his summer, digital phone maker Qualcomm will release a new suite of programs called the Qualcomm Phone Utilities. The suite comes with a cable that lets you connect a Qualcomm cellular phone to any Windows-based computer, and a set of programs that give you unprecedented control over the phone's functions.
One of my biggest complaints about portable phones is the difficulty of programming their phone books. Little 10-digit keypads are great for dialing a number or two, but I prefer a full-size computer keyboard if I'm going to type in more than a few names and phone numbers.
The Qualcomm Phone Utilities solve this problem with a program called Speed Dial Manager. This program lets you upload or download the 99-entry address book that every Qualcomm phone has. You can also sort your phone book, automatically remove all of the ''1s,'' change area codes, and, perhaps best of all, assign different rings to different phone numbers. You can even create your own ringers and load them into the phone.
Another program, the Qualcomm Phone Exchange, allows you to back up all of the settings in your phone to a floppy disk or copy them from one phone to another. This is a very handy feature if you run a business and want to download the same address book into all of the phones in your fleet.
The Qualcomm Phone Monitor lets you view the phone's screen and press its buttons from your computer. Finally, Phone Utilities comes with a windows driver that turns a Qualcomm phone into a wireless modem. Today that modem runs at 9600 baud, but in a year or so these same phones will be able to pump data along at 64 kbps or even 128 kbps, just as soon as carriers such as Sprint and Bell Atlantic start to offer high-speed wireless data services.
Qualcomm should be applauded for developing this kind of application and bringing it to consumers. The company will also be rewarded for its effort. Although Qualcomm's Phone Utilities should be a good seller in its own right, this program's real value to Qualcomm is that it will stimulate the sale of Qualcomm telephones and base station equipment.
Qualcomm's software also opens up an interesting opportunity for off-hours engineers, hobbyists, and freelance programmers. Many of these people are sure to buy the Phone Utilities kit, eavesdrop on the communications between the phone and the computer, and reverse engineer the commands that Qualcomm uses to control their phone. In no time at all, we're likely to see shareware and freeware programs that can also control Qualcomm phones. In all likelihood, people will create programs for the Linux operating system, the Macintosh, Palm Pilots, and even Windows CE machines. It will be far more software than Qualcomm could have ever created on its own.
I know this is what the future will hold, because I know at least two engineers who want to work on these projects. The only thing holding them back is the lack of a cable and lack of published specifications from Qualcomm.
Qualcomm isn't alone. There's not a single manufacturer of cellular telephones that publishes the internal specifications of its telephones. One reason is the fear of fraud: The cellular telephone systems that were deployed in the 1980s were fundamentally unsecure. By modifying the code in a telephone, it was possible to charge phone calls to somebody else's telephone number, or to create a telephone scanner that could eavesdrop on other people's telephone conversations.
Indeed, nearly a decade ago a trio of hackers, including Tsutomu Shimomura and Mark Lottor, reverse engineered Oki's 900 cellular telephone and could do just that. Ironically, one of their motivations wasn't committing fraud, but creating software that would let people upload and download telephone books into their little phones.
Another reason that manufacturers haven't published their specifications in the past is embarrassment. Much of the embedded computer systems currently in the marketplace are built upon computer programs and protocols that are poorly thought out and technically ugly. For many companies, publishing this sort of technical information is akin to revealing their dirty laundry.
Vendors and users in the world of computer software have been struggling with this issue for many years now, and an interesting trend has been emerging. Some companies, such as Microsoft, continue to hold their software secret. But other companies have started releasing their so-called ''source-code,'' or the actual code that their programmers write.
One company that has opened up its source code is Netscape Communications, which last year published the source code for the 5.0 version of Netscape Communicator. Another company that publishes its source code is Red Hat Software, which produces a version of the Linux operating system.
The big advantage of open source software is that its users can examine it, fix the bugs, and make it better. Open source software taps the creativity and programming excellence of hundreds of thousands of programmers across the Internet - far more engineers than even Microsoft could hire.
The next logical step after open source software is open source hardware. These days, practically every piece of consumer electronics or home appliance comes with an embedded computer. If the makers of these products would simply publish their software, consumer programmers could take that software and remake the products.
Like open source software, the idea of open source hardware is threatening to many companies. But it's also powerful. It will take only a few forward-thinking companies to start the industry down the path. Let's hope Qualcomm is pointing the way.
Technology writer Simson L. Garfinkel can be reached at plugged-in@simson.net.
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