OpenMoko Freerunner - Free your Phone

Neo FreeRunner is an open source cell phone which is designed to run Openmoko software and is the direct descendant of the earlier FIC Neo1973. Its a Linux-based touch screen smart phone with all the specs of a killer device. A very high resolution touch screen (1.7" x 2.27" - 43mm x 58mm) 480x640 pixels, 128MB SDRAM memory (Expandable), Internal GPS module, 802.11 b/g WiFi, 400Mhz processor, 2 3D accelerometers, helps switching to landscape mode automatically, Tri-band GSM and GPRS for North America (850/1800/1900 Mhz) and the rest of the world (900/1800/1900 Mhz), USB Host function with 500mA power allowing you to power USB devices, etc.

Openmoko is a project founded by Taiwanese computer and components manufacturer First International Computer, Inc. (FIC), which aims at developing an open source Linux based operating system designed for mobile phones. The open access of the phone's software, under the General Public License, started a new trend in the mobile phone industry, following which Google came up with their own platform called Android.

Using the OpenMoko platform, developers can modify the software's function and appearance. The software package will allow third-party applications to be written and compiled for it using C/C++. The computer-aided design (CAD) files for the hardware are freely available under a creative commons license for designers to modify.

The only thing missing from the package is a camera. But who knows, the modders/hackers/developers would soon come up with an hack to add a custom camera. Yes, that's the beauty of open source, its YOUR phone in a true sense and you can customize it to suit your needs.

Its priced at $399 (plus taxes) and is available to be purchased from their online store or local distributors in a few countries (including India). Going by the reviews on the internet, this phone isn't ready for the primetime yet, but I wouldn't be surprised if it beats the market leaders (read iPhone) in a few months from now. I am a member of Motorola Linux Development Community motorolafans.com and people have come up with some amazing mods and software for the Motorola phones, which hasn't revealed the source for OS, or doesn't have an SDK. Now, with all the source available, these guys would do wonders with this little baby, where they can take control over each aspect of the phone. (A few of them have already ported the Openmoko to their A780,A1200,E6 and E680.If you are interested to know more about this click here.)

It would be interesting to see the innovation this new openness would being to the mobile phone technology. I'm already excited...

Pre-Register your iPhone in India

For all of you who have been waiting for an official iPhone launch in India, there is a good news and a bad news. The good news is that Airtel and Vodafone has officially announced that they would be bringing in the iPhone here and have started to take pre registration requests too. You can pre-register here for Airtel and here for Vodafone.

Now, the bad news is, that there isnt any information about the launch date yet. Officals are still keeping mum about the date it would be made avilable. On contrary to my earlier beleif that we would get an unlocked iPhone, it looks like iPhone would actually come locked with the service providers and would make use of the services provided by the respective companies including the 3G services too. And this might actually be a reason for the delay in India, as we do not have 3G spectrum available to be used yet. The talks with TRAI are still on and if all goes well, the 3G services might start in a few selected circles by early next year. Now, this might translate to getting the launch date shifted to next year.

Another issue with the service provider locked iPhones might be the price. We all have been infomred by Apple that an 8Gb iPhone would cost only $499, what we dont know yet is the price of the package from the local service providers on which we would get the deal (iPhone + Service Plan). Logic says that Apple might have reduced the prices as they might make profit throught a revenue sharing system from these service providers in turn. So, iPhone might reach your hands with a similar price tag as the earlier version was or even more.

But all these are speculations at the moment.. and only time would tell which way the tide turns.. lets keep our fingers crossed while we wait for the launch.

3G iPhone 2.0 not in India on 11th

Its been now confirmed that India would have to wait for the official iPhone launch here. Bharti Telecom is rumored to start selling the iPhones by Sepetember this year. The iPhone will be version 2.0 with 3G support. The countries where it would be available from 11th July are:
Australia, Austria, Belgium (French/Dutch), Canada (English/French), Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (French/German), UK and USA.

The pricing in India might be a little higher than the Rupee equivalent of the Dollar prices. iPhones in the US would be sold under contract of at least 2 Years but that format wouldn't be applied to the Indian business model, hence, the difference in price.

However, if local vendors are to be beleived, the next generation unlocked iPhones would be available in Grey Markets by the end of July and would be priced at around 20k for an 8GB model.

iPhone 2.0 rolling out on 07-11-08

WWDC 2008 happened recently and along with everything else, the biggest announcement was the launch of the next version of the Apple's most popular product till date, iPhone.

iPhone 2.0 will be available in around 15 countries 11 July onwards. with 3G capabilities with an array of new features thrown in. The price is the biggest surprise of all, an 8 GB iPhone would be $199 and 16 GB would cost $299. For the people who already have an iPhone, this would be exchanged for free.. for those who have an iPod touch there is a little price tag of $9.99.

There are a lot of improvements as compared to the existing iPhone but there are a few issues like video recording, MMS, A2DP Bluetooth, cut and paste support etc. which are still not addressed.

Another concern which i have being in India is the release date in India. I have been looking around to get that answer but its still not clear if 11th July roll out includes India.

Any which way, we might still be able to get the officially unlocked iPhones through grey market vendors at a little increase in the price i guess.. and even with the shortcomings iPhone 2.0 is a gadget I am looking forward to..