Android is not about a Linux phone
It's not about openess
It's not about installing your own (I've built a handset with VOIP, it
just takes HW that is documented).
It is all about having a CLOSED platform, a google alternative to Java.
Android is only incidentally Linux. It could be WinMo, Symbian etc.. the
important bit got Google and what the apps run on is the custom Google
version of Java.
If you want an Open phone build your own or buy OpenMoko. A Symbian
phone is more open than Android.
The simplest solution HW & SW wise is a VOIP handset with an
EDGE/3G/HSDPA modem module (some will even let you do ordinary voice
calls and SMS via analogue I/O and Modem commands). Real phones have a
baseband CPU and don't use a Modem. You need a phone stack for them for
GSM, GPRS, EDGE, 3G and HSDPA. This is a lot more than the "Radio
Drivers" which are simple. If you examine phone you can usually see
what RF chips are used and setting the TX and RX frequency , power,
TX/RX is fairly easy for your own custom Radio System. Doing it
compliant with GSM/3G is NOT a "Radio Driver" issue, but a phone
protocol stack issue for the baseband or DSP/Baseband CPU.
Some phones have SDR, DSP chips to implement IQ based demodulation and
Modulation. These chips may include a CPU or use a separate CPU for the
phone protocol stack.
Years ago I did a lot of ISDN and also analogue trunk protocol
signalling. All this stuff (3G/GSM) is documented. You could in theory
write your own stack. However if you don't mind paying an extra $200,
buy a micro sized Modem Module that is essentially a PCB version of
functionality of E220 USB modem etc or Sierra 850 and a general purpose
ARM + LCD + Touch screen (plenty available) and add Linux. No phone
stack needed. No RF drivers needed.
John P. Looney wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 7:35 PM, David Dolphin <David.Dolphin at skynet.ie>wrote:
>>>> A Forwarded response from a Symbian employee:
>>>> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 08:44, John P. Looney <valen at tuatha.org> wrote:
>>>>> Anyone know if their $1500 licence for Symbian gives you radio drivers
>>> that you can port to other platforms ?
>>>>> Whose? nokia's? I seriously doubt it. Even those of us with full nokia
>> access can't get at that source. However, they'll be opening up source
>> next year I think, so that stuff will probably be made
>> available. There is another problem anyhow, which is quite
>> bigger. Released nokia hardware will only take signed roms. You dont
>> have the key. We dont have the key. only nokia have the key and it's
>> probably locked in a tiny dark little room in Oulu.
>>>>>> Oh. Nasty, but understandable. T-Mobile have done similar with their G1;
> you can't flash the firmware at all, it's a fixed-firmware, with
> over-the-air updates (like the iPhone). I expect that someone will be
> selling android-ready phones in the near future which can have a firmware
> flashed onto it.
>>>>> You'd probably have better look with Uiq based phones, but really
>> putting it on propietry hardware is going to be an uphill battle for
>> anyone. Getting an OS running on a phone is hard. Companies are very
>> secretive about how they do it, and they dont want people have such
>> low level access to the radio etc. It's like in the old days when
>> computers had modems in them, if malware got on it could cost a
>> fortune. Imagine that, but with mobile tariffs.
>>>>> You don't need low-level access to do that sort of crazy stuff on a
> smartphone; when you install an app on android, it asks what you want to
> grant to the app. The list is like "internet access, access to contacts
> book, ability to make/intercept calls, location fine grained (gps), location
> approximate (GSM cell based)" etc. So any app you can download from the
> Market could cost you serious money.
>> Though there are two types of radio driver source. One is the stuff that is
> open sourced for the G1. This is the bit that talks to the baseband chip,
> wifi, bluetooth etc. The second is for the software running on the baseband
> chip itself; this is closed-source by law in most places, as no normal
> country will licence a device that any user can use to jam mobile signals
> etc. by just reprogramming power levels etc. If people could hack it, even
> illegally, I'm sure the device would lose its licence to sell in that
> country.
>> John
>
--
Mike
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