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An open mobile that does what you want

The FIC Neo1973 is probably going to be release this month (January 2007). For those of you that don’t know this is a mobile phone which can run any software you want, just like any other computer. In other words it is not limited java applications or any specific operating system, you can actually choose (yes you read correctly). Now of course, this means that the operating system have to support that architecture and have drivers for all the hardware connected, but as luck would have it Neo1973 will have available sources (linux). As many of you know I’m a Linux enthusiast so it should not surprise any of you that I’m very keen on getting my hands on this lovely device. Of course running an open source operating system means we need more than a kernel, we need userspace applications (or it could get really boring really fast) which is just what a distro OpenMoko aims to do.

What is nice about having an open platform is that nothing is literally stopping you from fixing those annoyances or implementing those features that your phone needs; Example: Ever wanted an adaptive profile that measures the environment before choosing how loud that ring tone is going to be? Virtually all mobile phones have the needed hardware to do it, but no-one gets to make applications that use the hardware in that way because it is all closed down. Easy hack to do it, in code that tells the user about the incomming call or message: insert check for noise level through the microphone, set volume or way of notification accordingly.

When talking about a new mobile phone, one should always talk about the hardware right? right? Well, I guess the best source of information right now is OpenMokos own homepage, but to sum it up as it stands now: 2.8 vga touch screen, gps (pretty cool right), maybe bluetooth, 128mb of ram, gsm. Will be other versions of the phone later with more hardware snacks, you bet I will blog about it!

Got any killer features you want in a phone, give a comment here, I may even implement it (if no one gets there before me).

2 responses to “An open mobile that does what you want”

  1. Tommy Avatar
    Tommy

    Ofcourse I cant come up with that killer feature right now, but I have had a few “must-have” applications on my mind. I will ofcourse post them here when I remember them 🙂 The future is looking good for mobiles.

  2. ace Avatar
    ace

    It certainly is looking good, if only they could get that phone out there, it is currently delayed because of screen shortage. If this phone is a commerical success, I bet we are going to see alot more open phones in the next years 🙂

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