My review of the 11 Feb 2008 snapshot is now online at http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Snapshot_review/2008-02-11
Today's bootup time saw a slight decrease but this may be human reaction time. In any case, it seems that this image of the kernel has pretty consistant boot times as it has been unchanged since the 31 Jan 2008 image. The biggest change I've noticed with this image has been sound quality while making phone calls. As a caller using a Neo, call quality has usually been poor by default. For me this has been plaqued with ambient noise being picked up and echoed through the speaker. The voice of the other party has also been too quiet. Both of these issues seem to be fixed for me today. Other than that, I saw no signifigant changed between the 31 Jan 2008 image, thought I'll be using the device more today and updating the review if anything signifigant changes. I would recommend that users update to this image. I'm also playing with the idea of changing my review format. I've been noticing some small issues that are hard to categorize in the existing categories. I'm not sure if I would break this down into a application-by-application review or if (what I'm thinking would be better) a meta-package review. The PIM system seems decently tied together (for instance, a bug in Dialer that reports calls twice also causes openmoko-today2 to show two missed calls) and a problem like Solo not being playable would affect the openmoko-games section. I've also added a few sections to the GPS section. While Wiki is fully editable and I appreciate the input of many people, I thought I was clear as to what I was reviewing every time I publish one of these. I am reviewing the default images as generated by buildhost.openmoko.org. Because the non-free driver is non-free, it's not a part of this image. For this reason, I have added three new criteria to the GPS section: 1.) GPS works "out-of-the-box" It would be unfair to give Media Player a positive review in the video section because a patch or driver exists somewhere that gives it the ability to play video. In the meantime, I identify the shortcoming and link to any information I am aware of that corrects the problem in a way consistant with the aims of the OpenMoko project. 2.) Default install contains GPS software The Neo1973 is technically capable of synching with many Bluetooth devices, but since there is no interface to do this (as would be expected on a consumer product) it is "broken". For the same reason, since the Neo1973 is technically capable of GPS-based functions, but no software exists to make use of this functionality, I consider it "broken" for the purposes of this review. 3.) Driver is powered by Free Software The aims of OpenMoko are to enable the most free, consumer ready device possible. The use of a non-free driver stands contrary to this goal as long as GPS based navigation is also on the feature list. In the case of the GSM modem and such, those non-free bits do not require user-interaction to install. I dislike non-free firmware but understand there are issues that prevent this fully at this time. The installation of a driver, on the otherhand, is a bit more than I'm willing to accept. Luckily, FIC/OpenMoko Inc. agree and have corrected this in future models. -Kevin Dean
