Koolu getting close to shipping FreeRunner with Android 1.5

Koolu was showing a very, very early build of Cupcake running on OpenMoko's FreeRunner way back at CES, and it seems that the Canadian company is now just a stone's throw away from shipping. Beta versions of the EDGE- and WiFi-equipped handset are said to be just a few days' away from being sent out to buyers, with a "full consumer" version being readied for later in the summer. How OpenMoko's slowdown factors into this is unclear, but seeing how the FreeRunner's design and components have been open sourced, we imagine there's nothing stopping from Koolu (or anyone else) from firing up their own production run should the need arise.

[Via CNET, thanks Shawn]

[skyblaze Posted May 30th 2009 2:02PM]

skyblaze here just checkin' out the mobile sister site... dont live in canada but this looks pretty cool

[(Unverified) Posted May 30th 2009 2:43PM]

The Freerunner wasn't canceled and Openmoko didn't collapse.

Openmoko postponed development of the successor to the Freerunner so they could focus delivering on their promise of the Freerunner as a working phone. They're also working on a "Project B" which is not a phone and is expected to be announced in August.

Check your sources Engadget, the "Openmoko collapse" story was set straight a while ago.

[Chris Posted May 30th 2009 2:46PM]

You're absolutely right -- I've reworded. At any rate, it seems like OpenMoko's situation still puts Koolu's project at risk in the long term.

[(Unverified) Posted May 30th 2009 3:35PM]

Thanks for the correction. It's hard enough for a small company like Openmoko to thrive, misinformation certainly doesn't help.

As for Koolu (I bought my Freerunner from Koolu) news of a Cupcake release is a bit of a surprise. Koolu's software development seems really insular, at least for open source. For example, their forum requires an account to simply VIEW posts. I think it's great what they're doing, but they'd probably have more help from the community if they kept us up to date more regularly.

I'm still optimistic about Openmoko. They're getting really close with their own distribution of Linux (which is basically the same as GNU/Linux would be on the desktop, only smaller) and we should have working, reliable phones running their platform within a few weeks.

Something that didn't get any press coverage at all (as far as I can tell) is that after Openmoko canceled the GTA03, they started collaborating with community members to design the hardware for their next-gen phone. This is done with the understanding that it could take a long time and not go anywhere, but it's very cool that a company is experimenting with involving community developers in the design of their hardware.

[PEZ Posted May 31st 2009 1:05PM]

Word, brotha.

[kalleboo Posted May 30th 2009 3:10PM]

Laughing pretty hard at a phone marketed as "Works Everywhere" that's only triband GSM. Heck there are even some western operators it won't work on.

[niftydl Posted May 30th 2009 6:28PM]

Apparently the North American continent is not the targeted audience, unless you use t-mobile.

[kalleboo Posted May 30th 2009 7:13PM]

Not japan, korea, many parts of australia and one operator in sweden

[slamEVIL Posted May 30th 2009 6:37PM]

so it didn't do well with Linux but they think it would with android? buzzwords...