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."

Re:Awesome

[Nossie]

do providers allow random phones to be used on there network?

yes, thats what an unlocked phone is....

as to your question about blocking phones...
if the imei number is correct and its FCC approved I doubt they would have any reason to block you

Its ok, but

[hyperbotfly]

It locks you out of accessing the hardware fully, in the same vein that Tivo does. The only level of control over GPRS/GSM communications you have are AT commands. Any control below that is competely done by firmware from which you are restricted.

2.5G GSM?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure that will count this phone out for a lot of people here, for the same reason as the iPhone.

http://www.openmoko.com/products-neo-base-00-stdki t.html [openmoko.com]

The Neo 1973 boasts the following hardware specifications
2.8" VGA TFT color display
Touchscreen, usable with stylus or fingers
266HZ Samsung System on a Chip (SOC)
USB 1.1, switchable between Client and Host (unpowered)
Integrated AGPS
2.5G GSM - quad band, voice, CSD, GPRS
Bluetooth 2.0
Micro SD slot
High Quality audio codec

Re:What a deal!

[Anonymous Coward]

Um... the prices listed on the website are $300 for the phone, and $450 for the phone with a development kit (looks like the phone just comes in a fancy case... and something else)...

Re:Sounds great, but...

[grcumb]

...without the sort of $$$ companies like Nokia, Apple and Sony Ericsson regularly throw at "your phone is a statement of who you are" marketing campaigns, I doubt phones based on this software will make much of an impact outside of geek circles.

I can think of a few areas where this might be popular:

• Second- and Third-tier carriers in small regional and/or local markets that need something to distinguish themselves from their competitors, but don't have the R&D money to do full-scale product development.
• Corporate services - services focused on very specific business niches with unique needs. With GPS, GSM and Wifi built right in, I could think of a few really compelling apps for business....
• Developing nations - Places where interface localisation could increase a market by a significant percentage, but not enough to interest the big players. There are millions to be earned there; they just come in smaller increments than the multi-nationals consider interesting.

There are modest fortunes to be made in any of the above. I'm already investigating the business potential of this device for the very unique circumstances that I work in. If the quality and supply of this device are at the right level, I'm almost certain to invest in it.

Re:Awesome

[hunterkll]

Replying to an AC isn't the brightest thing to do but....

ATT/Cingular and T-Mobile are the only two major GSM carriers in the United States.

The others are usually all CDMA carriers and the phones are completely incompatable on the network technology level.

and re those vzw phones with sim cards, it was either RIMM cards or sim cards for overseas usage of the phone, they serve no use on the continental US side of the pond

Re:Awesome

[supersat]

AFAIK, only T-Mobile and AT&T use GSM in the United States. Everyone else uses CDMA (with the exception of Nextel, which uses iDEN). I think Verizon might offer GSM/CDMA combo phones for use outside their coverage area, but since GSM is not what they run on their own network, they won't let you use a pure GSM phone.

Re:Open Source?

[mmontour]

So uhh.. where's the source code? I didn't see any mention of source code or documentation on their web site; did I miss it?

Look on the Wiki [openmoko.org] and on projects.openmoko.org [openmoko.org].

Re:What a deal!

[pturing]

They're discounting this edition of the phone since it's for developers and doesn't have all the bits. Here's a quote from the openmoko mailing list:

The delays have been expensive for us and annoying for you. We've
decided that instead of setting up a complicated return or tracking
system to remember who gets a discount for GTA02, we going to give you
_all_ a discount on GTA01.

We're going to sell the Neo Base for $300. The Neo Advanced will be
$450.

GTA02 (AKA: The Mass Market Neo 1973) is on schedule to go on sale in
October. It will have the following new hardware components:

  * 802.11 b/g WiFi
  * Samsung 2442 SoC
  * SMedia 3362 Graphics Accelerator
  * 2 3D Accelerometers
  * 256MB Flash

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.

Access the GSM telephony any way you like

[Anonymous Coward]

It locks you out of accessing the hardware fully, in the same vein that Tivo does.

Rubbish, your comparison with the Tivo is completely wrong in all respects.

The Tivo doesn't allow you to run your own code in place of theirs, which is one of the key problems that GPLv3 seeks to overcome, ie. tivoization.

In contrast the Neo1973/OpenMoko is totally open-source by design, so you can replace any supplied host code by your own without restriction. The telephony applications are not locked at all, because the entire GSM command set is available at the AT interface, not just a small subset, and not just limited functionality. You can make the phone side work any way you like, even under the control of any other application, totally freely.

You seem to be quibbling that the firmware behind the AT interface is not available for reprogramming. Well that wouldn't give you greater GSM functionality, it would *modify* GSM itself, which isn't the intention at all, and it wouldn't be certifiable by the FCC nor any other GSM operator anyway, so it would be impossible to sell the unit as a GSM phone. Calling for that shows no understanding at all.

Re:Ha. Ha. Ha.

[linuxrocks123]

> OpenMoko costs $300 with a 640x480 screen and GPS (the $450 and $600 include development hardware, something that costs thousands of dollars from other vendors).

As much as I like the OpenMoko, this statement is somewhat deceptive.

