Re: Truly Free phones?
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:13 AM, der.hans wrote: > Am 14. Mai, 2009 schwätzte Ryan Rix so: > > What about the Palm Pre with Sprint? How open will it be? I'm pretty sure > it's locked to Sprint for a while, but will we be able to do our own > updates and add non-signed apps? > Runs GNU/Linux but all applications are written on top of a web browser layer in html css js. No C native applications and no sdk to develop them have even been hinted at. Could be like the iPhone where it will be released eventually but I am not so sure... That's why I didn't even mention it. -- Thanks and best regards, Ryan Rix TamsPalm - The PalmOS Blog (623)-239-1103 <-- Grand Central, baby! Jasmine Bowden - Class of 2009, Marc Rasmussen - Class of 2008, Erica Sheffey - Class of 2009, Rest in peace. --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:13 AM, der.hans wrote: > Am 14. Mai, 2009 schwätzte Ryan Rix so: >> Why hasn't the FSF done anything about this as much as cell phones are a >> part of this culture? > The FSF does a lot. If you want it to do more get directly involved and > make donations :). Make donations to EFF as well :). Yay FSF and EFF :-). Speaking of getting involved... Just came across this Phoenix event happening this weekend vectored from my twitter river of news (via @dneighbors & @jmoriarty): http://mobifestival.com/ Not exclusively OSS or FSF focused but they will be using barcamp format and Android is on the agenda. :-) I'll be in the market for a new phone this summer too and may drop by to see what folks are doing w/ these things... ymmv, C.G. -- powerofpri...@gmail.com Carlos Macedo Gomes _sic itur ad astra_ http://claimid.com/cmgomes --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
One could make the same arguments for a rooted G1 too. Once you have root, you can do whatever you want. I still wouldn't consider either option truly open though. -Joe Stephen wrote: > only issue i have with this is the iphone annoys me. :-) > > On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Charles Jones > wrote: >> Just thought I would mention the Apple IPhone. It is far from free or >> open, out of the box, but once "jailbroken", they are unlocked and you >> can install any apps you want, including ones that you write yourself. >> There is also a free online course from Standford University that is >> teaching iphone application programming using the free SDK. Again, all >> of this only applies if you "jailbreak" the phone, which voids your >> warranty (although you can easily restore it back to normal in the case >> that you had to return it for some reason). My Coworker has a jailbroken >> iphone, and he can do *anything* with it, including SSH into it, ssh out >> of it, run and install any apps, use it on any carrier, etc. Of course >> making it do any of this cool stuff is totally unsupported, but thats >> the fun of hacking right? :) >> --- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > > --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
only issue i have with this is the iphone annoys me. :-) On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:25 AM, Charles Jones wrote: > Just thought I would mention the Apple IPhone. It is far from free or > open, out of the box, but once "jailbroken", they are unlocked and you > can install any apps you want, including ones that you write yourself. > There is also a free online course from Standford University that is > teaching iphone application programming using the free SDK. Again, all > of this only applies if you "jailbreak" the phone, which voids your > warranty (although you can easily restore it back to normal in the case > that you had to return it for some reason). My Coworker has a jailbroken > iphone, and he can do *anything* with it, including SSH into it, ssh out > of it, run and install any apps, use it on any carrier, etc. Of course > making it do any of this cool stuff is totally unsupported, but thats > the fun of hacking right? :) > --- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button. Stephen --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Just thought I would mention the Apple IPhone. It is far from free or open, out of the box, but once "jailbroken", they are unlocked and you can install any apps you want, including ones that you write yourself. There is also a free online course from Standford University that is teaching iphone application programming using the free SDK. Again, all of this only applies if you "jailbreak" the phone, which voids your warranty (although you can easily restore it back to normal in the case that you had to return it for some reason). My Coworker has a jailbroken iphone, and he can do *anything* with it, including SSH into