Quick: name a Linux-based Motorola touchscreen phone that isn't widely distributed in North America. Oh, wait, that's all of them! In this case, "all of them" includes the little A810, a phone that's been kicking around the rumor mill since way, way back in February of this year. EDGE data and a 2 megapixel camera should help keep this one priced somewhere in the midrange, and while not necessarily attractive, it's definitely interesting to look at. Come on, you've got to give it that. Click through to the gallery if you don't believe us.

Last we heard form Openmoko, it was packing and shipping the open-source FreeRunner for an early July release. So, here we are in early July and wouldn't you know it, the FreeRunner will be available for order starting Friday, July 4 with shipping to begin on Monday, July 7. As for details, we got 'em. The shipped version of the phone will come in both 850Mhz and 900Mhz Tri-band GSM flavors with a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, WiFi, AGPS, GPRS 2.6G, Bluetooth 2.0, 128MB WSDRAM, and 256MB NAND flash. If you're down with all that, look to pay $399 on Friday at www.openmoko.com.

Looks like there's only room for one mobile Linux standards body in these here parts, and LiMo's recent momentum and partnership deals have apparently swept up the members of the Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) -- the two groups just announced that as of July, LiPS will be folded into LiMo. That'll give the Foundation even more ammunition as it gears up to do open-source battle with Android and that fruit-flavored mobile whose name we keep forgetting. There's no word on what's going to happen to LiPS's 1.0 specs, but we'd guess they'll be folded into the LiMo platform -- now all we need are some actual phones.

Unless you're very, very special, you haven't yet had an opportunity to run your hands over Openmoko's latest open-source creation, the FreeRunner, which was announced several months back with the hope of a spring release. Unlike the Neo1973 before it, the FreeRunner's said to be chock full of enough spit and polish to take on an audience larger than the original's hardcore developer base, and while a springtime date with destiny is now out of reach, it looks like they'll only miss the mark by a few days. A recent message from Openmoko's VP of marketing on the community listserv said that the retail phones should be packed and shipped by tomorrow and -- if all goes well, of course -- should clear customs by the first of July, meaning buyers should be able to get them delivered in the first week or two of the month. If they'd been able to squeeze in 3G, we'd hardly be able to contain ourselves, but even as it is, we suspect there's enough buzz to get units sold; let's just hope they're already hard at work on version three.

[Via The Inquirer Spanish]

We don't know too much about the clip you're about to watch, but we can tell you this: someone has apparently gone and gotten Android up and running on a Nokia N95, and they've captured it on the lowest quality video we've ever seen. It's unclear whether this is natively installed or not, but it seems to be getting data (as you can see Google Maps doing its thing). The dialer is also brought up and appears to make a call -- but it's pretty hard to know if that's just a demo of the app or if this guy actually has a semi-functional Android device. Check the video after the break and judge for yourself.

[Thanks, John]

The FreeRunner is FreeRunning a little late on its way into devs' hands, but that's not stopping OpenMoko from shipping out a few units early to VIPs, apparently. Monochrome Mentality was the lucky recipient recently of one of the very first FreeRunners served piping hot off the assembly line, and the impressions are generally positive. Buyers will notice the spit and polish the second they lay eyes on the box the FreeRunner comes in, a sign that OpenMoko's trying to move their open-source model away (well, not necessarily away) from the hardcore geeks and toward a broader consumer market. WiFi and motion sensors are the hallmark features the FreeRunner boasts over its Neo1973 predecessor, but visually, the new model takes a more subdued approach with black rings replacing the silver ones. Minor modifications include programmable LEDs embedded in the buttons, host mode support for the USB port (pretty cool!), and a whole pile of accessories in the box -- a good thing, considering the $399 price tag.

Tranzda is starting to step up its game and really push its Newplus Linux stack in earnest, debuting four new models on its site -- plus a fifth, the T818, that it's being a little more secretive about. The TGP-369, TFX-326, TGP-802, and TFX-320 cover both the CDMA and GSM bases, and include some notable features like a fingerprint scanner on the 802, GPS, and RFID capability on certain models. In terms of appearance, all of the shown models seem to be modest upgrades from the Newplus-powered PM328 we've seen in the past, though the UI still looks like it could use a little more work.

[Via LinuxDevices]

While Palm's CFO Andy Brown wasn't exactly forthcoming with details about its elusive next-gen OS, a recent interview with top dog Ed Colligan revealed quite a bit about codename Nova. As if it wasn't official enough already, we're told that Palm OS 2.0 (which is also not the final moniker) will indeed be Linux-based, and Ed continued to say that it would be "driven around the internet and web-based applications." Of course, a Palm interview wouldn't be a Palm interview without at least some mention of the now-defunct Foleo, and the bigwig left a crack in the rumor drawer by stating that he "still believed the idea would be vindicated some day." Trust us, there's way more where this came from, so head on down to the read link if your interest is piqued.

Taiwanese site ePrice managed to put an example of Motorola's upcoming A810 Linux phone for Asian markets through its paces recently, and while it may not carry the mystique of the also-inbound A1600 MING 2, it's still a whole heck of a lot more Linux than Moto gives us 'round these parts (pardon the bitterness in our voices here). Sounds like it's a really solidly built device -- despite the fact that it's a prototype -- and features like a 3.5mm headphone jack and physical lock switch are going a little way toward helping us forget that there's no 3G on board. The user interface looks a little cartoonish, but we certainly wouldn't be surprised if it could be skinned to suit the user's fancy. ePrice's little pictorial is about the closest any of us will get to this China special, so we definitely recommend the read.

