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

[Andrew Fresh]

On Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 05:30:21PM -0700, Jeffrey Malone wrote:
> 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.

I will admit that I have not used or looked into Maemo, so I can't
comment on that.  It does sound interesting though.  

> webOS was only released on two phones, both for Sprint/CDMA only in the US.

They also have Pre+ and Pixi+ on both AT&T and Verizon.

http://ur.ly/mroD


>  It runs on top of a Linux kernel, but it's not so much GNU/Linux -- just a
> Linux kernel, like Android. 

I dunno, after I installed an ssh daemon, I found a copy of vi, so as
far as I have seen, it is more than just a kernel.  It is a stripped
down distro, but it needed to fit on a phone.


> Development for it is in Javascript/HTML/CSS, 

They now have a PDK available that also allows development in C/C++,
there is even a firefox port (that I haven't tried).

http://developer.palm.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1989&Itemid=331

http://www.precentral.net/firefox-ported-webos-pdk-blame-madness


> and uses their custom toolkit which appears to be closed source.  

The Mojo framework does not have an OSI compatible license, however,
signing up (for free) as a developer will get you access to their SDK
which includes the full source to much of the system including the Mojo
framework.

http://developer.palm.com/termsofservice.html

http://developer.palm.com/blog/2010/08/know-your-sdk-the-mojo-framework-source/

They do have a fair amount of code (mostly samples) released under a BSD
license.

http://github.com/palm


More info about the palm devloper program:

http://developer.palm.com/


> 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.  

They did have many of the top people who originally designed webOS leave
when HP bought the company.  Is kind of a bummer, but I'm still
optimistic as are Ben and Dion and I think them being in the position
they are in says more for the future of the openness of webOS than the
people who left.

http://developer.palm.com/blog/2009/09/ben-galbraith-and-dion-almaer-to-lead-developer-relations-team-at-palm/

> 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.

A very reasonable thought.

So far, the only official word on new hardare is "Until a press release
is issued, we can't talk about it" and "over the next 12 months we will see the
makings of a new portfolio and the beginning of something great again".
Possible the most exciting bit "I'm confident that even the defectors of
the webOS community will be back once they see the breadth of product
coming out of HP in the future."


http://www.rahulsood.com/2010/09/test.html

However, they have said they will announce a tablet device at CES in
2011 and webOS 2.0 is supposed to be released this year.  There are
people in the early release program with it already.


<snip lots of great info about Maemo and other choices>

> 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.

Right now, the flagship Palm device (the Pre) is not awesome hardware,
but for me, webOS (and the form factor) makes it worthwhile.  If you
want a phone now, I would still say to try it, but also try other
options.  I guess that holds true in the future as well if you are
willing to wait, try new things with many OS choices as they are
available and when one strikes you as WOW, get that one.

Oh ya, the touchstone, wireless inductive charging, I am not sure I
could give that up.

l8rZ,
-- 
andrew - ICQ# 253198 - Jabber: andrew at rraz.net - Twitter: @AFreshOne

The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!!'.