Any Openmoko Users?


OrR

Corporate games suck.
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It seems to me that most people interested in the Pandora because of Linux/openness/awesome handheld hardware should be interested in the Openmoko ( http://openmoko.org/ ) phones for precisely the same reasons. So, are there other people around who already got a Neo 1973 or are planning to get a Neo Freerunner when it is finally finished in a few weeks?

I've got a Neo 1973 myself and although I'm pretty annoyed by the power management problems, I simply love the thing in the end. There is nothing quite as satisfying as a Linux console on a 640*480 touchscreen phone. I'm saying that as someone who is completely new to Linux and can't code a thing! :D I'm excited to see how my Neo and my Pandora will fit together. I hope there are some developers and experienced Linux users around who can help me to make the two interact...
 
i'd like to get one of those as well, just to play around with :)

any idea of they take preorders of some kind or when it will be availible ?
 
craigix said:
I'm hoping to stock them in the UK when they are available.
Good move, 'coz there's many difficulties to buy it in uk. And im still interested in buying it. I love my symbian OS ngage, but it seems to preety dead now for Homebrew [ since 1 year ]. Open moko its good choice, even if theres android os.
 
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I'm planning on getting one, the only problem i'm running into is that I can convince my wife that I need a Neo Freerunner for work, but I'm still figuring how how to convince her that I need a Pandora for work as well.
 
Sounds like I found a cellphone finally. :)
What are the benefits of the Neo Freerunner over the 1973, in your opinions?
 
zodttd said:
Sounds like I found a cellphone finally. :)
What are the benefits of the Neo Freerunner over the 1973, in your opinions?
Mostly the GPS support I guess (AFAIK).
However it is quite bulky (both of them) thus I can't quite decide if I should get one :huh:
 
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I'm following news on OpenMoko for a long time now. I think it is even more exciting than Pandora, unfortunately there is still no confirmed date of release.
I was in doubt to get another phone, but OpenMoko is such a great concept I don't want another. I will get the Neo Freerunner for sure, I wasn't interested in the GTA01, I need a phone that has at least all basic functionalities.
 
Are any of the shortcomings of the 1973 making their way to the Neo Freerunner, such as the mentioned power issues?

I might want a Nokia N95, but I would get more real world use out of the OpenMoko platform.
 
What I have understood from all discussions is that the power issue will be solved. The phone has a lot of components and using them all continuously will drain the battery. By updating the firmware and let the firmware make more intelligent decisions it will have an increased battery life.
There has been a lot of hardware revisions, I think they want to make a real solid product.
 
zodttd said:
Sounds like I found a cellphone finally. :)
What are the benefits of the Neo Freerunner over the 1973, in your opinions?
WiFi is the most important, for me.
 
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I know this is of interest to many of the same people who are interested in Pandora, but it should probably be in the Other Consoles section. Which it now is - isn't that grand? :)
 
joyrider said:
i'd like to get one of those as well, just to play around with :)

any idea of they take preorders of some kind or when it will be availible ?
They don't take preorders (although some German shop does, I think). A release date for the Freerunner has not been set as it's too difficult to predict what else might go wrong. ;) Shouldn't be more than a few weeks now, though...
StreaK said:
craigix said:
I'm hoping to stock them in the UK when they are available.
Good move, 'coz there's many difficulties to buy it in uk. And im still interested in buying it. I love my symbian OS ngage, but it seems to preety dead now for Homebrew [ since 1 year ]. Open moko its good choice, even if theres android os.

If Android is going to be anywhere near as open as Google claims, you'll probably be able to run it on a Neo Freerunner.
zodttd said:
Sounds like I found a cellphone finally. :)
What are the benefits of the Neo Freerunner over the 1973, in your opinions?
Well, as the 1973 was sold out, it's pretty much the only choice you've got. ;) Also, I'm pretty sure they solved the power management issues this time around because lots of testing went into that. The addition of Wifi, accellerometers and a more open GPS chip is also a good thing and it's got a faster SoC with better graphics hardware as well.
 
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OrR said:
joyrider said:
i'd like to get one of those as well, just to play around with :)

any idea of they take preorders of some kind or when it will be availible ?
They don't take preorders (although some German shop does, I think). A release date for the Freerunner has not been set as it's too difficult to predict what else might go wrong. ;) Shouldn't be more than a few weeks now, though...
StreaK said:
craigix said:
I'm hoping to stock them in the UK when they are available.
Good move, 'coz there's many difficulties to buy it in uk. And im still interested in buying it. I love my symbian OS ngage, but it seems to preety dead now for Homebrew [ since 1 year ]. Open moko its good choice, even if theres android os.

If Android is going to be anywhere near as open as Google claims, you'll probably be able to run it on a Neo Freerunner.
zodttd said:
Sounds like I found a cellphone finally. :)
What are the benefits of the Neo Freerunner over the 1973, in your opinions?
Well, as the 1973 was sold out, it's pretty much the only choice you've got. ;) Also, I'm pretty sure they solved the power management issues this time around because lots of testing went into that. The addition of Wifi, accellerometers and a more open GPS chip is also a good thing and it's got a faster SoC with better graphics hardware as well.

From what I understand OpenGL ES wont be available on the phone though its capable of 3d graphics. Its sort of a deal killer for me personally.

edit : From the openmoko wiki : " There is an open source kdrive driver being written for the GTA02 which will use hardware to accelerate the XRender extension. While the chip is capable of 3D graphics, no OpenGL ES driver/library is avaliable and OpenMoko developers will not be writing one in the near future (although they have not ruled it out in the long-term).

Documentation for the SMedia 3362 has been promised. However, this refers to documentation OpenMoko developers will be writing themselves, not the technical documentation SMedia have provided OpenMoko with. The OpenMoko developers had to sign an NDA with SMedia to obtain this documentation and are therefore unable to pass this information on to community developers."
 
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I'll be getting a Freerunner asap. I'm using a nokia 6680 right now and I got quite used to bulky phones (kinda like them even).

A camera is useful, but not necessary for me.
 
OrR said:
It seems to me that most people interested in the Pandora because of Linux/openness/awesome handheld hardware should be interested in the Openmoko ( http://openmoko.org/ ) phones for precisely the same reasons. So, are there other people around who already got a Neo 1973 or are planning to get a Neo Freerunner when it is finally finished in a few weeks?

I've got a Neo 1973 myself and although I'm pretty annoyed by the power management problems, I simply love the thing in the end. There is nothing quite as satisfying as a Linux console on a 640*480 touchscreen phone. I'm saying that as someone who is completely new to Linux and can't code a thing! :D I'm excited to see how my Neo and my Pandora will fit together. I hope there are some developers and experienced Linux users around who can help me to make the two interact...


The pricing has been announced : $399 (+$99 if you want a dev board). Thats pretty neat actually.
Hmm now I am tempted despite my earlier rejections :)
 
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An OpenMoko cell is extremely tempting to me but don't you think it is a bit expensive? Pandora has much more powerful SoC with many extra features plus a bigger screen and still estimated price is lower. Is this about GSM licence stuff(like getting IMEI numbers and such)?
 
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