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OpenPhoenux Neo900 Bills Itself As Successor To Nokia's N900
An anonymous reader writes "The latest device in the OpenPhoenux open hardware family is the Neo900, the first true successor to the Nokia N900. The Neo900 is a joint project of the Openmoko veteran Jörg Reisenweber and the creators of the GTA04/Letux2804 open hardware smartphone at Golden Delicious Computers. Furthermore, it is supported by the N900 Maemo5/Fremantle community, the Openmoko community and the OpenPhoenux community, who are working together to get closer to their common goal of providing an open hardware smartphone, which is able to run 100% free and open source software, while being independet of any big hardware manufacturer." So far, their Indiegogo campaign has raised more than half of the €25,000 they're seeking.
You do understand that the design is based on the original N900 design?
A lot of people complain about the keyboard but frankly, it's a lot nicer than no keyboard and it's compact. It's enough for quick script writing and SSH. I speak from experience. On the other hand, the screen is dire by modern standards. The resistive touch sensor is great for stylus use but bad for fingers. The battery is awful.
To resurrect the N900, it needs more than just new innards.
yes, but why not make it better? why not make it better and dodge a lawsuit at the same time?
but why not make it better in hw too then, why stick with 800x480 resistive...
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
that's a pretty usual line to say on smartphone thread.
so, why don't you fucking go and buy one so called africa dumbphone. 108 is coming soon from nokia and has a stated 31 days standby.
and dunno if colors are too much but http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-Dual-Music-Phone-Unlocked/dp/B005W3HP26 http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vodafone-Button-Senior-Pre-Pay-Display/dp/B007EOG0MC/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1383413109&sr=1-2&keywords=mobile+phone or http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-E1200-Sim-Free-Smartphone/dp/B0079JZ4O2/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1383413125&sr=1-3&keywords=mobile+phone
you know why they don't make headlines? because these kind of phones have been 20-40 bucks unlocked - unsubsidized - for years and years now.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
As a brick
Jolla Mobile
http://jolla.com/
Maemo -> meego -> mer -> sailfish.
its even made by the same design team that rage quit nokia and founded a new company
I think he means "FCC certified," not "network operator certified." I strongly suspect other countries have an equivalent to the FCC...
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Please. Calm down.
GSM - free GSM module doesn't exists, replacing sw means revoke of certification and using non-certified device on public network is illegal
What a bunch of FUD. On your shitty network in a country with broken laws? Maybe.
dos1 is from Poland. I'm pretty sure that's not the broken-lawed country you were thinking of.
In the real world out there, operators don't "certify" devices.
And he never said they did. However, the FCC in the US, and the corresponding authority in other countries, do certify cellular terminals, and do make it illegal to operate uncertified ones (in the normal way, on a public GSM network).
They provide a SIM and the SIM is used in the whatever device the customer pleases.
Yes, and if you build yourself an uncertified GSM terminal, you are practically free to slot your SIM and use it -- you'll be breaking the law, but as long as your equipment really does conform to the specifications, nobody will notice or care.
However, you can't presently get someone to sell you a prebuilt GSM module with open firmware, because (at least in USA; I'm not sure how the policies of radio comms regulators in other countries compare, but they're unlikely to be much better) the FCC will not certify such a device, because open means the user could load modified firmware that would cause the device to not conform to specifications. (If firmware is only distributed as a binary, that's all ok, because apparently FCC thinks reverse-engineering doesn't happen...)
AFAIK there's not a big enough market for such things to motivate some Chinese factory beyond the FCC's reach to develop and produce open-firmware GSM modules, but even if there was, that only helps if each user is getting their own parts through customs and assembling it. If GolDeliCo imports such a (necessarily uncertified) module and uses it in a phone, that phone will then have to be certified, which not only is a ridiculously expensive process, but also will be impossible (at least in the USA) because the FCC still applies the policy that such firmware cannot be open. And selling an uncertified mobile phone for use on the public GSM networks will get you in trouble in a way that building your own for yourself won't.
yes, but why not make it better? why not make it better and dodge a lawsuit at the same time?
but why not make it better in hw too then, why stick with 800x480 resistive...
Because the projected volume is on the order of 1000 units. In that sort of volume, selecting a new keyboard, new screen, redesigning casework for them, and tooling up to produce it becomes prohibitively expensive.
so why not use COMMODITY parts that are available right now? why are they using legacy garbage bin crap instead? Even $40 chinese tablets are capacitive by now.
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
Certification from the relevant national authority is absolutely required for *ANYTHING* capable of transmitting RF. For something that connects to a public network, there are additional certifications besides just the basic RF ones. I still remember back in the old days, if you took your AMPS handset into Canada, you had to have it registered at Canadian customs; this was eventually dropped, but I don't know if it was due to complaints, drowning in workload, or what.
However, I disagree about FOSS firmware based on the very existance of all the 802.11 and Bluetooth drivers in our favorite operating systems: this was a real concern for them, but the wrath of the world's governments has not come down on them since, for example, MadWiFi was open-sourced. Cellular Radiotelephone networks present a special case, not because of the RF, but due to the authentication requirements to prevent toll fraud.
Besides this, individual network operators also check out devices to be sure they behave on their networks before they commit to carrying them (for GSM).
One last thing, though: at least here in the USA, much of our GSM will disappear in 2016 when AT&T shuts down that network; T-Mobile USA has not given a date yet. Unfortunately, WCDMA--much less LTE in its various forms--is heavily patented worldwide, so getting a legal FOSS implementation of it is probably impossible at this time, so certs would be the least of your trouble: do you really want the likes of Qualcomm suing you into oblivion?