The Siemens SX1 is a
GSM
The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a standard developed by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to describe the protocols for second-generation ( 2G) digital cellular networks used by mobile devices such as ...
mobile phone running version 1.2 of the
Series 60
The S60 Platform (formerly Series 60 User Interface) was a software platform for smartphones that runs on top of the Symbian operating system. It was created by Nokia based on the 'Pearl' user interface from Symbian Ltd. It was introduced at ...
platform for the
Symbian OS
Symbian is a discontinued mobile operating system (OS) and computing platform designed for smartphones. It was originally developed as a proprietary software OS for personal digital assistants in 1998 by the Symbian Ltd. consortium. Symbian ...
. It was the first such
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whic ...
from
Siemens
Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad.
The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', '' ...
following its licensing agreement with
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
for the use and development of Series 60. Though unveiled in February 2003, it was not launched until December of that year.
Features
The phone has a very high feature list for its time of release. It had three built in games and support for more by downloads. The three games which were bundled with the phone were ''Mozzies'', which was awarded the title of best mobile game in 2003, ''Typegun'', which was a game made for acquainting users to the keypad layout, and ''Sitris'', a
Tetris
''Tetris'' (russian: link=no, Тетрис) is a puzzle video game created by Soviet software engineer Alexey Pajitnov in 1984. It has been published by several companies for multiple platforms, most prominently during a dispute over the approp ...
version with multiplayer support (via Bluetooth). In ''Mozzies'', the Camera is used to detect the motion. So you have to position the gun on the flying mosquitoes which are superimposed on the video feed from the camera. The objective is to shoot down the mosquitoes by moving the phone around and clicking when you are aiming correctly.
The phone also has a good number of connectivity options from Bluetooth to IrDA. It can also be used as a
Fax
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
Machine by connecting it to an appropriate device like a computer through the software provided. The File Manager allows sending and receiving of various files over either infrared or bluetooth. The phone has two shortcut keys on its side. One is used to start the camera and click pictures, while the other can be used to make a voice command driven call or start the voice memo. There is a built in picture editor which allows modification of images taken by the camera or any other type of image present on the phone. The phone has a few organizer capabilities. There are applications to take down short notes, a ''To-Do List'', a scheduler application with reminders and a converter to convert currency and different measuring units.
The mobile has been popular because of a Linux port to this mobile called "Linux on SX1".
Linux on SX1
A
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...
for the mobile exists, one can boot a modified
Linux kernel
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source, monolithic, modular, multitasking, Unix-like operating system kernel. It was originally authored in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his i386-based PC, and it was soon adopted as the kernel for the GNU ope ...
on the mobile using
Das U-Boot
Das U-Boot (subtitled "the Universal Boot Loader" and often shortened to U-Boot; see ''History'' for more about the name) is an open-source, primary boot loader used in embedded devices to package the instructions to boot the device's operating ...
as a
bootloader
A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer.
When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, an ...
. There have been successful attempts to get
Qtopia
Qt Extended (named Qtopia before September 30, 2008) is an application platform for embedded Linux-based mobile computing devices such as personal digital assistants, video projectors and mobile phones. It was initially developed by Qt Software, ...
working on the mobile.
External links
The Symbian OS
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siemens Sx1
Smartphones
SX1
Symbian devices
Mobile phones introduced in 2003
Mobile phones with infrared transmitter