On phones and free software
http://www.h-online.com/open/features/How-free-is-my-phone-1634071.html
The phones comming after are more usable(nexus one, nexus S, galaxy S,
etc...), and paulk probably has improved the htcdream with a new RIL(the
library that talks to the modem).
Denis.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Sounds great - for this first iteration, I have spent about $300USD on parts.
This surely will come down because many of the parts that I have purchased
have been Arduino shields which are not needed in a final version; They
just help the initial prototyping go quickly.
I will keep the
:) Me in particular please. Send me an email when things are further along.
You mention some people don;t have the time to flash and configure the phone
themselves. Here's where I think there might be an opportunity, flash the
phone for people if they don't have time or expertise.
I haven’t worked it out yet maybe something like this you charge to
flash per
For the right price, I'd consider buying this service.
-Dave
On 07/10/2012 11:55 AM, danieldelaho...@gmail.com wrote:
You mention some people don;t have the time to flash and configure the
phone themselves. Here's where I think there might be an opportunity,
flash the phone for people if
Dose that mean that the free software friendly phone is abandoned or you're
still looking for options ?
In a time when network connectivity via cell phone is becoming ubiquitous, I
see the benefits of having a completely free cell phone. It is important to
realize that a free cell phone doesn't free you from the grasp of wireless
carriers (pun intended). You are still at the mercy of Big
I know the upcoming Firefox OS is trying to be the poster child for a true
open source phone but I am guessing they may have their fair share of
non-free parts. If the Mozilla team is sticking to hardware that only uses
free components and drivers, I would be surprised and Chris may even
For the moment the idea is abandoned. It was never a priority project. We
have priority projects (replacement for the AR9170 USB N chipset for
instance) although had a free phone been feasible (enough functionality to
support basic features at a price point which would sell) I was thinking
That is basically what we would be doing. The problem is that a phone
shipping with Replicant right now wouldn't work terribly well. Even the G1
(the oldest model) does not have wireless (802.11G) or 3G support. You can
make calls and that is the extent of it.
The best thing you could
If you can come up with a plan for hardware that is mostly free (things like
wireless, 3G, etc), financing, and a production price point around $100-120
USD (in small quantities) we would definitely be interested in working with
you.
I sent some emails although from the sounds of it what they mean by free and
what I would call free are two different things. Neither of which are really
completely free.
В 23:59 +0200 на 03.07.2012 (вт), ch...@thinkpenguin.com написа:
Processor isolation; I believe this means the modem can't access the memory
or control other parts of the phone. no spying in other words.
In other words architecture like in the FreeRunner - two CPUs, the main
one running the
Good to hear. New info is always good.
Thanks
Well uh, https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/b2g/ is meant to be free as in freedom
when released I believe.
It most likely won't 100% meet the FSF guidelines BUT if I'm not mistaken, a
free software spin off could be created from it.
We won't be releasing a phone with replicant. There are too many critical
issues in connecting to wireless and 3g networks (no Internet connectivity at
all).
It's pretty easy to get a Freerunner. I got a non buzz-fixed one from
OpenMobil.eu (see the Openmoko distributors page:
http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/Distributors) and you should also be able to
get a second hand one if you post on the mailing list or visit the irc room.
The phone is still
Even with all the fixes I don't think it would make a good solution for the
fund raising objective. It is still a very developer oriented phone at a
price that doesn't really work. Most people end up with $500-$1000 phones as
the result of subsidies made possible through more expensive
What kind of issues?
The real question is does it work well enough to utilise. Little issues may
not be that big a deal. Particularly if we can document issues and clarify
what features are supported, what is being worked on, and what might never
get supported.
Just because every feature
I think there are probably a lot of people like yourself.
The last I used the freerunner it made a very very very poor phone. It was
mainly because you couldn't hear people well enough and/or they couldn't hear
you. I would not advise buying one unless you were seriously going to work on
Thanks for the link. It looks like a more dire situation than I thought. I
still think the idea is good though. If we didn't all already have these I
might think otherwise. The problem is we do already have these and people do
need to replace broken phones. The question is are they going to
I was thinking about designing such a portable Free Software device, but from
scratch. I'm not really sure about the OS, though Maemo looks like a nice
choice, better than Replicant IMHO. The target board to use is
http://rhombus-tech.net/allwinner_a10/ but it hasn't started shipping yet. I
The Freerunner should work well as a phone if you perform all the hardware
fixes (e.g. Buzz fix, Echo fix, Deep Sleep, Bass Rework). Then the phone is
at least somewhat attractive (you should get at least 4-5 days of battery
life for making and receiving calls). Decent audio state files
On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 5:53 AM, ch...@thinkpenguin.com wrote:
I've been thinking about what projects and products we could put out that
might be both worthy to take on and draw in new money.
If we looked into it further would you spend $200 USD on a phone (excluding
VAT) that excluded as
Umm here are some of the issues I have
* Battery life (may be because I got the phone used)
* No wifi (requires non-free software)
* If I lose coverage I have to restart the phone to re-enable coverage
* Sometimes phone hangs on reboots
* over the air internet connection drops out often
In a smart phone, any of these issues would be a deal breaker for me.
Looks like I'd have to sacrifice a little freedom if I were to start
using one of these things.
-Dave
On 07/03/2012 11:08 AM, sirgr...@member.fsf.org wrote:
* Battery life (may be because I got the phone used)
* No
I just read the article about Firefox OS phones being launched in Brazil.
This seems like a nice thing, although I doubt any of those phones will be as
Freedom friendly as we need. Most common issues might be regarding drivers
for the GSM modem and WiFi chip. Though I believ it would be
That is interesting. I wish I had a working phone to try. I never did attempt
the buzz fix and it was an issue at the time. The other problem with the
freerunner is price/availability. As far as I'm aware you can't get this any
more. There is a newer version although it's only the
The one issue with the newer phones is the PowerVR. There are many others. If
we could design a phone in the $150 price range I think it would work. If you
move forward with a project to design a free software friendly phone let me
know.
I think some of the ideals for such a project should
I don't think there would be an issue with it working in Germany. However at
$150 USD it is unlikely to generate much profits. It might be possible to get
the cost down to around $100 USD. The problem is even that really wouldn't
generate that terribly much. I think the prices keep dropping
This is what I mean by demand. I don't think it is a good idea to encourage
people to buy phones with non-free software or any phone if ones doesn't have
one already. Although for those of us who are already stuck getting such
phones it makes sense to shoot for furthering the projects
Here is a comparison of free phones:
http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:Hardware/Freest/SmartPhone
According to this page, the Freerunner, N900 and Nexus S have a modem that
cannot access CPU, however the last two require non-free firmware for some of
the basic functions (wifi, bluetooth). The
I have a HTC Dream running replicant. It has some issues just so you know so
you would have to be prepared to support those. I deal with them because I
know that is what comes with using free software but someone who bought a
phone with replicant pre-loaded may not feel the same way.
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