New Products

Linux companies love colors. We've seen red hats, black ducks, yellow dogs and blue bicuspids. What could be next, pray tell? Trolltech says, green phones! The company's brand-new product, the Qtopia Greenphone, is an open, Linux-based mobile device for application developers of all stripes, allowing them to “create, modify and test Linux-based mobile phone applications on a working GSM/GPRS device” that also has a functioning camera. Trolltech offers Greenphone as part of its software development kit containing the Qt-based Qtopia Phone Edition, an application platform and a UI for Linux-based mobile phones. The company says that Greenphone offers a number of product features and benefits, including an open software stack, accelerated time to market, simplified development processes and reduced costs. Trolltech also sees Greenphone as the first in a series of open mobile devices. Next up, mauve?

www.trolltech.com

Like Trolltech, Movidis, Inc., has gone “green” as well, only theirs is related to its eco-friendliness. The firm's new Revolution x16 Server is built to provide a single architecture that will perform multiple server functions, for both applications and storage, while consuming a mere 50 Watts. Movidis' approach is to utilize Cavium Networks' OCTEON CN3860, a 16-core, 64-bit MIPS processor that will execute nearly 20-billion instructions per second. According to Movidis, the OCTEON is “optimized for moving data around a network—just what most servers spend their cycles on”. The Revolution x16's other key features are integrated accelerators that perform encryption, compression and TCP packet processing in hardware rather than software, as well as Debian burned into the on-board Flash. The Revolution x16 is available in 1U or 2U rackmount enclosures, with either four or eight SATA or SAS drives for a maximum capacity of 6TB on a single 2U RAID system.

www.movidis.com

The folks at rPath have upgraded their rBuilder product to version 2.0, a platform for creating and maintaining Linux-based software appliances. In essence, rBuilder allows the ISV to import a desired application and combine it with the company's own rPath Linux and create either a software, hardware or virtual appliance image. The result, says rPath, is a reduction in software complexity and cost “by making the operating system disappear”. With the appliance as a solution, the ISV can provide its customers with a simplified installation, integration and maintenance process. New in version 2.0 are improved appliance administration, easier customization of administrative interfaces, simplified updates delivered via the Internet to customer locations and the ability to create CD/DVD images for demonstration purposes so that customers can try before they buy.

www.rpath.com

Yes, dear readers, you are getting your money's worth! Because Apress has so many sweet books coming out, your editor failed to pick just one. Book one: Curtis Smith's Pro Open Source Mail is a “comprehensive guide to managing the most important mail-related services, including user administration, mail transfer agents, virus protection, spam and mail filtering, Web-based mail and mailing list maintenance”. Some applications and tools covered include Sendmail, Qpopper, Dovecot, SpamAssassin, ClamAV and SquirrelMail. Book two: Adrian Holovaty and Jacob Kaplan-Moss' Pro Django is a tutorial and reference about the red-hot Django Web development framework. The authors cover everything from creating the components that power a Django-driven Web site to utilizing advanced Django features (such as outputting RSS and PDF and caching). Also included is a range of detailed reference information, such as configuration options and commands. Holovaty is a co-creator of Django; Kaplan-Moss is its lead developer.

www.apress.com