it, ssh out of it, run and install any apps, use it on any carrier, etc. Of course making it do any of this cool stuff is totally unsupported, but thats the fun of hacking right? :) --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Am 14. Mai, 2009 schwätzte Ryan Rix so: moin moin, Why hasn't the FSF done anything about this as much as cell phones are a part of this culture? The FSF does a lot. If you want it to do more get directly involved and make donations :). Make donations to EFF as well :). Is the Krave ZN4 out there and do we have access to make updates? http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS3087955289.html What about the Palm Pre with Sprint? How open will it be? I'm pretty sure it's locked to Sprint for a while, but will we be able to do our own updates and add non-signed apps? There used to be an A1200 or something like that from Motorola. Had I known about it years ago I'd've probably moved to it. http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS2955814405.html http://koolu.com/ So, OpenMoko/FreeRunner Android/FreeRunner Android/G1 Pre Krave ZN4 Anything else on the list? It's great that we have 4 phones to choose from. We need to support them. Tuna will be helping me update my OpenMoko at the Avondale Stammtisch Wednesday if I don't get to it this weekend. ciao, der.hans -- # http://www.LuftHans.com/http://www.LuftHans.com/Classes/ # Wer bereit ist, grundlegende Freiheiten aufzugeben, um sich # kurzfristige Sicherheit zu verschaffen, der hat weder Freiheit # noch Sicherheit verdient. -- Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)--- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Ryan Rix wrote: > Not top posting cause Tuna is mean :P > > On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Joseph Sinclair > wrote: > >> While Google (and others) develop the Android O/S, the carriers make all >> the decisions about how open the phone is. The G1 is a *T-Mobile* phone, >> not a Google Phone. > > Amen, brother. :) > > >> Because Android is mostly Apache licensed, the carriers are free to modify >> it however they like for "their" phones, and they do exactly that. > > This is why the GPL was written as opposed to the APL or MPL or BSD > license... WHY aren't these things under the GPL?? --- Google made a conscious choice to use the Apache license (or BSD) wherever possible to make the O/S more "carrier friendly", unfortunately that makes it less free in some ways. They even added a user-space driver interface so Carriers could add non-free drivers for "their" hardware without having to deal with GPL issues. I'm told that the carriers flat refused to consider any O/S they couldn't lock/customize/proprietize, but I can't say how accurate that might be. > > >> The T-Mobile G1, like any other T-Mobile Phone, is a locked phone, and you >> can only run the apps that T-Mobile permits. Google wrote the software >> open-source, but T-Mobile locked down the phone environment. >> > > If I were to purchase a G1 from the manufacture or "unlocked" from eBay, > craigslist, could it run with a T-Mobile SIM card? Can I reflash it to get > rid of this limitation with it still "working?" --- I haven't heard of any way to get a fully unlocked G1 phone running on T-Mobile with your own flash of the firmware, but others claim that's possible. I'd say some research is in order. You can certainly add your own Android applications (written in Java for Dalvik), but adding any non-Java code (or accessing network resources) depends on how the carrier chooses to interact with the phone and what rules they have in place. > > >> Even the Freerunner is difficult to get service with in the US, our >> carriers mostly still have Ma-Bell Monopoly envy, and want to lock you into >> their network so they don't have to actually compete. > > > Tuna: What carrier are you on with your Freerunner? > > >> >> There are supposed to be several more Android-based phones (and a couple >> netbooks) released in the next 3-6 months, so if you can wait a little bit, >> that might be good. >> >> You can develop for the Android environment without a phone using the >> development SDK, it's a qemu-based virtual machine, so it works just like a >> real phone from a development perspective. >> > Doesn't really do me any good though without a phone ;) --- You can begin developing software to accomplish your chosen task without hardware, then polish it up when you have hardware you can use... > > >> Android applications are Java applications written for the Dalvik >> environment. While it's possible to write a Python app for Android, you'll >> find it extremely hard to get it on the phone (you have to create a custom >> build of the O/S and reflash the phone), and your battery life will likely >> suffer greatly