
The Neo900 project is still alive and steadily progressing - edwintorok
http://neo900.org/news-0009-progress-update-march
======
Goranek
Nokia n900 best phone i ever had and i still have it. I use it mostly for USB
3g internet and for streaming music to radio.

------
htns
I really liked my N900's physical keyboard. My muscles still remember the
layout even though I hardly use it nowadays.

------
ds9
I wouldn't mind a smartphone that was a little clunky and less functional, if
it were really open.

------
em3rgent0rdr
Not quite "100% Free Software stack", as they still using closed 3D driver,
and of course the modem processor runs proprietary code:

"Not a single line of closed code will have to run on main CPU to be able to
use the Neo900. With an exception to 3D acceleration, which is not necessary
to operate the device, FLOSS Linux drivers will be available for every single
component."

I'm sticking with Replicant on my Galaxy Nexus...at least I have it in my
phone now working, the specs are comparable (dispite being a couple years old)
and I got it used cheap. I'm not getting much more benefit with the Neo900
dispite the significant price tag. I'll wait for a fully free software stack,
including modem processor.

~~~
seba_dos1
Given the state of legal regulations in most of countries in the world, you're
probably waiting for some revolution. It's practically impossible to legally
use the freedoms given to you by such free modem firmware (theoretically you
could send it to certification each time you do something with it).

Neo900 project realized that (and the lack of resources to build the modern
modem at all - the needed amount is enormous), so instead of trying to make
free baseband and failing inevitably, it's going to include some kind of
"sandbox" allowing for tight monitoring of everything the modem does.

------
av500
hopefully TI still has enough OMAP3 chips in stock since they shut down the
whole OMAP division last year...

~~~
kryptiskt
They got out of the smartphone market (and the investments needed to compete
there), they are still making them for niches.

------
pearjuice
Too little too late.

~~~
Tepix
Agreed. 800x480 3.5" with 1Ghz CPU? Ouch. I really like this project but that
will be too painful.

~~~
jokoon
Depends on the price though.

Openness is a feature and unfortunately it has a price, and honestly I would
not care about the speed or screen resolution.

I mean the lower the screen size, the more little pixels are anyways, so why
care about the resolution ?

Screen size is a stupid debate. You want a large screen to browse the web, but
not too large because you will use it as a phone ? And even if it's 7 inch or
5 inch, people will try to load bigger apps and it won't work. People want to
browse the web on their phone and be comfortable and not look stupid. 1st
world problem, as always.

I think all you can want for such a device is to post on forums, see some
pictures, chat, quickly view and answer mail, read documents, but for the
rest, stop complaining and find a place to sit down with your laptop.

~~~
edwintorok
The larger the resolution the slower the device will be cause it needs to
process more pixels.

I agree that openness is the greatest value for Neo900.

Before Neo900 got announced I was considering Jolla as my next phone, but they
failed to deliver on the 'truly open' promise. The alternative would be to run
something like Replicant/Cyanogenmod on an Android device, but with the
Samsung backdoor news Cyanogenmod doesn't look too good. And Replicant doesn't
support GPS on any of its target devices. So that really leaves little choice
as to what phone I'll buy next, and currently Neo900 is at the top of my list.

~~~
yetfeo
The Geeksphone Revolution could be an interesting choice. Comes with Android
pre-rooted installed with menu options to install other ROM's including
Mozilla's Boot to Gecko as a supported option. You could run the latter with
the Mozilla open source RIL implementation if you're concerned about that. I
do like the hardware keyboard on the N900/Neo900 though.

