openmoko

"This past week the Phase 2 "Mass Market" schedule for the OpenMoko Neo1973 was revised. OpenMoko now expects the GTA02v3 design to be finalized by September 20 while on December 10 it will begin production in "moderate volumes"." -- Read more

"Dear Community!

A top ten complaint that we have received is directed at our user
interface. Many people feel like the current interface doesn’t address
their exact needs. The organization is not “intuitive”; the colors are
not pleasing; there is no simple way to navigate “exactly” where you
want, exactly when you want."

Read more

As if the rumors about the Google Phone weren't interesting enough by themselves, it gets even more interesting with the following.

"There has been a new batch of rumors swirling about Google producing a "gPhone" mobile telephone after a Reuters reporter stated High Tech Computer Corp would be designing the Linux phone for Google. A friendly penguin has told us at Phoronix that Google is looking to team up with OpenMoko for their "gPhone"." -- Read more

We've been using locked down phones and been served proprietary content by single providers for quite a while now, but it looks like it took the iPhone buzz for enough people to start opposing this for it to become a seed of a movement, or at least an extension of existing movements into new areas (Free Software and Free Culture movements).

There is a new exciting announcement from Sean Moss-Pultz from the OpenMoko project about the current state and the future of Neo1973 OpenMoko powered phone. Things seem to be moving in the right direction.

Here is the announcement:

"Dear Community,

Andre Gide once said, "Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the
courage to lose sight of the shore." Sexism aside, I can't think of a
better way to describe our adventures this past year.

Around the end of March, we were three months behind schedule. Critical

"OpenMoko Neo1973, the world's first open source mobile phone is on target for a September launch, reports MobileWhack.

The OpenMoko Neo173 is a mobile phone in the same vein as Apple's iPhone. The iPhone is due for launch around mid-year in the US and towards the end of the year in Europe and South Africa." -- Read more

Sean Moss Pultz updated us on the status of the OpenMoko and Neo1973. Looks like things are going well. Here is the announcement:

"Dear Community,

We owe you all an update as to our status. Here it goes...

Last week we finished 200 devices. Of these about 50 seem to have some
problems but the rest are functionally complete, tested, and ready to
go. We know the source of the problems for the 50 that failed and this
is already corrected. This is great news because it means we can finally
start to move out of engineering sample mode and into real production!

Sean Moss-Pultz updates the OpenMoko community on behalf of the OpenMoko team regarding the progress of the project as it moves towards the Phase 1 of its development. It looks like there may be some delays due to certain hardware issues, and stability and quality are a priority.

Here is the letter:

"Dear Community,

Today is April 1st (well...somewhere, but no longer in my current
timezone). My original plan was to announce that Harald convinced us all

Judging from the news and rumors that circulate around the web, Google Phone might be a reality, and we already know how real Apple's iPhone is. I have no doubt that, just as Apple, Google can take the phone to new levels. In fact, I would say that Apple and Google may be among the most to blame for the trend that may replace those old keyboard phones with new multifunctional PDA-style touch screen phones.

Sean Moss-Pultz has relayed an announcement email, titled "Crossroads", on the OpenMoko mailing list. They need your help in finding the right wifi vendor, one with free (GPL) drivers, and they have a shortage of developers.

Here is the full email:

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Dear Community,

OpenMoko is built around the philosophy that far more knowledge exists
outside the walls of a corporation than within. Internally, we're
struggling with two issues. So we're throwing this out, hoping that some