due to Python's higher overhead compared to Dalvik. >> The better approach in this case would be to write the code that will run >> in the phone in Java (standard Java 5), because the Dalvik environment (and >> it's unusual lifecycle management) is needed to maintain good battery life >> when apps are running. You can still write the netbook code in Python, or >> you can use Java there as well. > > I just provided Python as an example. Is there any native framework for the > OS? --- Java is basically the "native" language for Android. Everything you see, including the home screen, on the phone is in Java. If you download the SDK you'll see in the documentation and examples how the system manages Java code to ensure it's efficient with battery and maintains a responsive UI. > > > Why hasn't the FSF done anything about this as much as cell phones are a > part of this culture? > --- Dennis would know more on this, but I believe the FSF is doing what they can. The carriers are trying desperately to stem the tide and avoid becoming "dumb pipes", even though that's exactly what their customers want them to be. Given how heavily regulated that industry is, it may require regulatory intervention to force the first carrier to open up and accept the inevitable commoditization of mobile communication service. The new 700MHz band T-Mobile bought up has requirements for openness, and that may help, but it's not certain T-Mobile will actually obey them. --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Not top posting cause Tuna is mean :P On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > While Google (and others) develop the Android O/S, the carriers make all > the decisions about how open the phone is. The G1 is a *T-Mobile* phone, > not a Google Phone. Amen, brother. :) > Because Android is mostly Apache licensed, the carriers are free to modify > it however they like for "their" phones, and they do exactly that. This is why the GPL was written as opposed to the APL or MPL or BSD license... WHY aren't these things under the GPL?? > > The T-Mobile G1, like any other T-Mobile Phone, is a locked phone, and you > can only run the apps that T-Mobile permits. Google wrote the software > open-source, but T-Mobile locked down the phone environment. > If I were to purchase a G1 from the manufacture or "unlocked" from eBay, craigslist, could it run with a T-Mobile SIM card? Can I reflash it to get rid of this limitation with it still "working?" > Even the Freerunner is difficult to get service with in the US, our > carriers mostly still have Ma-Bell Monopoly envy, and want to lock you into > their network so they don't have to actually compete. Tuna: What carrier are you on with your Freerunner? > > > There are supposed to be several more Android-based phones (and a couple > netbooks) released in the next 3-6 months, so if you can wait a little bit, > that might be good. > > You can develop for the Android environment without a phone using the > development SDK, it's a qemu-based virtual machine, so it works just like a > real phone from a development perspective. > Doesn't really do me any good though without a phone ;) > > Android applications are Java applications written for the Dalvik > environment. While it's possible to write a Python app for Android, you'll > find it extremely hard to get it on the phone (you have to create a custom > build of the O/S and reflash the phone), and your battery life will likely > suffer greatly due to Python's higher overhead compared to Dalvik. > The better approach in this case would be to write the code that will run > in the phone in Java (standard Java 5), because the Dalvik environment (and > it's unusual lifecycle management) is needed to maintain good battery life > when apps are running. You can still write the netbook code in Python, or > you can use Java there as well. I just provided Python as an example. Is there any native framework for the OS? Why hasn't the FSF done anything about this as much as cell phones are a part of this culture? -- Thanks and best regards, Ryan Rix TamsPalm - The PalmOS Blog (623)-239-1103 <-- Grand Central, baby! Jasmine Bowden - Class of 2009, Marc Rasmussen - Class of 2008, Erica Sheffey - Class of 2009, Rest in peace. --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
