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."

Comments

Awesome

[nicolas.kassis]

I really want a linux phone. It's pretty cheap at 300$. One thing bothers me, do providers allow random phones to be used on there network? Do some cellular providers block phones that they don't approve off?

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

I have Cingular, which is now ATT. My phone is a Ericsson S710a, which I picked out after a lot of research. Plus, I paid a lot of money for it two years ago.

I went into USCellular, who I have used in the past, and as I am now back in their coverage area, I wouldn't mind going back. I asked if I could bring my phone with me, and they told me no; reason: they do not use SIM chips in their phones. They told me they could transfer all my stuff off and put it on a penny phone. I walked out.

I went across the street to Verizon, who I do not like for their business practices, and asked the same question there. I was told no, reason given was they did not use SIM chips and also because my phone was not EDGE, only 3G.

My phone is both EDGE and GSM, I have the option to use both or GSM only. I have co-workers who use Verizon and their phones have SIM chips in them.

I believe it was the Supreme Court who ruled that consumers could unlock their phones to take them elsewhere. I think that was last year. So I know I can take it with me. But it seems that other providers do not want my business. They only want my business if I purchase a new phone and a nice two-year contract.

I don't want to stay with ATT, but for now I am. I will be looking at USCellular again soon, and will probably go higher up the chain to get my answers about my phone.

However, I am very interested in this Linux phone. I can't wait to see them when they come out.

Re:Awesome

[dacarr]

Good question. I do this for a living for the data side.

Short version: $gsm_carrier can provide the settings, but while it usually works, it's not guaranteed to work, and they don't acutally support the phone.

Long version is like this - as long as $gsm_phone is unlocked, then $gsm_carrier can usually get it working without too much effort, and will talk you, the user, through the process - but it comes with no guarantee that it will actually work on the network. Some phones have odd quirks, and don't always work. Voice is usually no big issue, and my understanding is something like "just add SIM card and a few button presses, and it'll Just Work" - but, since data and voice are effectively two different parts of any GSM network (and I do data only), I could be wrong. For data, you will have to provide the data service gateway (usually an IP address), an access point name, and a MMS center for multimedia messaging. Either way, if the phone still doesn't want to work, you'll need to call $gsm_phone_maker for help.

"up-and-coming devices"

[kimvette]

re: . . . up-and-coming devices targeted to the consumer market . . .

Up-and-coming when? A month from now? No, October. Bummer. I'm sick of my V400 and am buying a new phone this week. Because the iPhone was so underwhelming AND it does not do 3G AND because it won't work with stereo headphones, AND it's totally locked down, I'm going with the Samsung Sync (SGH-A707). Is it a great phone? No, but for my purposes it's a lot better than the iPhone.

I wish the GTA02 were to be available sooner; I would wait on a new phone, but I'm sick of my randomly locking up, dropping calls, and so forth, PLUS I periodically need to open it up to fix the darn volume controls (every motorola phone I've tried tends to have volume control button issues after about a year, but other brands don't seem to have that problem) I need a new phone now.

Well, nothing will stop me from using the SIM card in the open source phone, right? This phone looks like it'll deliver everything the hype to the iPhone promised but the actual product failed to deliver.

(sorry Apple, I wanted to like and want the iPhone, I really did, but you shot yourself in the foot by not offering 3G, offering iTunes but not stereo headphone compatibility, and by locking the phone down).

What a deal!

[BlakeReid]

FTA:

Direct from openmoko.com, the price will be $450 for the Neo Base and $600 for Neo
Advanced.

Hard to tell from the press release which mass market (GTA02) model (if either) is really close to feature parity with the iPhone, but if you compare the two top end models, the price is the same.

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.

If by fraction you mean 1/1, I guess so.

An interface called "Shake"?

[jx100]

The inclusion of a 3D accelerometer intrigues me. I'm guessing/hoping there are plans to integrate this into some sort of user interface. An interface designed at least partially around physically moving the unit would be great to have on something as small as a cellphone, as it would reduce the need for thumb-typing or any other kind of extreme dexterity

Opnemoko versus iPhone

[hoppy]

There is an interesting comparison between the OpenMoko and the iPhone. The iPhone hardware gives more power but may be the openness of the OpenMoko can provide better user experience with adaptability lacking in the iPhone ?
  http://aptustech.com/?q=node/9

Can the Openmoko challenge the iPhone ? Does the opensource philosophy can overcome one of the best designed phone ?

Apple got it wrong (but may still win)

[nanosquid]

This smacks of the same sort of complaint-response attitude that drives the also-ran category in the music player market.

Possibly. Or possibly Apple got it wrong with the iPhone. Or possibly Apple got it wrong and they are still going to win through monopolistic practices and marketing. All one can do is try to develop a better product and see whether one can compete.

Wake me when it syncs with iTunes and automatically pulls my contacts, music, movies, TV shows, and calendar.

Why the hell would I want to sync with anything on my desktop? I want to sync with Yahoo! and Google and eMusic and Democracy and applications like those, over the air, without having to rely on a flaky and bulky desktop PC or Mac and without having a costly .Mac subscription. The iPhone view of the world is broken as far as I'm concerned.

Re:Wasn't this thing supposed to have gps?

