[Noisebridge-discuss] what sort of phone to get, part xxx

Michael Shiloh michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com
Sun Nov 28 01:24:51 UTC 2010


I found an N900 and I love it. Thanks!

On 09/29/2010 05:30 PM, Jeffrey Malone wrote:
> Hey,
>
> I'd personally recommend you look at the N900 with Maemo 5 for now.
>   Maemo became a haven for all the OpenMoko refugees, and is mostly open
> source.
>
> webOS was only released on two phones, both for Sprint/CDMA only in the
> US.  It runs on top of a Linux kernel, but it's not so much GNU/Linux --
> just a Linux kernel, like Android. Development for it is in
> Javascript/HTML/CSS, and uses their custom toolkit which appears to be
> closed source.  As noted, webOS was a Palm product, but failed to get
> enough of a base to save the company.  It got bought by HP, and as is my
> understanding, little of the original webOS team is still there.
>   Waiting for a product that is just entering the rumoured stage from a
> company that has yet to really enter the mobile phone market may be a
> long wait, and a complete unknown of what it will be.  Whatever HP is
> doing with webOS, it may not resemble what we've seen of webOS to date
> -- both for good, or bad.
>
> Maemo is GNU/Linux, and has all the standard libraries you would find on
> a Linux desktop in place.  People are able to develop for it in any
> language they wish, with Python, C and C++ being the more popular
> choices.  Standard Linux applications can typically be recompiled to run
> on the device, and it has an extensive non-commercial oriented community
> base much like OpenMoko had.
>
> That said, while the phone is mostly reliable and has the best web
> browser of any mobile phone I've had (Mozilla fennec based, although
> Opera, Firefox, Midori and several others are available), it predictably
> has some drawbacks.  There is no free decent mapping software for the
> phone.  The application it comes with is crap, and I've ended up using
> the Google Maps' mobile site (which has GPS support), but it is rather
> tedious.  There are occasionally weird issues, the battery lasts a mere
> 10-12 hours of moderate use, and for those who object, it is a resistive
> touch screen.  Runs on quadband GSM and has a dual set of UMTS/3G
> frequencies to work on T-Mobile US and outside of North America (eg,
> Europe, but not ATT).
>
> The Nokia N9, which is completely rumoured and theorised to come out at
> the end of the year or early next, will allegedly be running MeeGo --
> the successor to Maemo and Intel's Moblin.  Much of the N9 specs are
> rumoured, and there are some pics of what are allegedly prototypes
> floating around.
> MeeGo, one of the worst names ever for a platform (and right on the
> heels of Moblin) is the way things are flowing with Nokia though.  It's
> a bit of a wildcard, although approaching it's 1.1 release at the end of
> October that will be the first stable release with the handset profile.
>   It's designed to be entirely open source -- although device drivers
> required for some hardware may still remain closed, but will not be part
> of the MeeGo distribution.  It'll be maintaining a base that includes
> many of the same packages found on a desktop machine, with a strong push
> for Qt.
> It's still not at all sure if MeeGo will go anywhere, especially in the
> mobile phone market.
>
> To add to the option overload, I'm told that yet another Linux mobile
> platform is being worked on by Samsung that will be out within the next
> year.  It'll be based on Enlightenment, which should give it a very
> smooth and pretty look... but that's about as many details as are out.
>
> Also, in the Android field, the T-Mobile G2, which appears to be a cross
> between the Nexus One and T-Mobile G1 is out in a week or two with a
> hardware keyboard.
>
> For a quick summary:
> There's a lot of phones coming out over the next year, and many
> platforms to choose from.  If you want a new phone in the next couple
> weeks, look for the Nokia N900 (Maemo) or the T-Mobile G2 (Android 2.2).
> If you want to play the waiting game, your options will increase.. the
> Nokia N9 may be worth your wait, or a waste of time.
>
> Jeffrey
>
> On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 3:04 PM, Michael Shiloh
> <michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com <mailto:michaelshiloh1010 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>     my bad. a quick visit to wikipedia explained a lot.
>
>     how open is webos? from the wp description it didn't look terribly open.
>
>     what makes you feel that it is the os of choice?
>
>     does anyone currently have a phone running webos, and what is your
>     opinion?
>
>     On 09/29/2010 03:00 PM, Michael Shiloh wrote:
>      > seems very interesting. i browsed a little, but am confused:
>      >
>      > is webos a linux distro aimed at palm devices?
>      >
>      > are there any devices running webos currently?
>      >
>      > what is this pre stuff anyway? a phone? an os? a prefix?
>      >
>      > On 09/29/2010 02:47 PM, Andrew Fresh wrote:
>      >> I have to add that I think webOS is the OS of choice.
>      >>
>      >> http://www.precentral.net/webos-android-and-hacking-which-more-open
>      >>
>      >> http://www.precentral.net/hp-reaffirms-support-homebrew-community
>      >>
>      >> But, that is with the caveat that HP hasn't announced specs or
>     timeline
>      >> on any new phones yet, but personally I expect something awesome
>     by the
>      >> end of the year.
>      >>
>      >> l8rZ,
>      >
>
>     --
>     Sent from my ASR-33
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