On Thu, 14 May 2009, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > While Google (and others) develop the Android O/S, the > carriers make all the decisions about how open the phone is. > The G1 is a *T-Mobile* phone, not a Google Phone. ... > The T-Mobile G1, like any other T-Mobile Phone, is a locked > phone, and you can only run the apps that T-Mobile permits. > Google wrote the software open-source, but T-Mobile locked > down the phone environment. well; not to my experience but on another chassis ... actually I presently run an unlocked phone from RIMM on US T-mobile; I am given to understand (OLS OpenMoko presentation, Android devel ML's) that there are binary radio and cell network datalink modules one has to feed thru a defined api, but that one can add additional modules, once duly signed. And certainly I can manage the certificate (and thus signing key) chain it is using presently ... > There are unlocked HTC Dream phones available running > Android, but I don't know of any US carriers that will > permit you to use them. I have on order one "Dream G2 (Google Android, GSM, Unlocked)" and in transit from the manufacturer's sales agent in China; they represent it works on US T-Mobile, and I have no reason to disbelieve them .. we'll see > Even the Freerunner is difficult to get service with in the > US, our carriers mostly still have Ma-Bell Monopoly envy, > and want to lock you into their network so they don't have > to actually compete. I've also an 'I8' on the way as well (also called a 'A550+'), and pretty clearly it is running some Apple store content in screenshots, has an Apple style power connector, and may be intercepted at Customs as an infringing copyright knockoff [I hope it is just grey market goods, and will slip through] -- again, this (different) manufacturer's rep represents it works on US T-Mobile, and I have no reason to disbelieve them either .. we'll see > There are supposed to be several more Android-based phones > (and a couple netbooks) released in the next 3-6 months, so > if you can wait a little bit, that might be good. what fun is waiting, when one can be first on the block ;) > You can develop for the Android environment without a phone > using the development SDK, it's a qemu-based virtual > machine, so it works just like a real phone from a > development perspective. similar to the Apple SDK's approach for developing toward iPhone and iTouch then, but with a better VM hosting layer -- Apple runs a VM inside the outer (OS/X) OS simulating the device ... > Sometime soon I need to put together a > how-to-write-for-Android preso for devel, I just haven't had > any free time the past 7 months (although that's changing, > so I might be able to get it done soon). looking forward to it -- Russ herrold --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Just a follow on your comment about "you can only run the apps that T-Mobile permit". That isn't entirely true. Under Settings / Applications there is a checkbox that allows for applications form "Unknown sources", by checking this box you can install any .apk file you want right from the developers web site. On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 11:31 AM, Joseph Sinclair wrote: > While Google (and others) develop the Android O/S, the carriers make all > the decisions about how open the phone is. The G1 is a *T-Mobile* phone, > not a Google Phone. Because Android is mostly Apache licensed, the carriers > are free to modify it however they like for "their" phones, and they do > exactly that. > The T-Mobile G1, like any other T-Mobile Phone, is a locked phone, and you > can only run the apps that T-Mobile permits. Google wrote the software > open-source, but T-Mobile locked down the phone environment. > > snip--- > --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
While Google (and others) develop the Android O/S, the carriers make all the decisions about how open the phone is. The G1 is a *T-Mobile* phone, not a Google Phone. Because Android is mostly Apache licensed, the carriers are free to modify it however they like for "their" phones, and they do exactly that. The T-Mobile G1, like any other T-Mobile Phone, is a locked phone, and you can only run the apps that T-Mobile permits. Google wrote the software open-source, but T-Mobile locked down the phone environment. There are unlocked HTC Dream phones available running Android, but I don't know of any US carriers that will permit you to use them. Even the Freerunner is difficult to get service with in the US, our carriers mostly still have Ma-Bell Monopoly envy, and want to lock you into their network so they don't have to actually compete. There are supposed to be several more Android-based phones (and a couple netbooks) released in the next 3-6 months, so if you can wait a little bit, that might be good. You can develop for the Android environment without a phone using the development SDK, it's a qemu-based virtual machine, so it works just like a real phone from a development perspective. Android applications are Java applications written for the Dalvik environment. While it's possible to write a Python app for Android, you'll find it extremely hard to get it on the phone (you have to create a custom