OpenMokast News

Development with Openmokast

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:28:39 +0100

Openmokast is a standalone software that can be used by itself but it can also be used as a remote broadcasting server for other applications. For this matter, different control interfaces were built into the software. Some documentation about the interfaces and the way to use them in your own software is now available in the development page.

Moreover, Openmokast version 0.6.3 was also just released. This version is compatible with the latest Ubuntu 9.10. The most notable additions are:

- The capability to record a subchannel form the graphical interface
- User can see what service is currently playing or recording
- The DBus control interface implements all the methods described in the specification
- The correction of many bugs reported by users

The binary packages are available from the download page and the code is on Sourceforge .

Release of Openmokast v0.6.2

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Some new bugs unfortunately appeared in the latest software release so a new version 0.6.2 with all the corrections was just added to the download page. The list of changes is listed here:

- Corrected bugs from 0.6.1.
- UDP/IP streaming is now working with data services.
- CELT player is now working correctly.
- DAB+ button is disabled as expected.
- Intallation in Ubuntu inside a new CRC-mmbTools menu sub-folder.
- Executable renamed to openmokast.

Release of Openmokast v0.6.1

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The new release version 0.6.1 was just added to the download page. This new package is a minor update with some usability improvements. The list of changes is listed here:

- Added an options dialog to customize the audio player output.
- Added a raw UDP/IP output.
- Added the options to control USB mode and Host mode of the Openmoko device right from the option dialog.
- Corrected some interface bugs.

When building the code from Sourceforge, the CELT decoder requires the installation of libcelt-0.6.1 from the xiph open source community and libdabcelt from our Sourceforge download page.

Release of Openmokast v0.6

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 14:29:55 +0100

The Openmokast open source project version 0.6 was just released on the Sourceforge page. This new release features some stability improvements that were mostly introduced with newer Linux distributions such as Ubuntu 9.04. Moreover, new input sources and application decoders were included, which brings the capabilities of the software to:

Inputs:
- MTech DAB/DMB USB receiver
- Terratec DrBox1
- ETI file
- ETI TCP/IP stream

Outputs:
- HTTP stream (can be used to listen to Musicam audio with a compatible software)
- CELT audio
- MOT-Slideshow
- Journaline

The CELT decoder requires the installation of libcelt-0.6.1 from the xiph open source community and libdabcelt from our Sourceforge download page. In addition to the code release, packages for Openmoko and Ubuntu will be released shortly on the Openmokast download page.

Mossberg on Open Phones

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:16:06 +0100

Cleaning my inbox today. Stumbled upon this early piece on open phones by Walter Mossberg of the WSJ

"Well, the government pried that market open, and the wired phone network not only didn't collapse, it became more useful and versatile, allowing, among other things, cheap connections to online data services.
I suspect that if the government, or some disruptive innovation, breaks the crippling power that the wireless carriers exert today, the free market will deliver a similar happy ending."

Masters thesis completed

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 15:29:39 +0100

During the last months, I was working at completing my Masters thesis entitled "Open Broadcasting Software Stack and Applications for Mobile Devices". This work was conducted under the M.A.Sc program in Electrical engineering at Carleton University.

This research describes the steps that resulted in the Openmokast project. Moreover, the details about the development of the framework are described. I'd like to thank François Lefebvre, which initiated the MMB Openmokast project at CRC under which this research took place. I'd also like to thank Dr. Thomas Kunz who supervised the thesis work. Finally, thanks to my colleagues for their great help in different aspects of the work.

The thesis is available in the Resources section of the site or at this direct download link.

Jean-Michel Bouffard

Watching TV on Neo Freerunner

Fri, 29 May 2009 10:44:59 +0100

There is an interesting demonstration of a Neo FreeRunner playing DVB-T live television from a USB dongle at http://www.tuxbrain.net/en/node/17 .

Our prior tests showed that even DMB quality video streams at 320x240 were difficult to decode on the FreeRunner hardware, so this DVB-T stream playing smoothly looks like a great achievement. There doesn't seem to be any sound output though.

Openmokast in the "press"

Fri, 01 May 2009 17:14:22 +0100

Just added an "in the press" section over at the mmbtools.crc.ca website. All independent stories are related to Openmokast for now.

There are not that many sources but still, we think that these stories present a very good analysis of the context for Openmokast.

Samsung Android Phone

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:59:21 +0100

Samsung unveiled its first mobile phone based on Android. Model I7500 is planned to be released in Germany in June. Samsung is the second manufacturer to release an Android phone after HTC.

"The Android phone, at 11.9 mm thick, has a 3.2-inch AM OLED full touch-screen and features a 5-megapixel camera phone with an auto-focus function, a long enough battery life (1500mAh), 8GB internal memory, and supports additional external memory up to 32GB. The Wi-Fi enabled smartphone supports 7.2Mbps HSDPA and 5.76Mbps HSUPA connectivity."

We certainly had hoped that Samsung's first Android phone would include a DAB/DMB chipset but this doesn't seem to be the case.

First release of the Openmokast source

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:29:32 +0100

The first open source release of the Openmokast code is available from our Sourceforge project page. The release was labeled “openmokast 0.5” to follow up on the non open source release 0.4 that was previously available from the download page. The code is available under the GPL.

Openmokast 0.5 is mostly a stability improvement but it was also added a control interface based on the DBus messaging system. The interface will make it easier to develop new digital broadcasting services because it removes the need to directly modify the Openmokast software. More details will be added about this feature shortly.

In addition to the code release, packages for Openmoko and Ubuntu were released on the download page .