[Anonymous Coward]

More detailed hardware description here.

Everything else I have seen seems to imply the Phase01 handsets will have AGPS as well. I am not sure about how functional the current software stack is, but the chip is present in the device. As far as I'm concerned, the Phase02 device is a dream come true. My only request for Phase03 and beyond is a slightly more compact iPhone-ish design i.e. bigger screen, less frame, and thinner shell. I assume any change in casing will also add a camera of some sort as well, but other people probably care about that more than I do. And of course obligatory ram and cpu bumps for any new hardware.

If I had a GSM provider I would have ordered one half an hour ago. Unfortunately I'm CDMA and I have calculated it will be extremely costly for me to switch because it is a shared plan.

PS. Although the iPhone has a beefier CPU, it is wasting those cycles on shitty Javascript. The OpenMoko has the sexy benefit of running native apps which makes a pretty big difference in most cases.

Symbian vs. Linux

[MBHkewl]

The only mobile phones that I ever owned were the Nokia Communicator series (9110i, 9250 & 9500), and I am SICK of Symbian. Yes, the keyboard is very nice, but the crappy OS which crashes on very inconvenient times is just too much. When I pay $900 for a phone, I expect it to work for at least 3 years before crapping on me.

Nokia has moved away from reliability long time ago and got on the fancy-wagon. Their new E90 phone (new communicator) is very sexy, especially with the built-in GPS chip, but I guess I'll make a sacrifice for a phone that is willing to give what I had paid for.

I've been waiting for a very long time for a Linux phone, 3 more months won't make much of a difference.

Nokia: UP YOURS!

Motorola MING A1200

[ehiris]

I wonder how this compares to the Motorla MING which claims to be Linux-based also.

Re:Motorola MING A1200

[Anonymous Coward]

The MING is just one of a number of Motorola phones running Linux. The nicest one is the E6. However, their use of Linux is irrelevant. They are all locked down so hard they could be running anything.

Re:Here's an easy prediction:

[TheSciBoy]

WHY would carriers want this thing on their networks again?

Because WiFi only covers a nanopercent of the area that GSM/3G covers. This means that any service you provide via WiFi, you'll also want to be able to use over EDGE/HDSPA/GPRS/whatever which uses the network and generates revenue. You'll also be using it to make calls.

In general, a carrier will just want you to have something connected to their network that you want to use and which you'll want to use a lot. I, for one, mostly just use my phone for SMS and actual phone conversations, but if I could get the phone to use WiFi for e-mail/messaging (ICQ+MSN) then I would be more likely to accept a few bytes flying over GPRS or something to get those messages when WiFi is not available. A lot more willing than I would be knowing that ALL of that data goes over an expensive network.

The only thing I'm worried about is the potential for hackers to hack the network stacks and trying to get free phone calls/data transfers with this device. If that happens it will be banned faster than you can say iPhone.

Stylus?

[xdotx]

Wasn't this originally supposed to be all touch screen... as in with fingers, no stylus and what-not? They're providing a stylus which seems to imply they've given up on the idea (I know they were having a lot of trouble with it previously). I'd rather the stylus-free approach than an overpowered stylus; although, I can't say I'd complain much if I got the latter.

Re:Sounds great, but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes everything we wanted... except it looks stupid. It's stubby vs. slim slender and sleek which is what everyone is marketing these days. But other than that... yeah it's friggin' AWESOME.

SIM toolkit?

[Yenya]

I am eager to replace my current phone with Openmoko. However, I use a SIM Toolkit application for my banking. I wanted to look up whether Openmoko plans some STK support, but I have only found this post in gsmd-devel archives from March. Does anybody know what is the state of SIM Toolkit support in Openmoko?

Sometimes they are trying to screw you...

[SanityInAnarchy]

Here's an example: Ring tones. Ring tones, wallpapers, screensavers, and assorted bullshit. The typical way you get this on a closed phone is, you dial some number you saw on TV, and you get charged something like $1 to download some tiny fragment of a song you doubtless already bought on CD.

On an open phone, you just rip the CD, then send the file to your phone -- like you would with an iPod, say.

The real reason for DRM -- not that people listen when I point this out -- is to be able to do crap like that. Sell you the same song five times -- once on a CD (which can ONLY be played on CD players, and not even all of them), again for your iPod, again as a ringtone on your phone, again as a soundtrack for your game console, and a fifth time because you'll lose one of the others and can't make backups.

But I don't think developers are going to create an amazing consumer application. If we do, someone will find a way to charge everyone on a "normal" phone to get the same thing. I'd settle for an amazing developer phone, and if we do create something useful, and users buy the phone and download our useful software, more power to them. I just want something I can hack.

The real reason: iPhone

[SanityInAnarchy]

The iPhone already has accelerometers, and the reason is simple: It can then figure out when you flip it on its side. Thus, it automatically changes the interfaces to reflect whether you're holding it vertically or horizontally. Combine that with other sensors, and it can figure out when you're holding it to your ear (and thus disable the display).

Others have already mentioned a lot of the creative things that could be done with it beyond that, so I'll mention one -- scrolling. Put simply, if it's accurate enough, imagine having a document that is digitally the size of a wall -- rather than scrolling through it, you simply move the phone around the document.