build of the O/S and reflash the phone), and your battery life will likely suffer greatly due to Python's higher overhead compared to Dalvik. The better approach in this case would be to write the code that will run in the phone in Java (standard Java 5), because the Dalvik environment (and it's unusual lifecycle management) is needed to maintain good battery life when apps are running. You can still write the netbook code in Python, or you can use Java there as well. A big part of why the Freerunner has such terrible battery life is that it's applications never really stop running, so it can't get into extremely low-power states. You can simulate the same issues on any phone by running an application that keeps it's high-power components (radio, GPS, CPU) active. Smart phones depend on turning off almost everything 90% of the time in order to achieve the long "idle" life they market. If you want a better estimate of how long it will last running applications all the time, look at the "talk" time spec, high-CPU using apps can shorten even that by 50% or more. If you load an app on the G1 that queries GPS every 45 seconds and sends it to a network server you'll see about 8 hours (or less) on battery, because the radio, GPS, and CPU are all active all the time (the phone never is idle long enough to turn them off). I've seen some iPhone apps that have similar effects (although Apple won't let them in the Apple store), draining the battery in as little as 2 hours. Sometime soon I need to put together a how-to-write-for-Android preso for devel, I just haven't had any free time the past 7 months (although that's changing, so I might be able to get it done soon). I hope that helps. ==Joseph++ P.S. There are some people who've had success getting Android running on other platforms (it's not hard to port, especially to other smart phones), and there may be a port to the Freerunner available somewhere. I don't know if you'll be able to run the resultant phone on any US network, but you can get it working without too much trouble, and it should have dramatically better "standby" battery life. Ryan Rix wrote: > Hey guys, > > Summer approaches and I need a new phone :) > > My wonderful flip phone (http://www.pantechusa.com/web/guest/pn210) has > about a four hour battery life nowadays and does nothing that I want it to > do (like send SMS reliably, have decent voice quality) and I'm ready to > upgrade. > > I want to tear all non-Free software out of my life this summer (getting an > EEE1000HE and putting Kubuntu onto it) and this includes my phone. Everyone > knows about the "googlephone," aka the T-Mobile G1, but the question i have > is: is it really Free? Can I run applications on it without going through > the Android apps store? Can I put my own version of Android on it, or is it > a "you can read the source code, but you can weep when you can't flash it ( > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/opposing-drm.html) To what level is it truly > Free Software? > Google has nothing on this that I can find, really... A somewhat unrelated > question: Can applications on it run as a daemon? Can I run f.e. python on > it? See question all the way below for the reasoning*. What APIs does it > contain to allow applications to interface with hardware or other > applications? dbus? can I run Qt or Gtk on it, or is it a custom widget > system? > Is it unlocked by default, if I purchase it from craigslist or ebay from > someone currently on a T-Mobile plan? I will probably put it o
Re: Truly Free phones?
http://openmoko.com/ Even the CAD drawings and the circuit board blueprints are on the WEB. I'm getting one soon! :) ET Ryan Rix writes: > Hey guys, > > Summer approaches and I need a new phone :) > > My wonderful flip phone (http://www.pantechusa.com/web/guest/pn210) has > about a four hour battery life nowadays and does nothing that I want it to > do (like send SMS reliably, have decent voice quality) and I'm ready to > upgrade. > > I want to tear all non-Free software out of my life this summer (getting an > EEE1000HE and putting Kubuntu onto it) and this includes my phone. Everyone > knows about the "googlephone," aka the T-Mobile G1, but the question i have > is: is it really Free? Can I run applications on it without going through > the Android apps store? Can I put my own version of Android on it, or is it > a "you can read the source code, but you can weep when you can't flash it ( > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/opposing-drm.html) To what level is it truly > Free Software? > Google has nothing on this that I can find, really... A somewhat unrelated > question: Can applications on it run as a daemon? Can I run f.e. python on > it? See question all the way below for the reasoning*. What