The State of Smart Phones Today

I mentioned in one of my earlier postings this month that I had recently obtained a new smart phone. Now picking out a smart phone is no easy task in today's market. There are piles of devices to choose from, each of which has different pros and cons to go along with it. When it comes to technology I try to always be a very informed shopper; a computer is something I am going to be using often and typically for a good deal of time. I was under contract with AT&T, but that was about to expire so I did not limit my phone search to a single company/service provider.

I went store to store first (a strange experience I will admit, normally I do most everything online). AT&T has their iPhone, Verizon the Droid, Sprint the Palm Pre, and T-Mobile the G1. After going in and playing with the devices I was fairly impressed with the two running Android based operating systems. Next I took to the internet to do more research, which is where I discovered two things: First, through the suggestion of a friend I found the device I ended up purchasing and currently enjoy very much - Nokia's N900; Secondly I learned more about "rooting" or "jail-breaking" phones. Odds are you have heard at least one of these terms before, "rooting" refers to gaining access to the "root" account on an Android device and "jail-breaking" was coined as the term for gaining full access to an iPhone (it references the phone escaping from the "Apple jail"). Neither of these processes is very difficult to accomplish with a small bit of know-how and it's your phone so you should be able to do with it as you please.

Right? Yes and no.

On the yes aspect, yes you can do what ever you want with your phone. No one is going to knock on your door and tell you its illegal (although if Apple had their way it would be illegal). Now for the no aspect: in both the case of Android devices and the iPhone, rooting/jail-breaking is discouraged and frowned upon. For both types of devices (Android based and the iPhone) if you bring them in for service while they are "hacked," the companies have been known to refuse to honor warranties. Beyond this if your rooted device suffers from an issue with an application the fact that the phone is jail-broken is a reason to refuse service.

At this point there is no questioning it: Our "smart" phones become more and more like a normal computer and less like a telephone each day. They surf the internet, instant message, play games (in full 3D in some cases), install applications, manage our music and other various media to name just a few likenesses. If the devices behave and function as a normal computer why can we not hold them to the same standards as such? Would you buy a Linux PC you didn't have the root password to? How about a computer running Windows that you weren't given the administrator password for?

What is worse than this, I feel, is the fact that people have come to expect to be locked out of their own hardware by default. Since I've gotten my N900, I've lost track of the number of people who asked if I plan on "jail-breaking" the device. I always respond with "No". A large contributing factor to my purchase of Nokia's latest internet tablet (that's right it is a computer first and phone second) was that they allow the user unrestricted access to the device with out any hacks or cracks.

What are your feelings about the smart phones on the market today? Did I miss any key points or perhaps do you disagree with something I've said?

~Jeff Hoogland

Linux in Real Life - Uses Around the World

My little niche here on the internet is largely devoted to talking about various forms of the Linux Operating System. Truth be told, however, I can blog about Linux until my fingers fall off from typing and the vast majority of what I wrote would be meaningless to the average person. Even with its slowly growing popularity, Linux is still a largely unknown thing to many people. Why should Average Joe care about Linux? This alternative operating system doesn't affect his life at all - or does it? The truth of the matter is this: Almost every adult who uses technology in today's world uses or has used something that is Linux powered.

Don't believe me? Lets take a look at some of the places Linux is used around the world today. In the world of retail, Linux is used as the sole operating system of two major clothing retailers:

• Burlington Coat Factory
• The GAP

These companies use Linux both as a server back-end and as a desktop solution.

Now maybe you are like myself and you have never shopped at either of the above listed stores - don't worry there are plenty of other places Linux is hiding in the world around us. If you live in the United States then you should be pleased to know that our government uses Linux is several areas including:

• The Postal Service
• The Federal Courts

The postal service uses Linux clusters to sort bulk mail and the federal court system uses Linux systems for case management, case tracking, accounting, and probation services.

Alrighty - maybe you live outside the United States, meaning you have never used either of the two services listed above. How about this: Do you ever go to the movies? Many companies that produce movies use Linux, including:

• Disney
• Dreamworks

They use Linux based production machines for rendering 2D art work, 3D graphics, and special effects.

Still a few of you out there who think you haven't used Linux yet? Don't worry, I'm not even close to being done yet. Anyone have either of the following two items hiding in their entertainment center:

• TiVo
• Playstation 3

Yep - you guessed it, both are Linux powered devices.

How about mobile devices? The company LG has been powering their cell phones with Linux based technology for several years now. Perhaps you have heard of (or possibly even own) one of these handheld devices:

• Sprint's Palm Pre
• Verizon's "bare knuckled bucket of does" - the Droid
• T-Mobile's G1
• Google's Nexus One
• Nokia's N900
• Amazon's Kindle

Are all high-end devices running various forms of mobile Linux.

Whew! Did you find where you fit into the world of Linux yet? Wait - did I just hear a "no" still? Alright - do you use the internet? (rhetorical question, you are reading a web-blog) Since the answer to my previous question is most obviously yes - I'd be willing to bet you have used one of the following two web pages at some point in time:

• Amazon
• Google

Both companies are largely (or in the case of Amazon - almost entirely) powered by Linux. In addition to these, it relatively safe to say around half the internet runs on Linux powered Apache servers.

I think I've covered just about everyone who uses technology at this point in some form or another. Does anyone still think you haven't used something Linux powered at least once in your life? No? Good. :)

Does anyone else know of some other common places Linux is used by the masses or another large retailer/company that is Linux powered that I missed? If so, please drop a comment to let me know.

Update: Check out this article for a whole pile of places that are running Linux!

~Jeff Hoogland