Mobile king Symbian put to rest, giving another huge endorsement to Linux which will replace it

The future smartphone market will be driven by operating systems and user demand for functionality and "experiences" the phone can provide, according to industry analyst In-Stat. In a report released Tuesday, the research firm projected that there will be some 412 million smartphones worldwide by 2014, where over 250 million units will be equipped with accelerometers.

At the Maemo Summit in Amsterdam, Nokia unveiled the roadmap for the next generation of its Linux-based Maemo platform. The company plans to introduce support for multitouch and a number of other compelling features.

Like many free software users, I am greatly encouraged by the number of mobile phones that are starting to come out running some form of embedded Linux-based OS. Nokia's Maemo and Palm's webOS are shaping up and it seems every day we hear of yet another Android device. All of this is good news, but just how useful are these free software phones to the free software lover?

Nokia N900 ... [is] being branded as so “open” that software freedom lovers would love it. This seemed like really good news, no? Well, like the saying goes… when it’s too good to be true… it most probably ain’t.

Remuco is a duplex remote control system for Linux media players and mobile devices equipped with Bluetooth or WiFi.

Putting Linux on mobile phones is all the rage these days, what with Google's Android popping up on prototypes left and right, and even the venerable Palm pushing the Pre, a penguin-phone of its own. That wasn't always true, though, but way back in those dark days of proprietary phoning — at least a little ways back — there was Openmoko bringing us hope of truly-open telephony.

Taiwan-based embedded design firm Openmoko is discontinuing its open-source Linux Neo FreeRunner phone and slashing its staff in half, says an industry report.