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Open Source Linux Phone Goes On Sale
An anonymous reader writes "Sean Moss-Pultz has just announced on the OpenMoko mailing list that the Neo1973 is finally available for purchase. OpenMoko.com is now taking orders via credit card. OpenMoko intends to 'free your phone' through a hardware-independent and open source user interface backed by the Linux kernel. This device could very well stand as a competitor to the more expensive Apple iPhone, but at a fraction of the price and with no vendor lock-in. Although the devices in this release cycle (GTA01) are mainly intended for developers, the up-and-coming devices targeted to the consumer market (GTA02) will also feature WiFi capabilities, a 3D acceleration unit, and 256MB of on-board flash. Both units will use the MicroSD card interface for removable storage and have USB client / host capabilities. For a full feature list, check out OpenMoko.com or the OpenMoko Wiki."
From a manufacturing standpoint FIC is a fairly recognizable company. But yes, they are mostly familiar with the manufacturing side of things for companies like Sony who then markets the hell out of it.
Regardless, every OSS developer with a mobile phone should be switching to this device. It is everything we have been asking for in terms of good corporate citizenship toward the open source community. Everything is open. Hardware specifications, source, direct contact with developers, community sites, everything. Once we all get on board only good things can follow.
Apple won the market on music players by providing an extremely easy way to manage your collection and sync your device. Call it flashy advertising or a fashion statement if it helps you to feel better about your electronics purchase, but simplicity and interface are key. Same goes for the iPhone. You can shout "features" until you're blue in the face -- and there are plenty who will agree with you and stay away from the iPhone for that reason -- but I've never seen a communications device that makes contact and calendar syncing so easy (bonus: it happens through the already-popular iTunes).
This smacks of the same sort of complaint-response attitude that drives the also-ran category in the music player market. Sure, it's open. Sure, it has features that everyone claims to need. Sure, it has a vaguely iPhone-ish interface. Wake me when it syncs with iTunes and automatically pulls my contacts, music, movies, TV shows, and calendar.
This device could very well stand as a competitor to the more expensive Apple iPhone, but at a fraction of the price and with no vendor lock-in.
Oh yea, because, you see, iPhone is selling like crazy because it has a big touch screen!
It's *marketing* people. To reach the masses, you need a clear message, a clear brand and a clean hyped up release.
iPhone, by Apple, at 6PM, in all Apple and AT&T stores. Clear enough, right?
What does it do? iPod, Browser, Phone, Maps, YouTube.
Neo1912324, running OpenMoko, released just for developers for now and later for I don't know who and later maybe for everyone. For sale now in some places, if you can find it. What does it do? It's got advanced features running on Linux and is unlocked.
Normal people will see absolutely nothing in that phone, never mind how we, geeks, are salivating at it, if the marketing and branding effort is so weak. Sorry.
There's something to this - Apple store employee told my friend that the iphone would work with his cell network (Edge Wireless - AT&T doesn't exist in his area...). Anyhow it doesn't work with his sim card. Reading more on the net it seems that Apple built in some software that checks for a special AT&T sim card. (yeah the iphone went back)
Forget the sealed batteries, non upgradable memory - to me perma-locking the phone into AT&T is the biggest crime about the iphone and I think should be grounds for an anti-trust suite. Maybe open phones are in?
If Microsoft had done this with a killer phone everyone had to have (yes - I know they don't have one...) everyone on Slashdot would be crying bloody murder.
Note that the screen is 640x480 pixels; this may be the first phone with good enough pixel density and resolution for decent handheld reading. And the fact that it's open source means that you aren't locked into an ebook reader.
I don't think so. I was at Transformers 11:20 pm show at the Cinerama one person had an iPhone you should have heard the inquizitive "Ohs" followed by "that's an iPhone." Things that are new and different stand out. In the case of OpenMoko, people have to ask. Their neighbor won't offer a helpful, "that's an iPhone." And look at even the early functionality. When people get hacking on this thing it could take off in a way the "linux desktop" can't. Phone UIs are expected to be Byzantine, unfamiliar and heterogenous. OpenMoko could very well end up the ultimate can-do information appliance. I'm betting it could take a 4GB microvault drive out of the box. Not to mention the comparative triviality of getting it to recognize and use a 32 GB Micro SD when they (eventually) become available. The first Neo1973 will be able to do a trick ten years down the road that an iPhone won't be able to do. That's pretty unprecidented life and utility in my book. Quite the seductive promise.
This device could very well stand as a competitor to the more expensive Apple iPhone,
I'm sorry, but can we get just a little reality check here? And I'm someone who thinks the iPhone is 80% hype.
