OpenMoko Schedule Announced

levell writes "The schedule for the OpenMoko, an open source, Linux-based Neo1973 smart phone was posted to the community mailing list by Sean Moss-Pultz this morning. On Feb 11, free phones will be sent to key community developers and the community websites/wiki/bug tracker will be available. Then on March 11 (the official developer launch) we'll be able to buy an OpenMoko for $350. After allowing some time for innovative, slick software to be created there will be a mass market launch at which point Sean hopes that 'your mom and dad will want one too.'"

Comments

better interface?

[metaltoad]

Why is the interface design always sub-par on these things? I don't care how many neat features you have if the interface is hard to use or text that is difficult to read my mom and dad are never going to want one - and neither will I.

Re:better interface?

[TheSHAD0W]

What's wrong with the interface? Describe one you think would be better, maybe someone will implement it.

Re:better interface?

[ramunasg]

apple got there first No they didn't, the big difference between iPhone and OpenMoko is that OpenMoko is completely open, so anyone can extend it, while iPhone is closed and only licensed parties can write extensions. This is what uniqe about OpenMoko. Apple added glitter to iPhone, but there are other smart phones (maybe not as good, but I can't judge, it's a long wait till iPhone will be available in Europe) so nothing revolutionary about it. OpenMoko has philosophical feature - openess. So as a geek I know which one is the winner here :)

Re:better interface?

[Anonymous Coward]

After only casually looking at the screenshots, I might say:

1. Small font sizes
2. Grey text on grey background.
3. From the menu, an icon for calendar, clock, and date and settings that all have pieces of each other.
4. Application manager, call review, and contact icons are all very similar.
5. Is that big wheelie thing in the bottom left just chrome or interface control? If it is the scroll control, why not keep it consistent across the scrolling needs.
6. What I guess are the favorite/hot buttons on the bottom seem small, with very small mini icons inside them.

My current phone isn't any better, though. One of the things I find attractive about the iphone is that it seems clear how I am supposed to use, with large icons and large text...

GPRS but not EDGE?

[dada21]

I rely on EDGE for high speed access throughout most of the West (US) and a large part of the East that I visit (Poland, Switzerland, India). This phone looks nice, but no EDGE means antiquated technology.

That, by itself, makes it a non-starter.

One question... why?

[93 Escort Wagon]

Okay, I grok the "Open software uber alles" mentality; it's certainly a valid point of view, but of course that's a very VERY tiny market. Reading through the linked post, however - which is just a mailing list submission - I don't really see why anyone would think there'd be any mass market appeal at all regarding this project.

That's fine, if that's what the expectations really are; but the Slashdot submission makes it sound like the people behind the phone think they can take on the world. So please, seriously - tell us WHY anyone outside the "live open or die" community will care?

Re:One question... why?

[Coryoth]

That's fine, if that's what the expectations really are; but the Slashdot submission makes it sound like the people behind the phone think they can take on the world. So please, seriously - tell us WHY anyone outside the "live open or die" community will care?

Because it is a really nice looking device and they look like they've already put together a great software stack for it, and have an expectation for a lot more interesting applications to be added prior to mass market launch. In short they expect to have mass market appeal because they think (and I have to agree with them on this) that they have a very nice smart phone. Try looking at the press page which has pictures of the device and screenshots of it. It looks good. Sure, it's not going to take over the world of mobile phones, but in the class of upper end smartphones (the sort of market the iPhone is pitched toward) it can certainly compete, and given the price, could do well.

Re:One question... why?

[giffnyc]

In case you hadn't noticed, open software and the computing academic community have revolutionized the way we live and work by being ahead of the curve. The essential conceptual work of the web, of network protocols, of OS refinement, and now of mobile networks owe their existence to folks like these. The issue isn't whether they'll attain a mass market, its whether their conceptual refinement of the the way we interact with mobile devices and what we expect of them will take root and inform the Cingulars and Oranges of the world.

Someone's got to break down the barrier of the walled gardens by changing the expectation of opinion leaders... Verizon isn't going to do it. Apple has created a mass market awareness of the basic problems that this phone, also, addresses. The iPhone strategy is hampered a bit by having to fit into a mass market model. This one is hampered by other things, like a significant lack of financial resources that it hopes the intellectual resource of open source contributions can counteract.

Who cares? People who have an interest in the direction that the mass market may take in the future. And that's a lot of people.

Will they succeed in mass marketing this particular gadget? Historical examples would indicate that no, they won't. But the project leaders' passion for the ideas embedded in the design are a great thing, and will drive the project forward. If they can take it just far enough to shift the direction of the mobile market as much as say, Mosaic changed its market, I think they'll have succeeded. Of course, it may just turn out to be like those home-built, woodcased hobbyist PCs those two guys named Steve were hawking backing back in the '70s.

Re:Slashvertisement!

[Anonymous Coward]

Explicitly free (modifiable) device with integrated GSM functionality available for development prior to launch. Please point to equivalents? Or, I suppose that if you could, you already would have in your post.

Re:First open source mobile? I think not.

[Sloppy]

Perhaps some people don't understand how a system where pay for the SDK, is "open."

The iPhone

[soren100]

I don't really see why anyone would think there'd be any mass market appeal at all regarding this project.
[snip] So please, seriously - tell us WHY anyone outside the "live open or die" community will care?

Au Contraire, everyone cares -- because the wireless companies have such control that the current offerings in the phone industry really suck.

Witness the current excitement over the iPhone -- it's one step closer to actually doing something really useful with all the processing power of the phone in your pocket, and people are going wild over it. Sure it's not open by any means, but the whole "open" thing means that everyone will now get the chance to try to realize their own version of a useful mobile computing device.

The weekend before the iPhone came out, I was seriously considering getting a PSP just to have a small portable wireless browsing device, but the thing was dog-slow and I couldn't enter text in any decent fashion.

My Verizon phone has bluetooth mangled on it so that I can't transfer pictures and ringtones on it, though I can use it as a wireless modem through bluetooth, which rocks. I just don't want to have to carry my Macbook around just to check bank balances and email when I am traveling or running errands. The more competition is in this space, the more we will genuinely get useful devices, not just the tiny mobile versions of the black AT&T phone (with camera) that most people have. I would buy the iPhone even if it didn't make phone calls.

Apple sees this need, and everyone is wildly excited about it. The "open" phones will be the competition that helps make the next generation of cellphones truly useful