OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner Launches July 4

[phoronix]

Phoronix: OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner Launches July 4

A year ago FIC started selling the OpenMoko Neo Base Developer Preview phone and starting on July 4 (in just two days) they will begin selling the OpenMoko Neo FreeRunner. The OpenMoko web store will begin accepting orders starting on the 4th of July while orders will begin processing on the 7th. According to the OpenMoko product page, the Neo FreeRunner has a 2.8" touchscreen, ARM9 processor at 400MHz, 2D/3D graphics acceleration, Tri-band [850,900]/1800/1900 MHz GSM, 128MB of SDRAM, 256MB of NAND Flash, 802.11b/g WiFi, GPRS 2.5G, dual 3axis Motion Sensors, and Bluetooth 2.0...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjU2NA

[puelocesar]

I'm just wondering how it will be the software availability and customization options for the FreeRunner..

The whole idea is great, but it needs a great community so it can expands and grow..

And I think Android will be far ahead when launched, because there will be already tons of software for it..

I heard that there are people porting Kde4 plasma to the openmoko.. and that would be great! That interface that comes with it doesn't looks good for my personal tastes...

[lupine]

Sort of awesome, but for one thing.

Where's the QWERTY keyboard?!

Seriously. My current phone (SGH-F700) has one (although not much of anything else) and I can't imagine living without one now. Otherwise, I'd totally be getting one of these on payday...

[puelocesar]

Sort of awesome, but for one thing.

Where's the QWERTY keyboard?!

Seriously. My current phone (SGH-F700) has one (although not much of anything else) and I can't imagine living without one now. Otherwise, I'd totally be getting one of these on payday...

Hey, I like the iPhone's keyboard! It's very nice and don't clutter the look of the phone, it just appear when you need it

Talking about that, the iPhone would be a great company if apple didn't act like an as*hole

[joshuapurcell]

This phone looks great and it seems to have all the features I'm interested in. I'm leaning towards getting one of these, but I do have to say that I'd be much more enthusiastic about buying this hardware if the option of running Android or the OpenMoko OS was on the table. This question can't be answered at this time though. It's quite possible that all the functionality offered in Android would also be in OpenMoko... I wouldn't know only because I haven't downloaded the OpenMoko SDK. Maybe it's time to do so.

EDIT: OK. Reading this page makes me really want this phone for some reason:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Getting_Started_with_your_Neo_FreeRunner

[Michael]

Joshua: $400 USD

[Vighy]

I heard that there are people porting Kde4 plasma to the openmoko.. and that would be great! That interface that comes with it doesn't looks good for my personal tastes...

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Category:Software
Qt is there XD
But I think that the e17 libraries are much better!!! just create a theme and you will be done.

well if you don't know e17... maybe you're missing something wonderful :D I think something even more wonderful than kde4 :D :p :eek:

[puelocesar]

I never programming nothing in e17, but I know that the results are great! The amount of eye candy they achieve with extremely low resources are incredible..

I just wonder why nobody, until now, uses it..

The good thing about having plasma working, is that in some time we will have Apple's dashboard widgets, superkaramba and even google gadgets! And (hopefully) on our phone!

[BhaKi]

There are a lot of things seldom mentioned while comparing openmoko with android. Openmoko is 100% open. You can change the whole software stack (including the OS) and put your own OS on it. Android will never become so open because the revenues of its founders depend on controlling customers in their choice of OS (Yes it's Linux. But it's unreplaceable).

Openmoko is a true phone+computer. You can even ssh to/from your PC from/to the openmoko phone!!! Think about X forwarding your PC's display to the phone or vice-versa. I'm sure android won't place so much control in the hands of users.

In short, both android and openmoko use linux. But Openmoko truly brings the control, openness and hackability associated with linux.

[puelocesar]

There are a lot of things seldom mentioned while comparing openmoko with android. Openmoko is 100% open. You can change the whole software stack (including the OS) and put your own OS on it. Android will never become so open because the revenues of its founders depend on controlling customers in their choice of OS (Yes it's Linux. But it's unreplaceable).

Openmoko is a true phone+computer. You can even ssh to/from your PC from/to the openmoko phone!!! Think about X forwarding your PC's display to the phone or vice-versa. I'm sure android won't place so much control in the hands of users.

In short, both android and openmoko use linux. But Openmoko truly brings the control, openness and hackability associated with linux.

But google says it will be 100% opensource when released:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=579

And about the ssh thing you say, even with the ultra locked-down iPhone you can have that

[BhaKi]

But google says it will be 100% opensource when released

Merely providing source of the OS doesn't make the phone an open phone. The more important issue is total control to customers over what really runs on the phone - not just at application level or source code level, but at machine code level and OS level. For this level of control, you need to have
1. A mechanism for booting the phone with whatever kernel (not just Linux) you want it to boot.
2. Programming documentation of the hardware used by the phone down to machine level.

SDK for development and source code of the OS are insufficient substitutes for machine-level documentation. There is no assurance whatsoever from google that the android phone will be 100% documented.

Only open documentation can prevent vendor lock-in and ensure fair competition between OSs. Not open source. What's the use of the source-code when there is no exhaustive programming documentation? Your freedom to tinker with the source-code will be limited to a few areas which don't require hardware documentation.

[audi100quattro]

...option of running Android or the OpenMoko OS was on the table.

Here's a post by someone who tried to run Android on the Neo 1973: http://benno.id.au/blog/2007/11/21/android-neo1973
Android needs ARMv5, and the 920T core used in the 1973 and FreeRunner uses the ARMv4 ISA.

The hardware page has links to all available datasheets: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Neo_FreeRunner_GTA02_Hardware
There's a group sales page setup on the wiki too which will get you the phone for $369 instead of $399: http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GroupSales

I would have no qualms about getting one if it had EDGE, but it doesn't, so I'll wait for Android. Patience is a virtue :)

[joshuapurcell]

I've heard that OpenMoko sold out in a matter of hours on Friday (posted on a mailing list I'm subscribed to) but I have no way to prove it. Did anyone here get one of these phones?