Three Squirrels
If you really wanna compare the Neo Advanced with the iPhone, you'll have to include the many billions of dollars you'll have to give Apple so that they give you some of the iPhone's IPs.
Oh, and did I mention the Neo's got built-in GPS? Imagine a world where the freaking phones switch into silent mode when you enter a theater.
Res publica non dominetur
Everyone on Slashdot is crying bloody murder, particularly you. That's what makes the comments to these articles so tedious to read.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
You seem knowledgable, so I'll ask you: does the OpenMoko include PIM apps? And, just as importantly, does it synchronize with anything (hopefully e.g. KDE PIM at the least, but bonus points for Apple's iSync...)?
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
It's like an iPhone but uglier!
Hmmmmmn, if you ask me, making you buy a track you allready own (on CD) - just to use it as a ring tone is pretty fucking ugly.
Beauty isn't just skin deep.
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
Uglier, but cheaper and more functional. Yeah, that's pretty much open source in a nutshell.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
You sign a contract, they don't give a crap what the hell you put a SIM in.
Just that you pay your bill (and perhaps rack up some overage).
In fact, if you didn't buy the phone from them, they have less to deal with
if you have hardware problems. T-Mobile has no issues with doing that
what so ever.
*** Sigs are a stupid waste of bandwidth.
For those of you who really think that the difference between 2.5G and 3G is a deal breaker, I'd like to point something out:
Unless you are going to hook the phone up to your computer and use it as a modem, the difference doesn't matter. You've got a 2" screen with a relatively low resolution - even crappy video streaming will run over 2.5G (poorly, but who watches video on their phone anyway?).
If you could do VOIP or something over 3G that might make it matter, but the latency for cellular internet access is so horrible that it's not worth it. On my 3G Sprint (PowerVision) phone, I've never seen my ping get lower than 500ms - and I've even written midlets to test it.
Maybe 4G will matter, but the difference between 2.5G and 3G is *nothing* relevant for any phone usage pattern I can come up with. Even MP3 downloads are fast enough on 2.5G.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Why do you need freedom? If you have to ask you will never know...
Money is the root of all evil?
If you look at the announcement about the "consumer" version of the phone (as not all of us feel like 'hacking' our phones on a daily basis just to make them work) here, then you'll see in the annoucement that it's not really any cheaper than the iPhone.
From the announcement:
We will sell this device through multiple channels. Direct from openmoko.com, the price will be $450 for the Neo Base and $600 for Neo Advanced.
Hmm. $450 (likely plus shipping) sounds an aweful lot close to the 4gb iPhone, and $600 sounds about a dollar more than the $599 iPhone.
Maybe it's not really cheaper. Yea, you can get the developer version, without the 3d graphics support for $300 (without the developer tools!) or when you pay for the developer tools it's $450.
If I buy a phone that's $450 (I know this is against the heart of opensource and "DIY" stuff), but I want it to be super tested, and work well. Yea, yea, the iPhone has a few problems. Apple's phone support staff alone for the iPhone is bigger than the R&D for this whole company. I don't want someone to say, "Recompile the kernel on your phone... don't know how? RTFM!" as you often get in some open-source circles. I don't mind paying a little bit to Apple to know that I can get all the support I want just by walking into an Apple store. I don't want to have to log onto a Subversion/CVS server and download code, recompile it, and cross my fingers
It's a cool idea, but it seems to miss some of the 'good things' that Apple's done, like the Multi-touch screen? Also, from everything i've read the iPhone is more durable than almost anyone would have expected. I dunno about this thing. You can open it with a guitar pick? huh
I know all of Slashdot was hoping for Open Source to show us how they "aren't ripping the world off" and aren't "locking you down" and how open source can do it cheaper and better. Well this doesn't look like cheaper. It doesn't look more tested. And it doesn't look better. Sorry.
Also, duh. Half the reason anyone wants an iPhone is the same reason they want a Porsche. Because people recognize it, and they can show off.
Tibbon
tibbon.com
Because there are very few people in the world who know anything about user experience and they either charge a lot or work for Apple or both. You can do more features and stuff, but the actual user experience is a lot harder to nail down than the feature checklist.
I doubt phones based on this software will make much of an impact outside of geek circles.
Being a geek does not mean you will buy something merely because it is Linux based or FOSS based, that is a bit more like fan boy'ism. You need to realize that for most geeks Linux is not a crusade, many just need a good general purpose *nix environment and don't really give a rats ass about the politics and religion that gets so much attention. For this phone to make an impact in geek circles it has to deliver as a phone, like Linux delivered as a general purpose *nix. If its greatest feature is "its Linux based" then it will be a niche product even among geeks.
