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Neo900 Hacker Phone Reaches Minimum Number of Pre-Orders For Production
First time accepted submitter wick3t writes "The Neo900 fundraising campaign has already achieved the milestone of 200 pre-orders which means that mass production is now feasible. This follows a successful first prototype that was showcased at the OpenPhoenux-Hard-Software-Workshop 2013. Their next target is 1000 pre-orders as they aspire to reduce the production costs of each device."
For those not familiar, the Neo 900 is an offshoot of the OpenMoko GTA04 designed for use in the popular Nokia N900 case (and, yes, they're fixing the weak usb port).
Why does this phone get produced but the Ubuntu Edge doesn't?
Because one (Ubuntu EDGE) is a vaporware consisting of couple PhotoShop images and the other (Neo900) is a in-detail specified open hardware project based on the proven N900 lineage, built by community with long years of building open hardware smartphones (Neo FreeRunner, GTA04) ?
Because Ubuntu Edge cost four times as much? $625 was a lot to spend on a product that hadn't even been built, especially from a company that has no previous record when it comes to hardware.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
According to their FAQ, the modem will support the UMTS frequencies used by both AT&T and T-Mobile in the US.
HAL 7000, fewer features than the HAL 9000, but just as homicidal!
Have you actually used the N900 touchscreen? There are many bad resistive touchscreens but the N900's is not one of them. The FAQ explains why the resistive touch screen is the superior choice for the target audience of this device. Remember that this device is not trying to compete with Android or iOS but it's aim is to provide functionality that you would find in a general purpose computer, hence multi-touch in not a priority.