MIT students show power of open cell phone systems

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN, AP Technology Writer, Technology / Computer Sciences

In this rendering provided by the Locale team, Locale, an application designed for Google's upcoming Android mobile operating system, is shown. Locale, designed by a team of MIT students, lets users configure their phones to automatically adjust their settings when the devices detect themselves in certain zones. (AP Photo/The Locale Team)

(AP) -- What do you want your cell phone to be able to do? Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Hal Abelson put that question to about 20 computer science students this semester when he gave them one assignment: Design a software program for cell phones that use Google Inc.'s upcoming Android mobile operating system.

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Posted by OldICFart 05/13/08 16:14

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Let us hope that these students innovations don't get stepped on by the big phone companies that dominate communications systems in the US. Go Google for supporting this effort, as well as forcing the recent spectrum auction to be more open to innovation. If only they would take over my floundering neighboring WIFi service

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Posted by Sepp 05/15/08 08:57

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I hope cell phones in the future will be able to network among themselves (without going through a provider), and also to establish a broadband internet connection, which they can share with other phones and computers in the vicinity. In other words, act as a hot spot...