Could you tell me why a carrier needs to "support" a phone?
You buy a phone.
You get a SIM from a carrier.
You put the SIM in the phone.
It works.
What more needs to be done?
Watch this Heartland Institute video
The parent isn't suggesting there's no reason for the name. The parent is suggesting that the reasoning behind the name is stupid. If the phone is going to sell to the consumer electronics mass market, there's no point giving it a name looking back 33 years and with all the appeal of "cowpat 3.2". Or in having two names. Neo1973 / openmoko appears to be a great demonstration of why brand management is on the list of Things That Should Not Be Developed as an Open Source Project.
I'd buy one except that it's ancient, GSM-technology-wise: It doesn't do EDGE, UMTS or HSDPA. Which rules out 90% of what I (and many developers would) use the handset for - connectivity to data networks, for example, SSH sessions at any decent speed/latency.
It's a bloody good start. But it's got a long way to go.
http://www.nokiausa.com/A4411004
http://www.store.motorola.com/mot/en/US/adirect/m
Rather than buying locked phones and whining about how difficult it is to unlock them why not just buy an unlocked phone?
Watch this Heartland Institute video
I'm curious as to how similar the GSM module is to a CDMA counterpart; Look specifically at smartphones like the treos; they come in both GSM and CDMA models, and the mainboards on them are pretty much identical. I'm willing to bet that if you took the GSM module out of this thing and slapped in a CDMA module from another phone (that uses the modular technology) that you'd be able to use CDMA networks.
Now the CDMA guys have agreements where they won't activate an ESN from another carrier, but if you've got an old or broken CDMA smartphone from someone like Telus, say, you could in theory have this phone on a CDMA network without too much trouble. There'll be some driver work as the commands aren't identical, but they're pretty damned close.
I want a phone that my carrier will accept. I don't know how the rest of the world views it but just because a company makes a phone doesn't actually mean my carrier is forced to integrate it into their network. Oh you can wave all the public policy documents from the FCC in their face you want. Doesn't mean shit. My carrier, Sprint has a hard enough time supporting the phones they sell. The conversation about bringing them an unlocked phone to activate it would something like:
Me: "I have this phone I want to add to my plan"
Sprint: "Did the store activate it?"
Me: "No it's my phone I didn't get it from a Sprint store"
Sprint: "Sir we don't do that"
Me: "blah blah blah blah - - ~~~ you're supposed to blah blah"
Sprint: "Sir let me check can you hold?"
Me: "Yeah sure"
-15 minutes later
Sprint: "Sir? We can do that, the activation fee is $375"
Me: "Huh?"
Sprint: "Sir yes if it's not a phone we sell then that's the activation fee"
Me: "Never mind, thanks anyway"
Sprint: "Thank you for calling Sprint"
Alright I'm pulling up a chair here. Can you please explain to us all why Apple's iPhone marketing campaign is UNETHICAL? Did Steve Jobs kill some baby seals to get the commercials made? Were kittens thrown against the wall on every bad take? I'm seriously curious, how could a marketing campaign that includes a disembodied hand, voice and product be unethical?
Mac OS X and Windows XP working side by side to fight back the night.
Sorry - I am not going to pay more than $150 for a cell phone. I have no reason to have the latest fashion accessory screwed to my ear, and the phone I get for free does everything I want a cell phone to do (Voice, scheduling, FM Radio, Camera with video, Voice-memo's, and internet). Why would I pay $300 for a new phone?
http://timcol6.freehostia.com/
Forget the sealed batteries, non upgradable memory - to me perma-locking the phone into AT&T is the biggest crime about the iphone and I think should be grounds for an anti-trust suite. Maybe open phones are in?
Do you live in ths US? Because if you do, it's surprising that you don't realize that every single phone sold by cell providers is locked to the provider. If you think that's grounds for an anti-trust suite, then you're going to have one against every cell provider in the US. (oh, and it's not -- neither AT&T nor the iPhone have a monopoly)
As long as your network uses GSM. If you are on Sprint (like me) you need to change carriers
"Hate is baggage. Life's too short to be pissed off all the time." Danny Vinyard -American History X
You almost certainly don't want this phone. It's not a consumer phone - it's for developers to get started. If we (developers) wind up creating something amazing, then FIC is expecting to make more hardware. Right now GSM is the choice because it's ubiquitous - the only place you can't get it is Japan and Korea, where they already have such wicked cool phones that the Linux bit wouldn't be worth anything anyway.
GPRS is the choice because it's generally not restricted. Supposedly it's relatively easy to connect to GPRS without the provider's help, but a lot harder to connect to EDGE. Dunno how true that is, but that was the rationale for using GPRS. It would be nice if the consumer model had support for EDGE.
