[Gllug] sony ericsson mobiles & linux

[Richard Cohen]

On 02/02/06, Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net> wrote:
>
>
> On 2/2/2006, "Stuart Children" <stuart at terminus.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >It supports IrMC and OBEX SyncML, so in theory something like MulitSync
> >should be able to talk to it. However, I can't find anything definitely
> >supporting the above model. I'm primarily interested in getting
> >contact/phonebook and calendar data into desktop applications and back
> >again.
>
> Multisync is a fair way off yet...  This online calendar using SyncML
> works brilliantly with my Nokia Symbian phone:
> http://www.mobical.net/
>
> >Something I can't find much information on is being able to control
> >actual phone services from my PC. So for example sending text messages,
> >or using my computer-connected speakers/mic on a call.
>
> Almost certainly sending/receiving SMS will be some kinda proprietary
> crap.  Using computer for calls should be doable, though I've never
> done it.  Most people do the reverse, use the mobile phone for VOIP from
> the computer.
>
> Linux info for Bluetooth is REALLY BAD!  This page, the first hit for
> google "linux bluetooth" is particularly bad -- much of the
> information is obsolete, but there's no indiciation of such:
> http://www.holtmann.org/linux/bluetooth/


I disagree...

SMS sending and receiving is likely to be quite easy, either using
off-the-shelf code or your own, since there are clearly defined and
relatively simple standards in the GSM extensions to the AT command set for
it.  I can't remember the exact spec number off the top of my head, but a
bit of searching should find it - there are two forms, of which phones tend,
in my experience, to support one or the other - 'text' mode, which is simple
but provides limited access to the more advanced features of SMS, and PDU
(Protocol Data Unit) mode, which lets you essentially create an SMS packet
and have the phone send it on to the network unchanged.  PDU mode is
obviously more complex, but lets you do things like set the 'from' address
of the message, set it to 'flash' mode, and other potentially interesting
things.  A very quick search for "SMS PDU" finds info...

As for the bluetooth stuff - the simple "give me a virtual serial line"
isn't particularly hard, although yes, the sites and docs tend to be a bit
out-of-date - but the particular case of transmitting audio over bluetooth
is something I haven't investigated.  You can initiate a call on the phone
easily enough just by doing "ATDT020812345678;" - the ";" makes it a voice
call - but having it treat the computer as a headset is less of a solved
problem.

I do have a couple of SE phones here - T610 and K700i - although I use a
Treo nowadays, but one of the things which always impressed me about the SE
phones, and SE in general, was their apparent willingness to support
standards over nasty revenue-generating proprietary things - for example,
the ability to send a MIDI file, MP3 or MP4 to the phone over standard OBEX,
and having it used as a ringtone, or the fact that (with the exception of
jar files for Java, which are of course barely more than zip files) their
preferred file format for 'packages' is tar!  Other things, like support for
PNG for wallpaper or SVG (a subset thereof, at least) for 'screensavers' is
also nice.

I haven't spent much time on mobile phone comms recently - except for
getting my laptop online using bluetooth to my unmetered-GPRS Treo - but I
have messed around quite a lot with it in the past...

Cheers
Richard
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