Tag: openmoko

Waiting for WLAN and UMTS for OpenMoko

I am currently thinking a lot about the OpenMoko project. Unfortunately OpenMoko at the moment provides hardware which is limited to GPRS, Bluetooth, and/or USB 1.0 for connectivity. In autumn there should be the next generation which should include a WLAN (and maybe even UMTS?) support. It will be called Neo 1973 – GTA02.

Together with Austrian-based one “H.U.I. Starter” rate (250MB @ UMTS, reduction to 56kBit/s above, 10€/month) this would be a nice package. However, if I could have UMTS, well, that would be better. Personally, WLAN is even more important for me, I could use it in the office or in my home, where I have WLAN access available and fall back to GPRS while being “on the road”.

For me this means: standby for autumn, because I can’t afford to invest US-$300 now and another US-$450 in a couple of month. Still, I am really, really interested in OpenMoko (and normally I wouldn’t invest that amount of money into a hobby of mine). Which means, I am standing by and waiting for news from the OpenMoko community…

In the meantime, if you understand German, you could listen to this very interesting Chaosradio Express Podcast.

On YouTube there are some very interesting videos about the Neo 1973.

OpenMoko – the Open Mobile Phone

This is cool! If you want to have a mobile phone based on Linux and pure OpenSource software, OpenMoko might be the right thing for you! I’m not so much in mobile development, but I find this almost more appealing than the iPhone, which at the moment is a very closed platform. If I find some time for a hobby like this, this US-$ 300 would be a nice investment. I hope this becomes a success to reward the company and the idea to explictly invite hackers/developers (both software & hardware) to improve a phone. A nice contrast to the usual anti-reverse-engineering and “hacking” philosophy most companies go along with.

Edit 2007-07-18: I accidentially misspelled OpenMoko as OpenMonko in the inital release, both in the title and in the text. I corrected this and the URL of the article to reflect the real name of the project: OpenMoko.