But the main point is that what this phone is doing is something different. Normal phones you get from your cell provider are disposable, and they have to be, because they generally suck. The hardware is great, don't get me wrong, but the software usually bites, and you can't fix it. My Samsung t809 won't sync with my Prius because of some stupid handshaking glitch. There's never going to be a firmware update for that. If the OpenMoko doesn't sync with my Prius, what to do? Fix it. I don't have to try to get Samsung to fix it. I don't have to listen to Samsung and Toyota blame each other for the problem. I just fix it. You, if you don't want to hack the phone yourself, wait for me to fix it. It's a really good deal from that perspective.
Likewise, my t809, which is a really sweet piece of software, has an alarm tone that genuinely pisses me off. It's an earworm. If I use the alarm on the t809, I'm hearing it in my head the rest of the day. I'd like to use a different alarm tone. But I can't. Because it's a closed-source phone, and they didn't think to let me install a different alarm tone. They weren't trying to screw me - they just didn't think of it. On the Neo, I can just hack the software if it's not configurable.
My t809 doesn't support stereo bluetooth. The fix? Buy a new phone. Two years later, when my old contract expires. Lame. On the Neo? A simple matter of programming. It probably already works - I haven't tried it because I don't have the phone yet. But if it doesn't work, I have the source code, I can fix it.
My Macbook won't work with the modem in my t809. So I have EDGE support, but I can't use it. On the Neo, as long as I can get the Neo to talk to the network, I can just have it do IP over the bluetooth, with NAT, so that my Mac has access to the Net at the same time that my Neo has access to the net. Doesn't work? Use the source, Luke.
So yeah, the Neo is really under-featured, if you're into cell phone cameras. But if you're into flexibility, and not being locked in to a broken phone for two years at a time, I think it's got possibilities.
Closed source or not, once a device is in the hands of malevolent hackers they can attempt to crack it. There are cracks for DVD's that allow them to read all regions, that software is closed source. There are hacks for Windows Genuine Advantage, which is closed source. Mention an electronic device that costs money to use and I bet there's a hack for it, closed source or not.
Even if the software is in protected firmware (which I bet it is) there is the potential for "patching" the firmware or abusing the open source API with some clever hacking.
Hopefully this phone won't be a target because the company behind it are trying to do something special. But if you expect people to play 'nice' then you'll generally be disappointed.
Badgers, we don't need no stinking badgers! - UHF
Yup - that's why I just bought one. I'm so sick of buying a phone that I think will do what I want, only to find out there's some gotcha. I don't mind programming or debugging to get what I want, and I hate not having that option. I have a Blackberry because that covers most of my needs, but it still isn't perfect and I can't customize it that last 10%.
Also, like you said, I bought one because I want to support this. I'd hate to have wasted the money if this turns out to be a dud, but I want to show these companies that demand is out there. This is the kind of thing where you really do need to vote with your wallet. This phone is, in principle, a dream come true.
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
"When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
Shame the phone only supports GPRS, which is too painfully slow to use for anything (latency typically hits 2s RTT, which is just painful).
Indeed. I fully intend to get an OpenMoko device, but I'm likely to wait until a 3G version is available. A slightly bigger screen and a hard keypad would be nice too.
'running Linux' is not a good reason to get a phone
I think it's a very good reason:
1. All the development tools are Free and will work on my workstations (all of which run Linux)
2. I can run OpenMoko in qemu for development purposes
3. I can run many of my normal GUI applications on the phone since it uses Xorg
4. I can easilly hack up shell scripts, python scripts, run cron jobs, etc
5. Hopefully the Free software mindset will allow better Free software - I'm sick of everyone wanting to charge me 30-50ukp for every crappy little utility for my Symbian phone
that came free with my (cheapest possible) contract 18 months ago
I spend around 2ukp a month on my cellphone - I have no intention of going onto another contract with a monthly charge just to get a new phone (especially since all the phones provided by the operators at the moment are shit)
but it has no camera (WTF?).
Why on earth do I want a camera on my phone? Most of them take crappy blurry photos through their crappy tiny plastic lenses. I'll stick to using my old IXUS400 for quick snaps thanks.
http://blog.nexusuk.org
Sorry, but the iPhone is not the best designed phone. No phone is the best designed phone. Why? Because everyone has different needs. The iPhone would be a horrible phone for a parent to give their preteen/teen (not that I think they should have cell phones anyway, but that's beside the point.) Nor is it the best designed phone for an older person with arthritis. Nor is it the best designed phone for someone who loves the outdoors and does things like go camping. Nor is it a good phone for those who spend a considerable amount of time overseas.