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Openmoko's Open Source Phone Goes Mass-Market
Posted by
timothy
on Wed Jun 25, 2008 01:03 PM
from the long-may-it-wave dept.
from the long-may-it-wave dept.
nerdyH writes "Openmoko has begun shipping its Linux-based, open source Neo Freerunner phone to five newly announced distributors, in Germany, France, and India, says the company. The Neo Freerunner features an open hardware design, and a Linux-based operating system that users are free to modify. The project originally hoped to produce a mass-market offering last October. The $400 Freerunner will remain available direct, online, too. A 2.5G GPRS/GSM phone like the original iPhone, it boasts a 500MHz processor, WiFi, 3D accelerometers, a 4.3-inch VGA touchscreen, Bluetooth, and built-in GPS."
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Canadian Firms Get Behind OpenMoko/FreeRunner 140 comments
mario writes "Now that the OpenMoko platform has stabilized enough to provide the OM2008 image (supporting the three major toolkits), things are starting to heat up. Linuxdevices is reporting on the start of a port of Devicescape's connect application. Koolu (another Canadian company) is also doing development for its W.E. phone (a branded FreeRunner). Which leads me to ask: Where are the American companies?"
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Neo 1973 (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Article is kinda short on web shop links - anyone know where you can buy this already?
Re:Neo 1973 (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
2.5G (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Informative)
To do a side-by-side rundown with the iPhone (correct me if I get anything wrong):
Category: Neo FreeRunner / iPhone
Price: $400 / $200-$400 plus specific service requirements
Screen res: 640x480 / 480x320
Screen size: 4.3" / 3.5"
CPU: Samsung S3C2442 500MHz / 620 MHz ARM 1176, underclocked to 412 MHz
GPU: SMedia 3362-based 3D graphics acceleration / PowerVR MBX 3D
Ram: 128MB / 128MB
Onboard flash: 256MB / 4, 8, or 16GB
Card support: MicroSD (64MB to 8GB) / None
Bluetooth: 2.0 / 2.0
Wifi: 802.11b/g / 80211b/g
USB: 1.x / 1.x
Camera: None / 2.0 megapixel
GPS: AGPS / None
3D accelerometers: 2x / 1x
Touch: Single / Multi
Cellular: 2.5G tri-band / 2G quad band (just this month, now 3G)
Freedom: Open / Closed
Looks like a fair competitor.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Well the iPhone 3G is thicker than the old one, though rounded at the back. And there were no improvements to the camera, which is something a lot of people were asking for (autofocus takes up space, for example).
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Your iPod Touch does the latter already. It does not find you via the approximated location of your IP address.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
No, that's how the iPhone currently works (it uses Skyhook's services IIRC). The 3G coming in July is a real GPS which falls back to the other method if it can't lock onto a GPS signal.
Re:2.5G (Score:4, Informative)
The FreeRunner screen is actually a 2.8" VGA (640x480)[1]. It has got some serious DPI.
[1] http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA02 [openmoko.org]
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
That contradicts the linked article. Not saying that one is right, just that there seems to be some dispute. The wiki also says 400MHz, while this says 500MHz.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think that's right... I remember reading in the mailing lists that people couldn't overclock (or in this case, normalclock) the CPU because of timing/sync issues with other components...
W
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Informative)
* they do a lot of legal pioneering, in name of open source (imagine how long it takes to get contracts to little things like sim-cards)
* they take it seriously
* the Moko can act as USB Master. well. I can plug my phone into the moko and download its files. who can do that!?!?
Parent
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Informative)
>>Bluetooth: 2.0 / 2.0
Just to clarify that it means nothing to have a bluetooth 2.0 in iphone as it doesn't support any useful profile except mono handsfree.
I would define it as:
Bluetooth: 2.0 / 2.0 Crippled Edition
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
That's a software problem, it _will_ be resolved soon.
PS: just ordered Moko.
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Interesting)
These are the things I'm under the impression that the Neo phone will support that the iPhone does not have:
A2DP (Bluetooth Stereo)
MMS
Replaceable Battery
Expandable Flash Memory
Cut and Paste
Voice Dialing
Bluetooth Tether / Modem support
Flash Support
Parent
Re:2.5G (Score:4, Informative)
Parent
SDHC is not limited by FAT32 (Score:3, Informative)
What you're thinking of was SD. It was limited to 2GB by FAT16. ,a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card#SDHC">SDHC could support up to 2TB using FAT32, but it is artifically limited to 32GB.
