're going to have to likely plan a trip to Russia in order to get your hands on one. At this point, the Edelweiss is only rumored to be launching in Russia later this month. The company has created a preview site for the phone, while mainly in Russian, it does list the specs in English and shows the device from all angles.
The Edelweiss is named after an alpine flower and was designed by Emblaze and is said to be manufactured by Sharp. Emblaze first announced a licensing deal with Access and Sharp just over a year ago. ALP is a the mobile Linux based Operating System developed by Access and the former PalmSource group. It offers compatibility with native mobile Linux apps, Palm OS Garnet Applications and Java (J2ME) apps.
The Phone itself sports a seemingly buttonless all screen design, highly reminiscent of the iPhone. It has a glass 3.5 inch 480 x 854 pixel touchscreen display, a quad band GSM phone radio with Tri-band UMTS support (850/1900/2100). 8 or 16GB of internal flash memory, a 1450 mAh battery, proximity and ambient light sensors, gps and a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto-focus. It has dimensions of 115 x 56 x 12.3mm (4.5" x 2.2" x .48" inches) and weighs 130g (4.6 ounces).
The Monolith Project
Emblaze is also reportedly working on a second ALP device code-named the Monolith. It is said to be based on five years of research and will be announced sometime in 2009.
Thanks to Sven for the tip.
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RE: Hm
Palm should license this a version of this thing, restyle it to support an internal stylus, and sell it as the "Palm Touch" AKA TX replacement.
Then, hit the ground running next year with a refreshed model bearing WiMax support. Oh nevermind, Nokia's already got them beat in that department.
The UI does look quite lovely, to be honest.
WMV isn't a big deal to support. If it's a typo, then fine. If it's not, then that's certainly plausible as well. This ain't FrankenGarnet we're talking about. Had this news been dated 12 months earlier, it might've stood a fightin' chance.
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p
RE: Hm
** It is said to be based on five years of research and will be announced sometime in 2009. **
Sounds about like Palm OS Nova. This should take the world by storm. :-D
Pat Horne
RE: Hm
Pat Horne
looks great
The UI looks excellent. I hope it gets some traction and comes to the US. It would at least interesting.
RE: looks great
Questions for Lefty or anyone else familiar with GHOST
2. " " stylus input/Graffiti strokes? Will there be an onscreen DIA that pops up so you can try to scrawl Graffiti characters with a fingertip?
3. How about removable storage? This thing looks to have borrowed a bit too heavily from Apple's playbook (no removable storage, no stylus, no hard buttons). Can a <4GB chunk of the internal storage be allocated to be seen by legacy POS apps as an external storage volume?
4. Is there going to be any kind of "ALP Desktop" for Windows/Mac and, if so, is any provision made for importing users' legacy Palm OS PIM data?
Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p
'Edelwies'
Btw, it's a German word.
IIIe -> m505 -> T3 -> Treo650 -> Treo680
RE: 'Edelwies'
Guys, the W is pronounced almost like a english V. Okay?
RE: 'Edelwies'
RE: 'Edelwies'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLVIICWRbjM
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/
RE: 'Edelwies'
In German, the written 'w' is pronounced as the english 'V'. It's spelled correctly, afaik.
http://tinyurl.com/2ooncg
RE: PalmOS?
RE: PalmOS?
Doesn't Ryan's piece say that it does. Or is that just conjecture?
Pat Horne
RE: PalmOS?
Poor Unemployed Lefty!
Meanwhile, the delusional SOB comes over to my blog for a smackdown:
http://mikecane2008.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/to-the-unemployed-banned-psychopath/
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
Sorry to disappoint, but I'm still quite gainfully and happily employed here at ACCESS, of course. In Singapore last week, in Tokyo this week, in London the week after next, over 130,000 miles worth so far this year. I'm presenting at AJAXWorld this coming Monday in San Francisco, as it happens. Busy, busy. (Can Mikey claim as much...? He's still drooling on other people's equipment, last I heard, evidently not solvent enough to be able to afford any of his own...)
In particular, I'm too busy to waste very much time here listening to the incessant whining and vituperation, much less responding to it. Couldn't resist poking at Mikey over the continuing lack of his imaginary but coming-from-Apple-any-day-now-for-the-past-year-or-so iMacPodBookTouch "Air", though. 馬;鹿;に;つ;け;る;薬;は;な;い;。;Some things never change...
Okay, so I have a low sense of humor. But you knew that.
As for the rest, "We don't comment on the unannounced or unreleased products of our customers and licensees." Deal with it. Go ask them about it if you like.
(And, yeah, twrock, you're exactly right: Mikey tries-to the best of his very limited abilities-to dish it out, but he hasn't got the slightest capacity for taking any in return...)
See ya, kids! Fight nice!
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
> of our customers and licensees."...
Oh!
New policy!
> ...Deal with it....
We did! We did! There might have been a few comments about a Samsung uncommented-about unreleased product!
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
The last known classic PDA user.
I've recently upgraded from a PLAM TX to a Newton MP2000!
http://newtonpda.googlepages.com
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
Please tell me that there'll be an Edelweiss or some other ALP product to check out in LinuxExpoLive in London!
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
--
Aaron Ardiri
PalmOS Certified Developer
aaron_ardiri@mobilewizardry.com
http://www.mobilewizardry.com/blog/ <- check out my technology blog!
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
Have a big glass of that melamined milk, willya, Lefty? It'll cure what ails ya: LIFE!
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
"The tides of health will soon turn on you and humility will be your crown of thorns." - jstar
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
lefty - we saw the ALP OS demo. it looked like ass. in fact, that might be a better name for it - Access "ASS OS". i like it.
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
So, Edelweiss, the choice of phone for the Russian Oligarchy, huh?
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
It is vibrant, energetic, full of money - not to mention some incredibility hot girls in discos! - and a very good place to introduce a phone like this. There are some parts of Moscow that would make Park Avenue look like a Wal-Mart! Apple has been hesitant to officially market the iPhone in Russia while it is estimated half of the jail-broken iPhones are in this country. This looks like it is aiming to fill the gap.
Overall a good and surprising move. This could become a "proving ground" for introducing ALP into other parts of the world. When it comes state-side, perhaps the "enhanced with Russian technology" could be in the promos with this being the first market.
Lefty, enjoy your trips there and just bring your own bottle to the discos and only take a taxi called from your hotel where the drive can call our your name without him asking for ID.
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
If their stock market keeps crashing, it'll go back to looking like Comrade Wal-Martski again.
RE: Poor ...
Basically any country where the carrier wouldn't give a massive subsidy to the sales price of the iPhone. Russia, India and China are countries where mobile contracts aren't used and the user pays full price for the phone and that violates Apple's perceived market approach.
Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, Inane or Offensive comments may be edited/deleted.
If PIC aren't going to apply their own standards to mikecane's crap, why does anyone posting here need to be civilized or polite?
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
And he doesn't wike it.
Take your ball and go play with yourself. (Yes, that's a two-parter there.)
RE: Poor Unemployed Lefty!
"Inflammatory, Inappropriate, ..., Inane or Offensive" describes 90% of his posts, so don't expect that is going to change any time soon. (I don't recall him posting anything illegal, but I might have missed something; he does make a lot of references to "pr0n", who knows....) Obviously no one here needs to be "civilized or polite," but some will appreciate it if you are.
And Mike, I still think you are a wimp for banning Lefty.
"twrock is infamous around these parts" (from my profile over at Brighthand due to my negative 62 rep points rating)
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Hm
CODECs list WMV? WTF?
I don't see a stylus listed.
Too little, too late.