The
FreeRunner is FreeRunning a little late on its way into devs' hands, but that's not stopping OpenMoko from shipping out a few units early to VIPs, apparently. Monochrome Mentality was the lucky recipient recently of one of the very first FreeRunners served piping hot off the assembly line, and the impressions are generally positive. Buyers will notice the spit and polish the second they lay eyes on the box the FreeRunner comes in, a sign that OpenMoko's trying to move their open-source model away (well, not necessarily
away) from the hardcore geeks and toward a broader consumer market. WiFi and motion sensors are the hallmark features the FreeRunner boasts over its
Neo1973 predecessor, but visually, the new model takes a more subdued approach with black rings replacing the silver ones. Minor modifications include programmable LEDs embedded in the buttons, host mode support for the USB port (pretty cool!), and a whole pile of accessories in the box -- a good thing, considering the $399 price tag.
posted Jun 11th 2008 1:10PM
Wow i just can't see this phone hitting it big, android is going to open source too and be available in variety of phones and carriers. I also don't see Moko getting picked up by a carrier either. Oi, gluck to them, but they seriously should've launched last year to be way ahead of the competition.
It doesn't look like android will be entirely open. This phone should be able to run android apps if android is recompiled for arm4. Much of the initial work to get android onto other hardware was pioneered on this device.
There may be issues with US carriers picking up this device, but I could see it being popular in Europe. Plus you won't see feature & software restrictions like on so many other phones.
Whether they get to reach the mass market or not, the project will still be a success. They successfully put out a fully open source phone.
The challenge here is selling Open Source, and I think that you are right that Android will probably make more sales. Personally, I don't like the Android project. It's just too... corporate for me. There is too much involvement from the big boys.
I was really interested to hear about this project originally, but when I found out it has no camera - WOW, talk about dealbreakers.
There will be a camera on their next phone
Correction: There MIGHT be a camera on their next handset. You can't be certain.
i don't care what a phone has for options, accessories or an os...i will never want a phone that is shaped like that. it looks like a giant key chain (and cheap!)
Some people care more about how and whether their phone works than whether or not it's a fashion statement.
at least the packaging is original.......
Does it have WCDMA yet?
Nope, and it's not likely to either. GSM provides the largest market and I think cdma based techs are significantly less likely to be opened.
I didn't say CDMA. I said WCDMA.
As in 3G for GSM providers: UMTS, HSDPA, HSUPA, HSPA. Those are all parts of WCDMA. You can't have them without WCDMA.
@john
are you TRYING to be a dick?
Wow. Looks like the lucky reviewer got Engadgeted. We took down his RAID array @.@