The telecommunications industry has invested billions over the years in the global mobile phone network - an impressive edifice of technological showmanship that would even be the envy of the aliens. The real challenge, however, is not in building the radio towers and relay stations, but in finding ways to integrate this promise of mobile technology with the business of everyday life. Can we reach beyond the simple paradigm of using the cell phone as we would use the ordinary phone on the table in the hallway?
The creative and resourceful Linux community, of course, has always been good at reaching beyond simple paradigms, and this quality is nowhere more in evidence than in the many useful and practical Linux applications for mobile communication. With this month's cover story, we bring you Linux tools for mobile networking.
In our first article, we'll show you GPRS Easy Connect, a tool that lets your Linux portable access Global Packet Radio Service (GPRS). GPRS is a communications protocol offered by many mobile service providers that supports Internet-style data transfer over mobile phone networks. GPRS provides fast and reliable email and web browsing from anywhere over the mobile phone network, and Easy Connect is a free tool that brings GPRS technology to Linux.
In the next article, we describe Gammu, a command-line tool for managing mobile phone calendars and phonebooks, and Wammu, a front-end GUI for Gammu that offers another layer of convenience for busy users. A final article in the set looks at System Configuration Profile Manager (SCPM), a tool that supports profile-based configuration for portable computers. And if you're looking for more on this fascinating topic of mobile networking, try this month's installment of our regular KTools column, where we examine KMobileTools, a handy utility for managing mobile phone messaging from KDE.
Whether you're a cell phone subscriber, a Linux laptop user, or simply a reader who is interested in practical tools for space age technologies, you'll find something to remember in this month's mobile networking cover story.