[mdlug] Linux and cell phones?

[Joseph C. Bender]

Adam Tauno Williams wrote:
>>> I did not see the first message.
>>> I would like to know when kind of synk that I can interface with my
>>> usb phone connection?
>>> Are there Linux phones othere?
>> The one phone I know about is here <http://openmoko.com/>
> 
> I don't think one can reasonably recommend a GSM phone in the United
> States;  coverage is going to be pretty bad even if you can find a
> provider that will let you sign up the phone.
> 
	Funny, I never had a problem with T-mobile.  Actually had better 
coverage in mid and northern MI than I did with my Sprint CDMA phone. 
That shiny new iPhone that all the cool kids just have to have is a 
GSM/GPRS/EDGE device.  T-mobile and Cingular are both GSM carriers with 
a good coverage footprint.  GSM/GPRS/EDGE is alive and well in the US, 
even though CDMA/1xEVDO-RevA is dominant these days.  To say "even if 
you can find a provider that will let you sign up the phone" is terribly 
false.

> The OS of the phone/device really doesn't matter so much so long as it
> supports SyncML;  I've actually had the best luck with syncing Windows
> Mobile Pocket PC devices.
> 
	This I will agree with.  I also had good luck with Nokia GSM (shock, 
horror!  *grin*) devices with SyncML, but that was quite some time ago.

	There is also BitPIM, which is for Qualcomm chipset phones, which is 
just about every single CMDA phone out there.  There's variations as to 
what's supported exactly on each phone, as there's some feature 
customization and implementation variation allowed by the QC chipsets, 
but the documentation as to what's supported is fairly decent.  Runs on 
Windows and Linux.  Can be found at <http://www.bitpim.org/>

	Additionally, I do believe that the PalmOS enabled smartphones will 
work with the pilot sync stuff in GNOME and Evolution.  I've never 
directly used it, but I do recall a former co-worker doing that with his 
Treo 650.


	I've been looking at the "barry" set of utils to tie my Blackberry 8830 
into my Linux laptop.  Right now I'm redirecting the USB connection to a 
Windows VM so I can run the Blackberry desktop manager to it.  My goal 
is to get barry to sync everything to Evolution and back up the whole 
Blackberry to Linux instead of using this VM hack to make things work. 
If anyone would be interested, I can post my results back to the list 
once I get it going.




-- 
Joseph Bender
Bendorius Consulting
P: 248-434-5580
F: 248-434-5581
jcbender at bendorius com