Is there much that can be updated on the gta04? I've seen talks of upgrading modem, celullar and ram(?) but anything much more than that in the tiny space of the board?
i have been waiting for something like this for long time ago. i am allways thinking maemo 5 is the best phone OS..
i dont own a n900 but i'm willing to buy one next month..
anyway i think this is a great opportunity to keep this phone and OS Alive and up to date. we all wish a lot of things like: porting maemo to android devices. or upgrading the n900's hardware to keep it up to date..
i would love at least a dual core processor, 512 MB RAM (and swap virtual memory of course), capacitive screen and the same os with multi touch support.. so the phone runs smooth through te GUI.
it sounds too fancifull. but i'm not asking for a useless octa-core processor and 2 GB of ram to play the last games on the market.. i just want a phone that lasts for long without getting tired because it's frameskips, errors, reboots and lack of ram.
i wish you the best of luck. and if you make this project come really true. i will buy your Neo 900 For Sure. i still have hope for this beautifull device and OS.
I won't pre-order as it's too much of a risk (it took OpenPandora years to send out all pre-orders), but if you guys manage to pull it off, then I'll probably end up buying 3 boards.
I'm very skeptical about running Maemo5 on it. Hardware incompatibilities, the mess that is userspace, closed blobs, being locked to a specific kernel(?), incompatible and dated packages (some being very risky to install on the GTA04, like kernel-power) are issues that spring to mind. Debian (Mer?) + Fremantle rebase is the way to go, imo. Stability and openness of Debian (Mer?) with Fremantle compatibility and ease of use. I'm glad we can run whatever we want on the device
I also agree with some of the earlier posts wherein an Indiegogo/Kickstarter (Kickstarter is NA/CA only, right?) campaign was suggested. It'll probably get the project quite a bit of press coverage and support from various notable individuals, considering it is the third fully open source mobile phone (and the "child" of the phone that will not die). It'd require quite a bit of preparation though, including a working prototype. If it fails, no biggie. We (Maemo community) will always support it.
To joerg and everyone involved: respect, brothers and sisters.
Starting a project like this and bringing it to fruition... That takes real guts.
I've already said something about the risk of pre-ordering, but the risk on your end is a lot greater, by a factor 1000. Being forever grateful, however, isn't what you people need, so if the lack of funding is really starting to slow you down, I might change my stance on pre-ordering. But for now, it's just a promise to buy once it's done.
what NOKIA could not do without losing its face now and getting it the hard way (i hope): a very ambitious project showing, that customers could had been satisfied with only a "little bit" of work.
Count me in for buying and work i can help with.
Chris
(i know, i know, but only a bit of a little bigger display?)
Obviously, a lot of hurdles need to be jumped to get to the final product, but this is something I have hoped for and I'm excited about the possibilities.
I know that a lot of people here are dreaming big, but I am aligned to some of the more modest goals alluded to in the early posts. My main concern would be feature parity at the very least, with modest hardware spec bumps where appropriate/possible. This seems somewhat similar to the evolution of the OpenPandora, though in that case the OpenPandora team had no choice but to upgrade the specs on their newly manufactured units, since they could no longer source PCBs with the original specs.
When it comes to feature parity, I hope that AWS 3G is retained. I know it is a band that few people use or care about, but I use it every day (I am a US n900 owner). If T-Mobile US successfully moves it's HSDPA services to the 1900 band, perhaps this will be a less of a dealbreaker in the future.
A better camera sensor would be nice, but I can live with the same camera if we can salvage it. I hope that we won't have a regression there.
Speaking of regressions, I would consider a capacitive touchscreen a liability that would hinder usability. But that's just me...
In any case, best of luck to the project team. I'm rooting for you to succeed.