Windows puts an arbitrary limit on FAT32 volume size creation of 32GB, but it will happily read any sized FAT32 partition, all the way up to 2TB.
I have a feeling the SDHC folks decided to not exceed 32GB so people wouldn't call and complain when trying to format their new SDHC cards directly in a co
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Insightful)
Its Open-Hardware, get a 3G controller and replace the 2.5G one(when a 3G controller becomes available).
Yeah, you're comfortable hand-soldering 0.5mm pitch BGAs, right? What 2.5G controller were you talking about?
Buy it for what it is - freedom. If that's not enough, don't force it on yourself.
Parent
Re:2.5G (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:2.5G (Score:4, Informative)
Edge is technically faster than 2.5G.
Parent
Some corrections (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Some Experience (Score:4, Informative)
- old TI GSM modem, recamping once a minute(!) to the mobile station, eating battery like crazy and very unreliable. A TI engineer asked me if they (openmoko) got the chips for free, as they are so ancient - no EDGE, GPRS w/ 2KB/s. Openmoko is likely the last buyer.
- audio quailty on the headphone is lousy due to a hardware bug - as mp3 player useless
- headphone only mono. i.e. only one side works
- headphone unusable for making phone calls due to EM-interferences
- no bluetooth headset support
- no bluetooth keyboard support (dropped since last version)
- graphics sluggish and even slower than Neo 1973 despite 2D accel chip
- GPS has >10 minutes TTFF - yes, in 2008 where every cheapo GPS gets a fix in 45secs
- developer community alienated by Lauer & Co. GNOME knew why they kicked Rasterman out.
- so called ASU software is pre-alpha and reinventing the wheel once again
Unless your company pays for it, don't buy it.Parent
Re:Some Experience (Score:4, Insightful)
For me the killer feature is the openness of the platform (datasheets for almost all of the modules, the ability to completely brick it and then restore with JTAG, etc). I'll forgive a lot of flaws in order to support that philosophy.
Parent
Re:Some Experience (Score:5, Informative)
You seem to have some misunderstandings about the expected state of the software, and you're conflating software & hardware issues.
The software is absolutely not ready for production, and no one is saying it is. I do think the new architecture at freesmartphone.org is going in the right direction, and it sounds as if it already supports stable calling.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It's interesting that my *point* was that the software is unfinished, and known to be unfinished, and your response was to point out to me where the software doesn't support the *hardware* you're claiming the Freerunner doesn't have.
The hardware is there. The software to support that hardware is unfinished. If you're testing things using the ASU, you're crazy.
BTW, I'v owned a Neo1973 (the dev release predecessor to the Freerunner) for about six months, so I'm not talking totally out of my ass here. I hav
Re:Some Experience (Score:5, Informative)
"developer community alienated by Lauer & Co. GNOME knew why they kicked Rasterman out."
WTF? One thing to say here. No one kicked me out of GNOME - get your history right. Do your research. You demonstrate some serious ignorance here. I chose to not contribute anymore due to GNOME going one way, and me going another. I had plans for E and they had plans for GNOME as of course "GNOME needs no window manager. it can work with all of them!". Check your history mate.
Thanks for registering your account now for some trolling fun.
Parent
'Merica (Score:5, Funny)
I iz American. I can has OpenMoko?
translation: When is US getting sweet, sweet OpenMoko goodness?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
For all the people asking why X/Y/Z is missing (Score:5, Interesting)
WIFI wouldn't have been included if they didn't find an appropriate chip (for mobile phones) with open drivers etc. or at least the possibility to write an open driver with NDA'ed docs.
3d accelerometers, gesture calls? (Score:5, Funny)
Can you set up the 3d accelerometers to do gesture-based calling? Because I can think of a few gestures I'd like to associate with some jerks I have to call on a regular basis.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Indubitably, morons (Score:4, Funny)
The linuxdevices story is wrong, see http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA02
Indeed, 400MHz 2.8in screen.
Further, the linuxdevices story doesn't say they have begun shipping, it says that they have announced distributors who they will ship to. The only thing they've begun shipping is contracts and red tape.
nerdyH, you're a fucktard.
I'll be ordering online (Score:3, Interesting)
I can't wait, I've developed _serious_ blueballs waiting for this thing. Lets see... www.openmoko.com... store...
Invalid security certificate? D'oh!
Hope that gets fixed soon too. wasn't there a discussion [slashdot.org] about that recently?
