During weekend Sean Moss-Pultz from FIC/OpenMoko announced long awaited OpenMoko 2007 RoadMap. What this mean to us, developers/users?
- We finally know when there will be release of phone for developers and when for users.
- Build environment setup is known.
- Neo1973 (first phone running OpenMoko) hardware specification is confirmed.
But what this mean to me?
I know about this project since OEDEM 2006 when Mickeyl told us few things about his Super Secret Project™: it will be phone without Irda but with Bluetooth (which was then unknown to be or not in Neo1973), with VGA screen and open source for nearly everything. And the nice part was: everything will be build using OpenEmbedded. About month later there was Open Source in Mobile” conference in Amsterdam where “Mystery Guest” introduced the Neo1973 phone and OpenMoko. First days were interesting — some of us were able to look at OpenMoko source before they discover that WebSVN is not closed ;)
Now I’m waiting for RoadMap Phase 0: Developer Preview. Why? I hope that I am one of those developers which will get Neo1973 phone for free ;D But I also want to look at their sources, look how it works, build it for checking stuff on my desktop or one of palmtops which are on my desk.
Anyway even if I will have to buy this phone during Phase 1: Official Developer Launch then I will gather needed funds and get one to hack, tweak, polish it.
I do not want to miss another popular gadget like I did with Nokia 770…
Wanna see Sean and Neo1973 phone?