Of cellphones and smartphones and things

About a month ago I lost my cellphone. Well it got lost and then someone found it and stole it! I've since picked up a new one though and am back connected with the world.

My old cellphone was definitely "old" technology by today's standards but sometimes I like old tech.

It was a Motorola V235 flip camera phone. The on board camera took crappy little photos and even crappier little videos.

One of the things that I really liked about it is that I could use the free (as in freedom) software "Moto4lin" with it. Moto4lin allowed my GNU/Linux based computers to "talk" to my phone without having to purchase Motorola's proprietary software.

Motorola's proprietary software only ran on the proprietary Microsoft Windows operating system and would require me to "pay the Microsoft tax" so that I would have a Windows license on one of my computers.

So, first pay Microsoft for an operating system license, then pay Motorola for their Windows-only software. My only other option was to pay data charges to my cellphone provider to e-mail my photos to myself.

The combination of GNU/Linux and Moto4lin meant that now I owned my crappy little photos and videos. My media files were no longer imprisoned by Motorola, Microsoft and my cellphone carrier.

I controlled them and not some monolithic corporation.

The other thing you can do with Moto4lin is manage your contacts and things like that. But all I really cared about was my photos.

Moto4lin is ever so slightly geeky. To fire it up you have to go to a command line (the equivalent of a DOS prompt for Windows users) and type a simple command to start up moto4lin. After that, the programme opens up in a window.

It installs in a matter of 30 seconds using your GNU/Linux package management software.

Now the other very cool thing I liked about this old Motorola V235 was that I could charge the battery using a standard "off-the-shelf" USB cable; the same type used by most digital cameras. It did not use some weird proprietary connector that would cost a small fortune to replace.

So, if I forgot my charger (as I quite often did), I could walk into any computer store and for a few bucks buy a standard USB cable and charge it off the nearest computer.

On a GNU/Linux machine, you just had to plug it into the USB port and it would start charging. On a Windows computer, you had to plug it in, Windows would prompt you to connect to Windows Update, you'd download a driver and then you could charge it. A bit of a longer process with Windows. (People keep trying to tell me how "hard" GNU/Linux is).

So my trusty old V235 is gone and I had to get a new phone in a bit of a hurry. What did I do?

Well $60 got me a new Motorola W233.

I tried to buy one at the local Fido kiosk in a neighbourhood shopping mall, but they didn't have any in stock. Not only that, but the guy at the kiosk told me that they'd never ever had ANY in stock! This is really rather bizarre because the phone pictured in all of Fido's advertising materials is a Motorola W233!

I went to the little electronics discount store next to the mall to buy some batteries and what did I find? A whole bunch of Motorola W233's! So, I bought one!

Like my old Motorola V235, my W233 can be charged up with the same standard off-the-shelf USB cable. I plug my W233 into my GNU/Linux computers and it instantly charges up!

It's another story with Windows. Windows recognizes the model of cellphone and asks me to connect to Windows update to find a driver so that it can be charged. I let Windows grind away for a few minutes and I get a message saying that Windows hasn't found a driver.

So, I have to go to Motorola's website, and then download and install Motorola's "charging driver" for Windows. (Please tell me why Microsoft Windows is easier again?)

This cheapie little phone doesn't have a camera, so I've had to sacrifice that. But, it does play .mp3 files and so if I add a mini SD card, I can listen to my tunes on it.

For eco types, the case is apparently made from 25% recycled plastic. (Discarded water bottles).

The whole thing is an interim measure anyway until my contract with Fido runs out in the summer.

Then, I'm going to take a look around at other cellphone providers.

The other thing I'll be looking for is a "smartphone".

I'm using SMS text messaging much more often now and I'd like something with a QWERTY keyboard. It's a little hard doing SMS text messaging with a regular cellphone keypad.

Also, using tools like Twitter and identi.ca are only really practical if you have a smartphone.

But smartphones are no longer "just phones". They're now general purpose computers that you carry around in your pocket.

And just as you should be free to install any software you want on your desktop/laptop/netbook computer, you should be free to install whatever software you want on your smartphone. That's not the case with the two biggest selling smartphones; RIM's "Blackberry" and Apple's "iPhone". It's also not the case with a number of other smartphones.

On most smartphones you can only install the software that the vendor says you can. Also you have to go to their "app store" to get the software for your smartphone. If you want to install software from somewhere else, it's not allowed.

I do not want to be a tenant on any device that I buy.

An effort in this direction was the "Open Moko Freerunner", but the project was cancelled last April. The Open Moko ran on a GNU/Linux operating system and you could install whatever applications you wanted to install. The circuit board diagrams were published as well, so you could even hack the hardware if you wanted to!

So, the Open Moko folks are now concentrating on software for mobile phones instead of the hardware.

However, one of the good things to come out of this are other smartphones running on GNU/Linux operating systems. While none of them are anywhere near as "open" as the Open Moko, they're getting a bit more open.

While much is being made of Google's new "Nexus One" phone, it looks like software can only be installed from their app store "Android Market" from what I can see.

Some of Palm's new smartphones are running on the GNU/Linux based "WebOS". Palm's smartphones are looking a little more promising in the "open" department.

So I'm going to be watching and waiting to see what comes on the market over the next few months. My smartphone business will go to whatever manufacturer gives me the most freedom.

And being able to charge it with a standard USB cable would help too!