The pricing for the Neo1973 direct from OpenMoko.com is as follows:

Now:
$300 -- base phone with 266MHz ARM processor, 128MB RAM, and no WiFi
$450 -- same phone + hardware development kit

The phone sold now is intended for developers only and is not marketed for mainstream (but you can still get it if you want, of course).

October:
$450 -- base phone with 400MHz ARM processor, 256MB RAM, and built-in Atheros WiFi
$600 -- same phone + hardware development kit

In contrast, the iPhone is either $500 or $600 depending on the model. You're locked to AT&T, don't get a GPS (which comes with the Neo1973), but you do get a camera (which doesn't come with the OpenMoko). Who knows what processor you get (some think 667MHz ARM, but others say 400MHz ARM) or how much RAM you get (Google turns up nothing; neither does Apple's "tech specs" site on the phone). In some sense it doesn't matter, because you're stuck with the iPhone bundled software anyway.

So yeah, $450 for Neo1973 versus $500 for iPhone. Both are pricy, and the Neo1973 is only $50 cheaper. However, I think you're getting a ton more with the Neo1973 anyway. I don't really want a camera on my phone, and I do really want a GPS.

Re:Opnemoko versus iPhone

[Ohreally_factor]

Well, in some Spanish speaking countries, moco is slang for snot or sperm, so this is going to go over really well there.

As for the phone and its OS, never say never. They might be after the niche slashdot-type market at first. If and when it gets a UI with enough polish and ease-of-use it might have a chance in the mass market. And it stands to benefit from Apple blowing the smartphone market wide open. The iPhone is going to make smart phones popular among "regular" people. I think this improves rather than hurts the chances of Openmoko to succeed.

I see some mutual benefit between projects like Openmoko and the iPhone as well. Adoption of either is going to help push for adoption of open web standards (Death to Flash!! and other proprietary bullshit).

Re:2.5G GSM?

[Helix150]

first- evdo Rev. A pings are much better- I usually get 150-250ms on my sprint aircard. It's good enough for VoIP without a problem.

That said, I want to challenge the idea that EDGE -> UMTS makes no difference on a PDA. It makes a difference, although not much of one for 'mobile web sites'.
If you are on google mobile with stripped down xhtml pages you may not notice the EDGE much. However if you are surfing 'normal' web pages that get resized on the PDA, it makes a big difference. If you are streaming media, it makes a huge difference. If you want to stream media while surfing any web pages, it makes a huge difference.

I have tested an EDGE device (T-Mobile MDA (HTC Wizard)) against an EVDO device (Sprint ppc6700 (HTC Apache)) and another EVDO device (Sprint Mogul (HTC CDMA Titan)), I can tell you even surfing is night and day. Surfing mobile sites on EDGE is usable, surfing normal sites on EDGE is very painful (30sec load times for some fancier pages).
On an EVDO device however, mobile web sites are notably faster than EDGE and even most normal websites start to render in under 5 seconds, usably finished in under 10 most of the time. It just doesn't happen on EDGE.

Also on an EVDO device you can stream mp3's while surfing and still get usable audio...

and lastly what about slingplayer or other mobile video? Don't even bother on edge.

Re:Awesome

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, ... I originally wrote this post. I should have specified that it's a GSM phone. I'm in Germany at the moment and I don't think CDMA phones exist here, and they've gone out of style quite quickly in Canada too (where I"m originally from).

Bottom line:

If you're using a GSM phone with a removable SIM card, and you purchased a phone with a) no vendor lock-in, and b) no SIM lock-in, then you can literally use the phone anywhere on the planet just by popping in the SIM card of a different provider. SIM lock-in occurs when vendors program a handset only to accept SIM cards with their signature. Vendor lock-in occurs when the cell phone manufacturer allows the vendor to program a certain code into the phone, so that it will absolutely not pick-up a signal when the vendor's signal is not in range, whether you are using a card from that vendor or not.

CDMA handsets I believe are really only in use in Korea and North America, no?

Why am I interested in OpenMoko?

I recently experienced what a nightmare this can be (especially with the cost of newer handsets these days). Originally, I was holding out for getting a motorola C113, but since they don't want anyone in 1st world countries to use them, i settled for a fully-featured and quite expensive Nokia which I bought in Germany (no vendor / SIM lock-in). That was stolen ;-) . Then I managed to get a free handset with 'points' I accumulated with my old provider. I vowed the next time I purchase a phone, there is no way I'm doing so unless I can monitor where it is and what phone number / person is using it at all times. I realize that some providers provide this service to their customers, but not all.

In short, I'm going to write some software to do this for me, and the OpenMoko is the best place to start in my opinion.

no A2DP

[RMH101]

I'm assuming the lack of the stereo bluetooth protocol A2DP is what the OP was referring to. This is *really* irritating. My Macbook doesn't have it either, and I can only presume that Apple deliberately don't add this feature because they think it'll reduce sales of Apple TV or something by allowing you to stream audio to your hifi or similar.

Seriously, A2DP on phones is great. Add a stereo bluetooth car kit to your motor and you can stream your tunes into your car stereo in fairly high quality...

