The Neo900 Phone Project Is Still Happening

[nathan]

Also note that Neo900 will be a QWERTY phone, and that is a smartphone category where the best hardware is my current phone: Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G, which is not 4G (so Neo900 will be the only LTE QWERTY phone in existence), dual-core 1.5ghz, 1gb ram. So comparing against the top-of-the line QWERTY android, it's not *so* bad.

My Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE is a QWERTY and ofcourse has LTE, so Neo900 is not the only LTE QWERTY phone in existence.

[droidhacker]

My Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE is a QWERTY and ofcourse has LTE, so Neo900 is not the only LTE QWERTY phone in existence.

Better question: What's the point of LTE when you don't have enough CPU power to even handle HSPA?

[droidier]

Actually, the more powerful devices are MORE hackable, and MORE flexible.
First, it isn't hacking if you actually have source code and documentation, but more because of the bigger user base and bigger organizations providing code and documentation. A couple of guys in their garage can make some code, but not much. Take a look at all the code that comes through code aurora (qualcomm). Also, you would be really surprised at just how closely hardware vendors (like sony, lg, etc) follow the reference designs.
Second, when you're dealing with hardware that hasn't been "good" for 3-4 years, its really difficult to come up with motivation to actually do anything. So yeah, a bunch of zealots will probably buy this thing, and they'll be really into it for... a week. Then it will sit on their bench forever.

Yes, there are some bits of current android devices that are binary, but in the grand scheme of things, they are relatively few, and dropping.
Also, it isn't like these guys will be *allowed* or *able* to provide a full stack of source code for OMAP3. There are as many parts of that that TI will force them to keep closed under NDA, as qualcomm does, so in truth, our high-end Android devices are *JUST* as open source as this will be.

In fact.... OMAP3.... has a... get this.... POWERVR SGX 530!!!!
Have fun everyone, that is *THE* GPU that is absolutely the LEAST open source friendly of ALL. Even NVIDIA is better.

LOL

Stick with whatever you prefer the most, nothing wrong with that. To me, Android feels like an toy OS in comparison to a distribution like Maemo. And not being able to run mainline/upstream software (including the kernel itself) on devices, or having to cope with all kind of missing hardware/software support, is not something I'm looking for. Having used both Android and Maemo for many years, and other Linux distros on various other devices for more than a decade, I have come to lose faith in the direction modern smartphones are going. For me, the Neo900 is a great relief, at least for the coming 4 years or so.

Sorry that something like Maemo is not for you, but at least you're in luck that Android seems to be in abundance.

[dos1]

So yeah, a bunch of zealots will probably buy this thing, and they'll be really into it for... a week. Then it will sit on their bench forever.

Like my Openmoko Neo Freerunner, which I'm actively using and playing with for past six years?

Also, it isn't like these guys will be *allowed* or *able* to provide a full stack of source code for OMAP3. There are as many parts of that that TI will force them to keep closed under NDA, as qualcomm does, so in truth, our high-end Android devices are *JUST* as open source as this will be.

Surprise - full stack is *already* available. Neo900 is basically a modified GTA04 platform, and the original GTA04 also lays on my desk right now - and guess what? It runs 100% free software.

In fact.... OMAP3.... has a... get this.... POWERVR SGX 530!!!!
Have fun everyone, that is *THE* GPU that is absolutely the LEAST open source friendly of ALL. Even NVIDIA is better.

That's true, but I don't need to use any 3D acceleration on my phone, as on OSes like SHR or QtMoko it's already smooth as hell without it (even Replicant works pretty nicely). Closed drivers for acceleration are completely optional.

[tvall]

Better question: What's the point of LTE when you don't have enough CPU power to even handle HSPA?

what do you define as enough "cpu power" to handle hspa? the htc dream had hsdpa, and a 528mhz cpu. it didn't seem to be incapable of handling its modem.

so with the neo900 using a much faster and newer cpu, it should definitely be able to talk to the modem fast enough.

and my n800 with its 400mhz omap2 could handle 54mbps wifi without issue. so i still fail to see how cpu "power" is directly related to modem performance.

[highlandsun]

My Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE is a QWERTY and ofcourse has LTE, so Neo900 is not the only LTE QWERTY phone in existence.

Likewise my Motorola Droid4, immediate predecessor of the Photon Q. The Nokia N900 looked attractive when I first heard of it, but time and technology have moved well past it.

At this point I'm on my 2nd Droid4. Was hoping the phonebloks or OnePlus guys would release a Qwerty phone. We'll see...