APIs does it > contain to allow applications to interface with hardware or other > applications? dbus? can I run Qt or Gtk on it, or is it a custom widget > system? > Is it unlocked by default, if I purchase it from craigslist or ebay from > someone currently on a T-Mobile plan? I will probably put it on the cheapest > plan that I can that has unlimited data (not necessary for unlimited SMS or > voice, as I will not talk enough ever to run out of minutes, and I will > probably write a GPS-email gateway to cut down on SMS, since the majority of > my SMS are between the girlfriend and I) > > Then there's the Freerunner, which is a truly Free phone by the looks of it > (runs openmoko, or Qtopia depending on what you are wanting) runs whatever > software that you want it to, basically (gtk, qtopia, x11) but it seems to > be pretty unstable and according to the site has a one day battery life with > a 1200mAh battery. > > Basically what I want for the phone to is send SMS, place voice, run GPS, > connect to instant messenger networks (I use meebo, in browser right now, > but this is not a requirement), allow for bluetooth/usb tethering between a > computer for dialup. > *More importantly, I want to be able to set up a python or similar daemon on > both the cell phone and the soon-to-be-mine EEE1000HE, that will allow me to > send and recieve SMS from the laptop, pull gps data, etc from the phone, and > other stuff as I get the phone and find out just what I can do with it. > MOST importantly, I want it to be Free, though. > > Best, > Ryan > -- > Thanks and best regards, > Ryan Rix > TamsPalm - The PalmOS Blog > (623)-239-1103 <-- Grand Central, baby! > > Jasmine Bowden - Class of 2009, Marc Rasmussen - Class of 2008, Erica > Sheffey - Class of 2009, Rest in peace. --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
Re: Truly Free phones?
Top posting cuz you made bottom posting a pita... Some of the OpenMoko builds are really stable. Like QT Extended or... Android :<. Excerpts from phrkonaleash's message of Thu May 14 10:16:18 -0700 2009: > Hey guys, > > Summer approaches and I need a new phone :) > > My wonderful flip phone (http://www.pantechusa.com/web/guest/pn210) has > about a four hour battery life nowadays and does nothing that I want it to > do (like send SMS reliably, have decent voice quality) and I'm ready to > upgrade. > > I want to tear all non-Free software out of my life this summer (getting an > EEE1000HE and putting Kubuntu onto it) and this includes my phone. Everyone > knows about the "googlephone," aka the T-Mobile G1, but the question i have > is: is it really Free? Can I run applications on it without going through > the Android apps store? Can I put my own version of Android on it, or is it > a "you can read the source code, but you can weep when you can't flash it ( > http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/opposing-drm.html) To what level is it truly > Free Software? > Google has nothing on this that I can find, really... A somewhat unrelated > question: Can applications on it run as a daemon? Can I run f.e. python on > it? See question all the way below for the reasoning*. What APIs does it > contain to allow applications to interface with hardware or other > applications? dbus? can I run Qt or Gtk on it, or is it a custom widget > system? > Is it unlocked by default, if I purchase it from craigslist or ebay from > someone currently on a T-Mobile plan? I will probably put it on the cheapest > plan that I can that has unlimited data (not necessary for unlimited SMS or > voice, as I will not talk enough ever to run out of minutes, and I will > probably write a GPS-email gateway to cut down on SMS, since the majority of > my SMS are between the girlfriend and I) > > Then there's the Freerunner, which is a truly Free phone by the looks of it > (runs openmoko, or Qtopia depending on what you are wanting) runs whatever > software that you want it to, basically (gtk, qtopia, x11) but it seems to > be pretty unstable and according to the site has a one day battery life with > a 1200mAh battery. > > Basically what I want for the phone to is send SMS, place voice, run GPS, > connect to instant messenger networks (I use meebo, in browser right now, > but this is not a requirement), allow for bluetooth/usb tethering between a > computer for dialup. > *More importantly, I want to be able to set up a python or similar daemon on > both the cell phone and the soon-to-be-mine EEE1000HE, that will allow me to > send and recieve SMS from the laptop, pull gps data, etc from the phone, and > other stuff as I get the phone and find out just what I can do with it. > MOST importantly, I want it to be Free, though. > > Best, > Ryan --- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
