The Neo FreeRunner (NFR) is supposed to be out next month, some of the base specs are similar to the N8x0.

Both have ARM processors clocked at 400Mhz, 128MB of RAM, wifi, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS (N810), and microSDHC (FreeRunner has been tested with 4GB).

N8x0 has USB 2.0 while NFR has 1.1, although it can provide 500mA (N8x0 as I recall is only up to 100mA).

NFR has GSM/GPRS and 2 accelerometers.

N8x0 has a VGA video camera, dpad. N810 has a keyboard, ambient light sensor.

N8x0 of course has a higher resolution 800x480 display (NFR is 480x600), both are 16bit, the N8x0 also have bigger batteries 1500mAh (NFR is 1200mAh).

Anyone know much about the differences on the software side?

The Internet Tablets run Maemo, a Debian-Linux Based Operating system,

The Neo FreeRunner runs OpenMoko, also linux based (dunno about distribution base)

I notice that they've got Jalimo with swing support! I'm rather jealous!

So I can have 2 linux boxes in my pocket?

I was watching the OpenMoko 1973 project with interest a while back.
I'm not a big fan of the shape of the device, but I'd need to see one in person.

openmoko is built using openembedded and apparently they just changed their ui to QT a month ago? http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...t-and-e17.html

I think edge instead of of G3 sucks but then the power management probably isn't good enough....

The neo freerunner has an armv4 core (as they say, too old to run android!) The n8x0 has an armv6 core and hardware java acceleration if anyone knew how to use it.

It would be really awesome if our UI's looked good on both a 640x480 and an 800x480 screen.

I was looking at the new qt interface on youtube, it is definitely smooth, I can see GTK+ being smooth if some one invested time in making an optimized backend.

Anyway, I wouldn't ditch my N810 to get it but I am so tempted to get it as a cell phone, I just wished it had a 2MP camera (and maybe a bigger display), I use the camera on my cell phone so much for lots of important things, like taking pictures of white boards with ideas or schedules from meetings, or in other situations. I feel a camera is more essential on a phone then a GPS or accelerometers (though those are nice things to have).

A bit of nitpicking : The Freerunner's processor isnt as powerful as N8x0. The clock is the same but the architecture is not. The NFR is ARM v4T 400MHz, N8x0 is ARMv6 400MHz.
Also the NFR doesnt seem to have a dedicated DSP?

For me the biggest issue with the NFR is the lack of HSDPA, camera and USB 2.0. My current phone has HSDPA and I would miss it (I use my N800 with the phone acting as a modem). I too use the camera to make pictures of different things in university. And the lack of of USB 2.0 sucks. I use my current phone as an Mp3 player and I'd hate to get the SD card out everytime I want to put the newest podcasts on the phone.

^^^ IIRC, they left off the camera intentionally, because some people work where cameras are banned.

It does have a USB plug, which it charges off, and it can act as a USB host, providing a full 500mA of power (unlike the N8X0). It's just not the higher speed USB2.

On an openmoko mailinglist I think I read something about an optional camera for future phones.

The OpenMoko doesn't even have Edge, it is gprs only. Also, it is a tri-band phone, although there was talk on the list about having a US triband model available (with 850 instead of 900 mhz on the lower band). US frequencies are 850 and 1900mhz, European is 900/1800.

If it had at least edge, I'd get one. If it had a camera, I'd get one for each of the kids, since there is a bunch of customization I could do for their phones with it being open source and all. But the kids won't want a phone that has no camera (even though I see the camera as pointless).

As for the OS stack, it is based on Open Embedded, which started off as a community developed firmware alternative for the Sharp Zaurus. And as far as them switching over to QT, I believe they aren't running QT/Embedded but are running the Qtopia apps directly over regular QT on top of X, so they can run the GPE apps side-by-side.