'RISC OS Mobile' plans leaked - RISC OS News, Software and Information

'RISC OS Mobile' plans leaked

Published: 1st Apr 2005, 00:05:00GMT Source: drobe.co.uk
By Chris Williams

Page 1 of 1

RISC OS on mobile phone [Updated] Midday disclaimer

A large software corporation is exploring the possibility of using RISC OS in mobile appliances, a source has revealed. Our insider, a drobe.co.uk reader, couldn't believe his luck when he was recently assigned to a top secret software R&D team and witnessed first hand Adjust32 running on various ARM powered mobile devices. It's understood that the gadgets are development models, provided by hardware partners to software companies to produce products and upgrades for.

Browsing the web on a pre-release mobile phone powered by RISC OS

Yesterday, we received videos and photos of the OS in action on mobile phone hardware, showing RISC OS booting up and running applications. Earlier this year, rumours were rife that the developers of RISC OS had won a substantial six figure deal to produce an evaluation version of "RISC OS Mobile", an extremely minimal version of Embedded RISC OS as seen on other hardware products.

The well placed source, who refused to divulge precisely who he worked for, said: "This is the real deal. So far, management has shown a lot of enthusiasm for RISC OS Mobile, and having come from a Windows CE background, it's a joy to be coding for RISC OS again. A lot of my fellow developers are pretty glad that we're considering a platform that's no fuss and no bloat."

Amusingly running Ovation, ironic given that it's a desktop publishing application

Explaining that the success of RISC OS Mobile relies on the recent efforts to abstract hardware support from the OS, he added: "It's amazing what can be done on such small devices. The anti-aliased fonts, modest licensing cost and low processor overhead make it ideal. The toolchain is lacking somewhat, but I'm looking forward to persuading my boss to let me take my RiscPC into work."

Although RISC OS Mobile is understood to be running a minimal build of RISC OS 4.41 with wireless and compact media device drivers, our source managed to enable enough modules to reach the familiar desktop, allowing him to browse the web and run selected software.

The developers of RISC OS were unable to immediately comment on RISC OS Mobile, although one programmer told us to wait and see at May's Wakefield.

Media
Download the MPEG video of the development mobile phone booting up, noticeably fast and running some familiar software (works in KinoAmp on RISC OS and other mainstream players)

Our insider insisted that the final end user product version will be a lot more polished, and will probably not feature the words 'RISC OS' any where for PR reasons - punters aren't expected to endear to a product with 'risk' in its name. The video was recorded hastily whilst at work, we believe, so apologies for the jerkiness. Below are some stills from the video:

Update at Midday, 1st April
Read our midday disclaimer

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Rimmer (+0.1) 1/4/05 10:20AM	Wow, they even have firefox by the looks of it, perhaps Peter needn't bother....
piemmm 1/4/05 10:25AM	Maybe he was involved
mrchocky (+1.9) 1/4/05 10:44AM	The company involved asked for an early cut-down version to try on their phones. You can come see it yourself at my talk on the 12th.
piemmm 1/4/05 10:57AM	It wouldn't be that difficult to get an app starting from a 'frozen' state (remember !Freeze?). They're doing something like that from what we've managed to glean so far.
NoMercy 1/4/05 11:11AM	Personally, I always thought RO might have more a place in the mini-tablet market than on mobile phones, given the lack of keyboard navigation, also geez whats with the sticky tape, nice try though
caliston2 1/4/05 11:14AM	Would this be using the new 4G standard for porcine carriers, PDMA?
Sawadee 1/4/05 11:32AM	Very exciting to see RISC OS on a mobile phone. For PR & exposure it certainly looks the right place to see RISC OS here. Firefox too, that's even better news?
xyzzy 1/4/05 12:04PM	Shame the new Tonto phone isn't yet UMTS. Nice to see the kind of relaxed workplace where you feel able to stick your used chewing gum to the prototypes
xyzzy (-1.0) 1/4/05 12:06PM	I am feeling seasick after the video though. I'm going to have to lie down.
Walks (+1.0) 1/4/05 12:12PM	Well, I must admit you got me (again!!). If only it was true...
Mart 1/4/05 12:36PM	Does the phone come ready wrapped with the rather fetching tape or do you have to supply your own?
ROHC (+0.9) 1/4/05 1:01PM	nice on Drobe - I think that this is the best 1st April you have done yet
em2ac 1/4/05 2:32PM	talking about video, is there an ogm / ogg vorbis/theora player for RISC OS yet? I have had video running on an old 133 MHz PC in DIVX format this wouldnt play on that comupter
mrchocky 1/4/05 2:38PM	There has been an ogg vorbis player for quite some time. Both my ogg123 port and DigitalCD do it. Not that that's video of course.
helf (+1.0) 1/4/05 4:44PM	They did a good job with the boot screen.. ??? 940T RISC OS 4.41 Booting from internal flash... Radio: rh0: CSR Bluetooth module Radio: rh1: Dualcomm GSm/GPRS Radio: rh2: Dualcomm GPS/a least thats what it looks like in the video to blurry to be 100% sure.
ksattic 1/4/05 4:49PM	Qualcomm actually - nice touch, that's the company I work for!
em2ac 1/4/05 4:59PM	*In reply to MrChocky:* ah the Theora codec is most important to the video - ive been using ogg123 and Digital CD for my music for some time now as far as the hoax goes...nice one, im my delirous state this morning I actually believed it. :P now if only such efforts went into he real thing WinCE is crap to say the least that orange phone with it on keeps crashing.....but the RISC OS one looke pretty usable at that res!
senduran 1/4/05 8:06PM	I don't understand the comment in the disclaimer on how it was done - can someone explain a bit more please?
jonesd98 1/4/05 9:00PM	*In reply to em2ac:* I've had my Orange SPV C500 Windows Smartphone since January, and it's been rock solid. What are you doing to it to make it crash?!
AndrewDuffell 1/4/05 9:08PM	*In reply to senduran:* I guess they wrote some kinda Java applet or similar to do it all, and pretend to be RISC OS?
SimonC 2/4/05 12:51AM	Pity that this article appeared on the date it did
diomus 2/4/05 3:50AM	*In reply to senduran:* The disclaimer page now includes details on how the joke was created.
Sawadee 2/4/05 6:56AM	SimonC I thought it was more a pity some did not play along a bit more seriously to catch others out! Surely the RISC OS community couldn't be that hard to fool? Maybe not then?
Smiler (+1.0) 2/4/05 8:26AM	Wow, I didn't realise that much work has gone into it. I'm impressed, although wouldn't a video had been easier? lol It's a shame that RISC OS is running on Windows again lol. Will we never be rid of emulators?
datawave (+0.1) 4/4/05 12:56AM	I do not know, who invented this joke, but actually it should be possible. Another nice gadget would be a RISC OS wris<censored>ch.
datawave 4/4/05 12:59AM	Another nice gadget would be a RISC OS Wrist Watch.
mrtd 4/4/05 8:50AM	I saw another one like that on April 1st, a full airfield lighting control system working on a mobile phone!! All you need is a phone with a camera.
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