Phones and SIMs are always bundled here

[tepples]

Could you tell me why a carrier needs to "support" a phone?

You buy a phone.

In the United States, phones and SIMs aren't generally sold separately, and phones are sold locked to a network.

You put the SIM in the phone.

Phones for use on Sprint and Verizon networks have no SIM slot because they're CDMA [wikipedia.org]. Only those phones sold by AT&T and T-Mobile have SIM slots, and they're still network-locked out of the box.

What more needs to be done?

More conspicuous advertising of locking and unlocking policies, for one thing.

Re:Phones and SIMs are always bundled here

[lowieken]

There is no simlocking in Belgium. Bundle sales of phones and phone contracts are illegal here.

Re:All I want to know is:

[rincebrain]

Yes to all (2.5G for now - I have no idea what the cycle for getting 3G looks like).

Re:As a consumer - AVOID CDMA!

[_LORAX_]

Sprint and Verizon are both CDMA gorillas and they will refuse to activate non-branded phones. Sure the FCC requires they do, but they have figured out ways to prevent most people from doing so legally. Making insane requirements that only are met by their branded firmware using any FCC option as a mandatory requirement ( for safety reasons )... anything to prevent phone from being activated that were not sold by them.

But you can activate any CDMA phone on "page plus" which is a pre-pay service that uses the very same CDMA network. At rates as low as .06/min and .50/month it's a good deal for anyone but the biggest talker.

If you want true competition you have to go unlocked GSM since the phone will work almost anywhere in the world ( within reason ) all you need to do is pick up a SIM ( cheap usually ) card for the local provider and pop it in your phone. No need to ask for permission or fight with CSR's who don't know crap that isn't on their screen. While CDMA is slightly more efficient it's lock in effect is crazy.

Re:Awesome

[enjo13]

Not true. An unlocked phone is simply one that allows the operation (phone side) given any standard IMSI. The operators, however, require any phone on their network to be certified by the carrier. They will not allow a 'rogue' (their words not mine) phone onto their networks. Most carriers will allow any GSM Forum Certified phone to work... but the phone has to formally achieve certification to do that.

I have no idea how the project in the article intends to do that, or if the telephony side is based on already certified hardware/sofwtare. Just clarifying that simply having a GSM implementation, however, is not enough.

Re:What a deal!

[kwalker]

I'll just jump in here, since I've been following this project for months now.

Yes, the OpenMoKo platform includes PIM apps (Based on the EDS-embedded platform from O-hand). It's still in its infancy (They have been focusing on the hardware up to this point), but it's there, and will be rapidly advancing in the next few months. And one of the things they've been working on is a SyncML interface to sync the OpenMoKo PIM apps with anything that can speak SyncML. There will probably have to be an iSync backend written if it doesn't have a generic SyncML one already.

Re:Awesome

[terrymr]

Most devices are based on already certified standard GSM modules. You can buy the bare GSM stuff to build into your own project.

Re:As a consumer

[retro128]

Sprint is a bit different since they're using CDMA, as does Verizon. Neither has SIM cards, so when you change phones, you have to call them up and activate every time.

On the other hand, GSM networks are keyed to SIM cards. When you activate a phone, you are giving them the SIM number and they are activating that. If they ask you for your phone model and ESN, it's just for their records in case your phone gets ripped off so they can put it on a "stolen" list. Changing your phone is as simple as popping out the SIM and putting it into the new phone. You don't have to call the carrier. AT&T and T-Mobile are the two major GSM networks. The Neo1973 is strictly a GSM phone, so the activation scenario you described wouldn't happen.

I personally favor GSM because when I go to Europe, I can buy a SIM card for 10 euros, pop it in my phone, have instantly have a local number. Verizon makes you rent a "world phone" for some ridiculous amount of money. I don't know what Sprint does for international travelers, but it's probably similar.

IMHO, the only thing CDMA has going for it is the speed of the data network.

Re:no A2DP

[47Ronin]

A2DP will be supported in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard which will debut in October.

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

[FireFury03]

Minor note: these phones have AGPS. It does the same thing, but works by using the cell towers rather than GPS satellites.

This is incorrect. AGPS is the same as GPS (and uses the same satellites) except it requires some external assistance. The assistance varies depending on the particular AGPS device - some of them require assistance from the cellphone provider's network (e.g. to provide processing of the signals, etc), but in this case it just requires that the phone has the almanac data available (which can just be downloaded over the wifi connection every so often).

So in summary: it uses the GPS satellites, doesn't require any assistance from your service provider and just requires you download the almanac periodically.

Re:Awesome

[norton_I]

To be fair, the things that are included in the "advanced" kit are development boards and a fancy carrying case, along with some duplicate components like memory cards and USB cables which you can probably pick up cheaper elsewhere.

The base kit looks like it has everything you would need or want for a user or software developer. The advanced kit is for hardware hackers.

The consumer version is going to be $450 for the base model, though it has wifi and a bunch of other neato hardware added.

The real reason it looks expensive is that it comes unlocked. If you could get a $150 rebate on a cell phone contract if you bought your own handset, suddenly it would look a lot more favorable compared to other smart phones.