In the wake of the LiMo Foundation's huge announcement that it has netted Verizon Wireless to sit on its board, everyone wants to know: what does this mean for Verizon's official (meaning non-"Any Apps, Any Device") lineup, and where does this leave Android? LAPTOP has posted a good summary of some pressing questions and answers, revealing that LiMo-based devices won't launch on Big Red until next year anyway -- so there's really nothing to sweat about in the short term. As the carrier's lofty board seat might have suggested, it intends LiMo to percolate through its entire product range, starting with dumbphones and moving to smartphones (it is Linux, after all) as time goes on. Finally, it emphasized that the move certainly doesn't spell doom for Android; for consumers, the worst case is that they'd have to bring their own Android handset to the table (assuming there are compatible, unlocked CDMA devices available), but if Verizon senses that Android demand is strong enough, there's still nothing stopping it from bringing some hardware into its official stable. Either way, the Age of Linux is upon Verizon customers, which we're thinking is probably going to end up being a good thing.

With Nokia's dedication to Maemo and the recent Trolltech acquisition, it's no secret that Espoo has its eyes firmly locked on the Linux prize -- but outside the whole Internet Tablet phenomenon, there hasn't been a lot of product to show for it. Looks like that's all about to change, with CFO Rick Simonson commenting this week that the company will "definitely" be releasing some Linux-based cellphones in the future, marking a pretty big move for a company with strong tradition in its long-lived Series 40 dumbphone and S60 smartphone platforms. Simonson refused to get into the nitty gritty details about what flavor of mobile Linux would be used; borrowing from its tablets might make sense, but the Android and LiMo juggernauts seem like they're going to be pretty hard to ignore as well -- not to mention that Google is said to have chatted briefly about Android with Nokia in the not-too-distant past. So what does this all mean? Is S60 Touch in danger here?

[Via Thumb Report]

Update: A closer look-see at Reuters' report (ignoring the misleading headline) indicates that Nokia has not specifically committed to rolling out Linux on phones -- rather, it has simply said that it intends to expand its use of Linux across its product portfolio. We figure that handsets are bound to get swept into the mix at some point, but technically, we could just be looking at other kinds of devices. Always room for another Internet Tablet or three, we suppose. Thanks, Eric!

Following a new round of partnership announcements back in February, LiMo Foundation today added 8 new members, bringing the grand total to 40 -- and perhaps most notably, Verizon Wireless becomes the first American carrier to team up with the group and the Foundation's final board member (in other words, they seem to be taking this initiative pretty seriously). Other new players include South Korea's SK Telecom, France's SFR, Sagem, chipmaker Infineon, and Mozilla, suggesting that there'll be plenty of mobile Firefox support for LiMo's nascent platform. LiMo represents the largest Linux-based threat to Android's plans for world domination, having announced its initiative some time before Google while collecting a veritable who's-who of world players from NTT DoCoMo to manufacturers like LG and Motorola -- and with the depth of Verizon's commitment to this, evident by its nabbing of an actual board seat, we wouldn't be surprised to see LiMo-based products actually go beyond its Any Apps, Any Device initiative and get real on the carrier's official lineup.

The latest word on the street suggests that Verizon is getting ready to announce that it's throwing its formidable weight behind the LiMo Foundation, that "other" mobile Linux group that's attracted some serious muscle behind founding member NTT DoCoMo. With Verizon's Any Apps, Any Device initiative on tap for this year, a wide-open platform like LiMo makes perfect sense -- and as folks are pointing out, the move wouldn't preclude the carrier from jumping on the Android bandwagon just the same once the hardware and software have ripened enough for customer consumption. If this all goes down, it'd mark the very first American carrier to sign on with LiMo -- and since Verizon's European spouse, Vodafone, is already on board, the synergy's pretty obvious. What's more, media outlets (ours included) have gotten word that LiMo will be announcing several new partners in the morning, including a "major US wireless service provider." Wonder who that could be?

[Via mocoNews]

There's little doubt that Linux has quite a bit going for it in the mobile realm, but a recent report put out by ABI Research asserts that just about one in every five mid- to high-end handsets sold in 2013 will boast a Linux-based OS. Citing the mounting momentum behind LiMo Foundation as well as the alleviation of "issues with framework fragmentation and silicon requirements," the research firm is projecting Linux to be an integral part of some 20-percent of higher-end mobiles in just 5 years. ABI Research's VP even noted that "Linux OS solutions will be far more cost-effective than incumbent solutions, even when silicon requirements are taken into account, given that a fuller application layer will be included in the standard package and that the burden of customization falls mostly on the independent software vendor." Hey, you won't find us kvetching about the proliferation of open-source.

[Via mocoNews]

OpenMoko's first model, the Neo1973, has been sold out for some time now -- a testament to the popularity of the open-source phone concept, yes, but also a huge pain in the rear for new folks looking to get in on the action. That drought is thankfully about to end, though, with the introduction of the FreeRunner, a refreshed model that carries over the best parts of the Neo (think VGA touchscreen) while adding a few key features like three-axis motion detection and a faster processor. The group has just announced pricing on the latest model, and it comes in at a very consumer-friendly $399 -- unlocked, naturally -- which should allow a whole new group of hackers and Joe Regulars to join in the Linux free-for-all. Anyone needing ten or more will get an even better deal: $369, to be exact. It looks like the company's studying production samples right now, and if all goes well, we'll still see them in the pipe before the month's out.

[Via PHONE Magazine]