I guess I'm not geeky enough (Score:3, Funny)
Its a phone. Yah, lots of new wiz bang features, most of which the average person won't ever use. Most of the rest will be used a handful of times by someone to show off how advanced their PHONE is.
If I wait a year, I'll get the equavalent of this model for free with a new service contract. Even then, I won't be using most of the functionality.
The most I can ever see being useful in a phone is email, gps and voice calls. Even then, I think you'd need to be traveling for work to actually use those features enough to pay for them.
But what do I know? I live in a van down by the river.
Finally a hackable phone (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm really considering buying a Neo Freerunner. At 300 euros it's reasonably priced.
Some improvements I'd like to perform to it that a normal phone does not have:
- depending on who's calling perform any of these behaviors:
* ring, vibrate or ignore the call
* answer the call with a dynamic or static message for example where i am (coordinates or city name), why i'm not answering (eating, sleeping, meeting)
* install an operator menu ("Jos is in a meeting, i'm openmoko his assistant. do you want to make an appointment for him to call you back?"
- record my accelleration and position all day (because i can)
- switch an annoying caller to a signal of strange noises or a helpfully scripted assistant or a nice song to put them on hold with
- put a filter on incoming and outgoing sounds to give them echo or change the pitch
- record every call i make
In Canada, though... (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't be surprised if it was illegal under that new legislation the current crop of fascists wants to enact. This thing sounds like it was made for card-swapping and flexibility.
Why compare it to an iPhone? (Score:5, Informative)
Everybody see's it as an iPhone clone because it has a touch screen, accelerometers, etc.
The reality is this phone is aimed at a completely different market than the iPhone. This phone is aimed at those who value open source software / hardware, whereas the iPhone is aimed at the 'Cool' sector.
I am going to be getting one later in the year when my current 3-year contract runs out. I am tired of locked phones with disabled features for the benefit of the phone company. To me the ability to control my own phone is more important than having a few extra bells and whistles like the iphone.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Time (Score:3, Insightful)
look at Firefox, it's turned out fantastically well
Yes, but it took ten years.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
How long do you think it will take for it to be unseated?
I don't understand your point relative to OpenMoko's current featureset vs. iPhone. Open Source projects take a while to surpass their commercial competitors, so we shouldn't expect OpenMoko to 'take-no-iPhone-hostages' immediately.
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Hmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Given that you've talked on the phone less than a minute a day for the past 9 years, I'd say you're probably better off just working out a schedule with the pizza guy instead of always just phoning him up and saying "the usual". Though it might be useful to have one around for 911 in case your hermit beard gets caught in the blender or something.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
You don't actually need cellphone service to make emergency calls...
You can typically make such calls just from a handset without even a simcard, it will pick up the first available network, and the networks should all route emergency calls for free.
Yes, you are the centre of the universe (Score:3, Insightful)
I too only use a low level voice phone Nokia (1100) and have no use for a fancier phone. You can still get low-level phones for pretty low cost new, and almost free on eBay etc.
But at least I can appreciate that there are other people out there who actually have a lifestyle/usage pattern that fits better with a more sophisticated phone and have the money to spend on it.
Re:Hmmm (Score:4, Informative)
Didn't the Iphone get absolutely slammed for the lack of it
Sure, but the IPhone is a highly hyped product, so it has to be appropriately buzzword compliant. Any poor IPhone user would get the lack pointed out to them; instant put-down for the device-chic.
The OpenMoko is a different field entirely. For most prospective users there simply is no feature that carries a higher importance than freedom, nor are there many alternatives with that essential feature. I have no interest in the iPhone with or without 3g; it's even more locked than many other phones.
And no, for the more pragmatic crowd, 3g isnt something you really have to have on your phone (especially not if you have wifi). 3g is more useful as a modem for a small computer like the eee; it's nice to have when you have the UI to fully utilize more bandwidth intensive applications.
Also, can I ssh into my computer and restart my webserver,
The more interesting question is, can you ssh into your phone and restart the webserver you're running there?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
This is similar to why the XBox 2 is called the Xbox 360, because it "sounds" better than the PS3 according to soccer moms
In that case, the iPhone 3G is doomed.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Wtf? 4.8" screen? 500Mhz? (Score:5, Informative)
Close, but those are the specs for the Neo1973, the free runner specs are here:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner [openmoko.org]
(added wifi and faster cpu)
Further details here:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware [openmoko.org]
I agree - the submission is bad... there's no mentioning of the phone being for sale on http://openmoko.com/ [openmoko.com] - just a "coming soon" note.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)