The OpenMoko Neo Freerunner will make its debut to the general public this week. OpenMoko’s online store will accept orders for the open source powered smartphone beginning July 4th. The Neo comes in both 850Mhz and 900Mhz Tri-band GSM flavors depending on your locale. It sports a 2.8-inch VGA touchscreen, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, AGPS, 2.5G Data, 3axis Motion Sensors, 128MB WSDRAM, and 256MB NAND flash. It has dimensions of 4.75 x 2.44 x 0.73 inches and weighs in at 6.5 ounces (185 grams).
Gizmodo has posted a hands-on of the OpenMoko powered Neo Freerunner smartphone. The Neo Freerunner is FIC’s commercial version of the OpenMoko phone which is plans to offer for sale later this spring.
Maintaining the overall look and feel of the developers’ Neo 1973, the Neo FreeRunner features hardware improvements such as 2D/3D graphics and a faster 500MHz processor that boosts performance to enable video and audio processing, as well as a new generation of mobile applications emerging from the open source community. Designed for worldwide use, FreeRunner will come in two versions: a 850MHz tri-band and a 900Mhz tri-band. Neo FreeRunner will also integrate WiFi (802.11 b/g) for online access anywhere, and will include motion sensors that will cue functions based on detected user activity.
I just came across a good series of videos on the OpenMoko platform on YourTube. A user going by the name of mokoNinja has posted a bunch of videos that demonstrate the current progress of the OpenMoko platform running on the Neo 1973 hardware. You can watch the web browser preview above, and check here if you’re interested in more on the RSS app, media player and other interface elements.
IBM’s developerWorks has published a tutorial on Software development for the OpenMoko Linux phone. The tutorial introduces the OpenEmbedded build environment used to create filesystem images for OpenMoko phones, 1such as the Neo 1973. The OpenMoko environment provides a completely free development environment for running application and system code on supported phone hardware, eliminating all dependency on proprietary code.
Trolltech has announced the discontinuation of its Greenphone open source reference handset. The company says they have run out of stock and will not offer any further additional kits. As an open, Linux-based mobile phone, Qtopia Greenphone was a project initiated by Trolltech to stimulate open development of mobile phones and to serve as an industry catalyst for the open phone movement.
Trolltech today announced Qtopia Phone Edition has been ported to the Neo 1973 mobile phone from Taiwanese manufacturer FIC and open-source software provider OpenMoko. Now, in addition to Trolltech’s Qtopia Greenphone, developers have an additional reference platform and form factor for development and testing of new mobile Qtopia applications.
The company has also announced that the Qtopia Phone Edition will be made completely open source under GPL license.
Marcin Juszkiewicz has posted a number of screenshots and thoughts on his blog of the latest OpenMoko 2007.2 beta release. (via digg)
Start of phone is nice — first you get full screen OpenMoko logo, then few kernel messages (about 10 lines) and psplash starts so all messages are hidden. When X11 starts there is another full screen OpenMoko logo with text informing that UI is starting.
A major new version of the OpenMoko Software has just been released. The OM 2007.2 version announced here, includes a large number of user interface changes and application redesigns.
First up much has been done to make the phone software much more finger friendly and easier to use. It also includes a reworked UI, a lighter theme, removes the awkward “scroll wheel” function and it introduces a new Today application (a la Windows Mobile) which shows events from calendar, missed calls, tasks and allows apps to hook into it.
Sean Moss-Pultz says… “the new interface is still, very much, a work in progress. This is the earliest possible stage than we can release something with enough of a framework for you all to start exploring. It’s a huge advancement in balancing simplicity with it’s digital antagonist — complexity.”
Wired.com compiler blog has posted a hands on article on the new OpenMoko developer handset:
I got the chance to see the Neo 1973 prototype phone in the flesh today here at the OpenMoko booth at Ubuntu Live. This is the next generation open-platform phone that runs Linux. The picture above shows the device with a couple of batteries and a debug board. The guy standing next to me at the booth explained it best: “That’s what you plug it into whenever your software breaks it.” Notice the input jacks and the pale green reset button on the board.
My impressions of the hardware: it’s lightweight with a beautiful screen, but the small form factor coupled with the high-resolution display means the stylus will remain indispensable.
The new OpenMoko website is now live and is taking orders for the FIC Neo 1973 OpenMoko phone. While anyone can place an order worldwide at this time, these initial models are primarily aimed at developers.
The Neo 1973 is available in two color choices: white on black and orange on white. There are two packages available a base kit for $300, which includes the phone and a few extras; and a Neo Advanced kit for $450, which includes everything the mobile device hacker needs.
News RSS
July 2nd, 2008 by 
Chief
IBM’s developerWorks has 
A major new version of the OpenMoko Software has just been released. The OM 2007.2 version 
The new 